All That the Heart Desires (8 page)

“Right. Then find me a glamorous dress.”

“You’re serious? I was convinced you’d fight about this!”

“It’ll be fun and I need a little bit of fun.”

“And we will have fun, but coffee first. We’ll eat later.”

“So I’ll fit into a dress?” I teased her again.

“You are naughty today. I’m not used to that side of you.”

It was already evening when we got home. The sky was sparkling with stars; they were more visible in the suburbs of Nice than in the city. I liked it that way. I parked the car on the driveway and Anne-Marie was strangely silent. She looked at her house, which was still in darkness.

“The boys aren’t home yet. It’s strange,” she said so quietly I was not sure that she had actually spoken.

“Will you join me on the porch for a glass of wine?” I asked her, trying to improve her mood. Only then did I start to think that she’d become silent only when we’d left Cannes. The whole afternoon she had been as effervescent as a sparkling wine. I had hardly managed to say a word, she had been extremely chatty.

“No, thank you,” she answered. “I’m sure they’ll be home soon. Otherwise Philippe would have called me.” Her last words were almost a whisper. I had a strange feeling something was not right, but I didn’t want to push her to tell me what was wrong.

“And the dogs are probably hungry, too.” She turned back to me and smiled. From the back seat of my car she took the dress that was carefully packaged in a protective cover. At the end of the day, just a few minutes before closing, she had finally managed to choose something that fitted me perfectly. It was a beautiful black dress with an emerald green inset of silk fabric falling from the right arm to the floor. I was just not sure I would be ever be able to wear it.

“Here it is,” she handed it to me. “Thank you for a beautiful afternoon.” She leaned forward and hugged me. I was so surprised I was unable to answer her. Before I could say anything, she was already across the street and in her driveway.

“Thank you, Anne-Marie.”

She waved back.

“Good night!”

But she was already gone.

Locking the car, I went into the house and hung the dress on the door of the closet. It had been a long day and I was tired.

Although alone, I took a bottle of red wine out of the fridge, found a glass from the cabinet and went straight to the terrace. It was a wonderfully warm night and the full moon was rising. My mind was occupied with the last few days’ events. Everything was incredible and crazy; a near-death accident; meeting the World number one Formula 1 driver, his kiss and, better than anything – Blackbird’s information that my lost son was so close to me.

All those events occupied my mind and before I knew it I had drained the bottle and there were only a few drops falling into my empty glass.

“Hell,” I said out loud. Taking the glass and bottle into the kitchen, I realised it was too late to go to the laboratory. I was not in the mood to clean up. The decision to go to bed was the only sane one to take.

Sunday was a peaceful day. I stayed at home and was undisturbed. Even Anne-Marie didn’t come to check on me. It was unusual for her but I thought she and her family had perhaps gone on a trip or decided to visit her parents.

I spent the whole morning in the laboratory. First I cleaned all the dirty glassware: beakers, flasks, bottles and whatever I had used the previous day and, while doing that, a new idea for a perfume rose in my mind. I started to mix it, but just couldn’t find the right note. Not even one sample satisfied my nose. The first one was too sweet; the second had too much lemon scent, the third … I realised my nose was just not co-operating.

I was hungry and called the Chinese takeaway and ordered some food. As I waited for it, I decided to take a short walk by the sea. The sea breeze always cleared my mind and my nose. That was something I desperately needed.

When I came back, the food delivery guy was at my door. I paid for the meal and looked across the street. Anne-Marie’s house was still quiet. No one was home. It looked like they’d taken the dogs with them, too, and that was strange. Philippe hated those dogs.

A quick check of the clock reminded me that the race was about to begin, so I hurried into the house and turned the television on. I was on time: the formation lap had just started.

After the formation lap was over, and as soon as all the race cars were on their positions, the race started. At the first corner Lorcan overtook and was in second place.

Not five minutes later, my mobile rang. I checked the screen and answered.

“I’m watching.”

“I know,” Dame answered. “Any comments?”

“What should I comment on?” I didn’t even hear him properly, because my eyes and ears closely monitored the reporters’ comments on the television. I heard Harry trying to conceal a silent laughter.

“You don’t know why he started at third?” Harry asked again. I started to pay more attention to what he was saying.

“He said he was distracted,” I said. Harry was laughing out loud.

“Yes, he was,” he said. “You really don’t know what distracted him?”

