Peach Read Free Page B

noise, it’s causing quite a scandal.” She stared at the floor, reluctant to say any more.
    “There have been enough scandals in the de Courmont family,” said Leonie abruptly, “I shall go to Paris tomorrow and see Lais.”
    Jim noticed that her hand shook a little as she held her champagne glass and he wondered whether it was anger she felt for Lais, or shame.
    Leonie could never enter Monsieur’s house without a flicker of fear, though she had never set foot in it when Gilles de Courmont was alive. In the years they were together, they had lived on his great yacht or at their house on the Place St Georges, or her little villa at St Jean Cap Ferrat. It was only after her daughter Amelie had married Monsieur’s son Gerard that she had been invited here. But she felt his presence all the time, his dark, sternly handsome face looked at her from generations of de Courmont family portraits, and the lofty rooms still held his secrets.
    The maid who had answered the door led her to the drawing room and Leonie looked around in dismay. Dust bloomed thickly on tables and mirrors and long-dead flowers drooped in crystal containers half-full of greenish water. Glasses and plates littered every surface and there were ominous dark stains upon the beautiful old carpets. Broken glass crunched under her feet as she walked towards thewindows and, as she bent to pick up the remains of a once-beautiful Lalique wine glass, she gazed angrily at the sluttish-looking little maid, waiting indifferently by the door.
    “And
where
is Bennet?” demanded Leonie. The English butler had been with the de Courmont family for decades and ran the house like clockwork. He must be getting senile to let the place get into this state.
    “Bennet’s gone, Madame.” The girl’s head drooped tiredly and Leonie noticed that her apron, like the carpet, was stained.
    “You mean Bennet has left?”
    “Two weeks ago. He said he wasn’t coming back neither. They’ve all left, except me and Jeanne. And we’re off at the end of this week—when she pays us our wages, that is. Or
if
she pays our wages, more like.”
    Leonie’s jaw tightened angrily. “Exactly where is my granddaughter?”
    The little maid avoided her glance. “I think she’s still sleeping, Madame.”
    The gilt hands of the pretty porcelain clock on the marble mantel pointed to two o’clock. “Which is her room?” Leonie made purposefully for the door.
    “Wait, wait Madame, please.” The girl made an attempt to bar the door, “Madame, she’s sleeping. I don’t think you should. Oh dear,” she wailed as Leonie mounted the stairs determinedly.
    Leonie took in at a glance Lais’s littered sitting room. The silk curtains were half-drawn and trailing from their hooks. A brandy decanter, one-third full, sat on an inlaid satinwood table stained with sticky circles where glasses had been carelessly spilt. The room smelled of cigarettes and brandy and wrinkling her nose Leonie flung open the windows, letting in the fresh breeze.
    “Jeanne is that you?” Lais’s voice came sleepily from thedarkened bedroom. “Bring some coffee, will you. Lots of it. And make sure it’s hot this time.”
    “Lais. Kindly put on some clothes and come out here at once.”
    A muffled shriek emerged from the bedroom. “
Grandmère!
Go away. Oh go away,
please
.”
    Removing a pile of flimsy undergarments from the chair, Leonie took a seat. “I’m waiting until you come out, Lais. And please hurry yourself.”
    “Grand-mère,
please
, I’ll meet you in half an hour—wherever you say.”
    “I’m
waiting here
, Lais.”
    “What’s going on?” The heavily accented voice was deep and booming. “Keep quiet for once, you stupid girl.”
    Lais shushed the masculine voice. “Don’t
whisper
to me for God’s sake when you’ve been
shouting
for the last ten minutes. I told you I wanted to sleep … 
Your grandmother?
What’s she doing here? Interfering, I’ve no doubt. Let me take care of