Peach by Elizabeth Adler

Author:Elizabeth Adler
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307574992
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-10-04T20:00:00+00:00

39

No one would tell her anything! Peach marched angrily along the path around the Pointe St Hospice, with Leonie’s cat, Chocolat, and her own cat, Ziggie, following at her heels like devoted hounds. Leonore had gone off to Switzerland with Jean-Paul the very next day before Peach had even had time to ask any questions. Jean-Paul wanted to show Leonore the village where the new hotel would be built. And Lais had locked herself in her penthouse with only Miz as her link with the world. When Peach had asked her grandmother where Ferdi was, and what he had said and what had happened, and all the dozens of questions that were popping in her brain like bubbles in champagne, she got no real answer. Just that, “it was a mistake on Ferdi’s part”.

“But what about Lais?” cried Peach. “Ferdi came back for her, after all these years.”

“I don’t know why he came back,” Leonie answered evasively.

“But I know,” said Peach, “I saw him in Geneva. I told him that he should at least come back to see her, to explain … to say he’s sorry.”

Leonie stared at her aghast. “You told Ferdi to come here? Oh Peach, what have you done!”

Tears stung Peach’s eyes as she clambered over the rocks, kicking angrily at pebbles in her path. What had gone wrong? Naturally it was a shock for Lais, but Ferdi had come back. Why couldn’t the years have been just swept away and everything be as it was before—the way it would be in the romantic novels she read at school? The truth struck her like a blow. Ferdi didn’t want Lais because she couldn’t walk.

She couldn’t bear it any longer. She had to find out the answers. And if Leonie wouldn’t tell her, then she must ask Lais.

Miz refused to let her in. “Lais doesn’t want to see anyone,” she told her. “I’m keeping her in bed today. The doctor says she needs a good rest.”

“But I need to see her,” begged Peach. “Please Miz. It’s only me—she’ll want to see me, I know it.”

“Not today Peach,” said Miz firmly, closing the door.

She tried the next day and the next. Then Lais sent a message asking to see her grandmother. Peach hovered anxiously outside the door waiting for her. “Well?” she demanded as Leonie emerged.

“She’ll see you now,” said Leonie, “I told her that you’d seen Ferdi in Geneva. She understands now why he came.” But Peach sensed that Leonie wasn’t telling her everything.

Lais was sitting up in bed wearing a plain white nightdress with her long hair braided into pigtails. She wore no make-up and her lips looked pale without her usual bright lipstick.

“It’s all right, Peach,” she said with a little smile, “it wasn’t your fault.”

“Oh Lais, I just don’t understand why he didn’t come before.”

“He thought I was dead,” said Lais softly, “all these years he thought I was dead.”

Peach stared blankly at her sister, a memory of her own words ringing in her ears

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