A Bordeaux Dynasty: A Novel (21 page)

Of all the members of the family, Louis-Marie was the one who’d wondered most about his little brother’s origins. But the one day he’d asked a question out loud, Aurélien went into such a fury that Louis-Marie hadn’t pushed it. Instead he just watched Jules with curiosity for years after that. Then his interest had turned into respect and affection. Louis-Marie appreciated the fact that Jules had managed to run Fonteyne without undermining Aurélien’s authority, but he was anxious when he thought about what was going to happen after their father’s death.

Once more he glanced at the alley. It was deserted. He felt a vague unease and should’ve acted on it.

Aurélien and Alexandre listened to Jules without interrupting him. A heavy silence followed.

“I would’ve preferred not knowing about it,” Aurélien finally said. “Lucas! I can’t believe it. He’s been working for me for thirty-two years!”

“I’m sure it was the first time,” Jules said. “He’s always been a good cellar master. The problem is that he sees all of the other employees constantly toeing the line. Maybe he was influenced by one of them, he was tempted. … Or maybe we gave him too much leeway. …”

“Influenced? Tempted?” Aurélien said, slamming the top of this desk. “What are you talking about? Stealing is stealing, and that’s that!”

Jules tried to minimize the situation.

“It wasn’t any big operation, far from it. Small thefts, small profits.”

“So, on top of everything else, he’s only a two-bit crook!”

Alexandre was trying to make himself invisible by looking at his feet. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“How did you discover it?” Aurélien asked.

“He gave himself away. He looked so exasperated when I watched him, got so indignant when I asked for precise details. He never used to be like that. …”

In a fit of rage, Aurélien shoved aside the documents waiting for his signature on his desk and said, “We’re going to deal with this right now. Tell Lucas to get over here.”

Jules glanced at Alexandre. He weighed his words and slowly said, “Thing is … there’s Fernande and—”

Scornful, Aurélien interrupted him, “What about Fernande? She’s part of the scheme?”

“Come on,” said Jules. “Don’t be unfair. Fernande is a wonderful woman, and she’d never do anything dishonest. But if you kick out Lucas, she’s going to have to follow him.”

Aurélien gave Jules an icy stare and said, “I didn’t ask you for your input.”

Alexandre found the courage to back his brother and said, “But you can’t get rid of Fernande just like that!”

The words stirred up Aurélien’s anger.

“Fernande! Fernande! I don’t give a damn about her!”

Jules jumped to his feet, now as mad as his father. He was going to say something, but Aurélien was quicker.

“Spare me your dramatics, or get the hell out of my office.”

Jules hesitated for a second, and managed to get ahold of himself. He sat back down and crossed his legs. Aurélien watched him light a cigarette and refrained from commenting. As the silence grew longer, it was Alexandre who broke it.

“If you call Lucas in right now, it’s going to be the end of him here, that’s certain. Why don’t we just take a bit of time to think about some measures that we could take moving forward?”

“When I need your advice, I’ll ask for it,” Aurélien said. “You’re not in Mazion here. I hope that you can tell the difference.”

The allusion to the role that Alexandre had played for the past few days at his father-in-law’s was intentionally hurtful. Aurélien settled in his armchair and looked at both his sons.

“Why is everything going wrong this summer? There’s at least one problem every day. I’m going to have to get everything into shape, and it’s not going to be a pretty sight! And I’m starting with Lucas, to set an example. …”

Jules took a deep breath. He was prepared to do anything to defend Fernande.

“You can’t fire Lucas,” he said, calmly.

“I can’t? Is that what you think?”

There was such a contained threat in Aurélien’s voice that Jules corrected himself.

“Not now,” he said. “That’s what I meant to say.”

Aurélien nodded and waited for the rest.

“I know at least one of the men Lucas dealt with. He was stupid enough to accept a check as payment. I also know the name of the one who paid him and the check number. That’s enough to scare the daylights out of the man.”

“Or to send him to jail,” Aurélien calmly added.

Jules was providing his father with information that he would’ve liked to keep to himself. But he was leaving things up to Aurélien, sacrificing Lucas in order to save Fernande, so to speak.

“Who gave you the information?”

