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I fully intended to handle this situation, with or without her permission, but I needed to make sure she was being properly taken care of before I could leave.
‘Mr Allegri is right, Edie.’ Jude tightened her arm on her sister’s shoulders before she could argue further. ‘We can worry about the money again tomorrow. It’s not like the problem’s going to disappear if you worry about it more now.’
I said nothing as I watched her sister usher her up the stairs. Edie allowed herself to be led, the last of the fight having drained out of her. The sight of those bowed shoulders and her painful movements made it hard for me to speak round the ball of outrage in my throat.
When they reached the landing, Jude glanced over her shoulder. ‘Thank you so much, Mr Allegri.’ Her gaze landed on Joe and her skin flushed a becoming shade of pink. ‘And you too, Mr Donnelly. I consider you both knights in shining armour. I can’t thank you enough for saving Edie from that brute.’
I didn’t want her thanks, any more than I had wanted Edie’s. And I knew damn well I was the opposite of a knight—in or out of armour. But I nodded anyway.
‘Would you be okay to see yourselves out?’ she added, her request gentle but firm. I nodded again. I had a job to do before I returned to check on Edie.
As Joe and I left the chateau, it occurred to me that while Edie was the bolder of the two sisters, Jude had a quiet strength that was equally impressive.
‘Jude told me that creep Carsoni is at the bottom of this,’ Joe growled as we walked down the driveway towards the helicopter. ‘Apparently they owe him some astronomical amount of money—and the debt just keeps increasing.’
‘I know,’ I said as I climbed into the cockpit of the helicopter, my fury at the whole situation flaring again. ‘Rest assured, by tomorrow they will owe him nothing.’
CHAPTER NINE
I GROANED AS I rolled over in bed the following morning, awoken by the shaft of sunlight streaming through the old casement window in my bedroom. The pain in my cheekbone and my elbow though didn’t hurt as much as the hollow ache in my stomach at the thought that this would be my last summer at Belle Rivière.
I crawled out of bed and walked over to the window seat where I had spent countless lazy hours reading books on everything from geometry to Gauguin to Green Gables in those idyllic summer months when our mother had been vivacious and happy, usually because she had a new protector. That state of bliss had never lasted very long—because rich, powerful men had a tendency to get easily bored, especially when the woman they were dating had the sort of emotional baggage my needy, insecure mother carried with her everywhere she went. But in the brief weeks and months of a new affair Jude and I had learned to be as inconspicuous and undemanding as possible, so that my mother could concentrate on the new man in her life. And stay happy. That usually meant boarding schools in England in the winter months and Belle Rivière in the summer, where we would stay with the staff while my mother gallivanted about the country on the arm of her new beau.
The boarding schools would change frequently, according to my mother’s whim and what the man she was currently attached to was prepared to pay for our education. But summers in Belle Rivière had been the one constant in our lives. And it was here that I missed her the most.
My mother had been far from perfect, but on her good days she had been a force of nature that could line any dark cloud with dazzling silver sparkles. If she was here now, she would be able to take the worry away—probably with an impromptu picnic or a dress-up party—she’d never been good on finding practical solutions but she had been a master of delightful distractions. When she died, all the light and laughter was sucked out of my life and Jude’s. And, however impractical it was, I would do anything for even a tiny glimmer of those dazzling sparkles right now.
I sat down and gazed out of the window at a scene I had come to love over those frenetic summers. But all I could see was the beauty I was going to lose.
The forest of oaks and pines and spruce marked the perimeter of the sixteen-acre property, the ruins of an old stone chapel in the distance overgrown with wild roses. A carpet of poppies added a splash of vibrant red to the intense greens of the meadow leading down to the river. I prised open the window latch, forced open the swollen frame and breathed in the perfume of wild flowers and pine sap I had come to adore. I could hear the musical tinkle of the river in the distance which wound its way along the bottom of the meadow shielded by the valley of trees and reminded me of my mother’s laughter—bright and bubbly and so beguiling.
I swallowed heavily. How was I going to survive without this oasis in my life? After losing my mother, I wasn’t sure I could bear to lose this too.
I squeezed my fingers to the bridge of my nose and then wiped away the tear that slid over my sore cheek.
‘Edie, at last you’re up.’
I turned and winced, my neck muscles protesting at the sudden movement. Jude stood in the doorway, grinning.
‘Hi,’ I grumbled, massaging the stiffness.
‘How are you feeling?’ she asked as she rushed across the room, her voice a mixture of concern and something that sounded weirdly like excitement.
‘I’m okay,’ I said, determined not to worry her any more than I had already. ‘I just wish...’ I blinked. Don’t cry—it’ll only make this situation worse. ‘I wish I could have found a way for us to keep Belle Rivière.’
If only I could burrow into a ball in the centre of my bed and make all the worries disappear, the way I’d sometimes had to do as a little girl, when I could hear my mother’s crying, or the feral sounds of lovemaking from her room next door, which had always confused and frightened me.
Jude plopped herself opposite me and took my hand in hers. ‘I think we can save Belle Rivière after all, because I’ve got some news.’
‘What news?’ I said, wanting to believe her but unable to shift the lump of failure and old grief wedged in my throat.
‘Incredible, incredible news,’ Jude said, grasping my hands and enjoying the suspense. ‘Dante Allegri just called—he’s got Carsoni to cancel the debt. We don’t owe that bastard another cent.’
‘He’s...? What?’ That got my attention. I stared at her blankly, forcing myself to quash the leap of pure joy in my heart. A hope dashed was so much harder to bear than no hope at all. ‘But... How did he manage that?’
‘I have no idea,’ she said, her smile so bright it hurt my eyes. ‘I didn’t
ask, because I really don’t care. All I care about is that no one ever hurts you like that again. If we get to keep Belle Rivière that’s even better.’ She clasped my arms, but the hope starting to bloom under my breastbone meant I couldn’t even feel the bruises. ‘But you’re the only thing I really care about,’ she said. ‘I should never have let you take the risks you did.’ She glanced around the room—the faded curtains, the moth-eaten rug, the worn bed sheets. ‘I love this place too, but nothing’s more important to me than you, Edie.’
