‘Will you join us?’ asked Maxime.
She shook her head. ‘You two need to catch up with each other and I have things to do.’
Stéphie shot out of the dining room. ‘Where have you been? And where is Félicité? We’re not ready!’
‘I don’t suppose David is either, so don’t worry. Félicité isn’t feeling well so she may stay upstairs for a while. I’ll go and see how David is getting on. Maxime is here. He and your papa are going to have a glass of wine on the terrace. You could take it out for them – save me a job. And maybe some olives?’
‘I’d rather finish doing the table. I’ve found lots of lovely things! No one’s ever let me look in that cupboard before.’ Stéphie went back into the dining room to finish her task.
Alexandra went into the kitchen to discover that David, who’d always been a very calm presence in London, wasn’t calm now.
‘David!’ said Alexandra looking at the array of dishes and saucepans on every surface, all with something in them. ‘This is very unlike you. You’re always so well organised in London!’
‘I know!’ He threw his hands in the air in a theatrical way. ‘I think France has gone to my head rather.’ He paused to smile at Antoine who had come in, possibly for the wine. ‘Just seeing the wonderful produce at the market made me buy everything and now of course I want to cook everything.’
Alexandra turned to Antoine. ‘When we lived in London together he was always sorting out the scrapes—’
‘You lived together in London?’ Antoine suddenly seemed cold and rather haughty.
Alexandra and David both tried to explain at the same time. Then Alexandra held up a hand to David. ‘I’ll do this. My family has a large house in London. When I was studying cooking in London I shared the house with David, who had a separate flat at the top of the house, and two friends. And Meg’s dog,’ she added, as if this would make Antoine stop looking so disapproving. ‘David kept an eye on us girls. And I had known him for a couple of years before.’
Antoine smiled, still disdainful. ‘And your parents? They were happy with this arrangement?’
Alexandra found it difficult to meet his gaze but she forced herself. ‘My parents have been dead since I was very small.’
Antoine frowned. ‘But who looked after you?’
‘A series of nannies and companions. It’s why I feel so well qualified to be a nanny, I have had so many. My relations supervised me from Switzerland.’
‘Did they know you were sharing the house with a single man?’
‘Not really,’ began Alexandra, blushing because they didn’t know anything about it.
‘I think maybe we need to tell Antoine everything,’ said David.
Alexandra swallowed. It was very possible that Antoine would ask David to leave immediately. She really hoped not. Apart from anything else, she’d have to finish cooking dinner.
‘I am homosexual,’ said David. ‘Which means while I loved Alexandra practically like a daughter, I’m not remotely tempted to see her as anything else. It is ironic that the person who could in England be classed as a criminal is actually the very safest person she could have shared a house with.’
Antoine’s brows drew together in thought as he considered this.
‘My relations wouldn’t have understood or been happy with me living with someone like David,’ said Alexandra. ‘Although they should have been.’
‘Well, I will endeavour to be more broad-minded. I think it is illegal in England? Not here in France,’ said Antoine. He smiled and his expression relaxed. ‘You are welcome in my house. And now I must find some wine.’
Alexandra felt a wave of relief. ‘Maxime is joining us for dinner, David,’ she said. ‘And Stéphie is preparing for a banquet in the dining room.’
‘As am I, in the kitchen,’ said David with a bow.
Alexandra caught Antoine smiling as he left the room to go to the cellar. It would be all right, she decided.
Alexandra was pleased to see Félicité arrive in the dining room while the table was still being set. She went over to her. ‘You could have stayed upstairs. I would have told people you had a headache.’
Félicité gave a quick half smile. ‘It’s OK. People would have asked questions. I can’t bear the thought of people talking about me.’ She paused. ‘Although that is mostly Grand-mère. She finds me very disappointing.’
‘I’m sure that’s not true, but well done for coming down, anyway. Stéphie has arranged a placement, so you must find where you’re sitting.’
At Alexandra’s suggestion Stéphie had written place names on some lovely old-looking name cards she had found in the sideboard which, David informed them, when he came in to see how they were getting on in the dining room, was really called a credenza.
