‘She is an older sister. Of course she is a monster, it is her job. She cares,’ Claudine said. ‘Of course you must visit her.’
‘And when I’m back…’ Bella drummed her fingers on the desk. ‘There’s something I really want to do.’ Taking a breath, she told Claudine her plans. The three-month course at École Ducasse where she’d learn to make all the French delicacies – pastries and chocolate, bread and viennoiseries.
Claudine’s eyebrow arched. ‘But you know you have a job here, you don’t need this.’
‘I don’t need it. But… I suppose… I want it.’
‘And it will become your job?’
Bella lifted a shoulder. ‘Maybe, one day. Or maybe just a passion.’
‘But to go to school, in your thirties?’
‘If not now, then when? I’m not getting any younger.’ Bella smiled to herself, thinking of how she had shaved fourteen years off her age recently. ‘It’s just… after my mum died, I sort of messed up my education. It was something she wanted for me, that I wanted for myself. And I’ve always felt a little… poorer for it.’
‘I understand.’
‘And until recently, it felt as if it was too late. You know. I was married, I had a business. I’d left that fork in the road behind. Only I realised something. That life isn’t linear. Or it doesn’t have to be. When Pete told me he was leaving, it was like sliding down a snake.’
‘I am sorry. A snake?’
‘Yes, you know. Like in snakes and ladders. The game.’
‘Oh yes! Where you slide down!’ Claudine clapped her hands again. ‘But this is not a good thing.’
‘No. Not really. But then I realised that there is no right time to do things. And there isn’t such a thing as “too late”. Not really. Things happen, and you move forward a few spaces, back, up a ladder, down a snake… Look at Madame Roux – almost in a nursing home, but now she’s going to be advising you on the hotel.’
Claudine was nodding. ‘I understand. I think.’
Bella smiled. ‘I’m glad. Because I have no idea how to explain it more clearly.’
‘So, you will be living two lives. One as a student, the other as an executive?’ Claudine asked. ‘How will you cope?’
‘Oh, I think I’ll manage just fine.’
‘Then it is fine with me,’ Claudine smiled and leant in a little closer. ‘On one condition.’
‘Yes?’
‘If you ever need anyone to taste your pastries, you know exactly where I am.’
55
NOW
November and the winter had truly set in. But the lights strung across the streets and blazing in the shop windows brought warmth and a sense of excitement to the dark evenings. The air smelled like ice and smoke and warm winter foods being rustled up in restaurants.
It was Friday. Bella had just arrived back from picking up Kitty who was over for the weekend, this time with Ty. Ty was already tucked up in bed, fast asleep after his journey; the rest of them had all gathered in the kitchen.
It was her last night in the house. Tomorrow, she’d begin the process of moving her things to a new apartment she’d rented in the city – close to the college and closer to the hotel. It was unfurnished, so she’d be able to move in the things from Peyrat she’d kept and put into storage after the sale. Her stomach was a quiver of nervous excitement, but she was ready.
‘So you’re moving out?’ Brad had said when she’d told him a month before.
‘Yes – time I moved to somewhere of my own.’
He’d mock pouted. ‘What about me?’
‘Well, I’m pretty sure you’ll be there a lot of the time.’
