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With the decision made, she headed into the outside seating area of a restaurant and dropped into a chair. Instantly, a waiter was at her side, offering her a menu.
‘Water?L’eau?’ Her voice hitched.
She thought she’d got the term for water right, but the waiter looked at her with pure confusion.
‘Du vin?’ he said, instead.
‘Vin, no, no. I’m driving. No vin.’
‘Du vin, oui. Rouge? Blanc?’
‘Blanc? No.L’eau.Wasser?’
Holly wasn’t sure what was going on. Her own ears hurt at her abomination of one of the most beautiful languages in the world and she was pretty sure she’d slipped some German in there, but the waiter was smiling happily.
‘Oui, mademoiselle,’ he said, before disappearing back into the restaurant.
Left on her own, Holly looked up at the hills, wondering whether it was possible to see the house from here. What were the others up to? Had Eddie got his way and finally persuaded the group to succumb to the board games he had brought all the way from the States? Was Tyler already snoring?
Mainly, she wondered about Evan. What was he thinking about? And what did he think about the fact she had come to see Giles? If this was a test, like Caroline had suggested, then she had well and truly failed it.
She was still lost in these thoughts when the waiter appeared with a tray, upon which was a carafe of wine.
‘Vin rouge,’ he said.
‘Uhm,non. No, water. Water.L’eau. L’eau.’ Holly tried several variations in accent, hoping it might make her words more intelligible, but the waiter placed the wine down on the table and walked away. So wine it was.
Suspecting that she was going to have to pay for it now, regardless of how much she drank, Holly poured herself a tiny drink, took a sip, pulled out her phone and looked at the time. Maybe she could ring one of the others and see if they wanted to join her. Naomi had said she liked the look of the bars here and Holly did owe her for the loan of the clothes.
She went to dial Caroline’s number when her phone rang.
‘Hi Mummy!’ Ben said, his image distorted and pixilated, although there, sitting on his knee, was Hope.
‘What are you ringing for? I’ve already spoken to you tonight.’
‘I know, but you seemed a bit down, so Hope wanted to say an extra goodnight, didn’t you, Hopey? We’ve just had our bath and we’re about to have an extra big bottle of milk.’
‘Extra big? Has she not been feeding properly today?’
‘It was just an expression. She’s going to have the same size as always,’ Ben responded. ‘Although I think she’s going through a growth spurt. She devoured the mashed avocado I gave her today. Didn’t you?’
Hope gurgled. The denim dress was gone. Instead, she was wearing lilac pyjamas and was shaking a soft toy, with which she seemed far more intent on hitting Ben over the head than listening to Holly. That was fine, though. She loved watching her play like this. So innocent and happy.
‘Where are you?’ Ben asked. ‘Are those boats behind you? Are you out?’
‘Umm, yes. Just for a drink.’ She turned phone around so that he could see the scenery.
‘Are you there on your own?’ he asked, as Holly panned around the view. ‘Where are the others?’
She took a sip of her drink before flipping the camera back to herself.
‘Oh, they just headed for a walk. I’m manning the table, that’s all.’
She didn’t like lying to Ben. After everything that happened with Giles, she had promised herself she would never lie to him again. But telling him why she was there would just complicate things further.
‘Well, we’ve got another fun afternoon planned for tomorrow,’ Ben started. ‘I’ve booked to get out of work early, and so we’re going up to the falconry centre at Bourton-on-the Hill. Have you ever been there?’
‘No.’ Holly’s brain took a moment to catch up with what Ben had just said.
