The Traveller's Daughter Read online

  He shrugged as if to say he was mad. “Oui of course.”

  “Wait there, I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Damien said giving a two-fingered salute to the car behind him as the driver sat on his horn once more before driving off.

  “And what is he doing here this friend of yours?”

  Kitty watched the yellow car disappear up a side street and turning her attention back to Christian, she caught his quizzical look. “To tell you the truth I don’t know why he’s here. He's over protective when it’s not his place to be so any more.” Swiping her cheeks with the backs of her hand she hoped she hadn’t just smeared mascara all over her face.

  She registered Jonny’s impatient muttering that he was off, but she didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking at him before he turned and walked off.

  “Don’t worry about him, a walk will cool him down. He is hot-headed, it is in his blood. He will find his way to la maison when he is ready.” Christian led her over to the seat he had been sitting on with Jonny before Damien’s unexpected arrival, and they sat down to wait for him to come back. She was glad to take the weight off her feet for a few moments, and she wished she could take her shoes off and give herself a foot rub. One day she vowed, she would wear sensible shoes but not until she was at least ninety and only if she grew another foot.

  Christian looked relaxed as he crossed his legs and rested his arm on the back of the wooden bench, settling back to watch the world go by. A comfortable silence stretched between them, and Kitty was grateful to him for not probing further where Damien was concerned because it was the last thing she felt like talking about. The air had cooled rapidly, and she shivered wishing she had her jacket with her, but it would be at the house now waiting for her in her room or so Simone had promised. Her eyes were drawn to the patisserie window mesmerized by the bright, yellow, greens, pinks and purples of the gooey looking macarons displayed there. Should she or shouldn’t she find out what all the fuss was about them? She was spared from having to decide by the reappearance of Damien.

  He stood over them both holding his hand out to Christian as he introduced himself as her friend but with an air of propriety about him that suggested they were so much more. Kitty didn’t have time to feel irked because thunder rumbled around them, followed a split second later by a flash of light and then the heavens opened.

  ***

  “Kitty! It’s about time you rang. I’ve been on edge all day wondering what you’re up to and how it’s going in France. College was a write off today because I was so busy thinking about you and where you were at. As for you sleeping with Sir Shagalot I’ve decided to put you dropping your drawers down to his catching you at a weak moment. So if you promise me you’ll have no more to do with him, then I think we’ll just notch last night up as a right royal fuck up for old time’s sake alright?”

  Kitty couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s not so dulcet, but oh so familiar tones. It was comforting to hear her voice. She was lying starfished on a down filled eiderdown having been assailed by absolute exhaustion as soon as she’d closed the door of her room and flopped down on the four poster bed. Everything that had happened, all she’d learned and then Damien showing up the way he had, it had left her drained.

  The house it had turned out rather mercifully given the downpour wasn’t far from the town square but despite ducking under shop awnings and sidestepping the rapidly forming puddles they’d still all gotten drenched.

  It was a relief when Christian patted down his pockets and found the key to open the front door of the three storey house they found themselves shivering in front of. There was no porch in which to shelter under but rather a step leading from the pavement to the front door. The three of them had crowded into the hallway. To Kitty’s further relief, a quick scan of the two room’s leading off either side of where they were standing dripping on the old wooden boards revealed no sign of Jonny.

  Damien had kept his promise. Once he had given the house a cursory once-over from his hallway vantage point and gotten her to agree to meet him for dinner in the square later, he had left her to settle in. He was probably eager to find a hotel and grab a hot shower Kitty mused as he shut the door behind him. Simone had materialized from somewhere upstairs proffering towels that she and Christian had dried off with as best they could before he had indicated that Kitty should join him in the sitting room leading off to the left. Simone disappeared into a room down the end of the hall that Kitty was guessing from the smell of percolating coffee was probably the kitchen.

  Her stomach had fluttered with anticipatory nerves as she followed Christian through to a somewhat chintzy but inviting room where the choice of fabrics in the soft furnishing whispered to her of shopping trips to Paris. A black leather case was sitting on the settee and he went straight over to it opening it, and after a quick rummage inside he produced a hardback book covered in roses. It was her mother’s journal! He handed it to her without pomp or ceremony just a kindly smile. Kitty held it in her hands feeling the weight of it as she stared at the pretty patterned cover that was so evocative of Rosa. She felt the tears that had never been far away throughout the day burn her eyes once more. Flustered; she hadn’t known what she should do next. Now that she had the precious book in her hands she was frightened to open it but Simone had picked that moment to bustle in and offer to show her up to her room. Christian had patted her shoulder and said, “You read it when you are ready ma chérie.”

  She had managed a small smile at his understanding wishing Damien hadn’t pushed her so hard to commit to meeting him for dinner later.

  “Kitty are you still there?” Yasmin demanded bringing her back to the present.

  “Hi, yes sorry, it’s just that my mind’s buzzing with everything that’s happened since I got here. Oh and to answer your question considering Damien’s here in Uzés I kind of have had no choice but to see him again.” She held the phone away from her ear as her friend shrieked as she’d known she would.

