Chapter 9 #3
The dancers started with a circle around the fountain.
More people joined in from the crowd and the ribbon flowed outwards and hands were reaching out to pull new people into the line.
Tilly could see a look of horror on Angus’s face as a large woman in a voluminous green dress, with a white apron and shawl, took hold of his hand and dragged him into the line.
Equally horrified, Tilly jumped to her feet, hooking her satchel over her shoulder and diving for Angus’s free hand before another stranger took it.
They were in a relentless human tide now, marching to the beat of the drum at the head of the human snake.
To Tilly’s astonishment, having been forced to participate, Angus didn’t seem to be making any effort to break free and escape.
Instead, he was watching the feet of the people ahead of him and even making an attempt to mimic their steps.
From feeling like she had grabbed the stone hand of a statue, it began to feel human as they made a turn and then another, spiralling out of the square and down a side street.
She felt his hand was holding hers, rather than being held, and this contact between them, legitimised by an activity neither of them had initiated, suddenly felt like far more than simply holding hands.
Tilly could feel every one of his fingers, tightening over hers when they were changing direction, as if they wanted to keep her safe from going the wrong way or falling and, despite the chaos around them, it reminded her of the way Angus had tried to protect her from the pigs.
He was, she realised, a very honourable man.
The dance was speeding up and too many people were involved, so it was inevitable that the chain would break on a turn.
Tilly felt herself being torn away from Angus and he disappeared into the crowd.
A laughing stranger took his place. She couldn’t even see where Angus was and she couldn’t try and get out of the line.
The shouts, the laughter, the shrill notes of the galoubet and the drumming were swirling around Tilly and, for a horrible beat of time, she felt frightened. Not for herself. For Angus.
She tried to turn to see if she could catch sight of him but that made her forget where to put her feet and she almost stumbled.
Right then, the chain broke again and, through the gap it made, she saw Angus.
Tilly pulled her hand away from the people holding hers and stepped towards him.
He reached out and she caught his hand and he tugged her towards the side of the street, into an entranceway beneath a veil of blue-flowered plumbago that was growing from a wine barrel beside a wooden front door with an old iron knocker.
Tilly was breathing hard. The crowd was still flowing past them and she was pressed against the uneven blocks of a stone wall with Angus standing so close to her that she could feel the whole length of his body.
He let go of her hand but placed his on the wall beside her head, his other hand mirroring the action so that it felt like he was making his body wider, creating a shield to keep her safe.
Tilly stared up at him, her lips parted, her heart beating faster than the fading sounds of the tambourin and she knew he was going to kiss her again.
She wanted him to kiss her again. Possibly more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life, in fact.
But he didn’t.
After what felt like an agonising pause at the top of a cliff, while Tilly was hoping he would jump off and fly, he stepped back instead. Literally. He took a physical step back and put distance between their bodies.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
No…
This feeling was beyond disappointment. It was also disturbing.
Where were her principles regarding casual sex?
This man was disenchanted with women in general, scornful of romance in particular and he was only going to be in this country for a few days.
Interaction with Angus McLeod, in a physical or any other form, was only ever going to be very temporary.
Casual. As secret as she chose to make it because there would be no repercussions.
And maybe that was why Tilly felt like she could allow herself to do something so definitively out of character. Her curiosity was adding spice to a sexual attraction that was gathering a force like nothing she’d ever come close to experiencing.
But Angus had stepped back with apparent ease and his expression gave nothing away.
‘Can you find the way back to the car?’ he asked.
‘Yes. It’s downhill from here and on the other side.’
It took a little while for her to find where they’d parked near the outskirts of Valensole.
A couple of teenage boys, obviously dodging the festivities, were at the end of street, sharing a cigarette.
They watched Angus walk past them and shared a glance and a rather smug smile with each other that Tilly didn’t understand.
Until they reached where the little red car had been slotted between two buildings.
And found that all four tyres of the Alfa Romeo had been deflated.