Christophe had asked for Fi’s support to help his family and she was very glad she’d provided it. They had made Nonna happy and that… well, that had made Christophe happy and that kind of joy was contagious.
Could she be selfish now? For just a few hours? She really did want to see more of the pretty old part of this city.
And… aye… she wanted to spend more time in Christophe’s company and see if her instinct might be based on something real.
That feeling that she had something she could give him – as his friend. A gift that nobody else would be able to provide or even know how to find.
A gift that you couldn’t possibly purchase, not only because it couldn’t be wrapped up but because it would be beyond priceless.
15
They collected Heidi, parked near the old port and walked through a green space dotted with tall palm trees. The sun was shining against a clear blue sky, the smell of salt flavoured the air and it was easy to imagine that people coming towards them were seeing a couple out walking their dog.
It didn’t feel like they were a couple but it didn’t feel as if they were simply friends, either.
It felt different.
New.
Like nothing Fi had ever experienced before. She thought about it for a minute or two and then decided that she liked it. It felt safe. Real. A solid enough base to let that feeling of being able to help Christophe stay there and put down some roots.
They were heading for what looked like a miniature castle with tiny turrets on each corner of the roof.
‘Cute,’ Fi said. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s a museum now, for the artwork of Jean Cocteau, but it was originally a military fort built for the defence of Menton from the Barbary pirates in the seventeenth century.’
‘Really?’ Fi blinked. ‘Pirates attacked cities then and not just other boats?’
‘They were the Barbarians,’ Christophe said. ‘They captured and enslaved about a million people. Both the sea and the coastlands of this part of the Mediterranean were dangerous places in those days. It’s a complex history. I’ll tell you more about it one day.’ He quirked an eyebrow in her direction. ‘I think there are happier things to see and talk about today.’
‘Okay.’
One day…
Fi liked that as much as she liked how it felt to be in Christophe’s company. It made it feel as if this was the start of something big enough that she didn’t even need to think about its ending yet. The kind of feeling you got from loving the first page of a book or the initial notes of a song – it wasn’t quite a promise but it held the same seduction as hope.
They crossed a road just past the fort and went onto a walkway with gardens on either side, Heidi walking between them. This was the closest Fi had been to the old apartment blocks that were painted such pretty shades of ochre – a dark terracotta building with tall, pale blue shutters on its windows, a dark gold with sage green shutters and then a pale orange. Some had balconies with wrought-iron balustrades, some had a scramble of vines climbing their walls and others had bright flowers in window boxes.
Oban was also a coastal town with wonderful old buildings just across the road from the sea, but it didn’t have these colours. This softness. Even the ocean was more likely to be a moody grey than this extraordinary deep blue with a twist of turquoise. This place was enchanting. It felt summery and light-hearted and… happy. Fi was falling in love with Menton and her breath came out in a contented sigh before she broke the silence.
‘You were born here, yes?’
‘Yes.’ Christophe sounded surprised. ‘How did you know that?’
‘Ellie told me. She said you were born here but you moved to Vence and that was how you met Julien and became such good friends.’
Christophe nodded. ‘I lived here until I was about eight years old and then my father got sick and died quite suddenly. My mother was offered a job as a housekeeper in Vence and it came with a small apartment and she was allowed to bring me, so that’s where we went. I met Julien on the first day of school. I think he knew how scared I was, and he was standing beside me when we went to lunch and he said that I could sit with him. He was my first friend and he’s the brother I never had.’
‘When did your mother come back here?’
‘When I went to university in England for a year before I started my training as a vet. Nonna wanted her to go down south to where she’d been born but, in the end, she moved to Menton to be with Mamma. Maybe she knew that it made Mamma happier to be living again in a place that had memories of my father for her.’
‘So she’s never met anyone else?’
‘I think she’s chosen not to ever look for anyone else. I think that sometimes love is so big it cannot be replaced and it’s better to live with happy memories than to live with something… less? Is that the best word?’
‘It’s a good word. Something less means that you’ve taken something away. Good when it’s something bad but not if it’s something that makes you happy.’
