Heaven Scent (53 page)

Cat thought hard. ‘Max went charging off on his horse . . . he was so angry and it was pouring down with rain and all I could think was that he was going to kill himself out there. So I went after him.’ Looking rueful, she pleated the sheet. ‘Not one of my best decisions. I haven’t been on a horse for years, and I’ve never ridden in such terrible conditions. It was one of those spur of the moment things.’

Cat grimaced. When would she learn? She felt so foolish.

‘Good. At least your memory is intact.’ Seraphina laid a damp flannel on Cat’s head. ‘You fell off your horse and got a nasty bump to the head.’ She lifted the flannel and peered at it. ‘It’s pretty big, actually, and it’s going to be really colourful.’

‘I’m an absolute idiot,’ Cat stated as she touched her head gingerly.

‘An idiot? Why? Because you went after Max like that? He could have died out there. He came flying off Le Fantome and really hurt himself. He was knocked out instantly . . . it’s so frightening.’ A sob caught in Seraphina’s throat. ‘If you hadn’t gone after him, he could have died out there in the cold, just like our mother did, because you woke up briefly and garbled something about Max’s location. I can’t bear the thought of how things could have been if you hadn’t done that.’

‘Max is . . . he’s all right, though, isn’t he?’

Seraphina nodded, dashing the tears away from her eyes. ‘He had to go to hospital and have a brain scan but they think he’s fine.’

Cat was shaken. A brain scan?

‘A doctor examined you here,’ Seraphina continued efficiently, clearly needing to keep herself busy with nurse-type duties to take her mind off Max. ‘He left those questions for you so I could check you didn’t need to go to hospital this morning.’

‘I see.’ Cat shifted under the sheet and caught an overpowering waft of raw meat again. ‘So what the hell is wrong with my ankle?’

‘You twisted it badly when you fell. I put some frozen filet mignon on it last night. Does it hurt?’

Cat burst out laughing. Only Seraphina would put frozen filet mignon on a twisted ankle. What was wrong with peas? Perhaps the French frowned on frozen veg. Either way, Cat felt relieved. At least it explained the odd smell of raw meat in the room; she’d been worried it was a sign of damaged brain cells.

‘The ankle hurts like hell,’ she admitted, shifting in bed and trying not to brush it against the sheet too much. ‘Where were you yesterday, by the way?’

Seraphina suddenly seemed very interested in tidying Cat’s bedside table. ‘Oh, I was around,’ she replied vaguely. ‘I was just a bit . . . busy. I had no idea Max was going to go for Father the way he did, otherwise I would have stopped him. I mean, I’m angry too . . . at least, I was, but there was no need to lay into him like that.’

‘You obviously have more compassion than your brother,’ Cat commented. Max’s onslaught had obviously been the result of more than two years of mounting resentment and Cat couldn’t really blame Max for finally letting rip, but it had been devastating to watch. She couldn’t help feeling sorry for Guy. He had been good to her since she arrived. Especially having witnessed his breakdown at Elizabeth’s grave, something no one else had seen.

‘Do you remember anything else about yesterday?’ Seraphina asked curiously, her brown eyes keen as they scrutinised Cat’s face.

Cat frowned. ‘No. Should I?’

Seraphina shrugged and her eyes slid away shiftily.

A memory of being lifted up in strong arms swam into Cat’s mind but, just as quickly, it swam out again. She had thought Max had scooped her up after her fall but that couldn’t be right because Seraphina said he had been knocked out cold. There was another reason it couldn’t have been Max but, Cat couldn’t recall what it was. The details of her rescue lay tantalisingly out of reach.

She groaned. ‘God knows why I thought I was the best person to go after Max but there was no one else there.’ She frowned. ‘Hang on, that’s not right. Angelique was there but she refused to go.’

‘Are you serious?’ Seraphina said angrily. ‘Angelique was there?’ This was clearly news to her. ‘She probably didn’t want to mess her hair up or something. She’s such a strong rider too. How could she have refused to go after Max?’

‘If I remember rightly, it was her clothes she was more worried about.’ Cat had been shocked by Angelique’s indifference. If she cared about Xavier as much as she claimed to, wouldn’t she want to look after his family and do whatever she could to help?

