Page 12 of A French Inheritance

Briony woke the next morning determined to talk to her mum, to try to make sense of the situation. Jeannie was humming happily to herself as Briony walked into the kitchen. ‘Morning. Coffee is ready. Toast okay today?’

‘Thanks, toast is good. You sound happy.’

‘I saw a kingfisher down by the lake last evening and Giselle always said they were lucky birds. It made me feel happy for the future.’ Jeannie smiled at her. ‘Did you sleep well?’

Briony nodded. ‘Took time to drop off, but otherwise okay. And I love being woken by the dawn chorus.’

Sitting at the kitchen table sipping her coffee, she waited for Jeannie to place the toast on the table and sit down with her. Time to address that elephant in the room.

‘Mum, I know you said you’d be happy to sell up and come here to live on your own. But do you truly want to do that? It’s not simply a ploy to keep the cottage available for me in case I sell it now, but sometime in the future I change my mind and regret not coming here to live?’

‘It’s not a ploy. I’d love to live here.

I love the place,’ Jeannie said. ‘I tried for years to persuade your father to let us move back, but unfortunately, despite being born in this very cottage, he never wanted to return to live here. He preferred living in England. I could never understand that. It was one of the few things that we disagreed on.’

‘After he died, you could have moved over, lived with Granny.’ Briony looked at Jeannie. ‘Why did Granny move to England so you could care for her for the last years of her life? Why didn’t you come here? Save her the upheaval.’

Her words fell into a silence as Jeannie returned her look before answering.

‘Isn’t it obvious? I didn’t want to leave you.

I could see your marriage wasn’t as happy as you deserved and I wanted to be around for you in case the worst happened.

Granny felt the same way. She decided that she’d rather be with me and close to you rather than on her own in France. ’

‘Gee, thanks,’ Briony said. ‘Now I feel guiltier than ever. Granny could have stayed in her own home and you could have lived in France.’

‘Don’t. You have nothing to feel guilty over,’ Jeannie said. ‘Granny was happy living with me. As far as she was concerned, we’d made the right decision.’

‘I did appreciate all the support when I left Marcus,’ Briony admitted. ‘But I wish I’d known the truth.’ She picked up a piece of buttered toast and nibbled it before glancing at her mother. ‘The thing is, I don’t feel that I deserve to inherit the cottage.’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ Jeannie said, trying to keep the exasperation out of her voice. ‘Deserve has nothing to do with it. French law dictates you’re the nearest relative, therefore you inherit the cottage. Giselle was so happy that it was going to a family member she loved.’

‘I wish I knew what to do. I keep going round and round in circles. My heart says I’m so lucky to have inherited the cottage and to have the opportunity to live here in France.

But my head says no. It’s not practical.

I need an income. It’s going to take time for my French to be up to scratch again, I’ve used it so little for years.

So I need to work in England. I suppose I could work remotely online for a company there, if that’s allowed. ’

‘I think you need to stop analysing things and listen to what you, in your heart of hearts, want. Things have a habit of working out when you give them time,’ Jeannie said.

‘Try to put it out of your mind for a day or two. We have an appointment with the notaire soon, maybe he will be able to explain if French laws allow you to work remotely for a foreign country whilst living here.’

‘Not sure putting it out of my mind will work, but I’ll try.’ Briony hunched her shoulders and let them drop as she exhaled a deep breath. ‘I just want to make the right decision for both of us.’

There was a short silence before Jeannie said, ‘Shall we make a start today going through the cottage and Granny’s things?

It’s not a job I’m looking forward to, but we have to do it, so sooner rather than later, I think.

Then we can have a trip out to Giselle’s favourite charity in Mouans-Sartoux with the clothes and books we need to get rid of. ’

‘Yes, let’s do that,’ Briony said, jumping up. ‘We’ll start with the sitting room, followed by dining room, shall we? Not quite so personal,’ she added quietly.

The downstairs rooms might not be as personal a room as a bedroom, but Briony soon discovered there was a definite problem in deciding what to get rid of and what to keep.

In the sitting room, she pointed out the things she’d like to keep to her mother. ‘The writing bureau, the Chesterfield settees, maybe just one, maybe two of the winged armchairs, and a couple of the side tables.’

Walking through to the dining room, she continued.

‘Definitely need to keep the dinner service and the lovely glasses, but not sure about the buffet, although it is a really nice nineteenth-century one,’ Briony said, opening and closing the doors.

‘And I love the round table. That’s definitely a keeper.

