تماس تلفنی مهم

Chapter eleven

An important phone call

Nobody felt like cooking that evening and Grant hadn’t come back. So we walked in a quiet, unhappy group to the village to find somewhere to eat. There was only one hotel, but it looked nice enough, so we went inside. There was a free table by the window, so we sat at it and looked at the menu.

It was still quite early and there weren’t many people in the restaurant. Perhaps that’s why I noticed the woman behind the bar through the open restaurant door. It was the woman from the flower market - the woman with the white shoes. Difficult to believe, I know, but it was true. It was her, and she seemed to own the hotel. Well!

‘Excuse me,’ I said to everyone. ‘I won’t be a minute.’ And I went over to speak to the woman with the white shoes. I’d thought of a plan to help Sarah and James.

Now that the woman wasn’t angry about her shoes, she was actually quite nice. Her name was Marie. She was certainly surprised when I told her about my idea, but after a while she agreed to it. I was really pleased. At least one good thing might happen today.

I was just returning to the table to share the good news with Sarah and James when the door opened. Grant came in. When he saw us, he looked as if he might go out again. But there was nowhere else to eat in the village. ‘It’s all right,’ he said, walking past us. ‘I’ll go over there out of your way.’

And we all watched as he crossed the room to sit on his own in a corner. As he picked up a menu and started to look at it, he looked really unhappy.

‘The further away the better!’ said Ellen.

‘Yes!’ agreed Astrid.

As for David, Sarah and James, they all just looked fed up. And suddenly I’d had enough. ‘Now look, you lot,’ I said, sitting down in front of them. ‘This just isn’t fair. You’re being horrible to Grant.’

‘He asked for it,’ said Ellen, ‘acting like that towards me and Astrid. And making David go up all those mountains when he didn’t have to!’

I looked at her coldly. ‘And is it Grant’s fault it rained as well?’ I asked. ‘Or that this is the wrong holiday for some of you?’

‘Well.’ Ellen began, but I didn’t let her finish.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Just listen to me for a minute, all of you.’ They all looked at me. Nobody spoke.

‘Astrid,’ I said, looking at her, ‘you were wrong. Grant came to your tent to check that you were OK, that’s all. I was worried about you last night; you seemed so sad. I thought you had. Well, it doesn’t matter now what I thought. I was worried, that’s all. I didn’t know where you were. I told Grant about it and he tried to help. Nothing else.’

Next I looked at Ellen. ‘Grant tries to be friendly to everyone; it’s part of his job. From what I heard, you thought it meant more than that. You’re a lovely woman; I’m sure lots of other men will be interested in you. If Grant isn’t interested in you in that way, that’s no reason to hate him.’

‘But.’ Ellen started to say, but once again I didn’t give her the chance to finish.

‘David,’ I said, looking at him next, ‘you’re right. Grant should let you choose not to go up a mountain if you don’t have to. But on a sunny day it would be beautiful up there.’

David nodded. ‘That’s true,’ he said.

‘Sarah and James,’ I said, moving on.

They looked at me. ‘What have we done wrong, Tess?’ Sarah asked, sounding worried.

I smiled. ‘Nothing,’ I said, ‘except choose the wrong holiday. But I’ve found a way to put that right. At least for a couple of nights.’

‘How?’ James asked.

‘Yes, how, Tess?’ Sarah added.

My smile grew even bigger. ‘Marie,’ I said, nodding towards the hotel owner, ‘has agreed to let you stay here in the hotel for two nights. She has a nice double room you can have.’

Sarah and James looked worried. ‘But we told you before, Tess,’ James said. ‘We can’t afford to pay for a hotel.’

‘You don’t have to pay,’ I told them. ‘The room won’t cost you anything.’

‘But why?’ Sarah asked.

‘Marie and I have met before,’ I said. ‘I painted a picture of her. She hasn’t seen it yet - it’s back at the hotel in Nice - but she liked the drawing I showed her. She wants to put the picture up in the hotel. I said she could have it if she let you have a room here.’

Sarah smiled. ‘Oh, Tess!’ she said.

‘We can’t let you do that,’ James said.

I smiled at them both. ‘I want to do it,’ I said, and then I stood up. ‘Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I’m going to sit with Grant.’

I walked away from them, feeling very good that I’d sorted everything out. On the other side of the restaurant Grant was still looking at the menu. Then suddenly I saw the hotel phone in the bar behind him and changed my mind. Grant could wait for a little while. I had to speak to my father. If I could talk to the group like that, then I was strong enough to speak to my father as well.

