Claude drew a breath and picked up the painting he’d brought with him. ‘I too have been doing a lot of thinking,’ he said, tugging the string off. ‘I finally bought that property in the country I was always dreaming about. It’s in Grez-sur-Loing — there’s a large artists’ colony there. I’ve been spending a few days at a time in the house to carry out repairs. One day I sat down and asked myself: who am I doing this for? What is the point of all this if I don’t have Emma?’ He lifted those beautiful smoky eyes to mine. ‘I was foolish. Why did I refuse joy when it was offered to me? I should have married you and trusted that nothing would change for the worse. I should have had more faith in us — and especially in you.’
He removed the cloth and turned the painting towards me. It was of an old wooden house surrounded by a garden of peach trees and flowers gone wild. It was painted with thick brushstrokes and bright with colours: lilac, pink and gold. In the doorway of the house stood a blonde woman — me — holding a child in her arms.
‘The house is fixed now, but I left the garden for you. You always dreamed of a garden, Emma.’
I stared at the painting, unable to believe that something I had once fantasised about had been depicted so beautifully.
‘Emma, will you marry me now?’ Claude asked.
Tears filled my eyes. I had longed to hear those words for years, and now that Claude was saying them I saw how easy it would be to return to my former self: the needy, unsure person I’d once been. I had yearned to belong to someone then because I hadn’t known how to belong to myself.
I took a deep breath. ‘I need more time, Claude. I faced the person I’d feared most of my life and lived to tell the tale. But it wasn’t Caroline; it was me. I’m just starting to grow into the real Emma Lacasse, and I like her. I want to fill her empty spaces myself. I want to be free of shackles and insecurities.’
Claude stared at me open-mouthed. Then a slow smile broke over his face and he laughed. ‘Well, that wasn’t the “yes” I was hoping for, but it wasn’t exactly a “no” either. The irony of the situation is too good. I can hear Belda and the others laughing at me now.’
I took his hand. He squeezed mine and stared lovingly into my eyes.
‘The house in Grez-sur-Loing has been there for a long time. It can wait a while longer — until Emma Lacasse is good and ready.’
I smiled and kissed his soft lips. My lessons had been hard-earned, but they had been worth the pain and tears. Once I’d stopped wishing that things could be other than they were, a whole world had opened up to me. I was ready to embrace it.
Author’s Note
‘The Gilded Age’ refers to a period in the history of the United States that coincides approximately with the Victorian era in Britain and the Belle Époque in France. It was a time of rapid economic growth, when great fortunes were made and millions of immigrants flooded into the country. It was also a period of extreme wealth for some and destitution and abject poverty for others. The term was first coined by Mark Twain in his novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. ‘Gilded’ is not the same as ‘golden’. It implies a thin, shiny patina that covers something less attractive underneath.
In writing this story I was influenced by the colourful characters of this time — Caroline Astor, Alva and Consuelo Vanderbilt, Diamond Jim Brady, Harry Lehr and Stanford White among others. However, while their stories and personalities inspired some of the events in the novel, it is still a work of fiction and none of the main characters represents a real person in temperament or life history.
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to the team at HarperCollins Australia for their enthusiasm and support while I was writing The Invitation. I would like to make special mention of Kathy Hassett and Anna Valdinger, Fiction Publishers, and Scott Forbes, Senior Editor, for their professionalism and the time they devoted to helping me make The Invitation shine. I would also like to give thanks to editor Nicola O’Shea, whose extraordinary grasp of character and structure makes working with her feel like magic. Special mention should also be made of the wonderful Roslyn McGechan, who helped me check the final pages.
Writing is often a solitary activity and the support of my family and friends and their eagerness to see me succeed is the wind beneath my wings. I am so appreciative of them all, especially my father, Stan, and my friends Tracey, Melinda, Lily and Halina, as well as my three cats, Valentino, Versace and Gucci, who share my writing space and lend their own special energy to the task at hand!
Thank you so much to you all for contributing your own unique touch to this book!
With love and appreciation,
Belinda Alexandra
About the Author
BELINDA ALEXANDRA has been published to wide acclaim in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Norway, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Hungary and the United States. She is the daughter of a Russian mother and an Australian father and has been an intrepid traveller since her youth. Her love of other cultures is matched by her passion for her home country, Australia, where she is a member of the New South Wales Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES). An animal lover, Belinda is also the patron of the World League for the Protection of Animals (Australia). Find out more at belinda-alexandra.com
BelindaAlexandraAuthor
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Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2018
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Belinda Alexandra 2018
The right of Belinda Alexandra to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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ISBN: 978 0 7322 9645 2 (paperback)
ISBN: 978 1 7430 9833 2 (ebook)
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.
Cover design by Lisa White
Cover images: Woman by Richard Jenkins; Panorama of New York river front, New York City United States, 1900. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, 2013647117
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