Chapter Nineteen

It was a long night watching the vineyards burn at Château Joy but the firefighters managed to confine the blaze to one section. Some small outbuildings and sheds were destroyed, along with the cottage and the horse barn. The wind shifted and the flames never made it down the hill to the winery. And by some miracle, the château had been spared. One side had been blackened by smoke, but it could be cleaned and nothing had been burned or damaged. It had been a shocking night for all of them, especially Camille, who knew how it had happened, who had done it, and why. That was the most upsetting piece of all. Maxine and both her sons were being held on arson and two counts of attempted murder in the first degree, premeditated murder. And it could so easily have gone so very wrong, and Camille and Simone would have been dead then.

Elizabeth and Sam left two hours after they’d arrived, the situation appeared to be in control by then. Phillip stayed until five in the morning when Camille and Simone were allowed to take refuge in the château, and Camille made Simone lie down in Maxine’s room. She had been through too much that night. And Choupette was whimpering and coughing from the smoke and laid down on the bed next to Simone.

Camille sat in the kitchen alone after that, thinking about what had happened. The firemen had stayed to continue hosing down the vineyards in case the wind changed again, and to make sure the last embers were out.

Phillip stayed for a few minutes, and then left after telling Camille to get some rest, and promising to return in a few hours. There was too much to talk about and they were both too tired and shocked by the realization that Alexandre and Gabriel had tried to kill her, and she had almost lost the château and winery. And Simone had nearly died too.

Despite the fire the night before, and only two hours’ sleep, Phillip made time to talk to his father in the morning about the result of the investigation in France. In light of what had happened, nothing his father told him was surprising. Maxine was a dangerous, evil woman, and Phillip was sure that she had wished Camille would die mysteriously, so she’d inherit everything, and her sons had taken her literally and tried to achieve it clumsily, but almost effectively. It had been bumbling and crude, and the plan, whoever’s idea it was, had backfired on them. They were all going to prison for a very long time. Maxine’s tenure at Château Joy was over, and she and her sons were gone. Finally. And they could never harm or torment Camille again.

Phillip and Sam talked for a long time about what had happened, and how foolish and naive Christophe had been, and too good-hearted. It could have all turned out so much worse than it did. But what had happened was bad enough, and terrifying. If the winds had been different, Camille could easily have been killed or lost everything.

After breakfast, Phillip was going back to the château to see what he could do to help Camille. They would have much cleaning up to do and eventually replanting of the burned section of vineyard.

He stopped in the garden first, and retrieved her shoes of the night before from under the bench. He stood looking at them for a long minute, and remembered them playing in the garden as children, and then shoved the shoes in his jacket pockets, and went back to Château Joy.

He found Camille making scrambled eggs in the kitchen, and Simone sitting at the table looking slightly dazed, and Choupette running around the kitchen barking. He walked in and Camille smiled at him.

“Have you had breakfast?” she offered, as she set the eggs down in front of Simone, who seemed to have a healthy appetite, despite their adventures of the night before. She’d been lamenting her chickens before Phillip arrived, and Camille had promised to buy more.

“I just had breakfast with my father,” Phillip said seriously. He wanted to share with her what his father had told him about Maxine and her sons, but not just yet, she had a lot to digest as it was. And then he remembered the shoes in his pocket and handed them to her. “I believe these are yours, Cinderella,” he said with a low bow, and she smiled, remembering sitting in the garden with him the night before.

“Actually, they’re Simone’s,” she said as she took them from his hands, and handed them to their rightful owner, who smiled when she saw them.

“In that case,” Phillip said to Simone, “you must be my fairy princess, and I’m your Prince Charming,” he said and all three of them laughed.

“You might be a touch young for me. Do you have a grandfather?” she asked him innocently.

“Actually, I don’t,” he said apologetically, and she rolled her eyes, looking very French, and lit a cigarette as soon as she finished her eggs and then turned to Camille.

“Thank heavens you wore the shoes last night or I’d have lost them in the fire. I’ve saved those shoes for seventy years,” she said nostalgically. Everything she’d had in the cottage had been damaged by smoke, water, or fire, but at least she and Choupette were alive. And everything Camille had at the horse barn was ash, but she hadn’t taken anything of value there, except photos of her parents, and her father’s favorite jacket was still there. But given the possibilities, they had lost very little. Simone had spent the night, thinking of her grandsons, and the unthinkable act they had committed, and her daughter, who had spawned it. Camille had called the insurance company that morning, and they were coming up during the week. They had good insurance, but it was upsetting anyway, particularly since it was arson, and a fire set by people they knew, who wished them ill, wanted Camille dead, and were willing to sacrifice Simone too.

