Page 48 of Sisters Making Mischief
We went back inside, and Isabel brought out a defrosted coq au vin out from the pantry where she had hidden it away from the dogs and put it into the oven.
‘How is business?’ I asked Felix.
He pulled a face. ‘Not too bad, because some of the holiday makers are starting to call in. But today was quiet and Lisa has broken up with her boyfriend, so she ismisérable. It won’t encourage the customers in to see her sad face behind the counter. She says she wants to go and see her mother in Nantes, but I don’t want to be there on my own, it gets boring on days like today.’
‘You could always do a stocktake,’ Isabel said as she set the table, ‘or get your papers in order for the accountant.’
Felix gave a groan. ‘What I could do and what I want to do are two separate things.’
‘I could come and help you,’ I offered impulsively, which surprised me and both of them I think, ‘Isabel and I have sorted out thegîtesready for the first visitors, and we have been through thebrocante, we are going to make the barn look pretty tomorrow, but that won’t take more than a day.’
Felix looked more cheerful. ‘If you’re sure. I have a delivery of books in English arriving one day this week, which you could sort out, if you didn’t mind?Je suis daltonien –I am not good with colours.’
‘He means colour blind,’ Isabel explained.
‘Absolutely, I’d love to help out. And Isabel wanted some time in her greenhouse, which I can’t help with, because my gardening ability is nil. So it would work okay.’
‘Good idea,’ Isabel agreed, ‘when I go to help out in the bookshop?—’
‘You are no help at all,’ Felix interrupted, ‘you just sit there reading the paper and telling customers they could go to the public library in Morlaix for free.’
‘I only did that once!’ Isabel protested.
‘I don’t tell your customers they could stay at home for free, do I?’ he said.
‘It’s not the same at all! You are ridiculous!’
‘You’re impossible,’ he said.
‘You are!’
Felix went behind her to fetch a bottle of wine from the fridge and slapped her bottom as he went past.
‘And you are a bad wife who does not feed her husband!’
‘Tu es un cochon gourmand! A greedy pig!’
I watched my sister and her husband squabbling and just for a moment it triggered a memory in me. I had been party to a lot of bickering when Stephen and I had been married, but then I realised that – as they always did – Isabel and Felix were doing it with humour, that they didn’t really mean anything by it, and this was just a part of their relationship. Underneath it all they thought the world of each other. How lovely to feel that way, even after so many years together. It made me a bit wistful, and it made me smile too.
I was beginning to realise that I had missed out on something like this in my own marriage. I must have been mad to put up with it. No wonder my children took me so much for granted; their father certainly had. Well not any more.
16
We had enjoyed a very late night after Felix opened a bottle ofEddu Bretonwhisky, given to him by one of his suppliers to try and tempt him to stock a range of notebooks.
I wasn’t a great lover of whisky, but I was prepared to give it a try.
‘Listen, I will read you the tasting notes,’ Felix said, ‘“complexe, floral, with heather and rose. Chocolate and smoky notes, with a hint of pepper.”’
He swirled the golden liquid in his glass and took a sip.
‘It’s very good,’ he said at last, ‘very good indeed.’
Isabel looked at the label. ‘And 43 per cent proof. So even if I didn’t like it, I probably wouldn’t remember.’
‘I like it,’ I said, ‘it’s sort of smooth, isn’t it?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Isabel said holding out her empty glass, ‘let’s try again.’
