‘How old are you, Henri?’ asked Alexandra. ‘What is the legal age for driving in France?’
‘I’ve been driving round the property since I was small,’ said Henri, grinning.
‘In which case, do please get the car out for me.’
While Henri was doing this, Alexandra was in the kitchen checking she had everything she needed, including her handbag and purse, when Stéphie said, ‘What about Milou?’
‘What about him? Should I give him more food? What have I forgotten?’ Alexandra had shared a dog in London but she’d never been in sole charge before.
‘We have to take him with us!’ Stéphie insisted. ‘He’ll be lonely on his own.’
‘Couldn’t Clive look after him?’ asked Alexandra, hoping the teddy shared Stéphie’s caring nature.
Stéphie looked at Alexandra in disgust. ‘He’s a teddy bear! What can he do to look after Milou?’
Alexandra suppressed a sigh. ‘OK, but you’ll have to take care of him. Can you find his lead?’ At least the dog had a collar.
But not a proper lead, she discovered. ‘He always just follows us when we run around outside,’ said Félicité as if a dog on a lead was an incomprehensible concept.
Henri gave a short blast on the horn of the car, adding to the sense of panic that was beginning to rise in Alexandra.
‘Well, let’s leave him here!’ she said. She was going to have to cope with driving a car she didn’t know to a place she didn’t know, with three young people she didn’t really know either. Adding a large dog was asking for trouble, in her opinion.
‘We can’t,’ Stéphie insisted. ‘Here, we’ll use my scarf as a lead.’
Alexandra sighed. ‘OK. Now into the car everyone. Henri? Can you move? Much as I’d like to, I can’t let you drive us to town.’
There was a fair amount of discussion – argument even – about who should sit where and in the end Félicité sat next to Alexandra in the front and the others went in the back. Milou took the middle, so he could lunge forward every so often. Apparently he didn’t want to go in the bit at the back designed for luggage or dogs; it was obviously too far away from the action.
To Alexandra’s relief the car was very similar to the one she had driven in London, owned by David, her antique-dealer friend. She’d learnt to drive on a car like this and so she set off with confidence.
It was a lovely sunny day now: the first autumnal mists had been burned off and it was starting to warm up. Alexandra wished she had something resembling a summer dress to wear rather than the formal, now grubby dress she’d worn so much in Paris. It had been fine for her interview but wasn’t right for the country. She had put a cardigan on over the top but realised she looked dressed for the city. More importantly, she felt wrong. However, she was confident that the market would have everything she needed. She began to enjoy herself.
Henri turned out to be very keen on giving Alexandra advice on how to drive. He leant over her shoulder telling her what to do and was obviously feeling the frustration that males often do when watching a woman do what they consider to be their job.
They got to the end of the drive. ‘Which way now?’
‘Left,’ said Henri.
‘We’ve never had a nanny who can drive before. Usually Mme Carrier takes us to the market if we go,’ said Stéphie, enjoying the novelty.
‘Just tell me if I start driving on the left,’ said Alexandra, picking up speed now they were on the road.
The little town of Saint-Jean-du-Roc wasn’t far away and soon Alexandra was crawling through the streets deciding where best to park. She found a spot and everyone got out, Stéphie hanging on to Milou. Milou was used to vast acreage to roam in and wasn’t really keen on being confined by a scarf, although he was very sweet-natured and clearly adored Stéphie.
Alexandra had brought a couple of baskets with her; she gave one to Félicité and took the other herself.
‘When we’ve got all the food we think we need I’m going to buy some clothes. While I’m doing that, you can have a good look round. Maybe, if you’re good, you can buy something for yourselves.’ She should probably have kept bribery until she really needed it, but remembered how frustrating and dull it could be shopping when you couldn’t buy anything. Although she doubted anyone could be bored here: it was so full of wonderful things and people.
‘I haven’t got very much money, though,’ she added belatedly. ‘I need to find out how to get housekeeping money.’ She realised that she had been employed in a hurry before things she would need had been put in place. It made life quite tricky. Luckily Alexandra was resourceful. Mme Dubois should have asked her about those skills instead of worrying about her references.
‘Can’t help, I’m afraid,’ said Félicité, who didn’t seem quite as sorry as she should have been.
‘There’s a bank over there,’ said Henri. ‘That’s where you get money from, isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ said Alexandra, ‘but you can’t just go in and ask for it. Still, I do have traveller’s cheques. I could cash one of those and use that until we find out.’ She said ‘we’ deliberately. She wanted everyone to feel like a team.
The food stalls were eye-opening in their colour and variety. She longed to have David with her, or another friend, Meg, both of whom loved cooking and food. They’d be in heaven. Her current companions were a bit more blasé and wandered off as soon as Alexandra started her shopping.
