Follow Your Star, Jennifer Bohnet [best fiction novels to read txt] 📗

and also because, ‘I’d like to,’ he’d said, with a disarming smile when suggesting it.…

The Italian restaurant he’d taken her to was hidden away in one of the back streets away from the tourist haunts.

‘I’m so glad you decided you’d come with the twins,’ Mathieu said, as they waited for their first course to arrive.

‘Can’t understand why you wanted me here really,’ Nanette said. ‘Florence lives in, and Jean-Claude seems more than happy to help look after the twins.’

‘I thought it was important for Pierre and Olivia to have some sort of continuity in their lives. They are used to you looking after them when Vanessa is away – I just thought it would make things easier for them.’

He smiled at her and added, ‘It certainly made things easier for me earlier in the week knowing that you were here with them when I had my spot of bother.’

There was a slight pause before he said quietly, ‘I have to confess to an ulterior motive too. I also hoped we could get to know each other better. That perhaps you could stop thinking of me as the twins’ father and we could become better friends.’

The waiter had arrived with their starters at that moment and spared a surprised Nanette from responding. Afterwards Mathieu changed the conversation to more general things.

‘It’s the Tennis Masters Series soon,’ he said. ‘I remember you and Zac used to play a lot. I’ve been offered a pair of tickets for the opening day, would you like to come with me?’

‘Oh please,’ Nanette said, ignoring the flicker of pain at the mention of Zac. They had been passionate about tennis, both playing and watching.

‘Good. I’ll confirm the tickets before I go away next week.’

‘Business trip, or pleasure?’ she asked.

‘A trip to Switzerland on business,’ he said quietly. ‘So long as the authorities don’t prevent me leaving.’

‘Are they likely to?’

He shrugged. ‘I’m hoping they’ll realize they’ve made a mistake in the next couple of days and everything will be sorted out. I’m not the man they want.’

‘Do you know who is?’ Nanette asked quietly.

Mathieu had nodded. ‘Oh yes.’

As they finished their meal and prepared to leave, the restaurant door opened and a couple entered.

The man, a burly figure in an expensive black coat and wearing a trilby immediately came over to Mathieu. The two shook hands and chatted briefly, but it wasn’t until the man said, ‘Mathieu who is your charming companion?’ that Mathieu, reluctantly it seemed to Nanette, introduced her.

‘Boris, this is my children’s nanny. Netty, this is Boris, a business acquaintance.’

‘Aw come now, Mathieu, more than a business acquaintance since last week. Remember how I help you with your little difficulty?’

Boris turned to Nanette, briefly acknowledged her with an abrupt ‘Bonjour, mademoiselle’, and turned his attention back to Mathieu.

Knowing the way society in Monaco worked Nanette was not surprised that once he’d learnt she was a mere nanny, Boris ignored her. As far as he was concerned she was just a servant and not important enough for him to bother with.

She wondered why Mathieu had introduced her as the nanny complete with the childish name the twins called her, when earlier he’d intimated he wanted them to get to know each other better. He must have realized he’d effectively precluded her from mixing with him and this particular business associate in the future.

Turning to take her coat from the waiter, Nanette had heard Boris say quietly, ‘Tell Zac I need to talk to him urgently.’

Now, as she drank her coffee and watched the morning activity around her, she wondered what the connection between Zac and Boris was and how long Mathieu had known Boris.

The oft-quoted phrase about Monaco being ‘a sunny place for shady people’ came into her mind. What were Zac and Mathieu up to, doing business with a Russian whom she personally wouldn’t trust an inch?

Thoughtfully, Nanette finished her coffee, left enough euros in the saucer to cover the bill and began to make her way down to the old port.

So much had changed since she lived here and yet some things were still reassuringly familiar. From her bedroom balcony she’d struggled to remember the lines of the old port. To her eyes the new harbour extension, already crowded with the floating gin palaces belonging to the rich and famous, had blended in seamlessly.

Walking slowly along the quay, Nanette recognized some of the yachts, but to her relief there was no sign of Pole Position the boat Zac had treated himself to after winning the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis.

Knowing that he liked to have the yacht moored in Monaco and use it for parties both before and after the Grand Prix, Nanette knew that once Pole Position reappeared on its mooring, it wouldn’t be long before Zac too was back in town.

Glancing up to the familiar skyline behind the Hotel de Paris as she walked up the hill, something jarred in her memory. It was a second or two before Nanette realized that the nineteenth-century villa where she’d had a tiny two-room apartment, had been replaced by a large ultra modern concrete building.

Shame; the old building had emitted a belle époque atmosphere of the Riviera in its heyday, which she’d loved. Zac though, had always complained about its lack of modern conveniences and had rarely visited her there.

His own large apartment had been in one of the ultramodern blocks a street or two away from Casino Square. Idly Nanette wondered if he still lived there or whether, like Mathieu, he had moved on to an even grander place. Whatever, she had no intention of walking anywhere near that particular area this morning.

Instead she took the Avenue Monte Carlo turning and strolled along, happily indulging in a spot of wishful window shopping in the expensive boutiques that lined the small street.

Dodging a string of excitable Japanese tourists, Nanette crossed the road and ran down a flight of steps into the Casino gardens. Last night Mathieu had mentioned an exhibition of sculpture being shown