‘I hope she will return with good news. Now I must rejoin Joanna. Did you see that she is here?’
He nodded, but showed no interest. ‘Where are you staying in Monte Carlo? Which hotel?’
‘None of them. I’m staying with Joanna at a villa that she is renting.’
‘Ellen and I went to one of her exhibitions when we were in London. I asked Joanna about you then, but she was quite hostile towards me, even though my wife had just bought one of her paintings. Frankly, I thought it damned expensive for a few daubs of colour. Did Joanna never tell you that she and I had met again?’
‘She mentioned it,’ Lisette replied.
He shrugged in amusement and grinned with all his old charm. ‘I thought it might have slipped her mind. She never did like me. I remember you were quite an artist in your own right with your watercolours. In my opinion, they were much better than any of her present paintings. Do you still paint?’
‘I don’t have time these days.’ She looked beyond him to where Joanna had risen from the roulette table and was beckoning fiercely to her. ‘I must go. I see that Joanna is ready to move on to another table.’
He raised his hand in a gesture of appeal that she should spare him a few more minutes. ‘Now that we have met again as – I hope! – old friends with the hatchet well and truly buried, I’d like to hear about your career and what guided you into acting. Have lunch with me tomorrow.’
‘I was planning on packing tomorrow. I’m leaving for Paris the next day.’
‘Paris? Shall you be involved in animated picture work there?’
She fielded his question. ‘I’m planning to shop,’ she said truthfully. Then to avoid any more questions she added, ‘I shall certainly pay a nostalgic visit to the Grand Cafe and see the Indian room where the Lumières set the motion picture ball rolling. Then I’ll go home.’
‘You call England home?’ he said in surprise.
‘I consider that I have two homelands – France where I was born and England where I live.’
‘Then if you’re already in a nostalgic mood about the Grand Cafe I think you could extend a little of it towards me for old times’ sake and spare two hours to lunch with me tomorrow.’
She frowned. ‘Over past years I have never been the least nostalgic about you, Philippe!’
He was not daunted, a wide smile playing about his mouth while his eyes danced good-humouredly. ‘I can understand why, but I feel that at least you should tell me how you managed to disappear from the château on the eve of our wedding and then vanish completely from the face of the earth!’
She was wryly amused by his curiosity. ‘Yes, I did manage that rather well, didn’t I?’
‘Then you will meet me?’
She hesitated briefly. ‘Very well. But now I must get back to Joanna.’
Arrangements were made. They would meet at one of Monte Carlo’s best restaurants. She had her own special reason for accepting his invitation, for she was hoping that he would be able to tell her the whereabouts of her half-brother and even have some news of him.
‘So until tomorrow,’ Philippe said, bowing over her hand. Then Lisette turned to find Joanna waiting a little distance away with a grim expression on her face.
‘Why have you been wasting time with him?’ she demanded fiercely as Lisette approached. ‘He belongs to the past.’
‘Of course he does, but in a way I’m grateful to him.’
‘Grateful?’ Joanna exploded in disbelief. ‘After the way he treated you!’
‘But if he hadn’t had that affaire with Isabelle I would never have met Daniel.’
‘You’re being very forgiving.’
Lisette laughed. ‘Why not? A great deal of water has flowed under the bridge since he was all I wanted in life.’
‘Was he drunk this evening? He was at my exhibition.’
‘There was wine on his breath, but he was not drunk and had his wits about him.’
‘Let’s forget him now and choose another table. I’m on a winning streak.’
Joanna led the way. Lisette, following, realized she still had to break the news that she had accepted Phillippe’s invitation to lunch. She knew that Joanna would not be pleased.
Twenty
As Lisette lunched with Philippe she thought it was as if the clock had been turned back, for they talked as easily as if there had been no time between. Yet there was one great difference. She saw him now as the philanderer that he would always be and not a trace remained of her own passion for him. When he had first spoken to her in the casino that momentary flash of what she had once felt for him had been a trick of memory and nothing more.
A violin was being played and there were potted palms everywhere that gave some privacy to conversation. He gave her news of mutual friends and acquaintances and, as she had hoped, was able to tell her about her half-brother.
‘Maurice is in the same class at boarding school as my godson, Robert, and they are good friends. So whenever I do my godfather’s duty by taking Robert out to luncheon during the school term time, I let Maurice tag along too. He does not get home often as the château is only opened up for Isabelle’s infrequent visits and he usually has to go elsewhere during vacations. It’s my belief that Isabelle doesn’t care to be seen with a tall, sixteen-year-old son. I suppose she still thinks she looks like a belle of twenty, but the reverse is the case. Not that she ever speaks to me these days. She blamed me entirely for your running away.’
Lisette had no interest in hearing about her stepmother. ‘Do you see any Decourt family resemblance in Maurice?’
He narrowed his eyes, regarding her with a cynical smile playing about his mouth. ‘He’s not my son, if that’s what you’re asking.’
‘Of course not! I know that!’ she answered impatiently. ‘You had only been back in France a matter of weeks before the christening, but there may have been others before you.’