“We deal with the same bank. The branch manager decided that Fonteyne’s account was worth some indiscretion.”

Aurélien kept his eyes riveted on Jules.

“I can’t say that I’m too thrilled with the way you went about this,” he said. “You’ve used our name in a … questionable way. But what counts are the results, I’ll grant you that.”

He let out a short sigh.

“You tell Lucas to come see me at five. I want both of you to be here too so we can all resolve this. If you really think that we have to keep a thief in the house, I’m okay with not showing him the door today. But you two are completely responsible for this, let that be perfectly clear. …”

Alexandre was first to get up and Jules followed suit. They left the office and waited until they were across the hall to look at each other.

“I didn’t think he was going to go for it for a while,” Alexandre said. “God, he can be nasty when he wants to be!”

Jules pushed his brother toward the kitchen.

“Don’t celebrate too quickly. He might change his mind when he confronts Lucas this afternoon.”

Louis-Marie had come down to the kitchen to make some coffee. The three of them settled around the enormous oak table.

“We have a problem,” Jules suddenly said to Louis-Marie, “and you’re going to help us.”

“If you want me to follow you around the vines with the coffee pot, the answer is no. I have my own work to do. …”

He poured his brothers some coffee and added with a smile, “What’s it all about?”

“It’s about Fernande. You like her, don’t you?”

“Of course I like her! Why?”

“You’re going to go to Aurélien and tell him that.”

Stunned, Louis-Marie looked at both his brothers.

“Just like that?” he said.

“Yep. …”

“That’d be strange!”

Jules took a sip of his coffee and said, “It’d be perfect. Even better is if you see Bob and tell him to do the same thing.”

Jules thanked him with a nod and left the kitchen, whistling. Louis-Marie put a hand on Alexandre’s arm.

“You know what he’s got in mind?”

“Yes, and he’s right.”

Louis-Marie laughed and said, “But he’s always right!”

Alexandre smiled.

“Not always,” he said. “But most of the time.”

“I wasn’t criticizing him,” Louis-Marie said.

He stopped laughing, went over to a window, and gazed at the vineyards outside.

“As long as those vines are standing, nothing is going to change around here. … That landscape is what makes you all what you are. … And it’s always going to be that way. …”

Alexandre listened to his brother, surprised by the tone of his voice.

“Man,” he said, “you’re sinister. It’s not so much what you say, but how you say it. Sinister!”

Louis-Marie shrugged. He was overcome by a vague, incomprehensible sadness. He wondered where Pauline was.

Aurélien’s meeting with Lucas was stormy. Furious at having been betrayed by a man he’d trusted and upset at not having noticed anything himself, Aurélien was particularly haughty and unpleasant. Lucas put up with his boss’s criticism and long-winded speech in silence, but he did throw a couple of hateful glances at Jules. He stepped out of the office, head low, without having uttered a single word. Aurélien told Jules that he’d made himself an enemy and that Lucas would no doubt hold all this against him for a long time. He added that, since his sons had insisted that Lucas keep his job, they’d have to live with the consequences of their decision. Before dismissing them, he told them that he’d been visited by his brothers, and that the incident at least had had the merit of uniting his four brothers, for once.

He spent the rest of the afternoon pacing in his office, worried. He knew that Jules wasn’t going to be around for dinner, and he thought that if Lucas didn’t try to get back at his son, Maurice Caze would sooner or later, because of his daughter.

He hoped to be around long enough to protect Jules, all the while knowing full well that his son didn’t need anyone to defend him.

It was Pauline’s voice and her bursts of laughter that distracted him from his musings. He joined his family in the main living room, where everyone was enjoying drinks. Pauline was waltzing around Jules, throwing cheerful compliments his way. He was wearing a dark-blue suit, a white shirt, and a tie, and he seemed amused by the others’ surprise, very comfortable with the unexpected elegance.

“Going to the ball?” Robert asked, chuckling.

“Wow!” added Louis-Marie. “Are you about to ask someone to marry you or something? Where are your white gloves?”

Aurélien sat down, giving his son a head-to-toe.

“My dear brother-in-law,” Pauline said, “I never pictured you in such an elegant suit. You look … perfect! I mean it. …”

Relaxed, Jules only laughed at the onslaught of quips.