Camille had inspected their rooms in the château that morning, and all she wanted to do was get rid of every shred of evidence of Maxine and her sons. She wanted to throw it all away, and erase them from her life forever.

Simone was looking sad as she sipped her coffee and smoked her cigarette, and Camille felt sorry for her. Her only child and two grandsons had turned out to be criminals and tried to kill her. Camille knew it must have been an awful feeling for her, even if it was no surprise to her that they were evil, but to a much greater degree than even she feared.

But her sadness was for a different reason, she explained to Camille when Phillip went outside to look around and survey the damage.

“I’m going to have to leave you now,” Simone said with tears in her eyes. “I feel so terrible about what Maxine and the boys did. I can never make it up to you, Camille. Your father was a good person, you didn’t deserve any of this. And I have no reason to be here now. My horrible family won’t be living here, and I’m happy for you. And every time you see me, it would remind you of Maxine. I can’t do that to you. I’ll go back to France as soon as I can get organized. I have a little pension there, I’ll get a room in someone’s house in the country. I don’t want to go back to Paris.”

“I don’t want you to leave,” Camille said to her, with tears in her eyes. “You’re my fairy grandmother. You’re the only family I have.” Camille looked sad as she said it, and Simone was deeply touched.

“You’re the only family I want,” Simone said, “except for Choupette of course. She’s my family too.” The little dog wagged her tail as though she agreed. She was filthy from the smoke and falling ash the night before, and Simone had said she wanted to give her a bath in the sink.

They both knew they were going to have to give statements to the police about Maxine and the boys. And if there was a trial, they’d have to testify, but Phillip thought they would plead guilty and make some kind of deal. It was going to be a great step down for Maxine to go to prison in the United States. This wasn’t what she’d planned or the way she expected it to turn out.

“Where would I live if I stay here?” Simone said, thinking about it. “I don’t want to intrude on you at the château.”

“You’re not intruding. I want you here, Simone. Besides, who will make cassoulet and blood sausage for me, and rognons?”

“You have a point.” She smiled. They had grown so fond of each other, both of them taking refuge from Maxine.

“We can redo some of the rooms upstairs.” There were plenty of attic rooms, storerooms, and rooms that no one ever used and could be turned into bedrooms, and a suite for Simone. “We can remodel the top floor and give you a lovely bedroom and sitting room,” Camille said to her.

“And a kitchen?” Her eyes lit up at that.

“If that’s what you want,” Camille said quietly. She wanted Simone to stay, whatever it took. They had come to love each other, and had survived hardship together and near-death.

“I just don’t want to get in your way.”

“I’d be lonely here without you.” They’d been having dinner together every night for nearly a year.

They were still talking about it when Phillip came back from walking through the fields and vineyards. Francois, the vineyard manager, had come in, and several of the workers to help them clean up. And Camille couldn’t wait to start getting rid of Maxine’s things. She was going to send anything valuable to storage and throw the rest away. She felt as though her home had been poisoned by her, and she had cast an evil spell on it, and Camille wanted every last shred of her cleared away now. The spider was gone and her web had been removed. She was going to move into her parents’ room and give Simone the guest room until Camille had a suite for her built upstairs.

“Do you want to go for a walk with me?” Phillip asked her when he came back. He had left his boots outside, covered with mud and ash, and Camille put on her own heavy rubber boots to walk through the vineyards with him. She had found an old pair of her jeans in a closet in her room and a work shirt of her father’s and had put them with her old rubber boots from a tool shed at the château. She had lost most of her clothes when the little barn burned down. And so had Simone in the cottage. It seemed unimportant compared to their lives.

When they went outside, the acrid smell of smoke was still heavy in the air. Firemen were still hosing down some areas, and there were police inspectors checking around the house and putting soil samples in plastic bags where the gasoline had been as evidence. And they were taking photographs of the scene. There was yellow police crime-scene tape cordoning off certain areas. It was a crime scene now. Camille had gotten a desperate text from Maxine when they first got to jail, asking her to find them attorneys immediately. As far as Camille was concerned, she could use her own money and connections to get what she needed. The countess was out of her life. And they’d have to use the public defender if they were out of money.

“I’m so sorry this happened,” Phillip said sympathetically as they walked. They stopped and looked at the remains of the drafty little horse barn. There was nothing left. Camille was going to come out later with a rake and a shovel, and see if she found anything sentimental she had forgotten. And Simone wanted to do the same in the cottage, and Camille had promised to help her. She was relieved that she was staying. Camille didn’t want to lose her now.

