The Family Affair Read online

  “It’s difficult to tell you over the phone,” Louise answered cryptically. “It’s best I tell you face to face.”

  “Ok,” Beth said slowly, trying to fathom how they could continue to have the conversation when they were approximately 300 miles apart. “Can you tell me what the matter is?”

  “Not really,” Louise insisted. “I need to see you.”

  “It’s not got anything to do with Mum though has it?” Beth interjected, her heart starting to beat like a drum.

  “No. No. Absolutely not,” Louise said a bit more softly. “I should have said that when I first called. Don’t worry this is not about your mother.”

  “Oh, thank God for that,” Beth answered, feeling slightly less panicked. “If we can’t do this on the phone what do you suggest?”

  “Well, we were wondering if you could come over for lunch next time you’re up North,” Aunt Louise replied. “It sounds a strange thing to ask you to do when you’ve only just visited but it’s either that or we come to you.”

  “Right,” Beth said putting one finger in her ear to block out the sound of a nearby police siren. “Well as it happens, I had thought about coming to Kepton this weekend, so I could come over for lunch on Saturday?”

  “We have something on but I will make it work for us,” Aunt Louise said, sounding relieved. “If you can get here for about the same time as before we’ll look forward to seeing you then. And if something crops up just let us know as this is fairly important.”

  “Ok,” Beth found herself saying. “I’ll see you on Saturday for lunch.”

  As the line went dead she looked up into the sky. Her Aunt may not have wanted to talk about the reason for the lunch but it almost certainly had something to do with Highlands, Alistair and her father.

  In need of something strong, Beth went straight into her usual Pret and ordered a double strength cappuccino. Drinking it slowly, she set out on the short walk to her office.

  It felt strange going back to work, but the call from Louise had diverted her attention away from Julian, and by the time Beth got into the lift she felt almost normal.

  Arriving at her desk just a few minutes earlier than planned, she sat down at her computer, switched it on and waited as hundreds of unread emails flooded her inbox.

  Putting her earphones in with one hand and picking her coffee up with the other, she spent the next half an hour patiently going through each email, hitting delete, archive or reply.

  And at eight o’clock precisely, she looked up to find Julian standing in front of her. After Olivier, he looked shockingly corporate. Everything about him was manicured to within an inch of his life.

  “Good morning Beth,” Julian said, oozing charm and expensive aftershave. “Let’s go through to my office and have a chat shall we?”

  The question was a rhetorical one and she got up with a false smile, grabbed her purple Moleskine notepad and groaned inside as she watched him sashay down the office.

  On his way he called out to Melissa. “I’ll have an Americano and Beth will have ... sorry I’ve rather embarrassingly forgotten what you drink. Tell Melissa what coffee you want and she’ll pop out and get them for us.”

  “Double cappuccino please,” Beth answered in the direction of Julian’s pushy PA.

  “Morning Beth,” Melissa said stiffly. “It’s good to see you back at work. So you want the expensive option. Right, that’s not a problem. I’ll go to Pret and be back in a tick.”

  Normally Beth would snarl at Melissa’s cheek but today she had her strategy all worked out. All she needed to do was to show her that two could play this particular manipulation game.

  “Great Melissa, thanks,” Beth replied, smiling coolly. “And if you can be really quick that would be even better as I am dying for a coffee. You’re an angel.”

  And so it was that, despite Paris, their rather bitter conversations via telephone and the probable association with Simon Fallow, Beth’s meeting with Julian got off to a flying start, with Beth grinning like a Cheshire cat.

  “I’m glad you are looking so happy Beth,” Julian finally said, looking totally bemused by her new attitude. “Especially after everything you’ve been through. I wasn’t expecting you to be so, how can I say, up-tempo.”

  “Oh I’m absolutely fine Julian,” Beth smiled. “I mean I’ve grieved for my father, taken time off work to reconnect a bit with family and I’m now ready to take the PR world by storm. So let’s get down to business.”

  But rather than getting down to business, Julian sat down on his chair and simply stared at her.

  “Julian,” Beth prompted him, as she sat down and leant forwards. “You called the meeting. What did you want to speak to me about?”

  “Well er ...” Julian said by way of reply. “This is just a catch up meeting after your period out of the office to see where we stand.”

  “And where do we stand exactly?” Beth asked, her eyes, ears and mouth alert for a character assassination because she hadn’t gone to France. But instead she found Julian surprisingly delightful.

  “Paris wasn’t a disaster,” he said, as he played with some notes in front of him. “So that is a big tick in the box for us both. The client understood you had personal problems. Luckily the French are very understanding about death, so it turned out ok.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Beth replied. “I would have been disappointed if they’d told you to go fuck yourself because someone died.”

  “My,” Julian replied, his bushy eyebrows rising at her choice of words. “It’s like you’re a different woman than the one we used to know. That’s slightly feisty language, especially for this time of the morning.”

  “Not really,” Beth said, uncrossing her legs and sitting backwards to stare him straight in the eyes. “As you can imagine, I’ve got a lot of catch-up work to do, so if you can just brief me on where we are with some of the campaigns I’ll crack on with what I do best.”

