The Light of Paris. Элеонора Браун

of his beard. He wasn’t especially tall, but he was broad-shouldered and big of hand, and at the moment, covered in dirt. My mother would have been horrified by the first impressions we were making.

      “Madeleine Spencer. It’s a pleasure. So now you know my hiding place. May I ask why you’re creeping around in the garden?”

      “My mother doesn’t keep any food in the house. She survives on Melba toast and the blood of her enemies.”

      He barked out another laugh, his curls bouncing. “You’re lucky. Those strawberries shouldn’t be ripe for another two weeks.”

      “Yet another one of the myriad ways fortune smiles upon me. What about you? Do you work at the restaurant?”

      “I own it, actually.”

      “Congratulations. My mother thinks you’re Satan for opening it next to her house, by the way.”

      Henry winced. “I know. I feel awful. She’s an incredible gardener. I’d hoped we might have something to talk about.”

      I looked over his shoulder at his garden, which was all function, long, straight rows of turned earth, tomato cages and strawberry planters standing sentry, stakes at regular intervals to separate out the crops. “Do you grow all this food for the restaurant?”

      “As much as I can.”

      “That’s amazing.”

      “I’d like to grow more. I wish your mother would talk to me. I have so many questions about how she gets such incredible produce, but she refuses to talk to me.”

      “Well, you don’t have to worry about it for much longer. She’s selling the house, apparently.”

      Henry lifted a broad fist to his chest. “Mon Dieu!” he said. Okay, no, he didn’t, but he looked so surprised, his eyes opening wide, his hand clutching his itty-bitty sledgehammer to his heart as though he were a well-armed heroine in a Regency romance. “Oh no! Was it something I said?”

      “Hmm. She does hate you a little bit.”

      “Yes, she’s made that fairly clear. I invited everyone in the neighborhood for a private dinner before we opened. Everyone came except her. And this one other couple, but I gave them a bye because the wife was giving birth.”

      “Generous of you.”

      “I like to think of myself as a magnanimous neighborhood overlord,” he said, giving a little bow and then returning the mallet to his side. “In any case, your mother marched the invitation back over to me and told me exactly what I could do with it.”

      “My mother? I don’t think so.”

      “Well, there were no specific body parts suggested, but the phrase ‘ruining the neighborhood’ might have been involved.”

      “Huh. Well, if anyone could tell you in a polite way that you’re ruining the neighborhood, it would be my mother.”

      “So I’ll extend the invitation to you instead. You should come to dinner sometime. My treat.”

      “That’s a very kind offer,” I said politely, but my stomach, hearing the suggestion of food, growled again quite rudely.

      “You should get back to your strawberries,” he said, nodding at my impromptu basket.

      “You should get back to your lurking.”

      “Can’t lurk all day if you don’t start in the morning,” he said, with such genuine cheerfulness that I couldn’t help but laugh. “Nice to meet you, Madeleine.”

      “Likewise.”

      Trying to keep from exposing myself in my flimsy boxer shorts, I took a few steps backward, the earth yielding gently beneath me. How long had it been since I had felt the ground beneath my bare feet? It was delicious and made me feel oddly like weeping. When Henry went back to his work, I turned and began to walk toward the house, looking up at its sprawl, the empty windows winking back at me in the sun.

      It had always been my destiny to have a big house like this, filled with antiques and enough furniture for dinner parties and enough lawn space to host a fundraiser. It was what everyone I had gone to school with was doing; my mother sent me casually remonstrative pages from the Magnolia Providence-Journal and Magnolia Style, in which the girls I had once known, now women, were photographed hosting luncheons at their home with distinguished guests.

      But I didn’t want a house like this. I felt lost in our condo, which was not even a quarter as big, and still more than we required. I dreaded the day Phillip would announce we were going to move to the suburbs and I would have to hire a housekeeper and a gardener, a pool service. I far preferred a life I didn’t need assistance to maintain.

      I finished eating the strawberries and tossed the hulls in an oversized planter by the French doors leading into the living room. Inside, the house was still. “Mother?” I called.

      “Good, you’re awake.” My mother came bustling into the kitchen, carrying her purse and a stack of papers. Of course, I was still in my pajamas with sleep in my eyes and my hair standing on end, while my mother, who had probably been up since five, had her hair and makeup perfectly done and was armored in a pair of charcoal-gray slacks, a lavender cardigan, and a scarf knotted neatly around her neck like an air hostess.

      “Sentient, even.”