Here is the new chapter! I hope you will like it! And thank you very much for your reviews!

There is NO spoilers here.

...

Violet and Igor had bought the house one year after their marriage, a very long time ago. It had not been easy... Igor had reappeared in Violet's life when he had learnt that his wife was having an affair. He had asked for a divorce and had gone back to Violet. Robert had been off at University, but Rosamund had been still living with her mother, and she had not been very welcoming of her stepfather. But with a little time, she had understood that her mother was a young widow who deserved to find someone else. When Igor proposed to Violet, she had immediately said yes and a very beautiful ceremony had been prepared. Now, almost all the guests from their wedding were sitting in their living room.

Elsie was sitting on a sofa next to Beryl and Isobel. Richard was behind her, his hand on her shoulder. Bill was sitting with Charles and Igor by the table. Violet was talking with her granddaughters. Mary came with Matthew. Only Robert, Cora, and Edith were late.

"Are your parents okay?" Mary asked Sybil and Anna quietly. But before they could answer, Violet did.

"Of course they are! Ah, there you are!" she said when she saw Robert, Edith and Cora coming in. Mary smiled to the girls and they laughed together. When everybody had said hello to the latecomers, Igor spoke.

"Please, everybody take a seat. Violet and I need to tell you something." He said, sitting next to Violet. She put her hand on his, and everybody fell silent. Public affection was not really their way.

"Mama, is everything alright?" Robert asked.

"It is now. Do you all remember when Igor and I went to Paris for our long holidays?" Violet asked.

Everybody nodded.

"Well, it was not really holidays. I had cancer. Breast cancer." There. She had said it.

After some gasps, the room fell silent again. Igor turned his hand to lace his fingers with Violet's.

"Why didn't you tell us? I could have helped you." Sybil said.

"Because I didn't want you to treat me like I was dying, my dear."

"But even I could have treated you..." Richard added.

"I know you would. But you could not have been hidden it from Isobel, and I wanted nobody from the family to know..." Violet answered.

"But you're alright now?" Charles asked.

Elsie had her eyes on him since Violet's declaration. She had seen him close his eyes to not show his distress. Violet had been like a mother to him since he was very young. His parents had been both killed in a car accident when he was not more than 15. He was in the same school as Robert, and they had been friends for some time. Violet and then Igor had helped him all his life.

"I am, yes. And that's why I asked you there. You're all my family. Some of you not from my own blood, but you are all the same. Charles, you're like my son." Elsie saw him nod and clapped his hands on his laps. He did that only when he was nervous. "So your daughters are my granddaughters." Violet turned to Sybil and Anna who had both tears in their eyes. "Elsie, it's thanks to you that they are here, so you're part of my family too." Elsie could feel Charles's eyes on her now, and it was the second time in less than one hour that he saw her with tearful eyes. "Richard and Isobel, I don't think I have to tell you why you're part of family. Same thing for you Robert, Cora, Edith and Mary." Surprising each other, the two sisters had moved closer and Mary had even put her hand on Edith's back, supporting her. "Beryl, you've known my sons so long that it was only natural for Igor to employ you in his restaurant." The man nodded toward Beryl, who seemed speechless, which was a very rare thing.

"But Mama, I still don't understand why we're here." Robert said.

"You're here because I learnt last week that my cancer is over. I'm fine again, but I need you to celebrate it. So, Igor and I have rent a hotel for a weekend, and we're all going there."

"What?" Mary asked loudly.

"We've rented a part of a hotel and we're inviting you all to join us. Next weekend." Violet answered calmly.

"Where is the hotel?" Anna asked.

"In France. In Bretagne." Anna and Sybil looked discreetly at each other.

"In Bretagne! But Violet, it's freezing there in December." Elsie said.

"I know. But the hotel is very, very comfortable."

"Mama, even if we all wanted to go, what about our jobs? We can't leave for just two days... "

"But it's not two days. We are leaving on Friday night. The flight will take 2 hours. And you don't have to come back on Monday because I called your employers."

"What!"came the general answer.

"Don't be so shocked! Rosamund isn't coming; she is in America. Robert, Charles, Richard, and Beryl, you own the place where you work. Isobel, you're married to your boss. Mary and Cora, you're working for Robert. Sybil is still in school, and so is Edith, so you can say that you're sick. Anna doesn't work on Mondays in her school. And Elsie's secretary said that she could take a day off from work..."

"You've thought of everything..." Isobel said.

"Yes. And I want to invite you, so no fussing about money. Igor and I are paying for everything."

When she finally stopped speaking everyone was lost in their owns thoughts, trying to register everything she had said.

"Alright, why don't we eat something? I bought a cake," Igor said, standing.

Everybody stood. Some went outside a moment to smoke; others were chatting quietly.

