Chapter Five
The morning I was to leave for Cabourg, the paper sent a carriage to pick me up.
I hadn’t considered that I would be sharing the same ride with my coworkers until the driver and I had to make room on the luggage rack for my valise among several other trunks and what appeared to be a tripod.
I opened the door and saw Apolline Trouvé, the illustrator, sitting inside.
She was dressed in a linen suit and floral print blouse.
Her graying hair was braided and twisted into a low bun.
“Bonjour.” She smiled benignly.
“Bonjour.” I stepped in and sat opposite her on the bench.
We’d gone on assignments together before, meaning little more than we’d been in the same place at the same time, but never anything like this.
I had never traveled outside the city for work.
I had rarely traveled outside the city at all.
As silly as it made me, I was nervous. But it was a perfect distraction from the havoc I’d created at home.
With Charlotte gone, everyone seemed to be a little less mad at me.
I’d tried but failed to write to Charlotte and explain myself because I still wasn’t sure what to say.
All I could think about was the cutting way she’d looked at me as she left.
I was hopeful that getting away would somehow make everything better.
“Do you live nearby?”
“Not too far. I’m in Clichy.”
“So then are we meeting Monsieur Levin at the station?”
“I believe we’re picking him up too.”
“Oh. That’s unfortunate.”
She raised her eyebrows but didn’t comment.
“To be honest, I’m not even sure why they’re sending him at all. Maybe we could just go on ahead without him! Ha.”
Apolline regarded me sympathetically. “Everything’s a mess since the L’Etoile took us over.”
“Has it made much trouble for you in the art department?”
“It’s not terrible.” She shrugged. “We needed more people, and now we have them. But we’re starting over in many ways. And this trip wasn’t my choice of assignments. No offense if it was yours.”
The trip, yes, but Benoit Levin as company, no. “Not exactly. Do you have family at home?”
“A husband and our daughter, though she’s grown. They’re quite jealous of my trip to the beach, I have to say.”
“Have you been to the seaside?”
“A few times, here and there. Though not Cabourg. What about you?”
“Only once, as a little girl. My father took me to Nice. But I hardly remember it.” It wasn’t long after my mother died, and he’d been convinced a change of scenery would help ease the pain. It didn’t work.
“The ocean is so vast; that’s what gets me. Makes me feel small, like touching an unknown world. Makes me want to read Jules Verne.” Apolline’s eyes sparkled behind her wire-rimmed glassed. “And what do you know about this other one who’s coming along? He’s a L’Etoile person?”
“He is. I don’t like him all that much, to be honest. I don’t like anything at work since we’ve been acquired. And Paquin is leaving, which doesn’t bode well for me, I’m afraid.”
“Is he? Oh, you’ll be all right. Even if you do end up leaving. Lots of people will. We might get back from this trip and not recognize the place.”
The carriage drew up between a café and a market. There was some commotion on the street, and our driver shouted at someone to watch where they were going.
I imagined Benoit Levin living in some stately place his rich parents owned, or maybe even a filthy hovel on a side street somewhere in Montmartre.
But aside from the traffic, this was a clean, respectable-looking middle-class neighborhood with apartments above the storefronts. Maybe he had a generous benefactress?
The driver thumped on the side of the carriage to get our attention. “Can one of you ladies go knock on the door of number sixty-eight? I can’t park the carriage here at this hour.”
“So much for chivalry,” Apolline said. She looked at me primly. “Go ahead, honey. I’ve got a bad knee; you’ll be faster.”
I shrugged and disembarked the carriage.
The day was heating up. There were delivery trucks on either side of our carriage with another one that appeared to want our spot on the narrow street.
Sixty-eight was an ornate metal door between the two establishments.
I pushed it open and followed the stairs up to another door on a narrow landing.
When I knocked, there was a commotion on the other side and maybe a child screaming.
Something thumped, and another shriek penetrated the walls.
There were definitely kids here. Was I in the right place?
Then the door swung open and Benoit Levin was standing on the other side.
He looked perfectly pulled together—hair neat, dark blue suit as usual—despite the commotion.
“Oh,” he said, obviously surprised to find me. “Bonjour.”
“Are you ready? The carriage is waiting.”
“Yes. Just let me grab my things. Come in for a moment.”
