anyone.’ She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to clear her thoughts. Could this day get any more bizarre? First the emotional reunion with her father and now it turned out that she’d been working for Alain, not Nigel, all along. Belinda opened her eyes and looked at Alain thoughtfully. ‘So what was the other reason you didn’t want me here. You said there were two.’
Alain looked at her. ‘As troubleshooters go, you weren’t what I expected.’
40
The next morning, Belinda, feeling the need to get away from the campsite for an hour or two, slipped BB’s lead on and prepared to walk down to the auberge. Maybe a chat with Fern would help sort her thoughts out.
‘I’m just walking BB and returning the dish to Fern. Marie’s in the office,’ she called out to Alain as she saw him in the machinery shed fiddling with a petrol can. She didn’t wait for an acknowledgement, just carried on walking down the drive.
To think it was over two months, nearly three in fact, that she’d driven up the road for the first time and the trees lining the route had been waving their bare branches in the wind. Today there was a canopy of green leaves overhead filtering the sunlight down through to the grass-covered verges with their daisies and bee-attracting dandelions.
Belinda remembered how resentful and unhappy she’d felt that first day, wanting to be anywhere but Camping dans Le Fôret. Now she was in a different turmoil with decisions to be made about things she’d never expected to have to give a second’s thought to. She couldn’t help wondering too, what exactly Alain had meant by his comment she wasn’t what he’d expected. Her mobile had rung in the sudden silence that had followed his words with a message from Chloe and the moment had gone before she could ask him.
Yann was busy moving beer barrels as she walked past the village bar and called out a cheerful, ‘Bonjour, Belinda,’ when he saw her. She waved and called back as she made for the church and the road to the auberge.
As she walked up the drive, she heard voices in the back garden, so rather than knock on the door, she made her way to the back of the house. Fern and Anouk were sitting with coffee on the terrace, looking at something on the laptop between them, and they both turned as she called out, ‘Coo-ee.’
Lady came bounding over to BB and once Belinda had released him from the lead, the two dogs set off on a mad session of joyful play in the garden.
‘I think they’ve missed each other,’ Belinda said, laughing. ‘Hi, how are you two?’
‘I’m fine thank you,’ Anouk said. ‘I think the same can be said of Fern too,’ she said with a smile, looking at Fern.
‘Coffee?’ Fern asked, reaching for the cafetière and going to stand up to fetch a cup from the kitchen.
‘No thanks. I had one before I left the campsite. Thanks for supper last night, it was delicious.’ Belinda put the dish down on the table.
‘Grab a chair and sit down,’ Fern said. ‘I would have collected the dish later today. You didn’t have to bring it back.’
Belinda shrugged. ‘I fancied a walk and wanted to see you.’
‘We thought about you yesterday,’ Anouk said. ‘How did it go?’
‘Better than I thought it would, if I’m honest, but emotional and difficult at times,’ Belinda answered. ‘I was a bundle of nerves when we got there. Alain took charge and calmed me down.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Dad told me he’d never expected to see me again.’ Belinda sighed. ‘I sat with him, held his hand and we talked. We both cried a bit, a lot actually, him while I was there and me when I left. Seeing him so ill and remembering how strong he was years ago…’ Belinda shook her head.
‘Has anybody given you an idea how long he has?’ Fern asked gently.
‘No. I asked the nurse, but it’s not really a question anyone can answer. She did take my number and promised to let me know as and when.’ Belinda looked across at the laptop. ‘What were you watching? Anything interesting?’
‘I was just reading an email from Scott to Anouk,’ Fern said.
‘How is he?’ Belinda asked.
‘He seems to be fine,’ Fern said. ‘Says he’s missing me even though we email and FaceTime.’
‘Every night,’ Anouk added with a smile.
‘I was worried about his real life in America taking