‘Time we don’t have. The will stipulates only two months before the entire estate is given over to the National Trust.’
Benoit watched as Skye snapped a few pictures of the map with her phone, then she was lost in attaching them to a message to her sisters.
Both Benoit and Anaïs were quiet as she did so, but he couldn’t shake the watchful eyes of his great-aunt. There was something she wasn’t telling him. But whether that was connected with Skye or not he couldn’t quite tell.
‘My sister emailed me transcriptions of Catherine’s journals. I wondered if you might like to read them,’ Skye asked Anaïs.
The older woman’s face melted into a smile. ‘I’d like that very much. I only had Benoit’s part of the story all these years and have often wondered about Catherine.’
‘I think she loved him greatly, even though she knew it would never be possible for them to be together.’
Anaïs patted Skye’s hand. ‘Now, my dear, I’m sorry to ask, but there are a few things I need to discuss with my great-nephew. Perhaps you would like to freshen up? I’ll have someone show you to a room.’
Benoit registered Skye’s response and intention to update her sisters despite the discomfort that had entered his chest.
‘“We have a duty to the past. A responsibility to bear for future generations to come.” I always thought you meant Chalendar Enterprises, but this is what you really meant, isn’t it?’ he said when Skye had left.
‘Yes, I’m sorry that you misunderstood,’ Anaïs replied, the pity in her eyes too much.
‘You’ve kept secrets,’ he accused.
‘As have you. What’s going on with the girl?’
‘She’s not a girl, Anaïs. She’s my fiancée.’
Benoit tried to hold her gaze as it felt as if Anaïs peered into his soul. He fought the anger in him that cried that she had forced this on him. That the board would have given up the by-law without her interference.
‘Are you sure? She seems like a lovely young woman.’
‘She is and I am.’ He couldn’t quite understand why Anaïs seemed a little sad. Surely this was what she wanted? Disappointment hung heavily in the air between them.
‘This is what you wanted, isn’t it?’ he demanded.
‘Not like this,’ she said, cupping his jaw with her delicate hand.
‘I’m not like him,’ he said to himself as much as her.
‘In so many wonderful ways you are not like him, mon coeur.’
‘Then why?’ he asked, his voice barely above a whisper, not quite sure he was ready to hear the answer.
‘Because I do not have many years left and when I’m gone I don’t want the company to be all you have left. And that would be like your father. He cut himself off emotionally from everyone and I don’t like to see you do the same.’
Something cracked in Benoit’s chest—a tendril of grief and loneliness bleeding out at the thought of it.
‘But actually,’ Anaïs pressed on in a voice stronger and more determined than a woman half her age, ‘I wanted to talk to you about another matter. Xander is coming to the family gathering tomorrow and you should know that he has filed for divorce from Camilla.’
Benoit spent an hour walking around the grounds of the chateau with a bottle of whisky as his only companion. He’d failed to notice how the sky had darkened into night, how the seconds had slipped into minutes, which had crept towards an hour. He knew that he should get back to Skye, but couldn’t quite bring himself to do so yet.
Too much was swirling around in his mind. That he’d taken on the mantle of the company because he’d misunderstood Anaïs’ cryptic words about duty to the past. That she had forced the vote on the board because she wanted more than the company for him? And more, the argument he’d had with her about Xander still rang in his ears. The first thought he’d had—and had the misfortune to voice—was to wonder whether Xander’s divorce would rule him out of the running for CEO.
Enough, Anaïs had commanded. When did you start to lose your human decency?
Camilla is a viper, he’d replied.
Yes, one who chose to bite Xander instead of you—and have you given no thought to the effects of the poison?
No, he hadn’t. For two years Benoit had refused to allow his thoughts to settle anywhere near his brother and his ex-girlfriend. He was well practised in shifting his mind away from the painful betrayal and now, when he might have wanted to look slightly closer at it, his mind would still not allow it.