Chapter 46
46
Alice, as organizer-in-chief of the fete, had taken the decision to keep all the events close to the main entrance. ‘Easier for people to see everything and not have to walk too far through the estate, especially if it rains.’ She’d worked out a plan of where each stall or event would go and pinned it to a makeshift sandwich board by the tarmacked area where cars would park. Peter and Penny were primed to stand by to show people where to place their stands and equipment and to generally help them to get organised.
Thankfully, the early morning clouds had disappeared and the sun was high in the sky by midday, most of the stalls were in place and the frantic feelings of ‘will we ever be ready’ had been dispelled. As Alice walked slowly around the stalls checking everything was in order, Freddie was ‘testing, testing’ the sound system he’d set up, ready for the vicar to officially open the fete at two o’clock prompt.
The first visitors started to appear before two o’clock and happily paid their one euro entrance fee. By the time the vicar had arrived and given his welcoming speech, all the stalls had people eager to either buy what was on offer, play boules or take part in the lucky dip. The trio with their Celtic music and songs entertained visitors all afternoon and the ice cream van had a queue from the moment it parked on the drive.
Sasha, in a quiet moment at the tombola stall, watched as Maddie and Jade stopped to talk to Freddie, who was again adjusting something on the sound system. Sasha saw him pick up Jade and swing her around, before gently setting her back down. Maddie seemed intent on saying something to Freddie and Sasha saw him smile before he answered Maddie, ruffled Jade’s hair and walked away. She’d ask him what was going on later.
‘Sasha, I’d like you to meet Dawn who saved my life a few months ago,’ Penny said, appearing with a tall dark-haired woman in front of the stall.
‘Well, somebody had to rescue you from you know who,’ Dawn said.
‘Lovely to meet you,’ Sasha said. ‘Have you come to stay?’
‘No. I had a few days’ holiday due and I thought I’d surprise Penny and see how she was. I miss her. I needed to make sure she was okay. I’m staying at?—’
‘Here, at least for the night,’ Penny interrupted. ‘We’re having a family party this evening and I insist you stay. Your help was crucial to me escaping from an unpleasant situation and a certain person. I can never thank you enough. And I know Mum and Dad will want to thank you too.’
Dawn looked uncertain. Sasha, sensing that Penny really wanted her friend to stay, said, ‘You can’t possibly turn down the offer of staying in the chateau. It’s amazing.’
‘Yes,’ Penny laughed. ‘The next time you come, you’ll be roughing it in the old Maison du Jardinier with me.’
‘In that case, I give in,’ Dawn said, laughing. ‘Thank you. I’d love to stay tonight.’
It was gone six o’clock when the vicar thanked everyone for coming and spending money to help the church, wished them a good evening at the fireworks in Carhaix if they were going, and told them the fete was now officially closed.
As she and Freddie helped clear rubbish away, Sasha said, ‘I saw you with Jade and Maddie earlier. Are you okay? Maddie wasn’t pressuring you to change your mind or anything?’
Freddie gave a rueful smile. ‘How did you guess? But don’t worry. My mind is not for changing.’
Lucas, who had been wanting to talk to Penny all day, finally managed to track her down as she and Dawn stacked some chairs near the orangery for later in the evening, ready for their own family and friends’ Bastille Day party.
‘There you are,’ Lucas said. ‘I am looking everywhere for you.’
‘And now you’ve found me,’ Penny said, her voice flat.
Dawn looked from one to the other, not sure what was going on but deciding the two of them didn’t need an audience. ‘I’ll go and see if I can help anyone else,’ Dawn said and quickly walked away from them.
‘Why do I get the feeling you avoid me since our afternoon in the Valley of the Saints?’ Lucas said.
‘Because I have been avoiding you. Avoiding having this conversation. A conversation I have no desire to have,’ Penny said, close to tears now the moment had come. ‘You have to realise we cannot have a future together other than as friends,’ she said quietly.
‘Why? I don’t understand. I thought after the Valley of the Saints…’ His voice trailed away.
‘Oh, come on, Lucas, you were there when the box was opened and your grandmother’s family history was discovered.’
‘Yes, I was there, but I don’t see how or why it affect us?’
