What Happens at the Beach.... T Williams A

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СКАЧАТЬ dropped his eyes and turned away, reaching for his jacket. ‘Maybe I would.’ He wasn’t speaking very loud, but she heard every word quite clearly.

      ‘Then you’d better have this back.’ She found herself twisting the engagement ring from her finger, the sunlight glittering in the cut facets of the cluster of diamonds as she did so. ‘You can tell your mother she doesn’t need to worry any more.’ She thrust the ring at him and headed for the gate. Behind her she heard him call her name, but only very quietly so as not to disturb any of the guests. She ignored him and left.

      It was a ten-minute walk to the station. When she got there she discovered that the next train to get her back to Cambridge would not be along for half an hour. She walked right to the far end of the platform and sat down on her own on a bench in the sun. It would have been very easy for her to bury her head in her hands and cry, but she had no intention of letting that happen until she was well away from David and his family. She dug in her bag for a tissue and blew her nose, taking a series of long, slow breaths to calm her racing heart.

      She needed to speak to somebody, badly. In Cambridge there was just Amy, her oldest friend, and a few other girls she knew fairly well, and there was her supervisor, with whom she had grown pretty close, but that was about it. It was almost five years now since the crash that had robbed her of her parents. Without brothers and sisters, without her mother to turn to, and without David, that only left one guaranteed shoulder to cry on. She pulled out her phone and checked the time. It was almost three. In France, it would be almost four o’clock. Her grandmother should have woken from her afternoon snooze by now. Natalie flicked through her contacts until she reached Gran and pressed the green button.

      It was a while before she answered, but the old voice was unmistakable. ‘Oui, allô.’

      ‘Hello, Gran. It’s me, Natalie.’ She switched effortlessly into French.

      ‘Natalie, my darling girl, hello.’ Her mother and her grandparents had always spoken to her in French and Natalie had grown up bilingual as a result. As her doctoral thesis had been on the Cathars of southern France, the ability to read and speak fluent French had been a massive help to her in her research.

      ‘How are you, Gran?’

      ‘I’m all right, in a geriatric sort of way. The sun’s shining, the doctor still allows me a glass or two of wine, so I can’t complain. And how’re you?’

      ‘A bit low, to be honest.’

      ‘But you’ve only just been awarded your doctorate. You should be up on a cloud right now.’ A note of concern entered her grandma’s voice. ‘You’re not ill, are you?’

      ‘No, I’m fine. It’s just...’ She hesitated, unwilling to launch into a post-mortem of the afternoon’s events on the telephone. ‘I’ll tell you all about it when I see you.’ She suddenly felt very weary. ‘Gran, I was wondering. Would there be room for me over there for a few weeks? I’ve really got to get away.’

      ‘Of course, my child.’ The fact that Natalie was now thirty made no difference to her grandmother. She would always think of her only granddaughter as about ten years old. ‘I’d love to see you. Come as soon as you like and stay as long as you like.’

      Natalie thought fast. It was the middle of July now. She had finished all her commitments at the university and, particularly after the events of this afternoon, there was nothing and nobody to keep her in Cambridge. She didn’t hesitate. ‘I’ll come over as soon as possible, tomorrow if I can. I’ll get on the first flight I can find. I’m at the station waiting for a train at the moment. As soon as I get back home I’ll sort everything out, and I’ll call you this evening.’

      ‘That’s wonderful, as long as you’re sure. It’ll be so good to have you here again.’ Natalie could hear the pleasure in her grandma’s voice.

      ‘Of course I’m sure. Besides, I haven’t been down to Port Renard for ages now. I need to see if the beach has changed.’

      ‘The beach hasn’t changed, my dear. We have, but it hasn’t.’

      Not only was there a flight from Stansted to Perpignan the next day, there was still a spare seat at a reasonable price. And, after checking, Natalie was relieved to see that she had enough left in her current account after buying the ticket to still be able to go down to the cash machine and take out enough money to last her for a few weeks while staying with her grandmother, without digging into her very modest savings account. Even better, when she pulled out her passport, she found eighty euros tucked inside it, left over from her last trip to France. Satisfied that everything was arranged, she rang her grandmother to tell her what time she would be arriving.

      ‘The flight gets in just before three. I’ll get the bus into the station at Perpignan and, if all goes well, I should be in Banyuls by five or so. When I get there I’ll take a taxi along to you.’

      ‘I’d come and pick you up if they’d let me, dear. I’ve still got the car, you know. But the doctors said I can’t drive any more. They say it’s because of these drugs they’re giving me, but I think it’s just because they know I’m ninety. It’s prejudice, you know.’

      Natalie couldn’t help laughing at the outrage in her grandmother’s voice. ‘Don’t worry about it, Gran. I’ll be fine. I’m looking forward so very much to seeing you tomorrow night.’

      ‘Me, too, darling. Bon voyage.’

      After ringing off, Natalie looked down at her phone. The thought occurred to her that she should maybe call David to tell him where she was going. It was almost eight o’clock and he might well be on his way home by now. One thing she knew for sure was that she didn’t want to see him. After a few seconds’ hesitation she decided not to call him and dropped the phone in favour of a pen and a sheet of paper. The message she wrote was brief and to the point.

       David

       I’m going over to France to stay with my grandmother in Port Renard.

       Nat

       I’ll come and pick up the rest of my stuff when I get back.

      Next, she phoned her friend Amy to ask for a bed for the night. Although she tried her best to sound normal, her voice gave her away.

      ‘What is it, Nat? What’s happened?’

      Natalie took a deep breath. ‘David and I have split up.’

      ‘Oh, dear.’ Amy sounded surprised, but not that surprised. Natalie reflected that she had been speaking to Amy more and more over the past few months about her reservations and doubts as to her future with David. ‘Split up as in engagement off, or just taking a break?’

      ‘I gave him his ring back and told him where he could stick his whole bloody family.’

      ‘I’ll take that as engagement off, then.’ There was a pause. ‘Well, in a way, it’s sort of what you’ve been building up to.’

      ‘I don’t know, Amy. I suppose so.’ Natalie hesitated, wondering whether that really was true. ‘Brace yourself. I rather think you know what we’re going to be talking about tonight.’

      ‘I’ll be here waiting.’

      Natalie СКАЧАТЬ