‘You’re right. I happen to know that I wasn’t her first indiscretion and certainly not her last, but whether Maurice is like your father or anyone else I couldn’t say. He is quite a scholar at school, according to Robert, who has nothing else in his head beyond sport and girls.’ Then a waiter came to remove their plates and another swiftly set cups for their coffee. Philippe sat back in his chair until they were gone and then he leaned forward again to ask her the question that he had been waiting to voice throughout the meal. ‘Now tell me, Lisette. How did you manage to disappear?’
She stirred cream into her coffee. ‘Take your mind back to that last evening when we went to a magic lantern show,’ she began.
He listened intently as she gave an account of her escape, adding how afterwards Daniel had employed her as his assistant and that eventually they had married after he had moved into the motion picture world. She gave no mention of anything that had happened in between. ‘Now I’m going home to work, although I enjoy my career so much that even though I get very tired sometimes acting is never a chore to me.’
He looked at her shrewdly. ‘Are you acting now? Pretending that there is still no bond between us? Nothing of our love still left?’
She regarded him steadily. ‘Philippe, be sensible. I was very young and gullible in those days while you thought that marrying an heiress would settle your gaming debts for the rest of your life. There was no real love between us.’
‘You’re being very blunt and extremely cruel.’
‘Cruel?’ she echoed with wry amusement. ‘I didn’t enjoy seeing you and Isabelle in the summerhouse.’
His eyebrows shot up and he gave a little gasp. ‘So that was when you found out!’ Then he gave a hoot of laughter. ‘That must have made you grow up!’
His shallowness exasperated her. She no longer had any patience with him and was glad the meal was at an end.
‘I think we’ve talked enough about the past,’ she said firmly, ‘and now I must get back to the villa.’
‘Give me a few minutes more,’ he said very seriously. ‘I did love you
in spite of everything. Losing you was the greatest shock I had ever received and I soon realized what a fool I had been.’
She looked steadily at him with a slight smile. ‘I happen to believe that, Philippe, but it is a long time ago now.’
His serious expression did not lift, but he signalled to the waiter and settled the bill. Outside the restaurant he saw her into a cab and as she rode away she heaved a sigh of relief that she would not be seeing him again.
Next morning Lisette said goodbye to Joanna at the villa and they exchanged promises to meet again soon in England. At the railway station Lisette had reserved a private compartment on the train, because it had happened in the past that fellow passengers had recognized her and she had been pestered by their attention.
She took a window seat and put ready the book she had brought to read, but first there was the newspaper she had just purchased. As she opened it she happened to glance out of the window and saw a little fat man in a straw boater was staring at her. She supposed he had recognized her and she looked away quickly, not wanting to offer any encouragement for him to come closer. She began to read an article about Germany’s increasing military strength.
The locomotive hissed out steam as a sign of departure. Then, just as the wheels began to move, the door of her compartment was wrenched open. For a second she thought the little man in the boater was brashly invading her solitude, but it was Philippe throwing himself into the opposite seat! She gave a gasp of annoyance.
‘What on earth are you doing here?’ she demanded, crushing the newspaper down on to her lap.
He had tossed his grey bowler up on to the rack and he sat grinning triumphantly at her. ‘I’m coming to Paris with you.’ He held up a hand, foreseeing a protest. ‘Hear me out! I could tell from what you said yesterday that you would like very much to see Maurice again. I’m going to ask for permission at the school to take him and my godson out to luncheon tomorrow, which will give you the chance of a reunion with Maurice.’
‘That would be wonderful!’ she exclaimed, feeling overwhelmed by this thoughtfulness from such an unexpected source.
‘Don’t raise your hopes too high. The school only allows limited outings in a term, but it should be all right. I suggest we meet at the Grand Cafe. Shall we say at noon?’
She nodded gratefully. ‘I realize you have interrupted your stay in the sun to do this for me.’
He shook his head. ‘Not entirely. It’s high time I was back in Paris. There is building work going on in our home, making it uninhabitable, but Ellen will have expected me to be there all the time to ensure that everything is being done to her satisfaction.’
‘So you’ve been playing truant,’ Lisette remarked dryly.
He gave a careless shrug of the shoulders. ‘Ellen does not approve of gaming. I had to take the chance while it was available. You were far more tolerant.’
She ignored his comment. ‘So is the house the one where you were born or are you and your wife residing somewhere else now?’
He crossed his long legs, leaning back comfortably against the upholstery and smiling at her. ‘No, it’s the same house that you went to some years ago when you and I were going to make it our home.’
She remembered it vividly. A fine mansion with a gloomy interior. It did not surprise her that his wife wanted extensive alterations. ‘What about those portraits of your ancestors on the walls of the hall and staircase?’ she asked in a moment of curiosity. ‘Have they been moved to the gallery?’
He laughed and shook his head. ‘No such luck! Americans are crazy about their ancestral roots and Ellen was delighted that I had so many likenesses of my forebears. It also pleased her that the house itself is over a hundred years old, which is relatively new to us, but ancient to her. At the present the paintings are all being cleaned and restored.’ This statement seemed to jog his memory. ‘Damnation! I haven’t checked that they’ll be ready in time for Ellen’s return at the end of the month. She will expect the work on the extension completed, the decorating done and the portraits rehung by the time she appears. Then she plans to oversee the finishing touches. The house will probably end up looking like Versailles in its heyday, but not in the same good taste.’
