**Edit**
Here is a link to the French to English translations I have compiled for your reading aid.
http://alysonbowen.blogspot.com/2014/05/french-to-english-translations.html?m=0#.U4pawxZcMpA
Rose
Chapter 3
Violette droned on about some
more of her shallow friends from lycée. He tried really hard to pay attention,
but she was just so boring. She
didn’t even have a sense of humor.
In an attempt to stifle a yawn, he distracted himself by pulling at a
loose thread in the bottom seam of his shirt. After all of two seconds, the seam started to unravel. In a panic he tried to break the thread,
but it continued to undo the hemline.
He held the thread close to the shirt and wrapped the end around his
finger hoping to break it. After a
few failed attempts that turned the tip of his finger blue, he pinched the seam
between his thumb and his forefinger and pulled one last time, snapping the
thread off. “Ha!” He cried out, interrupting his
date. “Je suis désolé.”
“Phillippe, have you even
been listening?” She glared at him
across the table, annoyance written in her olive green eyes, breaking the
steady motion of twirling her ashy brown hair she had maintained while talking.
“Non, Vi. I got
distracted. I apologize. Would you like me to get you a refill
on your drink?”
“Ouai, si tu veux.”
He grabbed her glass and
headed to the café counter, glancing at the clock on his way. 11 h 30. They had only been here a half an hour? Sighing he asked for a refill on her limonade as he paid the check for their
food. Bringing the glass back to the table, he had to blink a few times as
there was a young man sitting in his seat, clearly flirting with Vi.
“Excusez-moi, monsieur.”
“Oh,” Vi glanced up at him
irritated at his interruption.
“Paul, c’est Phillippe. He’s a...family friend.” She returned her gaze very intently
toward Paul, licking her lips without shame.
“Violette, I brought you your
drink, but I just looked at the clock and it’s time to go. Your family wanted you home soon and I
have fencing to get to. It was
nice to meet you, Paul.” He
couldn’t resist mimicking Vi’s tone of voice when he said Paul. Ignoring her protests, he pulled out
Vi’s chair and made sure to flash his Bugatti key for Paul to see.
“Au revoir, Paul.” She
winked at him before Phillippe took her arm and escorted her out of the
café. “What was that for? This date was finally getting
interesting.”
“Just get in.” He opened the red car door as she
slumped into the seat with folded arms.
They drove home in silence since Vi always complained about his choice
of music. When they pulled through
the gated driveway at the De La Fontaine winery and estate, he still got out
and opened her car door and walked her up the driveway. “Thank you again for déjeuner. I hope you had a good time.” He managed
to say before opening the richly adorned front door for her to go inside. Leah was just inside the door and
smiled at Phillippe as Violette stomped inside.
“How did it go?” Leah asked.
“Always a pleasure, Madame De
La Fontaine.”
She smiled sweetly back as if
they alone shared the secret of how frustrating Violette was. “Daisi will be sad she missed you. She’s still over at a friend’s house.”
“Daisi is always a ray of
sunshine I am sad to miss.”
“She’s still disappointed
that she’s not Violette.”
He laughed. It felt good after the frustration of
another failed date. It had always
been painfully obvious how much more Daisi cared for him than Violette
did. “If I were younger, she’d
have my heart. She already does,
but that’s more in a sisterly capacity.”
He glanced at his watch.
“Well it was very nice to see you again, merci encore.”
“Au revoir, Phillippe!”
He waved as he ran back to
his car. She was always so
polite. Obviously, Vi got her
personality more from Stéfan. As
he drove, he found himself wishing it were Friday again. Yesterday had been so busy at the
winery that he hadn’t had time to head back to Domfront, and now that it was
Saturday, he wasn’t sure Rose would be free. Something about her fascinated him. She carried herself so gracefully and
confidently for someone so shy.
She was incredibly cordial and polite, but at the same time she had no
idea how to talk to strangers. And
she was so content with such a bland life.