Dad answered almost straightaway. ‘Tess? How lovely. How are you? And how are you getting on with Grant?’

It wasn’t an easy question to answer at that moment, so I didn’t try to.

‘Everything’s fine, Dad,’ I said. ‘Except.’

‘Except?’ he said.

‘Be brave, Tess,’ I told myself. ‘Be brave!’

‘Dad, I don’t want to work for Wild Country any more. I’m really sorry, but I can’t do it. I can’t take over from you. I need to do work that’s right for me, and working for the company just isn’t right for me. I’m going to be a full-time artist.’

‘Hi.’ After my phone call I went to sit at Grant’s table. He was still looking very fed up.

He looked at me for a moment, then went back to studying the menu. I thought he must know everything on it by now. ‘Well done,’ he said flatly.

For a moment I thought he was talking about the conversation I’d just had with my father. ‘Well done for what?’ I asked.

‘For winning of course,’ he said. ‘People like you better than me, so you’re clearly a better tour leader than I am.’

I sat and looked at him. I wanted to reach out to push the hair away from his eyes. He wasn’t like a big cat or a bull at that moment. He was more like a little boy. ‘It was never about winning,’ I told him. ‘Anyway, I get lost, remember?’

‘You keep people happy,’ he said.

‘But I can’t make them get up on time in the morning,’ I replied.

‘You help them to enjoy their holiday,’ he said.

‘You help them to climb mountains they didn’t know they could climb,’ I said.

‘I knew you were the type of person who didn’t like people saying nice things about them,’ Grant said, finally looking at me.

I smiled at him. ‘OK, thank you for those nice thoughts,’ I said. And it’s true, I am good with people in some ways. But I’m not good at organising them, and a good tour leader has to be able to do that. I’m not even good at organising myself. That’s what I’ve just been telling my father.’

Grant sounded surprised. ‘You’ve spoken to your father?’

I nodded. ‘Yes, just now. I’ve just told him that I don’t want to work for Wild Country anymore.’

Grant’s eyes opened wide. ‘You’re leaving?’ he said. ‘I can’t believe it.’

‘Why not?’ I asked. ‘You were the one who told me I should be an artist. That’s what I’m going to do.’

‘Are you sure, Tess?’ Grant sounded worried now. ‘I know I said that, but you shouldn’t listen to what I say. I don’t know anything.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I’m sure. It’s what I’ve wanted to do for ages. I just needed to be brave and take that first step. You helped me to do that, that’s all. I’m going to go to art school to study painting.’

Grant thought about it for a moment. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘if you’re really sure, then well done again! That’s great. What did your father say when you told him?’

I made a face, remembering the conversation. It hadn’t been easy for me to do it. I hated disappointing my father, but talking to him hadn’t been quite as difficult as I’d expected it to be either. ‘That’s why it’s taken me so long to say what I want,’ I said to Grant. ‘Because I didn’t want to hurt Dad.

But he was OK about me being an artist, really. He said he’d been waiting for me to say something for ages. He didn’t want to talk about the future himself, because he wanted me to be sure I knew what I wanted. But that’s why he put you and me together on this tour.

Because he thought seeing someone who was good at the job would help me decide what I wanted to do. He knew that when I was really sure about being an artist, I would be brave enough to speak to him.’

‘Good old Dad,’ I thought now. ‘How well he knows me.’ And suddenly I felt like crying.

Grant saw that my eyes were wet. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked. ‘I thought you’d be happy.’

I took a handkerchief from my bag and blew my nose. ‘I am,’ I said. ‘Very happy. I’ve got what I wanted, haven’t I?’

Grant suddenly looked very serious. He took my hand across the table. ‘And is that all you want, Tess?’ he asked. ‘To be an artist?’

My face was suddenly red. I wanted to turn away from him, but I made myself look into his eyes. ‘No,’ I said. ‘I want. I want us to be friends. That is. that is, if you want that too.’

Grant didn’t speak for a while. He just sat there looking at me. ‘No,’ he said at last, ‘that isn’t what I want at all.’

I looked at him, feeling suddenly afraid. Had I really made him as angry as that? So angry he didn’t even want us to be friends?

Grant still held my hand. Then he began to smile, and I allowed myself to begin to hope that maybe, just maybe, everything would be OK.

‘Tess,’ he said, ‘you’re a terrible tour leader and you often drive me mad. You make me jump into rivers and get us lost in the mountains in the rain!’ Still smiling, he let go of my hand and reached out to touch my face.

‘But the reason I don’t want to be your friend,’ he went on, ‘is because. I like you. I really like you. And I want you to be my girlfriend.’