Two Days in Biarritz Read Online Free

here.”
    “How are the boys getting on?” Annabel asked.
    “Do you mean in school or coping with the fact that their father has gone and imp regnated his personal assistant?”
    Annabel felt an “ouch moment” coming on. She had hoped their conversation about the separation would have come a bit later but Kate was frank and open unlike Annabel’s other friends in Howth – with them she had become too accustomed to skirting around the edges of delicate matters.
    “Oh Kate, I’ve been so worried about you !”
    “Me? Annabel, I will be fine and in th e words of my good friend Ivana: ‘ Don’t get mad, get everything! ’”
    “K ate, I’m so glad to hear you’re taking it this way. When you called me that time I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know how I was going to find you. Little did we know, when organising this trip last year, that things could change so quickly.”
    “Only they don’t really happen that quickly. To be honest, I could see it coming for a while.”
    “What do you mean?” Annabel tilted her head, surprised at the revelation.
    “I mean Stefan was showing al l the classic signs – away with work for longer periods than usual and not so interested in sex. Washing the pots after dinner and leaving funny receipts from places he couldn’t have been all over the house.”
    “You poor pet! ” Annabel’s eyes clouded over. The thought of losing her secure position on the arm of her Colin left her feeling shook.
    “It’s not that bad ,” Kate went on. “I’m trying to create something positive out of it all and my paintings are shit-hot at the moment, even though I say so myself. What is it about creativity and crisis that go so well together?”
    “At least you have your work,” Annabel nodded. “It must be lonely with the boys in boarding school.”
    “The funny thing is the house has never been busier. I have a mish-mash of interesting friends and artisans living all around and we do a rota of sorts eating in each other ’s houses. There’s Julian – he’s a writer and his wife Eva grows organic vegetables for the market. Fabian who does my garden and everyone else’s around – he’s gay as Christmas but has never said it straight out to any of the rest of them except me, so we don’t comment on his sexuality. Joy and Simon run a holistic centre and hold yoga retreats at different times during the year. They get some array of characters staying with them! Then I have a selection of teacher friends from my dabbling with the young French minds in the local lycée.”
    “Don’t you miss the buzz of Paris?”
    “I still get up there a couple of times a month and then I have a whole crew who whisk me away to the Bastille and Montparnasse to remind me of what civilised, or rather not so civilised, society is like, especially at three and four o’clock in the mornings!”
    “You are making me jealous. Your life is so . . .”
    “French?”
    “I was going to say well rounded and balanced. I really wasn’t expecting you to be so together when I got here. I’m not quite sure how I expected you to be but this wasn’t it.”
    “Honestly. Stefan and I have been coming to the end of our time together for a while.”
    “You make it sound like a contract.”
    “Well , that’s what it is, a contract of sorts,” Kate said in a matter-of-fact tone.
    Annabel was horrified and her mouth started to d rop as the waitress placed the plat du jour down in front of her. She picked up her glass of rosé to disguise the expression on her face but Kate remained unphased.
    “Tuck in,” she said. “This couscous looks even better from this side of the glass.”
     
    * * *
     
    After lunch Annabel still couldn’t get the word ‘contract’ out of her head. The two women walked along the breathtaking cliffs that swept along the coast. Could Kate really feel that way about her marital vows after all of this time? If the shoe were on the other foot she could imagine feeling very