Page 33 of Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure

Winter soon turned into spring. The breeze was scented and had a softness to it.

The mimosa flowered with yellow puffy blossoms everywhere.

Cyclamens bloomed. Birds sang. The chickens were installed in a new pen at the back of the garden.

Vegetables were planted. Each of the women was busy with her own activities.

Dora tried her hand at painting with Clive, although, as she confessed, she would never be a Van Gogh.

Ellie went down the steps and took cooking lessons with Henri.

Also, the viscount had returned from Paris in the new year, and Ellie found herself invited to his chateau.

She felt awkward about this because the invitation did not include the others.

“For goodness’ sakes go,” Dora said. “He’s a useful contact, at the very least, or you may find yourself a marchioness.”

“Don’t be silly. He would make a terrible husband. He’s too young for me anyway,” she replied.

“I don’t like coming without the other women,” Ellie said to him when she visited the chateau. “It doesn’t feel right.”

Roland waved an imperious hand. “Just because I like you does not mean I have to embrace your nearest and dearest,” he said. “Each person must live her own life, no?”

And so a weekly lunch became a standard practice.

Ellie invited him to the villa, but he usually refused.

He liked to be amongst his own things, he said.

Ellie found him strange but endearing. He had a wicked sense of humour, a keen observation of life, but he never really opened up about himself.

He was too young to be shut away and to be so set in his ways.

Perhaps aristocrats were different, she thought.

She remembered that her mother, also the child of an aristocrat of sorts, had had very set habits and opinions.

She also kept her emotions firmly shut away.

Mavis, ever busy with her housework, cooking and sewing, also practiced her French.

Only Yvette seemed restless and anxious.

Ellie understood this. She was awaiting the birth of a baby she could probably not keep or care for.

Ellie toyed with thoughts: Would Yvette want to stay with them once the baby was born?

Would they want her indefinitely? She seemed grateful, but she had never gone out of her way to be friendly to any of them.

She only spoke when spoken to. She often shut herself away in her room, and she rarely offered to help around the house unless asked to.

Mavis had always been suspicious of her, and Ellie thought this was because they couldn’t communicate. But now Mavis was coming along well with her French and tried talking to the girl. Ellie found her up feeding the chickens one day.

“I thought Yvette was doing this,” she said. “You shouldn’t have to. You do far too much as it is, Mavis.”

“Her!” Mavis pursed her lips. “She don’t do nothing unless you’re watching her.

” She threw the last of the corn down for the birds, then brushed her hands against her apron.

“You know what I think,” she said. “I don’t believe that girl was ever on a farm.

She didn’t have much clue about what to do with chickens.

What farm girl would not know about chickens?

She was actually scared of them. And she didn’t help much with the planting or weeding, did she? ”

“So what are you saying, Mavis?” Ellie asked.

“I’m saying she ain’t—isn’t—what she says she is. I don’t know who she is or what she’s doing here, but I get a feeling she’s up to no good.”

Ellie shook her head. “I don’t see how she could be up to no good here, Mavis. She’s clearly expecting a baby soon, and she hasn’t received any communication from the father as far as we know. We’ve taken her in, and where else would she have gone?”

Mavis shrugged. “I don’t know. I just don’t think she’s telling us the truth. I think she’s pulling the wool over our eyes somehow.”

Ellie collected eggs, then walked back with Mavis. She found Yvette lying in her room. Yvette sat up guiltily when Ellie knocked. “Oh madame, you startled me,” she said. “I was just resting. My back. It hurts me, you know. I carry much weight.”

“I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. I think your time will be quite soon now.

” She sat down on the bed beside Yvette.

“Have you decided what you want to do when the baby comes? Obviously you don’t have to make any decision in a hurry, but it is good to think through how you want your future to be.

Do you plan to keep the child? I am sure we can help you find a good home for it so that you can get on with your life. ”

Yvette gave a big sigh. “I don’t know what to think, madame,” she said.

“You have still heard nothing from your young man? He doesn’t know about the baby?”

“I have written to him,” Yvette said. “I still have hope.”

“You have heard from him?”

“Not exactly. But I still keep hoping ...”

“Yvette,” Ellie said, her voice solemn for once, “I don’t understand you. You haven’t seemed happy here with us. You don’t want to help around the house or to work.”

“Oh madame, I am grateful. Most truly I am.” Yvette clutched Ellie’s hand. “But everything has been so hard. And I worry so much.”

“I understand that. It is hard for you. But now we must make plans for the future. You must tell me what your wishes are, and I will do my best for you.”

