Cartography for Beginners (36 page)

Dune studied him. "Stuart could wreck you."

"I know. But I want him anyway. It's weird. You'd think I'd want somebody safe and harmless, but I don't. I want... somebody who could wreck me and break my heart and ruin my life. Or could love me completely for the rest of my life and wants to kiss me under an olive tree."

"He told you that?"

"Yeah." Leo smiled at him. "I told him I wanted us to be old men on the front porch together."

Dune stole another taste of rice. "Sounds to me like your mind is already made up."

"Maybe. It doesn't feel how loving Adam felt."

"Honestly, Dad? I think that's a good thing. I'll go get Micah for dinner." He beamed at Leo and left the kitchen.

Chapter Twenty-one

As promised, Stuart met them at the airport. He looked amazing -- more deeply tanned than he'd been in London and his hair lightened by the sun. His body even felt stronger when Leo hugged him.

"Jamie and Ben have already arrived," he told them as they drove out of Paris and out to the country. "Amelie and Marc will be staying at the chateau as well. I'm not sure about Nicole, and Joelle will be at the village inn with her -- do you say 'boyfriend' when they're both in their fifties?"

"You can say boyfriend at any point," Leo said, drinking in Stuart's Roman profile and the sight of his hair blowing about his face in the wind from the open window.

"Boyfriend, then. He's a banker. The man Jean-Claude wishes were his father," Stuart added, but when Leo reached over to take his hand Stuart smiled like it was nothing and put his hand on the gear shift. "Though I suppose I should take some comfort in knowing that I'm the one giving the toast at the reception, not him."

"I say take a lot of comfort in that."

Stuart smiled at him and looked back at the road. Leo leaned back in the seat and then glanced at the Dune and Micah, leaning against each other and yawning. They were fine -- they were glad to be here, having an adventure at the home of their friend. Micah had spent half the flight telling Dune about all the incredible things about the chateau, Jamie's art and the gentle hills and the acres of vines. He didn't mention the olive tree that Stuart had told Leo about, and Leo hoped that meant Stuart hadn't kissed him there.

It was strange -- he knew that Stuart and Jamie had been lovers, of course, and Micah made no secret of the fact that they'd slept together when Micah stayed with him during his first trip to Europe, but Leo didn't feel any jealousy about it. Stuart had loved Jamie but had also let him go, and Micah had been like the other young men they teased Stuart about, someone to flatter his ego but not someone to keep.

Stuart wanted to keep him. A man so sexy and potent that men fell over themselves to get his attention, but the man he wanted was Leo. The mere thought made Leo warm, flattered and pleased and still slightly confused.

He looked at Stuart again and caught Stuart looking at him. Stuart smiled hesitantly and Leo wanted to lean over and kiss him, even with the busy roads and midday traffic. Instead, he said, "I can't wait to see the place. It's where you grew up, isn't it?"

"Not exactly. We spent every summer there when I was a child. Christmas sometimes, too. My grandfather lived there until he was in his nineties. After he passed, my parents used it as a holiday home for a bit, but they both passed away quite young -- before they were seventy."

"I'm sorry," Leo said. "I didn't realize. I'd thought their passing was recent."

"I suspect it had something to do with the deprivations they suffered during the war. I know my father was exposed to some chemical warfare."

"Scary," Leo said, and felt Dune's arm around his shoulders for a quick hug. He looked back at Dune. "You okay, kid?"

"Don't die," Dune said simply. "Not yet."

"Not yet," Leo agreed.

The Bentley was a quiet ride, and between its purr, the boys' quiet conversation in the back seat, and Stuart's mellow jazz from his iPod, Leo found it hard to keep his eyes open. He inhaled sharply and blinked in confusion when Stuart said, "Leo, wake up. We're here."

"We're here?" Leo repeated stupidly and pushed himself up in the seat to look around before getting out. They had stopped in a colorful garden, and up the walk was a long, low house made of creamy stone with a dark slate roof. It gave the impression of crouching low to the ground, even though one end had second and third floors, these made of white brick with a blue roof.

"We're here," Stuart said. "Welcome to Chateau Gauthier." He got out of the car, and after a moment of blinking Leo followed him.

