The Paris Time Capsule (10 page)

“
Oh, congratulations!” Cat said. Of course. Why not? The girl would be psychoanalyzing everyone in the room as well. She probably knew about Sylvie and Cat’s mad plan already. Their body language had probably given the game away before they spoke.

“
Oui, chérie, it’s a big practice in Paris. So exciting for Josephine. But, still! Cat and I have an announcement!” Sylvie clearly was not going to be put off.

Loic
returned with four espressos. He handed one to Cat first, and she tipped her head back and drank it.

“
Shall I tell them, or you?” Sylvie’s eyes danced.

Cat shook her head.
“Perhaps later,” Cat said, wanting to indicate wildly at Josephine, failing spectacularly to move her head in inch.

“
Spill it out, Cat,” Loic said.

“
We’re all family, Catherine,” Josephine purred.

“
Oh! Congratulations! I didn’t realize,” Cat said, springing up out of her seat. “Champagne, then? Chocolates? Let’s celebrate!”

“
Sit down,” Loic growled.

Sylvie and Josephine burst into fits of hysterical giggles.

“Oh, sorry, chérie!” Sylvie wiped her eyes. “Forgive me! I thought you knew. I thought Loic would have told you.”

Cat ran a hand through her hair.
“Yes, sorry?” she said, trying to avoid Loic’s eye as hard as she could.

“
Oh,” she said. Josephine was still falling about her chair. “Sorry. It’s been a big few days for all of us!”

“
Of course, chérie,” Sylvie leaned forward and patted Cat on the arm. “We understand. I should have introduced her properly. Cat, this is my daughter, Josephine.”

Cat sat down hard on her chair.

“Enchantee,” Josephine held out her hand again. This time, Cat shook it firmly.

“
Now.” Sylvie had a beady look in her dark eyes now. “Cat and I have something to tell you both. We have, as you say, a plan.”

Cat closed her eyes.

“What is this?” Josephine’s face turned serious in the flicker of a second.

“
Oh, yes,” Sylvie said. “Cat is going to research your grand-mere. She has agreed to do a thorough job of it, haven’t you, Cat?”

“
Pardon?” Josephine barked.

“
This’ll be interesting.” Loic folded his arms.

“
Well.” Cat cleared her throat. “Well, the thing is. We don’t really have a plan. It’s just that, well, if I can find out why Isabelle, your grand-mere, kept all of this a secret, then I’m hoping that Sylvie will take back her inheritance. I think there’s been a mistake.”

“
Oh, no, no, no. I have worked all of this out.” Josephine stood up and moved behind her mother, resting her hands on Sylvie’s shoulders. “It was, how you say it? Posttraumatic stress. Grand-mere could not bear to return to the place that she had to flee. It is simple. There are many cases like this one, you see.”

Loic
caught Cat’s eye. Cat looked away.

“
She then shut it all out,” Josephine went on. “Blocked it. As if it had never existed. Maybe, she meant to tell you someday, Maman, but that day never came. It happens. Is simple.”

“
She remembered to pay the electricity bills,” Loic pointed out.

Josephine shook her head.
“No, no, I mean she refused to acknowledge it consciously at the level of her relationships with other people around her. She kept it to herself.”

“
That doesn’t explain why she cut me out from inheriting the apartment, Josephine.” Sylvie was serious.

Josephine shot a look at Cat.
“There is something very strange going on there,” she said.

“
But that doesn’t explain why Cat’s offered to give the entire estate back to Maman, Josephine,” Loic said. “She didn’t know anything about the inheritance until last week. How could that be strange?”

“
Hmm.” Josephine said. “I still say deep posttraumatic stress.”

“
Or, maybe there was something she didn’t want you to know about,” Cat spoke softly. “Something else. Another, more … external reason.”

They all turned to her.

“But it will be impossible to find out!” Josephine shook her head.

Sylvie turned to her daughter, and reached out a hand.
“Ma petite. If there is a chance of me learning why my mother did this, I can rest, don’t you see? Her not telling me amounts to … a lack of trust? I think? Oui … if I don’t try to find out why she kept this secret, then, I will never know, whether … it was me, or… something else.”

“
Maman!” Josephine threw her hands in the air. “You are catastrophising and internalizing! You must change your thinking! How could it be you who is the problem here? It would be nice if she had told you, but this is not the end of the world! Non! You had a good relationship with Grand-mere. You must focus on this. She is gone, Maman, you need closure, not this stranger searching through all Grand-mere’s things! It will end in disaster and upset for all concerned! If Grand-mere had an apartment in Paris, then, that is her private affair. Is not a problem, if you look at it the right way.”

