The French Gardener (38 page)

“She never told you?”

“No. Maybe she felt guilty for not telling us both. Perhaps she couldn’t speak of it to anyone, not even to me. But dying people always want to tie up loose ends and I suppose it is my right to know who made me. I decided to put the scrapbook in here so that if you returned you would find it and know that she had never stopped loving you. I didn’t know where to find you and I didn’t want to ask my father. At that stage I didn’t even know whether I wanted to find you. It’s not an easy thing to learn that the man you believe is your father is not.”

“Does Phillip know?”

“Goodness, no. And he never will. It would be wrong of me to tell him. Besides, my mother gave her life to him.
Maybe she would have left had he not fallen ill. He needed her. Who knows?”

“Why did you come today?”

“Because I feel the time is right. It’s what Mummy would have wanted. You both longed for a child so badly, it’s only right that you should know.” She smiled again and Jean-Paul saw his own face mirrored in hers. He felt his stomach lurch at the sight of it. She blushed. “I was also captivated by the scrapbook and the romance of my mother’s secret love affair. She never stopped loving you, or hoping that you would one day be reunited. When Miranda telephoned, I knew it was my chance.”

“Why didn’t she tell me she was dying?”

“I’ve wondered about that, too. I can only imagine, knowing my mother as I do, that she wouldn’t have wanted you to see her like that. Her hair fell out. She aged terribly. She was very sick. I would imagine she wanted you to remember her the way she was.”

“But she knew I loved her.”

Peach’s eyes filled with tears. Once again she could smell the scent of orange blossom. It crept around her like a familiar blanket and invaded her senses, demanding to be noticed. She looked at Jean-Paul. He lifted his chin, aware of it, too.

“Yes, she did,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “You can smell her, too?” Jean-Paul closed his eyes. How often he had dismissed her perfume as wishful dreaming.

The room filled with sunshine. It was bright and twinkling as it caught the little specks of dust and lit them up like fireflies. Father and daughter opened their eyes to see that the clouds had parted to let the sun shine through. Jean-Paul stood up hastily. “Come,” he said, taking her hand. Peach followed him outside, into the rain. There, in a dazzling arc above them, stood a magnificent rainbow.

“It’s beautiful,” she said in wonder. “
Un arc-en-ciel
.”

“
Un arc-en-ciel
,” he repeated, knowing that Ava was up there somewhere in the midst of all those colors. Then he laughed, for there, between green and blue, was the most splendid color of all.

“Can you see pink?” He pointed to the vibrating light, the color of a perfect summer rose.

“I see it!” she said, her face wet with tears. “I see it! The elusive pink.”

“She’s there,” said Jean-Paul, squeezing her hand. “She’s there. I know she is.”

The day of Henrietta and Jeremy’s wedding could not have been more beautiful. The sky dazzled with sunshine, a cold breeze whipped in off the sea, swirling through the red and gold leaves, breathing autumn on the final remains of summer, and yet the sun was warm. Birdsong rang out from the treetops and squirrels paused their nut collecting to watch the baffling human world below them. But love is an instinct understood by all creation and it was as if the whole of nature conspired to make their day magnificent.

Troy sat in the front pew with Henrietta’s mother and sister. He had put the bride’s hair up in a glossy bun encircled with purple roses and wiped her tears away himself when she had seen how beautiful she looked. On the other side of the aisle Jeremy waited nervously, his large hands trembling as he fidgeted with the service sheet, exchanging looks with David, whom he had asked to be best man. He took a deep breath, barely daring to acknowledge his incredible fortune, in case he jinxed it and Henrietta did not appear.

Miranda sat behind David with Cate and Nigel, whose coldness sat between them like a corpse. She thought of Jean-Paul and Peach: he had lost his lover but gained a daughter. Ava had said that love was all she had to give him, but that was no longer true; she had given him Peach. Miranda thought of them both in France, at Les Lucioles. He would show her the gardens he had cultivated for her mother and together they would share memories, building a bridge to span the years that separated them.

David caught her eye and smiled. She gave him her hand over the pew and he squeezed it. That squeeze said so
much. Her eyes began to well. “Don’t cry now, darling. She hasn’t come in yet!” he whispered and she nodded, dabbing her face with the hanky she had had the foresight to bring with her.

At that moment the large wooden doors creaked open and Dorothy Dipwood began to play the organ. The congregation stood. Miranda leaned into the aisle to see Henrietta in the elegant ivory dress embroidered with pearls that Miranda had helped her choose at Catherine Walker. Her face was veiled, but her grin was visible beneath it. She walked on the arm of her father, his face pink with pride. Miranda’s eyes were so filled with tears that she was barely able to distinguish Gus and Storm, who stepped behind her as page and bridesmaid with Clare’s two children. Storm held a ball of purple roses hung from a ribbon and Gus held her hand, his face serious with concentration, taking care not to step on Henrietta’s train.

Henrietta watched Jeremy, who stood in the aisle to receive her, beaming as he watched his bride walk slowly towards him. He was relieved he wasn’t expected to speak because a knot of emotion had lodged itself in his throat. Henrietta’s father placed her hand in Jeremy’s and they gazed at each other for a long moment, marveling at the magic that had brought them to this point.

Miranda felt a movement beside her and turned to see Nigel take Cate’s hand. At first Cate stiffened in surprise, too proud to yield, but then the love that pervaded the church worked its magic on her, too, and she relaxed, finally letting her defenses fall. The congregation sat down and Miranda caught sight of the purple Louboutin shoes she had recently bought in London. She wiggled them, admiring the height and color and the elegant cut of the toe. Some pleasures never fade.

