A Bordeaux Dynasty: A Novel (2 page)

At first, Aurélien worried about a rivalry between his sons. But soon it became all too clear to him—Jules had a gift for this profession, and nothing else interested him. Aurélien understood that Alexandre would never make trouble but that he, himself, would have to hold on tight to his double role of father and manager of the vineyard if he didn’t want to be pushed aside by his adopted son’s wild enthusiasm and precocious competence. He allowed Jules to return after graduation day, and he came back to Fonteyne as seamlessly as he had the first time, twenty years before.

Aurélien sighed once more, overcome with fatigue. Something had changed in the room’s darkness, and he knew that dawn was about to break. He fell into a deep sleep.

Robert slowed down just in time to take the paved road that led to Fonteyne. He let the Porsche coast until it came to a stop. Up ahead, half a mile away, was Fonteyne.

The engine was slowly idling, and Robert opened his window. It was daybreak, the rain had stopped, and strong odors were rising from the earth. Robert had no intention of going anywhere yet. He got out of the car to look around him and was surprised at how he recognized everything so vividly. The vines spread out on both sides of the road, all the way to the outskirts of the house.

“Fonteyne …” muttered Robert.

He felt overcome by a feeling of something like elation, so strong it was almost nauseating. And yet he’d stubbornly stayed away from his family these past six years. Since Louis-Marie and Pauline’s wedding.

In dawn’s gray light, he made out a silhouette down the road, and he knew with certainty that it was Jules coming his way. He watched him with inexplicable pleasure. The sensations that assailed him, jumbled and powerful, troubled him deeply. He would have recognized Jules’s gait anywhere in the world. Jules marched through life with long strides—keeping up with him had always been difficult. Jules stopped in front of the Porsche and smiled.

“Hey, Doc,” he said, his voice drawling and affectionate.

Robert took the last two steps separating them. They didn’t hug each other or shake hands. They just stood there.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” whispered Jules, as he turned toward the vines. “Nothing has changed since the last time you were here.”

Robert rested his hands on Jules’s shoulders and shook them.

“Hey, little bro …”

Jules looked at him for a second, then set his eyes on the Porsche.

“Still a car fanatic?”

Robert pushed him toward the door on the driver’s side. They hopped in and Jules pulled away.

“Is everyone sleeping?” Robert asked.

Jules nodded and stopped the Porsche at the front steps.

“I’ll park it in the garage later,” he said as he got out of the car. “You want to go to sleep or eat something?”

Robert stretched his arms, went up three steps and said, “Coffee first, if you have any.”

They slipped inside the house quietly. In spite of the semidarkness, Robert recognized the hall’s heavy and austere furniture. He ran his fingertips along a tapestry, a familiar gesture he’d forgotten all about. Together, they pushed the kitchen door open. Jules turned on the lights, and Robert naturally sat in his old spot on one of the benches.

“I’m glad you came,” Jules said, setting two mugs on the table.

Aurélien’s voice startled them.

“That car outside, is it a sign of economic success or early dementia?”

Standing in front of a window, Aurélien was looking at the Porsche. He turned to his sons, smiling.

“We haven’t seen you in a million years. I’m happy you’re here.”

Unlike Jules, Aurélien didn’t know the exact reason for Robert’s estrangement, and he assumed it had to do with his career.

“So, that hospital of yours finally let you take a break? And you’re here until harvest? Your room is all made up.”

Though fatherly and benevolent, with those few words Aurélien was establishing his natural authority. Robert felt like a kid again and, for a moment, didn’t think about Pauline.

The dreaded encounter took place later that morning, on the terrace, where the family had gathered for breakfast. That’s where Robert found Pauline and Louis-Marie. He overcame his initial hesitation and made himself go over to them. His older brother sprang to his feet right away. Pauline, much more at ease, flashed her brother-in-law a dazzling smile, wanting to thank him for coming.

She’d gone to see him at the hospital. She’d found the courage not only to make an appointment under a false name, but to approach him without embarrassment or false shame.

