‘There is no hurry,’ he said with a shrug. ‘First become accustomed to a new country and a new life.’
‘But I want to do my share,’ she said vehemently. ‘I’ve no intention of being just a—a kept woman, however temporary. I need to know you’re getting your money’s worth.’
His face suddenly relaxed into a wicked grin. ‘Vraiment?’ he drawled.
‘Then it is only necessary to have my clothes brought here to this room, and everything arranges itself.’
‘Like hell it does.’ It was difficult to sound positive when she was blushing again, her body burning up. ‘I haven’t the slightest intention of sleeping with you.’
‘Believe me, ma belle, sleeping was not my purpose either.’ Andre was laughing openly now. ‘But, if you insist, I can wait until you are my wife.’
‘Something else that is never going to happen,’ she said defiantly.
‘Alors, if you wish a task to perform,’ Andre went on as if she hadn’t spoken, ‘then you can come down and make me some coffee and we can drink it while we talk.’
She said quickly, ‘I don’t want any coffee—and I need to tidy my room.’
The firm mouth twisted. ‘Even though we both know that there are things to be said? Questions still to be answered?’
She forced a smile. ‘Even so. I—I don’t want to make more work for Madame Rameau.’
There was a silence, then he said quietly, ‘As you wish. Then we shall meet again at lunch, a midi et demi.’
As soon as he’d gone, Ginny got out her mobile phone and keyed in the Welburns’ number. To her surprise, the call was taken not by the housekeeper but Jonathan, who seemed equally astonished to be hearing from her.
‘Where on earth are you?’ he demanded.
‘In France,’ she said over-brightly. ‘Visiting Andrew’s other family.’ Which, she hoped would confer a kind of respectability on the trip. She paused. ‘But there’s rather a snag. I need to speak to Mother and Cilla fairly urgently and I can’t remember the name of their hotel. Can you remind me?’
‘Your solicitor has already asked me, and I have no idea.’ There was a chill in his voice. ‘Your sister left me a message as brief as it was uninformative. And Mrs Pelham says that neither Cilla nor your mother took their phones. So we’re all in the dark.’
Ginny said uncomfortably, ‘I think it was all last minute and very rushed.’
He said bluntly, ‘I’m afraid I don’t find that much of a consolation. Not when Cilla and I are due to be married in a few months. But it seems on a par with everything else that’s been going on. Now you must excuse me. I’m on my way out.’
Ginny sank down on the edge of the bed, staring at her phone as if it might grow teeth and bite her. Because this was certainly not the response she’d expected.
What on earth had possessed her sister to put herself out of touch and out of reach on the other side of the world? And from her fiancé of all people?
Everything else that’s been going on...
The words had an ominous ring about them, she thought, recalling Jon’s open discontent at the dinner party.
Of course Andre had never actually admitted having an intimate liaison with Cilla. But nor had he denied that their mutual and very public attraction over dinner had continued in private, she thought, sinking her teeth into her lower lip.
But how could Cilla—when she loved Jonathan?
Maybe she couldn’t help herself, said a small annoying voice in her head. Just like you.
She sighed and put her phone back in her bag. If there were to be many more calls to England, she would need to top it up with money as well as recharge the battery.
But maybe that wouldn’t be necessary if, as she hoped and prayed, she would soon be on her way back to a new life and a worthwhile career. If Andre kept his part of their bargain.
And as long as she didn’t have to keep hers...
She looked down at herself. Pressed a hand against the flatness of her abdomen, telling herself that everything would be all right and she had nothing to worry about. That Fate wouldn’t play her such a dirty trick.
Telling herself, too, that she needed to stop brooding and find something else to occupy her mind.
She’d offered an obvious fib about her room, which was already immaculate, so she retrieved the thriller she’d bought at the airport, stretched out on the bed and began to read, keeping an eye on her little clock as she did so.
When she presented herself punctually in the kitchen, she found the meal more than lived up to its promise, the chicken falling off the bone and the vegetables perfectly cooked in the rich and subtly flavoured sauce.