Free The French for Always by Fiona Valpy Page B

friends. It’ll be about as close as you can get to a wedding without it actually being one. Then it’s drinks, dinner, dancing, as usual.
    ‘Antoine, could you go and collect the champagne this morning?’ she continued. ‘They’ve ordered the very best, Louis Roederer Crystal, 2004. And vast quantities as well. Matthew Humphreys is an up-and-coming fashion designer and he evidently has an eye for perfection. Everything about this party is going to be stunning. Right, everyone happy with their shifts for the weekend? Then let’s get to work.’
    As Karen and Sara stripped beds, bundling the linens into big canvas laundry bags, Karen asked nonchalantly, ‘So, Sara, what did you get up to on your day off yesterday?’
    Sara smiled, remembering. She kept her voice deliberately casual. ‘Oh, nothing much. You know. The usual.’
    Karen nodded. ‘The usual. Hmm. That’s very interesting because my husband saw you and Thomas Cortini turning in at the old mill when he was on his way home for lunch. So if that’s the “usual” then I think there’s something you need to tell me.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s always the quiet ones... And as they say, still waters really do run deep.’
    ‘Oh, my God! Can’t a girl get away with anything around here?’
    ‘Nope. If you so much as sneeze, people will be calling round with their own special cold remedies and a pot of chicken soup. Especially an Anglaise who’s been recently abandoned in her hilltop château, which happens to be one of the most prominent landmarks around these parts. You are currently the source of much local entertainment and speculation in Coulliac. Of course, it’s lucky for you that I am the soul of discretion and loyalty and would never divulge to the gossips a word of what really goes on up here.’
    ‘Well, unfortunately for me, very little does go on up here.’ Sara peeled off a pillowcase and plumped the pillow emphatically, adding it to the pile of bedding airing on a chair before the open windows.
    Karen raised an eyebrow, pressing her lips together tightly.
    ‘What’s that look for?’ demanded Sara.
    ‘I’m saying nothing. Like I said, I’m the soul of discretion, me...’
    Sara looked at her suspiciously, thinking. ‘Well it’s not me. And the only other person up here is Antoine.’
    Karen pressed her lips together even harder, suppressing a smile.
    ‘You don’t mean...? But who...?’
    ‘All I’m saying is you’re not the only one to have romantic assignations with members of the opposite sex.’
    Just then, Héloise popped her head round the bedroom door. ‘Sara, is it okay if I accompany Antoine to the wine merchant’s to help him carry the champagne? I’ve finished stripping the beds in the three end rooms and the laundry van will only be here with the clean linen in an hour.’
    ‘Yes, of course, Héloise. That’s fine.’ Sara kept a straight face until Héloise’s footsteps had clattered safely down the stairs and then she and Karen burst out laughing.
    ‘My goodness,’ said Sara, weakly, ‘it must be all this exposure to weddings. Love certainly is in the air.’
    ‘I’ll take that as a confession then,’ grinned Karen.
    ‘I was talking about Antoine and Héloise... Oh! You are impossible!’ Sara flung the other pillow at Karen.
    ‘Methinks the lady doth protest too much. All I’m saying.’
    Just then, Thomas popped his head round the doorway. ‘Can you come and help me choose the Scottish music, Sara?’ He grinned. ‘I have found something called a Highland Fling !’
    He turned to go, and Karen pulled a feather duster from her bucket of cleaning things and brandished it triumphantly at Sara, as though it were her magic wand. ‘Just you keep on kissing those frogs, Sara! Sooner or later one of them’s going to turn into a prince, mark my words.’
----
    ‘ H ello ? Is there anybody there?’
    Sara jumped. She hadn’t been expecting anyone for at least another hour.
    ‘Oh, I’m sorry. Did