Many years ago, when he was a very young man, Robert had been quite the skirt chaser. Everything was going his way back then: His career as a surgeon was off to a terrific start and he had great success with the ladies. Satisfied with his short-lived affairs, he’d driven many women crazy and made a lot of enemies among his rivals. From a good family, elegant, charming, Robert had for a long time cast his superb green eyes on the world with the indifference of a spoiled child. Then he’d met Pauline and fallen madly in love with her. Dazed, he experienced with her a love story he thought would last forever. Until Louis-Marie came on the scene.

Robert vividly remembered that dinner at his brother’s. Robert and Louis-Marie saw a lot of each other then, and Robert couldn’t wait to introduce Pauline to him. The evening had been a catastrophe, as Pauline and Louis-Marie had liked each other at first glance. In spite of a fifteen-year difference in age, they seemed to be made for each other, and they’d flirted in an obvious, provocative, relentless fashion. Leaving his brother’s place that night, Robert knew that his was a lost cause. He knew it, but couldn’t accept it. His passion for Pauline made him believe that he wouldn’t be able to live without her. Their breakup was awful, and Robert refused to see Louis-Marie again. He threw himself desperately into his work, was tempted by suicide, turned to excessive drinking, and wound up virtually never leaving the hospital, carrying his grief like a cross. Oddly, it was his department head’s car crash that saved him, as he suddenly became the man in charge. He had to concentrate on Lariboisière Hospital. He forgot about Pauline and relegated Louis-Marie to the back of his mind, along with Fonteyne and, for good measure, his entire family. Jules wrote to him five or six times a year, and Robert forced himself to reply. It was his only link to the Laverzacs. Robert explained the reasons for his systematic absence to his brother, his categorical refusal to come back to Fonteyne. As expected, Jules didn’t comment. Louis-Marie married Pauline, and they had a little girl, Esther. For both the wedding and the baptism, Jules came up with a pretext for Robert not to attend. The brothers all agreed not to tell their father about any of it. And if, as a result, Aurélien at times thought that Robert was a bit of an ingrate for being so distant, at least he didn’t look at his daughter-in-law with horror. In fact, he looked at her with affection and glee, as Pauline’s exquisite charm had quite an effect on Aurélien, who still enjoyed pretty women. And that she was, more of a playful girl than a woman—and like a child, both funny and exasperating.

And so it had been adorable Pauline who’d come, with such composure, to lecture Robert in his very own medical fiefdom. She’d managed to convince him, rather easily, to make peace. He’d let her speak, floored that he was still so vulnerable, horrified to find himself back at square one. He’d only accepted in order to make her stop talking, so that she would leave, and so he could see her again, overcome as he was by contradictory feelings. Then, as promised, he’d come to Fonteyne, and now there she was smiling at him, without affectation.

Robert made himself look away from her and his eyes met Louis-Marie’s. He detected just a trace of embarrassment on his brother’s face. Realizing that Aurélien was observing them, he suddenly extended his right hand.

Louis-Marie grabbed it and shook it with insistence.

“Since when are you boys so formal?” Aurélien asked.

“It’s been a long time,” Louis-Marie replied.

Robert let go of his brother’s hand.

“But you live in the same city, for crying out loud!” Aurélien said.

He pushed his newspaper aside and gestured at Fernande for a refill of coffee.

The voice of Alexandre, who was dashing up the path outside, interrupted them.

“Bob! Bob!”

Alexandre reached the top of the stairs, out of breath, and ran to Robert. He kissed his brother on the cheeks and slapped him on the back.

Aurélien cut the effusions short with an abrupt question, “Where’s Jules? I’ve been looking for him for an hour!”

Louis-Marie and Alexandre burst out laughing. Robert had heard those words come out of his father’s mouth in every tone imaginable. He felt at home.

“Jules is in the barn with Lucas,” Alexandre said. “He’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”

Alexandre never showed any sign of impatience, in any situation. He never rebelled against his father’s authority, never exhibited any jealousy toward Jules. He sat next to Robert, asking him about his life in Paris. As for Louis-Marie, he was watching his wife closely. Jules suddenly appeared on the terrace—no one had heard him arrive.

“You lazy bums are just sitting around drinking coffee?”

He was joking, happy to find them all there, hands buried in his jeans. Aurélien threw an annoyed look his way.

“Problems with a tractor?” he asked sharply.