“You could have been waiting outside, you know.” I followed him into the cozy foyer. The walls were papered in a blue pagoda print, and there was a lush green fern on a stand. “It would have made everything a lot easier.”
“You’re early.”
I didn’t think so, but I conceded the point when a toddler came tearing through, followed by a pretty young woman with a baby on her hip.
The woman had dark hair that had escaped from a braid and pink cheeks flushed from exertion.
God, was this his wife and children? A vague recollection of him mentioning obligations to someone at work came to me.
Had this poor woman procreated with my nemesis?
It was like I’d stepped into a troubling dreamland where everything was distorted.
I hadn’t anticipated or prepared for this situation at all.
Something inside of me seized in those moments before introductions were made.
“My sister, Rachelle, and my niece and nephew, Brigitte and Claude.”
“Oh, really? Wow.” Thank goodness. A laugh came bubbling out of me. How silly of me to think he was married. “I’m sorry. That’s wonderful. Enchanté.”
“Enchanté,” Rachelle said.
Benoit Levin was watching me with an odd look on his face. Perhaps he hadn’t prepared for this moment either. Then he raised his eyebrows. “We should go before I have to introduce you to my mother.”
“Your mother lives here too?” This was so strange to hear. I don’t know why I cared, except that, for the first time, I saw him completely detached from the world of our work. My enemy was a human being. With a family. Astounding to discover this unsettling truth.
“She’s resting, thank goodness,” said the sister.
I was baffled, I didn’t know what to say. And so I didn’t say anything more.
Levin gathered his small valise, attaché, and hat. When he was ready, he nodded toward the door. “Shall we?”
I followed him out. When we reached the carriage, the driver was still defending his parking spot.
Levin opened the door and held out a hand to help me inside.
His eyes sparkled with something untrustworthy, but I let him assist me anyway.
After putting his bag with the others, he climbed in and sat across from me next to Apolline.
Our knees bumped in the middle of the close space, and I quickly moved mine away.
His thighs were broad and substantial enough to straddle, a thought that sent my eyes skipping off in the other direction with a shudder.
Nothing about this man or his thighs was compelling. Nothing.
While he chatted up Apolline, I watched the city pass through the window as if Paris in the morning were the most interesting thing I’d ever seen. Anything but look at the man sitting across from me in a tiny carriage, whose presence filled the air with a clean lavender scent.
He laughed generously at something Apolline said.
“I’m serious,” she said. “If you’re not married, then I have a daughter who I would absolutely love for you to meet, Benoit. I think you’ll like her.”
“I’d love to meet her.”
I shot annoyed looks at both of them. “What is this, a country dance? Maybe we can keep the conversation on professional topics. This is a work trip.”
Apolline raised her eyebrows but then changed the subject to photography. The carriage had become so stuffy. I tugged at my collar and searched my bag unsuccessfully for a fan. I either forgot it or put it in my valise.
Finally, we were at the train station. As soon as the carriage stopped, I hastily alighted, eager to breathe air not tainted by him.
I took several deep breaths while he climbed down and then assisted Apolline.
“Thank you, monsieur.” She tittered. “It will be nice to have a gentleman along.”
While I’d been trying to keep my wits about me, he’d apparently charmed her. When I saw that he was pulling my bag down from the luggage rack, I hurried over to assist. I, for one, didn’t need a gentleman along. And there was no way I was going to let him charm me.
“I can get it.” I stepped in front of him and reached for my things at the same time he moved, causing us to bump into each other much too intimately.
“Pardon,” he said, surprised to find me there in his way.
But also seemingly delighted by it, considering the way he dragged his gaze down the front of me.
I was, as always, covered from neck to toe.
All of my curves smoothed and hidden behind my armor of a suit.
He smiled anyway. A sultry, hungry smile that accompanied a particular gleam in his eyes, which were as blue as sapphires.
“Merci. But I can get my own bags.”
He smiled. “Of course.”
The station bustled with traffic. We made our way toward the ticket counter, where we’d been assured by Vartre that our tickets awaited us. Without a problem, we obtained them and found the platform where our train was scheduled to depart in thirty minutes.
We found a bench that wasn’t big enough for the three of us. Placing her bags at her feet, Apolline sat, leaving enough room for one.