tour through the village, giving her a thrill with a couple of little wheelies while he was at it. Those elicited shrieks of happy excitement from Lily.
Before she arrived at the cottage at the bottom of the hill a woman emerged from inside and waved at her. Probably in her mid-thirties, she had a full, sensual beauty that looked a bit careworn but must have been something spectacular when she was younger.
“Hello,” she called out. “You must be Princess Julienne. Welcome! We’re so glad to see you.”
Andre arrived with Lily in tow, and two other little girls gathered around, begging for a ride as well.
“After lunch,” Giselle told them. “We’ve got salad and finger sandwiches. The girls made the sandwiches themselves.”
Going into the cottage, they all sat down around a large table. The sandwiches were free-form, as you would expect when such young ones did the cutting. But everything was great—in a homespun way.
But as Julienne began to look around the room she began to notice something. Everything was very simple, but there was a spare elegance to it that bespoke something other than poverty. As she studied her surroundings she noted more and more items that were first-quality and looked very expensive. One way or another, this family was doing quite well for itself.
But Andre didn’t seem to have noticed.
“Whatever happened to … what was his name? Tavist?” he asked his cousin.
“Tavert?” Giselle looked at him, bemused. “You mean my husband?”
Andre looked surprised. “Was that his name?”
“It was, and it still is.” Giselle grinned at him.
“Oh. I thought he was gone?”
“He is gone, but he’ll be back. He’s in Paris right now, negotiating with a major distributor.”
Andre was looking more and more confused. “A major distributor? Of what?”
“Garden decor. Mainly statuary. You didn’t notice on your way in?”
She led them to the window and pointed out the many fantasy creatures inhabiting the yard, from unicorns to geese to garden gnomes.
“We started experimenting with cement forms and casting from our own designs. We sold a few in our little shop, but things didn’t really take off until we started selling on the internet. Now we have customers from all over the world.”
They chatted a while longer, and Julienne hoped that Andre was coming to terms with the fact that his cousin’s life hadn’t been completely ruined after all.
“So you’re still happy with the choice you made?” Julienne asked Giselle when she got a chance to talk to her privately. Andre was giving the girls turns at riding around the block on the motorcycle.
“Absolutely. The best thing I ever did.”
“You ought to let Andre know. He thinks you made a big mistake.”
Very quickly she explained about Alphonso, and how Andre was trying to convince her to marry him willingly. Giselle listened to the whole story, asked a few questions about the background and the treaty, then shook her head.
“Julienne, you do understand that the only reason you were paired with Alphonso was that Andre was already betrothed to that Italian princess?” she said, bringing up something Julienne had never heard a hint of before. She wondered if she’d heard what she thought she had.
“Wh … what?”
“You didn’t know that?”
“Italian princess?”
“Yes. And, believe me, he wasn’t ready to get married at the time. This was almost eight years ago. He fought it hard, but his father, King Harold, insisted he had to do it for the good of the country. And I have to admit Andre is all about duty and the country. He’s the essence of the patriot. He finally agreed to do it.”
“No! No one ever told me.” Julienne shook her head, stunned. “But he never did get married, did he? What happened to her?”
“She died. It was very sad.”
And Andre was back, so their conversation ended. But the revelation was shocking to Julienne and she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Was it true? Giselle had intimated that she might have been paired with Andre instead of Alphonso if the timing had been right. The very concept took her breath away.
“We’d better get going,” Andre was saying. “We want to make it to the lake house before dark.”
“Ah, you’re going to the lake house?” Giselle shook her head with a bemused smile. “So many happy summer memories, so many years ago.”
Looking at her, he realized the current practices his family engaged in needed updating. Why not invite Giselle and her girls to the lake house? Why not let a new generation start building those happy memories for themselves? It wasn’t