Madame Barrineau laughed. ‘You’ll do, monsieur, you’ll do!’ She turned to the table beside her chair where there was a tray with delicate china cups and a pot of coffee waiting to be poured. ‘Perhaps you would pour the coffee for us,’ she said. ‘I find the pot too heavy to lift these days. Usually my maid Véronique pours for me, but I sent her away.’ Her eyes twinkled. ‘I didn’t think I’d need a chaperone this morning.’

Rupert moved to the table and filled the coffee cups, adding, at her request, cream and sugar to hers. He carried his back to his chair. ‘Perhaps not, madame, but maybe I do.’

‘You are disgraceful, young man,’ she said with a smile. ‘Charmingly disgraceful!’

‘You must allay your daughter-in-law’s fears for Mademoiselle Lucie, madame,’ Rupert said with a smile. ‘I promise you I have no designs on her, and I am far too old!’ And for Hélène too, he thought, but did not say. ‘And as I think I told you the other night, my heart is already engaged elsewhere.’

They passed the next half hour in comfortable conversation, and when Rupert saw that the old lady was flagging a little, he rose to his feet.

‘If you’ll excuse me, madame, I must leave you now. I am removing to Le Coq d’Argent today.’

‘Not, I trust, because Suzanne has made you unwelcome at Montmichel,’ said the old lady.

‘No, indeed, madame, Madame Barrineau has been most hospitable. It was an honour to be included in Lucas’s wedding celebrations, but I would not wish to presume upon her hospitality any further.’

‘Le Coq d’Argent, is it? How long do you plan to stay?’

‘That I have not yet decided, madame,’ Rupert replied. ‘But this is an attractive part of the country and I thought I would take the opportunity to explore it a little.’

‘Then we may still have the pleasure of your company from time to time,’ she said as she pulled the bell ribbon that hung at her side. ‘I hope you will find time to visit me again.’

Rupert bowed to her. ‘Without a doubt, madame.’

A footman answered her call. ‘Monsieur Chalfont is leaving, Albert,’ she said. ‘Please show him out.’

When the door had closed behind him, Madame Barrineau sat back in her chair and closed her eyes. She liked Monsieur Chalfont, she liked him very much. He was charming, yes, but something more. Something in the way he jousted with words reminded her of her own beloved Xavier, dead and gone these twenty years. Too long ago – his voice had already deserted her and now, unless she looked at the miniature she’d always had at her bedside, his face was also slipping away. Was Rupert Chalfont really like Xavier, or was she confusing the two?

‘I’ve lived for too long,’ she said to the empty room. ‘Far too long.’

*

Rupert made his farewells to his host and hostess and left Montmichel as he had arrived, in the chaise driven by the taciturn Lucien. Rupert had been going to walk into the village, little more than two miles away, but Suzanne Barrineau had been horrified at the idea.