‘That is a very beautiful jacket,’ said Lucinda to Alexandra. Like Véronique earlier, she also wrinkled her nose but didn’t comment on the smell.
The tea was over, and Penelope and Véronique were arranging Stéphie’s presents in the salon. Véronique was taking a very personal interest in the process. Everyone else was standing around, chatting. Stéphie was beginning to get impatient so Alexandra was keeping her entertained.
‘Yes!’ replied Alexandra. ‘It’s Chanel. David bought it for me from a brocante.’
‘A brocante? So it’s second-hand? I could never wear second-hand clothes. But I suppose we have to cut our couture jackets according to our cloth.’ She laughed to highlight her pun, which, annoyingly, Alexandra found quite funny although she didn’t laugh.
Stéphie, who had overheard this conversation but only partially understood it, obviously felt her beloved nanny was being insulted. ‘Lexi is going to inherit a fortune when she’s twenty-five!’
‘Chérie!’ said Antoine, obviously hearing his daughter from a few yards away and heading to join them. ‘We don’t say things like that!’
‘But it’s true! Me and Lexi heard—’
Alexandra was too embarrassed to think of what to say immediately. She just put her hand on Stéphie’s shoulder.
‘One of you should teach that child that it’s vulgar to talk about money,’ said Lucinda.
‘You started it!’ said Stéphie.
Antoine and Alexandra inhaled sharply at the same time.
‘Really,’ went on Lucinda, still outraged. ‘You’re the nanny,’ she said to Alexandra, ‘and you consider yourself to be the child’s father’ – she turned to Antoine – ‘you should teach this child better manners!’
Alexandra didn’t hesitate. ‘Come on, Stéphie, let’s go and look at your presents.’
As she manoeuvred Stéphie out of the dining room, she saw Maxime in the hall.
‘Do go and see Lucinda,’ she begged, hardly giving him time to kiss her on both cheeks. ‘I think you’ll cheer her up. And I’d love a quick word later.’
‘Alexandra!’ said Maxime, throwing up his hands in a gesture of defeat. ‘I was hoping for a very slow word later.’
Stéphie giggled and they went into the salon.
Véronique was tweaking her arrangements. She’d arranged the presents on boxes covered with a cloth on a table, so they looked as if they were in a shop window, although the presents were wrapped. There were little dishes with sweets and flowers in the spaces.
‘Gosh!’ said Henri, who had followed Alexandra’s swift exit from the dining room. ‘Look, Stéphie! Don’t they all look special!’
Véronique inclined her head, looking past him to Lucinda, who had entered the salon hard on Henri’s heels. ‘It is so important to make things special for la p’tite. Poor little motherless child.’ She said this last bit to Lucinda in a slightly gushing way that indicated not having Lucinda for a mother was a major setback.
Alexandra caught Félicité rolling her eyes and wondered how she felt about her father’s colleague becoming matey with her mother. Not thrilled, she imagined.
‘You’ve arranged the presents very prettily,’ said Penelope in a way a teacher might congratulate a promising pupil. ‘Jack? Antoine? Maxime? Come on in. Can you make sure that everyone has a drink and maybe Stéphie can open her presents?’
It occurred to Alexandra that perhaps Stéphie would like to do that without so much public interest and looked at Antoine to see what he thought, but the little girl seemed not to mind.
‘Open this one first,’ said Véronique, indicating the largest present. ‘It’s from your very generous papa. I helped him choose it when we were last in Paris together.’
‘Yes, chérie,’ said Antoine as Stéphie took off the paper. ‘I do hope you like it.’
It was a toy bureau de poste. As Stéphie undid the box its beauty could be appreciated. It had everything and had obviously been expensive. There were toy scales, rubber stamps, envelopes, postage stamps, all sorts of forms to fill in, everything any self-respecting post office could possibly need.
Stéphie got up and ran to her father. ‘Papa! It’s wonderful! Thank you so much!’
‘Ah,’ said Véronique, fondly, ‘I’m so glad you like it, little one. We tried very hard to find the very best one for you that we could.’
Stéphie gave Véronique a rather frightened smile. She picked up another box.
‘That’s from me and Jack, chicken,’ said David. ‘Actually, most of it is at your house. That’s just something to put in it.’
