Chapter 17
FOUR WEEKS LATER
Hope couldn’t move. She held Gus’s hand tightly as she stared out at the landscape, a feeling inside her chest that she couldn’t explain as she took in the beauty of Pontarlier. It was like nothing she’d ever seen before, and she couldn’t stop looking around.
‘Why did you never tell me it was like this?’ she asked.
‘I thought I did,’ Gus said, lifting her hand and pressing a kiss to it.
‘You said it was picturesque,’ she said. ‘But this, this is just breathtaking.’
The mountains in the near distance looked like sleeping giants to her, and everything was so green, as far as the eye could see from where she was facing. It was so different to the city, and as she inhaled, the air felt crisp and clear in her lungs.
‘Well, I’m pleased you like it so far,’ Gus said. ‘We can go for walks at the weekend, and I’ll show you all my favourite places I explored as a boy.’
For someone who’d been so unsure of leaving Paris, of giving up the life she’d made for herself there, Hope was feeling incredibly content in her decision. And from what she’d seen as they’d driven through the village, the entire place was full of beauty, including all the grand old buildings.
‘My apartment isn’t as exciting as the scenery, but—’
‘It’ll be just fine,’ she said, dropping her head to his shoulder. ‘We’re together, and everything about this place feels right. I’m so pleased I decided to come with you.’
Gus turned to her and she lifted her head as he cupped her face in his palms and pressed a warm kiss to her lips. ‘So am I.’
As far as Hope was concerned, there was nothing about this day that wasn’t perfect.
Five days later, Hope sat, bent over the little desk, furiously sketching in her book. Earlier pages had been used for ideas for new artwork, and she’d even scribbled notes here and there, but now she was filling page after page, trying to perfect the little fairy.
It should have been her easiest project to date, but for some reason, she was finding it almost impossible. The fairy was either too small or her proportions were wrong, and it was driving her crazy.
‘How is our little fairy coming along?’
The deep timbre of his voice warmed her, and she sat up, stretching out her back as Gus came up behind her, his arms encircling her. He pressed a kiss to her cheek and leaned past her to thumb through the pages, and she wished that she had more to show him.
‘I like her,’ he said, leaning closer and whispering another kiss to her cheek. ‘You don’t?’
‘I can’t seem to make her quite perfect,’ Hope said with a sigh.
‘Just draw from your heart,’ he said, as if it were the easiest thing in the world to do, kissing her again on the top of her head before he stood back. ‘I’ll love whatever you come up with.’
Hope stared down at the drawing for a long moment before closing the book.
She hated to admit it, but Gus was right.
She needed to stop overthinking it, stop trying to make her drawing perfect, and just create from the heart.
Hope knew how she wanted her to look, but every time she thought about the image being printed on labels for the absinthe bottles, she started to panic.
‘Have you told your parents about me yet?’ Hope asked, standing and stretching, her back sore from being bent over the desk for so long.
Gus grinned and took her hand, tugging her towards the bed.
She went willingly, laughing as he pulled her down on top of him, his lips familiar and warm as they moved against hers.
It felt like they’d been together forever, even though she’d only left the city to go with him a week earlier.
She’d packed up her life in one afternoon, giving her housemates enough to cover the rent for the next month so they didn’t hate her for leaving, and since then she’d barely left Gus’s side.
‘No,’ he confessed when he finally let her go. ‘I haven’t told them yet. But only because I don’t want them to ruin what we have. I’m liking it being just the two of us.’
‘It’s fine.’ She stroked her fingers up and down his arm, trying not to feel hurt.
‘I just, I knew we were going to keep our work secret from them, I just didn’t know that I’d be a secret, too.
’ She knew it wasn’t that he was embarrassed by her; he’d told her repeatedly how difficult they could be, but she’d still expected to meet them.
‘I was thinking you could meet my sister first,’ Gus said, drawing her up so she could lean against him, his arms loosely around her. ‘She’s the most similar to me, and I think you’d like her.’
‘Can she keep a secret?’ Hope asked, as her heart ignited at the thought of meeting his sister.
‘If there’s one thing my sister is good at, it’s keeping secrets.
