Invitation to Provence(87)

Was it really only a year ago that she’d stood here in the empty house with the locked dust-sheeted rooms and only the sound of silence thudding in her ears?

The longcase clock behind her ground its gears manfully and struck its flat notes. Six o’clock. All the windows were open, and she could hear birds singing and the sound of pots rattling in the kitchen. Water gurgled in the pipes and happy cries rang from the swimming pool. And surely somebody was playing an old record of “As Time Goes By.” Or was it only in her head?

Ah, Lucas, she thought, someday I’ll find you again. But this story is not yours and mine anymore, it belongs to the young people. It’s about Franny and Jake, about Clare and Jarré, and about my granddaughter’s future. Love, as well as family, has taken over the Chateau des Roses Sauvages. And I am a happy woman again.