The House With Blue Shutters by Hilton Lisa

Author:Hilton, Lisa [HILTON, LISA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Literature
ISBN: 9780857890504
Amazon: 0857890506
Goodreads: 16557456
Publisher: Corvus
Published: 2010-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

SUMMER HOLIDAYS

Otto must once have been a beautiful man, Claudia thought, though the dark, French type aged better. He looked like a Viking next to the Marquis, more so because his straight, massive shoulders were encased in a rough, dark-blue Breton shirt with a pocket in front, which would have looked ridiculous on Malcolm Glover, but seemed stylish and somehow urban on Otto. He was much heavier than Charles-Louis, but his eyes, still a sharp, sudden blue flash, and the remaining gold streaks in the grey hair on his collar, made him an attractive man. Claudia wondered if the Marquis noticed that she noticed. They had driven up to the chateau in Otto’s high, smooth car early in the morning, before it grew too hot, although the windows on the lower floor were already shuttered against the banking sun.

Charles-Louis had said he would be delighted to show Otto over the house, though he doubted whether there would be anything to learn. He had fetched some books from his study, biographies of Hitler and de Gaulle, and Otto looked over them politely as he explained his story in simple but well-accented French.

‘There are some rooms closed up,’ Charles-Louis explained, leading them up the stairs and along a landing, ‘but you can have a look if you care to.’ They turned into a small, pretty room with a bow window giving on to what Claudia guessed would be the garden at the back, with a rather lovely day bed in pale green silk, figured with an old-rose pattern, and a cream tiled fireplace. A modern desk featured a wedding photograph of Delphine in a sort of Renoir confection with an outsized cartwheel hat. ‘Delphine has this room,’ explained Charles-Louis, though Claudia had already ascertained with relief that she and the little boys had gone to the riding stables near Landi. Charles-Louis unlocked a little door, let into the panelling next to the fireplace, which gave on to a narrow passage with bare buff-coloured walls and a tight, twisting staircase. Claudia loved the sense of secrecy of these servants’ alleyways, she had seen them at Versailles and Fontainebleau. Otto hunching over, they came up into a larger space, a gallery that ran the length of the building. It was quite empty, except for an ugly green futon thing, and the air was thick and close, as though the windows had not been opened for years.

‘I haven’t been up here since I was a child,’ remarked Charles-Louis.

The telephone rang below them, deep in the passages.

‘I’ll leave you,’ said Charles-Louis, his feet disappearing down the stairs, ‘come to find me when you’re ready.’

‘Shall we carry on, Otto?’ asked Claudia. ‘There’s nothing here.’

They progressed along the gallery, leaving marks in the dust. Now that Claudia’s eyes were accustomed to the dimness, she could make out vague shapes along the walls, a palimpsest of figures beneath what looked like a hasty coat of whitewash. As Otto fiddled with the bunch of keys the Marquis had handed him, Claudia noticed a patch of wall in one of the window bays that had not been covered.

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