Love Falls Read Online Free PDF Page A

cluster of houses at their very top, as if every available opportunity must be taken to reach for cooler air. The houses were beautiful, the colour of the earth, terracotta, ochre, the dust-pink of cement. They were decorated with vines and jade-green shutters, each one more beautiful than the last. Lara gasped and pointed to the first six or seven, and then seeing she might go on for ever gave up and simply noted them, letting them pass.
    Ginny had a map spread out on her knees and occasionally she paused at a crossroads and glanced down, but she seemed quite amazingly efficient, confident of the way, and so Lara closed her eyes and listened to her telling Lambert how she’d done a cookery course in this region and more often than she could remember had come to cook for English families summering out here.
    ‘One family, can you imagine, just a married couple and their friends, brought a masseur out with them.’ Lambert must have nodded because she carried on. ‘I was allowed to take advantage of his services, once a week on my day off.’ There was a sharp intake of breath. ‘And it was ever so nice.’
    Lara didn’t dare open her eyes in case she saw any hint of laughter in her father’s shoulders. Instead she held the image of Ginny, her golden body spread out on a towel, the strong hands of a man pummelling her soft expanding flesh.
    ‘Have you cooked for Caroline before?’ Lambert asked, and Ginny said no, she’d never met her.
    ‘But . . .’ She lowered her voice. ‘I’ve heard she’s a very dignified lady.’
    Dignified. There was silence in the car, and Lara kept her eyes closed for so long she must have fallen asleep because when she woke they’d left the flatness of the plain and were climbing along twisting roads into the hills.
    Ginny was chatting again. She was quite well known among a certain circle for her green tomato chutney. ‘If you’d be interested,’ she said, ‘I could add you to my list for orders.’
    ‘Yes.’ Lambert was unusually gallant. ‘I would be interested. Thank you, very much.’
     
     
    It was late afternoon when they came to a stop in a shaded driveway, and were greeted by the sound of water trickling. Ginny climbed out and stretched and walked round to open the boot.
    ‘Darling Lamb,’ Lara heard, as her father eased himself out of the car.
    A tall, slim woman was standing in the doorway. ‘You actually came.’
    Lambert put his arms out and they embraced. Caroline was wearing a pleated skirt, belted at the waist over a cream blouse, and Lambert had to stoop only very slightly to kiss her below the brim of her straw hat.
    ‘Well done,’ she said, eventually stepping back. ‘You made it.’ And she looked towards Lara.
    ‘Hello,’ Lara nodded. ‘It’s very nice to be here.’
    She waited while Caroline appraised her, looking from Lara to her father, checking for a likeness, trying to square the Lambert Gold she knew with the man who could suddenly have produced this grown-up child.
    ‘So we finally get to meet you.’
    Caroline’s gaze was not entirely friendly. It seemed she was still searching, forcing Lara to check herself against her father too. Was there a likeness? Her mother always said there was. Always said it made her laugh how Lara moved like him, made small fluttery movements of frustration, even as a child, even when she hardly saw him.
    By now Ginny had all her bags out on the path. ‘Hello,’ she said.
    Caroline turned towards her, putting out a pale and slender hand. ‘Virginia. So very nice to meet you. Thank you for collecting my guests.’ She looked at her multitude of bags. ‘If you’re ready,’ she said, ‘I’ll show you your room.’
    Ginny stood up straighter as if she’d remembered she was there as staff. ‘Right then.’ She waved. ‘Toodle-oo.’ And she trotted after Caroline down some steps and around the side of the house.
    Lara stood on the path, watching the tiny bubbling fountains of the irrigation system, as