Page 55 of Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure
He took in the mink stole and her haughty expression.
“I hope you do not make me walk the rest of the way to the villa,” she said.
He stood his ground for a moment, then stepped aside as she put her foot on the accelerator. As she drove on, she watched him running towards the house, trying to get there first. She parked under a portico at the side and marched up to the front door, trying to look more confident than she felt.
She pressed a bell and heard it jangle inside. An elderly man, a butler by the way he was dressed, opened the door, staring at her in surprise.
“Madame Endicott to see the viscount,” she said. “I understand your master is at home. Please inform him that the English lady from the Villa Gloriosa wishes to speak to him.”
“I will inform him, madame.” The man gave a little bow and departed. Ellie noted she had not been invited in. After a few minutes, the man returned. “The master will see you. Please follow me,” he said.
Ellie crossed an ornate entrance hall, decorated with classical statues, and was shown into a sitting room. It was an elegant, light room with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the village and the coastline. At the rear of the house there was a terrace and beyond it a sparkling swimming pool. Inside the room the furniture was modern with simple lines, chrome and glass, light fabrics and polished woods, and in one of the armchairs a man was sitting, or rather lounging, against the back of the chair, holding an ebony cigarette holder between his fingers. He did not attempt to sit up as Ellie came in. She stared at him with surprise. She had expected an old man, but this man was young, or youngish, maybe late thirties. He was chubby, with light-blond hair, a round, pink face and surprised blue eyes, like an overgrown cherub. He was dressedin a pale-blue shirt that matched the upholstery, a purple-and-gold cravat at his neck.
“Monsieur le vicomte, I am Madame Endicott,” Ellie said. “I have rented the villa next to yours.”
“The villa of the opera singer,” he said. “We heard. We were surprised. We understood that it was a ruin, uninhabitable. But you are English ladies, no?” His voice was light and quite high.
“We are.”
“You are here for the winter?”
“Perhaps,” she said. “Perhaps longer. At this moment we have no plans. We stay as long as we enjoy this place.”
“Your husbands do not miss you?” He sat up now, looking interested. “They do not expect you to return home to them quickly?”
“We have no husbands,” Ellie said. “We are independent women, able to make our own decisions.”
He tapped out the end of his cigarette into a glass ashtray. “Please do take a seat.”
Ellie perched on an upright chair across from him.
“And this ruin that you now live in, it is suitable for ladies like yourselves?”
“It is not a ruin, and we have already made it quite pleasant,” Ellie said. “You would be welcome to come and visit us. Do you live here alone?”
“Apart from my staff.”
“You don’t find it lonely?”
He shrugged. “I have plenty of company when I am in Paris. Then I come here to recuperate and to think. I write poetry, you know. And sometimes I have visitors, friends from Paris.”
“As I said,” Ellie went on, “you would be most welcome to come to take tea with us, or a glass of wine one day.”
“Ah, the English tea,” he said. “So strong.” And he shuddered.
“You have been to England?”
“But of course. One travels. One has suits made in London.” He paused. “Can I offer you refreshment? A tisane? A coffee? Or perhaps a citron pressé?”
“It’s very kind of you. A coffee would be most agreeable.”
He picked up a small brass bell from the side table and rang it. The butler appeared so quickly that Ellie suspected he had been listening outside the door.
The viscount merely said, “Coffee, Antoine,” without turning around. He focused again on Ellie. “How is it you speak such good French?”
“When I was a child, my mother insisted I learn French. In those days it was the language of diplomacy and good breeding. She was preparing me to move in polite society and marry well.”
“And did you?” There was a flicker of amusement in those light-blue eyes.
