it been since we laughed like that? It felt like years.
Did the closeness of the evening mean as much to Delphine as it did to her? Lili doubted it. If Anne-Mathilde had walked in while they were lying on their backs groaning with laughter, would Delphine have scrambled to her feet and tried to cover up her childishness?
Lili fought to convince herself otherwise, but could not. In the past, an evening like this would have ended with the two of them falling asleep in one bed, after a long session of whispering in the dark. Now she felt as if she was unmoored, not knowing where she was, or what direction to turn. The Land of the Floating People, she thought, trying for a moment to picture the scene Meadowlark and Tom might come upon, but the effort didn’t interest her.
She wishes things were the way they used to be, Lili thought. She said so. But they weren’t, and it was obvious they suited someone pretty and outgoing like Delphine better than her.
Thunder boomed at the same moment a flash of lightning illuminated the jets of water in the fountains near the entrance to the château. Rain fell softly at first and then torrentially, as a couple appeared from around a corner of the courtyard, slipping and stumbling on the wet stone paving leading to the main doors.
An image of Eradice’s exposed buttocks came into Lili’s mind, and when the woman’s laughter sounded for a moment just like Delphine’s, Lili felt a shudder deep within. It couldn’t be. Not yet.
Lili tiptoed into the other room and saw Delphine asleep, her hair strewn in pale rays on the pillow. The casement window was rattling and rain was collecting on the sill. Lili closed it tightly before crawling into bed next to her.
* * *
DELPHINE SAID NOTHING about finding Lili in her bed when she woke up. She hadn’t turned to hug her, or brush her hair away with a tender look. She had jumped up and said something about how late it was, and asked whether Lili knew where she had put her new riding boots. Now, when what Lili had begged for was a quiet day in the woods with Maman, only the loudest squawks of annoyed birds penetrated the sound of the horses’ hooves as the group of six trotted down the path.
Does everything turn into hell here? Lili wondered. I want to go riding to get away from the people at Vaux-le-Vicomte, not bring them along with me.
The riding party broke into a slow gallop as they left the stables, aiming to reach the shade of the forest quickly. The fresh smell of the night rain had given way to the cloying odor of blasted flowers and sour grass steaming in the hot summer sun. Lili’s new riding outfit, made of velvet heavy enough to stay in place, caused her petticoats to stick to her thighs and sweat to trickle down the groove of her back inside her tight jacket.
The trail entered a glade at the edge of the forest, and the party gathered in the dappled shade. The men mopped their brows, uttering mild curses at the heat, while the girls dabbed at their faces so as not to displace the light powder and touch of rouge suitable to their age. After a moment, Delphine and Jacques-Mars Courville trotted off in the lead. Lili could see the feather on Delphine’s hat bobbing as she tilted her head this way and that, just the way she practiced in the mirror. Anne-Mathilde and Joséphine were in the middle and Lili was at the rear with Anne-Mathilde’s brother Paul-Vincent, who, though he was the heir to Vaux-le-Vicomte and the future Duc de Praslin, was of little interest to anyone because he was only thirteen.
“You don’t smile very much.” Paul-Vincent was looking at her. Lili gave him an overblown, crazed smile she hoped would convey that she didn’t welcome conversation, but he just kept staring. “You always seem to be thinking about something.”
“I’m thinking about how much I would like to be left alone,” Lili said.
“And I’m thinking I should be insulted,” he said in return.
The unexpected
Did the closeness of the evening mean as much to Delphine as it did to her? Lili doubted it. If Anne-Mathilde had walked in while they were lying on their backs groaning with laughter, would Delphine have scrambled to her feet and tried to cover up her childishness?
Lili fought to convince herself otherwise, but could not. In the past, an evening like this would have ended with the two of them falling asleep in one bed, after a long session of whispering in the dark. Now she felt as if she was unmoored, not knowing where she was, or what direction to turn. The Land of the Floating People, she thought, trying for a moment to picture the scene Meadowlark and Tom might come upon, but the effort didn’t interest her.
She wishes things were the way they used to be, Lili thought. She said so. But they weren’t, and it was obvious they suited someone pretty and outgoing like Delphine better than her.
Thunder boomed at the same moment a flash of lightning illuminated the jets of water in the fountains near the entrance to the château. Rain fell softly at first and then torrentially, as a couple appeared from around a corner of the courtyard, slipping and stumbling on the wet stone paving leading to the main doors.
An image of Eradice’s exposed buttocks came into Lili’s mind, and when the woman’s laughter sounded for a moment just like Delphine’s, Lili felt a shudder deep within. It couldn’t be. Not yet.
Lili tiptoed into the other room and saw Delphine asleep, her hair strewn in pale rays on the pillow. The casement window was rattling and rain was collecting on the sill. Lili closed it tightly before crawling into bed next to her.
* * *
DELPHINE SAID NOTHING about finding Lili in her bed when she woke up. She hadn’t turned to hug her, or brush her hair away with a tender look. She had jumped up and said something about how late it was, and asked whether Lili knew where she had put her new riding boots. Now, when what Lili had begged for was a quiet day in the woods with Maman, only the loudest squawks of annoyed birds penetrated the sound of the horses’ hooves as the group of six trotted down the path.
Does everything turn into hell here? Lili wondered. I want to go riding to get away from the people at Vaux-le-Vicomte, not bring them along with me.
The riding party broke into a slow gallop as they left the stables, aiming to reach the shade of the forest quickly. The fresh smell of the night rain had given way to the cloying odor of blasted flowers and sour grass steaming in the hot summer sun. Lili’s new riding outfit, made of velvet heavy enough to stay in place, caused her petticoats to stick to her thighs and sweat to trickle down the groove of her back inside her tight jacket.
The trail entered a glade at the edge of the forest, and the party gathered in the dappled shade. The men mopped their brows, uttering mild curses at the heat, while the girls dabbed at their faces so as not to displace the light powder and touch of rouge suitable to their age. After a moment, Delphine and Jacques-Mars Courville trotted off in the lead. Lili could see the feather on Delphine’s hat bobbing as she tilted her head this way and that, just the way she practiced in the mirror. Anne-Mathilde and Joséphine were in the middle and Lili was at the rear with Anne-Mathilde’s brother Paul-Vincent, who, though he was the heir to Vaux-le-Vicomte and the future Duc de Praslin, was of little interest to anyone because he was only thirteen.
“You don’t smile very much.” Paul-Vincent was looking at her. Lili gave him an overblown, crazed smile she hoped would convey that she didn’t welcome conversation, but he just kept staring. “You always seem to be thinking about something.”
“I’m thinking about how much I would like to be left alone,” Lili said.
“And I’m thinking I should be insulted,” he said in return.
The unexpected
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