Kissing wasn’t enough for this man who could, he seemed to think, have any woman he wanted; he pushed his hand up her jumper, trying to undo her bra. She was not having this! When grinding her foot on to his instep only made him more determined, she brought her knee up sharply between his legs.
‘Putain!’ he said, staggering back. Alexandra was braced for a further attack but the man just spat on the ground near her. ‘English whore!’ he said loudly and pushed his way through the small crowd who had gathered.
‘I think we’d better go,’ said Alexandra to Félicité who, hearing the commotion, had left her boy and joined her.
‘We certainly should,’ Félicité agreed.
‘That’s Tito,’ said Félicité’s boy, who had followed her over. ‘No one crosses him.’
Alexandra suddenly felt a bit shocked. She’d probably been in greater danger than she’d realised. ‘We need to find Henri.’
‘I’ll get him,’ said the boy. ‘You shouldn’t go back in there. Go to your car and wait there.’
Félicité came with her. Once they were a little way from the house and the possibly hostile crowd, they stopped, waiting for Henri. Nerves got to Alexandra and she started to laugh. Félicité joined in. ‘That was very impressive, what you did back there!’
Alexandra shook her head. ‘It’s a technique. I’ll show you how to do it. Where’s Henri?’
‘He’s coming now,’ said Félicité. ‘Jules will fetch him.’
Thinking that Jules was turning out to be kind and responsible, Alexandra began to feel guilty. She was the one who had nearly got herself into trouble, not her fifteen-year-old companion.
‘Did you have a nice time, Félicité? Did I drag you away from a really nice boy?’
‘It’s OK,’ said Félicité. ‘We exchanged numbers. On a cigarette packet. And,’ she went on, too excited to remember she shouldn’t be confiding in the woman who was effectively her nanny, ‘he goes to the school Papa wants us to go to but he comes home every weekend.’
‘That’s great!’ said Alexandra. ‘Ah, here’s Henri. I hope he’s all right. He seems to have make-up smeared on his face.’
‘I’m glad we left our coats in the car,’ said Henri. ‘I saw the room where they were kept. The pile of them was a mile high. It would have taken ages to find them.’
At least he’d only seen a pile of coats, thought Alexandra as they all got into the car.
Alexandra enjoyed the drive home. Now they were away from the party and she could stop worrying, it seemed much more fun in retrospect. She must make sure Félicité learnt how to get rid of men she didn’t want groping her – as far as it was possible; she was sure no one else would teach her.
‘Did you enjoy the party?’ she asked, accidentally slipping into being a nanny. ‘I mean – was that fun?’
‘It was a bit of a shock,’ said Henri. ‘I mean – girls! – but yeah, it was good. And it means I’ll know a few people when we go to that school.’
‘Mm,’ said Félicité. ‘It was a bit frightening, but yes, it was fun.’
‘It was a bit frightening for me, that’s for sure,’ said Alexandra. ‘But I’ve been through worse.’ She was thinking of a time in England when she and her friends had had to leave a party in the country rather suddenly.
‘What? Because of Tito?’ asked Félicité. ‘You were so brave!’
‘No. He was a creep who felt he could do what he liked with women. I’ve met types like him before. No, I was worried because I was in charge of you two. I didn’t want to spoil your fun, but I didn’t want you to do anything dangerous either. But never mind. We’ll soon be home, drinking hot chocolate, discussing boys.’ She paused. ‘Not you, Henri. You don’t have to discuss boys.’
‘I don’t mind,’ said Henri.
As Alexandra turned the car into the drive and saw a car parked in front of the chateau that hadn’t been there before she had another strong attack of déjà vu, when her house in London had been full of lights when it should have been dark.
Please let this be friends of David or Jack, she prayed in the two seconds before it was clear whose car it was.
‘It’s Papa!’ said Félicité excitedly.
‘Tell me quickly,’ said Alexandra. ‘Are you two allowed to go to parties?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Henri. ‘We’ve never been invited to one before.’
Alexandra was going to drive the car round to the stable yard where it was kept when the door of the chateau opened and Véronique came out. It seemed rude to ignore her so she parked the car behind Antoine’s.