At the end of the service they spilled out of the church into the sunshine. The children ran around the gravestones, jumping from one to the other like silk-clad frogs. Jeremy and Henrietta climbed onto Jeremy’s red tractor and waved as they set off to Hartington House where Miranda had organized the reception in a marquee on the lawn. Mrs. Underwood was supervising the food and Mr. Underwood was valet parking with Toby, the new gardener.

David slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. “She looks beautiful,” he said. “Clever you.”

“Not at all,” Miranda replied. “Her beauty is entirely her own.”

“Now you’ve shared Jean-Paul and Ava’s story with me, will you let me read your novel?”

Miranda looked at him in surprise. “How did you know I’d written a book?”

“Gus told me.”

“How did he know?”

“Children know everything.”

“I might.”

“Might?”

“Okay, I will. But I won’t ever publish it.”

“What if it’s brilliant?”

“It
is
brilliant, but it wouldn’t be right and besides, I don’t think I did it all by myself.” David frowned at her quizzically. “I had help,” she said enigmatically. There was no point explaining.

She raised her eyes to the sky, remembering the persistent scent of orange blossom that had filled the room whenever she had sat down to write. Since finishing the book she hadn’t smelled it. Ava’s ghost had gone.

“So what are you going to do with it?” he asked.

“Give it to Peach,” she said.

“To Peach? Why?”

“Because I know now that I wrote it for her.” She took David’s hand. “Come on, darling. We’d better gather up the page and bridesmaid, we’ve a reception to get to.”

“Gus! Storm!” David shouted. The children bounded up, their cheeks red with exertion. “Time to go home,” he said, ruffling Gus’s hair. Miranda sighed with pleasure. Home. How good that sounded.

Touchstone Reading Group Guide

The French Gardener

For Discussion

1. Gus seems to act out violently as a result of his parents’ inattentiveness. Do you think his sins are ultimately forgivable, or should he be held responsible to some degree?
   
2. At first, “the word ‘community’ made [Miranda’s] stomach churn” (Chapter II). By the end of the year, she has embraced the country and left London behind. What do you think accounts for Miranda’s change in attitude about Hartington? How do her new relationships compare to her old ones?
   
3. Infidelity played a part in the Lightly marriage and in the Claybourne marriage. One affair was revealed, while the other remained secret. What do you see as the benefits and drawbacks of each situation? How can keeping an affair a secret protect a marriage? How can having everything out in the open allow a relationship to grow and mend?
   
4. Montefiore describes the setting of the novel beautifully. Nearly every chapter comes alive with details of the characters’ surroundings. Which images are most memorable for you? Can you picture any of the gardens or buildings described?
   
5. How do your feelings about Ava’s affair differ from your feelings about David’s? Is all infidelity equally condemnable? How does the way in which Montefiore wrote the novel affect your opinions about the injured parties in each affair? Can you be sympathetic to both Ava and Philip? Can you find any sympathy for David? How did Jean-Paul’s friendship with Miranda help him contextualize how his affair with Ava must have affected Philip (page 333)?
   
6. Ava thinks about having “a child to stand between her and the door to remind her where her place [is]” (Chapter XXII). Do you think having a baby is an effective way of maintaining connection to a mate? Or is this a selfish decision on Ava’s part? Why do you think the pregnancy effectively kept Ava’s marriage going, despite its being Jean-Paul’s child?
   
7. Henri says, “Relationships work better when the air is able to circulate between two people” (Chapter XXV). Have you experienced this idea playing out in your own life? Can independence and time apart help strengthen a relationship, or drive people apart?
   
8. Jean-Paul and Ava’s love story exists in so many forms—in Ava’s scrapbook, in the novel Miranda writes, and in the novel we have just read. In what ways is their story classic and ripe for retelling and reworking?
   
9. When Blythe visits Miranda’s new country home she discovers that, “the balance of power [in their friendship] had shifted, leaving her at a disadvantage” (Chapter XXVIII). Many of the female friendships in the book are marred by unhealthy power dynamics and competition. What do Cate and Blythe have in common? Which
   friendships seem mutually supportive? Which seem to be suffering and why?
   
10. While Ava was great at entertaining a crowd, she very much appreciated time alone “to relax and not have to make an effort” (Chapter X). How did this preference affect her relationships? Does socializing exhaust or exhilarate you? Does solitude relax you or make you lonely?
    
11. Henrietta states: “But all the good I have to give is turning sour in my belly. If I don’t find someone soon I’ll ferment into vinegar and won’t be of any worth to anyone” (Chapter XI). In what ways can the lack of an outlet for romantic love “ferment” a person? How does Jean-Paul’s single status differ from Henrietta’s? Is it, in fact, better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?
    
12. When Jean-Paul meets Miranda and her family he thinks, “I cannot bring the love back but I can create new love. That is how I will remember her” (Chapter XII). In what other ways do both Ava and Jean-Paul keep the memory of each other alive? Do you think their actions are healthy responses to the loss of love? Or has it proven harmful for them to keep the past alive in their hearts?
    
13. Toddy tells Ava that, “In the old days we died at thirty. Now we live so long it’s like two lifetimes. I think one should be able to call it quits halfway through and enjoy another marriage when it starts to grow humdrum” (Chapter XV). Do you support Toddy’s claim and think that longer life expectancy contributes to more failed marriages? What other developments in our modern
    world may be making second and third marriages more and more commonplace?
    
14. How do you feel about Miranda’s decision to forgive David and move forward in their marriage? Has he proven himself to be a changed man?
    
15. What are your hopes for Jean-Paul’s future relationship with Peach? Do you think their mutual affection for Ava will bond them? What struggles do adult children face when meeting their biological parents for the first time?