"It's beautiful," Leo said as Stuart got their bags from the trunk of the car. "I can see why you love it here."

"And this is just the front." He gave Leo his garment bag. "Wait until you see the vineyards."

"Here, let me take that," said Dune and slung Leo's garment bag over his shoulder.

"Where are we sleeping, Stuart?" said Micah, picking up his and Dune's suitcases.

"I've put you all in the second floor, whichever room Jamie and Ben haven't claimed. My room is on the ground floor and Leo will be on the first."

"Add one," Micah told Dune. "We're at the top."

"Gotcha," Dune said.

"The old pigeon house has been converted to a cottage, and that's where Amelie and Marc will stay when they arrive," Stuart went on as they went inside. It was cool inside from the north-facing windows and thick stone walls, Leo assumed, though a fire crackled in the great stone fireplace that anchored one end of the main room. "I don't want any noise to disturb the baby, in case things get rowdy."

"No fear of that," said Jamie, rising from the overstuffed leather couch in front of the fireplace, "we're a bunch of homebodies." Everyone was occupied for a few minutes with hugs and exclamations and trying to catch up on the last six weeks in a few minutes.

Ben came out of the kitchen to say hello too, and said, "You're right on time. Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes. One of my friends in Provence taught me to make ratatouille so I hope you're hungry."

"I've always wanted to try that!" said Micah, and then they all clambered upstairs with the luggage and Ben went back into the kitchen, leaving Stuart and Leo alone.

"When you said chateau," said Leo, "I pictured something more castle-like."

"My mother's family wasn't nobility -- not even gentry. The chateau was owned by one of Napoleon's generals for a while and he built the new house, but the rest is the same as it's been since the fourteenth century." Stuart ran his hand over the door frame between the great room and the staircase. "Once you've unpacked and relaxed a bit I'll show you around."

"Thanks. So the part that the general built, that's the new house?"

Stuart shrugged. "It's only two hundred years old, which is only a baby compared to the grange. There's a well in the garden that's older than the grange and still gives water."

"I love that about Europe," Leo said. "You've got a fourteenth-century house and a well that predates the plagues and it's all a matter of course. I love it."

"Do you want me to show you your room?"

"I want to talk," Leo said honestly, and Stuart closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Let me show you to your room first."

Leo went to Stuart and put his arms around Stuart's waist. "Will you lie down with me?" Leo whispered, trying to look into Stuart's eyes, but Stuart determinedly avoided his gaze. "So we can talk?"

"Maybe after supper," Stuart said. He stepped out of Leo's arms. "Come on." He went up the narrow stone steps with Leo following behind.

"How old is your house in London?"

"Eighteenth century," Stuart said. "All the houses in that neighborhood are."

"Love it," Leo repeated. "In the city we're happy if something survived the '06 earthquake. Or the '89 one, for that matter."

"San Francisco is a better idea than city," Stuart said and waved a casual hand to a door. "That's my room. One more flight up and that's you. Nicole will have the one across the landing from yours, if she wants it."

"You don't want to put her in the pigeon house with her sister?"

"The pigeon house only has one bedroom."

"Ah," Leo said, and then Stuart stopped at the top of the stairs and opened another door.

"Here's your room."

"Oh, my God," Leo breathed as he walked in. The room was pale cream with rose and cream brocade curtains, and matching brocade curtains around the rose-colored bed. There was a dormer window with a window seat that looked out over the garden, the olive trees and the vineyard on the slope below, and then beyond that, cherry trees and lavender bushes and more olive groves, and further still was a green valley and the white clustered buildings of the village.

"I thought you might like the view," Stuart said softly behind him. "I know the colors are a bit feminine."

Leo turned to him. "I love it. It's beautiful. It's like a fairy tale."

"
La Belle et la Bete
," Stuart said.

"Which one's that?"

 "Beauty and the Beast. Though his castle was enchanted, of course. Invisible servants, while my workers," he pointed out the window, and Leo could see figures moving among the vines in the setting sun, preparing for the close of day, "are quite mortal."