"Elsie, may I talk to you for a moment?" Beryl asked her. She nodded and followed Beryl and Isobel into the bathroom.

"Is everything okay? I see you've come with Charles, and you didn't seem right when you came in..." Isobel asked.

Elsie took a steady breath. She had to tell them. Everything. Charles in her house, the kiss, Joe's entrance, the restaurant, the sex, the talk in the car...

"Oh god..." Isobel said.

"I know... And now I don't know what to do... Because he is saying sweet things to me but then he is flirty with his girlfriend in front of me... And now I have to go on holidays with him next week..."

"You could always say no..." Beryl suggested her.

Elsie bit on her bottom lip. "But I want to... That's the problem... I know I will have a great time... With you, with my daughters and even with him probably... But there is Joe, too, and, fuck ! I just don't know..."

"Do you love him? Joe, I mean." Isobel asked.

"No." Elsie answered fast.

"Well, why are you staying with him? Is the sex that good?" the red-haired one asked.

Elsie couldn't help but smile, Isobel laughed loud.

"Beryl! I... No, no it's not that good..."

"Compared to whom? Charles?"

"Of course! With Joe it's so different..."

"How? Different, better or… ?"

I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you two. In Violet's bathroom! Charles and I knew each other, very, very well. It was sensual... No matter what... With Joe it's... boring."

The three women looked at each other with smiles on their lips until Elsie's eyes filled with tears and she burst into tears. Her friends were around her in the next second.

"And now I can't help but imagine what Charles and that girl were doing at the same time. She is younger, prettier, sexier... I'm sure she is perfect for him..."

"Elsie, stop crying. Charles had two kids with you. Even when you couldn't get pregnant, he didn't let you down. You adopted Anna together, and then you had Sybil. He loved you, and I think he still does..." Isobel said gently.

Elsie looked up at her, her big blues eyes now red from crying.

"Do you think so?"

Beryl and Isobel nodded.

"But I think you have some things to say to each other first. Don't you think?"

"I don't know Isobel, I'm so scared... "

"I know... Why don't we get out of here and go eat some cake?"

Elsie nodded. On the other side of the door, Charles quickly moved away and returned to the living room.

"You're okay?" Robert asked him when he sat next to him.

"Yes." He was not.

He had just gone to the toilets when Richard had gone out to smoke, and when he was about to go into the bathroom to wash his hands, he had heard them. Her. Elsie, talking about him and Chloé in the restaurant. And then he understood; he understood what she had been saying in the car. She was there, she had seen Chloé flirting with him... Then she had cried. He had heard it and made a promise to himself.

"Yes, we have things to tell to each other. But if she wants me, I will never let her go again."

Everybody took a plate and a place around the big table.

"Okay. So, now I need to know how many plane tickets I have to buy." Igor started. "So, Robert, how many tickets?"

"5. One for me, Cora, Edith, Mary, and Matthew."

"Alright. Beryl?"

"Just two. Bill and me. Daisy is not coming home next week."

"Richard?"

"Two. Isobel and I."

"Anna ?"

"Two. One for me, and the other one for John."

"Sybil?"

"One." She looked at her mother, and then at her sister, who smiled at her. "No, sorry, two."

"Two?" Charles and Igor asked at the same time.

"One for me and the other one for Tom." Sybil bit on her lip, looking at her father. Charles looked back at her and then caught a glimpse of Elsie with THE look. The one she was doing when she warned him.

"Two. Alright." He said and then bent a little on the table to whisper to his daughter. "This conversation is not over young lady..."

"Charles?"

He looked up to Igor and said without hesitation, "One." Even though he was looking at Igor,he had seen Elsie's head turning to him very fast.

"What the hell? Chloé is not coming ? Did they break-up? What is he doing?" Elsie was so lost in her thoughts that she almost didn't hear Igor's question.

"What about your girlfriend?"

Elsie's breath stopped in her throat. "He will say that she is buying her ticket on her own... Or meeting him there..."

"She is not coming. We broke up."

Charles looked at his hands on the table. That was not quite true, but after what he had overheard, there was no way he would stay with Chloé.

They were some "Oh, I'm sorry..." comments around the table, and Charles only nodded and smiled.

"She let him go... Come on Els! That's your chance now... You want it; you want him, don't you?"

"Elsie? Elsie? What about you, dear?" Igor asked.

"Yes, sorry. Hmm... Just one for me, too."

Charles quickly looked at her, their eyes locked. Elsie could feel herself blush and a very warm sensation coming on her stomach. He could feel the hair at the base of his neck tickling. But then Violet talked and Elsie had no choice but to look at her.

"Good. Well, now we can eat that cake. I know some of you have to go home, so I will see you next Friday. And please, don't forget your passport!"

...

That's it! We're going on holidays with them!