difficulty, her eyes downcast watching every step she took, was about to enter. Belinda politely held the door open for her and both she and Chloe stood to one side.
The woman lifted her head to look at them and mutter ‘Merci’ as she drew level. The thank you died on her lips as she faltered and looked at Belinda before visibly pulling herself together and moving forward again.
Belinda stared after her. She didn’t need the confirmation of hearing the nurse greet the woman with the words, ‘How are you today, Madame Belrose?’ She’d known the moment the two of them had locked eyes seconds ago it was her father’s wife.
43
‘Are you all right?’ Chloe asked, looking at Belinda through her still glistening eyes. ‘You’ve gone pale, like you’ve seen a ghost.’
‘Not a ghost exactly. That woman who just passed? That was Helena. I sort of realised it before I heard the nurse call her Madame Belrose. She doesn’t look too healthy herself.’
‘What?’ Chloe looked back towards the hospice. ‘It was? Do you want to go and… not sure what, talk to her maybe?’
Belinda shook her head.
‘It’s best left. I wouldn’t know what to say to her, to be honest. Ah, good. Here’s Alain and the twins. Did they behave?’
Alain nodded. ‘Yes. I bribed them with promises of treats. How was Enzo?’ he asked gently.
‘Not good. It was emotional, to say the least,’ Belinda said. ‘Helena arrived too as we were leaving. I dread to think what would have happened if we’d still been in Dad’s room.’ She took a deep breath. ‘You all right, Chloe? I’m sorry it was all a bit of an anticlimax with Granddad being so sleepy with the drugs.’
‘I’m glad we came though,’ Chloe said.
‘Come on then, let’s get the twins in the car and get going,’ Belinda said, feeling a sudden need to be as far away as possible from the hospice.
Alain drove out onto the main road, turned right and before long they were bowling along the dual carriageway in a homeward direction. When twenty kilometres later he indicated and took off along a slip road, Belinda glanced at him.
‘Not going straight back to the campsite?’
‘I promised Charlie and Aimee a surprise and this is the way,’ Alain answered. ‘We don’t ’ave the need to rush back. Marie is in the office, Bernie has BB, Fern is at the café for deliveries. We ’ave some hours free. Une petite diversion.’
Five minutes later as they passed an official destination board on the side of the road, Belinda realised where they were heading. ‘We’re going to Lac de Guerlédan, aren’t we?’
Alain nodded. ‘You like?’
‘It will be interesting to see it again,’ Belinda said quietly. ‘It’s bound to have changed in the last thirty-five years. I remember trekking round it with the school on an environmental trip. Lots of trees and wild flowers.’
‘These days, it’s popular with tourists. This time of year, not so busy,’ Alain explained. ‘Lots of space everywhere.’
The lake was glistening in the midday sunshine as Alain parked in a gravelled area near a restaurant with picnic tables overlooking the lake.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Chloe said, taking her sunglasses out of her bag and slipping them on.
Alain quickly found a table for them, ordered three coffees and a couple of soft drinks for Charlie and Aimee. ‘We ’ave lunch here, oui?’ he said. ‘I promise the twins frites and ’ere they are très bons.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ Belinda said, grateful that Alain had taken charge. She suddenly felt tired and incapable of making any rational decisions. Coffee and food were definitely needed.
Alain looked at Chloe. ‘I think today is not a day for lingering at lunch. I order frites and chicken goujons for us all? With salad for three and half a carafe of wine for you two, d’accord?’
Chloe smiled at him. ‘You’re right. The twins will want to be off playing as soon they’ve eaten. Thanks. Chicken goujons will be great.’
Sitting there in the sunshine watching the activity on the lake as she drank her coffee, Belinda tried to address the emotional feelings that had been threatening to swamp her since leaving the hospice. Feelings of guilt for not returning immediately to Brittany like her mother had urged were mixed in with anger at the way in which her relationship with her father had been torn apart.
The sane part of her brain wanted to believe nothing that had happened in the past was her fault, that she couldn’t be blamed for the actions of her