“
Ma petite, I am not mad. But if I never know why she kept this secret … well. It will haunt me. And it could affect all our futures.”

“
What if you find something that hurts you?” Loic spoke, his voice soft.

Sylvie shook her head.
“You see?” she said to Cat. “You are only one who understands. Thank goodness, I have you to help me.”

Cat didn’t have to see the dagger looks that emanated towards her
from Josephine’s direction. She could feel them. Loic stood up, went over to the kitchen.

“
Loic, Maman is not in a state to discuss this now,” Josephine announced. She stood up. “I only hope Maman, that you see sense, but I will not sit here and listen to any more. I cannot rely on you, Catherine, to protect my mother from pain and she will not listen to me, so I am going back to Paris.”

“
It will cause me more pain not knowing,” Sylvie said.

Loic
folded his arms, leaned against the kitchen bench. “I don’t want you to suffer either way, Maman.”

“
Oh, this is not a problem, she has Catherine to scrounge around for her!” Josephine said. “As a team, they are going to unravel my grand-mere’s past! I don’t care about the money, Loic, but I at least care about Maman’s health!”

“
I don’t care about the money either,” Loic said, his voice soft.

“
But what if its millions? That painting could be worth a fortune!” Cat said. She reached out a hand towards Sylvie, and then drew it back. It had been her idea to find out what happened. If it was going to cause a real family crisis, then she would stop, but it seemed Josephine was being a little too controlling. “Don’t you think your mother has the right to make her own decisions?”

“
But whose idea was this, Catherine? Who is making this decision?” Josephine asked.

The girl was being irrational. Cat closed her eyes and shook her head. Josephine clearly didn’t want Cat fishing around in her grandmother’s past. Perhaps Josephine had enjoyed a special relationship with Isabelle. Did she feel threatened by Cat? Isabelle had died only recently, so it was still raw. But it wasn’t as if Cat had sinister motives. She just wanted to give the inheritance back to Sylvie. Thank goodness she had Christian to go home to at the end of all this. Complications like these were exactly what she wanted to avoid.

Josephine trounced out and the front door closed.

“
Talk to her, Loic,” Sylvie said.

He turned and followed his sister out the front door and the sound of the Vespa shooting off down the hill echoed through the house.

Sylvie leaned forward closer to Cat. “I am exhausted. I will rest. You will search my attic? Non?”

“
You don’t want to just take the inheritance? You don’t think Josephine is right about Isabelle? After all …”

“
She is psychologue, oui,” Sylvie finished. “But, she is not expert on the past. She wasn’t there. If you can find out the truth behind this extraordinary situation, then maybe, we have a chance, all of us, of living in peace.”

Cat sighed.
“Right. I’ll start at the top of the house right now.”

Sylvie leaned forward, and she hugged Cat, hard.

Sylvie’s attic was as well kept as the rest of the house. The wide, l
ong room sat directly under the eaves, its walls and floorboards painted white. There were dormer windows along the front of the roof, letting enough natural light in to make the room inhabitable. Cat moved towards the suitcases stacked neatly along the back wall, marked Grand-mere.

There were three suitcases. Cat opened each one gingerly, spreading them open on the floor. It was strange going through Isabelle’s recent past. The overwhelming collection of exotica in Paris had been replaced with outfits of the most utilitarian order.

It seemed indelicate to search through the pockets of Isabelle’s three plain coats, worn and fraying in places, her three felt hats, a few summer dresses kept, Cat suspected because Sylvie or perhaps Josephine could not bear to part with them yet. Perhaps they had been favorite dresses, dresses that Isabelle had worn again and again. Part of her. And yet, Isabelle had been determined to erase the part of her that had existed when she was young.

There were no hidden documents in any of the old woman’s pockets, nothin
g in the suitcases that hinted at Isabelle’s past. Isabelle’s papers, however, were stacked neatly in a cardboard box. Loic’s accountant in Aix en Provence had done this, apparently. There was nothing even remotely suggestive of a secret apartment in Paris. Isabelle had covered her tracks like an expert.

It didn’t take long to search through the rest of the room. There were not acres of old boxes, unopened for years. Everything was up to date and
labeled with thick black felt pen. After two hours of looking, Cat knew there was nothing there to find.

“
Nothing,” she told Sylvie late that afternoon. They sat in the living room, sipping a glass of wine. “Your mother did a good job.”

“
I thought so, chérie. So. Where do we look next?” Sylvie’s determination and unwavering belief that Cat was going to be able to find something out was at once endearing, inspiring, and a worry.