“It was nice last night,” Camille said quietly about the ball, “until the fire. I had a good time at the party.”

“I loved being in the garden with you. I haven’t been in there in years. I remember when you used to love swinging there. I sat there thinking for a while, when I went back to get your shoes this morning…or, sorry…Simone’s shoes.” He smiled at Camille and she laughed. The notion of Simone as Cinderella was sweet. “I realized something there today. Maybe I’m not so different from your father. He was fooled by all that dazzle and sophistication, all that slick artifice that Maxine wooed him with. I’ve been doing the same thing with every woman I’ve dated since I got out of college. I had the right idea with Francesca, just the wrong woman. She would have driven me insane.

“I think our parents had it right the first time. They didn’t want flashy or fancy. They wanted to build something together. You and I didn’t grow up with all that showy crap people fall for. They were hard workers, so are we. They had real marriages and were real people. Your father may have been a bit of a dreamer, but he was a straight shooter, so is mine. Your dad turned his dreams into something real. Look at all this, look at what he built for you, the legacy he left you. My father has done the same thing, it just grew bigger than he expected. But none of us are caught up in the pretense or the show.”

“Does this mean you’re turning in your Ferrari for an SUV?” she teased him.

“Immediately. What it means is that I finally figured out what I want. I don’t want a showpiece or a trophy. I want a real person, and I want to be real with them. That’s the fairytale for me.” He was ready for a real life now, and he knew it. He hadn’t been until then. The night before and everything Camille had been through had woken him up. His father would have been proud of him to hear his words. Sam always knew he’d get there, he just didn’t know when.

“It’s funny,” Camille answered him. “I always thought my parents had a fairytale life, and that’s what I wanted too when I grew up. Just what they had. And then everything went wrong. Mom got sick, and died. My father went down on that plane. They’re freak things, but they happen to people. I don’t think I’ve trusted that good things are going to happen since my Mom died. And Maxine was like having poison pumped into our life. No matter how charming she acted at first, I knew she was fake and she hated me. Papa never believed it. He didn’t want to see it. I could feel it. And who do you trust after this? How do you believe in happy endings if the handsome prince and the fairy princess die in the end?” She was thinking of her parents.

“You don’t know how it ends,” he said gently, as they sat down on a bench overlooking the Valley. Her vineyards stretched for miles, and farther up the Valley, so did his. They were a prince and princess in the tiny kingdom where they lived and had grown up. “But you have to believe in something. Yourself first of all. Each other. And if you’re lucky, the prince and princess live to be very old. Our mothers died young, and so did your father. That doesn’t always happen. Look at Simone. She’s chugging along at full speed, even with those disgusting cigarettes hanging out of her mouth. She’ll probably live to be a hundred.” Camille smiled, thinking about it. She liked that idea. She wanted her fairy grandmother to live forever. She needed her. She was magic in a way, and had been for her. And Simone needed her too as compensation for her family.

“I want that to happen to us, to live to be very old together,” Phillip said to her, looking her in the eye. She made him brave. And he wanted to protect her. She was a very courageous woman. She had been through a lot and hadn’t let it ruin or damage her. She was as pure and sweet and honest and open as she had been when they were children. No amount of bad luck or heartache had spoiled her. And it made him feel like a better person being with her. She made his life bigger and better, instead of smaller and worse, which was what his father had always told him to look for. Phillip knew he had found it in Camille. It had always been there. He just didn’t know it, until now. “I love you, Camille,” he said in the earnest voice she remembered from her childhood. She had trusted him then, and she still did. That had never changed. “I’m sorry it took me so long to figure it out. I don’t know what I’ve been waiting for. I should have known years ago how much I love you.”

“I wasn’t ready for you yet then anyway.” She had only figured out the important things herself recently, about what she wanted, who she needed, who she respected and who she didn’t. “So you turn out to be the handsome prince after all.” She smiled and he kissed her, and they sat on the bench for a long time, looking out over the Valley they both loved, where they had both been born.

“It really is like a fairytale, isn’t it?” she said softly, smiling, with his arm around her. “The wicked witch is gone. The handsome prince turns out to be you.”

“And I get the fairy princess…even if Simone owns the glass slippers.” They both laughed at what he said, and walked slowly down the hill hand in hand. They were in no hurry. They would replant the vineyards together, and repair whatever had been damaged. The fairytale had just begun. And without saying it, they both knew they would be a happily ever after. All they had to do was build it together. In the magical valley they loved and where they had grown up, their time had come. And best of all, it was real.