Chapter 37
Now that Louis knows I am here, I’ve seen him a couple of times this week already, which is lovely. Today, when I left the pensione I found him waiting for me. ‘Hi. You are early today.’
‘Yes. I need to talk to you without interruption. I thought we’d walk along the coast towards Cap d’Antibes.’
‘OK,’ I said, falling into step at his side.
‘I’m worried about you.’
I gave him a quick glance. ‘Why? I’m fine.’
‘I’ll rephrase that. I’m worried about the company you are keeping.’
‘You mean Stéphane. I don’t see anyone else on a regular basis – except you now!’ I said, trying to lighten the conversation.
‘I wish you weren’t involved with Stéphane.’
‘That’s because you don’t like him,’ I said. ‘I can practically smell the animosity between the two of you.’
‘I don’t much care for him,’ Louis admitted. ‘But I positively hate the way he treats you. Like a possession.’
Which gave me pause for thought, I have to admit, because I don’t always like the way Stéphane speaks to me.
‘I find it strange that he always manages to turn up when I am there. I think he has to have spies who let him know when you are with me. And I think he is using you,’ Louis said, ‘to boost his ego. To boast about having an American girlfriend. How much do you actually know about him?’
I sighed. ‘I know he was in the resistance. I know that his younger brother died in the liberation. I know that he is very much involved in the family business, which is why he is away so much. That’s about it really.
Oh, apart from the fact he wishes all Americans – except me, of course – would go home. ’
‘I bet he does. You say he is involved in the family business? What is that exactly?’
I sighed again. ‘I don’t know truthfully.
He’s very evasive if I ask too many questions, he tells me to stop behaving like a journalist.’ I glanced at Louis.
‘I can tell you something that I dislike about him – those damn Gauloises cigarettes. I quite liked them in the beginning, but these days I’ve gone right off the smell of them.
They make me feel quite nauseous at times.
’ I turned to face him. ‘Thank you for caring, Louis. Now, can we please change the subject. A few more weeks, I shall be back home in New York and Stéphane and Antibes will be but a distant memory.’
* * *
Evie pulled the elastic band over the journal and placed it on the small table. Louis was the grandfather she’d never met, but GeeGee had told her how much he’d loved her. Had he needed to see Stéphane off in order to marry her?