Meg looked at her mother, who appeared to be waiting for some sort of news. Did she have any? She was fairly sure her mother wouldn’t die of shock if she told her that she and Justin had slept together, but she might not approve if she knew that they weren’t committed to each other. She had to say something!
‘I don’t know, Mum,’ she began, rubbing her wet hair with a towel. She intended to censor her story just a bit. ‘We had to share a room on our way back from Provence—’
‘And a bed?’
‘It would have been OK if there hadn’t been a thunderstorm.’
Louise smiled. ‘Oh, darling, are you still scared of thunder?’
Meg nodded, all thought of protecting her mother from the truth disappearing. ‘Yes. I yelped. He took me into his arms and one thing led to another.’ She sighed.
‘At least I can tell that part all went well,’ said Louise calmly.
‘Yes.’
‘And afterwards?’
‘We were focused on Ambrosine, her story – it’s so amazing – I know we said we’d tell everyone all at the same time—’
‘Tell me now, darling, or at least some of it. I can’t bear to have to wait for Colin, who’s being so difficult and unpleasant.’
Hardly aware that she was doing it, Meg related everything that Ambrosine had told them. She managed not to mention what Justin had known and said about Ambrosine being the third person in the will. That was the tricky part.
‘That is amazing,’ said Louse. ‘And it explains a lot. I was never sure why she was here in the hotel, although she’s always been a huge asset.’
‘She has, hasn’t she? I just hope Colin sees it like that.’
‘Why does it matter what he thinks?’
‘If you can just hang on, Mum, you’ll be told everything, very soon!’
Colin arrived after his visit to yet another estate agent, so Justin decided there was time for a quick meeting before evening service. There weren’t many guests, the meal was simple and Susan and Cherry were fully capable of seeing to it all.
Possibly anticipating trouble, Justin poured everyone lavish glasses of sherry. He had told Meg that he’d already told his father, but didn’t want Colin to realise he was the last to know. He was resentful enough about everything without there being family secrets.
Andrew and Louise were sitting next to each other, the backs of their hands touching, as if they were going to hold hands at any minute.
‘So, what’s this meeting about,’ said Colin. ‘I haven’t time for all this!’ He looked at his watch, implying he was busier than everyone else.
‘It won’t take long,’ said Justin.
‘I hope not,’ said Meg, ‘I’ve left Susan in charge of dinner.’ Susan had been so pleased to see Meg, but Meg couldn’t help noticing that she had lost confidence a bit. Had Laura done that? If so, it was unforgiveable. Susan was a plain cook, but what she produced was very good. Just because it wasn’t fancy didn’t mean it was inferior.
She also wanted to encourage the opinion that she didn’t know what Justin was going to say.
‘You know that Ambrosine asked for Meg when she went to hospital so Meg came back from France?’
Colin mumbled something inaudible and possibly vaguely insulting.
‘When we went to the hospital, Ambrosine insisted that I stayed as well as Meg, and she told us her story. She said she’d kept what she’d done in the war a secret for too long, and that she wanted people to know now.’
Justin went on to relate how, married to a collaborator, Ambrosine had entertained Nazis at the same time as hiding Special Operations Executive officers and their equipment.
When everyone had exclaimed in surprise and admiration, Justin continued: ‘My grandfather was one of those she rescued and he made a point of finding her after the war to make sure she was all right. She’d married again and was fine until she waswidowed once more and ran out of money. That’s when he said she could live at the hotel for the rest of her life.’
‘Well done, Dad,’ said Colin. ‘Can we go now?’
‘Not yet,’ said Justin. ‘There was something she didn’t know that I could tell her, and now I can tell you.’