She won’t tell them about you, I promise, although she will probably demand to be taken out for ice cream.
’ Gus’s brows knitted together. ‘But she can’t know about our work secret, only about you.
When she’s older we can tell her, but not yet. ’
Hope liked the way he talked about his sister—it never failed to light up his face.
Whereas when he talked about his parents, he became more reserved.
She also liked how much he wanted to protect her.
Her father had always told her he was protecting her and doing what was best for her, but with Gus, she actually felt that he wanted to look after her.
Not to mention she couldn’t ever imagine him laying a hand on her.
‘But how about we talk less about my sister and more about how beautiful you look when you draw?’ he said, teasing her as he ran a hand lightly down her arm. ‘There’s something about seeing you deep in concentration.’
Hope stilled, her body reacting to his touch, butterflies releasing in her stomach.
Since she’d moved with him, Gus had been the perfect gentleman.
For their first few days here, he’d given her the bed and slept on a makeshift bed on the floor; he’d kissed her but never pushed for more.
And as much as she wanted him to take that next step, she also liked that he didn’t want her to do any more than she was comfortable with.
The trouble was that she wanted more, and she didn’t know how to tell him.
She turned a little, reaching for him, swallowing as she fought for the right words, but before she could form them, Gus spoke.
Her friends from Paris would have laughed at her predicament—it seemed that they were all happy to take different lovers whenever they felt like it, which had always made her feel woefully inexperienced.
‘I’m going to the distillery tonight,’ he said. ‘Would you like to come with me?’
Hope’s heart began to race, and this time it had nothing to do with the proximity of Gus’s body next to hers. It might not be the night she’d thought they’d have together, but it wasn’t any less exciting.
‘Yes,’ she whispered, anticipation pooling in her belly as she imagined sneaking out in the dead of night with him and walking to the old building where he housed all his equipment and product.
Gus pulled her farther back into his arms and pressed his lips to hers, and all Hope could do was kiss him back and marvel at just how dull her life had been before he’d arrived and turned everything upside down.
She’d fought for independence, had dreamed of a bigger life, and Gus had walked into her world and changed everything—for the better.
Hope didn’t know what to expect, and she wondered if Gus had felt this way when she’d taken him to her studio. Excitement grew inside her as they neared the building, and if it weren’t for the moonlight and the torch Gus was carrying, it would have been pitch-black.
Her pulse raced as they stood at the huge sliding timber door, and she glanced up at the crumbling brick facade, wondering how he’d managed to lease this building without anyone discovering what he was doing.
He was hiding in plain sight, and she wasn’t sure if that was genius or terrifying. Or maybe both.
She stood close to him as he opened the door, the key rattling in the lock until he finally got it, and when they stepped in she couldn’t place the smell, other than thinking it smelt old.
And musty. Hope inhaled, picturing a shabby interior as Gus left her in the dark, disappearing with the torch while she stood and breathed and waited.
Then the first oil lamp was lit, the smell of the match tingeing the air with smoke, and within seconds he’d lit another.
Hope gasped; she couldn’t help it. What she’d expected would be ramshackle and disorderly was actually the most orderly production system she could have imagined.
There were two benches covered in glass jars, and then large pieces of equipment that she guessed were for the distilling of the absinthe.
By the time Gus returned to her side, her eyes were wide and her smile even wider. This was much more impressive than she could ever have envisioned.
‘What do you think?’ he asked, an uncertain edge to his voice that she’d never heard before.
Hope shook her head. ‘I think,’ she said, ‘that I’m impressed. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this.’
Gus indicated for her to follow him, and she did, crossing the stone floor to the far bench. He gestured to the bottles and the herbs hanging from where he’d strung them.
‘Herbs are everything when it comes to making absinthe,’ he said, ‘which is why I have so many here. Wormwood is the most important, but I also use green anise, fennel, star anise, lemon balm and spearmint…’ He looked up at her and laughed.
‘Well, a lot of herbs. You’ll become familiar with them as we work. ’
She moved slowly, lifting her hand to touch some of the hanging herbs, then inspecting the jars of others. Light from the oil lamps danced across her fingers when she looked at them, making everything seem just that bit more magical.