Biarritz Passion: A French Summer Novel (14 page)

Caroline followed the conversation with half an ear. She was glad to have a moment to herself. Today had been a whirlwind. She had been buoyed up, euphoric, hardly believing what was happening, so that even the shock of walking into the Delorme’s living room and coming face to face with Edward Rayburn had
not burst the bubble. Made it wobble a bit. Made it bigger, even.

As
the
patronne
bustled off, Jacques opened the menu and showed it to Caroline.

‘Would you like to choose my dear or may we recommend certain dishes they do particularly well?’

‘Sausage and chips?’ said Edward innocently, causing Jacques to raise his eyebrows and Caroline to giggle again.

‘Sorry,’ he said to his hosts. ‘It was just a silly joke.
I saw it on the menu,
saucisse de
Toulouse.
Reminded me of home.’

‘They do an excellent
saucisse de Toulouse.
But that’s more of a lunchtime option. I suggest we try something a little more sophisticated. Now Caroline, what about...’

In the end they all went for the same thing, a starter of stuffed mussels
à la provençale
, followed by duck with orange sauce, and tiny artichoke hearts. They ordered a champagne aperitif while, heads together, Jacques and Edward, consulted over the wine list.

‘Cheers!
Santé
!’ said Yvette as they clinked glasses. ‘As you can see the choice is not large but what they do is first class. The chef is a young man from Gascony, making quite a name for himself.’

‘I’m impressed,’ said Edward. ‘
Really impressed. Take note, Caroline. I’m expecting some first-rate cooking when you get to work in the kitchen. You do know there’s a cooking rota at the villa, don’t you? For the women that is. I hope Annabel explained the house rules. There’s the washing up schedule, plus the cleaning, we don’t have a washing machine I’m afraid so the sheets have to be done by hand at the village trough.’

For a moment even the Delormes looked taken aback, then, seeing the gleam in Edward’s eye, Yvette gave him a pinch.

‘Oh he is terrible this young man! Now I know he is half-English, he is always talking with the tongue in the cheek!’

‘Yes, I was just trying to come up with an excuse to pull out of the invitation.’ Caroline narrowed her eyes. ‘But then I thought
, Annabel? Doing the washing in the village trough? No way she’d have agreed to that. We’ll be lucky if we can get her to rinse out her coffee cup.’

‘Ah so little sister ‘Storm’ has not changed,’ said Yvette. ‘I hope she has found a fiancé with a nice big chef’s hat.’

Jacques and Edward spluttered on their champagne.

‘
Chérie,
that sounds a little bit risqué if you don’t mind my saying so.’

Both men were grinning like idiots.

‘Oh you two. Have you been drinking this afternoon? Before we arrived? But tell me Edward, who else is going?’

‘Ah, now there we’re lucky. I hav
e cousins, twins, and Claudette,’ he did an imitation of
Madame
kissing her fingers, ‘my little cousin, bless her, is studying to go into the hotel trade. Cooking is her passion. It runs in the family. Our grandmother made the most wonderful dishes. We had a vegetable plot and an orchard at the back of the house, still do in fact, but it’s a bit overgrown now. And there’s a fantastic market in Biarritz, you should see the fish and the shellfish. Well, you
will
see the fish and the shellfish,’ he said, smiling at Caroline.

‘But that will be so interesting,’ said Yvette. ‘Caroline too, she loves cooking.
I remember Margaret said you did a cookery course in Paris.’

‘Oh that was ages ago, Yvette
. And it was just a weekend anyway. Well two weekends, actually, I went back the following year. I loved it, but I’m afraid nowadays it’s microwave or take-away.’

‘Except when
you’re being wined and dined by love-struck suitors.’

Edward was looking at her speculatively.

‘I think that is what the English call ‘fishing’ don’t you my dear?’ Yvette had that look in her eye again. ‘Talking of fishing here come the mussels, oh they smell so wonderful, I feel as though I am on holiday.’

Caroline was fond of
moules marinières
but this was her first encounter with a stuffed mussel
provençale
. She dipped her fork into one of the sizzling little pots where a gold and green crust of breadcrumbs and parsley bubbled like a miniature volcano.

‘Mmmm! Mmmmm!’

The combined flavours of mussels, garlic and gratin burst against her palate and she gave a moan of pleasure.

‘I think she likes them,’ said Jacques. ‘But careful my dear, they’re straight from the grill!’

‘Mmmmm.’

Nodding gratefully Caroline took a sip of the Bandol wine they had ordered, cool and strong.

‘These are just amazing!’ she said, finally able to speak. ‘Absolutely worth a burned tongue.’

‘I have an excellent recipe at home,’ said Yvette. ‘Remind me to look it out for you. They’re not that difficult really, just a bit fiddly to prepare. And you’ll get them fresh in the market, like Edward was saying.’

‘Yvette is crazy about seafood,’ said Jacques smiling at his wife indulgently.

‘O happy Yvette, able to eat as much as she likes without worrying about her figure
,’ said Edward.

‘Flatterer!’ said Yvette wagging her fork at him. ‘If you only knew how many days of starvation I shall have to suffer to pay for tonight. Now
we keep getting off the subject, tell me more about this holiday. Did you say twins?’

‘Yes, my cousins, Claudette and Jean-Paul. So there’ll be six of us altogether, with Annabel and Caroline and Julian. My young cousins, I might add.
Claudette and Jean-Paul are in their early twenties. A bit older than Annabel. It’s a family tradition for all of us to spend time with each other in the summer, but this time the parents are going on a cruise, and my younger brother, Antony, has fallen in love with a Brazilian, so I mentioned to Julian that there was plenty of room if he fancied coming, and
voila
! We added two beautiful women to the party.’

