Heaven Scent (14 page)

Leoni flushed. ‘There’s a difference between functioning and flourishing, Grandmother,’ she argued. ‘Ducasse-Fleurie needs new lines. We can’t keep coasting like this.’

Delphine pursed her lips. ‘It’s doing just fine, Leoni. If you’d listened to my report, you would know that. Wouldn’t you be better off finding yourself a boyfriend?’ she suggested nastily. ‘Or a girlfriend, if that’s your preference?’

‘How dare you!’ Pink in the face, Leoni leapt to her feet. ‘Just because I don’t parade men in and out of La Fleurie . . . How
bigoted
you are, Grandmother! How ridiculous!’

Delphine recoiled in shock. Leoni was outspoken but she was rarely abusive. She stared at Leoni icily. How like her brother Leoni was, so unpredictable, so out of control. Like Olivier, Leoni seemed to have no sense of practicality – every decision she made seemed to be based on a whim or a mad impulse.

‘I am
not
Olivier,’ Leoni snarled, reading her grandmother’s mind like a book. ‘Just because I have big ideas for Ducasse-Fleurie doesn’t mean I’m unstable or out of control, like Olivier was. This is business. My brother didn’t know the first thing about it and we all knew that years ago.’

In an attempt to lighten the atmosphere, Xavier grinned. ‘I rather like the idea of you having a girlfriend, Leoni.’

‘Oh, shut up!’ Leoni screamed at him, paperwork cascading to the floor. ‘And what about you? Don’t you think you should stop screwing everything in sight and start pulling your weight around here?’

Xavier leapt to his feet. ‘Back off, Leoni,’ he snapped, his eyes darkening until they were almost black. ‘You don’t know the first thing about it.’

‘Why don’t you fill us all in, then?’ Guy demanded. ‘We’d all love to know why you can’t bring yourself to get involved in Ducasse-Fleurie any more.’

His face stony, Xavier glared at his father before turning on his heel and stalking out.

Seraphina burst into tears. ‘Leave Xav alone!’ she yelled emotionally, her beautiful face distorted with pain. ‘Stop trying to make him do something he doesn’t want to do. If you knew more, you wouldn’t harass him . . .’ Grabbing Max’s arm, she ran out with him, swiftly followed by an ashen Leoni.

Looking apoplectic with rage, Guy strode out of the boardroom like a man possessed, leaving Delphine open-mouthed at her family’s behaviour. What on earth had happened to them all?

 

Three days later, Cat was in the garden, nearly tearing her hair out. Her passport still hadn’t turned up, despite in-depth investigations into every flower bed and shrub in the vicinity. Cat felt fit to burst.

Realising she hadn’t spoken to her best friend in nearly two weeks, Cat decided to phone Bella. She was having lunch with Ben in some funky new bar that blasted out rock music as it served up gourmet sandwiches. Bella didn’t hear her phone for a good five minutes before realising Cat was calling her from France.

‘Cat!’ Bella screeched, her delighted squawk almost drowned out by ‘Love In An Elevator’. ‘What’s happening? Have the Ducasse family fallen head over heels in love with you? Do they want you to stay with them forever? Have you found closure?’

‘Er, no, to all the above,’ Cat replied drily, wincing as something by Bon Jovi kicked in. Giving Bella a quick rundown of the situation and ignoring the cries of ‘Shut
up
!’, ‘No way!’ and ‘You’ve got to be fricking
kidding
me!’ that punctuated the conversation, Cat finally managed to inform Bella about her missing passport.

Bella was taken aback. ‘But you’ve never lost your passport before, not even in the rainforest in—’

‘Venezuela, I know.’ Cat sighed. ‘It’s so frustrating. I just want to come home and I can’t leave until I sort out this passport issue. I feel like a bloody prisoner.’ She glanced over her shoulder ruefully, taking in the breathtaking sight of the sweeping valley and the stretch of dormant lavender fields that the Ducasse estate encompassed. ‘If you could see the view I’m looking at now, you’d think I was mad for moaning but it’s no fun here, not when the family think I’m the devil incarnate.’

‘It must be because they thought the world of Olivier,’ Bella assured her soothingly. ‘It’s probably nothing to do with you personally.’

‘Oh, no, it really is,’ Cat insisted. ‘And the worst thing about it all is that I’m now beginning to realise Olivier wasn’t exactly the lovely, genuine guy we thought he was.’ Haltingly, she filled Bella in about the other girls and confided her suspicions about Olivier having lied about his parents’ death, just to get her sympathy. ‘I don’t know for sure because I can’t face asking anyone at the moment, but they can’t all have died in riding accidents, can they?’

