A Bordeaux Dynasty: A Novel (49 page)

They all listened to the notary carefully. Robert and Louis-Marie were trying to understand but asked no questions yet.

Addressing Jules directly, Varin said, “I did tell your father that I didn’t approve of some of his decisions. I warned him, as it was my duty to do so. But he had absolute confidence in you.”

Jules broke into his typical laughter.

“You warned him against me?”

Embarrassed, Varin nodded.

“If the two of you had disagreed about something,” he said, “he couldn’t make any decision at all without your approval. It was a way of … relinquishing his own powers, which represented some risks for him. As it happens, he was right, of course. … And today, it makes your position pretty much unchallengeable.”

Varin hesitated a few moments, then added, “That’s if your brothers, who are also shareholders and members of the board of directors, give you a vote of confidence.”

Robert shrugged, but Jules didn’t give him time to speak.

“And what if they decide to take Alexandre’s side?”

“Come on!” Louis-Marie said.

“Just hypothetically speaking,” Jules said, slowly.

“Well …” Varin began, “it would complicate things but, as manager, and unless you made some major administrative blunders, you’d still remain in charge of the company. No doubt about that. Things would get a bit more precarious concerning the indemnities, though. …”

Thank you, Aurélien,
Jules thought.

“You always have the option of selling part of the land,” Varin said.

“Are you kidding me?”

This time, Jules’s voice had been sharp, authoritarian.

“The integrity of our estate is always going to be my main goal,” he said. “That and the quality of the wine we produce, that goes without saying.”

Robert and Louis-Marie glanced at each other. Jules was true to himself, as he always was, no matter the circumstances.

Pauline took advantage of the silence that followed to say, “I think it’s time for dinner, everyone.”

Laurène, who’d listened to the entire conversation entranced, had completely forgotten about dinner. She got up, annoyed that once again she’d failed in her role of hostess, and she walked ahead of the guests to the dining room, where the candles lit by Fernande gave the woodwork a golden hue. Jules took a look at the table and gave Pauline a smile of gratitude. Since Dominique’s departure, he hadn’t seen such a beautiful place setting. But he noticed, at the same time, Laurène’s expression, and he came over to hold her chair as she sat down. The kind words he uttered as he put a hand on her shoulder made her quiver.

Robert, who was sitting to the left of Pauline, began to joke around to monopolize her attention. Sitting across the table from them, Jules wondered if they were going to start up that awful seduction game of theirs again. Louis-Marie was chatting with Varin, without looking at his wife.

“Yes,” the notary said, “I’ll be so happy to have her back with me. She’s an excellent secretary. She told me she’d return in June.”

He spoke prudently, as though it was a delicate topic. Jules suddenly realized that they were talking about Frédérique. He experienced a jolt he hadn’t expected, and he had to make an effort to concentrate when Varin turned to him.

“I know things didn’t turn out as well as they should’ve with her,” the notary said. “People always have to gossip. Because she’s young, pretty, and she lived under this roof. But she’s a courageous young woman, and very capable. I’ve always said that.”

Laurène kept her eyes lowered on her plate. To hear Frédérique being praised this way was painful to her. Suddenly aware of the silence that followed his words, Varin coughed, not knowing what to do. He’d been amused by the gossiping a few months earlier, when the Bordeaux smart set whispered that Frédérique was Aurélien’s lover. The very idea was outrageous to him, because of the age difference—almost forty years!

“To the very end your father kept the reputation of being a very … gallant man. That’s quite a flattering compliment, wouldn’t you say?”

The three Laverzac brothers looked at him with disbelief.

More and more embarrassed, Varin tried to dig himself out of his hole by adding, “I just hope people won’t say the same thing about us when Frédérique starts working for me again.”

He was the only one laughing.

Louis-Marie finally came to his rescue by talking about something else.

Jules had a hard time swallowing his canapé. He’d slept with Aurélien’s lover and cheated on his fiancée in the same fell swoop, and every time he thought about it he felt deep remorse. He tried to follow his brothers’ conversation. Frédérique was but a memory, he had to put her in the back of his mind.

“Alex always was a loser,” Robert said.

