What Happens at the Beach... (20 page)

What she couldn't understand was how he could be married, and at the same time involved with Hortense, particularly if she and his wife were old friends. From the way Hortense had been throwing herself at him, it was pretty clear what her intentions were, but if so, how could the wife not know? Did she know and yet not care? But, apart from this imponderable mystery, the inescapable fact was that, despite the happy morning Natalie had spent with him, it was now crystal-clear that her own relationship with Mark was just what it said on the label. She was employed to help him with his research and that was that. Whatever hopes she might have been harbouring about him, they had been swept away by that single sentence. Apart from her dear old grandma, here she was, alone again. Yes, she told herself, she was a tougher character than a few years back, but she still felt terribly disappointed and it hurt. There were tears in the corners of her eyes, but she refused to let them run. She ran her hand across her face and breathed in deeply.

At four o'clock she got a text message from Dominique at the restaurant asking if she could come down to work that evening. Natalie immediately said yes, glad to have something else to occupy her mind. Hearing movement from her grandmother's room she went down to the kitchen and made tea. Colette appeared a few minutes later and sat down at the kitchen table.

‘Did you have a little snooze, Natalie?' Natalie shook her head. ‘Have you been thinking things over?' Upon returning from the chateau, Natalie had told Colette what she had discovered about Mark that morning.

‘I've been doing stuff on the computer, getting ready for our next trip. But my head's so full at the moment, I don't think I could have slept even if I'd tried.'

‘Well, I did have a little sleep, but I've been thinking about what you told me. Has it occurred to you he and his wife might have one of those open marriages? You know, where they each are free to go their own way?'

Natalie shook her head. ‘I have no idea, Gran, but if that's the way it is, I know I wouldn't want anything to do with a set-up like that.'

‘Or they may be separated, or even divorced. I don't think you should automatically assume this means he's not available.'

Natalie had already considered this. ‘I suppose so, but the fact is that I'm just fooling myself if I think a man like him, in his position, could possibly be free and interested in me.'

‘Don't be so silly, dear. He'd be lucky to get you.'

‘Surely he'd go for somebody like himself, from the same sort of background. I'm just an unemployed ex-student and I'm flat broke. I'd never been in a brand-new car before, ever. And I've certainly never been in anything as luxurious as his big car. Can you imagine me living in a chateau or flying around on a private jet? No, Gran, it isn't going to happen and I'd better just accept that.'

She sipped her tea for some minutes before coming to the inevitable conclusion. She raised her head determinedly. ‘When all's said and done, Gran, the fact is that Mark's not what counts, at least for the moment. My first responsibility's to my career. I need to find a job and that's the only thing I should be focusing on now. I don't need to be anything more than a friend and a work colleague to Mark.' She straightened her back and stood up. ‘And that's that.' She avoided her grandmother's eye as she left the room.

When she got down to the restaurant, she got a surprise: Philippe waiting for her on the terrace. His boat wasn't in the bay so she realised he must have driven or walked round from the next village. As Natalie walked up the steps, he jumped to his feet and came over to talk to her. He looked very penitent, his head bowed in shame, and she felt sorry for him. Before he could say a word, she gave him a big smile.

‘It's all right, Philippe. We've all done it. Anyway, I got home fine.'

‘Oh, Natalie, that's very kind of you but I feel terrible. I want you to know that I don't make a habit of getting drunk like that, I promise you.' He looked round to see if they were being observed, but they had the terrace to themselves. The afternoon customers had gone home and the evening diners wouldn't be arriving for another half hour. Dominique was nowhere to be seen either. Reassured, he turned back to Natalie. ‘Listen, Natalie, I've got to explain what happened on the boat.' He looked and sounded quite shy now. ‘The fact is I think the world of you.' He looked up and saw the surprise on her face. ‘All I have to do is see you and my heart starts racing. Every time I touch you, my skin, my whole body, tingles for ages afterwards. I think I'm probably in love with you.'

‘Oh, Philippe.' He sounded so pathetic, so sad, that her heart went out to him. She also couldn't miss the parallel with her relationship with Mark. Pretty evidently Mark had no idea how she felt about him, just as she hadn't realised the depth of Philippe's feelings towards her until now. This made her feel a wave of sympathy for Philippe. She tried to speak but he hadn't finished his confession.