"You're definitely not the Beast," Leo said. Stuart toyed with the strap of rose-colored silk that tied the curtains back from the window. "Though if you are under a curse, that would explain a lot." Stuart chuckled wryly. Leo said, "You look amazing. Do you work in the vineyards too?"

"I do. I like the exercise. It relaxes me."

"You look incredible with a tan. You look like you've been getting a good workout, with the-- whatever you do in a vineyard. I guess it's not exactly lifting bales of hay."

"Not exactly," Stuart murmured. "Weeding, tying vines back, pruning. Picking the grapes, now."

Leo pushed a lock of sun-gold hair back from Stuart's face, and Stuart closed his eyes again. "It's so good to see you. I've missed you so much."

"Leo," Stuart began.

"I know. You put me in a separate bedroom. I get the hint. But I have missed you. I just want that out there."

Stuart nodded, and turned closer to Leo so he could press their faces together for a moment. He opened his mouth to speak when Ben bellowed up the stairs, "Guys! Come eat!"

They parted and looked at each other painfully. "Suppertime," Stuart said.

"I've never had ratatouille."

"You'll like it," Stuart said and called up the stairs, "Boys! Supper's ready!" and they all came thumping back down the stairs again.

***

The boys did most of the talking while they ate, tongues loosened by good wine and joy in each other's company. Jamie had a story for every stop they'd made throughout Europe, from Ben's chef friend in Provence who took them climbing and then forgot the way back; to the convoluted set of circumstances that involved a group of students from Amsterdam, an American singer on holiday, and a surprise performance in an underground club in Prague that led to the news that their picture would in a music magazine in a few months. Leo listened and laughed, ate the ratatouille enthusiastically and drank the wine, and Stuart thought, every time their eyes met across the table, that Leo looked like he belonged there.

Leo looked good, so good, in his slim black jeans and a rumpled black button-down shirt, but it was more than that. Stuart could picture him picking grapes, his gentle fingers plucking them without a bruise, or playing boules with the old men in the village, or drinking coffee in the square while a band played and couples danced in candlelight.

Stuart supposed he didn't have to keep his hands off Leo during supper -- the boys knew they had been together in London -- but for dignity's sake he put himself opposite Leo at the table and vowed to behave until they were alone again.

Leo, however, made no such vow, and the table was small enough that he could easily reach his foot across and caress Stuart's leg as he carried on conversation in a perfectly normal tone of voice. Stuart managed to remain calm himself, until that sneaky foot came to rest against his inner thigh, and he caught it to keep it from exploring further. He gave Leo a warning look and Leo smiled, utterly innocent.

"Was there something you wanted, Stuart?" he said and Stuart refrained from hauling him across the table only because of the presence of the boys, who had exchanged a few significant looks of their own.

"No," Stuart said, "not a thing," and told himself to stop being ridiculous. Leo smiled as if he knew exactly what Stuart was thinking.

"When do Amelie and Marc get here?" Jamie asked him, and Stuart had to bring himself back to the present before he could answer.

"Tomorrow, probably around noon. I've invited the family here for supper, and then the wedding will take up all of Saturday and likely into Sunday. French weddings are enormous events."

"I'm excited," Micah said. "Even if I don't understand everything people say it's so exciting to see how people do things in different countries, even if they don't seem that different at first glance."

"Prepare to eat and dance and not get any sleep," Stuart said.

"Did everyone accept the invitation for tomorrow?" Jamie said, looking concerned. "I'd hate for you to expect people and have them not show up."

"No one said no," Stuart said. "It was Amelie's idea. I expect they said yes for her sake. Even Etienne Mercier and his wife will be there, and I haven't seen them since Tallis was still a toddler."

"How far away do they live?" Dune said quietly, sharing Jamie's concerned look.

Stuart leaned his head on his hand. "About half an hour's walk to the east. It was fifteen minutes' run when I was a boy, and yes, it's because of the situation with Joelle that we lost touch."

"You're making up with a lot of people at this thing," Dune observed.

"I suppose I'm finally maturing," Stuart replied. "I've been thinking of this as a family reunion of sorts. My children, my future in-laws, and the people who mean most to me." He put down his wine glass when Micah leaned over and hugged him.