Gemini Rain (12 page)

Eventu
ally Gabrielle finished with her story
checking the clock on the dresser, ‘Oh Mon Dieu, but you better leave you’re late!’

‘Ohh shit,’
Lauren jumped up quickly saying her goodbyes.

Meeting Jean-Pierre in the courtyard ‘
A demain
,’ waving to him as she drove off. ‘Until tomorrow?’ now why on earth did I say that, tomorrow was Wednesday,
Emma
and Keith had no school and she never saw Jean-Pierre and Gabrielle on Wednesdays. Getting your French mixed up again, Lauren corrected herself, feeling slightly embarrassed by the mistake.

Back inside the farmhouse Gabrielle asked for an opinion from Veronique.  She respected Veronique’s point of view, with her young daughter-in-law always returning the compliment.

‘Oh okay, I like her she seems a nice person,’ Veronique admitted, ‘but as to whether I trust her that’s another story. You don’t know who she is. Where does she get an income? She could work for a magazine or employed to write a book about David, the family, anything.’

‘I
’m sorry Veronique but I
disagree,’ Jean-Pie
rre now entering the kitchen, ‘m
y wife has always been a good judge of char
acter and I like the girl too. Perhaps i
nvite her to dinner at the weekend Maman, and we’ll see through her children if she is someone to be trusted and David should know, after all it’s his house she lives in.’

They all secretly smiled, someone outside the family who they could trust, now that would be good for everyone.

Lauren ran to the school, ‘Oh Shit, they’re not at the gates,’ starting to panic; she could feel the sweat trickling down her back, ‘bloody Marseille traffic, bloody parking, why the hell does delays always happen when you’re in a hurry! Maybe I should ask Jean-Pierre if there’s a quicker route instead of having to go through that part of the city.’
Looking around there was no sign of them in the schoolyard, running up the drive that led to the large entrance of the school she jumped up the steps two or three at a time. Running through the doorway she heard a familiar voice coming from her right.

‘You’re late!’ the serious, deep voice stating the obvious.

Trying to stop her run Lauren skidded on the floor just stopping herself from landing flat-arsed on the ground. ‘Oh well hello there,’ sounding breathless but calmer than she felt, ‘my sincerest apologies oh great one, but I was talking to our neighbours and I lost all track of time.’

‘You mean you forgot about us. Typical! And we thought we were the most important things in your life,’
Emma
frowned placing her hands on her hips and s
tomping her foot on the floor
copying an actress she saw on TV. It was a good way to show annoyance and
constantly
practiced in front of her mir
ror just for a scene like this and
delighted the opportunity was now arising.

‘I still love you Maman,’ Keith ran over to her, ‘and hello to you too,’ copying one of his mother’s familiar greetings.

Emma
then ran over, ‘Turncoat!’ scolding Keith but the three of them kissed and hugged.

‘Maman, I
think you should buy me a cell
phone and then I’ll always know when you’ll be late,
now
wouldn’t that be a good idea?’

‘Yeah, right,’ Lauren responded sarcastically, that was taking the
growing up quickly
a
bit too far.  This morning
Emma
suggested a TV for each of them
in their own bedrooms
so they could watch their own programmes, ‘Think of the French we could learn mammy.’

‘Ah, so you’ve found your mother!’ Sr. Albert came from her office, she had a kindly face and a smile for everyone but she looked at Lauren questionably.

‘I’m sorry Sister, I should have telephoned. I got delayed and the traffic was chaotic then I couldn’t find any parking,’ although the nun was the same height, since her own schooldays Lauren always felt the need to be apologetic to nuns and bent her head forward unable to look at the woman.

‘It’s fine, Madame.
Emma
had the common sense and maturity to come back into the school with Keith. I just left them for a moment to answer my telephone, I thought it might be you,’ now Sr. Albert was apologising for leaving the children unattended. ‘
Bon soiree mes enfants
, Good evening Madame,’ she shook Lauren’s hand retreating back to her office.

Lauren hugged
Emma
and winked, ‘That’s my girl!’ The maturity is definitely my side of the family she thought it was just happening too quickly to accept it, ‘Let’s go for ice cream!’

When they returned home, they were just entering the door as the telephone started to ring.
Emma
ran over to answer it expecting it was someone from Ireland perhaps an old friend from school.

Lauren was still in the hallway picking up the trail
Emma
left behind her.  Coat, schoolbag, hat and shoes, ‘Well, I’ll never lose her, just follow the trail she friggin’ leaves behind.’ Stopping t
o hear the conversation, Lauren realised Emma wa
s
tal
king in French to someone, ‘
Christ, I hope it’s not a hoax call.
’
Quickly walking into the sitting room,
Emma
walked by her, ‘It’s for you,’ she said disappointingly.

‘Thanks,’ Lauren
took the phone from her, ‘did you happen to ask who it is?’
Emma
shrugged, ‘It’s a woman.’

‘Telesales,’ Lauren thought, ‘Hallo.’

‘Ca
va Lauren,’ it was Gabrielle, ‘y
ou and your daughter sound very alike, I thought it was you but she speaks excellent French children learned very quickly, don’t they.’

‘Gabrielle!’ Lauren threw her eyes up to heaven the little bit of confidence she gained in speaking French now disappearing, ‘thanks for the compliment I’ll remember to tell
Emma
but is everything okay?’ H
ow did Gabrielle get her telephone number?

