Page 50 of Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure
They ate a first meal, a simple stew, and toasted each other with wine.
“To our new home,” Dora said. “May it bring us health and happiness.”
“It don’t seem real,” Mavis said. “Imagine me here, in this lovely place, with you ladies. How did I get to be so blessed?”
Ellie looked from one face to the next. How happy they looked, except Yvette, who hadn’t understood and sat silently, spooning soup into her mouth. Ellie had passed along the address for armyheadquarters. “Would you like me to write for you?” she said. “If you give me your young man’s name, I will see what I can do.”
“No need, madame,” Yvette said, taking the address from her. “I will do it myself. But I do not know if it will do any good. If he is now stationed in Africa, they will not let him come home before his tour of duty is over. Perhaps he has no interest in a child.” She turned away.
“Let’s hope for the best, shall we?” Ellie put a tentative arm around her.
Yvette was still looking away and said nothing.
That first night Ellie stood at the window of her new room, looking out over the gardens. The stormy weather of earlier in the day had passed, and the grounds were bathed in moonlight. She had generously given Dora the best bedroom that faced the sea and taken the second-best one. She had remembered Dora’s face as they had first toured the bedrooms. Dora had stared out of the big windows. “Oh, what a perfect view,” she had sighed. “I should die happy if that was the last thing I saw.”
And so Ellie had claimed she’d rather sleep at the front of the house, facing the gardens. “I think the noise of the waves might keep me awake,” she said. “I’m a light sleeper.” And seeing how happy Dora was, she knew she’d made a good sacrifice. Who knew how many more months Dora had left? She still seemed well and quite energetic. Maybe the doctors had got it wrong, and this trip could turn out to be a miracle cure. She found herself hoping this was true. She had become fond of the old lady.
Moonlight danced as palm trees rattled and trees swayed in the breeze at the far end of the garden. Then she stiffened. Was that someone moving between the trees? As she peered into the darkness, she thought she saw a figure, moving swiftly. It vanished into shadow, and she lost sight of it. She shook her head. She must have been mistaken. The moonlight had been playing tricks. The gates were no longerlocked as Bruno or Louis came and went, but who would want to be in the garden at night? There was nothing worth stealing, and besides the figure was moving away, not towards, the villa. Suggestions of the ghost did cross her mind, but she put them aside. Ghosts only lingered where they had lived in life, didn’t they? And the opera singer had died far away from here. But what of the duke? Hadn’t he tired of her and moved on to another mistress? So he wouldn’t have died here, either. And they took their servants with them. So no ghost. Only a trick of the moonlight.
There were no curtains up yet as Mavis hadn’t had time to make them, so Ellie felt a little uncomfortable as she moved away from the window. Was it possible the figure had been a peeping Tom, come to spy on the ladies? It could have been one of the local lads, coming up on a dare, or something more sinister. Bruno came into her head. Yvette had described him as creepy. He seemed to Ellie completely harmless, but would he get a thrill from watching ladies take their clothes off? She’d have to make sure she did not undress with the light on and warn the others just in case. And help Mavis make those curtains as quickly as possible. She climbed into bed, feeling the cold strangeness of new sheets and no longer feeling at ease. They were, after all, four women, far from home. Perhaps there were brigands and corsairs, as Yvette had suggested. She lay for a while looking at the moon. Then she put worrying thoughts aside and told herself not to be silly. They had done it. They were here, and it was going to be perfect.
“My new life,” she said. If Lionel could see her now, would he even recognize the old Ellie?
“You know what I think,” Mavis said the next morning when they came down to tea and fresh bread. “I think we should have a party to celebrate.”
“A party?” Ellie asked. “And where did the bread come from?”
“Louis brought up a loaf when he arrived,” Mavis said.
“That was very good of him,” Ellie replied. “So he’s here already.”
“That’s right. He’s brought the hardware for the shutters and the windows.”
Ellie wondered how Mavis, speaking no French, seemed to know this.
“We’ve already spent a lot of money to get this place up and running,” Ellie said. “We don’t have unlimited funds, Mavis.”
“But people have done a lot for us,” Mavis said. “Louis has put in many more hours than he’s charged us for. He’s found us the new shutters and the radiator, and look at Mr Tommy and Clive. They’ve been up here all the time and haven’t wanted a penny.”
“That’s true,” Ellie said. “And we don’t have to pay any rent for another month or so. So we are living free, essentially. What do you think, Dora?” she asked as the older woman came in. “Do you think we should have a party?”
Dora nodded. “I think a party is a lovely idea. It doesn’t have to be too fancy, does it? Wine is so cheap here, and bread and cold meats, cheese and olives. Just a thank you gesture to those who have helped us.”
“Right you are, then,” Mavis said. “You choose a date, and I’ll get to work. It had better be all finger food because we don’t have enough plates to feed the multitude.”
“Multitude?” Ellie said. “I thought this was a little thank you to those who have helped us.”
“Mavis is right,” Dora said. “I suspect that once word gets out, the whole village will want to come up and see what we’ve done.”
“Get Yvette to help you, Mavis,” Ellie said. “You’re doing too much already.”
“Her?” Mavis rolled her eyes. “She’s about as much use as a bull in a dairy. She pretends to be helping, then she slips away. And I’ll tell you something else ... she smokes. She don’t let us see, but my Reggie smoked, and I can smell it on her clothes.”
“I don’t think we can hold that against her, Mavis,” Dora said. “She is expecting, after all. She may feel nauseous and worried, and smoking may calm her nerves.”
Mavis grunted as if she didn’t agree. “There’s something not right about that girl,” she said. It wasn’t the first time she had expressed such a thought. Mavis was no fool, but was she just prejudiced because the girl was foreign and she didn’t understand her?
When they announced the date for the party, they found that providing the feast would not be as hard as they had imagined. Tommy and Clive said they would bring the wine. Henri offered to bring a terrine and smoked fish. When Ellie went to pay him, he shook his head. “You have kept my little restaurant going at a time when there are usually no tourists,” he said. “And you are such enchanting ladies. It is my pleasure.”
