Marcel was found guilty of assault and attempted rape (of Theresa) and of actual bodily harm (to Roger Muffett). At his trial it came out that not only had he taken Theresa’s photo album, he had also ‘borrowed’ her keys from their peg in the cellar cupboard. Once inside her flat, he had fiddled with the answering machine, setting up a remote code by which he could listen to and even erase her incoming messages. His cell phone was found to be filled with images of Theresa, including a few of her standing in the dark at her own back door, wearing a nightie. When he knew Theresa was expecting to hear from her missing granddaughter, Marcel had lured her to Nice to sit alone in a café so that he could watch her for a whole afternoon. He is serving a seven-year prison sentence.
After her mini-scandal died down, Sally’s daughter, Marianne, went back to London. She will never forgive Cynthia Muffett for showing her husband the article in the British tabloid in which her huge financial gaffe was exposed. But the City has a short memory, and Marianne has just landed another prestigious job in Canary Wharf. On the office wall she has a photo of her mother standing beside Marina Martel taken outside the Grand Hotel Astor, Monte Carlo.
Odile de la Warr opened her Italian trattoria on the seafront at Bellevue-sur-Mer. It bore the name, in letters of green, white and red, Il Gatto e la Volpe. The locals have not decided whether Odile is the Cat or the Fox. Quite possibly she is both. All summer the terraces echo with Italian-speaking tourists. The customer numbers have been swelled hugely by the locals and visitors, plus the occasional outpouring from a passing cruise ship. The menu has recently been altered to reflect the reality of the clientele and now includes Hamburger Italienne with fries.
Cyril and his wife continue to live happily in Bellevue-sur-Mer. They both still enjoy making gifts of slightly illegal chocolate brownies to friends who appear un peu stressé.
Roger and Cynthia Muffett remarried in a delightfully opulent yet romantic ceremony at the Salle des Mariages in Menton. They live together in the big house in Streatham (previously owned by ‘The Bitch’). Roger is having a pool installed in the garden, where Cynthia will teach her husband how to swim. While their new brasserie, renamed Folie à Deux, is being decorated and expanded, they commute to Nice for business meetings. They hope to open to the public very soon, in time for the summer rush. They are seeking out a flat to buy near to the restaurant. While Neil is still at school, they plan to spend all their holidays on the Côte d’Azur. They have offered William and Benjamin the job of the hands-on management of the restaurant on a permanent basis; the two are considering the offer.
For the next school play, Frances, the drama teacher, has chosen The Way of the World. Mervin, the tech guy, is providing state-of-the-art lighting and a musical score.
After their Côte d’Azur adventures, Chloe and Neil are both happy to be back together at school in London. They will be starring as Millament and Mirabell in The Way of the World. Recently the kind father of a mutual school-friend invited them to join the family for a weekend on his white motor cruiser moored on the River Thames near Maidenhead. They politely declined.
Lola and Cressida were proud and excited bridesmaids at the Muffetts’ wedding. Three weeks later they were both given detentions and suspended after having been found responsible for painting huge psychedelic eyes on the inside walls of all the school lavatories. The sisters later explained to their mother/headmistress that it was only what the famous French painter called John Cockatoo would have done. He hated a blank wall.
Despite their ever-increasing ages, Phoebe Taylor and Edgar Markham continue to delight British audiences. They are currently rehearsing a new TV sitcom, written especially for them. They play a married couple divided on how they treat their ditzy housekeeper. The role of housekeeper was offered to Sally.
She turned it down.
They have no idea why she didn’t want the part.
Carol has promised Sally that she will no longer be judge and jury on married men who have the audacity to flirt with her.
William and Benjamin have opened a small antique shop in the town. They hope that if they take up the job at Folie à Deux, they can manage to do both things at once.
Zoe is in two minds about her favourite Swiss plastic-surgery clinic, now that it has just opened a branch in nearby Nice. The week’s ‘holiday’ in Switzerland provided her a far better excuse to cover for her escapades with Botox and fillers.
Sally has a new London acting agent. She continues to live on the hill in Bellevue-sur-Mer, occasionally popping over to London for meetings and to film the odd TV role or commercial. She has been invited to the Hollywood premiere of her and Marina Martel’s new movie, Côte d’Azur Capers, early next year. She has already packed her case.
Among the messages left on Theresa’s phone, but wiped out by Marcel, was a job offer. Her old office asked if she would like to return to London and take up the position she had been retired from a few years back. Her replacement, a much younger woman, is going on a year’s pregnancy leave. They desperately need someone to fill in. Theresa turned them down.
But she is not pining. She has teamed up with Carol to do a home-delivery service. It gives them both a bit of income and is something which they can do from their own flats.
In order to improve her French, and to avoid further misunderstandings, Theresa has taken up a course at Alliance Française in Nice. She now knows well to avoid saying ‘je t’aime’ when you mean ‘je l’aime’, and NEVER EVER to say ‘Je suis chaud’.
Despite everything, each morning as she opens up the curtains of her flat, and looks out at the ever-changing sea, she still thanks the heavens she made the move and settled here in Bellevue-sur-Mer.