Amandine (2010) by Blasi Marlena De

Author:Blasi, Marlena De [De, Blasi, Marlena]
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-01-14T19:19:34.468000+00:00

“She must have said more. Tell me once again, word for word, where did she leave her, with whom, where is my baby?”

“I know nothing more. You must understand that your mother never spoke to me of, never, before that moment, told me of your child. Never. She spoke at length of your father, of his liaison with the baroness, his unfortunate death, their unfortunate deaths. She spoke of you and your childhood, your talents, your beauty. She spoke of your husband, of her joy in your marriage to him. But never a word about a child. Not until, not until then.”

The two are sitting in the mandatory dark in the small drawing room of Andzelika’s suite, the long windows open to a midnight on the Île Saint-Louis, to the whispering of the Seine against the stones of the quai d’Orléans. Bajka hovers, brings tea, sets down a bottle of Frapin and a large Baccarat snifter in front of the colonel.

“You see, had I known about the child, anything at all about the child beforehand, I might have asked her where, with whom but—”

“I understand. It’s only that she has left me nothing, nothing at all with which to begin my search for my baby. My child. Nor has she left me an explanation as to why she would have ‘hidden’ her from me, kept her ‘hidden’ for all these years. Why the lies, the secrets, the mysteries? Yet I hardly need ask since my mother’s life was made of maneuvers and feats of the impossible. They were her drugs, Colonel.”

Having himself been witness to a few of those maneuvers and feats of the impossible, the colonel smiles, asks, “What of this necklace she mentioned? ‘I left the necklace, Andzelika’s necklace.’ Could it somehow be traced?”

“I’ve thought about it, and I think she must have meant the pendant she gave me on my thirteenth birthday. A very old Bohemian piece that belonged to her great-grandmother and was passed down from mother to daughter. She must have taken it from among my things at some point, because I recall looking for it and not finding it. I’d been fearful of asking her about it because I didn’t want her to know that it was missing. She loved that piece above all. Mother had magnificent jewels, Colonel, though I doubt she displayed many of them during your ‘stay’ with her. But how she loved that little amethyst carved into the shape of a bottle with a lilac pearl for a stopper. That she left that, precisely that, along with whatever else she bequeathed my baby tells me much.”

“That she accepted her as, as the next female in line. Is that what you mean?”

Andzelika nods. “Still, it by no means represents a clue to where she left her or how I can find her.”

“Who was the child’s father?”

“A boy who was a schoolmate of my cousin. Boarding school in Warsaw. I think he was a year older than I. About a year older. He didn’t love me.

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