Ronan crooks an eyebrow at me, but he does as I ask. The reaction is the same dour look that Monsieur Forand seems to wear quite naturally. After a rather awkward few seconds, I pour a large glass of red wine and he inclines his head a little, wearing what I assume is his version of a smile. Raising the glass up to me, he takes a sip and nods his head briefly, giving his seal of approval. I may just have made a new friend.
As he walks away, I let out a sigh of relief.
‘Do you think he took the hint?’
‘I hope so. But I’ll keep an eye out in case anything untoward develops. Any other worries?’
I shake my head. ‘It’s all good. And the happy couple are both glowing.’
‘Let me take over here and you can go and grab something to eat from the buffet. Did I tell you how lovely you look in that dress you’re wearing?’ His arm wraps around my waist as he stoops to steal a quick kiss. But I don’t let him off that easily and one kiss turns into two, then three.
‘I’m glad you approve of my outfit,’ I half whisper, pulling away from him with great reluctance.
It’s something I picked up when we were shopping for Ronan’s house and I saw it in the window of a little boutique. An impulse purchase, really, as it’s not a style of dress I’d normally choose. Floaty is a perfect description for it. It’s comprised of several fine layers of silk organza, large roses printed in very soft pinks and mauves making it floral without being overtly so. The result is a shimmer of colour; old-style romantic chic, I’d call it. With long sleeves and a slim navy-blue belt at the waist, it drapes beautifully. It has the sort of skirt you want to swish, and I feel elegant today.
Ronan continues to gaze at me, dropping his arms and grabbing my hands quite intently as if he’s about to say something important.
I hear my name, but it isn’t Ronan speaking and reluctantly I drag my gaze away from his face.
We both turn and my hands fall from Ronan’s grasp.
‘Jake, what on earth are you doing here?’ I almost hiss at my brother as he approaches, his arms filled with a ridiculously large bouquet of flowers.
I rush up to him and lean in, seeing that several people are already looking our way, having noticed the new, and unexpected, arrival.
‘This is an engagement party. What were you thinking, turning up like this? Our hostess, Solange, is coming this way. Pretend the flowers are for her and say congratulations.’
I pull away from him and decide it will look odd if I don’t kiss his cheek, so reluctantly I play the adoring sister. It’s hard to relax my face as I do so, then turn back around to face the smiling Solange.
‘Surprise,’ I say, trying my best to make it sound genuine. ‘Solange, this is my brother, Jake. I hope you don’t mind him gatecrashing the party.’
She immediately looks across at him as he proffers the flowers, bending to kiss her on both cheeks. It’s so typical of him. There isn’t even a hint of embarrassment or awkwardness in his demeanour.
‘Hearty congratulations on your engagement, Solange, and it’s lovely to meet you. My sister said it was going to be a wonderful party. The decorations are fabulous, by the way – you did a great job.’
What a cheek he has! For starters he wasn’t invited and what the heck is he doing here, anyway?
She lowers her head to sniff the fragrant assortment of very expensive flowers and proceeds to thank Jake profusely, much to my embarrassment.
‘I’m going to whisk him away for a quick chat, but, at some point, we’ll seek out Philippe and I’ll make sure they are introduced. Ronan is running out of lemons and limes, I think – are there any in the kitchen?’
Solange nods. ‘Yes, you go off for your chat and I’ll sort Ronan out. I had no idea you had a brother, Lexie, and a very handsome one at that,’ she throws over her shoulder, as she heads off to Renée’s clutching the bouquet in both hands.
My stomach is churning as I yank at Jake’s arm to drag him in the direction of number six. He follows me inside and up the stairs in total silence. When I turn round to look at him, I’m lost for words. He doesn’t seem fazed at all; he takes his time to gaze around the room.
‘It’s bijou, but very you,’ he comments.
What on earth does that mean? Is he trying to put me down because I’m not staying in some big, fancy apartment?
‘Is Solange a new friend?’ he enquires, not at all concerned that he’s disrupted a very special occasion, one I was enjoying until I set eyes on him.
I flop down on the sofa opposite him and he follows suit; we sit eyeing each other, uncomfortably.
‘She’s a friend who works at Versailles. Why are you here?’
He looks at me, rather shocked at the tenseness in my tone.
‘I felt bad, being back in the UK and meeting up with everyone, when you weren’t there. Lexie, I didn’t want you to feel left out and that’s the truth. Clearly my turning up here unannounced has upset you and I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention at all. I thought it might be a rather nice surprise, but if you don’t tell people you even have a brother, then obviously I’m out of order.’
My mind is in a whirl, then I realise his eyes are now scanning over the mess of items strewn across the coffee table in between us. I sit up, quickly scooping the contents back into Grandma’s box and shoving it back into the drawer. Although I know Shellie mentioned the box Mum discovered, he has no idea what exactly it contains. I don’t want him picking something up out of mere curiosity and then quizzing me about what I’ve discovered. I certainly don’t intend sharing anything with him before I’ve spoken to Shellie and Mum.
‘What did you expect, given what happened and the lack of contact ever since?’
That refocuses his attention. Now he’s ill at ease, shifting position, and his body language tells me that my reaction really has come as a complete shock to him.
‘I’m a workaholic, you know that. The minute the plane landed it was all go and I knew it was a golden opportunity. I would have been a fool not to have run with it, but I’ve never worked so hard. Networking isn’t easy when you are starting from scratch and there were times that I felt so isolated, but it was my choice to go and I had to get on with it.’
That’s so Jake. Black and white. He had a job to do and nothing was going to stop him.
‘It didn’t occur to you that we’d be worried about you? And you weren’t at all concerned about your family, or what you had left behind?’
He squints, staring at me as if he simply can’t comprehend my animosity.
‘I knew you’d all look after each other. You aren’t trying to say that anyone really missed me, or my input, surely? And I’d heard you were offered a job, so damage limitation there as I’d ensured Mason didn’t press charges. Which was what he’d made very clear he intended to do, at first. What else could I have done?’
He shrugs his shoulders, implying he can’t see what all the fuss is about. I’m so angry that I don’t know where to begin.
‘Well, first of all you have a niece you knew nothing about. Secondly, you have a wife and two young boys that none of us knew anything about. And as for Mason, if I’d known he’d made that threat it would have changed everything. I might have hit him, but it was in self-defence.’