Just Rewards (Harte Family Saga) by Bradford Barbara Taylor

Author:Bradford, Barbara Taylor [Bradford, Barbara Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2010-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Tessa was happy that they had come to Clos-Fleuri after spending three days in Paris. She had grown to love Jean-Claude’s lovely old country house, and it was the perfect place for Adele to roam around in, with so many odd nooks and crannies. Elvira liked it here, too, and enjoyed tramping around the grounds with Adele in tow.

Now, as she sat at the dressing table in her bedroom, putting on makeup, Tessa thought about the next few days. Jean-Claude’s only child was coming to spend the weekend with them before Jean-Claude flew off to fulfill his assignment in Afghanistan and she returned to London.

Tessa was looking forward to meeting Philippe Deléon. He was thirty-one and an artist who lived in the South of France, not married and something of a loner. He was a talented painter, according to his father, and was finally beginning to get the recognition he deserved. She had spoken to him several times on the phone, and he sounded nice. She found herself wanting him to like her. Jean-Claude had chuckled when she had said this to him yesterday, and he had answered, “Mon Dieu, chérie, how could he not like you? Please, do not worry so much.” After that there had been no further discussion about Jean-Claude’s son. Tessa knew he had been brought up by his mother in a little town called Beaulieu-sur-Mer, between Nice and Monte Carlo, visiting his father in Paris during the school holidays.

Picking up a comb, Tessa ran it through her silver-blond hair and then walked over to the armoire. Within seconds she was dressed in a white silk blouse, white wool trousers, and a white cashmere jacket with hand-embroidered front panels. Stepping into high-heeled beige suede shoes, she walked over to the window, parted the draperies, and looked out.

It was a very clear night, with a huge full moon floating low in the ink-black sky. It cast a silver sheen across the frost-covered lawns and the bare trees, skeletal in the moonlight. Bereft, she thought, the garden looks bereft arid very eerie in this light. An involuntary shiver ran through her as she lingered, staring at the ghostly landscape. Then she stepped away quickly, letting the drapery fall from her hands, and returned to the dressing table; after spraying herself with perfume, she put on pearl earrings and slipped her engagement ring onto her finger. Looking at it for a moment, she thought of Jean-Claude and his impending trip to Afghanistan.

How it worried her, this assignment covering the war. All she could think about were guns and destruction and death. She dared not let him know how concerned she was because it would upset him, and that was the last thing she wished to do. She wanted him to go off with a clear head; she did not want him worrying about her while he was away—he needed to be totally concentrated on what he had to do—but she did have her moments when panic overwhelmed her. She had had so many losses in her life, and she could not bear another one.

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