‘I can’t be very specific. Let’s just call it soup. I’ve had a very busy day getting ready for an official birthday.’
‘Oh, I’d forgotten!’ said Stéphie. ‘Have you made me a cake?’
‘Children!’ said Antoine. ‘You are being very demanding. David isn’t here to cook for you.’
David smiled. ‘Although, to be fair, I do cook a fair bit. I enjoy it. Now come along.’
‘I’ll just run up and wash my hands,’ said Alexandra, not waiting to hear Stéphie ask why she needed to go upstairs to do it.
In fact, Alexandra wanted a moment to think about Antoine’s arm round her shoulders. It didn’t mean anything, she knew that, but she wanted to enjoy the feeling of connection it gave her. Just for a few moments she felt as if she was the mother in a family. Maybe it was because she’d grown up without close family of her own that she wanted to be part of this one. Looking at herself wonderingly for a few moments, she washed her hands, redid her plait and ran back downstairs.
Chapter Nineteen
Everyone was dipping bread in their soup and eating when Alexandra came back into the kitchen, except Stéphie, who was holding forth.
‘Their school isn’t all strict like the ones Félicité and Henri might have to go to. They don’t have to wear a uniform and everyone is kind.’
She looked up as Alexandra came in. ‘I do wish Papa would marry Alexandra, then when we go to school we can say we’ve got a mummy and a daddy just like the other children.’
‘I’m not sure that’s quite enough reason for them to get married, chicken,’ said David.
But Stéphie had decided this was what should happen. ‘Yes, but then if they have a little baby of their own, I can help look after it and I won’t be the littlest in the family any more.’
‘There are a lot of advantages to being the littlest,’ David persisted, possibly aware that Alexandra, always so self-assured, was dying of embarrassment, particularly because Antoine was also there. ‘Jack and I, and your grandmother, have spent all day arranging your party for your official birthday.’
‘Ooh! Have you made me a cake?’ asked Stéphie.
‘Enough with the cake, already!’ said David. ‘But don’t worry, there will be cake. Lots of cake. Penelope has invited us all to her house. It’s going to be simply splendid.’
‘Oh! I’d rather have it here …’ said Stéphie, disappointed.
‘You will have it where it has been arranged for you to have it, my little queen,’ said Antoine, fond but firm.
‘Penelope is looking forward to having it at her house,’ David explained. ‘She’s gone to a lot of trouble to make it possible.’
‘I think Stéphie is worried that Grand-mère is always so prim and proper,’ explained Félicité, obviously not liking her sibling to be admonished.
‘I do take your point,’ said David. ‘But Penelope is in a party mood! It’ll be great fun. Jack is there now, helping.’
‘How kind,’ said Félicité, looking pointedly at Stéphie, obviously wanting her little sister to echo her words. Stéphie ignored her.
‘The food’s always great at Grand-mère’s,’ Henri piped up obligingly. ‘Not that it isn’t here, of course,’ he added, looking doubtfully at David.
‘We should check on the kittens,’ said Antoine. ‘And make a litter tray for them. Where are they going to sleep?’
‘With me,’ said Stéphie. ‘With Milou. They can curl up together.’
‘Well, go and see if they’re still happy with each other,’ said Antoine, ‘and if the kittens have run up to the top of the curtains, we’ll make another plan.’
Félicité came in to speak to Alexandra while she was finding a corner in Stéphie’s room for a litter tray, which, she insisted, would have to be emptied every day or it would smell.
‘Stéphie didn’t really mean it when she said you wanted her to marry Papa. She’s just little; she doesn’t understand.’
Alexandra laughed. ‘Oh, I know! And all that wanting to be the same as everyone else – she’ll grow out of that. I wanted to be the same when I first went to boarding school and then I realised that the people I wanted to be the same as were really boring.’
As Félicité left the room Alexandra felt pleased that she’d been able to tell her something in exchange for being told Félicité wasn’t remotely keen on her papa getting married again. Alexandra didn’t blame her, and was heartily relieved that Stéphie had no notion about Alexandra’s fortune being only a couple of marriage vows away.
Stéphie blew into Alexandra’s bedroom early the following morning wearing jeans and a jumper, a kitten in each hand. ‘I’m going downstairs now,’ she said and vanished.
