Léna smiled as she gazed fondly at her brother. Their long drive from home, over busy roads, had seen them delayed by families intent on getting to their holiday destinations in the shortest possible time.
They were no different, but Curtis drove his zippy convertible with calm assurance, the roads they drove over from their home city of Limoges offering no quick or direct route to the family's holiday home overlooking the shores of the Mediterranean. They would be swapping the grandeur of their home city for the rough stone walls of 'Vue Claire', along with its stone slabbed floors, creaky staircases, a red pantile roof, and a walled garden. At least it was cool during the hottest time of the day, the small windows both a blessing and a hindrance, for they did not allow into most rooms the glaring brilliance of the sunshine outside.
'We're in no hurry, are we?' she said with a brush of her fingertips to his slender, high-cheeked face. His skin was smooth and lightly tanned, his complexion perfect and the mop of brown hair was swept back and retained the curls she remembered from their youth. To her ways of seeing him, Curtis was handsome and free. No one had claimed him and who would have closed her out of his life, as it was between them now.
'No, there's no rush, although there's a lot to catch up on.' Léna could not see the drift of his eyes over her as the car slowed to a crawl and he again had the chance to do that. The dark lenses of his sunglasses kept out the glare; they also hid from view what his eyes might be focussed on.
His sis looked stunning, her denim shorts, with frayed hems, flattering slender legs, a yellow sleeveless racer's vest shaping her wonderfully, to his ways of seeing the young woman beside him. Their bond was often a cause for some dismay, the reasons rarely spoken of but all too present in how they often were with each other.
They remained close, way too close some would say, and they had a bond that few could shake, or break into, even after days or weeks of separation that saw him working for an IT consultancy and she having just graduated from university. A placement in a renowned business, in their home city, would begin in a matter of weeks, but right now she was going to unwind, they would enjoy each other's company and see where that again took them.
As ever, their past informed the present; suppressed feelings would now have a chance to be given voice to, even acted upon. No one else knew how it was, or could be, between them; he and his sister on one side and their remote parents on the other.
Curtis slowed at the turn that they needed and the road soon took them through sun-baked scenery that captivated her. Léna realised that to be here again was like returning to a second home. It had never been a place that she merely visited and that many others simply looked on as a holiday villa that her parents rented out whenever the opportunity arose. A trusted local housekeeper, and cleaner, ensured that their treasured possessions and some pieces of furniture were securely locked away in an outhouse, its video alarm set when they weren't staying there.
'We'll check out the party scene tonight shall we...do a club or two?' Curtis suggested as the car juddered occasionally on the uneven road surface, vehicles of all sorts passing in the opposite direction and trailing swirls of dust. 'Or we might get spotted by the Lavigne's and go from there...'
'Yes, we might,' she answered in a distracted voice as his few words registered in her. There was no time to dip into the memories that mention of their holiday neighbour's name had aroused.
Curtis whooped. 'We're here again, in our holiday playground!'
For her, the word 'playground' had taken on a different meaning since the last time they were here.
The electric gate opened slowly as the key fob signalled their presence. Curtis drove on and parked in the walled courtyard, much of it shaded by the rustling canopies of stunted trees. Beyond, a gateway led to a small garden and a path up to the backdoor, the family's favoured way into the cool of 'Vue Claire'.
'Yes, we're here...just the two of us.' She gripped his hand before he could get out of the car. 'Be with me, look after me won't you?'
'Of course, I will.'
His lovely sister had her weaker side. They were close, often closer than close, and it felt as if it had always been that way as their parents, who were friends of the Lavignes, pursued their busy social and work lives. They'd had their kids and it had often felt through the years, as they grew up, that they were left to fend for themselves in an emotional and practical way of living.
That parental indifference, or laissez-faire, had left its mark on them and they had often resorted to finding solace in someone else's arms; with people who were all but strangers or people with spirit who were just as restless as they often were. To do that often left them feeling used.
It was then, at such a moment, that they again turned to each other. The thin line, between choice and necessity, had been difficult to draw but she had done so, and with Curtis. It was either that or resort, as some university friends had done to their cost, to finding relief in some substance, the provenance of which you were never certain of until it was too late.
♥
They were greeted in the sheltered yard by Madame Grillot, a bustling woman in her loose-fitting blouse and swirling skirt, her greying hair tied back in a bun. She seemed to buzz with enthusiasm, like a bee at a nectar source, to tell them of her work to prepare the house in readiness for their arrival. She lived with her lorry-driving husband in the town below them, at the foot of the hill, She was loyal and trustworthy.
'I'm sure everything will be fine, madame,' Léna soothed as the woman's chatter finally fell away and she made ready to leave them.
'Your mother told me she will be here in two days, so I only put a few things in the refrigerator for you.'
'It will be fine,' Curtis said, echoing his sister. 'We'll go into town if we need to and for anything we particularly want.'
Seeing him move to begin unloading the car Madame Grillot took that as a hint to leave them. 'I will call in again when your parents arrive.'
'That will be fine and thank you for getting everything ready for us.' Léna followed her and opened the latch on the pass gate set into the wall.
On doing that she suddenly felt a tremor course through her body and was dismayed to see Alain and Julia Lavigne standing before them in the lane. Before she could gather her thoughts, on what to say, they passed through the doorway and into the yard. She closed and locked the gate and followed them over the path. Curtis looked up from his task of hauling two suitcases from the confines of his car's trunk.
