Chapter 7 #3
Jacques didn’t seem to have noticed it. He moved beside her, and placed a warm hand on her waist. “Grandfather’s philanthropic masquerade is coming up next month,” he said.
“I will see to it that he sends out invites to your favourite couturiers. You can discuss the possibility of a partnership then.”
It might not have been exactly what she wanted but at least it was a start. Celine could show Jacques what she’d truly meant with time. The way things were going, they had their whole future before them.
She pushed off the railing and linked their palms again. There was one more question she needed answering.
“Why do you and Bastien bicker so much?” Jacques wasn’t the only one she needed to know better.
Bastien’s quips kept growing wittier by the second and Celine’s personal assortment was running out of taunts that could match his.
“I mean, you have been brothers now for six years. I know that if I had a stepsister I would have delighted in her company.”
“You know that Grandfather picks favourites,” Jacques said as though that explained things.
But Celine had a feeling that something more lurked beneath that easy surface. So she prodded him to elaborate and he reluctantly gave in.
“Some years ago, Grandfather let on that he would choose me as his heir even though I wasn’t related to him by blood at all. That ultimately placed Bastien at the centre of whispers and rumours and you can imagine how he reacted to all of them.”
“By becoming the centre of other rumours.”
The clubs he frequented; the maison closes he was seen stepping out of; the people that claimed to have been his lovers, women and even some men; the shameless flirting and innuendoes.
Jacques nodded.
“Why didn’t he choose Bastien?”
“It’s a long story.”
Celine hinted ahead, starting off towards the long bridge. “We have time.”
But something redolent to an anchor prevented her from taking the next step. To her surprise when she peered behind, Jacques had stopped. “What’s with the sudden interest in Bastien?” he asked. “It’s not as though you know nothing about him. At least, you already know what everyone else does.”
“Yes, but those rumours are not all true. And I’m curious for more.
We’re getting engaged, aren’t we?” she amended quickly and tugged at his hand to continue their promenade.
“It is only proper I show more interest in your family. I already know everything about Ana?s so you don’t have to tell me about her, but this feud between you and Bastien strikes me as strange, that’s all. ”
They stood like that for some time—with their arms spread out, linked only where their fingertips ended—until Jacques closed his hand over hers and followed like a boy in love. Celine’s heart gave in a little.
“Alright,” he said. “If my beautiful Celine demands a lesson in Ménard history, she will get one. Our grandfather didn’t choose him because of all the trouble he gets in, all the mischief he causes.
” Jacques wrinkled his nose out of habit.
“Bastien has never had any regard for our family name, unless it was to get himself something he wanted. The Ménards have ties everywhere in the city.”
“So his principle runs on nepotism?”
“Only when it suits him, and that’s the case. Every other instance he is determined to shun or mar our name. Of course, Grandfather can’t stand that.”
Celine considered this for a moment. She knew Bastien wasn’t the most reliable person out there, not to mention, every time they met he impulsively flirted with her without giving their positions a second thought.
If he went out of his way to run his own name through muck, who was to say he wouldn’t use this time with Celine at the competition to blemish her reputation?
Perhaps as a joke. Perhaps to rile up Jacques. Either way, Celine’s stomach soured at the thought.
Bastien only needed the money, not her friendship.
“I see,” she managed.
Jacques continued, “Bastien thinks it’s because of his mother.”
Adalene Reneau. “Why? She was a renowned designer. The best in all of Paris.”
“Madame Reneau might have owned her own fashion house but that’s all she had to her name.
Bastien’s father fell in love with her, and from what I’ve heard the housekeepers whisper, they married because she had Bastien out of wedlock.
Grandfather disapproved of her, of the entire ordeal altogether, but he agreed to her staying at the mansion for his grandson’s sake.
When she passed away, I think Bastien blamed him for it and if there is one thing you should know about my grandfather, it's that the old man knows how to hold a grudge. Even against his own blood.”
“And you two?”
“We tried befriending each other once,” he trailed off, sounding distant. “Maybe we were old enough to know about everything else going on within our family that we couldn’t be impartial. I’m glad that Ana?s was, though. I think she is the only one that keeps him grounded sometimes.”
Celine slid closer to him, until she was snuggled underneath his arm and hugged his waist. Jacques hummed contentedly.
“Did I satisfy your curiosity?”
“Sufficiently,” Celine said. “Now come. I want to get ice cream before the shops close.”