Chapter 15
15
Sasha was almost at the chateau early the next morning when she saw the Land Rover with Peter at the wheel and Ingrid in the passenger seat about to drive away. Peter wound down his window. ‘On our way to the doctor. Hopefully we won’t be too long.’
‘Waste of everyone’s time. I know it’s just a sprain,’ Ingrid grumbled from the passenger seat. ‘I’ve done it often enough in the past.’
Peter ignored her. ‘Will you pop in when we get back?’ he asked Sasha.
‘Of course. I’ll come and make the bed up for the guests later too,’ Sasha said. ‘And do anything else Ingrid wants done.’
As Peter drove away, Sasha followed him down the drive towards the stables, thinking she’d give Starlight a stroke or two. Being around horses in the past had always lifted her spirits. She hesitated when she saw that the car parked on the forecourt wasn’t Colette’s usual one, but then she heard a man’s voice talking gently to Starlight as he mucked out her stall. A man’s voice she recognised.
‘Lucas. Why are you here? Is Colette all right?’
‘ Bien s?r ,’ Lucas said. ‘She ask me for the muck out today because she had the early rendezvous in Quimper.’ He laid the shovel and fork he’d been using across the full wheelbarrow. ‘I get rid of,’ and he grabbed the handles and trundled it outside.
Sasha stroked Starlight’s muzzle before giving her a piece of carrot and going outside.
Lucas, washing his hands with a nearby hose, looked at her. ‘Why you look sad?’
Startled, Sasha smiled. ‘I’m not really sad. Just a bit down. You have heard about Ingrid’s accident?’
When Lucas shook his head and gave a worried ‘ Non ,’ she explained, and said how guilty she felt about it.
‘Freddie will take me to collect the puppies but not until this evening, which is a little late to get them settled.’
‘I take you to pick up the puppies after lunch, okay? About two o’clock. Today it is good for me. My sister Alice, she arrive on the ferry one day this week.’ Lucas shrugged. ‘I have to collect her but she not tell me which day yet.’
‘Are you sure? That would be great. Thank you.’
‘See, I said you need my phone number. We do it now.’ Lucas took his phone out of his pocket, and waited expectantly as Sasha told him the number. ‘I ring you and then you have the number to save.’ On cue, the phone in her hand rang.
‘Thank you,’ Sasha said, saving the number in her contacts.
‘ Bon . Now we get together when we like,’ Lucas said, giving her a cheeky grin.
Leaving the stables, Sasha walked back to the cottage. She ran lightly up the stairs, found her sketchbook and several pencils, and went back down to the kitchen. Opening her phone, she found a picture of Starlight, studied it for a few moments before tentatively starting to move the pencil across the paper. It was so long since she’d drawn anything, maybe she’d forgotten how to do it.
Five minutes later and her pencil was starting to shade the outline of Starlight’s head. Her fingers automatically applying pressure where she instinctively knew the lines needed to be stronger, relaxing her grip of the pencil where a feather-light touch was needed. It felt so good to be drawing again.
Holding the sketchbook away from her, she studied her work critically. Okay, it wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t too bad either. It wouldn’t take too much practice to get back to a saleable standard.
Sasha closed the book. Time to go up to the chateau and see if Ingrid was back from the doctor’s, and to make up the bed for the guests.
Ingrid and Peter were in the kitchen when Sasha pushed open the back door which was, as usual, unlatched.
‘What did the doc say?’ Sasha asked.
‘Nothing broken, but bad sprains on both ankle and wrist,’ Ingrid replied. ‘I’m not to put any weight on the foot for at least a week and need to sit with it up on a stool. He’s given me a pair of crutches to use.’ Ingrid sighed. ‘Peter is making coffee, would you like one?’
Sasha shook her head. ‘Maybe when I’ve done the bed. Just the double to do in the one room?’
‘Please. I’d put all the bedding in there ready. It’s the first bedroom upstairs on the right. And if you could check the en suite, please.’
Sasha walked through the foyer of the chateau, giving Merlin a stroke as she passed, and climbed the marble stairs slowly. This place was just the right size, in her opinion. Grand, but not too grand. She’d love to stay here for a romantic weekend with someone special, it had such a lovely, intimate atmosphere.
The bedroom with its toile de Jouy curtains and bedspread, thick cream carpet, the oval antique gold-leaf mirror with its bevelling on the wall above the dressing table – it was a perfect room.
After she’d made up the bed and checked the en suite, Sasha returned downstairs. ‘It’s all looking lovely up there,’ she said to Ingrid. ‘Lucas has offered to take me to collect the puppies this afternoon. Can I still borrow the cage you mentioned please?’
‘Of course, it’s in the utility room.’ Ingrid pointed to a door at the end of the kitchen.
