Читать книгу White Horses - Joan Wolf - Страница 13

It was dark by the time Leo and Gabrielle got back to the hotel. Leo parked the wagon in the stable yard next to the other one. No groom appeared to unharness the horses, so he did it himself. Then he and Gabrielle put the horses into their stalls and returned to the stable yard.

Leo looked at the two wagons and said, “I’m wondering if I should plan to sleep on Colette’s sofa. I don’t like leaving the wagons unguarded for the night.”

Gabrielle shook her head decisively. “Your job is to do everything you can to fit into this circus. If you start sleeping in one of the wagons, everyone will wonder what is going on.”

“My job is to protect the gold,” he corrected, “but I suppose you’re right.”

“I know I am, so come along.”

Together they went into the hotel through the back door. They found Emma in the lounge, knitting, the Maroni brothers playing cards, and Mathieu and Albert playing chess.

“Here they are,” Emma said, looking up over her spectacles.

“Everything all right with the horses?” Gianni Maroni asked.

“Everything’s fine,” Gabrielle reported. “Where is everyone else?”

“Gone to the café down the street,” Mathieu reported.

Leo walked over to look at the chessboard. Mathieu was winning.

“Would you care to have a glass of wine before going to bed?” Gabrielle said to Leo. “We could walk down to the café if you like.”

Leo agreed and Gabrielle said, “Let me change into something besides this skirt and boots.” As Gabrielle left the room, he turned his attention to the chess game. “Whose turn is it?” he asked.

“Mine,” Albert said. He picked up a piece and Leo said, “Are you sure you want to move that?”

Albert gave him a surprised look. “Why not?”

“Look at your bishop,” Leo recommended.

Albert looked. “Oh,” he said, and hastily moved his bishop out of danger.

When Gabrielle finally reappeared, Mathieu greeted her return with a disappointed “Oh, are you going to take Leo away? He is helping Albert and giving me a little bit of a challenge for a change.”

“If I’m so terrible, then I won’t play with you at all,” Albert retorted. “It’s no fun for me to get beaten all the time.”

Leo looked at his supposed wife. She was wearing a long dark blue wool skirt with a matching jacket. It was a very simple outfit, with little trim, hardly fashionable, yet she managed to look very smart. Her hair was bundled into a loose chignon on the nape of her delicate neck.

“Stop quarrelling, boys,” she said to her brothers. “Ready, Leo?”

“Ready.” He followed her to the door and out onto the street. Colette went with them.

The café’s outdoor patio was closed up for the night, with chairs upended onto tables, but when they walked inside they were greeted with brightness and the smell of cooking oil. Most of the tables were taken, the largest one by the circus people. Gabrielle and Leo went to join them.

“Good,” Carlotta exclaimed happily as they came up to the table. “Another woman. Come and sit by me, Gabrielle.”

“I’m sure Gabrielle will want to sit beside her new husband, chérie,” Henri said. “Bring over those chairs, Leo, and you both can squeeze in here.”

Leo dragged the chairs over and he and Gabrielle sat down.

Sully asked, “I was wondering—why are we starting out so early this year, Gabrielle? It’s colder and the light doesn’t last as long. We usually don’t start for another two weeks.”

Leo looked at the man who was the Cirque Equestre’s clown. Sully was a tall, thin man with mournful brown eyes and a receding hairline. He didn’t look at all jolly.

“I just thought it would be a good idea to get a head start on the season,” Gabrielle said easily. “The more performances we put on, the more money we make. No?”

Leo, who knew that they were starting early so they could move the gold as quickly as possible, shot a swift look around the table to see if Gabrielle’s reason was accepted. A few people nodded and the rest seemed indifferent. He relaxed.

Jeanne Maheu, one of the band members, smiled at him. “Have you been to Astleys circus in London, Leo?”

Jeanne was an exotic-looking woman, with long black hair and slanting brown eyes. She almost looked Oriental, Leo thought.

“No, I have never had that privilege,” he said.

“Have you ever seen any circuses at all?” she pressed.

He shook his head. “No, madame, I’m afraid I haven’t.”

“Jeanne,” she corrected him. “We are all on a first-name basis in this circus, aren’t we, Gabrielle?”

“Yes,” Gabrielle replied.

“Never seen a circus?” Jeanne’s husband, Pierre, was astonished.

Leo did his best to look genial. “I will remedy that omission tomorrow. And I’m looking forward to it.”

Gabrielle said, “You have to fetch our drinks from the bar, Leo. I will have a glass of burgundy.”