Out of the blue, another memory surfaced, this time a smell. Oranges? Orange blossom? What a strange thing to remember. She was sure she must be mistaken about it, though. The raw meat aroma might have been explained away but there was no earthly reason why she should have been smelling oranges.

‘Leoni sends her love,’ Seraphina said suddenly. ‘She wanted you to know that she’ll come and see you as soon as she’s finished working on something.’

Touched, Cat reached up to feel the bump on her head. It felt as though she was growing an ostrich egg on her forehead. ‘What’s Leoni working on?’ she asked with interest. ‘Something to do with the home fragrance pitch?

Seraphina bit her lip. ‘She’s . . . I couldn’t possibly talk about it,’ she said in a guarded tone.

Cat lay back tiredly, wondering why Seraphina was being so cagey. She looked up as Guy poked his head round the door and then glanced at Seraphina apprehensively. She wasn’t up to witnessing another row. Her head was pounding painfully.

‘All right if I come in?’ he asked.

‘Of course, Dad,’ Seraphina replied, looking amazingly serene. ‘I’m just off to get Cat something to eat.’ She strolled past her father and closed the door quietly behind her.

Cat smiled at Guy weakly.

‘How are you feeling?’ he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed. Reassuringly, his appearance was as suave and well groomed as ever; his silver-grey shirt matched his pristine, smoothed-back hair and he was wearing a tie again, a sure sign that things were back to normal.

Whatever that meant, Cat thought woozily as her eyes started to close. ‘Normality’ had become an elusive concept lately. After all, she should be at home, in England, working in an advertising firm, not holed up in a French château with unfinished business all over the place.

‘I’m fine . . . I think,’ she answered.

‘That’s great,’ Guy told her, with a warm smile. ‘I can’t thank you enough,’ he added. His brown eyes clouded over with shame. ‘Not just for dashing after Max like that but for trying to alert me to how much I was hurting the twins. And Xavier,’ he added as an afterthought.

Cat opened her eyes with difficulty. ‘That’s all right. I thought you might think I was interfering.’

Guy laughed. ‘That’s not interfering, and my mother has that corner of the market all sewn up anyway.’

Cat smiled and closed her eyes again. She felt Guy take her hand.

‘I miss her so much still,’ Guy said, smoothing a lock of hair out of Cat’s eyes. ‘Elizabeth was my life . . . I felt so lost without her.’ He gazed at Cat tenderly. ‘Sleep, darling. You need to rest.’

Cat tried to shake her head. She wondered if it had been Guy who had plucked her from the undergrowth but she didn’t think so somehow. She remembered the rain and the rich, earthy smell of the sodden ground . . . she remembered shouting and voices and horses whinnying. She just couldn’t recall the face of her rescuer.

‘Must go home,’ she said randomly, not sure where the thought had come from. But it was true. She had more than outstayed her welcome and there was nothing for her here; not any more. ‘Xavier loves Angelique and Delphine hates me. Nothing for me here.’

Guy squeezed her hand. ‘Don’t say that. We all love you, even my mother. We want you to stay. And don’t be too sure about Xavier.’

Cat felt tears sliding down her cheeks. ‘So sweet . . . but you’re wrong . . .’

‘Cat.’ Guy gripped her arm. ‘Cat, listen to me. You must come to the launch party in Paris. Please? For me,’ he insisted, resorting to emotional blackmail. It made him smile; he had clearly picked up a few tips from his mother.

Cat shrugged feebly, not even sure what she was agreeing to.

‘Good.’ Guy tucked her in as though she were a child and stared down at her thoughtfully. Something had to be done to tie up all the loose ends and he knew exactly who needed to do it. He left the room without a sound.

An emotionally spent Cat didn’t even notice and within seconds she was fast asleep.

 

Reviewing the perfume with a critical eye – or rather, nose – Xavier was extremely pleased. More truthfully, he was over the moon. Finally able to sit in his lab and put everything together as he had visualised it (dummy phials transported between countries never yielded the same result), he knew it was the best thing he’d ever created. It was sexy, sultry, romantic and glamorous, all the things he’d hoped it would be. It was youthful but not exclusively so and it had a beautiful, lasting quality that he knew would be a hit with women the world over.