  “Right,” Julian said, giving his whole body rather an odd shake. “Let’s jump to it. Here is where we are then.”

  For the next twenty minutes Julian updated her on the PR briefs he was working on across all his clients, and Beth took notes in her new purple Moleskine notebook.

  This is how they always did good work. Julian would brief her and she would come up with the creative ideas for getting the best headlines.

  The only interruption to what turned out to be a very productive meeting was pushy Melissa, who brought in the coffees with a long face and slammed the door on the way out. “Gosh,” Beth said turning to Julian and winking. “What’s eating her?”

  “She probably doesn’t like the new you,” Julian answered, looking as bemused as Melissa. “Right where were we?”

  When Julian finished telling her what she needed to know, Beth shared the four or five ideas she’d jotted down to get great PR, providing the reasons why she thought they would work.

  “I like where you are going with those ideas Beth. You need to chat them over with the clients and see what they think,” Julian chortled. “I’d almost forgotten how good you are!”

  With the compliment still ringing in her ears, Beth stood up, picked up her coffee and walked over to the door.

  And as she did she watched Julian’s reflection in the glass in front of her as he stared at her arse and the soles of her Christian Louboutin shoes.

  “By the way,” Julian said, just as she turned the doorknob to exit his office. “Before you go, I just thought I’d tell you that I like the new you. It’s a real turn on. I could almost spank you for it.”

  “Well I can assure you I’m not doing any of this for that reason,” Beth replied sarcastically. “And if you don’t stop making inappropriate remarks I’ll stuff my new Moleskine notebook up your arse.”

  “Now that is funny,” Julian laughed. “It’s great to have you back. Keep doing what you’re doing. It really suits you.”r />
  “Whilst I have been away,” Beth said, as she stood confidently at the door, “I’ve rekindled a part of my Yorkshire personality that somehow I’d lost touch with. Expect me to call a spade a bloody shovel every time I open my mouth to you. Have a good day.”

  “Well I’m from the same place as you are,” Julian replied. “So a shovel works for me.”

  And whilst she might not have won the battle, she had certainly drawn equal with Julian and Melissa on her first day back.

  Speaking up had also resulted in one other big benefit. When she rang her mother to tell her how she’d got on, she’d laughed more loudly and for longer than Beth could ever remember.

  “That’s got to be the funniest thing you’ve ever said to anyone,” her mother chuckled. “I mean I don’t like that you were crude. And, mark my word, what you said was very rude. But even so ...”

  “Rude or not,” Beth replied. “It felt good. The only problem I had is that Julian seemed to letch at me more after I’d spoken to him like that than he ever did before.”

  “Well luv,” her mother said matter-of-factly. “Let’s not go into the psychology of small men. Just be grateful you’ve still got your job.”

  “Is that all you’re bothered about Mum?” Beth sighed. “I mean, honestly, whilst I enjoyed some of today, all I could think of was coming back to live and work in the North.”

  “God,” her mother replied. “I don’t know what has got into you lately.”

  “I don’t know Mum either,” Beth started to say. She hadn’t told her mother about Olivier yet. “I just want to come home ...”

  “Well maybe it’s because Kepton is becoming so fashionable,” Meg continued, without waiting for Beth to finish her sentence. “Your Uncle Arthur rang me today and told me he’d taken Louise to the new French place for breakfast yesterday. He said the food was amazing.”

  “It is amazing,” Beth blurted out. “I told you it was. I can’t believe they actually went though. Did they say anything else?”

  “No not really,” her mother said. “Other than it is run by a lovely Frenchman. So I think you might be on to something. Anyway it’s bedtime. Get a good night’s sleep and I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  As Beth clicked the receiver back into its slot, she wondered how on earth she would sleep. But rather than being traumatised, she ended the day feeling utterly elated that finally she may be nearing the beginning of the end.

  There was the promise of another lunch with Louise and Arthur and another trip back up to stay at the patisserie and hopefully she would get to spend some quality time with Olivier.

  CHAPTER 14: KEPTON

  Beth got to Olivier’s patisserie just after the last diners had left the bistro. She’d driven up the motorway at the end of a long week without stopping, hoping she could speak to him before lunch the next day.

  She needn’t have worried. As soon as Olivier had seen her coming through the door he’d rushed over and given her a big hug, told her to sit down at a table by the window and poured her a large glass of red wine.

  “Just stay here and drink some of this,” Olivier demanded. “You need to chill out a bit. I will join you in a few minutes. I’ll just get us both a selection of food and then you can update me.”

  “Ok,” Beth said, ecstatic to be back at the patisserie and in his company once again.

  “Right, finally we are ready to eat,” Olivier exhaled, as he sat down opposite her and put a platter of food in front of them both. “So, come on tell me. What brings you back here so quickly?”

  “There is so much to update you on,” Beth answered excitedly. “I’m not sure where to start.”

  “Let’s begin with your dinner with Matt and Lottie,” Olivier smiled somewhat oddly in between bites and gulps of wine. “We didn’t really get a chance to talk after that. What did they say about Highlands?”

  “It was a master stroke,” Beth replied, grabbing at a chunk of bread and wondering if Lottie had said something about her fancying him. “Thanks for arranging it. They were so kind.”

