20. Chapter Twenty #2
“Aside from the sexual satisfaction. How are you? It’s been a tumultuous time for us. Surely you are feeling some sort of way?”
“Oh, yeah, sure.” I swallowed before taking a sip of coffee. “I mean…” I sat back to watch Pamplemousse rolling around in the grass like a chicken taking a dust bath. “Things are so up in the air yet. I lost. I had such big plans for that money. And for school.”
“Did Carlton not discuss the scholarship opening with you?” He looked up from his plate. I nodded. “Are you not interested in attending the academie?”
“Well, I’d love to go but there are other options. Mickey offered me a job at his shop when he opens it which would be an amazing opportunity but it’s in London.”
“London and France are not that far apart,” he pointed out.
“I know but it’s really far from America.
Now that I don’t have the prize money I’m going to have to go home and find another fucking job.
I can’t help my family and attend school here, and I’m not sure school is what I want to do.
I have cards in my wallet from four or five fashion houses to join them as an intern.
Then there’s you.” His fine brow arched.
“Carlton said I work with you as some part of an off-campus thing where you’d pay me and I could earn credits. ”
He nodded, chewed, and then swallowed before dabbing at his kissable lips with his cloth napkin. A horse whinnied. Pamplemousse barked in reply but continued his roll in the grass.
“The other houses are shit. They would not pay you. If you came to work for me I would teach you all you need to know, pay you well, and after you graduate I would be willing to back a capsule collection for you at the Paris shop.” My mouth fell open.
A capsule collection under Claude’s name would be huge.
It would leverage his massive distribution network while giving me creative control and massive brand exposure.
“Of course you would need to keep your grade point average up. The reapplication process would be easily enough handled and you could come away with a two year associate degree which would be more than enough schooling. You are a highly talented designer who would make a marvelous design assistant.”
It took a moment for the dream bubble to slowly deflate. “But people will think that I got the capsule collection, and the job, because I’m sleeping with you.”
He laid down his fork and knife to settle all his attention on me. “Kinder, if you walk away from the opportunity that you earned because people might talk, then you’re letting gossip decide your future.”
“But didn’t you do the same thing? Walk away because of gossip?” He drew in a slow breath.
“I walked away from the academie to protect you. To ensure that you had the options that you have so diligently earned.” Oh.
Well sure but… okay, yeah. “Also, I was ready. I’ve started to discover as I wade through my fifties that what I want most is to design clothes and be with a man who loves me.
That is it. Perhaps the older a person gets the more they cherish the simple things.
Gah, I sound like a greeting card. My tenure on the board is what it is.
I’ll still be a board member emeritus. The school shall always carry my name.
What I am saying is that our reasons are vastly different.
Go to the academie with your head high because you are good enough to be there.
The board would not have offered you the scholarship otherwise. The rest will fade over time.”
I felt a relief wash over me. “Someone once said that the moment you allow someone else to hold the shears you’re allowing them to create the pattern of your life. Always trust the original thread of your creative process.”
His smile was pure Claude. “That someone is quite wise.”
“Yeah, he is, and sexy too.” He tipped his head in thanks for the compliment. “All of that is nothing though if my family is scraping by back in North Dakota. Sure, I’ll be able to send them money but—”
“One moment.” He hurried to eat his last bite of tartine, wash it down, and stand. He held out a hand. “There is something I wish to show you. I’ve been mulling over possibilities for us, a maybe future if you did decide to come to me. I think I have a plan.”
I gulped down my coffee, rose, and took his hand. Pamplemousse darted around our legs as we made our way to a big house tucked back among some old trees. Claude dug into his pocket, pulled out some keys, and unlocked the door after three wrong keys were tried.
Stepping inside the wind rolling in the open door stirred up dust motes.
There were furnishings covered with sheets of white muslin.
I could make out several rooms on the ground floor with a staircase which climbed to another floor above us.
Stone hearth, wood floors, and graceful windows that looked out over the pond and the horses.
“This is the caretaker’s house,” he explained as we made our way to a window to open it to let some fresh air into the home.
“There’s not been a caretaker here for forty years.
I have a service tend to the grounds, and the horses have a stablemaster who lives in town.
There are some upgrades to be made but your maman and sisters could live here after the work is completed.
I know it is country living but it is serene here.
There is a well-respected private school in town, Institut de Avignon, the girls could attend.
There are horses to ride, village festivals, and Paris is only a short train ride away so they could visit us when we are in city for work and schooling.
We could come out here on weekends if we are free.
You look shellshocked. Have I stepped into something?
Tell me if I am being too pushy. I tend to be bossy according to…
well, everyone, but this has been stewing in my head for weeks. ”
“I just…” I sat on the dusty window seat as my head swam with information. “This is great, really but what would my mom do here?”
“Be a lady of leisure. Surely she has earned an early retirement.”
He sat beside me. The breeze carried the scent of horse and earth. “Yeah, she won’t buy that for a minute. Also, there’s no way we could afford private school for the twins.”
“I’ll cover their tuition.”
A bark of a laugh erupted from me. His eyes flared. “Sorry, I just imagined my mother’s face hearing that. Claude, you are super generous but my mom would not accept a nickel of your money. She has way too much pride.”
“Fine,” he waved a hand in the air. “We’ll find her a position somewhere. What does she enjoy?”
“Reading, needlework, baking. Not that she has time for that working double shifts.”
“Hmm, when you say needlework to you mean cross-stitching or hand-stitching embellishments on clothing?”
“Hand-stitching. She’s incredibly good with embroidery, quilting, and smocking. Gets her love of working with fabric from my grandmother just like me. She did a lot of the handwork for my clothes but there’s just no time for her to…” I met his smug look. “Oh. You’re suggesting she work for you.”
“Or for you when you’re established. It’s an option.
She would be doing something she enjoys, something that will give her pride as well as netting her a good wage.
I pay embroiderers and quilters very well for their work is time consuming and requires great skill.
It’s something for her to think about if the offer to leave North Dakota for my farm appeals. ”
There was a glimmer of hope coming to life inside me. Maybe this would work. Maybe my family could be close, safe and happy and not robbing Peter to pay fucking Paul every time the gas bill was due. Maybe, just maybe, life could be everything I had ever dreamed it would be for us.
“I love you so very much,” I whispered before leaning over to kiss him with every bit of emotion I possessed. He turned to me, eager, hungry, and willing.
I would have taken him right there on the dirty window seat if not for the ruckus of one cocky Chihuahua challenging two mute swans detonating outside.
“He never learns,” Claude sighed as Pamplemousse streaked into the caretaker’s house with two angry white birds in hot pursuit.
Up the stairs the dog went. The swans gave us a haughty look before waddling back to the pond the clear victors.
“Now where were we?” Claude asked as his gaze moved from the stairs to me.
I kissed him in reply.
Perhaps life on a French farm wouldn’t be too boring for my sisters after all.
Perhaps my mother would finally be happy, rested, and enjoying her work.
Perhaps all I needed was to be brave enough to make that first stitch in the tapestry of Claude and my destinies.