The Temptress (37 page)

‘Maybe there is. Why don’t you ask Luc if he’s
seen one,’ I suggested. Luc had asked me if he could buy him a present when
we’d spoken on Tuesday night and I’d suggested this, knowing Tristan would be
overjoyed.

‘There’s an elephant one?’ he asked again, his
mouth close to the microphone, not quite getting the concept of the
speakerphone.

‘There is. Maybe I could buy it for you and
give it to Mummy to give to you,’ Luc suggested and Tristan looked up at me
expectantly.

‘That would be lovely wouldn’t it, Tristan?’

‘Yeah,’ he nodded vigorously and shot off the
sofa.

‘Where are you going?’ I asked.

‘To make room in my toy box,’ he replied, giving
me a look that said it should have been my first thought.

‘Well say goodbye and thank you to Luc first
please.’

‘Goodbye and thank you to Luc first please,’ he
repeated, making us burst out laughing, as he looked at me with a puzzled face,
not sure what was so funny.

‘You’re welcome, Tristan. Goodbye, au revoir.’

‘Au revoir,’ he called, as he raced up the
stairs and out of sight. I put a hand on my chest and swallowed a lump of
emotion before taking the phone off speaker.

‘So, I’d say that went well.’

‘Il parle français?’ came Luc’s surprised
voice.

‘We practice every night, since he started
learning to talk. I’m not the best, but I wanted him to learn, even if he never
met you. I was going to take him to Disneyland Paris and sightseeing for his
seventh birthday next year.’

‘I cannot wait to meet him,’ he sighed. ‘It is
driving me crazy being away from you and knowing he exists and I can’t pick him
up and hug him.’

‘I can only imagine, I honestly didn’t think
he’d even want to talk on the phone, so be patient, let it sink in for a while
and I’ll ask if you can come for dinner one night, ok?’

‘Yes,’ he sighed.

‘Talk to me, what’s been happening, how did your
meeting today go?’ I snuggled down on the sofa as I listened to him talking
animatedly about what plans he’d put in place. His voice was like the softest
sensual caress. I filled him in on my progress, as confident as I could be that
what I’d pulled together should help, but I was dreading the meeting with her
again on Monday. ‘When will you be back?’ I asked.

‘Do not hate me, I have some business that I
must attend to in Paris, in case Myrtille proceeds with her plans on Monday. I
had hoped to leave Hong Kong tonight, to come straight back to England, but
c’est impossible.’

‘I understand,’ I replied quietly, surprised at
how disappointed I felt.

‘You are cross with me,’ he observed.

‘No, not cross, what you’re doing is very
important, I get that. I just … I was looking forward to seeing you. We still
have so much to learn about each other.’

‘What do you want to know? Ask me anything. I
am, how do you English say, an open book.’

‘You’ve never mentioned your parents or any
siblings.’

‘Because I have none,’ he stated, factually. ‘I
was abandoned as a child and passed from one foster home to another. When I was
old enough to fend for myself, I lived on the streets.’

‘Luc, I’m so sorry.’ I didn’t know what to say,
I’d never have imagined this well-spoken, intelligent and successful man would
have had such a background. I’d assumed he came from a wealthy and privileged
family. ‘How old were you?’

‘I was twelve when I decided I’d had enough.’

‘O my God,’ I exclaimed, tears flooding my eyes
at the thought of Tristan living rough at the tender age of twelve. It was
horrendous. ‘Luc, I …’ I stalled as I choked and had to grab a tissue to blow
my nose.

‘Please, do not cry. I have dealt with this, I
was angry as a child, but this is why I have a need for control and the preservation
of my finances. I do not intend to ever lack for anything again and neither
will you or my son.’

‘How did you manage to …’

‘Mummy!’ yelled Tristan from upstairs, making
me jump.

‘Sorry, give me a second,’ I asked Luc. ‘What,
darling?’ I called back. It wasn’t his yell of pain, or I’d have hung up and
flown up those stairs in an instant.

‘Mummy, please come here, I
need
you,’
he shouted.