‘Probably not,’ Bella said slowly. So she’d been right to have concerns about Olivier; it seemed he was a cheat and a liar, after all. Bella felt immeasurably sorry for her friend and pulled a face at Ben who was holding up his phone. ‘Oooh, yes, Ben has some news. He got in touch with his old company and they’re very interested in hiring you.
Very
interested. I’m quoting here: “Cat Hayes would be an asset to our company and, frankly, we’d rip our right arms off to get her in.” What do you think of that, my friend?’

Cat’s mood improved. ‘That’s amazing! Wow, Brian would be spitting feathers if I went to work for the company’s direct competitor.’

‘Perfect revenge, right?’ Bella said gleefully. ‘I don’t think they’re hiring for a few weeks but the girl Ben knows in HR says she’ll call him as soon as they start recruiting. Hey, do you want me to start the ball rolling on a new passport, just in case your one doesn’t turn up?’

‘Would you?’ Cat said gratefully. ‘That would be great. Anything to speed things up here.’ She looked at the ground glumly. ‘I’m surrounded by bloody pictures of Olivier and by people who think I’m either a gold digger or a complete numpty for marrying him when I hardly knew him. I’ve felt more welcome, let’s put it that way.’

‘Leave it with Auntie Bella,’ Bella said brightly. ‘We’ll get everything sorted, don’t you worry. Nothing is insurmountable. A wise old woman called Cat once told me that. Chin up, love.’

‘Thanks, Bel. Love to Ben. Well, you know . . . a friendly wave, or whatever.’ Cat finished her call, feeling buoyant for the first time in days. It was true; nothing
was
insurmountable. Even lost passports.

 

The following weekend, Seraphina wrapped her arms around her knees and wished it was the summer. The beach wasn’t as much fun without sunshine.

‘It’s been so long since we did this!’ she exclaimed to her friend Adele as she stretched out luxuriously and wiggled her toes. They were wearing jeans and T-shirts rather than bikinis because of the chilly breeze that kept whipping up the towels on their loungers. The Ducasse family had their own private beach but Seraphina preferred to go to the public ones, like everyone else.

Adele shivered. ‘It’s hardly beach weather,’ she moaned. ‘But I guess we’re not here for the weather.’ Grinning at a boy in tight jeans, she flipped her hair so hard, she nearly fell off her lounger.

‘Stop trying so hard,’ Seraphina chided her with a giggle.

‘Easy to say when you look the way you do,’ Adele retorted, turning beetroot.

Seraphina snorted. People always told her she was pretty but all she could see when she looked in the mirror was skin that never tanned and a lanky body that always seemed to tower over the men she fancied. Still, it didn’t stop her wanting to be a model . . . but models weren’t conventionally pretty, they were a blank canvas.

‘When are you coming back to school?’ Adele asked, scooping up some sand and letting it run through her fingers. ‘And is Max coming back? He seems hell-bent on getting expelled!’

Seraphina shifted uncomfortably. She wasn’t proud of the way she and Max behaved at their expensive boarding school but the rules were so strict, it was impossible not to rebel against them. God only knew why Max rebelled because he didn’t exactly want to be at home either, Seraphina thought glumly. ‘We’ll be back soon,’ she assured her friend. ‘That girl Madeleine Lombard was asking me about Max the other day too. I think she has the hots for him. Waste of time. Max only has eyes for Vero and her motorbike.’

Adele pulled a face. ‘Vero’s a junkie. Max should be careful.’

Seraphina looked up as a man in a suit crouched by her lounger.

‘Have you ever considered being a model?’ he asked.

Seraphina gasped and Adele sat up excitedly. The man continued, his eyes serious, ‘I own a large, successful modelling agency and I would be very interested in representing you.’ He handed her a silver card with numbers across the bottom. ‘Call me.’ He strode away, leaving the girls clutching each other breathlessly.

‘Oh my God . . . this is unbelievable!’ Adele said, with glazed eyes. ‘It’s like Kate Moss being discovered at JFK airport . . .’

Seraphina leapt off her sun lounger. ‘I have to go and tell my father!’ She gathered her bag up and pulled a jumper over her head. ‘Come on,’ she called to Adele, who shook her head and waved her away. Jumping into the car that was waiting for her and for the first time grateful for the privileges being a Ducasse afforded her, Seraphina dashed through the doors when she arrived home and took the stairs to her father’s office two at a time.

