Couples in the audience gripped each other’s hands more tightly. Kitty and Stu looked at one another, and he winked.
Then it was Bella’s turn:
Thank you, Pete, for being the person I need – to laugh with, cry with, experience joy and pain with. I promise that I’ll always love and cherish you. And that from this day, neither of us will ever feel abandoned, alone or afraid. Because we’ll have each other and that will be enough.
Moments later the celebrant finally pronounced them husband and wife. And Bella smiled as she felt her future unfurl in front of her. With this new life, in this new place, where she could start again on her terms with a person who would never let her down.
35
NOW
‘You really think I’m the best person for the job?’ Bella asked Brad, tapping the card against the kitchen table. It was the fourth evening in a row they’d spent working together on Bella’s plans. But however helpful he’d been with those, he clearly wasn’t going to step in when it came to giving this business card to Odette.
When Claudine had pressed the business card into Bella’s hand earlier that day and told her it was for her ‘lodger’, she’d thought Claudine had meant Henri; that she’d wanted her to set up a date or something. She’d been just about to say that Henri was just out of a relationship and wasn’t ready to date yet – although she wasn’t sure whether this was true or not – when she’d looked and realised that the card belonged to a woman named Marie Fontaine, a curator at a Parisian art gallery.
‘For Odette?’ she’d asked.
‘For the one who painted that beautiful seascape,’ Claudine had said. ‘I can’t remember her name, I’m sorry.’
‘No, that’s fine. Wow, thank you.’
‘Marie is a friend of my sister’s,’ Claudine had added. ‘I cannot make any promises, but I think she would be interested to see some of your friend’s work.’
Bella had felt quite excited at the prospect of being able to help Odette to the next stage of her career, until, on the train, she’d wondered whether Odette was ready to make the most of this opportunity. Her friend had been distant since their argument and while she still chatted about this and that when in the kitchen, she now always locked her door after disappearing back into her room.
‘Ah, she’s just embarrassed,’ Brad had said when she’d told him. ‘She had this problem – this fear – and she didn’t want anyone to know. You’ve kind of seen inside of her and she can’t figure out how to talk to you.’
They’d spent most of the evening writing down names of potential suppliers; making lists of people that Bella would need to contact. In truth, she was exhausted – working all day and then all evening felt like a lot. But she was excited, too, at the progress they seemed to be making. She’d already booked decorators – an amazing feat at such short notice, but Bradknew a guy who knew a guy– to paint the two Superior rooms in a soft, muted green, and had managed to source some furniture from a maker who created solid-wood pieces in antique designs.
‘You know, I think you’re going to land this, and the job,’ Brad had said. ‘The Hotel Club folks are going to love it, and you’ll get that permanent position.’
She’d screwed up her nose. ‘You think? I mean, that would be great. But most of all, I don’t want to let Claudine down. She put a lot of faith in me, and I guess it was misplaced. I want to… I just want to do what I promised I would.’
Bella spent a lot of time wishing she’d been more honest. Of course, now she was earning, she had cash in the bank; it was natural to look back and not fully understand her actions beforehand. But that was because she didn’t feel the urgency, the fear she had then. It was like having a full belly and wondering why anyone would stuff themselves with chips.
She looked at the card again, black with gold embossed words. ‘Don’t you think it might be better coming from you? You know, she’ll feel she has to listen to you at least, being her landlord and all.’
He shook his head. ‘You got this for her, it should be you. And besides, I want her to really want this, not say yes to it just because I own the house she lives in.’
Sighing, but accepting he was right, Bella got up from the table.
It was ten o’clock and while it was still light, the evening air had a muted quality, a dullness to its edges. Then again, even in the darkest night, light still streamed into the Versailles kitchen from other houses, apartments, street lights. In Peyrat, she knew, the night sky was thicker, darker, like a blanket. But the darkness made it easier to look at the stars.
She knocked on Odette’s door and heard movement inside.
‘Yes?’
‘I’m just— Odette, can I talk to you for a second?’ she said, trying to keep her voice breezy.
There was an audible sigh, and a creak as her friend stood up. Then the sound of paper crinkling and floorboards creaking as she walked to open the door. Bella hoped that Odette wasn’t treading on the beautiful canvases as she made her way.
The door opened a crack. Odette looked at her with a smile that was wide, but clearly forced. ‘Bonjour, Bella,’ she said. ‘Henri’s gone out I think, if you’re looking for him.’
Since their break-up, Henri had been out most nights. Bella wasn’t sure whether he was just trying to stay out of her way.
Odette seemed to have stopped going out altogether; she went to her work in the bar four afternoons a week but seemed to want to spend the rest of the time in her room.
Bella was doubly relieved that Brad was here – a friendly face to speak to over coffee, and someone who was willing to help her make the grade at work. Someone who wasn’t avoiding her or pretending she didn’t exist.
