Lantern Slides from Old Bohemia by Avis Black

Author:Avis Black
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Slash Press
Published: 2012-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

With a sense of execution, Grandjean joined Lucie in the music room after Nomi and Arivan had gone to bed. This was where the family usually gathered in the evenings. Grandjean took his usual armchair and pretended to read a newspaper while Lucie knitted, dreading the arrival of his brother-in-law.

They both heard the sound of Calland’s study door opening and closing. Grandjean’s eyes crept toward the double doors of the music room. Several minutes passed, but Calland did not appear. Lucie’s eyes kept going to her brother while she worked on a crimson scarf, and Grandjean shrank down behind his newspaper.

The clock struck ten. This was the time Monsieur usually went to bed, and the study door opened again. The sound of footsteps grew louder, making a rhythmic thudding as the feet went up the stairs. Calland’s bedroom door closed a moment later.

Grandjean couldn't believe it. Calland was letting this pass?

Lucie stopped knitting. She put down the scarf and chewed the inside of her lower lip, then resumed her work.

“Arivan's a pretty little boy, isn’t he?” she commented.

Grandjean looked up from his newspaper, surprised by the question. He had never heard her describe any male child over the age of ten as ‘pretty’ before.

“Why, yes he is,” Grandjean replied, and resumed his reading. A feeling of something wrong made him glance at her again. From the look on his sister’s face, he sensed he wasn’t supposed to have agreed. A sense of fear began to eel through him. Lucie had never been as naive as Sylvie about their brother.

“Where were you the two nights you didn't come home?” Lucie asked.

“Out with Arivan,” Grandjean blurted, unthinking. He couldn't tell her he'd been rescuing Severac.

“Have you found new rooms for Nomi, yet?”

“Er, not quite.” Grandjean knelt down to lift the cover off the coal scuttle. He began to fill the room heater, saying blandly, “You haven’t had any problems with Ari so far, have you?”

She rose and placed her knitting inside her workbag. “He broke a vase this morning. I want him out of this house as soon as possible.”

Grandjean started to address her, but she left the room before he could speak, and she slammed the door behind her in a spasm of angry motion. Grandjean sat in his chair, stunned.

He tossed aside his reading and gnawed his thumb, trying to think of what to do.

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