Hattie raised her eyebrows in obvious disbelief.
‘Is there a problem?’ he asked, knowing and regretting that he sounded defensive.
‘Look, I don’t want to be rude but … this place is filthy. Everything needs a good clean. A deep clean. Upholstery, curtains, carpets. I can tell you now that this is not what my uncle or my cousin was expecting. They’re going to be very disappointed.’
Luc hardened his heart, seeing a potential glimmer of hope. ‘Then you should let them know that the château isn’t suitable. There’s still time to call off the wedding. Find a more fitting venue.’ Despite the terse words, he wasn’t stupid enough to believe that anywhere would be available at such short notice.
At the look of hurt surprise in her eyes, he felt like he’d just kicked a kitten, but needs must. ‘I’m sorry the château isn’t up to scratch but better for them to know sooner rather than later.’
And just when she was starting to like Luc Brémont, he went and said something like that. Worse still, before she could say anything, like a big arrogant château owner, he got up, left his half-drunk coffee and walked out as if the whole matter was over and done with.
With hunched shoulders Hattie sat and drank the rest of her coffee in moody slurps. There was absolutely no way on earth she was telling her uncle or her cousin that the wedding had to be called off. She needed to get this one under her belt – her career relied upon it. She had to get some truly fantastic pictures to create an eye-catching portfolio for the website she was planning to help her get her business off the ground. This was her big chance. And it was exactly the sort of thing a wedding planner had to be resourceful about. Unplanned obstacles were always cropping up. How many times had she had to swing into action to come up with an acceptable compromise when something had gone wrong? The job was always stressful but that was also part of the fun. You never knew what would be thrown at you and she was a great believer in ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’.
She would hire a team of cleaners, that’s what she’d do, as Gabby was already pressing her for pictures of the interiors.
She was going to prove that she could handle anything. With Luc Bremont’s help or not.
ChapterSix
The next morning, Hattie reviewed her plans as she drank her coffee and ate one of the big buttery croissants that had appeared in the kitchen as promised by Solange. In the mornings she would carry on with wedding planning admin, liaising with the caterers, the florist, the printers and the celebrant, and supervise the cleaning of the main reception rooms that she thought should be used, so that she could send Gabby pictures. Until she could get a cleaning team on board, she’d make a start herself in the afternoons. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t had plenty of practice. Somehow she’d fallen into the role of managing the house for Chris and his mother.
There was no sign of Luc although she’d heard the shower in the room next door earlier on. She sighed and told herself she was not feeling lonely. It was just that she wasn’t used to being on her own. Her phone rang and she glanced at the caller ID. Chris. She caught her lip between her teeth. For the last couple of days, she’d been ignoring his calls and he’d left a few desperate messages on her voicemail. Guilt gnawed at her as the shrill ringtone sounded again. Paralysed by indecision, she let it ring.
‘Your phone’s ringing,’ Luc pointed out unhelpfully, of course sauntering into the kitchen at that very moment, with still damp hair, rubbing at it with a towel, and wearing a white waffle robe which accentuated the golden tan of his chest exposed by the V in the fabric.
He looked mouth-wateringly gorgeous but she managed to level a hard Paddington-worthy stare at him, while in her head she was telling herself, ‘Don’t look at his chest, don’t look at his chest, don’t look at his chest.’ To her relief the phone rang off.
‘It’s not now,’ she said, childishly.
He smirked at her. ‘Ah, croissants.’ He helped himself to one and a coffee from the cafetière that she’d made earlier and sat down.
‘Help yourself,’ she said calmly.
‘Thanks,’ he said with a grin and then took a generous spoonful of jam and dipped the end of his croissant in it.
He closed his eyes with evident enjoyment and munched on his first mouthful of the flaky, buttery pastry. She was surprised by the quick rush of pleasure she found in watching him.
Disconcerted, she brought things back to the practical. ‘I thought perhaps to save Solange extra work, as she wasn’t expecting me –’ and she was clearly struggling with the house ‘– I’d do a food shop … perhaps for both of us.’
‘There’s hardly any point, is there?’ said Luc finally swallowing his mouthful.
She frowned. ‘Why not?’
‘Well, you’ll be leaving soon, won’t you? Have you spoken to your uncle yet?’
She huffed out a mirthless laugh. ‘I don’t give up that easily. Don’t worry I shall sort everything out. That’s what we wedding planners do,’ she said with more confidence than she felt. How hard could it be to find a team of cleaners? Surely she could find a way of asking Solange what the cleaning arrangements were without insinuating that she hadn’t been doing a very good job managing them.
Her phone rang again. Luc raised an eyebrow. The moment was pure Mexican standoff.
She certainly wasn’t going to talk to Chris for the first time in days with Luc listening in. She hadn’t spoken to him since they’d broken up but wasn’t that the point of breaking up with someone – you didn’t have to talk to them anymore? After all it had been his decision, although maybe that was unfair. He’d never expected her to take his knee-jerk ultimatum at face value. Perhaps she did owe it to him to talk to him.
‘Someone really wants to speak to you.’
Her jaw tightened and tension pinged at the muscles in her shoulders. For a second she was back in the kitchen in Chris’s house. She could feel the same old tight bands around her temples and that dulling sense of resignation and responsibility. It was like being dragged back under again.
Then, to her surprise, Luc’s face softened. ‘Are you okay?’
Tears blurred her vision for a second and she had to swallow hard a couple of times but she still couldn’t speak.
