Hi everyone, thanks so much for your reviews! I've been away for a while, bruised my fingers and typing was painful. It's a bit better now, so here's the next chapter!

Special thanks too Sweepeaspatch again for helping me with my grammer !

Chapter 5

"Merde." Camille mumbled as she kicked the stove.

"Camille?" Her mother asked astonished as she looked at her fierce daughter with wide eyes. "What is it?"

"Nothing." Camille sighed. Her shoulders sagged tiredly.

"That doesn't look like nothing." Catherine commented as she put down some plates in the sink and studied her daughter. "I think the stove would agree..." She pointed out.

Camille sighed again as she took a bottle of ice tea from her mother's fridge and leaned against the kitchen counter. "Yes well... I still can't believe it." She shook her head annoyed as she popped off the cap of her drink and took a long swig. "The Commissioner wants us to go undercover." She explained as she avoided making eye contact with her mother.

Catherine's eyebrows both rose very high. "So? You are good at that."

"Oui." Camille nodded as she put the bottle against her cheek now. "I am." Richard was right, the bottle did give her some relief in the blazing heat of the day.

"So? What is the problem?" Her mother asked as she put a dish towel over her shoulder and walked back towards the bar.

"I have to go undercover with Richard." Camille muttered as she followed her mother into the bar.

Catherine couldn't read Camille's face because those long, curly tresses had fallen in front of it when she looked down at her drink. "Ahh..." Her mother said as she cleaned the counter.

"What ahh?" Camille asked when she took her place behind the bar.

"Well... It's always with Richard if you have a problem." Catherine explained as she wiped the bar with a sponge.

"It is not!" Camille snapped heatedly.

That made Catherine look up in surprise as she studied Camille.

"I have other problems too!" She snapped at her mother as she climbed on a bar stool now and stared angrily into the distance.

"Okay, then it's not." Her mother quickly said as she continued wiping the counter. "Go on."

Camille huffed as she took a sip of her drink.

"So what is this job?" Catherine asked carefully and very curiously as she rinsed the cloth under the tap.

"We have to go to some sort of party. As a couple, married. And still very much in love."

Catherine laughed out loud at that as she shut off the tap.

Camille wanted to take a sip of iced tea again but the bottle froze in mid-air when she heard her mother's reaction. "What is so funny?" She asked fiercely, sitting bolt upright as if ready to attack.

"Well... Richard?" Catherine gave Camille an amused look. "A lover?" She laughed again. She wasn't intimidated by Camille's body language or temper. She'd gotten used to it.

"Maman! Don't be mean." Camille chastised her mother as she finally took the sip of her drink.

"No, I'm not laughing at him. I'm just laughing about the two of you..." That earned her a fierce dark glare. Catherine knew full well that her daughter hadn't inherited that glare from her, but rather from her father. Those dark eyes could be so piercing. "You being so fiery and all and him…" She shrugged as she wrung out her cloth into the sink again. "He is a stiff English man. I just can't imagine." She laughed again at the very thought.

"I'm glad you find this so amusing." Camille commented annoyed.

"Ah, ma chere." She looked at Camille lovingly. "I was laughing because I don't see Richard as a very passionate man." She shrugged. "Well... He might be...I suppose still waters run deep and all that. But I don't see him showing his affection for a woman out in the open for everyone to see..." Catherine frowned.

"Yes that's what I thought too. So do you know what the Commissioner then said?" Camille looked up at her mother with big clear eyes.

Catherine shook her head.

"To practice! Can you believe that?!"

Catherine laughed. "That will be a very difficult task." She laughed again. This was so funny, the very idea! She wanted to see that. Watching that stiff English man pressed into different stages of unease would be very amusing. Especially because she was still angry due to his behavior months ago. She had a long memory; he had insulted her cooking, her chicken soup, her tea because she was French! And the list went on and on.

"I shouldn't have told you." Camille mumbled in a low, defeated voice.

'Ahh cherie. I'm not laughing at you or at Richard. The situation is just funny. Like you have to kiss a frog to find a prince." She smiled cheekily at that and her eyes sparkled.

Camille sighed dramatically. Even she could see the wave of amusement that drifted off her mother. She ignored that. She needed someone to talk to. "So we were practicing just now..."

"You already did?" Catherine asked a bit disappointed. "Why didn't you come here?"

Camille just eyed her annoyed. "For this very reason! You just can't stop laughing!" She stood up. "Richard is a very nice man, he's just stiff... And well... Slow... But he can be very sweet, and caring, and sensitive."

Catherine studied her daughters face intensely. Sensitive? She hadn't seen that one coming. Sweet? Oui, she could imagine that the gruff man might have shown her daughter that secret part of him. Caring? Oui, she could imagine that too, once he crawled out of his shell maybe... Camille seemed to have a special effect on him. 'O, I know that Camille. But having him show his affection in public, charming you, wooing you, loving you? I don't see that happening to be honest. I don't understand why Selwyn would give you that assignment either." She said honestly.

"It's a big case apparently, and there was no other foreign police officer for this role on the Island."

Catherine nodded. "What happened cherie?" She asked softly when she saw sadness in Camille's eyes.

Camille stared at her finger that fiddled with her empty bottle. "I was just sitting next to him and he had trouble with me being too close." She looked up at her mother. "I just leaned against his arm and he went all stiff!" Camille paused for a moment as she took a deep breath. "Idiot." She cursed. Followed by a string of French insults directed at him.

"Poor man." Catherine grinned.

"Excuse me?!" She hadn't expected that reaction from her mother. "Poor man? What is so poor about him? Poor me you mean!"

"Oooh Camille." Catherine said in a sweet soothing voice. "Just be careful with him."

"I AM careful." She spat.

Catherine raised her eyebrow. "You have a temper, you know that.'

"I wasn't having a temper!" She denied quickly. Her eyes darted away from her mother as she guiltily thought about where she'd almost put her hand in an angry huff, where she had wanted to put that ice cube and how she had stalked off... Quite unprofessionally.. Her throat felt dry. She could hear his words in her mind again, telling her that he wasn't attracted to her. It hurt. Very much. "It would be so much easier with Dwayne."

"Just make him feel at ease."

"I was!" Camille defended as she frowned angrily.

"Then what went wrong?"

"Je ne sais pas." (I don't know). She spat as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked away angrily. It reminded Catherine so much of how she had acted as a little girl, a small four year old, chubby arms folded just so, looking so darkly, severe and pouty. Catherine smiled fondly at her daughter.

"You're a beautiful woman. Maybe he just feels a bit intimidated." Catherine offered as she got rid of the wet dish cloth.

Like he cared! He's NEVER looked at her like SHE was a beautiful woman! "I can't imagine so." Camille huffed. "He's just being difficult. Being Richard."

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