What about you? Anything in here you would like? ’

Jeannie looked at her, surprised. ‘First, I have a question – if you’re not going to live here, what are you going to do with it all? Transporting it back to the UK is going to be expensive and right now you’re not even living in your own home with somewhere to put things.’

Briony was silent for a moment. ‘Basically, what you’re actually saying is, before we can start to do anything, I have to decide: do I keep the place and move in, sell up, or agree to you moving over to live in Owls Nest?’

‘That about sums it up,’ Jeannie nodded.

Briony bit her lip thoughtfully. ‘So, hypothetically speaking, would you want the cottage with the current furniture or would you bring your own if you were to move over?’

‘Hypothetically speaking,’ Jeannie said slowly. ‘I’d bring a few pieces of my own, nothing major, as I would like the majority of the furniture here to stay in situ. It suits the cottage.’

‘Okay. Maybe we should have started with Granny’s personal effects rather than her furniture. But they’re going to be difficult too.’

Briony gave a deep sigh. Trying to let things work themselves out didn’t appear to be an option. She was definitely under pressure now to make life-changing decisions for both herself and her mother. If only there was a clear answer as to what she should do.

* * *

Lucy made sure Adam put on a clean gilet and combed his hair before they walked out to the field to make the short video to share with their YouTube followers on their so-far secret project.

‘I’m a working farmer,’ Adam protested. ‘I’m not going to dress up around the farm.’

‘You still need to look presentable,’ Lucy said. ‘Did you look at the questions I’m going to ask you so you’ve got your answers in your head?’

Adam nodded.

‘Good. I’ve done an intro already, so when you’re ready I’ll start the video and ask the first question.’

Adam nodded as he opened the gate into the field and they both walked through.

‘Gosh, they’re really growing, aren’t they?’ Lucy said, looking at the rows of plants and their glossy green leaves. ‘Okay, let’s start walking and talking – I’m switching on. So, explain why we’re growing avocados here in the South of France?’

‘Traditionally, avocados are grown in hot countries like Mexico and Peru. Global warming is now a scientific fact and the South of France – already hot in summer – is going to get hotter. Consumer demand for avocados has risen rapidly here during the last few years and we buy tonnes of the fruit, which sadly means creating a large carbon footprint. If we can grow and sell them here, lowering that footprint is an immediate benefit. But they are not easy plants to grow, the ground has to be thoroughly weed-free and clean and checked for essential minerals like copper. Another environmental concern is water. Avocados need a steady input of water. The average rainfall down here on the Riviera is about thirty-two inches, which is roughly 812 mm. And that rain generally falls between October to May.’

‘Is watering likely to be a problem for us?’

Adam shook his head. ‘Thankfully, here on the farm, we have a lake fed by an underground spring, so I’m confident that water is not going to be a problem.

Locals have assured me that the spring here has never dried up.

And, certainly, over the last eighteen months since we planted the avocados, there hasn’t been a problem with water. ’

‘How much of the farm have we given over to growing avocados?’ Lucy asked.

‘As it’s an experimental crop, we’ve started with one hundred and fifty plants on one acre, which is roughly half a hectare.

So quite small. But we do have plans to increase it to a full hectare.

As you can see, they are planted in rows and each plant is twenty feet by twenty feet – or six metres – away from its nearest neighbour. So they do need quite a bit of land.’

‘Why have we kept quiet about this project until now?’

‘There was a lot of work involved in getting the ground ready, buying and planting the plants. Incidentally, the plants are grown in the Var, so they’re local plants – no long air journey to get them here.

We were warned that there was bound to be what they call gapping when plants die and would have to be replaced.

So we wanted to make sure we had something to show for all the effort that has gone into establishing the future crop. ’

‘And have we lost many?’

Adam nodded. ‘Yes. We’ve lost about thirty. The replacement plants seem to be doing okay.’

‘So now we have told everyone, what happens next?’

‘Well, nobody should expect to buy our home-grown avocados in the near future, We have at least two years before we can expect to see signs of fruit and then they have to reach a certain size. Could possibly be as long as another five years, but hopefully sooner. In the meantime, we have to maintain clean ground, provide adequate water, do some pruning, maybe grafting, and generally make sure they’re happy plants.

’ Adam smiled at Lucy. ‘It is not a quick crop and it is a lot of work. Fingers crossed, we can pull it off and help diminish that carbon footprint at least a little.’

‘Fingers crossed indeed,’ Lucy said before panning a general view of the crop for about twenty seconds before stopping the video. ‘That’s great. I’ll edit it later and add a final voiceover.’

Adam gave a sigh of relief. ‘Do I get a cup of tea now and the last piece of that coffee and walnut cake?’