Cricket paused, looking up at Louis before she turned back to Sylvie. It made Sylvie wonder how much they’d talked while she’d been gone. “He did mean it. Perhaps he should have said it in kinder words, but he was right about some things. I have been acting like a kid trying to keep something from my parent. In some ways, that was part of the excitement of it, having something secret for a while. I should have announced that Louis and I were seeing each other and gotten it all out in the open. Then he would have known that I was the one who gave Louis that stock tip. I wanted him to show Rene he didn’t need any money. I knew how Rene would react.”

Yet Rene had married a civil servant who had little cash. “Yes, I definitely believe that talking to Rene would have been better. We need to do that going forward. My question is, what could Charles have told him that would make him want to break off a relationship that up until that moment he’d wanted quite badly?”

“Charles can be ruthless.” Louis moved into the parlor, Cricket following him. “I suspect it has something to do with you.”

She thought so, too, but couldn’t come up with what he could have found out about her that he could hold over her head. “Whatever he says he has, let him bring it on. If he thinks he can run someone against me in the next election, I’d like to see that candidate. Whoever it is will try to sit through our first town hall–style debate and then run.”

Town halls tended to devolve into craziness. And sometimes fight club.

“Rene would be worried he could cost you your career.” Cricket sank down on the antique sofa, offering Louis the place beside her. “Didn’t he say something about losing everything? Do you think he’s going to let Charles have the job?”

“I think he would do almost anything to save this house,” Louis mused.

“Unless it would hurt his wife, and then he would give it all up in a heartbeat.” Cricket’s healthy hand slid across the arm of the sofa, as though she was remembering all the good times she’d had in this room. “As he should. If there was one thing I could say to him right now, I would let him know how proud I am of him for trying to take care of his wife.”