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Back The Shoe Queen
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. “And may I say, those shoes are adorable.”
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. ( I )
  7. ( one )
  8. ( two )
  9. ( three )
  10. ( four )
  11. ( five )
  12. ( six )
  13. ( seven )
  14. ( eight )
  15. ( nine )
  16. ( ten )
  17. ( II )
  18. ( eleven )
  19. ( twelve )
  20. ( thirteen )
  21. ( fourteen )
  22. ( fifteen )
  23. ( III )
  24. ( sixteen )
  25. ( seventeen )
  26. ( eighteen )
  27. ( nineteen )
  28. ( IV )
  29. ( twenty )
  30. ( twenty-one )
  31. ( twenty-two )
  32. ( twenty-three )
  33. ( twenty-four )
  34. ( V )
  35. ( twenty-five )
  36. ( twenty-six )
  37. ( twenty-seven )
  38. ( twenty-eight )
  39. ( twenty-nine )
  40. VI
  41. ( thirty )
  42. ( thirty-one )
  43. ( thirty-two )
  44. ( thirty-three )
  45. ( thirty-four )
  46. ( VII )
  47. ( thirty-five )
  48. ( thirty-six )
  49. ( thirty-seven )
  50. ( thirty-eight )
  51. ( thirty-nine )
  52. ( forty )
  53. ( forty-one )
  54. ( forty-two )
  55. ( VIII )
  56. ( forty-three )
  57. ( forty-four )
  58. ( forty-five )
  59. ( forty-six )
  60. ( forty-seven )
  61. ( forty-eight )
  62. ( forty-nine )
  63. ( fifty )
  64. ( fifty-one )
  65. Acknowledgments
  66. Acknowledgments
  67. Questions for Discussion

He was considering whether or not to ask Céline to light a fire when the telephone rang. He hoped it would be Genevieve, apologizing for her lateness and saying she’d be home directly, but no such luck.

“I’m thinking of changing the layout of my rose garden,” said Lady Ticksted, after a stiff exchange of greetings.

“And you want to speak to Genevieve about it?”

“Why on earth would I want to do that?”

He scratched his head. “You mean, you want to speak to me about it?”

“To you?”

This was going nowhere. She was most likely drunk as a skunk, though he couldn’t hear the booze in her voice. “Genevieve’s not here at the moment, Lady Ticksted. And it is rather late. Shall I get her to call you?”

“Well, where is she?”

“I’m not exactly sure.”

He heard her catch her breath. “Don’t you think you should keep her on a rather shorter leash?”

Even knowing them as he did, he was shocked. “She’s not a dog.”

“It was a figure of speech.”

“I’m aware of that.” He found he was grinding his teeth.

“Robert—my husband and I entrusted you with the safety and well-being of our daughter. And you know that Genevieve is fragile. You’re not going to let us down, are you?”

“Lady Ticksted.” He was thundering now. Really thundering. “With all due respect, Genevieve is a fully grown woman.”

“Yes, but—”

“And she’s my wife.”

Another sucking-in of the breath. And then—“Bess has had her babies. Four of them.”

Talking to this damn woman was like doing some cryptic puzzle. Chinese boxes or something. “Bess?”

“Our darling little dog. We shall keep two, I think. I wonder if you’d like to have one?”

“I don’t think so.”

“They’re quite small dogs, you know. Beagles. Do you have them in America? Perhaps you call them something else.”

“I’m sorry, we can’t take one.”

“You will tell Genevieve, won’t you? I’d like her to phone me some time.”

“About the puppies?”

“About her father. He’s not well.”

At the end of the call he went straight back to the bourbon bottle, none the wiser as to what was the matter with the viscount, and indeed still uncertain as to whether the real reason for the phone call was his mystery illness or the puppies or something else that she hadn’t mentioned. Robert often had the sense, when he spoke to Lady Ticksted, that she talked in code. These smoke signals about the rose garden and about Bess’s pups might convey an altogether different message to Genevieve.