The Heat of Betrayal by Douglas Kennedy

recite:
    â€˜Je voudrais un café . . . voudrais-tu un café aussi? . . . il voudrait réussir . . . nous voudrions un enfant . . .’
    At which point the bedroom door swung open and Paul emerged, dressed, his hair still wet from the shower. He greeted us with a big smile.
    â€˜
Tout à fait, nous voudrions un enfant,
’ he said, coming over and kissing me on the lips.
We would definitely like a child
.
    Then greeting Soraya, he asked her in French:
    â€˜And how is my wife progressing?’
    â€˜She’s doing fantastically. Really gifted with the language. And she works so hard.’
    â€˜That she does.’
    â€˜You think too highly of me,’ I said.
    â€˜She doesn’t think well enough of herself,’ Paul said. ‘Maybe you can help her in that department, Soraya.’
    I told him that breakfast would be here in a minute, but saw that he had his satchel over his shoulder, stuffed with his sketchbooks and pencils.
    â€˜I’ll let Fouad provide that for me. Come find me after the lesson.
Je t’adore.
’
    With another kiss on the lips he was gone.
    Once the door was closed behind him Soraya looked away as she said:
    â€˜
Je voudrais un homme comme votre mari.
’
    â€˜
Mais plus jeune?
’ I added.
    â€˜
L’âge importe moins que la qualité
.’
    I would like a man like your husband.
    But younger?
    The age is less important than the quality.
    â€˜I am sure you will find someone of quality,’ I told her.
    â€˜I’m not,’ she said in a near-whisper.
    And then:
    â€˜All right,
essayer
in the subjunctive. Give me an example in first person singular.’
    I considered this for a moment, then said:
    â€˜
Il faut que je voudrais d’être heureux
.’
    Soraya did not look professorially pleased by my answer.
    â€˜I must would like happiness,’ she said, translating my sentence into her excellent English. ‘You can do better than that.’
    â€˜Sorry. The problem is the use of the subjunctive with “would like”. As you noted you can’t “must would like” something.’
    â€˜So if you were to talk about wanting happiness . . .’
    â€˜
Je voudrais le bonheur
.’
    â€˜Fine. And in the subjunctive?’
    â€˜I would sidestep
vouloir
and use
essayer
. To try. As in: “
Il faut que je essaie d’etre heureux
.”
I must try to be happy
.’
    Soraya then had another one of her thoughtful pauses.
    â€˜It is all about “trying”, isn’t it?’ she said.
    Breakfast arrived and she shared the coffee with me. We worked on until one p.m. Then I paid her for the week and wished her well in Marrakesh.
    â€˜
Entre nous
there is a man – French – whom my classmate wants me to meet. A banker working at Société Générale. My parents would half-approve – the banker, not the French part. But I am getting ahead of myself here, aren’t I?’
    Then, telling me she’d see me on Monday at the usual time, she headed off for her weekend and her meeting with the Frenchman who might, or might not, become a conduit into a new life. Travelling hopefully is the key to so much.
    When Soraya was gone, I took a long shower and changed into fresh clothes, then checked my watch and thought that, if I moved quickly, I could still join Paul for a late lunch at Chez Fouad. But as Friday was the one day when I read my email I decided to quickly scan this week’s dispatches before heading out to the souk.
    The first email I saw had been sent just twenty minutes earlier from my ever-scrupulous book-keeper Morton. It read:
    Now that we have your husband’s audit problems with the IRS out of the way I’ve been doing his books in an attempt to bring them up to date so we are not in a ‘beat the clock’ bind at tax time next year. You know how he throws all his receipts and invoices and credit card statements into that box file