‘To the winery in Bordeaux?’

He got here nearer, his darkish, intent gaze looking out her face. ‘It’s a marvellous place, Cave Rémy. I spent many glad holidays there as a boy. I’d such as you to see it.’

‘I ought to g-go house,’ she stammered.

‘Why?’

The direct query threw her, and she or he needed to cease and suppose. Which wasn’t straightforward. Proper now, any sort of rational thought felt like making an attempt to pressure a watermelon via a colander. All that got here out the opposite facet was mush.

‘As a result of…’ She halted, conflicted.

‘Since you ought to? Since you’re frightened what all this implies?’ He had taken away the cheerful yellow summer season costume she’d folded very badly and was shaking it out. His voice was calm as he organized its silky folds extra fastidiously, each one in all his actions sleek, nearly ritual. ‘I perceive that. So I’m asking you to take an opportunity, Maeve. An opportunity on me,’ he added softly, ‘and on no matter that is.’

By this, he should imply the unusual electrical energy within the small attic room, she determined, and tried to suppress the wobbly sensation inside that the mere sound of his voice appeared to have inflicted on her. And the concern that one in all her legs had inexplicably grown longer than the opposite. For in any other case, why would she be itemizing so oddly to at least one facet, her knees and various leg muscle groups and ligaments abruptly weak as limp spaghetti?

It was nerves, pure and easy. What else may it’s? She was nervous about travelling house ultimately. Nothing to do with Leo Rémy asking her to accompany him to his household winery in Bordeaux.

How ridiculous she was being.

He was nonetheless ready, his gaze regular on her face now.

Terror jolted via her.

And exhilaration.

Now it was her time to ask the troublesome query.

‘Why?’ she whispered, all her fears and uncertainties and shining hopes someway wrapped up in that one unpromising syllable.

Leo handed her the neatly folded costume. ‘As a result of I believe it might be a mistake to disregard what’s been occurring right here. For each of us.’ His smile was gradual and crammed her with warmth. ‘And since I believe you are feeling the identical.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

They took the TGV to Bordeaux – the ‘prepare à grande vitesse,’ as Sophie had defined helpfully whereas they had been ready to board – and it actually lived as much as its ‘excessive pace’ identify. Maeve sat rapt in a pleasant dream, watching the countryside flash previous in ever-darkening shades of inexperienced and gold the additional south they travelled. Quaint cities, hills and valleys, huge stretches of golden and verdant crops, all blurred into one recognizably French patchwork.

Leo sat beside her, mentioning landmarks and sharing amusing anecdotes or astute political remarks in regards to the panorama they had been passing via. ‘That was the city the place they needed to elect a donkey as Mayor,’ he commented at one level, nodding to a station identify that handed too shortly for her to catch. ‘Although, in my view, they already had one.’

His nieces Sophie and Marie had been nice firm too. She hadn’t seen a lot of the dual ladies throughout her keep at Château Rémy, because the bubbly youngsters had been out most days sightseeing with Madame Rémy. However she’d usually heard them chattering of their room within the evenings or watching French movies loudly. Now they sat reverse her and Leo on the journey, listening to music on their headphones or guffawing collectively over social media posts. Generally they took selfies or reels, posing outrageously for his or her associates and followers on numerous platforms.

They’d Membership Quatre seats with a desk, which allowed Maeve loads of area to jot down observations within the notepad she’d purchased on the station, utilizing the emergency money the financial institution had allowed her to withdraw. She was lacking her telephone and the laptop computer she used at house. However she’d been in a position to test her emails no less than on Leo’s laptop computer, reassured to see nothing too urgent in her Inbox.

Moreover, doing with out the web had proved pretty enjoyable to date. It was a digital detox she hadn’t meant to take, however one she was actively having fun with now she’d bought previous the stress of questioning what she is perhaps lacking.

They had been travelling top quality, which felt splendidly luxurious. The seats had been vast and cozy, with power-recline settings. She was shocked to find that there was no meals or drink provided with First Class tickets, though they did present a café-bar compartment. Fortunately, Madame Rémy had kindly supplied them with a picnic-style lunch, and so they ate this as a substitute, each ladies apparently preferring her home-cooking to ‘prepare meals’ anyway.

Whereas they ate and chatted, Maeve couldn’t assist noticing that Leo appeared fairly withdrawn, his smile perfunctory each time she glanced at him.

‘Are you okay?’ Maeve requested him after they’d completed consuming, cautious to maintain her voice down, though the ladies had been too busy discussing one thing they’d seen on social media to overhear their dialog. ‘Inform me to thoughts my very own enterprise, however you appear a bit unhappier at present than final evening.’ Meticulously, she started clearing away the remnants of their prepare picnic. ‘I believed the whole lot was sorted amicably together with your father.’

‘I doubt that something between me and my father will ever be sorted amicably,’ Leo admitted with a weary smile. ‘I’m sorry to be such poor firm. I’m simply frightened in regards to the exhibition, that’s all.’ He paused, gazing out on the sun-drenched countryside. ‘I’m afraid Liselle was proper to be offended with me.’

Having thrust the whole lot right into a paper bag prepared for disposal, Maeve used a couple of moist wipes to wash her sticky fingers. However her thoughts was ticking furiously. She felt immediately on the defensive, listening to that. Liselle is perhaps his supervisor, however what proper did she have to evaluate him?

‘No matter do you imply?’

‘By the point we get again from Bordeaux, the exhibition will nearly be upon us,’ he defined. ‘And I solely have three or 4 canvases that can be wherever close to completed by then.’

‘However you’ve introduced some portray gear with you,’ she identified. He had the truth is carried an easel on board the prepare, alongside along with his bag of paints and a portfolio case of clean canvases, prepared for portray. ‘Received’t you be working when you’re in Bordeaux?’

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