‘I got a modelling contract!’ she cried, bursting into this office.

‘What?’ Flipping through some of Elizabeth’s old notes and wondering if he could possibly put a perfume together from them, Guy nearly jumped out of his skin. With barely concealed impatience, he listened as Seraphina eagerly recounted her story from the beach. Taking the card from her hand, he glanced at it.

‘I’ve never heard of this man or this modelling agency.’ Dismissively, he tossed her treasured card across his desk. ‘Honestly, Seraphina, you should know better! He’s probably just some old pervert who picks up girls using that tired old chat-up line.’ Guy stared at his daughter. ‘It’s the oldest trick in the book. I bet if we look him up, all he has is a shop full of grubby underwear and hidden cameras. And why on earth would you want to model anyway? The idea is ridiculous.’

Seraphina was shaking all over. Biting down hard on her lip, she welcomed the rush of blood as it flooded into her mouth because it drowned out the acrid taste of disappointment. Out of the blue, she felt like a child again; a naughty little girl who couldn’t do anything right. Fighting a sob, she gazed at her father beseechingly.

Guy returned to Elizabeth’s folder. ‘Get back to your studying and stop being so immature, Seraphina. I have work to do here.’

Gasping, Seraphina ran out of the room and slammed the door as hard as she could behind her. Inside, Guy looked up, startled as several perfume bottles clinked and nearly fell off the shelf. What on earth was the matter with his daughter? Had she taken leave of her senses? He rubbed his head and got back to work.

Outside the door, Seraphina’s pride was stinging. How
could
he? How could he have so little faith in her? It wasn’t just his casual disregard about the modelling opportunity, it was the crushing realisation that her father didn’t believe she was capable of actually achieving her dream.

Perhaps she simply wasn’t special enough, Seraphina thought bitterly. She knew she wasn’t conventionally pretty but maybe she didn’t have unusual enough looks to be a model either. Her father didn’t seem to think so, anyway. Not looking where she was going, Seraphina crashed straight into someone. Her nose connected sharply with a brown suit that smelt of cigars and a strong, woody aftershave she recognised.

Dior’s Fahrenheit For Men, she thought to herself almost mechanically, catching wafts of cedar and bergamot. Unashamedly masculine and brash, it took a certain type of man to wear it.

Seraphina looked up, realising she was clinging to the man like a limpet. She let go of him abruptly, all the while thinking he was rather attractive. He looked a bit old and his suit had a loud purple lining but at least he was tall, she thought, gazing up at him. Men weren’t usually taller than her – or maybe that was because they were boys, not men, Seraphina thought.

‘Well, hello,’ he said, giving her an oily grin. His eyes ran over her body fleetingly before he held a friendly hand out. ‘I am Yves. You must be Seraphina. I am a friend of your grandmother’s,’ he explained when he saw her eyeing him suspiciously. ‘I was here for a meeting. You look upset,’ he added with a sympathetic smile. ‘Are you all right?’

Seraphina looked at the ground. Not sure why, she found herself telling this stranger she had just met everything that had happened. ‘I know I shouldn’t be vain and think I could be a model but is it really such a crime?’

‘Of course not.’ Yves dark eyes were fixed on hers intently. ‘How sad. It’s so distressing when a parent doesn’t believe in you.’ With obvious regret, he checked his watch. ‘Apologies, I’m late for another appointment.’ He bent and kissed her hand briefly, hiding a smile as she shivered slightly at his intimate touch. ‘But if I may say . . . and what do I know, so feel free to ignore me, but really, you are an exceptionally pretty girl. If you want to be a model, you should follow your heart.’ Tucking a strand of platinum-blond hair behind her ear, Yves gave her a winsome smile. He stared at Seraphina for a moment. She could only be in her teens but she had a luminous quality about her that made it difficult to guess her age. She was beautiful, though, astonishingly so. Far too young for him, however, and she no doubt had boys queuing at her door.

Turning on his heel, Yves made his exit.

Flattered but still crestfallen, Seraphina headed outside and found Max and Cat chatting over coffees in the pool house.

‘I think we should go back to college early, Max,’ Seraphina announced, scuffing her feet on a wicker chair.

Max narrowed his eyes at her. He could tell his twin was suffering but he knew better to ask her when she looked as destroyed as she did right now. Besides, he’d probably say the wrong thing and put his foot in it.