Meg didn’t reply. Maxime seemed to have a lot more wisdom than his youth and good looks would suggest. Perhaps it was because he was a lawyer.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
When the knock on the door she’d been waiting for finally came it was so quiet, she was aware that she wouldn’t have heard it if she hadn’t been waiting for it. It was very early in the morning.
‘Did I wake you?’ Justin whispered when Meg opened the door.
‘I’ve been waking every hour since two a.m.,’ said Meg. ‘And I’m all ready. Let’s go! I hope we don’t wake Milou and he starts to bark.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ said Justin. ‘En avant!’
Outside, the dawn was breaking and it was cool. Later the temperature would rise and it would become uncomfortably hot, but now, it was perfect. The chateau looked golden in the early sunshine and although they were in a hurry, Meg couldn’t resist a last look at the place where she’d been so welcomed by Alexandra and Antoine and their children.
‘Can I drive to begin with?’ Meg asked. ‘I have the right licence and everything to drive in France but I don’t suppose I’m insured to drive your car. I should drive when we’re unlikely to get stopped.’
Justin took a second to absorb this but then nodded. ‘It makes sense. As much as I’d like to tell you that women don’t belong behind the wheel of a car’ – he gave her a quick smile so that she knew he was joking – ‘it’s a very long way for one person to drive, even in two days.’
‘Exactly.’
They didn’t speak much. It was such a beautiful early morning and soon they were surrounded by fields of purple lavender stretching over the hills into the distance. They had the car windows open and the fragrance was almost overpowering.
‘It makes you long for a sports car,’ said Justin.
‘It does. Although it wouldn’t get us there any faster, I don’t suppose.’
‘Think of the wind in your hair …’ he said.
‘… turning it to wire wool,’ Meg finished for him, laughing. If it weren’t for the anxiety about Ambrosine, she would have been loving this drive with Justin. She might have been undecided about her feelings but the scenery was beautiful, the roads empty, she was enjoying driving Justin’s powerful car – it was nearly heaven.
‘If only we weren’t in a hurry,’ said Justin as if he were reading her mind. ‘We could stop for a long lunch somewhere. Have a siesta, then go on.’
‘We might need a siesta anyway,’ said Meg. ‘I didn’t sleep much and will be tired later. Although it is so lovely now.’
‘Yes. Antoine told me that the beautiful poplar trees, which Napoleon insisted on to give his troops shade,often get crashed into if people go off the road because they’re drunk or tired.’
‘Well, we’ll make sure we’re neither of those things,’ said Meg. ‘I wish you hadn’t told me that!’
They stopped in a village and bought baguettes, butter, ham and tomatoes – everything they would need for a picnic. Then they found a quiet spot and Justin filled the baguettes with butter and ham.
‘One day I’ll take you to Paris and we’ll havejambon-beurrefrom a little place that only sells that. Sometimes they add some cornichons.’
The thought of Justin wanting to take her to Paris made her heart give a little skip. To disguise it, Meg finished her mouthful. ‘Ham and butter is a wonderful combination. Do you know Paris well?’
‘I was a student there for a time.’ He handed her a bottle of Perrier water. ‘Here. I think when we’ve finished lunch, we should have a nap for half an hour. It’s getting hot.’
Meg thought she would never be able to doze off where she was in the car, hot and not relaxed, in spite of being tired. But somehow her eyes closed and she slept until Justin woke her.
‘We need to press on. I’ll drive now.’
Meg pulled her cheesecloth shirt away from where it was sticking to her body and agreed.
They had decided to avoid Paris and, when they felt they should think about stopping for the night, searched for a convenient place. They were in a smalltown which should have been promising but several hotels they tried were either closed or full. The patron of the last one gave Justin an address where his aunt had a smallchambre d’hôte.
‘It’s a little way away out of town,’ said Justin, studying the map which was spread out over the front of the car.
‘If it has a roof and a bed, it’ll be fine,’ said Meg. ‘I just don’t want to have to sleep in the car.’
‘I hope I can look after you a little better than that,’ said Justin, more sternly than her light-hearted remark required, she thought.
