Clothilde gave the sort of patronising, don’t-speak-when-your-elders-are-talking smile at which she was so expert. ‘I should imagine the Count will want to find a nanny who is properly qualified and maybe not quite so young.’
‘Alexandra has been doing an excellent job with them so far,’ said Antoine. ‘The children are very fond of her, and my eldest daughter, who is fifteen and so at a difficult age, will take a long time to settle with someone new.’
Clothilde seemed surprised that Alexandra, who had always been a bit of a problem to her family, seemed to be so valued. ‘How very gratifying. As you will know, we have had to bring Alexandra up from a distance. It has not been easy.’
Alexandra studied the patch of damp, wondering for about the millionth time why the family hadn’t just scooped her up and taken her to live with one of them the moment she was orphaned. Donna had asked this question in Paris and Alexandra had brushed it off. But it was something she had thought about often, on and off, over the years, and had come to the conclusion that none of her relations really liked children and therefore wouldn’t put themselves out for a baby. She felt she’d had a lucky escape; she might have ended up just like them.
Antoine smiled. ‘So, it won’t inconvenience you if she stayed with us here until the spring?’ He smiled. ‘After all, you can have no need of a nanny.’ His expression indicated he had made a joke and intended people to laugh, but underneath he was serious.
Alexandra caught her breath. She had no idea that Antoine might need her that long and her heart leaped at the thought.
‘Until the spring?’ It was Cousin Aimée who answered. ‘I suppose we could enrol her into the finishing school near us for the summer semester afterwards. I can see that being with you has improved her French.’ She leant forward. ‘You will understand that we only want the very best for Alexandra, and that school is the best in Switzerland, and is guaranteed to give her all the … sophistication she currently lacks.’
Alexandra noted that her heel was bouncing up and down in frustration and got up. ‘Well, I’m so glad that’s all settled. Now, Cousin Clothilde, Cousin Aimée, I think we should let the Count get back to his guests. Would you like to see the garden?’
As Antoine also got up the moment she did, the cousins did too. ‘Oh no,’ said Cousin Aimée, ‘it’s kind but we must get on. We only called in here to reassure ourselves you were happily settled. We’re going to Aix. Maybe you could tell Hubert the route, Alexandra? Could you go and fetch him? Tell him we’d like to leave.’
Alexandra didn’t protest but she knew she’d been sent away so they could talk about her and she was determined to make sure she knew what they said.
Alexandra was surprised to find Stéphie waiting outside the door of the salon and then realised that Félicité and Henri had probably been taken over by their mother and she had been left out. She put her finger to her lips. ‘I want to listen for a moment or two.’
Together they leant near the door so they could hear better.
‘Monsieur,’ said Aimée to Antoine; she had a very carrying voice. ‘I think it’s only fair to tell you that Alexandra doesn’t come into her fortune until she is twenty-five.’
Stéphie and Alexandra looked at each other in amazement. Then there was a sharp exclamation and the sound of furniture being scraped across the floor. ‘Alexandra’s fortune is of no interest to me,’ said Antoine at his most aristocratic.
Alexandra’s mouth went dry and she gripped Stéphie’s hand. ‘Quickly, darling, run and tell Hubert the others want to go. I must stay here!’
‘All right, but promise you’ll tell me everything later!’ Stéphie whispered back.
‘Of course!’ said Alexandra. ‘Now run!’
She watched as her ally fled, obviously excited to be part of a conspiracy. Alexandra strained to hear more of what was going on but they’d obviously moved across the room to where the windows gave on to the view of the distant mountains; she couldn’t hear a word, only a distant mumbling.
She stepped back as Aimée and Antoine came out of the salon. They were obviously surprised to see her.
‘Oh! You’re there!’ said Aimée.
‘I’m going to make sure Hubert knows where he is going,’ said Antoine, and passed through into the hall.
Aimée stood at the door of the salon and regarded Alexandra in confusion. ‘Erm – I wonder if you could bring us some tea?’ she said. ‘Clothilde has a little cough and I think a hot drink would be soothing.’ She didn’t move, obviously waiting for Alexandra to go.
There was to be further private discussion about her situation, Alexandra realised. They’d got Antoine to leave the room and now Aimée was getting rid of her.
She went off down the corridor and then nipped back the moment she heard Aimée close the door. She would ignore the request for tea. Clothilde didn’t know she’d wanted it, anyway. Alexandra knelt and put her ear to the keyhole. Luckily she could now hear them fairly clearly.
Aimée was sounding apologetic. ‘Did I make a dreadful mistake telling him that about her fortune? He obviously didn’t know anything about it. I should have kept quiet.’
A chair scraped. ‘We don’t know Alexandra’s attitude to her fortune. Maybe she tells everyone she meets. You couldn’t have known that she hadn’t.’ Clothilde was reassuring. ‘And you didn’t say she’d also come into it when she got married.’
Aimée gave a little laugh. ‘Not even I am as foolish as that. Wretched Hubert! Why won’t he make a play for her? We know how wayward she is but she’s a very lovely girl. If he doesn’t marry her before she’s twenty-five someone else might. I can’t abide the thought of all that money going out of the family! It doesn’t bear thinking of.’
It occurred to Alexandra that obviously Aimée thought about it quite a lot.
Aimée was still speaking. ‘I must say, being a nanny seems to be bringing the best out in her. It’s making her a better marriage prospect than she already is!’
‘Don’t worry too much. I don’t think Alexandra has any idea she’ll get her inheritance on her marriage, even if it happens before she’s twenty-five.’