‘Go,’ ordered Luc. ‘We can talk tomorrow. I
will phone from Paris when  he is asleep so we can speak freely. I should be
leaving for the airport now anyway.’

‘I’m so sorry, but if you’re serious about
wanting me, he comes as part of the package and often at the most inconvenient
times.’

‘MUMMY.’ His voice sounded more insistent and
he actually sounded upset.

‘I
am
serious about you, both of you. Je
t’aime, ma belle. Toujours. Bonne nuit.’

‘Merci, bonne nuit,’ I replied and quickly hung
up and raced upstairs. ‘What’s wrong?’ I called, as I rushed to his door and
flung it open. I gasped, it looked like there’d been an explosion, you could
barely see the carpet for Lego and toys. ‘Tristan McQueen, what have you done?’

‘I emptied all my toys out and I don’t have
enough room for the zoo,’ he moaned, his bottom lip wobbling as he sat in the
middle of it all.

‘O, darling,’ I smiled as I carefully meandered
my way to him, avoiding treading on anything. He had so many toys that we had a
rule, if a new one came in, an old one had to go and it always broke his heart
to give something away. But it was a rule I always enforced, I didn’t want him
thinking he could have whatever he wanted handed to him on a silver platter.
Whenever he finally chose the item he was giving away, we went together to the local
children’s home to give it to a boy who wasn’t lucky enough to be spoiled. Just
like my poor Luc. Thinking about what he’d been through had my heart breaking,
it was even more amazing to think of the man he’d become, given his rough start
in life. I never wanted Tristan to think he’d been abandoned, maybe I was being
too cautious keeping them apart. Maybe he was at that age when he’d just accept
things, as long as they weren’t forced on him. I ruffled his hair as I stood
next to him. ‘There must be something here that you don’t play with very often,
you have so much.’

‘But I love it all.’

‘I know you do, but I thought you wanted the zoo
kit with the elephants.’

‘I do.
So badly
,’ he nodded as a tear
trickled down his cheek. I cleared some space and sat down, putting my arm
around him, wishing the redistribution of toys was the only hard thing he’d
ever have to deal with in his life.

‘Come on, you’re tired and it’s past your
bedtime. Let’s put it all back in the boxes until the morning and we’ll go
through them all one by one tomorrow and make a decision then, ok?’

‘Ok,’ he sighed, sounding as if the weight of
the world was on his shoulders.

‘Race you, last one holding a toy doesn’t get a
hot chocolate.’ I forced myself not to laugh as he perked up in an instant and
scrambled to scoop a load up. When his hot chocolate had been drunk, teeth
brushed and pyjamas put on, he was so tired he was stumbling, so I scooped him
up and carried him to his bed, gently tucking him in. There wasn’t going to be
any Elmer tonight.

‘Mummy?’

‘Yes, darling.’

‘Will I have to go and live at my daddy’s house
sometimes, like Amber does?’ he asked, as he peaked up at me over the edge of
the duvet, with a worried look on his face.

‘O Tristan, no, I’m not letting you go
anywhere. Amber only stays with her daddy because he doesn’t live with her and
her mummy anymore and he misses her.’

‘But my daddy doesn’t live with me.’

‘No he doesn’t. But that’s because I lost him
remember? That’s not your fault. I’m sure if I hadn’t lost him we’d have all
lived together happily, just like Bryce and his parents,’ I nodded, stroking
his hair, wondering what was going on in his little head. He stayed quiet, so I
did too. I could see the cogs whirring, so I gave him some time to process his
thoughts.

‘Now you’ve found him, does that mean he’s
going to come and live with us too?’ he eventually asked.

‘Would you like to live like Bryce does, with
both of us?’

‘Dunno,’ he shrugged, with another frown.

‘Well, I think that this is what we’re going to
do. If you want to meet him, I can ask him to come over for a roast dinner,
maybe chicken with Yorkshire puddings and …’

‘Chicken?’ he piped up. I smiled, I figured if
I could get him to associate his dad with his favourite things, it might help.

