centuries ago in the Black Forest: parties of armed men who would allow night to overtake them among the trees, unable to return to the village without the body of the beast that had stolen their hens, dismembered their goats, and disturbed the slumber of their defenseless wives.
The Return
T HIS IS WHAT HAPPENED when Madame Michaud got out of prison. It happened at Les Houx, the Michaud family estate, and was not written up in a single Belgian newspaper. The oldest episodes of the story occurred thirty-nine years earlier, and were much commented on at the time, but now there is probably nobody outside the family who remembers. I’ll tell the story as it was told to me.
Les Houx is a piece of land of about three hectares, acquired by Madame Michaud’s great-grandfather toward the end of 1860, when the country was young and, in the principality of Liège, property changed hands without any formalities. Madame Michaud’s grandfather grew up and lived his whole life there, and so did her father. Madame Michaud and her younger sister, Sara, were born and raised there, and both lived there until, shortly after turning forty, in September 1960—a century had passed since the family took ownership of the property, which was their emblem and their pride—Madame Michaud was tried for the murder of Sara’s fiancé. She was found guilty of having fed the man rat poison used in the stables of Les Houx, and given a long prison sentence.
Madame Michaud’s first name does not matter, but a clarification regarding her surname and civil status is in order. Michaud was her family name and the one on the sign at the entrance to the property: LES HOUX, PROPRIÉTÉ PRIVÉE. FAMILLE MICHAUD, 1860 . Until that September, Madame Michaud was still
Mademoiselle
Michaud; she’d never been known to have a beau, and very few men visited her more than once, but no one ruled out the possibility that, even at forty, she might marry, for a piece of land like Les Houx was worth as much as the richest dowry and made either of the daughters a good catch. But when it emerged that Mademoiselle Michaud had been sentenced to forty-five years in prison, the
Madame
started to slip into people’s conversations. There was in the title a mixture of respect and pity toward a person who could not now marry, and whom it was going to be impossible to carry on calling
Mademoiselle
while she grew old in prison. Madame Michaud was released six years before the end of her sentence, and the first thing she’d do, as everyone surely knew, was to visit the house at Les Houx.
Her love since childhood for the house and stables, the crops and woods, and even the bare fields that led out to the road, that boundless love, would be her undoing. Since she learned to walk, her favorite pastime was wandering through all the nooks and crannies of the house on her own. There was not a single corner of the immense building she did not know or would not have been able to find with her eyes closed. This might not seem such a great feat to those who don’t know Les Houx. So I should say that the three-story house has two stairways that lead to the first floor (one from the kitchen and one from the front hall) and one more that goes directly to the attic. Its perimeter was regular, a perfect closed rectangle like a safe; but the design inside was not at all symmetrical, full of unpredictable niches and alcoves. There was a doorless room entered by sliding the false back of a wardrobe: their grandfather had hidden potatoes and cabbages there from his harvest to induce a rise in prices at the turn of the century, and their father had hidden a Jewish couple there during the war. Between the two events, the room had belonged to the girl. She was solitary by nature, and not even her sister knew where to look for her when it was time to sit down at the table or when she needed her for something. They’d know she’d been in the stables because she’d show up smelling of hay and manure;
The Return
T HIS IS WHAT HAPPENED when Madame Michaud got out of prison. It happened at Les Houx, the Michaud family estate, and was not written up in a single Belgian newspaper. The oldest episodes of the story occurred thirty-nine years earlier, and were much commented on at the time, but now there is probably nobody outside the family who remembers. I’ll tell the story as it was told to me.
Les Houx is a piece of land of about three hectares, acquired by Madame Michaud’s great-grandfather toward the end of 1860, when the country was young and, in the principality of Liège, property changed hands without any formalities. Madame Michaud’s grandfather grew up and lived his whole life there, and so did her father. Madame Michaud and her younger sister, Sara, were born and raised there, and both lived there until, shortly after turning forty, in September 1960—a century had passed since the family took ownership of the property, which was their emblem and their pride—Madame Michaud was tried for the murder of Sara’s fiancé. She was found guilty of having fed the man rat poison used in the stables of Les Houx, and given a long prison sentence.
Madame Michaud’s first name does not matter, but a clarification regarding her surname and civil status is in order. Michaud was her family name and the one on the sign at the entrance to the property: LES HOUX, PROPRIÉTÉ PRIVÉE. FAMILLE MICHAUD, 1860 . Until that September, Madame Michaud was still
Mademoiselle
Michaud; she’d never been known to have a beau, and very few men visited her more than once, but no one ruled out the possibility that, even at forty, she might marry, for a piece of land like Les Houx was worth as much as the richest dowry and made either of the daughters a good catch. But when it emerged that Mademoiselle Michaud had been sentenced to forty-five years in prison, the
Madame
started to slip into people’s conversations. There was in the title a mixture of respect and pity toward a person who could not now marry, and whom it was going to be impossible to carry on calling
Mademoiselle
while she grew old in prison. Madame Michaud was released six years before the end of her sentence, and the first thing she’d do, as everyone surely knew, was to visit the house at Les Houx.
Her love since childhood for the house and stables, the crops and woods, and even the bare fields that led out to the road, that boundless love, would be her undoing. Since she learned to walk, her favorite pastime was wandering through all the nooks and crannies of the house on her own. There was not a single corner of the immense building she did not know or would not have been able to find with her eyes closed. This might not seem such a great feat to those who don’t know Les Houx. So I should say that the three-story house has two stairways that lead to the first floor (one from the kitchen and one from the front hall) and one more that goes directly to the attic. Its perimeter was regular, a perfect closed rectangle like a safe; but the design inside was not at all symmetrical, full of unpredictable niches and alcoves. There was a doorless room entered by sliding the false back of a wardrobe: their grandfather had hidden potatoes and cabbages there from his harvest to induce a rise in prices at the turn of the century, and their father had hidden a Jewish couple there during the war. Between the two events, the room had belonged to the girl. She was solitary by nature, and not even her sister knew where to look for her when it was time to sit down at the table or when she needed her for something. They’d know she’d been in the stables because she’d show up smelling of hay and manure;
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