Page 59 of Sisters Making Mischief
It was obvious she was very upset.
‘What’s happened?’ I said, ‘are you okay?’
She wiped the rain from her face with a tea towel.
‘Oh, I’m all right, I’ve just been picking up some of the rubbish from the bin that was knocked over, but my greenhouse isn’t. Absolutely typical; I spent hours cleaning it out and washing all the glass, and now a damn great branch has come down and blown into the side of it. It’s just about wrecked, and everything in there will be ruined. All my lovely plants, and they were starting to do so well. And the garden is full of rubbish and recycling. It’s awful. I just came in to ring the boys and see if they can help.’
‘I’ll get my coat on,’ I said. ‘Where’s Felix?’
‘He’s gone to work. Apparently there’s been some damage to the bookshop, I don’t know how bad, but Lisa rang him about half an hour ago because she lives in a flat just round the corner, practically hysterical. She says there are trees down across the road too.’
The kitchen door banged open at that moment, making us both jump, and Marcel stood there looking very dazed and confused. Holding a branch in his jaws, which was wider than the door frame, he had tried to bring it into the kitchen and crashed into the wall.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Marcel,chien stupide,have you no sense at all?’ Isabel shouted and then she burst into tears.
I took both of her hands in mine and rubbed them.
‘Look, sit down for a moment, you’re frozen. I’ll make some coffee.’
‘There’s no time for that,’ Isabel said, ‘there is still rubbish all over the place. Luckily thegîtesare undamaged, but the site for the shepherd’s hut needs clearing up because they will be arriving at some point today, and I can still see the dogs’ paw marks all over it. And what I am going to do about the greenhouse, I don’t know. I’m going to ring Sylveste again. Hedidn’t answer ten minutes ago, knowing him he was probably still in bed. Honestly, considering he didn’t sleep through a single night until he was three years old, he’s certainly making up for it now.’
She found her mobile and stabbed at the keys again. I went to open the back door for another look at the damage outside, and Marcel triumphantly tried to bring his tree branch in again, nearly knocking me over.
After a brief tussle, I persuaded him back outside and threw his branch as far as I could, something that I could tell he thought was an excellent idea by his wagging tail and pricked ears. I watched as he ran round the yard with it in his jaws, scraping the side of my car with one end of it. Great.
‘Still no answer. And I can’t get through to Felix either. Perhaps it’s the storm?’ Isabel said after a few minutes.
‘I hope Eugénie is okay,’ I said, ‘can you ring her?’
Isabel tried. ‘Nothing from her either, there doesn’t seem to be any signal. I’d better drive down and check on her. I’m not walking.’
‘I’ll come too,’ I said.
‘No stay here. Just in case the boys turn up. Or, heaven forbid, the shepherd’s hut. Although they did say the afternoon. Oh dear, this is awful.’
I went to give her a hug. ‘It’ll be fine, we’ll get everything cleared up in no time, you wait and see. And if the men arrive to deliver the hut, I’ll entertain them with the accordion and songs from the shows.’
Isabel laughed and then jammed her tweed hat firmly over her eyes and refastened her coat and then slowly set off in her car towards Eugénie’s cottage, Antoine and Marcel chasing after her, barking fit to burst.
If I was a dog, I think I would have preferred to be indoors, in my rather chewed basket under the kitchen table, gnawingat the new rubber pineapple Isabel had bought for them in the supermarket. I supposed that was just dogs, always wanting to be part of everything. Perhaps I should get a dog, or a cat. People did say they were good company.
For the moment, I stood wondering what else I could do to help Isabel and started off by doing the washing-up from the previous evening and putting things away. I might not be able to do much about a smashed greenhouse, but I was, after all, an expert in clearing up, wiping down the worktops and the kitchen table. Then I made a pot of coffee, ready for Isabel’s return.
There was a knock on the kitchen door.
‘That was quite a storm. I came to see if you were all right.’
I stood with my mouth unattractively gaping for a moment. It was Luc.
He was wearing a dark waterproof coat and a broad-brimmed hat, which at that moment made him look even more like Indiana Jones.
‘Would you mind? Could I come in? It’s still a bit wild out here,’ he said.
‘Oh gosh, of course, please do,’ I said, rather flustered.
He stood on the doormat, water dripping off his coat.
‘Coffee?’ I said at last.
