Serial part 2
Elaine knew a date with Jack was playing with fire. What if his girlfriend found out?
THE STORY SO FAR
Elaine is in her 80s and, while sitting in a cafe with her niece, Issy, she sees a young man on a moped. He looks like someone Elaine met a long time ago. Issy wants to know more, so Elaine tells her story… It’s 1959, and Elaine arrives in Paris to work as an au pair for Audrey and Charles Weston, an American couple with a two-yearold boy called Sebastian.
At a party, Elaine meets Jack, a Beat poet from London, and suggests they meet for a coffee.
Jack seems flustered at the suggestion and flees. Audrey then tells Elaine that Jack has a possessive girlfriend called Brigette. Back in her room, a dejected Elaine hears Jack calling from the street. He wants to meet up the next day.
Elaine asks him what Brigette would make of their rendezvous, but she decides to go.
After all, she came to Paris for adventure.
The journey to Montmartre by metro was tricky. Negotiating the steps down to the platforms with Sebastian in his pushchair, or stroller as Audrey Weston referred to it, had been a task, even with the help of some friendly locals.
The area leading to the cafe where Jack had suggested meeting could only be described as seedy. Though Elaine felt a thrill of excitement as she passed the Moulin Rouge, with its famous red windmill and lurid artwork of scantily clad, high-kicking dancers.
The cafe, thankfully, was in quite a pretty street. She took a seat outside and looked at her watch. She was five minutes early – and a shudder ran up her spine. What if Jack didn’t turn up? After all, she hadn’t told him she would definitely be there.
Ordering a coffee, and making sure that Sebastian was happily sleeping, she glanced up the cobbled road that rose steeply towards the Sacré-Cœur basilica. The church, which was perched on the highest hill in Paris, looked so beautiful, gleaming in the spring sunshine.
She tried not to look shocked
Ten minutes later, she had finished her coffee and was considering heading back to the apartment, forgetting all about any silly romantic nonsense, when she heard the hum of a moped. Turning, she saw Jack pulling up close by and waving. The smile on his face suggested he was both happy and relieved to see her.
‘You came!’ he called, bounding over.
He seemed more animated than he had been at the party, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
‘I thought Sebastian might enjoy a trip out,’ Elaine replied, nodding at the two-year-old.
‘Do you want another coffee, or shall we take a walk up to the church?’
Elaine shrugged. ‘A walk would be fine.’
Despite her intention to try and play it cool, she found herself immediately relaxing in Jack’s company. She wanted to ask him about his girlfriend,
