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“What? Oh God, I’m so sorry, Iris. Laure—I mean, I suppose she just forgot?”
“Probably.”
“What are you going to do?”
“There’s not a lot I can do. It’s too late.”
“Yes, but Laure. She shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it. You are going to say something to her, aren’t you?”
Iris shrugged. “What good would it do? She forgot, that’s all. She had a lot on her mind at the time. She would only feel awful.”
“And so she should,” Gabriel said indignantly. “She lost you a contract, Iris, a contract you really wanted. All the effort you put into it, including going to see Samantha Everett twice.”
“I know.”
“Do you want me to say something to her?”
“No, but thank you.”
“I think she should know.”
“Maybe, but not now. I want a quiet day. If you tell her, she’ll feel bad and will hang around me, apologizing.”
“Come out with me,” he urged. “We don’t have to take the bikes, we can take the car, go to the coast.”
“I’m fine, really.”
“I can stay here, I don’t have to go out.”
Iris smiled. “Go out on your bike, Gabriel. I’ve got some tidying to do and I’m going to have a nice, long bath. I’ll see you later.”
“If you’re sure. But I still think Laure should know,” he added scowling. “And it would be a good excuse to get rid of her, tell her it’s time she left. From what I can see, even Joseph seems to have had enough of her. Pierre will be back in Paris this weekend; she needs to go back, sort it out with him.”
Iris nodded. “Okay, we’ll talk to her about it tonight.”
“Promise? She’s invaded our lives enough, Iris.”
“Promise.”
He left, his desire to go and tell Laure she’d messed up so strong that if Iris hadn’t been watching him, he’d have headed straight for the walled garden instead of the house. He felt bad leaving Iris alone, but he knew her well. If she said she didn’t want company, it meant she didn’t want company. It annoyed him that she’d now spend the day thinking about what could have been while Laure spent the day with Joseph, oblivious to the harm she’d done. A mean thought slipped into his consciousness, that maybe Laure hadn’t told Iris about Samantha’s call on purpose.
The roads were wet from last night’s rain, and as he cycled, his legs already splattered with dirt from the puddles he rode through, his thoughts turned to Pierre. He had never received a reply to his WhatsApp message telling him that Laure had moved on and when he’d checked his phone, there was only one gray tick, which meant that the message hadn’t been delivered. Which meant that Pierre had turned his phone off. He pedaled harder, taking his frustration out on the bike, and thought instead about Maggie, and his meeting with her, scheduled for Tuesday. Ever since Maggie’s grief counselor had got back to him with a date and time, it had hung over him like a black cloud, looming ever nearer. The good thing was that he’d managed to arrange for Maggie to come to the house, rather than meet in the grief counselor’s office. The grief counselor had agreed because he and Maggie knew each other from the past, and because Maggie had been fine with it. All he could hope was that once it was over, he would finally be able to get his life back to how it had been before.
35
The sound of raised voices drew Iris from the bathroom to the bedroom window. From behind the curtain, she saw Laure and Joseph on the terrace below. They were facing each other, but there was a distance between them, as if Laure had stepped back.
“I can’t.” Laure’s voice traveled to her through the open window.
“You have to,” Joseph insisted, grabbing her arm.
“No.” She pulled away from him. “Not now. I’m going for a run.”
“Laure!” But Laure was already running toward the gate.
Joseph stared after her, then took his phone from his pocket. He had his back to Iris but she could see his head bent over the screen. The next moment, he broke into a run and disappeared around the side of the house. Intrigued, she hurried through to the bedroom at the front of the house and saw him run out of the gate.
She hadn’t seen Laure since lunchtime, when she’d come to see if Iris wanted to join her and Joseph for a sandwich. Shuddering internally at the thought, she had smiled her thanks and said she wasn’thungry. She barely saw Laure on the days that Joseph came to work, as she spent all her time in the garden. How much use she really was, Iris had no idea.
