Page 40 of The Bordeaux Book Club
‘Lawns?’ Leah asked, head askance.
‘Yes. People seem determined to create perfect English lawns out here, have you noticed? And of course, the climate’s different, the soil’s different. They spend half their time weedkilling and seed-sowing, the rest mowing. And it still looks ghastly. But don’t you dare suggest they plant clover or give up on the idea of an orderly lawn,’ she said. ‘Honestly, it’s exhausting.’
Leah laughed. ‘Well, at least that’s something I’m not guilty of. Not a blade of grass in sight at ours.’ She thought again about the rows of fresh earth. How Nathan had thanked her for planting the broccoli on Saturday when he’d returned, but only in an abstract, disinterested way. She’d hoped more for fireworks, or at least an enormous smile. Instead, he’d seemed distracted. Asked her if she thought his hair needed a cut.
Then later, she’d wondered at herself – since when did she need a ‘well done’ for planting a few seedlings?
‘Earth to Leah!’ Grace quipped.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Just thinking.’
Grace nodded, brought her cup to her lips then lowered it. ‘Look, I hope you don’t mind me saying,’ she said. ‘But you know, you can trust me.’
‘Of course!’ Leah said, feeling her cheeks flush a little.
‘I can be a bit… well, I’m talkative, I know,’ Grace said, almost sadly. ‘But I don’t talk about people behind their backs. Divulge secrets, that sort of thing.’
Leah’s face was now on fire. ‘Of course,’ she said again, weakly.
A few times in the past, Leah had wondered whether Grace might be a little psychic. Her ability to read Leah’s mind – or at least sense when something was up – was astonishing at times. ‘Everything’s fine, honestly,’ she said. But she felt her lip give a tell-tale wobble. ‘At least, I think it is,’ she admitted, feeling her mask fall as a tear began to well in her eye.
She hadn’t come out to talk about Nathan – she’d wanted to forget about her worries for a couple of hours.
But the truth had decided to out itself, and there seemed to be nothing she could do about it. Grace reached a hand over and covered hers, saying nothing.
Leah dabbed her eye with a napkin to soak up the pesky tear and took a deep breath. ‘You’ll think I’m being silly,’ she said. ‘It’s just…’ And she told Grace about the last couple of months, how Nathan had been disappearing. Not only that, but the strange distance she could feel between them. The way he never seemed completely open about where he’d been or when he’d next be popping out. The fact he showered and dressed up before leaving the house – a real red flag in Nathan’s case; since they’d been in France, his ‘good clothes’ had hung neglected in his wardrobe almost every day, in favour of his tracksuit bottoms and holey jumpers.
She finished and looked at Grace hopefully. This was when a friend might say something like,It sounds like you’re just tired, or,Is that all?The sort of phrase that would make her feel she was just being paranoid – that would shine a light on her suspicions and show them to be unfounded.
Only Grace was looking at her quite seriously. ‘It sounds,’ she said… ‘a bit like…’
‘Ello, ello, ello!’ said a voice, making them both jump. They looked up to see George, dressed in an old shirt and paint-splattered jeans. He was clutching a takeaway cup of coffee. ‘Didn’t expect to see you two in here,’ he said, pulling out a chair without being asked. ‘I was just grabbing a caffeine fix before heading out to the site.’
Grace flushed in surprise and checked her watch. ‘It’s eleven o’clock,’ she said. ‘Bit late to be clocking on?’ Unlike Leah, she seemed quite at ease with their new tablemate. Probably because she wasn’t waiting in suspense for a verdict, Leah thought.
‘Ah, had a bit of a session with the lads last night,’ George admitted. ‘We gave ourselves a morning off. What’s the point of working for yourself if you can’t have a bit of fun?’
They both nodded. ‘So,’ Leah said, a little pointedly. ‘You’re heading off now, then?’
But George had removed the lid from his takeaway cup and was stirring in an extra sugar. ‘No rush,’ he said, blowing the heat from the top and taking a sip. ‘What are you girls up to?’ He spied the copy ofPride and Prejudice. ‘Not discussing the book in advance, I hope?’ he said with a grin.
Leah felt she might burst with impatience. Ordinarily, she’d have been pleased to see George – he was a nice bloke and always made her laugh – but for him to interrupt just as Grace was giving her verdict was almost too much to bear.
But Grace seemed unfazed. ‘We wouldn’t dream of it,’ she said. ‘We were just having a bit of a heart-to-heart.’
Hopefully, Leah thought, that would alert George to the fact that this was a private moment.
But, ‘Oh aye?’ he said, raising an eyebrow, as if expressing an interest. ‘Everything alright?’
‘Well,’ said Grace.
Leah felt herself stiffen in horror. Surely she wasn’t going to tell George about Nathan? She realised that it was private between them, didn’t she? She tried to catch Grace’s eye, but her friend was looking at George.
‘We have a mutual friend,’ Grace said carefully. ‘And she’s worried her husband might be having an affair. He keeps disappearing – all dressed up. And his stories aren’t quite adding up. That sort of thing. We’re just talking about what she should do.’
Leah felt a flood of relief.
‘Sounds suspicious,’ said George, clearly enjoying the conversation and not realising he was in the company of ‘The Friend’.
