“So, what did you two get up to today?” Leo asked suddenly.
The naughty schoolgirl within me contemplated speaking Latin in order to impress him, but I thought better of it.
“We had a lovely day, didn’t we, Olivia? We hired bikes and cycled the canal ways and stopped for lunch at a café. There’s so much happening all around you that it’s a bit like sensory overload. There were flowers everywhere and they were so beautiful. I was tempted to stop and pick a few but I wasn’t sure if that would be ok. We cycled to the Van Gogh Museum before lunch and Olivia loved the art work, didn’t you, Olivia?”
“Yes! You should see the work that Van Gogh was doing, daddy, in comparison to other artists at the time. His use of colour was quite unique. Did you know that when he first started painting at the age of twenty-seven, he used peasants as his models because he could not afford to pay anyone? He only sold one painting during his lifetime, a piece called The Red Vineyard. It sold for four hundred francs, which is roughly five hundred euros today, and he only became famous after his death. How sad is that? Imagine doing all of that work and never receiving the money. It’s estimated that his picture Starry Night is valued at over one hundred million. Can you imagine having that much money from just one painting? I think I might go to art school, daddy.”
Leo laughed, revealing a softer side of himself that I had not seen. The steely cold eyes softened as colour danced off them for a few seconds, displaying a myriad of grey and blue tones, almost similar to a kaleidoscope. He let his guard drop as Olivia chatted animatedly, with Leo eager to hear what she had to say.
“Rebecca,” I turned, snapped back to reality with Leo looking at me, or through me as it seemed.
“You said you were tempted to pick flowers today and you seemed very animated when talking, I just wondered if flowers were some kind of hobby of yours?”
My brain was dead for a second as I was put on the spot. I opened my mouth completely unaware of what might come out of it. “Yes, I er, I collect flowers and press them.” I blushed bright red. “I’m very passionate about flowers and not a lot of people understand my interest.” I was learning to lie on cue it would seem.
I thought I saw the hint of a snigger forming on his thin top lip and I focused on his mouth, afraid to look into his eyes for fear of confessing that I’d just told yet another lie. Don’t get me wrong, flowers are pretty and they can smell nice, but at age twenty-two, I am more interested in green-leaved flowers that I crushed and either baked or smoked.
“Interesting.’ He said, in a slightly sarcastic tone. “I find it interesting that such a young woman enjoys such an old-fashioned hobby. It’s good though, and I’m sure Olivia can help you with your collection. Did you bring it with you?”
“No. I left it at home but I plan to start a new one here.”
I felt as if he was toying with me, enjoying watching me squirm, but then again, he was so hard to read, I just wasn’t sure.
We finished the evening with a beef rib roast, home-made fries, green salad and Béarnaise sauce, followed by tarte tatin served with vanilla ice-cream and a citrus cream. Satiated, we all walked back to the hotel and my mind drifted to Luke. I knew that he would be home by now, and I had purposely turned my phone off, terrified of his reaction. I had a feeling that he would start off angry, but somewhere deep inside of me, I hoped that he would calm down and understand why I had behaved that way. Mostly though, I’d hoped that he would be able to offer a simple explanation about him and that woman, even though I knew that was highly unlikely. I decided to put it off for another day; I would switch my phone on once we reached Paderborn tomorrow, or maybe even the day after, and I would face the mess that he had started, which I had finished. The mess that still wrapped around my heart like an iron fist, squeezing the breath out of me and radiating pain every time I thought of his name.
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