“Not a loser,” Louis-Marie said. “You’re exaggerating.”

“Not a whole lot. What’s certain is that compared to his wife, he’s a dope.”

The burst of laughter that followed made Laurène uneasy. Dominique was a determined woman, a good wife, a good mother—fine. But Laurène was getting seriously annoyed hearing about her sister’s supposed perfection. Even though it was easier to shine next to Alex than Jules, she knew that people would never say anything of the sort about her. She finally met Jules’s eyes and knew exactly what he was thinking. Yet, she held his dark gaze and even managed to smile. She’d already been victorious over Frédérique, a few months ago, and she had no reason to be afraid. Especially now that she was carrying his child.

I’m going to tell him later on this evening
, she thought,
and he’s going to be thrilled. He won’t be able to back away after that, and our lives will be linked forever. … Even if he sees that woman again when he goes over to Varin’s office. … Between now and the month of June, I’m going to be his wife. Mrs. Laverzac.

Jules listened to Laurène’s regular breathing. She’d fallen asleep like a rock, in a ball as usual. Delicately, he pulled the blankets over her before slipping out of bed, quickly putting on his sweater and jeans, and tiptoeing his way out of the bedroom. He crossed the hallway and went down the steps without turning on the lights. Every inch of Fonteyne was familiar to him. Once in his office, he lit a fire. He wasn’t sleepy at all, so he set two large logs in the fireplace, knowing he’d have time to see them burn down.

For a very long time, he remained on his feet, watching the flames. He’d received the news enthusiastically, without asking unpleasant questions, like why Laurène had stopped taking the pill without telling him. In fact, she’d told him about her pregnancy with such a combination of pride and fear that he’d understood before she even finished the sentence.

And so he was going to be a father. The very idea seemed strange to him right now. But he was an uncle to Alex’s twin boys and little Esther. He loved children and they adored him. So there was nothing to be worried about. And yet he sighed, vaguely upset by something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Even if Laurène is still a bit of a kid herself,
he thought,
she could still be a great mother. … And there’s always going to be Fernande to look after things. …

He sat in the large leather armchair. He’d thrilled Laurène by saying yes to everything. The date she wanted for the wedding, whatever name she chose for the baby. Then he’d made tender love to her, taking her to the brink of climax, and then making her wait, listening to her moan against his shoulder. He was everything to her and he knew it, accepting the responsibility that came with it. And yet something wasn’t right.

He shut his eyes for a moment, stricken by one thought: Laurène would never make him completely happy.

“Is it Alex who’s keeping you up?” Robert asked, cheerfully.

Jules turned around and gave his brother a large smile.

“And you?”

Robert walked over to the fireplace.

“This house is so freaking drafty. But you start fires all the time, even right in the middle of summer. … In Paris, when I think about you, I picture you in front of a fireplace.”

He sat on the floor, his back to the heat of the flames, and he had to raise his head to look at Jules.

“I’m surprised you’re up,” he said. “You’re such an early riser. Me, I rarely fall asleep before two or three a.m.”

“And your surgeries the following morning?”

“I’m in the OR at ten in the morning, no matter what.”

He had a bitter expression that worried Jules.

“Bob … is something wrong?”

“No. Professionally, there’s nothing for me to complain about. I have more work than I can handle and … I like to think I’m a damn good surgeon. That makes me feel good. …”

Jules examined his brother’s tired face. Robert was thirty-seven, the prime of his life, and every day he excelled in his hospital’s OR.

“Pauline?” Jules asked simply.

Robert nodded slowly.

“It’s probably unimaginable for you, but I still love her. Just like two, even five years ago! The passage of time has no bearing on this obsession. There’s nothing I can do about it. …”

“Unimaginable for me?” Jules said. “Why do you say that?”

Robert gave him a smile.

“Because women don’t affect you that way,” he said.

“But … How can you think that?”

“I know that the real love, the only passion you can muster is for Fonteyne, right? You don’t complicate things for yourself. I can’t imagine a woman ruining your life.”

“That’s good to know,” Jules said, dryly.

A bit surprised, Robert stared at his brother.