‘Anyway, I know you don't think of me that way. I can read it in your eyes, your face, the way you behave in my presence.' He raised a hand to stop her butting in. ‘That's the way it is. I know that's how it is and I thought I was able to rise above the disappointment and just have you as a friend, a very close friend. The trouble was that yesterday, seeing you there beside me like that, smelling your perfume, watching those amazing long brown legs of yours, was more than I could bear. Rather than do something we both might regret, I'm afraid I took the coward's way out and drowned my sorrows.' He even managed to salvage a vestigial smile. ‘A bit too efficiently, I'm afraid. I'm sorry I passed out on you like that.'

‘Philippe, like I said, there's no apology needed. I had a lovely day with you and the swim back to the shore was very good for me, I'm sure. I'm glad you're my friend, my very close friend, and I'm so very pleased you came to talk to me. Thank you.' She leant forward and kissed him on the cheeks. He blushed red and his eyes closed for a moment. Then, he drew back and gave her a smile.

‘Thank you, Natalie, thank you.' He hesitated. ‘He's a very lucky man, your man.'

‘How do you know I've got a man?'

‘It's written on your face. It's as if there were a
No vacancies
sign like you get in the window of a small
pension
.' He was still smiling. ‘And now you've got to work and I'd better go. If you ever want to see me again, you've got my number. I'll always be there for you, whatever it is you want. If I can help you, I'll be delighted to do it.
Au revoir
, Natalie.' And, with that, he was gone.

That evening the restaurant was massively busy. The return of the sun had brought a crowd of people out, and the damage to some of the roads inland of there had resulted in lots of holidaymakers choosing not to stray away from the coast. In consequence, every seat in the place was taken and there were even some people sitting on the terrace wall. Natalie had very little time to think about anything other than the job in hand and she was quite pleased about that. Gradually, as the evening progressed, people began to drift away until, some time after eleven, the last table finally emptied and Natalie and Dominique could slump down for a well-earned rest. Alain appeared from the kitchen with a bottle of champagne and three glasses. He ripped off the top, pulled the cork and splashed wine into the glasses.

‘Well, cheers everybody and a very happy anniversary to you and me, Dominique.'

‘Alain, I didn't know.' Natalie got up and went over to kiss first him and then Dominique on the cheeks. ‘Congratulations, you two.'

Dominique took a sip of wine and smiled across the table at her husband. ‘What a way to spend our wedding anniversary. I'm exhausted.'

‘We say that every year, but business is business.' Alain drained his glass and refilled it. ‘We'd be a lot more miserable if we'd had a quiet night with very few customers.'

Dominique nodded. ‘You're quite right,
chéri
. The restaurant's really doing very well and we should celebrate that.' She raised her glass. ‘Cheers.' She gave him a mischievous grin. ‘The washing up can wait until the morning.'

Natalie decided this would be a tactful time to withdraw so she swallowed her champagne, refused a refill and stood up. ‘
Bon anniversaire, mes amis
.'

She picked up the bag with the clothes she had left on Philippe's boat. Earlier on she had looked inside and discovered the little package that Dominique had correctly identified as a box of chocolates. Alongside it was a piece of paper in a sealed envelope bearing just one word on it.
Sorry
. She felt sure she would see him again and knew she would be pleased to do so. She liked him a lot and she felt sorry for him. Although he didn't know it, he and she shared the same fate as far as romance was concerned.

Natalie walked down the steps from the terrace. As she did so, she glanced across at the beach and smiled to herself as she saw a familiar shape in the shallows. She pulled off her sandals and walked down onto the sand towards the motionless black statue at the water's edge. As she approached, his head turned towards her and he leapt to his feet, rushing across to greet her, tail wagging furiously.

‘Good evening, Barney, and what're you doing down here at this time of night?' Natalie could make out the shape of Mark's towel and flip-flops behind the dog and realised he had decided on a midnight swim. For a moment, the idea of stripping off all her clothes and swimming out to join him crossed her mind, but that was never going to happen. In spite of the comforting presence of the Labrador, she felt the same sense of disappointment.

