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“She’s good. She and Hugh are having Hamish christened and they’ve asked me to be his godmother.”
“Gosh, that’s nice of them. It shows how much they appreciate you as a friend. You accepted, I presume?”
“Yes, but I might not have if I’d known that they’d asked Joseph to be Hamish’s godfather.”
“Joseph?” Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “Isn’t that a surprising choice? You’d have thought they’d have asked Marcus. Or maybe they did and he didn’t want to?”
“No. They asked Joseph because he was there at the birth.”
“Right.” He looked closely at Iris. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”
She put her glass down on the side, then leaned back against the countertop, facing him, as if she wanted to be able to gauge his reaction.
“Esme and Joseph were in a relationship.”
“What! When? I mean, is he—”
“No, it was years ago, before she met Hugh. She was staying at her parents’ after splitting up with her partner and he was doing some gardening for them. Hugh doesn’t know.”
“Why hide it? If it’s over.”
She reached for her glass. “I think she was worried that if she told Hugh, he might not have wanted Joseph to come and work for them.”
“But if he finds out now, he’ll wonder why Esme wasn’t up-front about it.”
“He won’t find out. It’s not as if there’s anything between Esme and Joseph now.”
“Hm. I still would have told Hugh, if I’d been Esme.”
“That’s because you’re honorable.”
Gabriel smiled but he couldn’t make it reach his eyes.
“I’m going to take a walk around the garden,” he said. “Ease the muscles in my back a bit. I never knew digging could be such hard work.”
“You’ve been out there all day.”
“Yes, I like it when Joseph’s not around.”
“You and me both.”
He held up his glass of wine. “I’ll take this with me.”
“There’s only the two of us for dinner tonight, so take your time.”
“Beth at Esme’s?”
“Yes.”
He nodded distractedly and carried his wine out to the garden, thinking about Joseph. A relationship with Esme, a relationship with Laure—and a possible affair with Maggie? Was that why Joseph had actively encouraged him not to meet Maggie, the day Iris had toldeveryone that he’d been contacted by her grief counselor? Had he been worried that his name might come up in conversation? He reminded himself not to get carried away. It was pure speculation that Maggie and Joseph had had an affair; there could be a million other reasons why Maggie had fled when she saw him. Still, Gabriel didn’t like that Joseph’s relationships with both Esme and Laure had happened when they had been vulnerable; Esme had split from her long-term partner, and Laure had left Pierre. Was that what Joseph was? A man who preyed on vulnerable women when they were at their lowest?
With that thought in his mind, Gabriel couldn’t help questioning Joseph’s version of events the day Laure had died. What if it hadn’t been as he’d said, what if their argument hadn’t been about Laure telling him and Iris that she and Joseph were in a relationship? What if it had been as he’d first thought, that Joseph had told her it was over between them? It didn’t change anything; whether Laure took her own life because she knew Pierre’s murder would eventually be discovered, or because Joseph had broken up with her, the fact was that she was dead. But if it was the latter, surely Joseph bore some responsibility for her death.
55
“Mum, Dad, can I talk to you a minute?”
Gabriel and Iris turned from where they were standing in the kitchen, and replied simultaneously, “Of course.”
