Gemini Rain (17 page)

‘Yes, but of course I’m sorry too, you’re the last person I expected to meet in here. Are you shopping for someone too?’

‘No,’ Lauren relaxed a little, ‘I always stop here if I’m passing by. But just to window shop mind you, the clothes ar
e so beautiful and definitely too
expensive if you ask me.’ Brushing her hand along the line of soft material she frowned slightly, ‘Ahh, I guess when you’re a mother the longing for the pretty pink and sky
blue stays with you forever no
matter how ridiculous the price.’

Veronique looked away with both sadness and anxiety showing on her face, she was dying to tell someone but the scan was not until the end of the week. But then Gabrielle did tell her that Lauren had refused t
o discuss what David did or say
when she met up with him.  Searching Lauren’s soft fair face an urge to confide her good news with someone
suddenly
overwhelmed her.

‘Do you want to go for coffee?’ she looked hopefully at Lauren but still wondering if she was right in trusting her.
‘
What are you saying,
’
Vero
nique scolded herself, but then
both Jea
n-Pierre and Gabrielle trust Lauren
and look what
she did for David the other week
. ‘
I…I know a quiet little coffee shop just off
Boulevard Eugene Pierre,
it’s not far and it’s half-way back to the hospital.’

Lauren responded yes with a smile then asked nodding to the dress, ‘are you going to buy it?’

Veronique giggled
suddenly
feeling totally relieved and relaxed, ‘No not yet, I think I’ll wait and see what presents I get first.’

Lauren immediately hugged her whispering, ‘you’re right, don’t make it difficult for those bearing gifts.’

As the two women sat down in the little veranda section of the
cafe, Veronique checked her watch to see how much time she had left before she needed to return to work.

‘You’re on your lunch?’ Lauren enquired as she lit up a cigarette.

‘I’ve only ten minutes
before I must leave
,’ she sighed as she looked up, ‘I didn’t know you smoked,’ Veronique sounded surprised.

‘Oh Christ you don’t mind, do you? I mean with you being pregnant and all, I didn’t think, sorry,’ Lauren leaned forward to stub it out in the ashtray.

‘No, don’t do that I’m used to it with Joel and Jean-Pierre, but I must admit Joel’s cutting down now
and besides we are outdoor
,’ Veronique blushed automatically looking down to her tummy, she couldn’t believe how relieved she felt now that she’s finally told someone
, it was only one person but the
liberation, she felt her tummy was starting to swell with pride
. But then a s
light panic arose within her, ‘p
lease don’t tell anyone we haven’t informed the family yet.’

‘You mean I’m the first to know, wow thank you,’ Lauren was surprised and complemented at the same time, ‘when are you going to broadcast the good news?’

‘After the scan results at the end of the week,’ then sadly adding, ‘I’ve miscarried twice before, we don’t want to get anybody’s hopes up.  The pressure is bad enough being a mid-wife, welcoming new arrivals into our world and I can’t even do the simple task myself.’

Without any sense of inhibition Lauren sympathetically held Veronique’s hand understanding totally how desperately this woman wanted the child now growing inside her. ‘It’s not an easy task Veronique and it doesn’t get
any easier once they do arrive,
’
she laughed. Lauren never experienced
the heartbreak of a miscarriage herself but she knew how the yearning for m
otherhood felt. It to
ok nearly two
year
s
to convince Peter she wanted them to have a ch
ild and
without success he just didn’t want one and when she finally did become pregnant, the look on his face told her immediately he wasn’t happy.

‘Accidents can happen, you know,’ she tried to joke with him but it didn’t even raise a smile from Peter. Even Keith was a genuine accident she regretfully thought, although she would never think him a mistake, thinking him too precious from the
moment
she was handed him wrapped up in towelling.  Thankfully she had a close friend who she could share her joy with and Peter’s family were over the moon for them both. Lauren
thoughts
returned to
the café and
Veronique who was curiously looking at her.

‘I’m sorry my mind trailed back to when I had
Emma
and Keith.’

‘Have you miscarried too?’

‘Oh no, it’s not that,’ Lauren sighed admitting, ‘I wanted children, my husband didn’t. Actually I wanted a huge, loving family. Stupid I know, in this day and age and I thought with Peter coming from a large family he wanted that too.’
Shaking her head, ‘b
efore he died I often w
ondered what we had in common, we married
too quick, didn’t give myself or us time to think. We were only together for less than a year when we got married.’

‘You didn’t have to get married did you, I mean, were you pregnant?’ Veronique felt at ease asking her new friend such an intimate question, it was just the vibes she got from Lauren
, ‘I’ve heard Ireland is a bit religious like that
.
’

Lauren laughed, ‘No, although many thought that when we announced our engagement
after just four months together
. It’s just that at the time I really loved Peter, I was
truly
fascinated by this high-flying, handsome and exciting young man but now I think
, no
I know it was just love and perhaps some entrancement, I was never
in love
with him, do you know what I mean?’

Veronique nodded understanding and knowing many friends who found themselves in such a situation, thankfully there was divorce in France. ‘I’ve seen many lives destroyed by such young ideas, but there are those that work out too you know. Didn’t I read somewhere that in Ireland divorce was illegal?’

