“Ithink you are a romantic,” Jean-Paul said. “Fabrice learned the hard way how difficult it is to bring a place like Château Clement back to its former glory.”
“Yes, he mentioned that. Fabrice has no children, has never been married?”
“I believe he was married, briefly, a long time ago. When he lived in Paris. But from what I understand, it lasted only a few years. He’s been in love with someone else, a different woman, all his life.”
“But he’s so...”
“Old?”
“I was going to saygrumpy. Hard to imagine him being head over heels in love.”
“He’s not the first man who’s been a fool for love.”
“I’ve got news for you: It goes both ways. So who is—or was—she?”
“I guess you have not gotten to that part inLe Château.”
“It’s in the book?”
“You have to look for it. If my memory is correct, I believe he just refers to her as‘la minette.’”
“I thought that was a sauce for oysters.”
“That’smignonette.”
“Language is hard.”
“It is.”
“Hold on—Fabrice wrote the book a very long time ago. You’re saying he’sstillsuffering from unrequited love?”
“As far as I can tell, he has been in love withla minettesince he wasa teenager. They met during the Second World War, fighting with the Résistance in Paris.”
“Really? Fabrice was part of the Résistance?”
“He doesn’t like to talk about it, of course. He was very young at the time.”
“And what happened to ‘Minette’?”
“According to Fabrice’s book, she was consumed by the dragon of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s one of the parts of the book that is very hard to understand. As I recall, the story is a lyrical, stand-alone chapter toward the middle of the book. A little on the pretentious side, if you ask me, but that was the style he was writing in.”
“So I’ve been learning. What else can you tell me?”
“In the bookla minetteis from the town of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. When she disappears in Paris, the main character—who I assume is actually Fabrice—goes to search for her there. It’s not far from Saint-Véran and Château Clement, which was what brought him to the family château for the first time.”
“But he never found her?”
He shrugged. “It’s not clear in the book. It’s possible he found her and she rejected him, or perhaps she really had been killed, though not by a dragon, of course.”
“Did you ever ask him?”
“As I believe I’ve mentioned before, Fabrice and I are not close.”
“Why?”
