Eventually, he stood up and looked around the room again, as though wanting to remember every inch, every detail, when he left her. “I should go back to Paris now. My brother will be waiting.”

“Come back again,” she said as she walked him outside, but they both knew he wouldn’t. She walked him slowly to his car, and when they reached it, he stopped and looked at her again. The hunger in his heart was etched in his eyes as he longed to touch her.

“I’m glad I came to see you again … I have wanted to for so long.” He smiled, and gently touched her cheek as he had once before, and she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, touched his face, and then slowly took a step backwards. It was like taking a last step from the past back to the present.

“Take care of yourself, Joachim….”

He hesitated for a long moment, and then nodded. He got back into his car, with a small salute, and she didn’t see the tears in his eyes as he drove away. All she could see was his car … and the man he had once been. All she could think of were her memories of William. Joachim had left her life years before. He was gone. And there was no place for him anymore. There hadn’t been in years. And when she couldn’t see the car anymore, she turned and went back inside to her children.






Chapter 25





HEN Julian graduated from the Sorbonne with a degree in philosophy and lettres in 1972, Sarah was extremely proud of him. They all went to the ceremony, except Phillip, who was busy in London buying a famous collection of jewels, which included an important tiara. Emanuelle went to the graduation, looking very dignified in a dark-blue Givenchy suit, and a wonderful set of sapphires from Whitfield’s. She had become an important woman by then. Her affair with the Minister of Finance had long since been an open secret. They had been together for several years, and he treated her with respect and affection. His wife had been very ill for years, his children were grown, and they weren’t doing anyone any harm. They were discreet, he was very kind, and she truly loved him. He had bought her a beautiful apartment on the Avenue Foch several years before and she entertained with him, and people begged to be invited to their parties. All the most interesting people in Paris seemed to go there, and her position as the manager of Whitfield’s was an object of fascination and great interest. She dressed impeccably, and her taste was glorious, as were the jewels she had carefully acquired herself over the years, as well as those he gave her.