‘Oh no that changed a few
of years back and I know a young marriage can work sometimes,’ Lauren replied enthusiastically. ‘I like to think that if Peter and I had really tried maybe we too could’ve worked it out, but…’ her voice languished a little, then she looked across to Veronique with a faltering grin, ‘I’ll never get the chance to find out now.’  Quickly shaking her head she looked around the small café shrugging her shoulders,
‘C’est la vie.’

Veronique could easily read that that was the end of the subject, there was an awkward silence for a minute then hoping to lighten the subject perhaps she decided to let Lauren into a
little family secret, ‘David decided he needed to get married, you know, t
hought he was doing the
manly
thing by standing by his pregnant girlfriend.’

Lauren turned sharply back to her making Veronique think that maybe she had said the wrong thing but then Lauren held her hand up to her mouth to smother her giggles, ‘Oops!’ she lightly replied.

‘Oops is right!’ Veronique said, both women side-glanced each other then burst into laughter almost telepathical
ly thinking of David doing the
manl
y
thing.

They were lingering over the remains of their coffee, ‘Ahh so what if I’m late,’ Veronique stated, ‘lets have another coffee, shall we? And you can tell me exactly what is in all those shopping bags because I know from the shop names they’re definitely not groceries and not cheap clothing either.’

Lauren agreed and thoroughly enjoyed showing off her new wardrobe and delving into a new country called
Light-hearted
Gossip with her new friend.

Veronique was delighted she could revisit the place.

Chapter 15

Throughout the next few
weeks, the bond between the two families became stronger. Lauren,
Emma
and Keith were guests at the Corvasieur family table with the Sunday invitation now being changed to every Saturday because of the children’s school hours and Gabrielle admitting to Lauren that Sunday was usually reserved for an afternoon dinner. ‘An extremely long and important family occasion in France, you know!’ she stated pretending to be snooty.

Lauren felt she had stepped into someone’s private dream world when she got to see Jean-Pierre’s
art
studio with the magical colours and crafts contained in that small cellar room.

‘You are honoured!’ Gabrielle informed her, ‘I am not even allowed to go down and clean that room.’

‘It is
a bit on the untidy side Jean-Pierre, why don’t you let her down to clean it,’ as Lauren stared at the old, empty paint tubs and hardened brushes, to name but a few of the items strewn about the place.

‘What! But I’ll never be able to find anything.’

In awe, she looked around wondering how the hell
he could
find anything anyhow. Watching as Jean-Pierre proudly exhibited his latest works and what he called his
‘treasures,’
a collection of paintings and sketches showing the growing
imagination and
talent of his three sons throughout the years. Lauren could see that he was a man who truly loved his gift and undeniably proud of the fact that his sons inherited the same. Uninhibited by the thoughts of commercial success or fame, it was his form of expression, his dreams and perhaps a small bit of solace from the day to day toil of ordinary life.

When Joel and Veronique announced the news of
their new arrival due in May
, the family and friends celebrated with a lot of champagne. Veronique complained she was feeling left out already
because she was
unable to drink
even a small bit of alcohol
. ‘Will it be worse as I get bigger?
Expectant mother
s
complain all the time in the hospital.
’

Lauren carefully watched David’s reaction, glad to see his delight and broad smile but then he tur
ned and caught her watching him
. His dark brooding eyes told a different story he couldn’t hide his turmoil from her, she experienced it
and saw it in her own eyes
too many times since Peter’s death. It was a late night for them both as they shared their feelings and thoughts back in Lauren’s home. 

Emma
and Keith got the shocking experience of seeing a foal being born, the amount of questions Lauren got afterwards made her half regret letting them see it.

‘Were we born like that?’
Emma
was in a wide-eyed daze. Keith was still trailing his jaw along the ground as they returned to the farmhouse. 

Deciding to make a joke of it Lauren c
ould only think of one reply, ‘n
o not exactly, you weren’t born in a barn there’s hospitals for us poor women.’

Emma
snapped out of her stupefied trance, ‘you know what I mean Mammy! Stop messing.’

David deciding he needed to lose a few excesses of his non-working life thought it would
b
e a good idea to go jogging with Lauren.

‘It’s about time you started again,’ Claude tried to pinch some fat on David’s midriff when he ret
urned exhausted one Saturday, ‘y
ou’re getting a middle age spread before your time!’

The comment started yet another one of their wrestling matches in the farmyard, it took Gabrielle’s tea towel to stop them and David’s exhaustion admitting that Lauren was fitter than he thought.

‘No my brother,’ Claude was now just as breathless and put his arm around David’s shoulders a
s they entered the house, ‘you’r
e g
etting old. You’re nearly forty
now reme
mber, while with me well, thirty three
is an excellent age, don’t you think?’

David also kept
his promise to call up to Lauren, on his first visit he knew by the anxious look on her face she was hoping he didn’t get the wrong impression from her
invite
. Deciding to play a trick on her by not opening the sports bag he brought with him, he could see she was eyeing it for some time
as she sat
upright and stiff on the sofa.

Eventually he moved over to the sofa beside her making sure he was as close as he possibly could, she was beginning to blush, ‘And now its French lessons time,’ he stated seductively as he opened the bag.