Page 17 of The Little Provence Book Shop

Adeline grimaced slightly. ‘It’s just not my thing,’ she said apologetically. ‘It’s fine though. Interesting even.’

‘OK,’ Monique said thoughtfully.

‘And the stone you gave him – the crystal?’

‘An amethyst – for healing.’ Monique smiled. ‘But I expect you do not believe in this either?’ She seemed amused rather than insulted.

Adeline shrugged. ‘I know people use them. But I’ve never…’ She let her words drift off, not wanting to offend her boss.

‘Don’t worry. We are all different. And some can see, and some cannot. And others, they sense, but cannot let themselves see,’ she said, almost to herself. ‘Ourself behind ourself concealed.’

The words seemed familiar, but Adeline couldn’t place them. Luckily at that moment, a woman she hadn’t seen before walked in and asked whether they had the latest Stephen King.

That, at least, Adeline knew how to deal with.

9

A few days later when Adeline left the shop to pick Lili up from the after-schoolgarderie, her daughter was less chatty than usual. She walked home quietly, holding her mother’s hand and responding to questions with short, basic answers rather than her usual meandering prattle. Adeline felt her forehead once they were home, but it felt soft and cool. She crouched down, taking herself to eye level, and looked at her daughter’s face. ‘Are you OK,mon coeur?’ she asked. ‘Has something happened?’

Lili shook her head from side to side in response.

‘Are you feeling poorly?’

Another shake.

‘Just tired?’

Another shake.

Adeline sighed and lifted her daughter onto the armchair. ‘I’ll get you some juice,’ she said. ‘And a biscuit?’

This time there was a nod. Lili was no doubt weary from the day rather than anything else, Adeline reassured herself as she pouredjus de pommeinto a small glass and grabbed a couple ofbutter biscuits. No doubt after this pick-me-up she’d be back to her usual self.

It was after she’d arranged Lili’s snack on a small side table and given her one of her favourite books to flick through that the words came. ‘Mummy,’ her daughter said, just as Adeline was returning to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. ‘Why are we always alone?’

She turned, looked at her daughter’s earnest eyes, the crumbs at her mouth that made her look adorable and so very young. ‘We’re not alone,’ she said. ‘We’re new here. But we have our friends already. You’ve met Monique – she’s Mummy’s friend, and yours. And you have Alice and Manon in your class – you told me you played skipping with them yesterday in the playground.’

Lili shook her head.

‘You’ve had a fight with them?’

Another no.

‘But today Alice’smamiepicked her up from school, and herpapiwas there too,’ Lili said sadly. ‘And Manon says she can’t play on Saturday because she is going to her aunt. And I know my granny has gone to heaven. But I had Uncle Kevin once and now he’s gone too.’

‘Oh, Lili.’ Adeline walked back over to her daughter and sat on the arm of her chair, reaching out to stroke her tousled curls. ‘Uncle Kevin isn’t gone. He’s still in England, just where he always was. But we’ve come for an adventure!’ she said as brightly as she could. ‘We’re far from him at the moment, but it won’t always be that way.’

Another sad little nod.

‘But atle weekend, everyone says they see their families, but we haven’t got a family, have we? I don’t have apapa, and I onlyhave oneoncleand I don’t know if I had anothergrand-mère, some people have two,’ she said, looking at her mother accusingly. ‘Why don’t I have anyone, Mummy?’

Adeline tried to keep her mouth from wobbling. Instead, she leaned and kissed her daughter’s head. ‘Lili, you do have Uncle Kevin, and one day perhaps he’ll get married and there’ll be an auntie. Maybe cousins. And I know you miss Granny – I do too.’

‘When will I see Uncle Kevin?’

‘Soon, my darling. Soon,’ she said, feeling a prickle of guilt at her own words. Because she’d cut Kevin out, at least for now, while she healed, but hadn’t stopped to think how she was denying her daughter pretty much her only other family member in the process.

Her words seemed to appease Lili though, who began to munch on a biscuit thoughtfully. ‘OK,’ she said.

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