The thought was so alien, Maeve fell silent, feeling just a little misplaced and bewildered. Then she realised that Nonna, strolling very slowly with Leo simply forward of them, had stopped earlier than a tall, stately condominium block that she recognised without delay because the one from her mom’s outdated {photograph}.

Once more, she felt a sickening jolt of nerves and struggled to regulate them. Her chest tightened as she gazed up on the acquainted balconies and rows of shuttered home windows that she’d studied so typically…

‘Oh, I believe we’re right here,’ she whispered.

With a reassuring smile, Madame Rémy squeezed her shoulder after which rang the bell for House One, clearly the bottom flooring flat.

A crackling feminine voice spoke over the intercom, asking who it was. Maeve acquired the shivers simply listening…

Was that her grandmother?

‘C’est moi, mon amie,’ Leo’s grandmother instructed the disembodied voice, and a second later the door buzzed open.

Maeve adopted the others right into a excessive, echoing hallway with a steep flight of stairs and a big set of postal lockers to 1 facet. Its stone-tiled flooring gleamed from a current cleansing. The door to the bottom flooring condominium was to the left of the doorway, and as they approached, it was opened.

‘Bienvenue,’ a girl’s voice stated, low and guttural, however as Maeve stopped, anxious to see her grandmother for the primary time, she noticed a wheelchair within the doorway, a girl sitting in it, wrapped in a cardigan with a tortoiseshell cat curled up on her lap.

The lady had a shock of silvery hair, enormous blue eyes – virtually similar to Maeve’s – and pale, powdery cheeks. Her vibrant eyes looked for Maeve and glued eagerly on her face.

‘Ah, it’s you ultimately,’ she cried in hoarse English, ‘my granddaughter. Your title is Maeve, sure?’ She beckoned her contained in the condominium, hurriedly wheeling backwards. ‘Are available in, Maeve… Are available in, please… I’m delighted to fulfill you ultimately, ma petite.’

As Maeve hesitated within the hallway, now horribly nervous, her palms clasped tightly collectively, her pulse thundering in her ears, the others stood again, permitting her to enter first.

‘After you,’ Leo murmured when she didn’t transfer, gesturing her inside.

She couldn’t even look his means, too afraid to fulfill his eyes in case he was wanting sympathetic and it made her break down. Oh, what had made her dream this may be a good suggestion? Her father had all the time stated the French facet of the household was bother and finest left effectively alone.

She supposed it was far too late to run away.

And the place would she run to, anyway?

Maeve took a deep, unsteady breath, and adopted her grandmother into the elegant outdated condominium from the {photograph}.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The condominium was crowded with quaint outdated furnishings, shutters over the home windows that had been partially opened to let within the sunshine, work on virtually each accessible sq. inch of the wall, and each floor coated with dusty {photograph} frames, ornaments, bric-a-brac, vases full of wilting flowers. The room smelled musty, and he or she suspected a few of that got here from the brightly colored parrot, watching her from a cage beside the window. It squawked loudly and ruffled its feathers as all of them piled into the room which, she imagined, should ordinarily be fairly quiet.

Regardless of the crowding of the furnishings, it was clear that Maeve’s grandmother had a navigable route by way of the house, as she demonstrated by thrusting her chair furiously ahead, earlier than spinning it round so she might face her guests.

‘Please, sit down.’ She indicated the couch and some uncomfortable-looking chairs. ‘I made espresso. I’m certain it’s nonetheless heat. And there are muffins.’ She pointed to the low desk, and Madame Rémy, having seated her personal mom on an upright chair, started pouring espresso for all of them.

‘Come right here, lady, and kiss me.’ Agathe beckoned her ahead, turning her cheek for the anticipated kiss. Shyly, Maeve bent to kiss her. In the meantime, her grandmother made unusual smacking noises, as if to point a kiss of kinds had occurred on her half too. ‘I assumed you’d be older. However perhaps my reminiscence…’

‘Everybody underneath forty appears to be like like a child to me today,’ Madame Rémy stated, handing her outdated buddy a tiny cup of espresso on a dainty saucer. ‘Do you continue to take it black, Agathe? Or ought to I add a touch of milk?’ she requested in French.

‘Black, in fact,’ Agatha stated dismissively, her gaze nonetheless on Maeve’s face. ‘Expensive little one… I couldn’t consider it when Virginie rang to inform me who was staying together with her. However how is that this doable? How have you learnt the Rémy household?’ Her gaze narrowed sharply between Maeve’s sudden embarrassment and Leo’s exhausting profile. ‘Has younger Leo been portray you?’ She smiled when Maeve bit her lip, embarrassed. ‘After Virginie referred to as me, I admit, I made a couple of enquiries. No have to look so stunned. I’ve a pc. And a telephone. I’m not a technophobe. I noticed that picture of you and Leo at dinner. All very romantic, I assumed. However then right now I see one other story the place he denies it and says you might be solely a customer. So I ask myself, what’s the fact right here?’

Stunned by this query, Maeve discovered herself blinking and tongue-tied, grappling with the espresso cup that Madame Rémy had handed her. The espresso regarded robust sufficient to strip wallpaper. However there was at the least some milk in it. Possibly sufficient to fill a 3rd of a thimble.

‘Erm…I, um…’ Her gaze swivelled to Leo, who regarded abruptly away as if to say, ‘You’re by yourself, child.’ Fiercely, she caught her chin out and blurted out, ‘The Rémy household had been very variety, taking me in once I misplaced my bag and passport. I owe them an excellent deal. So when Leo requested if I might sit for a portray…’ She gulped and stopped, uncertain the place that sentence was going.

‘Our visitor shall be going again to England as quickly because the Embassy permits her to depart,’ Leo stated crisply. ‘There’s nothing between us, Madame. It was only a story my cousin Jean made up for the paparazzi so he might make some cash out of us.’

Agathe didn’t look satisfied, however she pulled thoughtfully on her decrease lip earlier than shrugging. ‘If there’s cash to be made, make sure somebody will all the time attempt to make it.’ She studied Maeve avidly. ‘I’m glad you’re right here now however it’s been a very long time. You had been a child final time I noticed you. Why have you ever by no means written?’

‘As a result of I didn’t know you even existed?’ Maeve felt just a little aggrieved at this accusation. She took a sip of her espresso to regular her. It was so robust, her eyes smarted and he or she was stunned she might even make coherent sounds afterwards. ‘After my mum left, I had no contact with anybody out of your facet of household. Not even Mum. I had the picture… Of this place, I imply. However I didn’t actually know if you happen to had been nonetheless residing right here. And even if you happen to had been truly my grandmother. Sure, the deal with was on the again of the {photograph}, however my father wasn’t certain if the girl within the {photograph} was my grandmother. I’m sorry, if I’d recognized that you just had been alive and nonetheless residing right here, in fact I might have written. However to be trustworthy,’ she completed in a sudden sizzling rush, ‘I assumed no person from my mom’s facet of the household was excited about me. In any case, you by no means wrote to me.’

She half anticipated her grandmother to look offended by this forthright speech. However Agathe merely gave a pointy burst of laughter. The cat, shocked by this, jumped off her lap and ran away, whereas the parrot squawked as if taking enjoyment in its departure. ‘Brava, my petite,’ she stated. ‘Fairly proper. I ought to have tried to contact you. I’m as a lot at fault as anybody on this enterprise. However my daughter… Your mom… She requested me by no means to contact you.’

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