Despite knowing his claim about being her brother was a lie, the message from Travis Saville unsettled Jodie far more than she admitted to Ben.
During the day there was no time to think about him with agency stuff to deal with for Tina, writing up the press releases Nicola wanted, walking Tess, starting to pack up for the move, her French homework for Madame Colbert and meals to shop for and cook. Busy didn’t even begin to describe her life. Ben was busy too and they struggled to spend more than an hour or two together in the evenings before going to bed.
But as tired as she was, sleep evaded her most nights and she lay tossing and turning, this unknown Travis Saville invading her thoughts. If he’d claimed to be a distant cousin there was every chance she’d have agreed to see him just in case it was true and she did have some unknown relatives out there in the world. But a brother?
Different scenarios kept presenting themselves to her sleep-deprived mind, usually at around three o’clock in the morning. Unlikely as it seemed, could her mother have had an illegitimate baby, given him away and never ever spoken of it? Jodie pushed that thought away almost immediately. There was no way Jacqueline would have had a baby before she was married. Besides, even if she had, he wouldn’t be called Saville, would he? Which left her father. Had he had a son before he and her mother even met? Possible, of course, but Jacqueline had told her so many times that she and her father had been childhood sweethearts – met at fifteen, married at nineteen. Could he have got some girl into trouble before marrying her mother? Jodie dismissed that idea too. The whole idea was ludicrous.
But then, one night as she lay listening to the owls hooting down in the woods, an idea she couldn’t dismiss occurred to her. Was it possible her mother had become pregnant by her father before they were married and their parents had forced them to give the baby up for adoption? The idea took root and refused to stay in the shadows as daylight arrived. Not that she gave any credence to it, of course.
‘You look a bit frazzled,’ Nicola said the afternoon Jodie rushed into The Taste of the Countryside with a folder full of press releases ready for envelopes.
‘Honestly, I can’t believe I was so worried about living a quiet life just a couple of months ago,’ Jodie said. ‘I’ve just realised too that it’s Ben’s birthday soon and I’ve done nothing about it.’
She put the folder down on the counter. ‘Are you OK to print out the labels for the envelopes? I can’t stop now, I’ve got to get home and do some more packing, but I’ll come back down tomorrow or the day after and help you stuff the envelopes.’
A leaflet on the noticeboard advertising a sale of furniture caught Jodie’s eye as she turned to leave. ‘Is this local? We’re going to have to buy more furniture for the new house. Is it worth going to, d’you think?’
‘It’s in the old chateau about forty kilometres away,’ Nicola said. ‘They hold a couple of auctions every year. Usually a mix of antique and modern stuff. Gilles and I have bought stuff from there in the past.’
‘I’ll have to see if I can persuade Ben to take me,’ Jodie said.
But when Jodie mentioned the sale over supper that evening, Ben shook his head.
‘Sorry, but no. It can easily turn into an all-day thing and I can’t spare the time for something that could turn out to be a complete waste of time.’
Jodie sighed. ‘I don’t really have time either but we do need things for the new house.’
‘Ask Mum to go with you. She loves things like that.’
‘But if I buy something large, Brigitte is too small to bring it home in. Your 4 x 4 would be better.’
‘You could always take it instead of your car. If not, the auctioneers usually offer a delivery service,’ Ben said.
When Jodie rang her, Annette didn’t hesitate to say yes to accompanying her to the auction.
‘We’ll make a day of it. There’s something I want to ask you.’
‘Not sure I can spare a whole day,’ Jodie said, sighing. ‘And why not ask me whatever it is now?’
‘No, it will keep,’ Annette said decisively. ‘I’ll drive so I’ll pick you up on Thursday at nine o’clock. We can take our time and then have a coffee at the chateau before looking around. If there’s nothing there that grabs your attention we can always come home early. The actual auction won’t start until after lunch.’
Jodie had barely put her phone down on the kitchen table after talking to Annette when it rang.
‘Tina. How’s things?
‘Thought I’d keep you up-to-date with agency news. I’ve signed two more writers today, one a debut author and the other with a couple of self-published books.’
‘Sounds promising,’ Jodie said. ‘And Luc? How’s things with him?’
‘He’s doing the edits I suggested. Once they’re back and the manuscript is sorted, I’ll start approaching publishers. Wish me luck. Not that we’re going to need it – I just know this book is going to be huge.’
‘Is he still a lovely person?’ Jodie couldn’t resist teasing.
‘Yes, and so talented.’ And with that Tina changed the subject to talking about the website updates she wanted Jodie to organise.
Even as she made notes about the changes, Jodie was wondering about the way Tina had previously insisted her relationship with Luc was purely professional and now she’d barely mentioned him in passing. It was almost as if Tina didn’t want to talk about him – either personally or professionally. A restrained Tina wasn’t normal.
Did she like him more than she was telling Jodie? Normally she jumped with both feet into something – spontaneous and impulsive were the words that sprang to mind when talking about Tina and her relationships. There had been times in the past when her private life had been chaotic – her professional life, on the other hand, had always been just that. Professional.
Was this Luc going to turn out to be a special person in Tina’s life? Tina was being so circumspect in terms of what she said about him that Jodie couldn’t help wondering how Tina truly felt about Luc. And what she wasn’t telling her.