  “Yes,” Olivier nodded. “They are kind people. But did they give you any information?”

  “Yes absolutely,” Beth nodded furiously. “Not only did they tell me a lot of things I didn’t know about my family, they also gave me back some really precious photos they’d found at the house.”

  “Interesting,” Olivier replied. “They came in here for breakfast and pretty much said the same thing. Matt didn’t overly expand as the café was just so busy. But I got the impression they thought the meeting had been a very good thing for all of you.”

  “Yes, you can say that again,” Beth answered. “The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is that, according to my mother, Uncle Arthur and Aunt Louise came in here. Mum said they thought the food and the service were amazing.”

  “Really,” Olivier exclaimed, as he dug into a slice of ripe Brie. “That’s very good to hear.”

  “Coming from them it’s a big compliment,” Beth chuckled. “Mum told them how good it was and they clearly didn’t waste any time in trying it out.”

  “Um,” Olivier said, creasing his forehead. “Do you know when they came?”

  “Yes, last Sunday the day I left,” Beth replied. “They’re difficult to miss. My Uncle always wears a pretentious hat and my Aunt usually wears extravagant headwear as well.”

  “Oh yes I remember them both. They came in for a late breakfast,” Olivier replied. “I thought they looked like a very fashionable couple and, what’s the word I’m looking for? Well balanced somehow.”

  “I’m not sure any of my relations are well balanced but I guess Louise is,” Beth laughed. “But I know what you mean. They’re certainly still head over heels in love with each other and they’ve been married for well over thirty years.”

  “Yes,” Olivier replied more darkly. “I looked at them that night and envied what they still had. It was obvious they had a special relationship, the kind that doesn’t happen often.”

  The impact of his words, however indirect, about Isabel stabbed her like a sharp knife to the heart, rendering her speechless.

  “Here’s something else for your research then,” Olivier continued, unaware of her angst. “Your Uncle Arthur and Aunt Louise sat next to Lottie and Matt and I noticed that they were speaking for quite a while.”

  “What,” Beth shouted back. “Was it like a pre-arranged meeting?”

  “No I don’t think so it just happened,” Olivier shrugged. “I spoke to Lottie as they were paying their bill and she commented on how nice the customers sitting next to them had been and they’d had a great chat about local stuff.”

  “God,” Beth cried, putting her head in her hands. “So that’s why they want to have me over for lunch tomorrow. It will be one of their little games. They probably found out I’d been to Highlands and wanted to know why. I wouldn’t put anything past Dad’s family.”

  “Ah, so is that why you are back?” Olivier asked ignoring her assumptions. “Is it because you are going to have lunch with your Aunt and Uncle again?”

  Beth hesitated before answering. The answer was, as always, much more complicated. Originally she had been thinking of coming back to see him. The lunch had been a late addition. She wondered how she could tell him that actually he was the real reason.

  “Aunt Louise rang me on Monday,” Beth began to say, playing for time. “She told me she had something important she wanted to say to me in person. But I was thinking of coming back to Kepton anyway.”

  “Why?” Olivier replied, looking shocked. “You went back to London to your cool job and wanted to come back so soon?”

  “I’m not sure about the cool job bit,” Beth smiled. “It turned out better than I imagined it would but I’m just not sure I care that much anymore.”

  “It’s ok,” Olivier said. “You don’t need to explain to me why you want to turn your back on cor
porate life. I already did it.”

  “So you’ll understand why I came back here then,” Beth said coyly. “I actually like being in the patisserie. Serving coffee and croissant made me feel free, and that is a great feeling to have.”

  “I agree” Olivier smiled. “And you can help me in here anytime you like. I’m thinking I will need to start to hire someone soon anyway.”

  “If you can match my salary I’ll do it,” Beth joked. “In the end what really pisses me off about my job is that it always comes down to needing money. So I go round and round like a hamster and nothing changes.”

  “I’ll think about the money side of things and get back to you,” Olivier smiled. “So you are definitely going to go to the lunch tomorrow despite your reservations about the reasons your Auntie and Uncle have for inviting you?”

  “Yes, I have to go to find out what they want to tell me,” Beth answered. “It all sounded very urgent. They probably found out I’d spoken to Lottie and Matt and just want to make sure I haven’t picked anything up from them they’d rather me not know about.”

  “Hey,” Olivier said, grabbing at her arm. “You don’t know what they want to talk to you about yet. Don’t jump to conclusions. It seemed like a pretty random meeting to me. Let’s just see what tomorrow brings.”

  “I guess,” Beth answered. “It’s just that I don’t trust any of them. And consequently I always think the worst. But you’re right. I just need to see what they have to say for themselves without damning them first.”

  “You never know. They may have some good news for you,” Olivier said, trying to cheer her up. “People like me and you can get sucked into thinking things will always turn out badly.”

  “Maybe,” Beth pondered, as she drained the last drop of wine from her glass. “So enough of me and my family what’s your news?”

  “Well, we’re getting more and more customers every day,” Olivier replied, smiling. “So all that side of things is positive but I guess the totally unexpected news for me is that on Wednesday I got a call from France.”