Page 40 of The Little Provence Book Shop
And then they were outside La Petite Librairie, where Lili would draw or snuggle up with a book until it was time to close. ‘Can I have my bag?’ Lili asked unexpectedly.
Adeline removed it from her shoulder and gave it to her little girl who placed it on the ground outside the shop, unzipped it and began rifling through.
‘Can’t you do that inside?’ Adeline asked, as a couple of pencils fell onto the pavement and rolled away.
‘No!’ Lili said, still rifling, ‘It’s a surprise.’ Finally, she found what she was looking for and drew out a rather crumpled pieceof paper with a drawing of a stick woman wearing a triangular dress.
Underneath, in wavering letters, Lili had written the wordMamie.
‘Is this for Monique?’ Adeline asked, trying to keep her voice light.
‘Yes,’ Lili replied, snatching the picture back. ‘Don’tlook!’
‘It’s a lovely picture,’ Adeline said carefully, picking up the pencils for her daughter and slipping them back into the bag. ‘And I’m sure she’ll love it. But, darling. You know that Monique isn’t your granny, yourmamie, don’t you?’ She crouched down and looked into her daughter’s eyes.
Lili looked away. ‘Yes, she is.’
‘No, darling. Your granny was in England, remember? She got poorly and she had to go to heaven.’
Lili scowled. ‘I know about Granny, but Monique is myMamie. All the children at school drew pictures for theirPapiandMamieand I wanted to too.’ She stamped her foot in its bright white trainer.
‘OK,’ Adeline said. ‘I mean it’s OK to call her that sometimes. But Monique is more of a… afriendwho seems a bit like amamieto you. You do understand that?’
‘No, sheis,’ her daughter said again.
Adeline straightened, feeling an ache in her thighs.
‘I know. I know you think that,’ she said, feeling tired and wondering whether it was worth trying to explain complicated relationships to her daughter.
Then: ‘Monique is mymamiebecause I feel it here,’ Lili insisted. She patted her hand against her chest and looked at Adeline defiantly.
Feeling a little shiver, Adeline looked at her daughter’s fieryeyes. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘Monique hasn’t… she’s nevertoldyou she’s yourmamie, has she?’
Lili shrugged, unwilling to say anything else.
‘Lili.’
‘She’s mymamie,’ her daughter said, stubbornly.
Adeline sighed. She’d talk to her more about it later; she clearly wasn’t going to get through to her now.
But as she opened the door and Lili ran forward, flinging herself around Monique’s legs and giving the woman a huge squeeze – much to Monique’s delight – Adeline thought back to what Kevin had said. Her daughter was already putting down roots, establishing a sense of connection. And if she wasn’t careful, soon the decision on their future might become all the more complicated.
As she watched, shutting the door behind her, the bell jangling a warning, she saw Monique bend down and take Lili properly into her arms for an enormous hug, and she felt a tug of unease.
19
The following Friday, the day before Lili was due to finish school for the spring holidays, Adeline asked whether it would be OK to take the afternoon off. ‘There’s a little concert at the school,’ she explained.
Monique had been delighted at the idea. ‘Do you think I could come?’
‘Are you sure?’ Adeline had said. ‘I think they’re just doing a couple of songs or something, a little dance maybe.’
But Monique was adamant. ‘Mais oui! I’d love to seema petite Liliperform. I can close the shop for a couple of hours.’
Adeline nodded and smiled, but felt something in her stomach tighten. ‘Well, that’s lovely,’ she’d said.
After lunch, they sorted out some new orders, then wrote a note and fixed it to the inside of the glass on the door. Locking the shop behind them, they set out on the short walk to the school.
