Page 7 of The Little Provence Book Shop
‘Um,’ her eyes scanned the beige-wrapped packaging. ‘Have you ordered something?’
He laughed, softly. Once. ‘Ah, no matter,’ he said. ‘It will arrive when it arrives,non?’
‘But your name?’
‘Claude,’ he said, simply.
He was right, she realised; none of the packages read Claude. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Monique will be back soon.’
‘Tell her I will come again tomorrow. Tell her that Claude still has the heaviness.’
‘Oh. Yes. Of course.’ She jotted it on the little notebook kept on the counter for that purpose.Claude. Heaviness.
The man nodded kindly, then turned towards the door. As he lifted his hand towards the handle he asked, ‘But for you… Did you find what you are looking for yet?’
‘Oh, no!’ she said, quickly. ‘I’m… well, I work here. I’m just serving.’
He shook his head, almost fondly. ‘But you are looking too. For something. We all are,’ he said. ‘Sometimes we don’t even know it. That’s what I learned from Monique over the years, and perhaps you will learn too.’
It was such a strange thing to say that she ended up simply smiling and nodding as if she understood. The shop bell tinkled his departure and she felt quite relieved, inspecting the packages once more for his name, but finding it absent.
There was something quite unsettling about the encounter, but by the time Monique returned from her errands, she’d served two further locals – quite pleased with herself that she’d been able to recommend a book she recognised in the new releases pile – and more or less forgotten about it. Her language, although perhaps a little rusty, had held up well and she’d begun to feel more at home already.
‘Rebonjour,’ her new boss said, breezing in with a basket of fruit. ‘Everything all right?’
‘Yes, fine, thank you.’ She told Monique about Madame Dupont and the book she’d taken.
Monique nodded. ‘So all was good?’
‘Well, yes. Except…’
‘Except?’ Monique raised an amused eyebrow. ‘Something has happened?’
‘Not exactly. Just… it’s a little odd, but a couple of people have suggested that you had plans to marry me off or fix me in some way!’ she said, half laughing, half serious. ‘I’m guessing it’s a joke of some sort?’
Monique laughed, throwing her head back with abandon. She set the basket down on the counter; the bright clementines and oranges smelt fresh and sweet; suddenly Adeline remembered she hadn’t eaten breakfast. ‘They say this?’ Monique asked, amused.
Adeline nodded.
‘Well, yes. I mean, sometimes I have introduced people if I feel… you know, that they will get along. Perhaps they mean this? But it is rare, don’t worry!’ she chuckled affectionately, shaking her head at the idea.
‘Well,’ said Adeline, finding herself smiling. ‘Tell you what. If Mr Right walks in through the door, I’ll let you know.’
At that exact moment, André from the patisserie – this time without his apron or flour dust – pushed open the door and Monique gave her a pointed eyebrow raise.
‘You have to pluck the apple from the tree while it is ripe!’ she said, tipping her head slightly in André’s direction. Flushing, Adeline turned and busied herself with a pile of books that she’d already sorted, hoping Monique would deal with whatever he wanted and she could hide her embarrassment.
She’d have to be made of stone not to notice how gorgeous André was. But after Colin, she’d learned that whatever the exterior, it was better not to come to rely on a man. Better to look from afar but keep herself safe.
Moments later, they were alone again. ‘Do not worry,’ Monique said. ‘People like to talk, but…! I will tell my friend Cupid to fly off to somewhere else!’
Adeline grinned. ‘Thank you.’ She almost added that she’dmake an exception for André, if Cupid asked very nicely, but wasn’t sure if Monique would get the joke. Instead, she moved the conversation on. ‘Oh, and a man, Claude, came in. He seemed to be looking for something but,’ she shrugged, ‘he said to tell you he’d be in tomorrow. That he still had… heaviness? I’m sorry, I couldn’t quite work out what he wanted.’
Monique shook her head. ‘Yes, he has some problems right now. It is hard to know what he needs. But we can only try.’ She nodded so earnestly, and seemed so sure that Adeline would understand, that Adeline felt compelled to nod along as if she did. In truth she was completely confused and for the first time since she’d arrived in St Vianne, she wondered whether Kev – recently so wrong about so many things – had had a point. What was she doing here?
5
‘Thank you for this,’ Adeline said, sitting back in her chair and sighing.