Sasha laughed when she opened the door. ‘Your utility room is bigger than my kitchen.’
‘What do you expect? This is a chateau you know, dahling , bigger and better,’ Ingrid said in a plummy voice, looking at Sasha before they both burst out laughing.
‘You sound like that character in Absolutely Fabulous – you know, the ditzy one, Patsy. Thanks for this,’ Sasha said, finding the folded-up cage against the far wall. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow after the guests have arrived.’
Back at the cottage, Sasha opened up the cage, put some newspaper in the bottom of it, and left it outside the front door, ready for when Lucas arrived. She sent Freddie a text.
Not to worry, puppy collection has been sorted for this afternoon.
Lucas arrived promptly and within minutes, they were driving through the village and turning onto the farm track. Bruno had shut Meg, the mother, away in the farmhouse so she wouldn’t get distressed as the last of her puppies left home. The pups themselves were happily inquisitive, sniffing the air and making small squeaky, murmuring noises as Sasha carried one and Lucas the other out to the car and placed them in the cage.
Back at the cottage, Lucas carried the cage into the kitchen and carefully set it down on the floor and unhooked the side flap, while Sasha closed the kitchen door.
‘Cup of coffee?’ Sasha said.
‘ Merci ,’ Lucas replied. ‘It is strange being here with you in Grand-maman’s kitchen. It is different. There was a grand… I’m not sure what you call it in English. High with shelves and cupboards?’
‘Dresser. We call it a dresser. I’m hoping to get one,’ Sasha said, looking at him startled. ‘Eliza lived in this cottage?’
‘ Oui , for many years. She and Grand-papa. Alice and I spent every summer here with them. Our parents—’ he paused ‘—they prefer to holiday without their children. No, that’s not fair. Since I grow up, I realise it was Dad who prefer to leave us here. And Mum accept it for an easy life. She always the one who came for our concerts, parent evenings and sports days.’ He gave Sasha a nonchalant shrug. ‘It was fine. Nous préférons – adore – the time here. We never tell them – peut-être they stop us coming.’
Sasha shook her head as she handed him a coffee. ‘That is so sad your parents didn’t want to spend time with you. Make childhood holiday memories.’
‘They live in the US now. Mum come over when she can. Usually about three times a year. Dad less. Look, the puppies, they come out to explore.’
‘Does Eliza miss living here in the grounds of the chateau?’
‘ Peut-être she did first when she had to move out, but now with Grand-papa gone, I think she like village life. It is not so lonely. She see people every day.’
‘When I’ve finished decorating and have some more furniture, perhaps she’d like to come and see the place again?’
‘I bring her when you tell me. If you look for furniture next week, the village have its big annual vide-grenier – you would say car boot sale, I think. People come from all over to sell things. It take over the main street and most of the village. Lots of stuff offered – these days it more of a brocante than a simple vide-grenier, with hundred of different things for sale. Furniture to baby clothes.’
‘I’ll pass on the baby clothes this time, but furniture, definitely have to take a look,’ Sasha said.
‘See you there then, if I don’t see you before. You meet Alice then too.’ Lucas gave each of the pups a final stroke and was gone.
Putting food in the bowls for the puppies, Sasha thought about what Lucas had said about his childhood. She and Freddie had enjoyed a far happier one than him it would seem, although having the chateau grounds to play in every summer must have been some consolation for him and his sister Alice, and Eliza presumably adored them both.
Sasha put the bowls of food down on the floor and as the pups started to feed, she thought about names. They both had the typical white tips at the end of their tails and whilst one had a white splodge on two paws rather like misshapen mittens, the other had a blaze of white on her chest – reminding her of a pony she’d ridden years ago called Mimi. Sasha laughed out loud. There were her names. Mimi and Mitzi. Perfect. Although as one was going to be Freddie’s, she’d have to let him have the final say on one of the names.
Both the puppies were in the box sleeping when Freddie arrived home later that evening. ‘How are they?’
‘Lovely. Great time-wasters, though. I’ve been playing with them most of the afternoon,’ Sasha confessed, watching Freddie drop to his knees in front of the box. The one Sasha thought of as Mitzi rolled slowly over and waited for him to scratch her tummy.
‘What are we going to call them?’ Freddie asked.
‘How do you feel about Mitzi for that one?’ Sasha pointed to the puppy with the white paws and then to the other one. ‘And Mimi for this one,’ she said, scooping her up and cuddling her. ‘Which one do you want to be yours?’
Freddie tried out the names. ‘Mimi. Mitzi. Yep, they work. I’ve been thinking too. They’ll be happier staying together rather than me having one and you having one – they can simply be ours. We’ll duplicate beds and food bowls in each cottage and they can have the run of both places. I’ll pop into town tomorrow and pick up two proper dog beds.’