River Queen Rose by Shirley Kennedy

Author:Shirley Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-07-17T12:15:32+00:00

Chapter 12

Thanks to the efforts of Monsieur Gaston Bernier, the French restaurant was not only taking shape, it was going to be far finer than Rose had even imagined. When she told him “Spend what you need,” he took her at her word. Soon every steamboat arriving from San Francisco contained items meant for the River Queen’s fancy new restaurant. Gaston had shut the old restaurant down. Whenever Rose peeked inside, she was met with a disarray of unpacked boxes, rolls of carpeting, and stacks of what looked to be new tables, but she wasn’t sure. “Do not worry,” Gaston would reply when she asked. “It will all come together in due time.”

Meantime, a lunch counter had been hastily erected next to the bar in the saloon. Run by Gus, dirty apron and all, it provided a simple fare of soup, hard boiled eggs, and sandwiches. To Rose’s surprise, Gaston hadn’t yet fired the surly cook. “So what will you do about Gus when the new restaurant opens?” she asked him one day. “Will he still be running the lunch counter?”

The Frenchman flashed his little enigmatic smile, the one she’d become quite familiar with. “Maybe yes, maybe no. Do not worry, madame.”

That wasn’t all. In a moment of rashness, she’d left the choosing of the restaurant’s new name entirely up to Gaston. Now she wished she hadn’t. She was dying to know what he planned to call it, but he remained cagey. “Perhaps I’ll name it after one of Paris’s oldest restaurants. La Petite Chaise. It’s been there since 1680. Louis XIV ate there. Their onion soup, their steak tartare! Mon Dieu!” He blew a kiss in the air.

“La Petite Chaise has a nice ring to it, Gaston. I’d be happy with—”

“But on the other hand, La Tour d’Argent has been open since 1582. It was there that King Henri III used a fork for the first time.”

“Fine. La Tour d’Argent, then.”

“I will let you know in good time, madame.” Gaston gave her his eyebrows-lifted “end of conversation” look with which she never argued. Funny, for all his outrageous arrogance, she liked him and trusted him completely. Judging from what she’d seen so far, he was doing an excellent job. The new restaurant was taking shape nicely and she couldn’t be more pleased. Not only that, from what she’d seen of his cooking, she was sure she’d found an outstanding French chef who would soon dazzle Sacramento with his culinary skills.

Too bad Drucilla didn’t feel the same. Strange though it seemed, the Frenchman obviously found her attractive, although how that was possible, Rose didn’t know. All the same, his eyes lit whenever he saw her no-nonsense sister-in-law. No matter how busy he was, he would stop and engage her in a conversation all in French. In return, she would remain impatiently polite and always hurry off at the first opportunity.

More than once, Rose tried to convince her sister-in-law that a miracle had occurred and she’d attracted an admirer. “The man really likes you.

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