“Oh, come on,” I answered angrily. I had missed the commentators’ thoughts on an incident that had brought the safety car onto the track.

“What happened?” I asked him.

“When? Yesterday, or right now?” I started to ask myself if it would be rude to disconnect the line. I sighed.

“What just happened? I didn’t see it and I was listening to you instead of the commentators.” There was a silence on the other side.

“Dame?”

“I’m still here. I’ll leave you to watch the race. If your curiosity gets the better of you afterwards and you want to know what happened to knock Shore into the third starting position, call me.” He disconnected the line without saying ‘good-bye’. As unusual for him as that might be, I wasn’t bothered. I wanted to watch the race in peace.

After almost two and a half hours, the race was over and Lorcan Shore had finished second. His team had given everything in their power to minimise the time spent in the box, but overtaking was just too hard on the streets of Monte Carlo, even for ordinary drivers on a daily basis.

I didn’t stay to watch the press conference. I knew I had too much work to do. Three different fragrances needed to be created for three waiting clients. Two were close to being completed, one … not even close. I knew the client who ordered it was hassling Dame and gave him no peace, yet he didn’t say anything. I owed it to him to finish them. And fast.

Coming back to the Principality on Monday morning was refreshing. Monaco was crowded—that hadn’t changed, but the city was itself again. No barriers. No fear I might bump into someone I didn’t want to meet, although, deep down, I longed to.

I had done great work during the night and, although I hadn’t slept much, I managed to finish two out of three. I’d packed them in two separate boxes and had them with me. The third one I knew needed more time to grow in my nose. It was so different from almost everything I had ever done up to this point. The only exception was
Demain.
I had never tried to sell that scent to the big companies, and had never let Dame do so either.

Marcel was already there when I arrived.

“Lovely morning,” he greeted me, with a smile on his face. I smiled back.

“Lovely and peaceful.”

“You can say that again. Every year I work harder when the circus is in town. I always say I’ll take days off, but I always work. But then again, the tips are fantastic,” he admitted.

“I believe you.” All the tips that were left by the customers in the perfumery I gave to Lucille and Michelle.

“Were you satisfied with the race result?” he asked me. I shrugged my shoulders.

“It was a shame Shore didn’t win, wasn’t it?” he continued when I didn’t reply to his first question.

I smiled a little.

“Perhaps this might teach him a little humility.”

Marcel’s eyes widened.

“I didn’t take him for someone who is arrogant. Don’t believe everything that you read in magazines.” He looked very serious. I was surprised by his words.

“I don’t read magazines,” I half-lied to him and went into the hotel. I didn’t read ‘paper’ magazines, but I read everything about him in on-line versions and any article that was talking about his personal life described him as a person who did everything to get what he wanted, even if that meant walking all over other people. Of course I didn’t believe everything was true, but even if half of it was .

I had a feeling Marcel wanted to continue our conversation, but I was not ready to talk to anyone about Lorcan Shore and my so-called ‘close meetings’ with him. That was strictly private … well, almost.

Unlocking the door, Lucille and Michelle arrived. I had stopped, as always, to take in the fresh smell of the place. Neither Lucille nor Michelle was accustomed to my daily routine, so Lucille bumped into me, and then Michelle bumped into her. The second bump almost knocked the parcels from my hands. Lucille managed to catch one and I the other.

“Oops, sorry,” they both said.

I smiled.

“No, I’m sorry.’

They exchanged looks but didn’t say a word.

“Give me that other box, I’ll take them to the office,” said Lucille and I handed her the second parcel.

“Can you please call DHL? I need to post these two things to Paris.”

She nodded.

“Yes, of course. I’ll do it right away.”

She left and Michelle took up her place behind the counter. From the back office we heard Lucille scream. We exchanged a quick look and then ran in after her; she stood at the door, deathly pale.

“Someone broke in.”

“What?” Michelle and I said in the same voice.

“Look,” Lucille said and stepped aside for us to enter. It was a mess … the mess I created on Friday.

Michelle went into action. She started giving orders.

“Oh, my goodness. Lucille, call the police and I’ll go and find someone from hotel security.”

Hearing the front door open, I turned around.

“No! No one broke in.”

“What?!” they asked.

“Close the door.” I needed to do some explaining.

“I did this on Friday. I thought I’d clean it this morning but, instead, I completely forgot about it. My intention was to come in early, but then I worked all night and … I’m sorry. I’ll clean it up right now.”