‘A bit low, to be honest.’
‘But you’ve only just been awarded your doctorate. You should be up on a cloud right now.’ A note of concern entered her grandma’s voice. ‘You’re not ill, are you?’
‘No, I’m fine. It’s just...’ She hesitated, unwilling to launch into a post-mortem of the afternoon’s events on the telephone. ‘I’ll tell you all about it when I see you.’ She suddenly felt very weary. ‘Gran, I was wondering. Would there be room for me over there for a few weeks? I’ve really got to get away.’
‘Of course, my child.’ The fact that Natalie was now thirty made no difference to her grandmother. She would always think of her only granddaughter as about ten years old. ‘I’d love to see you. Come as soon as you like and stay as long as you like.’
Natalie thought fast. It was the middle of July now. She had finished all her commitments at the university and, particularly after the events of this afternoon, there was nothing and nobody to keep her in Cambridge. She didn’t hesitate. ‘I’ll come over as soon as possible, tomorrow if I can. I’ll get on the first flight I can find. I’m at the station waiting for a train at the moment. As soon as I get back home I’ll sort everything out, and I’ll call you this evening.’
‘That’s wonderful, as long as you’re sure. It’ll be so good to have you here again.’ Natalie could hear the pleasure in her grandma’s voice.
‘Of course I’m sure. Besides, I haven’t been down to Port Renard for ages now. I need to see if the beach has changed.’
‘The beach hasn’t changed, my dear. We have, but it hasn’t.’
Not only was there a flight from Stansted to Perpignan the next day, there was still a spare seat at a reasonable price. And, after checking, Natalie was relieved to see that she had enough left in her current account after buying the ticket to still be able to go down to the cash machine and take out enough money to last her for a few weeks while staying with her grandmother, without digging into her very modest savings account. Even better, when she pulled out her passport, she found eighty euros tucked inside it, left over from her last trip to France. Satisfied that everything was arranged, she rang her grandmother to tell her what time she would be arriving.
‘The flight gets in just before three. I’ll get the bus into the station at Perpignan and, if all goes well, I should be in Banyuls by five or so. When I get there I’ll take a taxi along to you.’
‘I’d come and pick you up if they’d let me, dear. I’ve still got the car, you know. But the doctors said I can’t drive any more. They say it’s because of these drugs they’re giving me, but I think it’s just because they know I’m ninety. It’s prejudice, you know.’
Natalie couldn’t help laughing at the outrage in her grandmother’s voice. ‘Don’t worry about it, Gran. I’ll be fine. I’m looking forward so very much to seeing you tomorrow night.’
‘Me, too, darling. Bon voyage.’
After ringing off, Natalie looked down at her phone. The thought occurred to her that she should maybe call David to tell him where she was going. It was almost eight o’clock and he might well be on his way home by now. One thing she knew for sure was that she didn’t want to see him. After a few seconds’ hesitation she decided not to call him and dropped the phone in favour of a pen and a sheet of paper. The message she wrote was brief and to the point.
David
I’m going over to France to stay with my grandmother in Port Renard.
Nat
I’ll come and pick up the rest of my stuff when I get back.
Next, she phoned her friend Amy to ask for a bed for the night. Although she tried her best to sound normal, her voice gave her away.
‘What is it, Nat? What’s happened?’
Natalie took a deep breath. ‘David and I have split up.’
‘Oh, dear.’ Amy sounded surprised, but not that surprised. Natalie reflected that she had been speaking to Amy more and more over the past few months about her reservations and doubts as to her future with David. ‘Split up as in engagement off, or just taking a break?’
‘I gave him his ring back and told him where he could stick his whole bloody family.’
‘I’ll take that as engagement off, then.’ There was a pause. ‘Well, in a way, it’s sort of what you’ve been building up to.’
‘I don’t know, Amy. I suppose so.’ Natalie hesitated, wondering whether that really was true. ‘Brace yourself. I rather think you know what we’re going to be talking about tonight.’
‘I’ll be here waiting.’
Natalie put the phone down and then collected enough clothes to last her for a few weeks, ensuring that she packed lightweight summer stuff, including sandals and her two bikinis, the elastic of one of which, she noticed, was beginning to go. She resolved to take a trip to the hypermarket in France to buy a new one as soon as she got over there. David’s mother, she reflected, had been pretty close to the mark in her barbed jibe about her clothes coming from the supermarket.
‘Well, we can’t all be bloody millionaires.’ She stuffed all her things into a bag, collected a few important books along with her laptop and left.
When she came back up from the beach, her hair already beginning to dry in the increasingly hot sunshine, she found her grandmother resting in a wicker chair on the terrace, sheltered from the sun by the canopy of vines overhead. Natalie hung her towel on the line and went over to kiss her on the cheek. ‘You’re up early.’
‘Not as early as you, Natalie.’
‘Feel like some coffee?’
‘Tea please, dear. The way your father used to drink it. With milk.’
Her grandmother had always been very fond of her English son-in-law and had even adopted some of his habits. Tea with milk was just one of them. Natalie went into the big old farmhouse kitchen and filled the kettle. Mention of her father reminded her of so many lovely times they had had here as a family while she was growing up. And he, she thought with a twinge of bitterness, still smarting from the things David and his mother had said, had made a successful career out of history. He had met her mother when she was a student at Montpellier University and he had been over for a year from England on an exchange. By the time of his death, not yet sixty, they had been married for thirty-five years and he had been a professor of history for twenty of them. So, Natalie reflected, as she took a tea bag out of the same old familiar tin, history was a damn sight more than a hobby, and David and his mother knew where they could stick it.
She made two mugs of tea and took them out onto the terrace. As she set them down on the table, she studied her grandmother’s face in the bright morning light. She was still as beautiful as ever and she had even put on some make-up in an attempt to hide the dark rings under her eyes. She was thinner than the last time Natalie had seen her, her hair now more white than grey and, of course, she was the last of Natalie’s family. And Natalie knew only too well that, when her gran died, she would be totally alone. It was a very scary thought. She sat down alongside her and reached over to take her hand.
‘How’re you feeling, Gran?’
‘I’m feeling fine, my dear.’ And, indeed, she looked bright and cheerful this glorious sunny morning. Her grandmother dropped her other hand down on top of Natalie’s. ‘These drugs are very good. To be honest, I almost feel I could walk down to the beach and go for a swim.’
‘Well, we could do that if you like.