Goodbye, Janette by Harold Robbins Page B

more important. But you can begin walking around a little this afternoon. Just don’t overtire yourself.” He snapped his small medical bag closed. “I’ll be back this evening before you go to sleep.”
    “Thanks, Doctor Pierre.”
    The chief night nurse came into the room just as he left. “
Bon jour
, Madame la Marquise.” She smiled.
    “
Bon jour, Soeur.
”
    “I just came by to see how you were.”
    “I’m fine, thank you.”
    “By the way,” the nurse said, “did anyone tell you that your husband was here?”
    Tanya was surprised. “No. No one mentioned it. When?”
    “Two nights ago,” she said. “It was about two in the morning. The reason I didn’t say anything was because yesterday was my day off.”
    “Did he see the baby?”
    “No. Funny, because when I went to show her to him, he had already gone.”
    Tanya was silent.
    “Don’t worry about it,” the nurse said in what she thought was a comforting manner. “I’ve seen that happen many times with husbands. Frenchmen are always upset when they get a daughter instead of a son. But he’ll come around, you’ll see.”
    Tanya forced a smile and nodded.
    The nurse looked at her watch. “I’ve got to go now and get some sleep. I’ll see you tonight.”
    “Thank you,
Soeur
.”
    The door closed again. Tanya looked across the room. The flowers on the dresser were from Johann. Another vase filled with roses had come from Jacques. So Maurice had been here. Strange that there had been no word from him. Not that she expected him to send flowers. There was another knock on the door. “
Entrez.
”
    Johann came into the room followed by Jacques. Both were carrying more flowers. They smiled as they approached the bed. “You look marvelous,” Jacques said.
    “Don’t tell me,” she said. “I look awful and I know it.”
    “No, really,” Johann said. “You look wonderful.”
    “You’re both prejudiced.” She laughed. She looked up at them. “What brings you both here this early in the morning?”
    “We have two problems,” Johann said. “We need your decision before we can do anything.”
    “
Bien,
” she said. “What’s the first?”
    Jacques spoke. “We have to make a public announcement about our deal with Shiki. He wants to do it immediately. I want to wait at least a month for several reasons. One, because you’ll be in shape to appear with him at the press conference. I think it’s very important that we establish immediately your presence in the concern. Two, because it will bring us that much closer to the showings for the fall season and will spark a great deal of interest and publicity to see exactly what we come up with.”
    Tanya’s voice was definite. “I’ll go with your plan. Tell Shiki we’ll make the announcement later. Now, what’s the second problem?”
    They glanced at each other a moment, then Johann spoke. “It’s Maurice again. Jacques tells me that he’s going all over Paris saying that he’s filing for divorce on the grounds of adultery.”
    She looked at Jacques.
    He nodded. “That’s what I’ve heard. Not just once, but many times.”
    She thought for a moment. ‘I don’t see where it matters,” she said. “Originally I wanted a divorce anyway. If he files, let him have it.”
    “It could get complicated,” Johann said. “He’s also claiming that you fraudulently misstated the assets of the companies in making him accept the mineral-water corporation.”
    “Did you talk to the lawyers?” she asked.
    Johann nodded. “He can’t make it stick but it can create problems. Just from a public-relations point of view.”
    She turned to Jacques. “Do you think you can contain it?”
    “I won’t be able to keep it out of the papers,” Jacques said. “But I think I can get you a fair amount of space to counter his stories. After all, he’s not exactly a closet queen. If we let him know that we plan to open the door wide, maybe he’ll have second thoughts.”
    She nodded. “Okay.