“Yes, the Massey. Nothing major, though …”

“Two weeks before harvest …”

Aurélien stared down his son.

“Maybe we’re just sitting around,” he said, “but you’re a month behind your planning!”

Jules frowned and glared at his father.

“I don’t think so …” he muttered.

Pauline broke into laugher, and Aurélien turned to her.

“I’m sorry,” she was able to say, “but I always forget, year after year, how you two are so …”

She stopped herself.

Aurélien waited for the rest, cold as ice.

“So … what?” he asked.

“So … Umm…”

“Busy,” Jules suggested.

Pauline managed to stop laughing and gave him a look of gratitude.

“That’s it,” she said. “Busy.”

“Well,” Aurélien barked, “unlike some people, we’re not on vacation.”

He got up and left the terrace.

“Your father,” said Pauline, “is touchy as ever …”

“If you weren’t so charming,” Jules said calmly, “he’d have told you to go to hell a long time ago.”

Pauline smiled, flattered in any case.

“Thanks for the compliment, Jules,” she said.

She reached for the straw hat that had been left on a chair. It was hot and a few wasps were buzzing above the pots of jam. Robert observed Pauline as she set the hat over her blonde curls. Eager to have the last word, she asked, in a very serious manner, “You guys get up early, you go to bed late, you walk up and down the vineyards nonstop, you try to balance the books … Do you ever find the time to just live?”

Jules shrugged.

Stubborn, Pauline kept at it.

“It’s not like you actually have to watch the grapes grow. They ripen by themselves, right?”

Jules started to laugh, heartily, that particular Laverzac laugh, short and light.

“Pauline,” he said, “you’re too funny! One of these days I’m going to have to show you how things work around here, in detail. It’s very complex. … Louis-Marie’s never told you anything about it?”

And then he spun around and scampered down the terrace’s steps, heading back to work. Pauline watched him go.

“He’s superb,” she said with an air of innocent longing that amused her husband.

Still feeling Robert’s gaze on her, Pauline turned to him and said, point blank, “It was so very nice of you to come …”

He managed to produce a smile. She got to her feet, stretched in a brazen manner, and waved goodbye to everyone with the straw hat, announcing, “I’m going to have a shower now.”

Louis-Marie followed her inside the house, and Robert poured himself a cup of coffee.

“It must be cold by now,” Alexandre said softly.

Robert’s distress was so obvious it made Alexandre feel bad. Dominique’s arrival freed them from the awkwardness of the situation. She hurried over to Robert and kissed him on the cheek.

“Brother-in-law! It’s been so long! Much too long, if you ask me. Your father wouldn’t ever admit it, but you know he’s thrilled to see you.”

She was so joyful and easygoing that Robert felt some relief. Dominique’s cheerfulness was contagious. She stacked the coffee mugs on a tray, talking all the while.

“You’re going to tell us about life as a big shot in that hospital of yours, right? Fernande is planning a dinner that’s going to make you regret having stayed away from here all these years. I so wanted to drive that swanky automobile of yours to run some errands this morning, but Jules wouldn’t give me the keys! So you’re still spending a fortune on cars? By the way, Alex, Lucas is looking for you. It has to do with some barrels …”

Alexandre took off right away and Robert lit a cigarette. Dominique’s presence was making his day. She sat for a moment and stared at Robert.

“You seem a little down. … We’re going to take good take of you here.”

“How are you doing?” Robert asked Dominique with a very serious look on his face.

“Good! I love Alex, the twins are growing up nicely, and I manage to stand your father. That’s saying a lot. Fonteyne is doing well and, if we can avoid a hailstorm, things will be nice and calm for a while after the harvest. Until then, though, there’s a lot to be done.”

Back on her feet, Dominique grabbed the overflowing tray. Robert didn’t have the strength to give her a hand, so he just watched her walk back into the house. He felt hot. For years, thinking about Pauline had been nothing short of torture, but now Robert decided that it probably wouldn’t be any worse to see her on a regular basis. And the other members of the family formed a sort of reassuring barrier. Besides, such an absurd situation couldn’t have lasted forever.

“Sorry. You were daydreaming?”

Robert was startled as Louis-Marie’s hand landed on his shoulder. They traded careful and neutral glances.