‘He loves chicken, just like you.
Especially
with Yorkshire puddings.’ I added, thinking if Luc didn’t, he was going to have
to suck it up. ‘Does that sound good?’

‘Yeah,’ he nodded, stifling a yawn.

‘Well, if he does come over for dinner, we can
all play with your new Lego set and if you
really
like playing with him,
we can let him come and play again. Do you want to know a secret?’

‘Ok,’ he whispered.

‘Mummy really likes him because he loves
reading stories. I think he’d really like to help me read Elmer to you.’

‘He likes Elmer?’ he asked, not even bothering
to hide his yawn this time.

‘He’s so cool, because he
loves
Elmer.
Come on, it’s time to go to sleep. How much does Mummy love you?’

‘To the end of your life and beyond,’ he smiled
as his eyelids started to droop.

‘Further than the eye can see,’ I whispered, as
I kissed his forehead and waited for him to fall asleep. I couldn’t help some
tears rolling down my face. My poor little confused boy and my poor man,
treated so badly as a child, not having any love in his life, no wonder he
wanted a bond with his son so badly.

Lulu

Monday

It was nice to finally drive my car again,
given she knew where I lived and that I was seeing Luc, there wasn’t any point
in all of this cloak and dagger stuff anymore. I’d even tapped on her
investigators car window this morning, to ask if he’d like a close up shot of
me. After dropping Tristan at school, I headed into work, my mind racing with
my upcoming meeting with Myrtille this afternoon.

‘That was a very big wink,’ I laughed, as I took
my coffee off Violet.

‘I had a very
big
weekend. I’m surprised
I can walk.’

‘I’m sure Mike would love to purchase a Motability
scooter that he could fix up to go really fast, you could ride around the
office in that,’ I suggested.

‘I need to take yoga classes I think, learn how
to be a bit more flexible. How was your weekend with Mr. French.’

‘It wasn’t,’ I replied, resisting the urge to let
out a heavy sigh. ‘He’s in Paris, so I haven’t seen him, though we’ve spoken on
the phone each night.’

‘Is it always going to be a long distance
thing?’ she asked, as we took our usual places in my office.

‘I hope not, he’s looking for offices in London
and doing up his house, with the view to living here Thursday night to Tuesday
morning, then having three days and two nights in Paris. It really all depends
on what happens today.’

‘Well she’s due at two o’clock, but you have a
busy morning to keep your mind off it.’

‘Hit me with it,’ I nodded.

‘Mrs. Blakely, who said her husband was
smelling of perfume, is in at quarter to nine. Here’s the report and invoice.’

‘I take it we were right about the PA?’

‘Sure were, I’ll check there’s plenty of
tissues in your box as I think she’ll need them. He’s got his PA shacked up in
an apartment near to the office for lunchtime and after work specials, and we
have receipts for flowers, clothes and jewellery and I’m sure it’s not all for
his wife.’

‘Poor woman,’ I sighed. Much as I loved the
fact finding element of our work, telling the wife that they were right was
never nice. Particularly not the ones who came hoping to be proved wrong, the
ones who kept making excuses for his odd behaviour, change in style and those
unaccounted for hours, for those it hit home hard. I quite often had to call a
friend to come and get them, as they were in no fit state to drive home. Such a
comparison to the ones that wanted him to be caught, that needed the proof for
their solicitors to conjure up an even better settlement. They virtually
skipped with glee out of the office with my report.

‘Quarter past nine is Mrs. Beasley.’

‘The one who bit her husband’s balls?’

‘You got it. Two visits this week to a gay
S&M club. Henry says you owe him big time for having to go undercover in
there.’

‘Henry went in?’ I nearly spat my coffee all
over the desk.

‘Wait until you see the outfit Hilda made him
wear Saturday night, he was
not
happy, but he got photographs.’

‘Of him in fetish gear I hope,’ I giggled.

‘Sadly not,’ she grinned, ‘though he said once
he got used to the feel of the rubber trousers, they were actually quite
comfortable.’