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“They’re lying,” I say, turning to make coffee. Should I offer her a cup too?
No,make her leave.For God’s sake why is she here?Now?Half the time I don’t know if I like her or hate her. Actually, I hate her, because she’s trying to stop me landscaping my garden. Yes, I should hate her very much.
With a hand to the towel to stop it falling, I open the under-counter fridge and bend to find the milk. When I straighten, her eyes go to the hand holding my towel. It makes me very aware of my near nakedness in a very tiny space with a woman whose clothes are very wet.
I need to move behind a chair and force my mind to remember how much I should hate her. And her connection with Morris and Sweeny. “They’re trying to entice you to sell. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
She blinks and lifts her eyes to my face. “No, I checked with Myles at the Municipalité. He confirmed there are no hard boundaries between the gardens of all four houses.”
Myles. The man who likes her and thinks of me as a rival. The man who stood with Morris and Sweeny outside the shop earlier exchanging nasty opinions about me. Of course, he’ll say that.
Deep breath.
“Not so, you may be genuinely unaware of this, but I have requested a map from the Municipalité myself. It shows quite clearly that the strip of land down this hill belongs to me.”
“It can’t be.”
“See for yourself.” I take my hand off the towel and wave it at the map pinned to the wall. “See?” I trace a finger down the garden boundary. “That’s the boundary between Low Catch and Labri Catch, right?”
She follows my finger. “But see, this is where the fence stops.” She points to where the hard line becomes a dotted one going all the way down the hill. There are similar lines for all four houses. “This line here is not a real boundary.”
She must realise she’s standing too close to me because she suddenly moves away and averts her gaze.
“Can I ask you to get dressed, please?”
“In my own home, I can dress or undress as I like.” I shrug, hoping to sound unaffected. Why doesn’t she just leave?
“But I can’t talk to someone in…in… Not decent.”
“Neither can I.” I look pointedly at her chest.
She gasps, looking down at her wet shirt and the visible outline of a red lacy bra. Her face turns as red as her underwear, and she grabs the grey towel off the chair to cover herself.
“And you waited till now to tell me?”
“I assumed you knew, why else would you come out in the rain if not in the hope that seeing your nipples might change my mind?” Yes, my inner arsehole has come back and taken charge.
“Ugh!” A loud groan bursts from her as she turns to flee, face still burning.
It’s been a very bad day, and she did press all my buttons.
Chapter Thirty
Elodie
I have no option but to speak to Myles de la Cour about this dispute.
For the record, I didn’t want to get caught in the middle of an old feud or a new facing-off between the two men. So, I’ve been avoiding Myles, not wanting to hear more about why I shouldn’t trust Hal.
None of that gossip about the Hemingways matters to me; it wouldn’t matter if his entire family were Germans. As for the stealing…well, children get up to all sorts. What’s the point of growing up if we don’t change and know better? It doesn’t matter what he might or might not have done as a boy. Nothing about Hal’s lending me his power tools and his time showed him to be anything but kind and trustworthy, quite the opposite.
On our opening day, I waited and waited for him. I kept the shop open quite late hoping he might come after his builders left, but he never showed up. No message, no explanation, nothing. Then Doris flew into the shop, waving her arms and almost dragged me to the garden. And there he was, giving me such a hostile look, it really rattled me. And what with the vicious chainsaw, the rain, and Doris in meltdown… let’s just say things could have gone better.
I know the confrontation in the garden wasn’t an ideal way to discuss things, so I’ve wanted to talk to him, again, to re-establish the friendly relations and maybe negotiate calmly. But it’s hard.
For one thing, shopkeeping has been very time-consuming. A steady trickle of customers, all curious, all chatty, keeps me prisoner here. If it wasn’t for Doris, I wouldn’t even be able to go to the bathroom. But I can’t leave her to mind the shop for longer than ten minutes because money confuses her. Also, men make her nervous, and if more than one man come in together, she becomes terrified.
So, I have to stay chained to the counter from opening till closing. Then I need to restock, clean, and straighten everything ready for the next day, by which time, it’s too late to go knocking on anyone’s door.
