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She walked slowly up the garden path, enjoying the aroma of the lavender and the warm sun. Gabi’s garden was truly a work of art. Perhaps Provence was not as utterly devoid of culture as she’d assumed.
A rustling sound from the other side of the garden caught her attention. “Oh no! Fleur.” The dark goat was stepping through Gabi’s herbs.
Julia looked around, hoping to see Gabi or one of the Laurents nearby to help, but no one was in sight. Only the two cats watched her from their perch on the garden wall. “Go on, Fleur. Shoo.” She waved her hands, but the goat looked at her and kept chewing.
Julia glanced back at the storage building. She was not going to interrupt Luc again. She’d disturbed him enough for one day. She pushed the lavender into her apron pocket and clapped her hands together loudly. “Fleur,allez-vous en!Get out of the garden.” But the noise didn’t seem to bother the goat either.
Julia moved closer. The goat was larger than it had seemed when Gabi had been pulling on its rope. And it had two little horns. Would it charge at her? Did goats bite?
“You’re a nice goat, aren’t you, Fleur?” She crouched down slowly, picking up the lead rope. “Now, come along.” She gave the rope a little tug.
Fleur didn’t budge.
Julia tugged harder, and the goat took a step forward. “There you go.” She hoped she didn’t hurt the animal, pulling on the rope as she did. But Fleur seemed not to mind. “Let’s get you back to the Laurents’,” she said in as pleasant a voice as she could manage.
Not wanting to turn her back on the animal and give her the chance to charge at Julia or bite her heels, Julia walked backward through the garden, speaking in a soft voice as she pulled the rope. The goat didn’t protest, but she didn’t make the task easy, either. Fleur walked slowly and stopped every few steps to munch on some other plant in the garden. “That’s it, time to go home. Gabi does not like it when you eat her herbs. You should know better.”
When Julia reached the fence between the two properties, she stopped, not sure what to do with Fleur. Should she take the animal to the Laurents’ front door or leave her at the fence where they would find her? Julia knew the goat could untie a knot, so she didn’t think tying Fleur to the fence would work. She would just get back into the garden.
Julia looked around for a moment, wishing for a solution to materialize. If the Laurents were like Gabi, they would milk the goat in the evening—so Alice should come out at any time, looking for Fleur.
Julia spotted a tree, well away from Gabi’s garden but near the Laurents’ fence. It had a low enough branch that Julia could easily tie the goat’s rope to it, but the goat couldn’t reach to chew on the knot. And there were plenty of weeds and nonflowering bushes under the tree for Fleur to eat while she waited. It was the perfect solution.
Julia pulled the goat to the tree. “Here you go, Fleur. Now, stay here and wait for Alice.” She tied the rope tightly to the branch and then reached out with a tentative hand to pat the goat on its neck. “Good girl.”
The purr of a tabby cat and the smell of baking bread greeted her when she entered Gabi’s kitchen. Julia had so many questions for Gabi. She wanted to know everything about Luc’s art. Why didn’t he tell anyone about his talent? Why was his art hidden away in a storage shed? But when she came inside, a wave of exhaustion hit, and she decided to ask her questions later, when she’d had time to consider exactly the words to use. She didn’t want to offend or to sound nosy.
Julia listened to Gabi chatter as they finished preparing supper and put a cake into the oven, but her thoughts kept going back to the events of the day, especially those events that involved Luc.
Chapter Nine
After dinner, Julia helped cleanand put away the dishes but excused herself before dessert and Gabi’s proposed card game. While she did enjoy cards, she didn’t imagine she would make very good company. Her arms and back ached from moving pots and crates, and had it really been only this morning that she had found the scorpion? Julia wanted nothing more than a warm bath and a good night’s sleep.
She bid the others good night and started up the stairs, but a pounding on the front door stopped her.
“Gabrielle Martin, open this door at once.”
Alice Laurent’s voice was loud and sounded very angry. Julia came back down the stairs just as Gabi came into the entry hall, muttering about rude neighbors interrupting her game of piquet.
Luc was right behind her.
When Gabi opened the door, Alice pushed her way inside, forcing Gabi to take a step back. The neighbor’s face was red, and her expression was furious. She looked at Luc and Julia but appeared too angry to even give a greeting. She glared at Gabi and took a step toward her. “This time you have gone too far, Gabrielle. How dare you do such a thing?”
Luc pushed his hands into his pockets and leaned a shoulder against the wall. He let out a breath, looking as if he’d like to escape, but he was trapped now that Alice had seen him.
“And what is it this time, eh? Has your hen laid in my garden again?” Gabi folded her arms and gave her neighbor a long-suffering sigh. “Really, how many eggs do the two of you eat?”
Julia rested one hand on the stair railing, wondering if a late-night argument was typical between the neighbors. Seeing how little the yelling affected Gabi and Luc, she figured it must be. She glanced up the stairs and wondered if she could make a discreet exit as she’d done earlier in the garden.
Alice pressed her fists against her eyes, then her mouth, looking as if she were too angry to even find words. “This... to do such a thing, it is despicable. I would never have thought you would stoop so low, Gabrielle.”
Mathieu stepped in behind his wife, his face looking serious. His little dog came in as well and stood beside his master’s feet. Mathieu nodded a greeting at the three of his neighbors and put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. Whether to calm her or to support her, Julia could not be certain. But his presence seemed to make Gabi and Luc take Alice’s diatribe more seriously.
Gabi’s brows came together and her head tipped. She looked concerned.
Alice glanced at her husband. Her lip trembled.
Luc stood up straight. “What has happened?”