“You’re like flies,” he said. “I should’ve escaped through the kitchen.”

Laurène stood to the side, not participating in the banter. As much as she didn’t want to, she felt jealous and miserable. That Jules would go to such trouble to appeal to Camille made no sense to her. He’d always been himself, and to witness this sudden change of attitude filled her with despair. She figured he really was in love with Camille.

Pauline, on a roll, kept up her chattering, “Aurélien, you should require everyone to wear a tie at dinner time!”

“What,” Jules said, laughing, “you think that we always dress like hillbillies?”

He finished his glass of whisky, which was another novelty. Wine was his drink of choice. But in all fairness, the thought of the upcoming evening made Jules feel he needed it. He didn’t have much fun in Camille’s presence. But he was going for it, knowing that Laurène would be anything but indifferent toward his date. He crossed the living room to wish his father a good evening.

“That getup,” Aurélien said, “it’s really just for Camille’s sake?”

He was proud of his son and winked at him.

“Have a good evening, cowboy, and take it easy driving home.”

Jules gave Laurène a distracted smile as he passed her. After he left the room, it took a while for the conversation to get going again.

Camille beamed with happiness. It seemed to her that all the women in the restaurant envied her; the way they were gawking at Jules was telling. She’d dragged him to the most expensive and snobbish restaurant in town, and she’d insisted on ordering the food herself.

With the very first course, he felt aggravated. He looked at the frog legs with disgust and didn’t touch them. But for Camille, Jules’s dark moods were part of his charm. She had no clue who he really was.

The maître d’ was just as stuffy as the décor. Almost everyone in the restaurant knew one another, as they all belonged to Médoc’s upper class. Camille couldn’t stop wiggling in her chair she was so wound up.

“Are you all ready for the harvest at Fonteyne?” she asked, with a ridiculous look on her face.

“Yes, why? You’re having problems in Saint-Julien?”

Camille broke into giggles.

“I have no idea! That stuff about vineyards bores me. I leave it to Daddy.”

She was playing the role of the spoiled young woman. Jules didn’t care for it, and he gave her an indifferent smile.

“You shouldn’t,” he said.

He lowered his eyes on the dish that the waiter was setting in front of him and sighed.

“You’ll see,” Camille said. “It’s exquisite!”

“I’m not hungry,” Jules said to excuse his lack of enthusiasm.

“Taste it!”

He leaned back in his chair and watched her eat. He was dying for a smoke, and he couldn’t wait for Camille to be done eating. He examined her. She was well dressed, wore little makeup, and her bare shoulders should have turned him on. But he wasn’t attracted to her at all.

“If we have to,” she said, “we’ll go to all the restaurants in town, but I want to see you happy to eat at least one time.”

“The region’s best food is at Fonteyne,” he said.

He regretted being there. It was becoming more and more obvious that Camille was in love with him. He wondered what on earth had possessed him to play this stupid game.

“Daddy loves it when you take me out because he’s free to do what he wants. He’s as big a philanderer as your father.”

Jules glared at her.

“My father is no philanderer.”

Camille burst out laughing.

“Come on, Jules. People say things. They also say that you’re the one running things at Fonteyne.”

Jules threw down his napkin and shot back, “Why would you listen to junk like that? Can you picture me shoving Aurélien to the sidelines? He’s the best wine producer there is, and Fonteyne belongs to him, to the last vine. He’s still not retired, believe me.”

Pouting because Jules had been brisk with her, Camille said, “This wine is heavy. … Can you order something lighter?”

Jules gestured at the sommelier and ordered some champagne.

The champagne arrived. He smiled at her, and they raised their glasses.

“To us,” she said with a smile.

He acquiesced in silence. She was looking at him, her eyes sparkling.

“Can I tell you something … something terrible?”

“Yes.”

He was waiting, leaning over the table, and she was melting in front of him.

“I like you,” she said, her face turning red. “I shouldn’t tell you that, I know. Daddy says—”

“Can’t you leave your father out of the conversation for one minute?”

Taken aback, Camille stiffened in her chair. He gave her a cold stare, and that troubled her even more.