My failed brother-in-law smiled again. ‘One step at a time, Oz, eh. But I’ll call Ellen tonight, that’s a promise.’
Allan stretched out an arm to usher me to the door. ‘How are you and Prim doing anyway? Still together, I take it. You haven’t come from Scotland to see me, have you?’ He looked at me, working a few things out for the first time. ‘No, surely not: not with that tan.’
But I wasn’t listening to his small talk. I was looking at his left wrist.
‘Allan,’ I asked at last, ‘where did you get that watch?’ He glanced at me. ‘Familiar, is it? Last time I saw your dad, I noticed the one he was wearing. I saw the same model in Jenners, so I bought it for day-to-day wear. Did you think I’d pinched Mac’s?’
‘Don’t be daft. No,’ I lied, ‘it’s just that I bought my dad his in a jeweller’s shop. I thought it was pretty exclusive, that’s all. Can I have a look at it?’
He shrugged, unfastened the strap, and handed it over. I walked over to the window and looked at the steel back. It was smeared by wear, but a quick rub with my thumb cleaned it up. I read the number on the back. ‘921428.’
‘Okay?’
‘Aye, sure, Allan. What did you pay for it?’
‘One ninety, I think.’ That was a relief. Dad’s was ten quid cheaper.
With the air cleared my brother-in-law was more relaxed than I had seen him. ‘Do you want to hang around and eat with me tonight?’ he asked. ‘You could give me some tips about being single.’
I shook my head. ‘No thanks. No hard feelings, but you’ve got a call to make and I’ve got a home to go to. I don’t have an overnight pass!’
I hung around Lyon for an hour or two, after I left Allan’s office. I sent postcards to my dad and to Jan. Finally I phoned my sister, reckoning that I’d killed enough time to let her get home from teaching or from picking up Jonathan from school, whichever was on her agenda for the day.
Ellie was more than delighted when I told her that Allan was seeing sense and would phone her that evening. Her relief came down the phone in waves. ‘Thanks a million, brother,’ she said. ‘I was really worried that he was going to dig in his heels. You didn’t have to lean on him too hard, did you?’
‘No. Not at all. The guy doesn’t exist in the same world as you and I, Ellie. I just made him realise that you can’t live in his any more. He’s got the message now. You should be able to sort things out between you from now on.’
‘Let’s hope so. I’ll do my best. But I’m not going back, Oz, come what may.’
‘No, and he won’t expect that.’
She chuckled. ‘Imagine. You being my minder. What would Mum have thought?’
‘She’d have been astonished. Simple as that.’
‘She’d have been proud too.’ Ellen paused, as each of us thought of our mother. ‘I owe you one, Oz,’ she said.
‘Bollocks to that, Sis. You’re still well in credit when it comes to us looking out for each other. You can do something for me, though. Send me some new photos of you and the kids. I’ll send you some of Prim and me, and of where we live now. It knocks Perrouges for six, I’ll tell you.’
‘You sound as if you’ve really settled in there, son.’
I laughed. ‘We sure have. We’re real locals now. We know where all the bodies are buried!’
9
I made it back to St Marti just after 9 p.m. Casa Minana was closed for the day, but there were still some open-air diners at the tables outside Meson del Conde and the Esculapi, most of them in heavy sweaters against the cool of the autumn evening.
The apartment was in darkness when I opened the door. I wondered whether I had missed seeing Prim at one of the tables, until I found a note on the sideboard.
Dear Oz
I’m taking the Carrilet into L’Escala, then on to the Trattoria. If you don’t show up there by 11, I’ll take a taxi home. Lurv
P
10
The phone rang early next morning, around 8:30 a.m.. Well, it was early for us. I swung myself around to sit on the edge of the bed and picked up the portable hand set from its cradle.
‘Hola,’ I mumbled, expecting it to be one of the many wrong numbers generated by the L’Escala exchange.
‘And hola to you too, son,’ said Mac the Dentist. ‘Rub the sleep out of your voice, for fuck’s sake. What’s happened to the old rise and shine Oz? Jesus, here am I, all ready for a day’s drilling and filling and you’re still sounding like last night’s washing up.’ As an irregular user of the telephone my father has no idea of proper etiquette. Under that heading I include niceties like not phoning before breakfast.
‘Sorry, Dad,’ I croaked. ‘I had a busy day yesterday. I did eight or nine hundred miles.’
‘Aye, I know. Your sister told me all about it. Allan phoned her last night, like he promised you. They had a civilised conversation, he said he was sorry about that lawyer’s letter, and he spoke to the boys … well to Jonathan, at least. Wee Colin hadn’t a clue who he was; he thought it was you, in fact.
‘The upshot is, he’s agreed to a separation. Ellen spoke to Jan’s pal Noosh, and she’s going to draw up an informal agreement, recording the date of the split and the arrangements for custody and child support. There’s a half-term holiday next month. He’s going to take time off and come over then, to see the kids and sign on the dotted line.’
I grunted. ‘That’s good. I don’t think as badly of the guy now, you know. He just needed to be made to see past his own pressures and his own needs. He’s a workaholic; the truth is that a family’s just a distraction to him.’
My dad grunted. ‘Aye, that’s probably so. Tell you, though, he’ll get a shock when he sees our Ellie again. So’ll you, for that matter. The wee fat barrel is no more. She’s lost at least a stone and a half, she’d had a decent haircut and she’s started taking care of her appearance again.’ He paused. ‘You’ve done more than you know for your sister, son. She told me that if you and Prim hadn’t turned up in France, and made her see what was happening to her, she’d probably never have got out of her rut. She’d just have drifted quietly into a miserable middle age. Now she’s young again.’
I smiled at the thought. ‘Ahh, that’s good. But how about you? How are you and Auntie Mary getting on?’
‘Perfectly well, son. Perfectly well. As a matter of fact, I’ve more or less moved in with Mary. For the moment at least, while Ellie’s in Anstruther. It’s better for the boys to be alone with their mother. I’m Grandad, and I want to stay that way. I don’t want them to start thinking of me as any form of dad, and if we were all under the one roof that could happen. I’ll move back in when Allan gets here, as a sort of chaperone if you like, but until then I’m leaving the three of them to get on with it.’
There was a silence on the line for a couple of seconds. At last I asked him the obvious. ‘So? Or are your intentions strictly dishonourable?’
‘Cheeky bastard,’ my dad growled. ‘You’re in no position to ask me that, after you and Jan built up our hopes for years. But since you have asked, I’ll tell you. We’re going to let Ellen get herself sorted out, and fixed up with a place to live. She’s looking for a permanent job, in Fife, Dundee or Edinburgh. Meantime, Allan’s going to sell the house in Perrouges and move himself into Lyon. When he’s done that, she’ll get herself a flat somewhere handy for her work.
‘Once all that’s taken care of, Mary and I will expect you and Jan to chum us to the Registry Office in St Andrews, as best man and bridesmaid.’
I beamed, wide awake now. ‘That’s great. When d’you reckon? Around Christmas, maybe?’