Excerpt from Marguerite by Marina Kemp, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

1

She dreamt of nothing. She woke to the shuddering of train doors, catching only a glimpse of the stark platform and pale white sky before realising this was her stop. As she hurried from the seat, clutching her bags, she had to pull on a strap that had become caught on a rung of the luggage rack. She reached the doors as they were already closing, with a hiss like a punctured tyre. She had to tug her body through them, through their insistence as they clamped around her.

There was no one on the platform except for a woman in a florid skirt and long brown coat, the waxed coat of a farmer. She squinted at Marguerite. She stared for some time at Marguerite's trainers, and then looked back down the platform as if for someone else.

Marguerite dropped her bags and knelt down to take a jacket out of her hold-all. The air was bitter, no warmer than it had been in Paris at seven o'clock that morning, in spite of how much further south she had come. When she stood up to put her jacket on, the woman was standing closer. She squinted again.

'Mademoiselle Demers?'

'Yes, that's me,' said Marguerite. The woman raised her eyebrows, not reaching out her hand.

'I'm Brigitte Brochon, Monsieur Lanvier's gardienne. We spoke on the phone.'

'That's right.' Both arms through her jacket sleeves, Marguerite reached to shake the woman's hand. It was given warily. 'Thank you for coming to collect me.'

Madame Brochon shrugged. 'It's my job.' She turned, starting to move towards the squat station building and the fields beyond. 'The car's this way.'

Marguerite picked up her bags and followed.

They drove to the house in silence. When they arrived, Madame Brochon took Marguerite straight inside and through to the old man's bedroom, allowing her time neither to take in her new surroundings nor unload her luggage from the car. The handover was wordless on his part; Madame Brochon stood by his bed as she spoke, sturdy ankles placed wide apart.

'Jérôme, this is Marguerite,' she said.

'Though most people call me Margo,' said Marguerite tentatively, unacknowledged.

'Rossignol may be a grand house but it needn't faze her; she'll soon know her way around. I've left instructions for where all the important things are kept.'

When he opened his mouth as if to object, she swooped straight in. 'The last nurse's notes are all there too so she knows which pills to bring you, and when, and what time you wake and all that. She's got Doctor Meyer's details and she knows where I am if she has any questions. I've left my number in the kitchen' - though this was all previously unsaid, all news to Marguerite - 'and I've told her that it's best to contact me in the morning, early, before Henri and I start out at the farm.'

After the second sentence he had turned to the wall, and started to enact a sort of exercise with his eyelids: drooping them slowly, opening them wide, drooping again, widening them completely and then shutting them tight. The apparently immoveable Madame Brochon twisted her skirt in her fingers, shifted her considerable weight from left leg to right.

When she resumed her speech it was to the accompaniment of his reedy whistle, tuneless and insistent. 'She should get on fine, there's everything needed in the pantry for at least the next few days, and I'm sure she'll not object to the simple things I've put there. They may not be anything fancy but I'm sure she'll find the quality can't be faulted.'

This last comment was, as throughout her speech, directed at the old man in the bed and not Marguerite. And so as Marguerite watched Madame Brochon, Madame Brochon watched the old man and the old man watched the wall.

Total silence took hold of the place from the moment Madame Brochon left. For the first few days, Marguerite barely exchanged a word with Jérôme, taking his silence as her cue. He didn't ask her where she was from, about her background or past experience or suitability for the job. The house was some way from the village, down a forest-lined road that seemed to lead nowhere else. It was many days before Marguerite heard a car pass by, and when it receded the silence came rushing back to fill its space.

Excerpted from Marguerite by Marina Kemp. Copyright © 2020 by Marina Kemp. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.