Xavier inhaled it again, almost unable to believe what he had managed to create after all this time, but suddenly he knew exactly how and why he’d been able to create it. Finally, sitting alone in his lab, the significance that had been slowly building over the past few months hit him square between the eyes.

He knew he had to get moving. Emailing follow-up instructions to the team at the warehouse to add to all the emails he’d fired off in Morocco, Xavier quickly made sure everything was in place for the launch of the new fragrance. He’d sent details of the name on in advance so the team could get working on the packaging. All that remained now was for the fragrance itself to be blended, bottled up and sent out. He had already hired more staff and a veritable army had been sent to the warehouse to help out, as well as to another empty warehouse Xavier had rented on the outskirts of Grasse. He had promised his family everything would be ready for a July launch and he was going to achieve it, however challenging the deadline.

He viewed a pile of photographs Stefan the photographer had left for him and he frowned as he viewed Angelique in various provocative poses. Regardless of his personal feelings towards her, he wasn’t happy with what he was seeing, for a number of reasons. This wasn’t down to Stefan. He was a master of his art and his photographs were famous the world over. No, this was down to the content of the photographs, not any lack of skill with which they’d been taken.

Xavier drummed his fingers on the photographs, wondering what to do about them. Could anything be done at this late stage? And what were the legal implications? Angelique must have signed a contract but maybe Pascal, with his knowledge of the law, might find a loophole. Xavier didn’t have a clue how it could all be untangled, but something had to be done, even if it damaged the sales of the fragrance for a while when it was launched.

Working into the night, Xavier finally finished everything he’d come back to La Fleurie to do. Well, not everything; there were a number of things he still needed to sort out but Xavier knew he could only tackle one thing at a time. Satisfied there was nothing more he could do to with regard to the perfume, he turned his attention to his much-neglected personal life.

He still needed to fly to Paris and with the launch due in a few weeks’ time, he knew he should go early and track down the information he was after. He hated the thought of leaving so soon after he had arrived, especially when both Angelique and Cat were in residence, but he didn’t see what else he could do.

Xavier banged a fist on the counter impatiently. Was he right to be as suspicious as he was? The very thought of what he was imagining appalled him and he knew once he discovered the truth, it could result in Cat or Angelique, or both, leaving La Fleurie and never returning. It was up to him to ensure that the right person was vindicated and that the other was exposed as a cheat and a fraud.

Xavier threw off his lab coat to reveal a pair of loose jeans and a pale blue shirt. Breathing in gulps of fresh Provençal air, he reached for his cigarettes out of habit. The blanket of flourishing lavender fields looked stunning and the air felt still and tranquil – the calm after the storm, as it were. He hoped Max, too, would find some peace after his storm of rage. It had been long overdue. The consequences of all that anger finally being voiced had been frightening and potentially fatal, but hopefully some good would come of it. At least no one had been seriously hurt, and he was grateful for that.

Deciding to check something, he headed inside the château. Making sure he wasn’t being watched, Xavier went into one of the upstairs bedrooms. He quickly flipped through wardrobes and drawers before he found what he was looking for. Gripping it in his hands, Xavier felt sick. So he had been right – about this, at least. Slipping the incriminating piece of evidence back where he found it, he left, feeling thoroughly shaken.

He bumped into Leoni downstairs in the kitchen. She seemed very busy which surprised him. As far as he was aware, she had delivered her home fragrance proposal to Guy and she was at a loose end. And yet she was bustling around with her phone in one hand and a batch of notes in the other.

‘What are you doing?’ Xavier asked, helping himself to a black coffee and almost giving his throat third-degree burns as he knocked it back too quickly. He needed something to kick-start his adrenaline but he hadn’t intended to scar himself. Xavier noticed that Leoni was exceptionally thin, even for her, and her clothes were hanging off her frame unattractively. Her cheekbones looked even more prominent than usual and it didn’t suit her.

‘I’m working on something,’ Leoni responded evasively. She pushed her glasses up her nose, not giving anything away.

Xavier felt exasperated. ‘What, exactly?’ Was everyone hiding something around here?

Leoni held her phone and notes close to her chest as if she feared he might snatch them from her. ‘Do you trust me?’