  “What do you mean he’s there?”

  “I mean exactly that. He followed me, uninvited by the way, to Uzés because he said it didn’t sit well leaving me to go off and meet a group of people who could have been fraudsters with ulterior motives.”

  “And are they?”

  “No of course not.”

  “Right so he can bugger off back to old Blighty! Tell him his job’s done.”

  Kitty rubbed her temples. “I wish he would. Believe me Yas I didn’t want him to come. I was happy to put some space between us by getting on that plane this morning.”

  “I do believe you, but I don’t trust him and he knows you’re vulnerable at the moment so don’t let Mr Shagaround sweet talk you into something you know you’ll regret. I don’t have to tell you Kitty, once a cheater, always a cheater.” She repeated her familiar mantra.

  “I know, I know but I’ve got way too much on my mind for that. Honestly, you won’t believe it when I tell you what I’ve found out.”

  “So tell me. I can give you ten minutes because I am working tonight covering your evening shift by the way. Not that I mind because it gets me out the flat and away from Piggy Paula and Slimy Steve. Honestly, Kitty, I think those two fancy themselves as John Lennon and Yoko Ono doing that sixties’ bed in thing. They were at it all day.”

  Kitty pulled a face. “Ugh not a visual I needed thank you very much and who would have thought Slimy Steve would be a master of tantric sex.”

  “Tantric what?”

  “Don’t worry about it google Sting and Trudie Styler. You said you were in a rush so listen. Uzés is a gorgeous wee town, and it’s well, it’s very French.” She gave a little laugh. “I suppose you’d expect that though. To set the scene at this moment in time I am in a beautiful, ridiculously large room, lying on a double four-poster bed. My knickers and jeans are drying out on the rails at the end of the bed.”

  “Keep it clean thanks very much Kitty, there is enough smutty stuff going on down the hallway.”

/>   “Excuse me but the reason I am currently in nothing but a T-shirt is because I got drenched earlier and I am trying to dry my things off. I packed with the intention of being away for one night, not three remember?”

  “Fair enough but get on with it and set the bloody scene because some of us have to go to work. Good grief I don’t know what’s going on with my hair today! I thought it would be low maintenance having it this length, but it was easier when it was long because at least then on bad hair days I could just pull it back in a ponytail.”

  Kitty grinned, she could picture her friend’s look of disgust as she faffed with her bobbed locks with her free hand. “Alright, alright stop interrupting me and listen. My room’s in a three storey townhouse that the five of us, that’s Christian, his assistant Simone, Pierre the chauffeur, Jonny and I are all sharing. It’s one in a long row of old houses all with shuttered windows and crumbling plaster exteriors, very shabby chic but inside the house is pretty flash. It has all the mod cons only it’s been done in an old fashioned way so it hasn’t lost its charm. You want to see the bathroom down the hall, it has one of those claw foot baths to die for, but the walk in shower was a proper power shower. It just about knocked me over when I turned it on. It’s just me and Simone on this level so at least I won’t bump into Jonny on any middle of the night toilet runs.”

  “Jonny’s the nephew of the man in the photo with your mum right? Shit stay down fringe.”

  “Yeah and what an asshole, but I’ll get to that. We’re not very far from the main town square and all the shops so I’m going to wander out for dinner later.”

  “No prizes for guessing who with.”

  Kitty ignored the comment her eyes flickering toward the windows that she had opened wide to circulate the oppressive air the short-lived storm had left in its wake. A glimpse out of them when she’d stepped into the room earlier with Simone hot on her heels asking if the room were to her liking had revealed the house’s location to be opposite a college. She’d stood there still clutching the little hardback book to her chest watching the young people lounging with their backs up against the wall outside the school’s gates. They were smoking and looking cool as they checked their phones or flirted with one another. Teenagers were the same the western world over, no matter what language they spoke, she thought.

  Kitty could have stayed by the window people watching. It was a wonderful distraction from what she was holding in her hand, but Simone had wanted to be assured that yes, she loved the room. She had only left her alone when she’d watched her place the journal where it still lay unopened on the bedside table next to her and began to unpack the few things she had in her bag. Laying out her pyjamas she wished she had packed a change of shirt and an extra pair of jeans too. As for knickers, well if she wanted a fresh pair to put on tomorrow morning then she was going to have to do some hand-washing under the hot shower she planned on standing under as soon as Simone buggered off.

  From her hovering concern, Kitty guessed that Christian had relayed Jonny’s outburst that afternoon. Seeing her unpack her things was obviously the reassurance she had needed that Kitty wasn’t going to hotfoot it back to London as soon as she turned her back on her. There was no way she would let a rude pig like Jonny chase her away though, Kitty had determined as she stuffed her PJ’s under the pillow. Nope, she’d come here on a quest of sorts. She would see it through to the end and after her shower she would settle in and read the journal, but first she owed Yasmin a phone call.

  Now the sound of the students’ laughter as they loitered on the pavement below drifted up through the open window as did the tang of cigarette smoke. “Everything went to plan with my flight over. When I arrived in Marseille, Simone who is one of those women who could eat a bowl of spag bog and not wind up with an orange moustache is obviously good at her job. Oh and a chauffeur called Pierre met us at the airport too.”

