WARNING TO READERS - This is a long, rambling, multi-part story and VERY British. The individual chapters will make more sense if read in sequence.
This Chapter is dedicated to the group of ex-pat Guys and Girls on Ibiza and Menorca who have supported this story from the beginning; this is the chapter I was tucked away on the boat editing in the afternoons. It was a real pleasure to meet you this summer, the meal and drinks were great...... my treat next year.
The Touch Pt. 36 - Of Aunts and Cousins
I thought that Aunt Nikki Bardin was something of an enigma. On the surface she was pleasant enough but seemed to be playing a complex game of relationships, treating each of us to a slightly different facet of the her personality with the result that dinner at Maggie's on Tuesday evening was interesting if somewhat strained.
Nikki was an attractive woman of roughly 50, the younger sister of Maggie's first husband Robert de Vere. She was about 5'8" with the slim but rounded figure of a mature woman who spent a lot of time riding horses and walking. Her face was delicate, her eyes ice blue and her mousey shoulder length hair was streaked with highlights of natural grey, on her it was attractive rather than aging. Her make-up was expensive and her face cosmetically perfect, I recognised her perfume as top end; Chanel No. 5, I think. Her clothes were simple but expensive, good quality designer jeans with a white scoop neck top of fine linen with beaded embroidery at the neck and cuff, which I suspected was genuine pink coral and chip jade and a coral pink silk scarf knotted at her throat.
"You must call me Nikki," she said when we were introduced for the first time by Lucinda. "I simply hate it when attractive young men call me Madame or Tante, it makes me feel positively ancient..... " She smiled sweetly and held onto my fingers for a second too long when we shook hands. Even though she had been born and brought up in England she had a slight French accent on selected words. She had lived in France for over twenty years but I suspected that it was a deliberate affectation the rest of her English was just too perfect and unaccented.
To me she behaved graciously, paid attention when I spoke to her and laughed quietly at my jokes, lightly touching my arm from time to time with her finger tips, flirting lightly in the way that older women sometimes do with younger men. As I was the only man present, I guess I was bound to attract her attention. I think I did find her attractive but her behaviour made me feel uncomfortable with Maggie and Gwen in the room but nobody else seemed to notice.
To the twins she was the perfect affectionate aunt, her genuine fondness for the girls and they for her was obvious and she quickly drew Emma into her little family coterie, the four of them chattering about the coming holiday, horses and riding, with Nikki flattering Emma by complimenting her on her A-Level French. In fact, although a lot better than mine, Emma's French was not really all that good, especially when compared to the fluency that Luci and Lulu had developed during their time at Dijon, it was one of the key reasons for their long sojourn in France, both were going to be reading languages at university.
Gwen, she treated pleasantly if a bit distantly, an acquaintance rather than family. It was not until later that Gwen told me they had only met twice before, once at Robert and Maggie's wedding and then later at Robert's funeral.
I knew Maggie's moods so well that it was blatantly obvious to me that there was some sort of history between her and Nikki. Neither was overtly rude or aggressive to the other but their mutual dislike was almost palpable although well controlled by both especially in front of the girls. They chose not to sit together and neither would instigate a conversation with the other although both would socialize as part of the group.
Maggie had seated Nikki at the dinner table between myself and Emma and for most of the meal the conversation was light and cheerful but became somewhat strained whenever the subject of gardening or the garden centre was raised as it inevitably would be with three of us working daily at the family business and the other three being shareholders. By dessert a cloud of tension hung over the table and there was an atmosphere of stress developing. Even the twins and Emma seemed a bit on edge. I can't really remember anything that was said that was particularly spiteful but Nikki several times made oblique remarks which were obviously aimed at Maggie and things were finally brought to a head when one of us made an innocent comment about how well the garden centre was doing.
"My brother was a PROPER landscaper," Nikki retorted with a rather supercilious smile, the barb obviously aimed at Maggie, "he designed beautiful gardens... he wasn't a shop keeper!"
I was starting to get a bit annoyed and protective, nobody but nobody, had a pop at Maggie in my presence, Gwen caught my eye over the table and gave a little warning shake of her head urging me to back off. I think we all recognised the signs that Maggie herself was about to kick back but Gwen stepped in to defuse the situation.
"Then I think it is really a compliment to his memory that Maggie and Jamie have continued that tradition. Landscaping and design is a very large part of THEIR business," She said, with one of her sweet disarming smiles. "The company is still called 'de Veres' and so Robert's name and reputation lives on!"
Nikki said nothing further and I breathed a sigh of relief, I could not think of a more dangerous situation than somebody launching an attack on either Maggie or Gwen when the other twin was present, I thought that Nikki was skating on very thin ice.
By the time we had finished the meal nobody really wanted to stay seated for coffees and we were all glad to get down from the table and moved awkwardly into the drawing room.
Oddly, it was Emma who came to the rescue, suggesting that she and Gwen would clear the dining table and start the washing-up and that Lucinda and Lauren should take their aunt up to their rooms to start picking out their outfits for the return to France. It was an obvious ploy to split the group up, but it worked.
Gwen sidled up to me and gently squeezed my hand. "Why don't you take Maggie and your coffees into the garden and have a cigarette..... it will you give you both a chance to cool down a bit."
I loaded a tray with the cafetiere, coffee glasses and a couple of balloons of cognac and took it out to the table by the swimming pool. Maggie was already waiting for me and had turned the pool light down low so that the area was bathed in a soft yellow glow, I guess that Gwen had banished her from the house as well.
We sat on the bench seat side by side our shoulders and hips lightly touching in a natural gesture of empathy and sipped our coffee and brandy silently for several minutes.
"So what is it with you and 'Nikki la louve'?" I asked eventually. "You don't have to tell me, but there is obviously something not right."
Her brow crinkled for a moment and then she laughed gently, "I think you mean 'salope'... bitch.... 'la louve' means she-wolf, although you could well have the right of it..."
"My French always was crap," I chuckled. I lit a couple of cigarettes and passed one to her.
"It would be unfair to say that Nikki is totally to blame... I guess I am equally guilty," she confessed, "the truth is that we have never liked each other, even when Robert was alive and our relationship badly deteriorated after he died."