“Don’t be mad. … I didn’t say anything mean. … You’re good at protecting yourself, that’s all I’m saying. You should ask yourself, one of these days, why all your girlfriends, all your lovers were always the same type of woman. …”

Sincerely taken aback, Jules gave Robert a questioning look.

“The quiet, submissive type. … You’re like Dad, you like women as long as they cower to you. …”

Leaving his armchair, Jules crossed the office. He opened the heavy drapes, but it was still nighttime.

“Laurène is pregnant,” he suddenly said. “We’re going to get married soon. I’d like you to be my best man.”

Robert remained silent for a moment. Jules had his back to him, so he couldn’t see his expression, but something in his voice had sounded odd.

“You’re happy about all this?” he finally asked.

“Happy to have a child? Yes. … As for the rest, I’m not sure. I don’t really want to think about it. I’ve loved Laurène for a very long time. I wanted her. Aurélien was in favor of the wedding. … Everything is in order.”

Robert went over to his brother. He put a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked.

“I’m not sure I can do anything else, now. There’s no backing down. I would have preferred to settle the situation with Alex first … but I probably would’ve found other reasons after that not to get married. So Laurène decided to force my hand, it’s her right. In any case, I’m thirty. It’s time. …”

Robert squeezed Jules’s shoulder and let it go. The two brothers had always been close, in spite of their age difference and the fact that they lived far away from each ohter. Jules disapproved of Robert’s passion for Pauline, but he’d saved him from getting into trouble many times. Robert didn’t fully understand Jules’s visceral attachment to Fonteyne, but he bowed to his young brother’s savoir-faire and authority. Though they shared virtually nothing, there was genuine affection between them. Moreover, Robert was the only one who realized that their father’s death had wounded Jules in an irreversible way.

“I just hope you don’t change,” Robert said.

“I won’t,” Jules replied. “Why do you keep saying that?”

Robert shivered and walked back to the fireplace. He poked at the logs for a second, sat in front of the fire, and looked all around the room.

“Because you’re all that’s left,” he said. “Here, among the furniture, the woodwork, in this huge, freezing castle, you’re all that’s left of ten generations of tradition. You’re the entire family!”

Both brothers burst out laughing.

“Should we go up to bed or have something to drink?” Robert asked.

“A drink. … Let me get a nice bottle. …”

Robert heard Jules walking away from the office. Pauline was upstairs, sleeping in her husband’s arms. And Robert was going to be the only bachelor left. With the despairing certainty that he’d ruined his life. Without Pauline, no professional success was rewarding, no car had any charm, no academic honor was satisfying. Only at Fonteyne could he find some peace of mind, though it was only at Fonteyne that, ironically, he saw Pauline. In Paris, he could avoid her. Not here.

Hopefully we can deal with this Alex situation quickly so I can get out of here,
he thought.

Okay, so it’s hell to know that she’s so close to me right now, and there’s nothing I can do, but tomorrow morning she’s going to have coffee with me. … Half asleep, her beautiful face …

Whispers made him raise his head. Jules was back with Louis-Marie.

“His ears prick right up at the sound of a bottle opener!” Jules said with a chuckle.

He was holding a bottle of Bel Air-Marquis d’Aligre.

In a moment of silence, they tasted the wine.

“Always that hint of licorice,” Louis-Marie said. “This is absolutely stunning. And you bastards wanted to drink it all by yourselves. … So what were you talking about like this, in the middle of the night? Poor Alex? Frédérique?”

Robert produced a smile. “Nope,” he said. “We were talking about ourselves. The fact that I’m an insomniac and that Jules is going to be a dad. …”

Louis-Marie remained slack-jawed for a second, then he threw himself at Jules and shook him.

“It’s true? You’re going to be a father? Wow, of course we have to drink to that!”

He was so obviously thrilled at the news that Jules felt touched. Perhaps he’d neglected his relationship with his brothers all these years, absorbed as he was by his exceptional relationship with Aurélien. Maybe he was less alone than he thought. Louis-Marie and Robert had come over without hesitation, and both had taken his side before even hearing Varin’s explanations. And they’d been respectful enough not to ask him anything about his origins, about what he’d learned a few months ago.