Page 45 of A Noble Affair
Louis trudged along,now on the street away from the muddy path. His pants were wet and dirty, and so were his hands. He had nothing to wipe them on, and everything about this stupid day was going wrong. He didn’t like it, but he knew he was going to have to take something from his house and give it to Jean. It wasn’t stealing, precisely, but it made him uneasy. There were too many questions. Why were these tools worth so much money? Why did the gardener hide them? Because there would be no other reason to stash them there.Did Jean target him? Was that the reason he had approached him in the first place? Despite the unanswered questions and uneasiness,it was the only solution he could see to get himself out of this fix.
The school was in sight, and there was a group of kids a year older than him walking from the outlying buildings towards the main gate. Louis stopped on the street corner where the tall bare trees and parked cars lent the intersection protection. He dropped thebook bag from his shoulder, and reached into the side pouch for his wallet. There was some cigarette paper folded in the bills. He glanced around before taking the bag of marijuana from his backpack and pinching a large amount into the cigarette paper. He licked the edge and lit the end, inhaling greedily, hungrily, as if he couldn’t fill his lungs fast enough.
He held each hit of the acrid smoke as long as he could.Everything’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to be okay, he repeated to himself. After several hits, he was starting to believe it. Another group of students came into view from his left, heading for the school across the street. A petite brunette glanced over, and when she saw Louis, said something to the group in a soft singsong voiceandwalked over to where he was standing. Eloise Prynne’s smile faltered as soon as she got close.
Louis stood, holding the joint slightly behind his right leg and waved at her with his left hand. He knew he looked guilty. “Aw, Louis.” It was not hard to miss the disappointment in those words. Defiantly, he took another hit from the stub and threw it on the ground. “Are you going over?” he asked with false bravado.
It seemed she wasn’t going to answer until she noticed his pants. “You're all muddy. Did you fall?”
“Yeah. It was stupid. I was walking on the muddy path, and I slipped.”
She shook her head. “Let’s go. History starts in five minutes.”
Chastity was losingenergy by the end of lunch hour. There had been so many emotions—fear of leaving Thomas, guilt over throwing her mother together with Madel when the two of them couldn’t communicate, excitement at being back in school, exhaustion as she tried to act as if everything were normal in front of her students. Only over lunch was she able to pour her feelings into Maude’s sympathetic ear. It had relieved some pressure, but she was eager to get through the three remaining periods and head home.
She stood against the wall as a flurry of students walked past her, blocking her from entering the classroom. Suddenly, she caught sight of Louis’s head of dark, wavy hair, and before she had time to think, her heart leaped at the connectionwith his father.I wonder if Charles has mentioned me to him.I wonder what Louis thinks of me.Chastity blushed, thankful no one could read her mind.
Her heart tugged her inexorably onwards as she remembered how Charles had come to the hospital every day the week before. After she saw him with Manon, he should have put more distance between them; but rather than pulling back from her, he seemed to settle in. He became more…comfortable. The day before Thomas was discharged, her mom went for a walk as soon as Charles showed up, and the two of them sat, side by side. He read some medical research, and she…well, apparently she dozed. How strange it was that she could do that in his presence. When she thought of this, her heart seemed to sink and take flight at the same time.I wonder what Charles thinks of me.
“Welcome back, Miss Whitmore,” sounded the cheerful voice of Eloise Prynne.
She smiled at the young ladywalking next to Louis. As soon as they got closer,Chastity went still. Louis passed in front of her without even noticing her, and his red eyes and the heavy sour smell of marijuana were impossible to miss.
She groaned inwardly.Oh Louis.
21
“Salut, Tommy.” Marc reached down, awkwardly, and wiggled Thomas’s knee before straightening back up again. Thomas stared at the action figure he had in his hand without giving any indication he had seen his father. “Well, uh, I’ll let you get back to your toys.”
Chastity walked into the room, putting her coat on and digging through her purse at the same time. “Mom, I’ve got my phone. So if you need anything at all, you can reach me.” Turning to Marc, “We’re just gone for the afternoon, right? We’ll be back in time for dinner?”
“Yeah, sure. It takes an hour and fifteen to get there, but then we’re just staying a couple of hours for drinks. We’ll be back by six o’clock easy.”
“Okay, buddy.” Chastity kissed Thomas and lifted his chin so she couldlook him in theeyes. "You and Grandma are going to hang out, and I’ll be back, all right?”
“Okay, Mom.” Thomas flashed her a rare smile, and her heart melted.
The March weather had started to warm up, and there was a smell of stables in the air, which was not unusual in her neighborhood. She smiled to herself. Never had she thought she’d associate the smell of horses with home. Perhaps she could get Tommy some riding lessons as soon as he got better since it was one of the few things that seemed to animate him. Then she had a sudden vision of him falling off a horse and shuddered.
“You cold?” Marc turned his head towards her.
“Yes, a little.” She stopped short and gasped. “It just occurred to me that I should be bringing something for your parents.”
“Oh, it’s all right. They won’t expect anything.”
“No, no. I can’t show up empty-handed. There’s a florist right by the RER station and I’ll get your mom a bouquet from there.”
“That’s probably a good idea, actually. I’m sure she’ll love that.” Chastity could see he was pleased and hoped he wasn’t misinterpreting her gesture. She was doing this so he could be reconciled with his parents, not because she had any desire to win them over for her own sake. Her shoulders were beginning to tense in her efforts to be gracious and make peace with the past.
They arrived in the 16tharrondissementat Marc's parent's building, and hepunched in the code. As soon as they stepped over the raised metal doorframe, they entereda cobblestone hallway with glass doors on either side, which continued on to an open courtyard. Marc buzzed his parent’s apartment, and she heard his father’s voice crackling through the intercom. “Oui, âllo?"
“C’est nous, Papa.”
“Entrez.” She followed Marc inside on tothe plush dark-red carpet and up the winding wooden staircase with its short, narrow steps. The door to the apartment was already open when they got to the second floor.
“Ah, here you are.” His mother was beaming as she kissed her son and reached over to kiss Chastity on both cheeks. She took the flowers. “Thank you. This is so sweet of you. I’ll put these in water.”
“Bonjour.” His father reached out formally to shake his son’s hand, and Chastity remembered he used to kiss him. This made her heart ache for Marc, and she was caught by surprise when his father leaned over to kiss her cheeks. “Welcome, Chastity. It’s good to see you again.” Marc’s father had always been kind to her.