Cat looked at the hopeful expression on Sylvie’s beautiful face. Her mother had only died recently. Was this det
ermination to find out about Isabelle’s past about more than she realized?

“
The nunnery, I thought. She may have … confided in them, Sylvie.”

“
Yes, I suppose she may have talked to them.” Sylvie passed the back of her hand across her forehead.

“
Sorry.”

“
Well. We must deal with it. I cannot die, chérie, without knowing the truth about my mother.”

“
No,” Cat said, her voice coming out quite absent. “I don’t think I can, either.”

The next morning was clear, sunny, and crisp. Sylvie’s directions to the nunnery were clear too. The old convent was perched on the top of the hill above the village, had been there for centuries. On the summit next to it, there were the ruins of a medieval castle. Sylvie insisted that Loic accompany Cat to visit the nuns. Sylvie rang him during breakfast, battered out instructions in rapid French. There had been an argument.

“
He claimed to be busy! I did not accept this.”

Cat felt a chuckle rising in her throat.
“I don’t need Loic with me, Sylvie.”

“
Bah! He can do something to help you out! He is being very stubborn, chérie. As you know, Josephine is worried that this search will find nothing and I will be upset. Go through the whole grieving process again. Apparently, I am just getting better, and this could tip me over the edge. Now Loic has started to listen to Josephine too. Is rubbish. I want to find it out!”

“
As long as you’re sure, Sylvie …”

“
As long as I have you to help, I will not mull it over in my mind like, how you say, a whirlpool. But, I cannot rest, not properly, until you have done all you can.”

Cat nodded.
“In that case Sylvie, I’m off to the nunnery.”

“
Go to Loic. Make him drive you up the hill. Chérie, I have some prospective clients today, interested in a painting!”

Cat leaned down and kissed Sylvie on the cheek.
“Leave it with me,” she said.

“
Do not let him bully you!”

Cat waved as she went upstairs to get ready for the day. It would be interesting to see what sort of mood
Loic was in when she encountered him.

Sylvie had given detailed directions to Loic’s vineyard. It was in the wide valley, directly below the village, and there was an old shepherd’s footpath that lead directly to his house along which Cat planned to walk in order to get there. There were several large estates, similar to Loic’s below the village, dotted around the valley. Cat had gazed at them from her bedroom window, wondering which one was his.

Early blossom had started to place tentative blushes on the bare trees that lined the stony walkway down the hill. Cat hugged her
woolen overcoat about her against the unexpected frosty air. Sylvie had loaned her a pair of solid walking boots, and she was glad of these as she avoided the potholes that dotted the path. When she arrived at what was clearly Loic’s vineyard, Cat could feel the combined effects of the sun on her face and the chill air. Her face had probably turned pink.

She stopped at
the pair of wrought iron gates that stood open at the entrance to Loic’s property. There was a small gatehouse on the right, smoke merging out of its chimney into the air, then a long drive lined with bare trees that looked to have been trimmed in that classic, rectangular way that the French favored. These were flanked on either side with vineyards, spreading as far as Cat could see.

Cat began her walk up the driveway. The thing would be to ignore any negativity on
Loic’s part. Cat was doing the right thing helping Sylvie. That was certain. After all, Sylvie had been the one most affected by Isabelle’s secrets, and it was also perfectly understandable that Cat was hoping to find a big mistake with the will.

These thoughts were a bolster as Cat trudged up the long driveway to the house.
“Mas d’Amiel,” it was a charming name, even if its owner was more than a little difficult. Cat rounded a bend in the driveway and stopped.

“
Oh!” she gasped aloud. The honey colored Provencal mas was three storied. Three rows of symmetrical windows, their pale blue shutters open, stood overlooking what was clearly a professionally designed front garden, its box hedged beds curving around a central fountain, surrounded by winter pansies and early daffodils.

As Cat
approached the house, she passed a smart black painted sign off to her right, pointing to the winery. A high stone fence with a wide gate in the middle of it, topped with a wrought iron detail and an elegant lamp led to what must have one day been the stables, but now, several small vans and two large trucks were parked just inside the gate. Beyond this, there were more vineyards, stretching down into the valley as far as Cat could see.

Cat stopped where she was when
Loic appeared through the wide gateway in front of her.

“
Have you been waiting long, Cat? Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

There was such a shift in his mood that Cat didn’t reply straight away. After the way he had stormed off, she had been braced for an argument at the very least. He stood there, wearing a pair of dark green wellington boots and an old pair of jeans, waiting for her to speak, and if she were not mistaken, he was looking almost uncomfortable with himself.