As the dog collapsed onto his back at her feet, legs waving in the air, she squatted down beside him and scratched his tummy. After all the rain it was a crystal clear night and the sky was ablaze with stars. The new moon itself was out of sight behind the headland, but the stars still cast enough light on the beach for her to be able to make out the rocks, the cliffs and even some of the larger shells at the water's edge. She stretched her back and took a deep breath. In spite of the disappointment of finding out about Mark, it was hard to be too depressed in a setting like this. And Philippe's confession had helped. If he could find her attractive, then hopefully it wasn't her fault that Mark seemed not to. Gradually, she began to feel better.

They had been sitting there for barely three or four minutes when she heard the sound of a swimmer approaching. Her heart leapt and she found herself remembering what Philippe had told her earlier that evening about the effect she had on him. The dog jumped to his feet and rushed into the shallows to greet his master. Mark recognised her as he was still waist-deep in the water, wading towards the shore.

‘Hi, Natalie. I heard Barney making his ever-so-happy dog noise so it had to be a close friend of his. And mine.'

Natalie did her best to assume a normal tone. ‘Is this a regular thing or is there some special reason you've chosen to come for a midnight swim?'

‘Two reasons, really.' He stepped out of the water and she handed him up his towel. ‘Thanks. First, I'm in pretty serious training for the Berlin Marathon at the end of September and, because of the rain, I hadn't had my daily swim.' She saw his face turn towards her. ‘That's the official reason. The other reason's that Hortense turned up a few hours ago and she's been driving me mad about the bloody car. It's her own fault it's soaked, not mine, but she's been going on and on about it, and I needed a break.'

Mention of Hortense's name came as an unpleasant surprise to Natalie. Presumably, if she was still there at this late hour, she would be staying the night, and there would be no prizes for guessing in whose bed she intended to spend it. In spite of what she had told her grandmother, Natalie felt a stab of jealousy. Nevertheless, she did her best to keep her voice level as she replied.

‘Isn't it dangerous swimming in the dark?'

‘It's amazing.' His voice was warm. ‘Really. I haven't been in the sea in the dark for a long, long time and I realise what it is I've been missing all these years. The water as you swim through it takes on a sort of phosphorescence and it's really, really beautiful. I rolled over onto my back and floated for a few minutes out there and the sky's like dark velvet with holes cut in it. I almost didn't want to come in.'

‘It's been pretty great just sitting here, looking up. I'll have to consider joining you if you ever do it again.'

‘It's a deal. And I'll definitely do it again.' He wrapped the towel around his shoulders. ‘You on your way home?'

‘Yes, I've just had a busy night at the restaurant.'

‘You're a very hard worker, you know. Did you work as hard as this for your PhD?' He squatted down on his heels, his back against a rock and scratched Barney's tummy. As he did so, his fingers touched hers and both of them whipped their hands away as if they had been scalded. Natalie did her best to answer his question.

‘Yes, I probably did. To be totally honest, I think I probably concentrated on my thesis to the exclusion of all else, and that included my fiancé.'

‘I'm sorry. I didn't know you were engaged. I note you're using the past tense. Does that mean it ended badly?'

She nodded even though it was dark. ‘Afraid so.' She didn't know what else to say and she would so dearly have liked to talk to him about his wife, but a satisfactory form of words just wouldn't come to mind. She was still trying to formulate a suitable way of moving on to the subject when Mark stood up again and the dog jumped to his feet as well. She followed suit.

‘Come on then. We'll walk up with you. All right with you, Barney?' The dog led the way and they set off up the path. Although less than twelve hours earlier it had been a muddy mess, it was now quite dry enough to walk on without slipping and sliding. As it was narrow, Natalie followed the dog, with Mark bringing up the rear. She sensed his eyes on her as she climbed, but she didn't mind. They didn't talk, but she didn't mind that either. It was a beautiful night and the woods were alive with fireflies and the smell of resin and wild flowers was really strong. She breathed in deeply and found herself smiling in spite of everything.