  “Ooh, a chauffeur! How posh.” Yasmin squealed impressed. A moment later however, she was laughing out loud as Kitty carried on with her tale to relay her alfresco toilet stop en route to Uzés. “Oh my God only you could get stung on the bum, Kitty. I bet it hurts.”

  “It did and then it itched like buggery. But I got some antihistamines and they have taken the swelling down thank goodness. Now that I think about it they’re probably why I feel like I have just run a marathon. It’s either that or my run in with Jonny. Or maybe it’s down to Damien showing up. Nope, actually I think it might be down to the journal on my bedside table. I think Mum might have written down all the things she felt she couldn’t tell me about her life in it.”

  It was the second time in their conversation that she had to hold the phone away from her ear.

  When Yasmin had calmed down she asked, “Okay um oh buggeration where the hell are my shoes? Ah yay there they are, so wow! Your mum has left you like a diary thing?”

  “Yes, apparently she wrote it just before she passed away and wanted Christian to be the one to give it to me. That means she wanted me to come to Uzés to do this photograph.”

  “See Yassy always knows best. So you have her blessing to be there, that’s cool. But you haven’t read it yet?”

  This conversation was following a similar pattern to the one they’d had twenty-four hours ago when Kitty’s fingers had hovered over the attachment containing the picture that had started this journey. “No, I wanted to call you first and let you know I was okay.”

  “And you are okay? I mean I’m worried now because you said this Jonny guy was an asshole and Damien’s sniffing around like a dog on heat.”

  “I can handle Damien.” Even as she said it, Kitty didn’t know if it were true. “As for Jonny he pretty much accused my mother of being responsible for his uncle’s death that, by the way, was awful.”

  “Okay spill but I am walking while you are talking.”

  Kitty heard the front door slam behind Yasmin, and she pictured her with her nose wrinkled at the smell of curry hovering in the hallway for a moment before she skipped down the stairs. She filled her in on what Christian had shared with her that afternoon and when she’d finished there was silence. “Yasmin are you still there?”

  “Yeah and you’ll have to speak up because I’m about to turn onto Ashwin Street and the traffic’s bad. I can’t wrap my head around everything you just said, Kitty. It’s an amazing and sad story that sounds like something I’d go and see at the movies. I can’t believe what that ass Jonny said to you either. He was well out of order.”

  “Christian put him in his place pretty smartly. But I don’t think he cared, and you know what Yas? I think his anger is just a mask for the hurt he’s feeling following in his uncle’s footsteps.”

  A horn sounded in the background, and Kitty pressed the phone closer to her ear to hear her friend’s reply.

  “That or you’ve been overdosing on Oprah and he’s just an asshole.”

  Kitty felt an overwhelming urge for something sweet then, one of those macaron’s she’d spied earlier would help, but there would be no room service knocking on her door here.

  “You know the world your mum came from is completely foreign to us. I think knowing you as I do you are going to want to find her people. You’re lucky too because you’ve been given a chance to put things right where she couldn’t.”

  “Yas you make Mum sound like she came from Mars or something.”

  “Ooh a Mars bar I could go one of them right now! Look, I might not know much about little green aliens, but from what I have seen on the television the Travellers are a whole different breed. They have their own ways and customs.”

  “My mother’s life growing up was nothing like those horrible shows on TV thank you very much, and they didn’t have spray tans back then or money from what Christian told me.”

  “I suppose not, but you do have a family you never knew existed and you’ve got the opportunity to meet them if you decide you want to.”

  Kitty knew how much Yas would love a link to her father and her he
art went out to her friend. Her tone was gentle as she replied. “I have discovered I have a family I didn’t know I had yes, but it is also a family that my mother was too scared to go back and face. I can’t say I blame her either because their memories are obviously long if the way Jonny spoke to me this afternoon is anything to go by.”

  “Well, that’s his problem. Tell him from me that I said it's time to move on buddy. It was fifty years ago. My gosh Kitty, yesterday you thought you were all alone in the world except for me of course then twenty-four hours later you find out you have an aunt. For all you know you could have ten or more cousins. I mean she is Irish, and you know what they’re like at popping kids out. You have to open that journal and read what your mum has to tell you. Okay, I’m here. Oh crap, I just caught sight of a spot on my chin. How could that appear between the flat and work? Oh Kitty I hope Mr Amatriciana doesn’t decide to do dinner tonight, not with the state of my hair and this growth on my face.”

  Kitty could picture her friend with the phone crooked between her ear and shoulder as she inspected her chin in the reflection of Bruno’s glass door. She felt a sudden yearning to go back in time to before all this had happened, and things although not great, were ticking along.

  “I’ve got to go. Mario just spotted me, and he looks pissed if the way he’s glaring at me while tapping at his watch is anything to go by,” Yasmin said referring to the restaurant’s maître de. “Shit, I must be late and it’s all your fault. Read that journal then ring me okay?”