‘The bedrooms are all equipped with those facilities and I can set up a coffee station in the main dining room, where everyone can help themselves at any time,’ Guy said.
‘That would be good and I’ll buy a large supply of palmier biscuits. Writers always need coffee and biscuits. Thankfully for this retreat there are no dietary requirements – not a gluten-, dairy-free or vegan amongst them.’
‘It’s astonishing how “dietary requirements” have become a thing in recent years,’ Guy said. ‘It was beginning to drive Jacqueline and I demented – what with veganism, no dairy, no gluten, there was no room left on the menu for good old-fashioned vegetarianism.’
Sandy looked at her laptop. ‘Next thing on the agenda is getting the villa ready. Does it need a house cleaning company to go through from top to bottom? I take it you haven’t been waving the feather duster around during the last eight months?’
Guy shook his head. ‘No, I haven’t. I’ll ring the agency we used to use and see if they can help. I’m going to need daily help for the fortnight, help in the kitchen and a waitress. Oh, and a gardener too – the garden is a shambles.’ He ran his hand through his hair. ‘God, there’s so much work involved getting the place back up and running and so little time. I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t agreed.’
‘Well, you did and I’m holding you to it,’ Sandy said sternly. ‘I can help with lots of the preparation. Romain too. We just need to get organised. And I’m an ace organiser.’
5
ENGLAND
Helena Mitchell was in her room at home, writing a short story to send to one of the UK’s popular women’s magazines when her email pinged with an incoming mail from AntibesRetreats.
Dear Helena Mitchell,
I’m looking forward to welcoming you to ‘AntibesRetreats’ on the 7th of May. Unfortunately, the original retreat villa booked for this retreat is no longer available due to flood damage. Thankfully I have found an alternative venue. The retreat will now be held in Villa Celestia, a stunning villa situated on the coast road between Antibes and Juan-les-Pins.
Your booking form says you are travelling with your friend, Amanda Burnett, and you intend to share a taxi from Nice airport. If you have changed your minds about this and need meeting, please let me know and I will arrange transport.
See you soon – just ask the taxi driver for Villa Celestia, Antibes. He will know where it is.
Best wishes,
Sandy Thoreau
Fleetingly, Helena almost wished the retreat had been cancelled. That would have solved her dilemma.
She sighed. For days now, she’d been wondering about cancelling the booking she’d made a couple of months ago. It was something she’d booked in a moment or two of uncharacteristic self-indulgence, urged on by Mandy, her best friend, and too many glasses of wine one evening.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go, she definitely did, but in the excitement of booking, she’d overlooked the fact that her thirty-first birthday was in the middle of the second week of the retreat. Her mum, Joan, had assured her it didn’t matter, they’d celebrate when she got home. Helena still felt guilty, though, especially as Leon, her brother, wouldn’t be home either for his thirty-fourth birthday the day after. Working as a yacht engineer on the luxury yacht of an uber-rich American, he was busy travelling the world. The last time he’d been home had been at Christmas and apparently in his most recent video call with their mum he’d said he wasn’t expecting to be back in England until late summer at the earliest.
With back-to-back birthdays and just three years separating them, it was inevitable growing up that they’d often celebrated with a joint birthday party and celebrating the two birthdays became an important family occasion whilst the two of them were young. Helena had been a bit of a tomboy growing up and had enjoyed all the activity birthday celebrations – rock climbing, horse riding, ten-pin bowling all had been favourites. It wasn’t until the year she said no to sky-diving that the joint activity parties fizzled out. They continued to always have a celebratory meal together with a birthday cake when they were both at home, which was increasingly rare these days – a consequence of growing up and living separate lives – but they always spoke to each other on the day, which nowadays invariably meant a lengthy video catching-up session. Since their dad, Harry, had died they’d both made the conscious decision that at least one of them would try to be at home for family celebrations with their mother. Inevitably, it usually turned out to be Helena as she still lived with her mum and worked in the nearby town of Bath.
Helena sighed and decided she’d take her mum’s word that she truly didn’t mind and make it up to her during the summer. There was another ten days’ holiday leave left for later in the year when she could make it up to her mum and they could go somewhere together. Maybe even meet up with Leon in one of the far-flung places that he seemed to frequent. She’d drop him a WhatsApp message later telling him her plans. There was a slim chance that the yacht he worked on might be back in the Mediterranean after wintering in the Bahamas.
Helena knew that Teddy, too, was disappointed she would be away for her birthday, but, like her mum, had philosophically accepted it, knowing how much she was looking forward to the writers’ retreat. Helena smiled to herself at the thought of Teddy, whom she could finally call her boyfriend after years of being just friends.
Teddy, real name Edward Dawson, had been in her life forever, living in the same village, going to the same schools. He and her brother Leon were the same age and had been inseparable growing up and were still firm friends. Helena had spent her childhood trailing along behind them, wanting to do what they did. Sometimes they let her, sometimes they didn’t.
Helena had known for years that she loved Teddy in the real sense of the word, not just as a second brother. There was no comparison between him and the men she reluctantly dated in her twenties. The problem was Teddy didn’t seem to feel the same about her. Even as she’d celebrated her thirtieth birthday, he had still been teasing and treating her like Leon’s kid sister. To add insult to injury, Helena had often been forced to sit by and watch as Teddy dated other girls – and then been asked for her sisterly advice about why it had all gone wrong.
It was only a couple of months ago, after she’d decided enough was enough and put a plan in place to get his attention that things had changed. She’d promised herself if the plan didn’t work and he still didn’t see her as the woman she was, well, at least she had tried. But the plan had worked and she’d learnt something surprising – not to mention annoying.
Teddy, a trained surveyor, had moved away for work, before being headhunted by a local firm and returning to live in Bath. He’d sold his London flat and bought a run-down town house near the centre of town but spent a lot of time with his mother Maureen in the village they’d all grown up in on the outskirts of the town. Last New Year’s Eve, Teddy had invited Leon and Helena to begin the evening with him in his townhouse and then the three of them could wander into Bath and join the street celebrations. But Leon’s Christmas New Year break had been cut short when the yacht agency he worked for needed him to go to Gibraltar urgently to help sort out a stranded yacht and Helena had gone by herself to spend the evening with Teddy. Secretly she’d been glad of Leon’s absence because it made it easier for her to finally put the plan she’d decided upon into action.
The New Year’s Eve streets had been crowded, noisy and fun, with excitement mounting the nearer the clock got to midnight. When the bells had started to strike midnight, Helena and Teddy were standing together amongst a crowd of people lustily singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’. As the fireworks burst across the sky, Helena had turned to Teddy and put her plan into action. ‘Happy New Year, Teddy darling’ and she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him firmly on the lips. A split second later, he was holding her tight and kissing her back.
When they finally drew apart, they had looked at each other in shock.
‘Wow,’ Teddy had said. ‘I wasn’t expecting that.’
Helena had given him a dazed smile. Her plan had seemingly worked. She was reeling from that kiss and it seemed Teddy did actually like her too. But his next words wiped the smile off her face.
Teddy’s arms had dropped to his side as he spoke. ‘Leon is going to want to kill me,’ he’d said, shaking his head. ‘But I shall die a happy man.’
