Valérie had tried. She’d honestly tried to pour some sense into the empty-headed girl, but Antonina could not remember names and faces, would not make an effort. Antonina did as she pleased, pampered child with a roll of banknotes under her arm that she was.
It must be amusing to forgo duty and submit yourself only to silly pleasures,Valérie thought with quiet contempt.
“Luc Lémy is a godsend. Unless you were thinking to marry her to a Delafois back in Montipouret,” she told her husband.
“Which one? They are already engaged or married. Cedric is widowed, but nearly fifty,” Gaetan said.
Valérie knew this, and that was precisely why she had suggested it, guessing her husband would start panicking at the thought of his cousin remaining a spinster. Antonina was young enough that she could surely find herself a groom and take a bit of time doing so, but Valérie needed to create a sense of both urgency and opportunity.
“Luc Lémy is proposing an interesting business venture that would be sealed with a magnificent marriage. I do not understand what you have to lose.”
“I was hoping she’d be married to a man she liked.”
“Do you think she dislikes Luc Lémy?” Valérie asked.
“She has told me nothing of him.”
“Maybe she is shy.”
“She could hardly contain herself with Hector Auvray, speaking about every single visit they had together as soon as I walked in through the door.”
“Maybe she’s learned to be more decorous,” Valérie said, her voice rising.
“They seemed well matched. I wonder what happened,” Gaetan said.
Valérie stood up and opened her wardrobe’s door, pretending she was looking for an item in there while taking a quiet breath.
“What happened is he was obviously of a different category than your cousin and did not mean to take her seriously. We should thank the stars we have not been saddled with a changeable man.”
“You may be right,” Gaetan conceded.
Valérie slid hangers to the side, her hands drifting across silks, lace, brocade.
“He did not even have the decency to speak to you and retire his courtship proposal,” Valérie added.
If he had shown up at her doorstep, Valérie wouldn’t have allowed him in. Yet, it rankled her a bit that he had not attempted to see her one more time. Did he think about her? He must. She had been in his mind for a decade.
He would never be rid of her.
“Luc Lémy comes from a reputable family, he is one of us. Antonina will be received in every house in the city, invited to every single ball, her name splashed over all the papers,” Valérie said, closing the wardrobe’s doors.
Her husband had moved to change behind a screen painted with white peacocks. Valérie pulled the sheets and reluctantly got in bed. They shared a massive four-poster bed wide enough that five people might fit in it, but certain nights Valérie felt it was not wide enough. Certain nights she wanted him to sleep at the other end of the world.
Had he gone to the party by himself, he would probably have done her the courtesy of going to sleep in one of the guest rooms, the hour being late and he not wanting to wake her.
Inconsiderate oaf,she thought, but she made an effort to candy-coat her words.
“You must think carefully of Antonina. You yourself told me how difficult it was to find her a proper suitor in Montipouret. All that talk about her talent… and that was before she smashed those windows at Oldhouse.Everyonewas talking about it. Remember how even at Jacot’s they’d heard of it?”
“People have always talked nonsense about Nina. She’s an energetic child,” Gaetan protested from behind the screen.
“We know that. But what do others think? They probably imagine she is difficult, even mercurial.”
He did not answer but she knew what he was thinking. Montipouret would be no good for a husband. Not that anyone would have seriously considered it before—Antonina had been sent to the city for a reason the previous spring. A suitor from Montipouret was now a dimmer possibility. And it would look lowly for Gaetan if they had to resort to this. It would stain his pride, going back to the source he had discarded.
“Antonina made a mistake. She should not have pushed for us to accept Mr. Auvray as a suitor. Then again, what does a young girl know about picking a husband? Should we not counsel her?”
Gaetan emerged from behind the screen in his silk pajamas, no slippers on his feet. He was not old, he was Hector’s age, but it seemed to Valérie as if he was aging fast. He was rather paunchy and his looks, which had never been especially good, were quickly fading.
