Chapter Five
Exhausted, Marian reclined, putting her feet up on the footstool in her sitting room. The afternoon had been spent with both of her children, playing games, catching up on their schoolwork, and just being with them. The problems of Cuvier Shipping had been left behind and for a little while, she’d been just a mother.
She hoped the time together would help Philip come to terms with his father’s death. She worried about her son, but didn’t quite know how to help him. One moment he seemed a little boy and in the next moment he tried to act a man. Since Jean’s death, he’d fluctuated between sad and angry, lashing out at anyone in his path, including his mother.
Marian closed her eyes, reveling in the silence. It seemed like forever since she’d just laid back with her feet up. Cuvier Shipping consumed her time and for the first time she understood some of Jean’s moods. At night she came home exhausted, with her mind reeling from the information she gained researching the files. The clientele was large, money matters complex, and the volume of work staggering for such a small company. As the female partner, she received very little respect.
Yet for the first time in years, she felt invigorated and challenged, and more determined than ever before to show Louis Fournet and the men she worked with that she could lead this company. Just until her son was old enough, then she would gladly relinquish the control to Philip and Louis.
Her mind conjured up images of Louis sitting across from her laughing and talking to Philip, smiling at her, making her feel warmer than the afternoon sun. He’d treated her son well today, going out of his way to cheer Philip’s spirits and offering to show him his father’s company.
Today for the first time she’d even felt like there was progress between the two of them. Though part of her wondered if it was because of Philip, the other part just wanted to accept Louis’s behavior at face value. Maybe he was softening toward the idea of her working in the business? Or maybe he thought Philip needed a man’s influence. Whatever the reason, he certainly seemed congenial and she’d enjoyed the time they spent together.
“There you are,” Claire said, coming into the room. “I wondered where you’d gone to.”
“After I said good night to the children, I decided to sit down and relax a bit,” Marian said opening her eyes to look at Claire.
“Hard day working with the men of Cuvier Shipping?” her sister asked, smoothing her skirt as she sat on the fainting couch in Marian’s sitting room.
Marian chuckled. “Actually, today went rather well and that surprised me.”
“What was different about today?” she asked.
“Louis was nice to me and to Philip.”
Claire raised her brows at Marian. “Not our Mr. Fournet? The one determined to rid Cuvier Shipping of you?”
“Yes. He brought Philip and me home when he realized that Philip had come from school. Then he took us to Tony’s for an Italian ice. He even offered to take Philip on a tour of Cuvier Shipping, which excited the boy.”
“What’s the man after now?” Claire asked, a frown wrinkling her forehead. “Maybe he’s decided if ignoring you doesn’t work, that he’ll go through Philip to convince you to stay away.”
“No, I don’t think so, he was quite different when Philip was there,” Marian said, remembering the way Louis had reacted to her son.
“I’d be very careful letting him get near the boy. Philip is much too vulnerable right now.”
Marian didn’t pay her sister any mind. “I caught Louis standing in the doorway, watching me doctor Philip. He looked almost sad as he gazed at the boy. Maybe I imagined the look, but he seemed different today. He went out of his way to treat Philip and myself nicely. He seemed genuine. Almost a different person.”
“You must be careful, Marian. He’s going to try a new tactic to get to you. If you’re not careful he’ll use his charm to try and persuade you to stay home where ‘women belong.’”
Marian laughed. “Oh Claire, you’re such a cynic. I realize I need to be careful of Mr. Fournet. He’s already tried several different tactics. Why, just this week, he kissed me, in an effort to frighten me away!”
“What?” Claire asked, her eyes growing wide.
“Don’t worry, I handled him and his penchant for creating trouble. I don’t think he’ll try that one again.”
Pity, she thought. His kiss had been intriguing and Marian couldn’t help but wonder if she might enjoy a second chance at a taste of his lips. Just one more time to see if the first kiss was a fluke or if there was something about a man’s kiss she’d never noticed before. Certainly she couldn’t remember reacting so pleasantly before.
“You’re going to bring even more scandal down on this house, if you don’t give up this foolish notion of working alongside those men,” Claire admonished.
Marian gazed at her sister, peeved at Claire’s attitude. She was so concerned with what society thought “I’m accustomed to scandal. It’s poverty that frightens me.” Marian paused. “Unless you want me to start taking in sewing or become some man’s kept woman?”
“Hardly. I’m not against what you’re doing, I’m just worried about the effects on the children.”
“I worry about them too. But food and shelter are a priority,” Marian said realizing that since Jean’s death, they all depended on her to take care of them, even her sister in some ways.
For a few moments only the sound of the mantel clock ticking its soothing rhythm could be heard as Marian sat, her mind returning to Louis’s kiss.
Marian sighed and leaned her head back, gazing up at the patterns on the ceiling. “Do you remember when we were little girls and we dreamed of the day we would marry?”
“Yes,” Claire replied, wistfully.
“Do you think marriage ever turns out for anyone the way little girl’s dream of weddings and husbands?”
Claire stared off into space a moment “Can’t think of anyone I know who has one of those storybook kind of marriages. I don’t think I took into account a man’s need for nights at the club or their sweaty feet. Not to mention the fact that love seems to last for only twenty minutes a week for most men.”
“Where did we get such idealistic dreams of marriage?” Marian asked, with a laugh.
“For the answer to that question, I think you’d have to go all the way back to Eve.” Claire gazed over at her sister. “Why so pensive suddenly? Did Louis’s kiss make you long for marriage?”
Marian laughed. “Hardly. Though I must admit to being quite shocked. It’s been years since any man has kissed me like that. It was naughty, but oh, so nice.”
“Marian! You sound as if you need to reconsider marriage.”
“Why? What’s the purpose of me marrying at this stage in life? I can have all the benefits of living alone and if I should desire a man—I’m a widow. Old enough to know the consequences, young enough to still take chances.”
“You wouldn’t!” her sister said, shocked.
“Depends on if the right man came along,” she proclaimed, sitting up and gazing at her sister. “With all the poems and love songs that have been written, don’t you wonder if there is something to love that we may have missed?”
“I don’t know.” Claire stretched her legs the length of the fainting couch and leaned her head against the cushion. “Love that’s fresh and new is exciting. It’s only when you cease to be a person and are merely a wife, that suddenly it’s no longer any fun. It’s not that I’ve missed out on love. It’s just been so long since a man kissed me and held me in his arms.”
The image of Louis wrapping his arms around her suddenly appeared and Marian felt her breath quicken. Their kiss had been awkward and he hadn’t really held her. So how would his full embrace feel?
“I know,” Marian acknowledged with a soft sigh. “I know. I had forgotten about passion until Louis’s kiss.”
“Well, it looks like he left a lasting impression,” her sister said.
“It’s been so many years.
”
She sighed and wondered if she could feel that way again.
Wronged (Book 1) Page 14