“Not today,” she answered as her heartfluttered.
She hadn’t seen George for nearly two weeks, not since he’d agreed to her sailing trip to Blue Sage Bay. She didn’t know what time he left in the morning, but he was usually gone by the time she came back from her morning walk. Whatever it was that took him away, it seemed to keep him there late at night, too. Every day she hoped to see him, and every night she put that hope away till the next morning. “Let me go down and ask Mrs B if she’sseen him.”
“No, no, stay here. We’ll know soon enough when he comes back—the day will get cloudy and stormy.”
Millie had to laugh despite the anxious feeling that squeezed the top of her stomach when anyone mentioned George.
“I need to go downstairs anyway to fetchthe post.”
“Are you in love, girl?” Du Montfort’s question sent blood rushing to her face. “You’ve not been yourself this week. The post is here. O’Neil brought it up an hour ago.” He pointed at the full in-tray.
“O’Neil?” She tried to steady her breathing. The old man’s comments were innocent enough. It was her thoughts that were guilty. “Who’s O’Neil?”
“What’s her name, that Irish nurse that wears silent shoes and sneaks up on one like dreadful fate?”
“Nurse Ann, you mean? I didn’t know her surname was O’Neil.”
“It’ll be O’something or other. Anyway, there’s a big special delivery envelope for you. O’Neil had to sign for it because you weren’t here. Can’t expect the postman to wait until you come back from your morning walkabout.”
She pulled the brown envelope from the pile in the in-tray.Her Majesty’s Court Servicewas stamped in the top corner. The butterflies in her stomach fluttered faster.
Finally. She tore it open, and a stack of papers fell into her hand. Her copy of the divorce application. The official letter attached to the front promised herdecree absolutewould be granted insix weeks.
Du Montfort was watching her, amused. “Now don’t run off and marry some other Englishman.”
The words reminded her of something George had said about the English.
“Can I ask you something? You talk as if you weren’tBritish?”
“Because we aren’t. These islands were French, once, owned by the Duchy of Normandy until 1066. When William the Conqueror became King of England, the islands passed to the English Crown. We say we are half English, half French and four-quarters Islanders.” Du Montfort observed her thoughtfully. “Do you feel like a foreigner here?”
Millie shook her head. “Actually I’ve been brushing up on my French, and I can speak likeyou now.”
Du Montfort’s amusement danced in his eyes, and her heart fluttered again. Sometimes he reminded her of his son so much it was hard to keep her mind on her job.
“Earth to Millie.” Du Montfort calledher back.
“Sorry, I was miles away.”
“Obviously.” He cocked his head at her. “Let’s hear some of your new native French.”
Millie had prepared a little paragraph, practicing the pronunciation with Joanie over and over. She was more than ready for George, but it wouldn’t harm to rehearse it with his father now. She cleared her throat.“Je suis ici depuis si longtemps je me sens une natif de cetteîle. Je prends des promenades sous un ciel sans cloude. Je goûtais beaucoup de chosesétranges.”
“Not bad,” he said. “But if you really feel like anatif,you need to pronounce itnatsif.”
“Why?”she asked.
“You’ve been learning Parisian French. We have our own unique dialect. Say it again, I’llshow you.”
Millie, confidence draining out of her, tried again.
You need to keep it lighter.” He corrected her gently. “Dzepuis, thedis said likedze, and it’slongtsemps. What was the bit about taking a walk without clouds?”
Millie repeated the sentence as fluently asshe could.
Again he shook his head. “Here on La Canette, we don’t saypromenades. We sayprendre une marche. And you needdetrangesnotétranges. But notDzethis time. There’re lots of exceptions. You just have toknow it.”
He sat up straight and launched into one of his lectures about history. “You see, we parted ways from France 900 years ago. But that doesn’t make us British either. We have never been part of the UK. The Channel Islands, like the Isle of Mann, Gibraltar and the Virgin Islands, are possessions of the British Crown with independent administrations.”
