Sunday morning Jodie and Ben took Tess for a long walk down to the village and back via the lane that skirted the copse before setting off for Annette’s at midday.
Annette opened the front door to them smiling happily. A delicious aroma drifted towards them which made Ben sniff as he bent to embrace his mother.
‘That smells like cassoulet,’ he said. ‘What are we celebrating? You only ever make that on special occasions.’
‘Trust you to recognise it,’ Annette said, pausing before she added, ‘It’s one of Thierry’s favourite meals and we both felt a celebration was in order today.’
Ben glanced at his mother suspiciously but didn’t say anything. In the sitting room Thierry greeted Jodie with a cheek kiss before hesitantly turning to Ben and offering him his hand, which Ben shook as he muttered a polite ‘Ça va?’
‘So, what are we celebrating? Apart from your return from a wonderful holiday, of course,’ Jodie asked, seeing a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket and glasses on the small table near the window.
Watching Annette and Thierry moving closer together she suddenly guessed what was coming. Looking at Ben’s impassive face, she wondered if he did too. Uh-oh, this could be interesting – or plain disastrous. Jodie prayed inwardly that Ben would at the very least remember to be polite.
‘We have something to tell you,’ Annette said, looking nervously at Ben before holding out her hand and showing off a ring on her third finger. A ruby surrounded by diamonds.
‘Thierry asked me to marry him while we were in Venice. I said yes. I hope you’ll be happy for us,’ Annette said, looking defiantly at a silent Ben. It was left to Jodie to react after glancing at Ben apprehensively.
‘Wow. What a lovely ring. That’s brilliant news. Congratulations to you both. Isn’t that wonderful news, Ben?’
Ben recovered himself at her words and Jodie was thankful to see him remember his manners. Putting his glass down on the table he gave Annette a hard hug. ‘Be happy, Mama.’
He turned to Thierry and held his hand out. ‘Congratulations. My Mama is a very special person.’
‘I know that, Ben,’ Thierry answered quietly. ‘And I love her very much.’
‘Here’s to the two of you. We wish you every happiness,’ Jodie said, raising her glass in a toast.
There was a short silence after they’d all taken a sip of their drinks before Annette said, ‘I need to check on things in the kitchen.’
‘I’ll come and give you a hand,’ Ben said, and before Annette could protest, he’d followed her out of the sitting room and closed the door behind him.
Unconsciously Jodie let out a deep breath – at the same time as a sort of smothered groan came from Thierry.
‘You waiting for the fireworks too?’ he said wryly, looking at her.
Jodie shook her head haplessly.
‘Oh, Thierry, it’s just that he’s so protective of his mother. Don’t worry, give him time and I know he’ll come round. I’m working on him too.’
‘I hope he does come round,’ Thierry said quietly. ‘Because his attitude makes Annette unhappy and I don’t want to be the root cause of that.’ He tilted his head in the direction of the kitchen.
‘Very quiet out there.’
Together they listened. No raised voices. Nothing.
‘I guess Ben closed the kitchen door as well,’ Jodie said. ‘Would you like to show me some of the Venice photographs while we wait for them to finish talking?’
‘Good idea,’ Thierry said. ‘I’ve downloaded them from my phone to my laptop. Easier to see on there.’
They both jumped ten minutes later when the sitting room door opened and a quiet Ben appeared.
‘Come on through. Lunch is ready.’
To Jodie’s relief, tensions between the four of them dispersed as lunch progressed and she enjoyed her meal. Whatever had been said in the kitchen had obviously worked as Ben, although quiet, was clearly making a real effort to accept things.
After lunch, as Annette poured coffee, Thierry asked how Ben’s latest book was coming along, a subject Ben was, as usual, reluctant to discuss.
‘I don’t usually talk about my work in progress,’ he said. ‘I’m having to do a lot of background research for this one, which is slowing things up,’ he said. ‘I know nothing about space technology, which one of my characters is involved with.’
‘I know a lot about it,’ Thierry said quietly. ‘It was my speciality when I worked in Toulouse. I was seconded to NASA for some time. I’d be glad to help if I can.’
Ben looked at him. ‘Really? I knew you worked down there in the aeroplane industry but I didn’t realise it was on that side of things. I might just have to take you up on that offer. Thank you.’
Jodie smiled conspiratorially at Annette and she winked back. Maybe things between their men would now start to move in the right direction.
Half an hour later, Jodie and Ben said their goodbyes and set off for home. As Ben turned off the driveway onto the road, Jodie said, ‘Any chance we could go home via the new house? I just want to look at it again and dream of when we move in.’
Ben laughed. ‘Of course we can go that way.’
‘Good. And while we’re driving you can tell me what Annette said to you out in the kitchen.’
‘Basically she told me off in the way only mothers can! Said she’d had enough of my totally unjustified attitude towards Thierry and I could stop it as of today. She also told me something she should have told me years ago which changes things.’
Jodie looked at him, wondering if Annette had finally told him about André. ‘Are you going to tell me what she told you?’
Ben shook his head. ‘I’ll tell you another day. I’m still having to come to terms with it.’
Jodie almost asked if it was something about his father but decided that would probably be betraying Annette’s confidence, so stayed silent.
