‘If I or my firm can be of assistance to you,’ he suggested, ‘in any capacity, we would be happy to continue to act for you on the same terms as for Madame Bastien. But now is not the time to come to such decisions. There will be plenty of time to make those when the will is proved. However,’ he went on, ‘I’m sure you’ll want the keys to the building and to your own apartment, so that you can come and go as you choose. I can see no problem with the will – it is a simple one – and very soon everything will be legally yours.’ He opened a drawer in his desk and took out a set of keys. ‘You have tenants in the other two apartments and there is no reason for them to move. Their rent will eventually be paid to you.’

Agathe left Monsieur Colet’s office in a daze. She had been with him for less than an hour and in that time her whole world had been turned upside down. She would attend the funeral Mass tomorrow and thus make her farewells to her sister, the sister she now felt she’d hardly known. With her mind still in a blur, she made her way back to the Avenue Ste Anne; the apartment could wait until the following day.

After Fleur’s funeral, attended only by herself and Monsieur Colet, Agathe paid a visit to the apartment. When she opened the door and stepped inside, the place had the musty smell of emptiness and neglect. As Agathe walked slowly through the rooms she was struck by how much smaller it seemed than she remembered. Pale sunlight, dust motes dancing in its brightness, shafted through the grubby windows, illuminating the general tiredness of the decor. Old-fashioned, uncomfortable furniture still crowded the rooms, and when she opened the wardrobe in Fleur’s bedroom she found it full of her sister’s clothes. She paused for a moment in the kitchen where she had cooked meals for the two of them, but there was no resonance of her time there and she knew that she would never return here to live. She would come back once more to clear the place out and then ask Monsieur Colet to arrange for it to be let. With a feeling of relief, she left the apartment and closed the front door behind her.

When she arrived at Belair, Agathe simply thanked Rosalie for allowing her the few days she’d been away and returned to work in the normal manner. To no one did she mention her sister’s will or the change it could bring to her life. Monsieur Colet had said the process of proving the will would take a while, and Agathe was perfectly happy to relegate future changes to the back of her mind.

Chapter 30

Hélène’s reply to Rupert’s letter was carefully composed. It was not the letter she’d been writing in instalments before his arrived. Having read the depths of his family’s sorrow at his brother’s accident, her letter prattling generally about what had been going on at Belair since his departure seemed shallow and insensitive. Despite his protestations of love in his letter, Hélène felt that it would be somehow forward to pour out her heart to him. How easy it had been to tell him she loved him face to beloved face, but somehow putting the words down on paper seemed different.