‘I might take you up on that some time. It gets pretty busy here at this time of year.’ Alain glanced at Dominique. ‘Dominique, you could stay and chat for a moment, though. Laure can come and help me for now, so if you keep an eye on the terrace, I won’t need you in the kitchen for another few minutes. Find out how long Natalie’s staying so we can meet at a quieter time and catch up.’
He waved and returned inside while Dominique pulled up a chair and sat down opposite Natalie. ‘I remember you very well, you know. You’re so beautiful and I was convinced Alain was your old boyfriend and he was going to dump me for you.’ She was a cheerful-looking girl, her build the opposite of Alain’s. She was short, and so slim she looked like a little bird.
Natalie smiled back at her. ‘I always liked Alain, but you didn’t need to worry on my account. We used to play on the beach when he was ever so little. He was like a little brown eel, always in the water. I still think of him like that and I always will; sort of like the little brother I never had. You maybe didn’t hear, but when he came out and said hello a few minutes ago, my first reaction was to call him Little Alain.’ They both laughed and Natalie realised she rather liked Dominique.
‘So, how long are you staying?’
‘I don’t really know. It depends how long my grandmother will have me.’ Natalie went on to tell Dominique that she had just finished her doctorate and was taking a well-deserved time out, while looking for a job. ‘So it all depends, but I would think I’ll be here for a good while.’
‘Colette must be delighted to have you here. I bet she’s glad of the company. She and your grandfather often used to come down for a drink when we first opened the bar. But, since his death we haven’t seen much of her.’ She looked across the table and caught Natalie’s eye. ‘We were all so terribly sorry to hear about your parents. It was a car crash, wasn’t it?’
Natalie nodded. ‘Almost five years ago now.’ She did her best to summon a more positive tone. ‘So, how’s business?’
‘At this time of year, it’s amazing. We’re full most nights and lunchtimes are getting busier and busier. Alain will tell you all about it. Laure’s been working with us full-time since Easter and we still need more hands at times. Why don’t you come down for a chat tomorrow either early in the morning or around mid-afternoon? Those are the quietest times of day for us. He’d love to talk to you.’
Natalie arranged to call in for a coffee the following day after her early morning swim, delighted to have found them again. Their company reminded her of happier times.
Life at Port Renard soon settled into a regular pattern. Natalie got up early every morning and went for a swim. Then she came back up to the house and kept her grandmother company throughout the day, driving down to the village to buy fresh bread, helping her prepare lunch, enjoying speaking French again and rekindling the deep affection she had always had for her. Gradually the hurt and the sense of loneliness began to diminish in the company of old friends, her grandmother, and in these familiar surroundings. In the afternoon, Colette retired to her bed while Natalie scanned the internet for possible jobs in the UK or in France, but without success. All she found in those first weeks was a university in Canada looking for a medieval specialist. The advert said fluency in English and French would be an advantage so, after a moment’s hesitation, she sent off an application along with her CV. The idea of moving halfway across the globe didn’t really appeal very much, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. As the days went by, she started doing some of the cooking and Colette expressed delight at tasting such British dishes as shepherd’s pie and toad-in-the-hole, even though the hot, sultry conditions were more suited to salads.
The day after meeting Alain and Dominique again, Natalie had gone back down to the beach in the early morning and, after her swim, stopped off in their restaurant for a drink on the terrace. From then on this became a regular event, either first thing in the morning or in the late afternoon when Jeanne, the carer, was at Colette’s house and Natalie came down to swim and sunbathe.
She enjoyed chatting to them, and to the young waitress, Laure, getting all the local news and telling them all about herself. Alain hadn’t been exaggerating when he said they were getting very busy and, as the end of July approached and the start of the traditional French exodus from the big cities to the beach for the month of August began, Natalie offered to come and work alongside Dominique and Laure serving at table on busy evenings, and they accepted her offer enthusiastically. Colette was happy to see her granddaughter getting out and about. Natalie enjoyed the work, meeting new people and bonding with Dominique, Alain and Laure.
It wasn’t long before she told them about David and how she had ended things with him. Dominique immediately pointed out a number of regular male customers who had asked about her and who, clearly, found her very attractive. For her part, Natalie wasn’t interested in flirting, especially with customers. Quite often she would meet her friend the Labrador on the beach and she found herself staring out to sea, searching for sight of his master. She spotted him a couple of times and, to her surprise, found herself feeling irrationally excited when this happened. On one occasion he waved to her and she found herself waving back like a woman possessed. For somebody who had publicly announced that she had no interest in men for now, this was disturbing and rather irritating.
In the evenings when she wasn’t working at the restaurant, Natalie would chat to her grandmother and continue her internet search, now getting more and more urgent, for a job. All she had got back from the Canadian job was a one-line email confirming receipt of her application; nothing more. Things were looking grim. The grant money she had managed to get in order to do her PhD had now dried up and the income she got each month from the rental of her parents’ house mostly disappeared in her half of the rent of the flat she shared with David and other regular monthly outgoings. Sooner or later she would have to cancel these payments but she knew she had to speak to David first and, anyway, she still had to retrieve her possessions.
Otherwise, although the few euros she got for working as a waitress and the fact that she was living rent-free in Colette’s house meant she could just about manage to exist down here for now, it was quite clear to her that before long she would have to get a job, any job. One thing upon which she was quite firmly decided was that she didn’t want to be beholden to anybody, particularly David or his bloody family.
As for David, after taking a day and a night to simmer down after his email about her moment of bad temper, she had replied in clear, formal, dispassionate terms, telling him that the engagement was off and that was that. He replied almost immediately asking her to reconsider and she replied in language he, as a lawyer, would understand. My decision is taken and it’s final. Please leave me alone. Since then there had been no further contact between them.
One day, as she and her grandmother were sitting on the terrace, enjoying their mid-morning mug of tea, with Charlie the dog lying at their feet, crunching his regular daily biscuit, they had another visitor. This time it was a man and Natalie immediately recognised him as the dog’s master, the man who had bumped into her in the sea. She felt the blood rush to her face and her heart leap. He appeared, hesitantly, round the end of the house and gave a short whistle. The dog immediately leapt to his feet and ran across to him. Natalie gave the man a wave and beckoned him over, feeling an inexplicable butterfly sensation in her stomach as she did so. He made his way over to them, still rather hesitantly. She stood up and welcomed him, addressing him in French.
‘Hello, my name’s Natalie. And this is Colette.’
‘Good morning. I’m afraid my French isn’t very good.’ He was right about that, and his accent was unmistakably English, so Natalie was quick to put him at his ease in his own language.
‘Are you English? So am I.’
‘Ah, right, excellent.’ He sounded and looked relieved. ‘My friends call me Mark. I see that you’ve met Barney. I hope he hasn’t been making a nuisance of himself.’
‘Barney?