She was afraid he was going to start criticizing his wife and she put an end to that line of conversation by offering him her refolded newspaper. ‘Read the prediction in this article and tell me that all this sabre-rattling by Germany doesn’t mean that there’s going to be a war. It looks very ominous to me.’
He took it from her, glanced at the headline of the article she had indicated, and shook his head. ‘Not in our time,’ he said confidently. ‘The Kaiser has inflated ideas of his own importance, twirling his moustache and liking to be seen in that ridiculous helmet.’
She remembered seeing the Kaiser in the movie that Jim had taken of Queen Victoria’s funeral procession. The German emperor was the son of an English princess, would he consider going to war against his own mother’s country? Yet power-mad rulers cared only for their own ruthless ambitions and it seemed to her that everything was very much in the balance. It was a sobering thought.
The journey passed. She and Philippe lunched together in the dining car. She noticed as she had done the previous day that he kept reminding her of various good times they had had in the past, almost as if he thought those memories would eliminate all that had parted them.
When they arrived in Paris Philippe’s chauffeur was waiting with the car. After taking her into her hotel Philippe waited until she gave him a farewell nod from behind the gilded grid of the lift as it took her from his sight. Then he went to the reception desk and spoke to the clerk there before signing the register. He had made sure that the suite he had booked for himself would be on the same floor as hers.
As soon as Lisette had refreshed herself after the journey she took a cab to the House of Paquin where mannequins paraded for her. Not having been in Paris for some time she was restocking her wardrobe and chose four daytime gowns and two for evening. Before returning to the hotel she went to a wine merchant whom her father had patronized in the past, and bought a truly superb cognac as a gift for Daniel, knowing how much he would enjoy and appreciate it. Then, having had such a full day, she decided to dine quietly at the hotel, choosing to wear a black evening gown that she had worn to several of Joanna’s parties and which had been unpacked for her.
The head waiter bowed to her as she entered the restaurant, which sparkled with chandeliers and crystal on damask.
‘Good evening, Madame Shaw.’
Then he guided her to a table where Philippe in white tie and tails rose to greet her.
‘How did you know I would be dining here this evening?’ she demanded impatiently as she sat down in the chair being held for her.
‘I didn’t, but I hoped you would, and in any case I have dined here several times during my stay.’
‘Your stay? Here in this hotel?’
‘Yes, it’s the best in Paris. Where else would you expect me to take a suite? I told you my own home is uninhabitable at the present time.’
‘But you said that your wife expected you to be living there throughout the alterations.’
‘I do what I please, Lisette.’
She smiled wryly. ‘Oh, yes, Philippe. I know that very well.’
He grinned at her persuasively. ‘Come on, Lisette. This should be an evening of celebration for you. I’ve arranged with the school that I take the boys out to luncheon tomorrow.’
She caught her breath, her eyes bright with joy. ‘Oh, thank you, Philippe!’
He held her gaze for a moment, highly pleased by her reaction, and seeing that all boded well for the rest of the evening. After dining they talked for a while before he saw her to the door of her room and bade her goodnight. He felt as if he were playing a salmon at the end of a fishing line. Only when the right moment was reached would he be able to land his catch.
In the morning Lisette set out for the House of Worth on the ru
e de la Paix where she ordered several more beautiful garments such as only a Parisian couturier could produce. Then it was time to meet Philippe and the two sixteen-year-old boys. As the doorman swung open the door to the Grand Cafe she saw the three of them rise to their feet from where they had waited for her. She saw at once that Maurice was indeed her father’s child. It was not only because of his fair hair, height and sturdy stance, but because he was so like a portrait of her father as a young man, which had hung above the fireplace in the library.
Maurice watched Philippe go forward to greet her. His mother had never mentioned her, but he had known from others that he had a half-sister and had even seen one of her movies. He had calculated that Lisette was thirty-two, but she looked very young and slim as she came towards him and was even more beautiful than she had appeared on the screen.
‘I’m so happy to see you again after so many years, Maurice,’ she said gladly as he bowed over her hand.
‘I’m honoured, madame,’ he said stiffly.
‘Call me Lisette,’ she said eagerly.
He had not been looking forward to this meeting, but the warm friendliness that emanated from her caused him to smile broadly and relax, unaware that he was tilting his head exactly as his father had done when particularly pleased. ‘Yes, I will, Lisette.’
For no reason at all they both laughed as if already a bond had been formed between them. Philippe had warned him that if he should wish to see his half-sister again he must never mention this meeting to his mother and already he knew he would keep silent.
At luncheon Philippe again showed unusual thoughtfulness by having booked a separate table, giving Lisette and Maurice a chance to sit by themselves and get to know each other. This was a personal sacrifice for Philippe as his godson bored him utterly. Every time his gaze wandered from the nearest pretty women to their table he saw that Lisette and Maurice were talking animatedly and laughing together.
Brilliance Page 27