‘How can you say that? Of course it affects us. We are related. It might be distantly, but we are both in the same family tree.’
Lucas shook his head. ‘But we’re not related.’
Penny gave him an exasperated look. ‘You and Alice are brother and sister and the three of us are Chevalier cousins. We have a great-great-relative in common – your great-great-grandmaman is my great-great aunt. I know it’s a distant connection, but a cousin is a cousin.’
Smiling, Lucas caught hold of her hand. ‘We aren’t cousins. You and Alice are cousins,’ he said quietly. ‘Legally, Alice and me are brother and sister, but we are not blood relation. Alice is my stepsister, not even my half-sister.’
Penny stared at him in disbelief, shaking her head. ‘What?’
‘You didn’t realise?’
‘No. You call each other brother and sister, Eliza calls you her grandson.’
‘We grew up together. Alice was about four and I was just three and a few months I think when Claudia and my papa married. They did all the legal thing necessary to make us a proper family because they didn’t plan on having children together, but they want us to be brother and sister. It’s simple as that.’
‘So just to confirm the facts, you and I are not even distantly related?’ Penny said.
‘No. But I would very much like to be in a relationship with you for the rest of my life,’ Lucas said.
Penny gave him a shaky smile as she moved into his arms. ‘Sounds good to me.’
After the bulk of the clearing up had been done and all the visitors and stallholders had left, everybody disappeared for an hour or two, glad of a breather before meeting up at eight thirty for supper in the orangery.
Dawn was helping Freddie arrange the small tables and chairs on the terrace in front of it whilst inside, Sasha helped Penny put several platters of finger food on the big table alongside plates, serviettes and champagne glasses.
When Alice, Lucas and Eliza returned, the doors were open, and the muslin curtains were blowing in the balmy evening breeze. Penny had switched on the fairy lights and the LED candles that were hidden in the plant pots and in the three big moonlike orbs that she’d recently found in a garden centre and placed by each French door.
At Eliza’s request, Peter poured two glasses of champagne, placed them on a small table as Eliza sat in one of the comfortable Lloyd Loom chairs, and called Sasha over.
‘Eliza would like to talk to you,’ he said.
Looking at Sasha, Eliza raised her glass. ‘ Santé and merci beaucoup . I am so happy you did not throw my box away. I would have lost something precious that I didn’t even realise I had. Merci .’
‘I was so worried about upsetting you,’ Sasha said. ‘I’m happy for you and relieved.’ And the two of them clinked glasses in the time-honoured fashion.
Penny was standing with her parents and Lucas when Alice approached her and quietly drew her away.
‘Grand-maman gave me the ring tonight,’ and she held out her hand for Penny to see.
‘It’s beautiful and it truly suits your hand,’ Penny said.
‘I love it,’ Alice said. ‘But I can’t help feeling it really belongs to your side of the family – to you, to be precise.’
‘No.’ Penny shook her head. ‘Your great-great-grandmother was very definite in her letter, wanting her own side of the family to have the ring as an heirloom. It’s yours, no question of that. Wear it and enjoy it – cousin!’
It was eleven o’clock when Peter tapped the champagne glass he was holding.
‘Very last minute, but I managed to find a few fireworks – nothing to rival Carhaix’s display and not noisy because of the dogs and other animals around, but hopefully you’ll enjoy them.’
Sasha, standing with Jean-Paul’s arm around her shoulders and Freddie and Dawn on her other side, watching the colourful starbursts in the sky, gave a deep sigh of happiness. Everything had changed so much for her and Freddie in the last three months or so. Losing their mum last year had been hard, but the decision to move to France together had been a good one. The people around her oohing and aahing at the fireworks overhead were her friends, good friends, that she knew would now always have a place in her life. Especially Jean-Paul. She couldn’t truly imagine being without him now.
She wasn’t naive enough to expect everything to go completely to plan. Circumstances had thrown enough problems at her in the past and would inevitably throw up more in the future. Some would be unexpected, some would be seen coming from miles away, perhaps because of mistakes she’d made. Sometimes, though, for a short while like right now, her mum’s favourite expression was singing in her head: ‘Everything in the garden is coming up roses.’