‘Yes, but of course!
I hope you don’t mind but Jean-Pierre and I would like it very much if you and your children could join us for dinner next Sunday evening,’ her voice had a spring in it which was missing earlier that day. ‘It is as you like, you can discuss it with your children first.’

Lauren was delighted her first invitation to savoir the delights of a traditional French family dinner, ‘Oh I’d love
to, at what time seven, eight o
’clock?’ unable to hide the delight in her voice.

‘Seven, we can have some apéritifs first, what do your children like to eat? Are they used to French cooking yet?’ on hearing her friends delight Gabrielle there and then decided to prepare her finest cuisine.

‘Sometimes they like it and sometimes they don’t, they have lunch in the school canteen of course. They’re typical kids and will try anything new, once they like the look of it. Oh, thanks for the invitation, this is wonderful.’

‘Please don’t get too excited, it’s only my cooking,’ Gabrielle chuckled, ‘it’s not of the French restaurant style.’

‘I know, I know please don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I didn’t expect to make new friends so easily and for you to invite me to a family dinner, it’s just so…so…
well
I
just
didn’t expect it,’ getting lost for
French words Lauren tried
to calm down
and not sound too desperate
.

‘Well, it will be a family dinner because everybody will be here, Joel telephoned from Paris my three boys are coming home tonight, it will be wonderful I know it will. Maybe you were right, things will get better. But I must let you go for now, perhaps we’ll meet for our little chat on Thursday morning, yes?’

‘Yes, of course Gabrielle,
a Jeudi. Au revoir
.’ 

Both women smiled as they put their phones back
into their respective cradles. 
Lauren danced into the kitchen only to be greeted by a mess on the table and on her children’s faces and hands, but she didn’t care. ‘Guess what?’ leaning over the kitchen ta
ble pushing jam jars, peanut butter and chocolate spread
aside.

‘You’ve bought me a cell
phone!’
Emma
exclaimed.

‘Get stuffed, madam.
’ Lauren laughed,
‘no, w
e’ve been invited to our neighbours for dinner next Sunday, how about that!’

‘Do they cook good chips?’ Keith always insists on chips for dinner.

‘Do they have children?’
Emma
enquired. Lauren just smiled.

Chapter 10

Deciding they should walk down to the Corvasieur’s fa
rm, it was a beautiful warm
evening with the temperatures higher than in Ireland for that time of year, ‘its only ten minutes away anyhow,’ she scolded the kids when they moaned
about having to walk
. Making sure they wore their jackets as it could easily drop temperature late into the night the three of them bounced all the way down
towards the Corvassier home
,
with Lauren
glad she possessed the good sense to wear her small-heeled boots.

Gabrielle laughingly informed her that it was a casually dressed evening when she enquired about what to wear. So Keith was in one of his usual tracksuits but she made sure it was one of his newer ones and
Emma
wore a simple but very pretty royal blue dress which, Lauren admired, highlighted her daughter’s eyes. She herself, after changing her mind about a dozen times decided yet again to wear black.
‘
I’ve got to change
the colour of
the clothes I wear’
, she admitted having realised that nearly everything decent she had to wear was black.

Generally in work she wore suits, just a simple skirt or trousers and jacket and for the past year or so she had a fad on black. So tonight once again she was dressed in black trousers, ankle boots and a li
ght, sleeveless blouse and matching black cardigan
, not even the necklace she wore brightened it up. ‘Definitely,’ stating to her mirror image, ‘you’re going shopping next week.’

The evening was changing to a deep red sky highlig
hting the view in front of them -
the little village with its traditional Provencal style of pale masonry, some houses still had the
old
traditional green shutters but the majority now with the more modern light blue. The small lavender fields surrounding
it, the trees around them,
colours were ever changing and with their urban upbringing the three appreciated what was taking place.

Neither knew what to expect, but all three knew they would enjoy the evening ahead, new faces at dinnertime, new talk and they hoped new smiles. When they reached the gate, the dogs came bounding out to greet them Keith got a fright clasping Lauren’s leg.

‘Don’t worry,’ reassuring him, ‘they’re friendly,’ considering the idea about getting a puppy for his birthday next August even
Emma
was nagging her to get some pets, although she wanted a hamster and a few rabbits, ‘A f
ew!’ Lauren replied in shock, ‘s
ure it would be a few hundred within a month with the way rabbits breed!’
Emma
was extremely miffed for a day by that remark.

Gabrie
lle made Jean-Pierre stand watch
at the window calling to her as he opened the door then he called to the dogs, he could see Keith wouldn’t let Lauren’s leg go she was struggling to walk properly. Everybody except for David and Claude came out for the introductions noting their absence Gabrielle was shoutin
g to them over the friendly greetings
.

‘I suppose we better go to meet the new neighbour,’ Claude looked at David.  They both mischievously grinned to each other, by the end of the night they would know if Maman was matchmaking or had genuinely found a new friend. It was a constant worry for her if and when Claude would get married and now David was free, it was double trouble for her. Although they doubted she was going to start searching for David yet but they knew she would start soon, at least hinting. 

Reassuring his parents that Lauren was genuine, David made sure Jacques checked
her background and finances
before allowing her to rent the house and she didn’t know it was David’s house as all contracts were through the solicitor’s office. The estate agent was warned not to inform prospective clients who owned the house or who lived close by, he didn’t want any crazed fan living so close to his parents
and he only wanted non-nationals to rent, it proved easier to hide his identity that way
.