Chapter 10
10
Half an hour later Theo took a key off a board hidden in a nook in the kitchen and turned to Francine and Zazz. ‘Ready to walk up to the house?’
‘I’m sure we can find it,’ Francine said. ‘I don’t remember Le Suquet being that big so I may even recognise the way.’
Zazz opened her mouth about to agree with her mother but thought better of it.
Theo shook his head. ‘I’ll walk you up the short way this first time.’ He bent down and clipped Cerise on her lead, which prompted a lot of wriggling and tail wagging from the happy dog, before he handed the lead to Zazz.
‘Cerise and you can lead the way. I’ll take your suitcase if you can manage the rucksack.’
‘I’ll sit outside and enjoy the sun whilst you’re gone,’ Agnes said, glad of the opportunity to be alone and collect her thoughts. Thoughts that were a mix of jumbled feelings. Did she feel happy being back in the South of France? Yes, she thought she did. But what problems lay ahead in the next day or two? How would she cope with those problems when they presented themselves, as they surely would? One thing she did know though, she was glad to be staying here with dear Theo and not having to brave her old home, with its myriad of unhappy memories. Oscar might not have a physical presence there any more but Agnes knew the air would be full of him. She pushed away the thought that the house would of course have to be faced one day in the near future.
Sitting there in the peaceful courtyard, with the warmth of the sun on her body, Agnes’s thoughts drifted back once again to the wedding she’d tried so desperately to stop…
The morning after Oscar had sprung the surprise date for their wedding on her, she’d tried to talk to her mum on her own. Woman to woman. But her mother kept shaking her head. ‘All we want is for you to be taken care of. Be secure. Oscar has money, he will look after you.’
‘But I don’t love him and he doesn’t truly love me either,’ Agnes protested.
‘He wants to marry you. You are still underage. Whatever is your father going to say if you break off your engagement?’
In the end Agnes gave up. She couldn’t break through her mother’s lack of empathy with her situation. Her mother was of the wrong generation. She deferred to her husband in everything. There was little point in asking her to help talk to him. To stand at her side as she tried to explain why she couldn’t marry Oscar. More than anything she wished she’d never met the man and cursed the day she’d accepted his invitation to dinner because she felt flattered by his attention.
A serious-looking Theo had turned up mid-morning the next day saying they needed to talk.
‘What’s happened to your eye?’ she asked, looking at the multicoloured bruise surrounding it.
‘Oscar’s fist,’ Theo said.
‘What! Why?’
‘He didn’t like me telling him he was bullying you into marrying him. Told me that it was nonsense, it was none of my business and to butt out.’
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘You’re not the one who hit me. Don’t you dare apologise for my brother the bully.’
‘He’s brought the wedding forward because,’ Theo grabbed hold of Agnes’s hands, ‘he knows how I feel about you. He doesn’t love you but he doesn’t want me to have you. You make a terrible mistake if you marry him. Please don’t. Marry me instead.’
Agnes looked at him, stunned at his words.
‘I love you, Agnes. I haven’t told you before because I’d hoped the more we saw of each other you’d realise we belong together. I thought we had more time to get to know each other. I didn’t expect Oscar to bring the wedding forward. You have to break off your engagement.’
‘They won’t let me,’ Agnes whispered. ‘I’ve tried. Papa, he is determined for me to marry Oscar.’
‘I go speak to him. Tell him I want to marry you,’ Theo said. ‘If he say no, will you run away with me?’
Agnes closed her eyes. ‘If between us we can persuade my parents to cancel this wedding then you and I can have a future together but I don’t think I’m brave enough to run away with you.’
The closing of the front door as Theo arrived home brought Agnes out of her dream with a start.