“He asked if you would leave,” Elise said.
“If I don’t?” Jestine said. “What will you do then?”
“That won’t happen, so we won’t discuss it.” Elise’s eyes flitted down to Lyddie, who still held her mother’s hand. Jestine glared back, fiercely protective of her daughter. Lyddie wore her blue dress, beautifully smocked. She gazed wide-eyed at the woman from France, who clearly had the upper hand.
“Is this the girl?” Elise focused her attention on Lyddie entirely. “What a pretty dress you have.”
“You know who she is.” Jestine’s chin jutted out. “And so does he.”
Jestine sounded strong, but I noticed her hands were shaking. For once I was glad I had never been in love.
“This is Lydia,” I told Elise.
“May I?” Elise was clearly entranced by the child. Jestine was so taken by surprise, she didn’t stop Elise from questioning Lyddie about her education at the Moravian School.
“I’m going to learn four languages,” Lyddie said. “I already speak Danish, and soon I’ll study German and English and Spanish.”
“What about French?” Elise smiled with a warmth I hadn’t seen before. “Do you study that as well?”
“I’m speaking to you in French, Madame.”
Elise laughed, delighted. That was when I felt a chill go through me.
Elise turned to Jestine, cool but not unfriendly now. “Let me see what I can do. I’ll speak to my husband.”
When Elise went inside, Jestine seemed shaken. “Who does she think she is to say ‘my husband’ to me?”
“That’s who he is to her.” I don’t think Jestine had truly realized Aaron now possessed a life beyond what they’d once had together.
We left the garden and went to my house. Since Aaron and Elise had arrived, I’d been so caught up with them I’d hardly been home. My children greeted me and hugged me, then ran off to play with Lyddie. Rosalie came out to porch and threw me a look. “Do you still live here? Or did you move back in with your mother?”
“I was trying to be polite to our guests,” I said.
“Don’t be. Stay at home.”
Jestine was quiet during this interchange, but when Rosalie went to keep watch over the children, Jestine turned to me. “You were right. I was a fool to go there.” She took my hand. She feared Elise’s pleasantries had been a deception. “Don’t let them do anything to me.”
“They wouldn’t,” I assured her. “There’s nothing they can do to you.”
I truly believed that at the time.
There were green frogs in the garden, and the children were set on catching them with a net. We could hear them whooping, then gathering together to examine their catch. It was a near-perfect night, but beside me my dearest friend was crying.
WHEN I SAW MY husband later in the evening, he told me that Aaron was so angry to learn that my father hadn’t left him any part of his estate that he’d already made arrangements to return to Paris. There had been threats and arguments at the store that were humiliating. My cousin’s insolence drove him forward. He insisted he would take legal action. I worried for my husband’s safety. “There’s no need to worry,” Isaac assured me. “He realized it would be worth his while to leave.” My husband was clearly relieved that Aaron was preparing to go. “Your father made a wise choice. We’ll all do well to be rid of him.”
But we weren’t rid of him so quickly that I didn’t see him walking down the road toward the harbor. It was dusk, the hour when it was possible to do as one wished as darkness fell. But the sky was still bright in the east, and I knew where he was going. He went there every night and waited outside the house on stilts, and nothing could be done to send him away. He had come halfway around the world, after all, and found what he wanted here on our island.
THE MAIDS IN MY mother’s house told me that my cousin was leaving in a matter of days. This time there would be no packet of lavender, no cause to call him back. I had gone to the store and looked through the ledgers my father had taught me to read. I found what I had suspected: Aaron was being paid off handsomely so that he would let go of the business without further argument. I’d kept away from my mother’s house after the scene in the garden, not wishing to see Aaron or his wife. But on the afternoon before they were to leave, Elise arrived at my house. I was on the porch sewing my children’s clothes. Their trousers and shifts always seemed torn after a day of play. I liked to sew, for my own relaxation, to clear the thoughts in my head. The last thing I expected was company.