Read Online A Bordeaux Dynasty: A Novel by Françoise Bourdin - Free Book Online Page A

but Jules raised a hand.
    “You just stay here and get dry. I’ll send Louis-Marie to pick you up. I’m not on vacation, you know.”
    Then he darted out, and Pauline watched him run toward Fonteyne.
    She turned to Fernande and asked, “Is he crazy?”
    The old lady was making a pot of coffee.
    “You know,” she said, “Mister Aurélien … He was always a bit …”
    “Tyrannical!” Pauline said. “He treats everyone like dogs.”
    Fernande let out a timid laugh.
    “No, no … You should’ve seen him twenty years ago.”
    Pauline sat back down, thinking.
    “Things must’ve been rough for Louis-Marie,” she said.
    Lucas, lowering his paper, threw an unamused glance her way.
    “It’s not easy running an estate like this,” he said under his breath.
    Pauline gave him an icy stare. Under the contempt and insistence of her gaze, Lucas finally folded his paper and got up. He grabbed his raincoat from the hook on the entrance wall, silently put it on, and walked out of the house. Pauline turned toward Fernande.
    “But …” she said. “Men around here are awful.”
    Fernande laughed out loud this time and said, “Mrs. Pauline, you like to stir things up, don’t you?”
    She set down two mugs on the kitchen table and poured some coffee. Pauline looked around and thought the house seemed pretty ordinary. The room was clean and tidy, but devoid of charm. Fernande spent most of her time at Fonteyne and obviously didn’t give her own house much attention.
    “Mister Aurélien isn’t trying to be mean,” Fernande told Pauline. “He really does need Mister Jules.”
    Pauline stared at Fernande. She knew how much the old lady loved the Laverzac family. How devoted she was. She thought this was a good time to make the woman talk.
    “You said Aurélien was worse before?”
    “Oh, yes! But you have to understand … raising four sons on your own, that isn’t easy.”
    “And how were the children?” Pauline asked in a soft voice.
    “Pests!”
    Fernande laughed heartily, sentimental and delighted to revisit those days.
    “Your husband and Jules were terrible, always getting into trouble! Robert and Alexandre were smarter … Or, at least, they were more careful.”
    She’d stopped using the word Mister with their names, carried away as she was by her memories.
    “Without a woman to iron things out, there were lots of tough moments. As a matter of fact, Louis-Marie wound up as a boarder at one point.”
    “That was the way, back then.”
    “It was his way, that’s all. If he thought that his sons missed having a mother, he never said so, and he did nothing to replace her.”
    “How old was Jules when she died?”
    “Three. He was an adorable little thing, and he was crazy about his father. At first, it bothered him to have him on his heels all the time, but Jules was irresistible and everybody fell in love with him. Beyond that …”
    Fernande had become solemn all of a sudden.
    Avoiding setting her eyes on her, Pauline asked, “Why did Aurélien adopt Jules? Where did he come from?”
    Fernande recoiled, stupefied by the enormity of the question.
    “I have no idea!” she said. “I don’t know anything about it! And if you want some good advice, Mrs. Pauline, don’t you ask him either. It’s a taboo in the family. Jules is his son, and that’s that. …”
    Fernande retreated within herself, and Pauline realized she’d made a mistake by asking her directly about Jules. Still interested in Fernande’s openness, she rushed to ask a more benign question.
    “What about the other boys? I can’t imagine they were too pleased when Jules arrived out of the blue like that.”
    “They weren’t at first. But Jules was too little to realize it. And the Mrs. was there, making sure everything was okay.”
    “And she was happy to have another son just like that?”
    “Everything that he wanted, she accepted. … She was such a sweet woman. … I was heartbroken when she passed away. …”
    “And