Alexandra got up and poured wine into glasses and handed one to Lucinda. She and Stéphie had this sad beginning in common, but, unlike Stéphie, no one had taken her into their family, like Antoine had. He must be a very kind man, she thought.
She carried the tray of glasses over to Félicité without really thinking. But it was up to Félicité if she took one or not. Alexandra took a glass and had a sip. She had no idea how to handle this situation; she just had to play it by ear and hope it turned out all right.
‘I see,’ said Lucinda, who’d also drunk some of her wine. ‘Well, I don’t want her, sweet as she is. I just want my own children.’
‘Stéphie is like a sister to us. We are a team,’ said Félicité.
The other members of the team came back into the room at this moment, the smallest of them holding a plate of biscuits.
Lucinda took a biscuit, looked at it, and obviously wished she had a plate to put it on. Seeing this, Alexandra wondered if she should get one, but then her protective instincts overruled etiquette. She needed to stay by her charges.
Milou, an opportunist, went over and sat by Lucinda, his big head about six inches above her knee. Lucinda took a tiny bite and then gave the rest to the dog. ‘Really, you should teach the dog not to beg,’ she said to no one in particular.
No one replied to this statement. Lucinda cleared her throat. ‘I do understand, children, that you haven’t seen me for a while. But I’m back from Argentina now and would like you to come and live with me. It’s my turn to have you.’ She smiled, obviously hoping that, as children, they would understand the concept of turns.
‘Well we don’t want to,’ said Félicité. ‘We’re happy living with Papa.’
‘But you’re not living with Papa! You’re living with – Alexandra. Do you really want to live with someone who’s paid to take care of you, instead of your loving mother?’
‘Yes,’ said Félicité bluntly and, Alexandra felt, flatteringly.
Alexandra cleared her throat to get Lucinda’s attention. ‘Actually, I couldn’t possibly let the children leave this house without specific instructions from M. le Comte telling me that is what he wishes.’ Alexandra delivered a smile she hoped would end the discussion, although she knew it wouldn’t.
‘I am just as much the children’s parent as he is,’ said Lucinda reasonably. ‘My instructions should carry the same weight.’
‘I was employed by M. le Comte.’ Alexandra was also being reasonable. ‘It was to him I gave my promise to look after his children. All his children.’
‘That doesn’t matter. I am here now. They are my children and I want to take them. They need to be properly educated. Possibly in an English boarding school. You can stay here with the little one.’ Lucinda’s smile was much more convincing than Alexandra’s had been.
‘No!’ said Alexandra and Félicité at the same moment, equally horrified at the thought of them being sent to England. ‘I can’t let the children be separated,’ Alexandra went on vehemently. ‘And I can’t let them leave the house with you either.’
‘This is ridiculous!’ said Lucinda, getting up and walking to the window and then turning back into the room. ‘I’m going to take them to my mother’s house. You’ve met her! She wrote and told me! You can have no problem with that.’
Alexandra bit her lip. ‘The thing is,’ she said apologetically. ‘I have no proof that you are who you say you are, and I can’t guarantee that you will take them to their grandmother’s house. And I don’t know if they want to go.’
‘We don’t,’ said Félicité quickly.
‘You can’t speak for your brother,’ said Lucinda.
‘Yes, I can,’ Félicité said. ‘Can’t I, Henri?’
Henri nodded. ‘And we’re not going anywhere without Stéphie.’
Lucinda gave an exasperated sigh. ‘This is ridiculous! You’d have thought your father would have asked me before he took on another child!’
‘Why?’ said Stéphie.
‘Because – because – well, he should have done!’ Lucinda’s frustration boiled over. ‘I’m leaving. But I’ll be back. With my mother!’ She made this sound like the ultimate threat.
‘That would be delightful,’ said Alexandra. ‘I think she has a bit of broken china she wants me to mend for her. She could bring it with her.’
‘So you’re good at mending china, are you?’ said Lucinda.
‘She’s very good,’ said Stéphie.
Lucinda stalked across to the mantelpiece and picked up a figurine of a shepherdess. ‘Then mend that!’ She threw it on the floor where it smashed into hundreds of pieces. The children gasped in shock, and even Milou growled at this act of destruction. Lucinda left the room with a toss of her elegant head.
Alexandra collapsed on to the sofa. ‘Oh my goodness! She’s hard work!’ She didn’t want to criticise the children’s mother in front of them but couldn’t keep completely silent.
