Cold Winter in Bordeaux by Allan Massie

Author:Allan Massie [Massie, Allan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780704373549
Publisher: Quartet Books
Published: 2014-01-30T22:00:00+00:00

Neither spoke till the maid had supplied them with a glass of the wine which was the colour of pale straw and had an astringent taste.

‘Do you want to speak to Michel?’

‘I think I may have to, but to you first, in the hope that … ’ He paused. ‘I like the boy. My daughter is in love with him, there’s no doubt about that, and she is sure he loves her. It’s first love for her, and perhaps for him too. I’ve nothing to complain of. With regard to that. First love, it’s beautiful, but those who experience it are vulnerable. Peculiarly vulnerable it seems to me. I don’t want Clothilde to be hurt.’

‘And you think Michel will hurt her?’

‘What he wants – intends – to do is hurting her.’

‘I won’t pretend I don’t know what you mean. It distresses me too.’

‘Can you prevent it? That’s what I’ve come to ask.’

The professor laid his hand on the book which he had placed on the little table by his side.

‘Michel’s like Fabrice, Stendhal’s hero,’ he said. ‘An ardent boy, an idealist, passionate, in search of adventure, not, I fear, very clever or possessed of good judgement. But … he doesn’t listen to me. He’s fond of me, even grateful to me, but he doesn’t listen. I could tell him he’s heading for disaster, careering towards the abyss, and he would dismiss my warning as coming from someone who has lived too long to know anything. The certainties of the young are frightening for one of my age. In the novel Fabrice alarms those who love him – it’s also part of his attraction.’

As it was of Alain’s, Lannes thought, feeling a new sharp stab of anxiety.

‘Germany will lose the war,’ Lannes said. ‘I’m sure that’s inevitable now, but there will be horrors before it does, and horrors here in France too. Can’t you convince him of that?’

‘Could you?’

‘I don’t know. Probably not. Would you like me to try?’

‘Our poor France,’ the professor said. ‘She’s devouring her children.’

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