‘I’m sure if she thought she’d have got away with it, she’d have sat me on the naughty step.’ Ben laughed before adding seriously, ‘But she reiterated more or less what you’d said to me the other day. It’s her life, she’s happy and I can get used to it because she’s not giving Thierry up!’
Seeing a car approaching the horseshoe bend in front of them on the road leading to the new house, Ben pulled over and waited for the small silver vehicle to negotiate the hairpin turn before starting to drive carefully around it himself. The driver gave them a ‘thank you’ wave as he passed.
‘Thierry does make her happy,’ Jodie said, once they were moving along the narrow country road again. ‘And that’s all you should be worried about really.’ She smiled as Ben drew up in front of the house.
‘Oh, I can’t wait to move here. So much to do though, before. Do you think Herve would let us have a key next week so I could come and do some measuring up for curtains and things?’
‘Don’t see why not,’ Ben said. ‘Do you want me to come with you?’
‘Would you? The windows are quite high so it would be easier for you.’
‘Right now, we’d better get back for Tess,’ Ben said, starting the car and turning it around.
A few minutes later, as they drove along the final stretch of road leading to the cottage, they caught a glimpse of the same silver car they’d seen earlier as it turned onto the road and disappeared off into the distance.
‘He was too far away for me to see properly but I’m sure he just came out of our drive,’ Jodie said.
Ben didn’t answer but as they parked in front of the cottage they could hear Tess barking.
Ben unlocked the front door and pushed it open before bending down to pick something up off the doormat.
‘It’s addressed to you,’ he said, handing a sealed white envelope to Jodie.
Standing there, looking at the envelope marked ‘Private and Confidential’ and addressed to ‘Mrs Jodie Delahaye née Saville’, Jodie searched for clues as to whom it might be from.
Her name and everything were written in the English way, with Mrs as opposed to Madame and her first name before her surname, so it wasn’t from a French person. Further, there was no stamp so it had clearly been hand-delivered.
‘D’you think the man in the silver car has anything to do with this?’ she said, a sense of foreboding filling her mind.
Ben shrugged. ‘No idea. Maybe if you open it you’ll find out.’
Jodie held the envelope out. ‘Will you open it for me, please? I don’t know why, but I have a horrid feeling I’m not going to like the contents.’
Silently and carefully Ben opened the envelope and drew out a piece of paper. Jodie watched him anxiously as he read.
‘What is it? Some sort of anonymous letter?’
Ben shook his head. ‘No, it’s not anonymous. It’s signed by somebody called Travis Saville. He wants to meet you because…’ Ben looked up at her. ‘He says he’s your brother.’
Jodie let out a deep breath. ‘Not anonymous then but definitely a hoax,’ she said. ‘There is no way I have a brother. Throw it away.’
‘There’s a mobile number for you to ring,’ Ben said.
‘I’m not ringing him,’ Jodie said, surprised.
‘Don’t you want to find out why he is saying he’s your brother?’
Jodie shook her head vehemently. ‘Not interested. He’s probably some nutter who goes around making up lies and trying to con people.’
‘If he is a nutter, we should report him to the gendarmes,’ Ben said. ‘But we can’t do that in case he’s genuine.’
Jodie stared at him. ‘Ben, there is no way I have a brother. He must have an unknown sister somewhere with the same name as me and it’s a case of mistaken identity because I am most definitely not his sister.’
‘I still think you should ring him,’ Ben said.
Jodie sighed and pulled out her mobile phone. ‘What’s the number?’
The number rang briefly before a man’s voice said, ‘Hi.’
‘Travis Saville? This is Jodie Delahaye. I don’t know whether it’s a simple case of mistaken identity or some sort of con you’re trying to pull off here, but there is absolutely no way we can be related. I wish you the best of luck in searching for your relative.’ Jodie pressed the off button and turned to Ben.
‘There, satisfied?’
Ben shrugged. ‘If you are. I do wonder, though, what made him think you and he were related.’
‘I’m sure your writer’s imagination could come up with a theory on that – one that would have no more truth in it than the one Travis Saville has dreamt up,’ Jodie said. ‘I’m going to have a coffee – do you want one?’
‘Please.’
Waiting for the coffee machine to do its stuff, Jodie fought back the tears. It was stupid to let what was obviously a cruel hoax upset her so much but she couldn’t help herself. It brought back all her childhood feelings, when she’d longed for either her dead father to miraculously turn up, or for Jacqueline to meet someone new and give her a brother or sister, turning them into a proper family.
One of the few times she could remember Jacqueline being extremely cross with her was the day before her eighth birthday when a well-meaning neighbour had asked her what present she was hoping for. Without stopping to think she’d said, ‘A new daddy.’ A tight-lipped Jacqueline had told her in no uncertain terms she could forget that idea. It was never going to happen. Which had been the truth.
And now this thoughtless idiot, Travis Saville, whoever he was, had invaded her life, bringing all her childish insecurities back into her mind. If she’d thought for one moment there was any actual possibility of him being her brother, she’d… well, she’d certainly meet him and see what he had to say. But as there wasn’t the remotest chance of that being the case, she had no intention of meeting him and encouraging his lies.