“I haven’t been waiting at all, Loic.”

“
Good. Good.” Loic indicated with his head. “Come inside. I’ll … er…”

“
You don’t have to come with me to the nunnery. I’m sure at least one of them will speak some English.”

He pulled up outside the pale blue front door, paused for a moment.
“I’m sorry about my sister. She was very close to Grand-mere. Losing her affected Josephine more than I realized. I understand what she’s saying, but I’ve talked to her again this morning after I spoke to Maman. If Maman wants to know about the past …well, that is her choice and we must support her. Thanks for helping.”

“
Okay.”

Loic
moved forward and opened the front door to the house. He led her into an enormous entrance hall. A curved staircase with a more delicate version of the stable’s black ironwork, a balustrade in the same intricate pattern, wound its way to the top floors of the house. It was so tempting to ask if she could have a tour. But, she was here on business. That was all.

“
This is my … house,” Loic said. He seemed to still be watching her.

“
Well. Wow!” Cat said, turning to him, keeping her voice bright, although, this hardly did it justice. “It’s beautiful.”

A flicker passed across his mouth.
“Good.”

He strode to the right, opening an enormous set of double doors, through a sitting room that opened directly off the entrance hall, went straight through the room, past two oversized cream sofas, a gilt mirror over the fireplace and several dramatic modern pieces of art on the walls. Cat wanted to linger and stare.

Loic kept going, through another set of doors, past a dining room, complete with a table that looked to seat twenty, more huge pieces of contemporary art on the walls, and another fireplace the size of Cat’s apartment in Brooklyn.

Then, he turned abruptly left, through a swinging wooden door, and they were in the kitchen. Two black Labradors rose out of a basket in the sun underneath a set of French doors that looked out onto a kitchen garden surrounded by high stone walls.

Absently, she reached down and patted one of the Labs. He snuffled his nose into her hand. After a few moments, she turned to face Loic.

He was leaning against one of the smart kitchen benches that lined the wall. A long, wooden table sat in the middle of the room.

“You … like cooking?” Cat winced at her words.

“
Yeah, I do.” Loic picked his Vespa helmet up from the kitchen bench.

“
I’m wearing the wrong shoes. For the nunnery, and the bike.” What on earth was she talking about now?

“
The nuns will probably kick you out.”

Cat felt a giggle coming on.
“I … like your kitchen.”

“
Thank you, Cat.”

There was a silence.

“I … should be fine with the nuns, though. It’s no problem.”

“
None of them speak much English. Could be tricky.”

“
Oh.”

“
Yes.”

Cat folded her arms. The lab went ever so slow back to his basket, stopping and looking up at Cat.
“Hello, there,” she said, moving over to give him a pat.

“
Anyone Grand-mere may have confided in would be dead, you know.” Loic handed her a helmet.

Cat took it, and followed him out through the potager, through a wooden door in the wall. His bike was parked right there on the gravel.

On the back of Loic’s Vespa, Cat attempted to come up with a plan. If Isabelle had confided in any nun, it was highly likely that she would have sworn them to secrecy as well. It was unlikely that any confidante would have passed Isabelle’s story onto the next generation of nuns. Cat clasped Loic’s hips as they rounded a bend.

She closed her eyes.
Christian. Christian was the person to focus on at this very moment. No wonder he had warned her against riding a scooter in New York! He was quite right. Riding behind Loic was nerve-wracking indeed. Not to mention …

“
Careful!” she called into Loic’s ear, then pulled back all of a sudden. She had got too close. Darn it, now what would he think?

But he seemed
focused on the road, eyes ahead, scooting up the hill.

“
Okay, here we are.” Loic stopped the bike like a pro, right at a set of tall gates. A high wall encircled the top of the hill, and Cat craned to see glimpses of the nunnery rising up behind.

Loic
took off his helmet. He rested it in the crook of his elbow and watched Cat.

“
Thanks.”

“
Fine.”

“
Great.” Cat took a step towards the gates. There was an enormous lock. She stopped for a moment, then, slowly, turned back around again to face Loic.

“
Bell,” he said, pointing with his helmet to what must be the largest bell in existence, to the side of the gate.

“
You’ve got to be joking.”

A twitch appeared at the side of his mouth.
“Need a hand?”

“
I’m fine.” Cat pulled on the heavy bell pull. Nothing. Not a solitary note.

Loic
put his helmet down and strolled across to stand behind her.

“
I’m fine,” Cat said, giving the bell another heave. Not a peep of noise.