Two beautiful women, thought Caroline.
What was it you said at the pool? Your sister is so beautiful, not at all like you? It had been the final blow after everything she’d heard about her personal short-comings that week. She had wept a considerable number of tears into her pillow that night. But then, in the morning, thinking about it again, she wondered if she’d over-reacted. What were his words exactly? He’d said they were different. Perhaps he meant just that, she and Annabel were different. He’d certainly been covered in embarrassment.

She stole a glance at him from under her lashes. He was talking animatedly to Yvette,
another victim to his charm. He was one of those people who just had a knack of making women feel special. She wondered just how many love-struck females Edward had wined and dined back in Toulouse.

‘Sorry?’

She realised Yvette had asked her a question.

‘I was just saying, you don’t usually go on holiday with your sister, do you Caroline?’

‘No, not usually.’

She watched their waiter skilfully dismembering a duckling garnished with glistening oranges.

‘This is, well, let’s call it a rare example of sisterly fraternisation.’

Yvette laughed, but Edward was looking at her in surprise.

‘Oh, but Annabel said—’

He broke off and leaned back in his chair as the waiter served the duck.

There was a short silence as everyone was served, then Edward announced in a tone that surprised them all by its formality:

‘I need hardly say that I personally am delighted with Annabel’s choice of a final member to complete our party.’

‘Oh Caroline! Isn’t he so gallant? He speaks like a book! Do you think that is his French side or his English side?’

Yvette chuckled and attacked her duck.

Caroline met Edward’s eyes for a second, then they both looked away. It seemed as though her sister had been playing tricks with both of them. The idea that Edward was trying to make amends made her feel both vulnerable and defensive at the same time.

‘And what about Julian?’ continued Yvette, with a glance in Caroline’s direction. ‘You said that you were at school together
, Edward?’

‘Yes. I did part of my schooling in England, part in France. We met when we were both quite young, then happened to be up at University at the same time. He became one of my closest friends in fact, despite the fact we lived in different countries for a lot of the time. He’s a wonderful man, one of those people who can seem pretty reserved if you don’t know
him. Rather cold, even. He comes from a very well-off family who sent him to boarding school when he was six. He doesn’t talk about it much, but I don’t think it was easy for him. As I say, he can seem a bit buttoned up. But underneath he’s kind, patient, understanding. A rock.’ Edward gave a shrug, took a sip of wine. ‘A cliché, I know. But he’s the first person I’d turn to if I were ever in trouble. You know, pick up the phone in the middle of the night and say ‘help’. And he would. Drop everything, and be at your side, no questions. Sometimes you just know that about a friend don’t you? He helped me once, when I was going through a particularly bad time. I’ll never forget that, never.’ He looked up, cleared his throat. ‘Oops. Getting misty. Bring on the violins. I just wanted to say that Annabel is a very lucky girl.’

They had all paused
as he was speaking. Thoughtfully, Jacques picked up his glass.

‘Well,
mon vieux
, it works both ways. I think that Julian is a very lucky man, too, to have a friend like you.’

‘You are quite right,
mon chéri
,’ said Yvette, leaning across to squeeze her husband’s hand. ‘Which philosopher said that true friendship is even rarer than true love?’

‘Ah’ said Edward, ‘true love. Now that’s another topic.’
He was making an evident effort to get back to the light-hearted tone of earlier. ‘What did Woody Allen say? ‘If love is the answer, can you rephrase the question?’

‘
Non, non, ce n’est pas ça
,’ said Jacques. ‘It was ‘Love is the answer, but while you are waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions’!’

That made them all laugh. The sombre mood had lifted. Glancing round the restaurant Caroline noticed that it had slowly filled up and now not a single table remained empty. The clatter of knives and forks blended with the hum of conversation. From outside, a slight breeze came in through the windows, ruffling the net curtains.
The lamps were lit against a purple sky. As they chatted their way through dessert, a scrumptious confection of meringue and raspberries, she felt herself relax, succumb to the spell of the evening. Thoughts of her sister faded into the background. How long ago was it since she had enjoyed the pleasure of sitting with friends, sharing their conversation and laughter, eating wonderful food, feeling the wine warm her insides? She’d forgotten what it was like. One of life’s true joys. At nearby tables, couples held hands, friends engaged in animated discussions, while all around the soft night air wafting through the windows brought with it the smells of summer.

She emerged from her reverie to find that Edward was observing her intently. Their eyes locked. Caroline stared at that attractive face, already browned by the sun. She noted every detail, the strong, wilful jaw, the surprisingly sensitive mouth, the smoky intensity of his gaze as he studied her with as much fascination as she was studying him.
What was he seeing?

‘...truly one of the best meals I’ve eaten.’

She heard Jacque’s voice as if she was in a dream. It crossed her mind that she had drunk too much; her limbs felt heavy and her heart was beating fast. She blinked and made an effort to concentrate.

‘When are you due back in Bristol?’ Yvette asked Edward.

‘Not until Monday. In fact, I know it’s short notice but I was wondering if you would all be my guests for lunch tomorrow?’

‘That would be lovely, wouldn’t it Jacques?’

‘It certainly would my dear. But didn’t I hear you say something about a diet?’

Yvette pulled a face.

‘The diet begins Monday,
chéri.
’

‘That’s settled then,’ said Edward. ‘Caroline?’

‘Oh but, that is to say, I was going to get the train back tonight. There’s one that leaves just before midnight.’

Jacques looked at his watch.

‘Why don’t you stay over?’

‘Oh you must,’ said Yvette
. ‘We have all those empty rooms. And after all it isn’t as though you don’t have anything to wear!’

‘That’s very kind of you,’ said Caroline, looking sheepish at the laughter caused by Yvette’s remark. She took a deep breath
, feeling reckless. Why not? She felt a warmth in the pit of her stomach, a feeling of anticipation.