“I’m not as sure. Yvonne is an unusual girl, Julian. She’s had a checkered career, and she’s been taking care of herself for ten years.” She had run away from home at fourteen, she’d explained, and had given up school to model. “She’s a survivor. She’s looking out for herself, maybe more than even for you. I’m not sure she really wants what you do, when you think of marriage.”

“What does that mean? You think she’s after my money?”

“Possibly.”

“You’re wrong.” He looked angry at her. She had no right to do this, as far as he was concerned. But she thought she did, because she was his mother. “She just got half a million dollars from her husband in Berlin.”

“How nice for her,” Sarah said coolly. “And how long were they married?”

“Eight months. She left him because he forced her to have an abortion.”

“Are you sure? The newspapers say that she left him for the son of a Greek shipping tycoon, and he then dumped her for some little French girl. Complicated group of people you run with.”

“She’s a decent girl, and she’s had a tough time. She’s never had anyone to take care of her. Her mother was a whore, and she never even knew her father. He left before she was born, and her mother ditched her when she was thirteen. How can you expect her to have gone to some prissy little finishing school, like my sister?” His sister had made her own mistakes in spite of that, but this girl wasn’t making mistakes. She was making intelligent, calculating decisions. And Julian was one of them. You could see it.

“I hope you’re right. I just don’t want you to be unhappy.”

“You have to let us lead our own lives,” he said angrily. “You can’t tell us what to do.”

“I try not to.”

“I know.” He forced himself to calm down. He really didn’t want to fight with her. But he was sad that she hadn’t been more impressed by Yvonne. He’d been crazy about her from the first moment he saw her. “It’s just that you always think you know what’s right for us, and sometimes you’re wrong.” Though he hated to admit it, not often. But still, he had a right to do what he wanted.

“I hope I’m wrong this time,” she said sadly.

“Will you give us your blessing?” That meant a lot to him. He had always adored her.

“If you want it.” She leaned forward and kissed him, with tears in her eyes. “I love you so much … I don’t ever want you to suffer.”

“I won’t.” He beamed. He left then, and Sarah sat alone in her apartment for a long time, thinking of William, and her children, and wondering miserably why they were all so stupid.






Chapter 28





ULIAN and Yvonne were married in a civil ceremony performed at the mairie of La Marolle at Christmas. And then they all went back to the château, and had a sumptuous lunch. There were about forty guests, and Julian looked blissfully happy. Yvonne wore a short, beige lace dress by Givenchy, which reminded Sarah vaguely of a short modern version of her own when she married William. But all similarities ended there. There was a hardness to the girl, and a coldness that genuinely frightened Sarah.