“My wish is that Gaston returns and I marry him,” she said. “But one cannot always have one’s wishes.”

“But Yvette, you say you have written to him, but he has not written back to you. Do you really think he will want to accept this child?”

“I hope so,” she said. She looked away, averting her eyes from Ellie’s scrutiny.

“Yvette,” Ellie said, “Mavis has always been suspicious of you.”

“She doesn’t like me,” Yvette said. “Because I am foreign.”

“No, that’s not true. She likes everyone else here.”

“She likes that Louis,” Yvette said, giving a sneaky smile. “I saw them together. He put his arm around her.”

“I’m glad. She deserves to be happy,” Ellie said. “But Mavis thinks you have not been telling us the truth. You were not from a farm, were you? You know nothing about chickens. You don’t want to work hard. I don’t even know if you have a young man in the army.”

Yvette’s face turned red.

“We have taken you in and fed you and looked after you,” Ellie continued. “I think we have the right to know the truth. So who are you and where do you come from?”

Yvette went to reply angrily, then she seemed to deflate and sank back against the pillows. “Very well. I suppose you have a right to know. I am not from a farm. I’m from the city of Lyon. My lover is not Gaston. He is not in the army. He is Pierre Lupin, and he is in prison.”

“In prison. What for?”

“A robbery. A stupid robbery,” she said. “He wanted money for us to marry. When he was arrested, I ran away because I thought they would come for me, too.”

“You were involved?”

“He hid things he stole at our apartment. I did not realize they were stolen.”

“Then you are better off without him,” Ellie said. “How long is his prison term?”

“They said five years.” She turned away. “I didn’t know what to do. I had no money to pay rent, and I feared they would arrest me.”

“I’m very sorry for you,” Ellie said. “You have found yourself in a difficult position. My advice would be to give up the baby to be adopted and then get yourself a good honest job, start a new life here on the C?te d’Azur.”

“Yes,” Yvette said. “Perhaps you are right. Perhaps it is the best thing to do.” But she didn’t sound convinced.

“Do you love him, this Pierre?”

“Oh yes,” Yvette said. “And I’m sure he loves me, too. That is why he took such risks for us to be together.”

Ellie’s brain was racing. Could they keep Yvette and her child until Pierre was released and the little family could be together?

That would be the kind thing to do, but five years .

.. That was a long time. And Yvette hadn’t exactly endeared herself to any of them.

She didn’t do her share of the work. She didn’t make an effort to learn English or improve her own reading and writing skills.

She was, in short, not an asset to their little community.

But on the other hand, could they really turn her out with a young child?

Ellie confided these fears to Dora. “She’s not our responsibility,” Dora said.

“You were kind enough to take her in, but you don’t owe her anything more.

” And yet Ellie did feel responsible. But Yvette could not stay with them forever.

She had to get on with her life, and that certainly meant giving up the baby.

When it’s born I’ll go into Marseille and find a convent that helps to adopt babies, she thought.

In the meantime there was plenty to keep her busy.

With the better weather English visitors had arrived to stay at the pension: a Colonel Rutherford, formerly of the army in India, two single ladies—Miss Barnes and Miss Furness, former schoolteachers—and a mother and daughter, the Cartwrights.

They were all so stereotypical of what one would expect that Ellie tried not to smile when she met them.

They talked about the threat of war, of Mr Chamberlain cleverly making peace with that monster Hitler.

“Of course he’d never have the gumption to tackle us,” the colonel said. “He knows what a thumping they got in the last war.”

They also complained about French food and lack of good tea—“We always bring our own, my dear, but they never boil the water properly”—and talked about the weather.

The colonel seemed to take an instant shine to Ellie.

At first she found this amusing, then, when he tried to seek out her company, annoying.

The doctor’s wife invited them all to musical evenings where Miss Cartwright sang badly while Ellie played the piano.

As she observed them, she felt glad that she had left England behind.

So much pettiness, she thought, and remembered so many similar and boring conversations.

The English visitors ate dinner at Henri’s bar. Henri complained about them as Ellie practiced making a tarte tatin with him one day. “It’s always no garlic. No onions. No spices. And couldn’t we have a nice steak and kidney pie instead.”

Ellie laughed. “I could return the favour and teach you how to make a nice steak and kidney pie,” she said. “Or better still, I’ll make one for you. You’ve been very kind to me.”

“That would be something, wouldn’t it?” He laughed. “I’d like to see their faces when we put it in front of them.”

“All right,” Ellie said. “You acquire the steak and kidneys, and I’ll make it.”