Of course it was her beauty
that had first caught his eye. Her
moonlit eyes and that honey colored, overly animated hair that had all the bits
of attitude that she lacked. But
it was something about her personality that stuck with him. Of course he wanted to go back and see
her again. Maybe it was her
apparent lack of money that struck him.
He never spent time around anyone except the winery investors and the De
La Fontaine family. She was such a
contrast to Violette, the otherwise occupied woman he was destined to
marry. Not that he would ever date
Rose after the promises he had made to his parents at such a young age. He took promises very seriously. Vi just made it difficult to keep his
word.
He had to go and talk to his
dad again. Paul had pushed things
a little too far. Vi was clearly
less interested in him than he was with her, maybe because the arrangement had
been made before she was born. As
he pulled up to his own family winery and estate, he tried to shake off his
anger with Vi so he could calmly confront his father about the situation. Heading straight for Hubert’s office,
he had to sneak behind the statue his mother insisted on keeping in the
entryway to get around the tour group in the foyer to make it up one of the marble
staircases. When he reached the
end of the hallway he stopped outside the oak door to take a deep breath. Without knocking he headed right
inside. “Père, I need to talk to
you about Violette.”
“Encore? Vraiment?” He looked up from his enormous desk, stress written in every
wrinkle on his fairly young face.
“I don’t have time for this, mon fils.”
“But she was flirting with
another man! She has absolutely no
interest in or respect for me. I
was trying to be polite so I went to get her drink refilled and I come back to
Paul sitting in my seat. It’s
infuriating!” Phillippe didn’t
realize he was pacing across the floor.
“Assieds-toi.” Hubert gestured toward the seat across
the desk.
Reluctantly he sat and shoved
his hands into his pockets and stared off to the side at the floor to ceiling
bookshelves that filled pretty much the rest of the room.
“Things are not looking good,
Phillippe.” He passed over a small
stack of financial reports. Hubert
had always tried to include his son in the business conferences, as the
business would one day be his.
As he looked over the
reports, he realized why his father had seemed to age so rapidly. Things did not look good at all due to
the most recent argument between Hubert and Stéfan that had been widely
publicized. “What are you going to
do?”
“Je ne sais pas. There are some temporary options. Cut down on staff, possibly sell a
vineyard. I haven’t run the numbers
yet. This can’t keep going
on. You’ve got to keep trying with
Violette. That’s the only
permanent solution. Did you hear
they lost two major investors? It
has certainly been a rough month.”
“Ne t’inquiète pas. I’ll try harder with Violette.” He handed back the paperwork to his
father and left the office, softly closing the door behind him. Sighing, he resigned himself to his
father’s solution. He had to marry
Violette when she was old enough.
It didn’t matter how she chose to live her life, he would have to accept
the fact that his marriage would not be a happy one. He was willing to do it for his parents and for the De La
Fontaines who had always treated him so nicely, well excepting Stéfan who was
just as stressed as Hubert. Maybe
the feud really was genetic.
“Oh, Phillippe! I didn’t expect you home so soon. How was Violette?” Aubrée approached her son.
Phillippe rolled his eyes and
said, “Bien. Of course, that was
after Paul came along. Before
that...” He left his thought hanging.
“Who’s Paul?”
“He’s the amorous young man
who took my seat while I was refilling her drink. Is this how things will always be between the two of us?”
“Oh, I’m sure she’ll mature
as time goes on.”
“Isn’t that what you said
about Daisi growing out of her crush on me?”
Audrée let out a soft, sweet
laugh that could only be compared to a baby bird taking first flight on a
summer breeze. “You’ll find a way
to make everything work out, just like your father always does.”
“Merci, Mama.” He turned and left, wondering why he
couldn’t have a future with someone like his own mother or Leah. Violette was not the family type, so he
wasn’t totally convinced the both companies would survive much longer after the
union. Clearing his mind of every
thought of his future with an unreliable wife over a failing wine business, he
changed into his fencing uniform and ran out to the gymnasium off the back of
the house to wait for his fencing instructor.
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