Leo stood up, annoyed to have taken orders from Gabrielle in front of the others, and went off to the bar. When he came back to the table the rest of them were discussing the next day’s program.

“I am going by the order that Gabrielle gave me, and that’s that,” Gerard said hotly.

Luc said to Gabrielle, “I don’t think I should come directly after you. That makes too many equestrian acts in a row.”

“What’s the matter, Luc?” teased Antonio Laurent, one of the band members. “Afraid of the competition?”

Luc’s blue eyes glittered. “No!” he retorted.

“Let’s go with what I have for tomorrow, Luc,” Gabrielle said matter-of-factly. “If it needs changes I’ll make them for the next day.”

Luc did not look happy, but after a moment he nodded agreement.

The conversation veered to what they had all been doing over the winter, and Leo leaned back and watched the various faces around the table. The atmosphere among the group was comfortable. Everyone seemed to know everyone else and there was easy laughter when Adolphe Laurent told a funny story, which was then topped by his brother, Antonio.

They were a kind of people who were utterly foreign to Leo, but they seemed a pleasant-enough group. This might not be so bad, he thought. I’ll do what I have to do for four weeks, and then it will be over.

“What kind of horses did you sell, Leo? Were they racehorses?”

He brought his attention to Jeanne’s inquisitive face. “Hunters, mainly,” he said. “There’s a big market in England for reliable hunters.”

“Oh, yes, the English and their hunting,” Gerard commented. “Pierre Robichon used to say that the English passion for hunting has destroyed their horsemanship.”

“How is that?” Carlotta asked.

“They have lost their seat. All they do is stand in their stirrups and gallop,” Gerard said.

“I don’t think it’s quite as bad as that,” Leo said mildly.

“Well that is what Pierre said.”

“Papa meant that there is no manège training in England,” Gabrielle explained.

“There isn’t any in France any longer, either,” Leo shot back.

“But there was before the Revolution and there will be again after Napoléon. There is a tradition in France of classical riding. There is no such tradition in England.”

“The Duke of Newcastle was English and he trained in the classical way,” Leo said.

“True, but Papa said no one in England studied the Duke of Newcastle any longer. The few Englishmen who were interested in learning to ride properly came to Papa when he was the king’s Master of the Horse.”

Leo was annoyed. It was one thing for him to think his countrymen were not the best riders, but it was quite another to hear the same opinion from foreigners. “It takes a great deal of skill to ride a horse cross country,” he said stiffly.

Gerard said, “It is easy to gallop a horse cross country. All you need is balance. Watch Gabrielle ride tomorrow, then you will see what real horsemanship is.”

Gabrielle smiled at Gerard. “Thank you, Gerard,” she said.

Luc said scornfully, “However did you come to marry such a barbarian? Your father must be turning in his grave.”

Barbarian? Leo was outraged.

Gabrielle flushed. “Leo is not a barbarian,” she said.

Leo did not find her defense overly enthusiastic.

Jeanne gave him a warm smile. “Don’t pay any attention to Luc, Leo. He is just jealous because you married Gabrielle.”

“Not jealous, Jeanne—amazed,” Luc said sarcastically.

Everything in Leo wanted to give this bunch of common people an icy dressing down. But he couldn’t do it; it would alienate them and would make them wary of him. He forced a smile to his face. “Talk to me tomorrow, after I have seen your horses perform.”

“Good idea,” Gabrielle said briskly. She stood up. “I am ready to go back to the hotel, Leo.”

He stood up also. He was really getting tired of her habit of issuing orders to him. It was a good thing she was so pretty, he thought, otherwise this assignment would be miserable.

They walked back to the hotel in silence. The only ones left in the lounge were the Maroni brothers, who were still playing cards. Gabrielle bade them good-night and started toward the stairs.

“I am just going to step out to the stable yard to check the wagons,” Leo told her quietly.

She nodded. “I’ll wait for you.”

The stable yard was quiet. The moonlight illuminated the two wagons with the white horses painted on their sides. Leo pulled on the wagon doors, content that they were securely locked.

Christ, but I wish this journey was over, Leo thought. It stretched out before him like an eon of time. But it was only four weeks. Four weeks wasn’t that long, Leo thought. Then the gold would be delivered and he would be free to rejoin his regiment. He looked up to the sky at the full moon. The same moon was shining on his compatriots in winter quarters in Portugal, he thought.

Four weeks, and he would be able to return to them.

He went back inside to rejoin Gabrielle, who was waiting in the lounge. Together they mounted the stairs to their bedroom.

Another plain, serviceable room, Leo thought as he walked in through the door after Gabrielle. It was furnished with one bed, one wardrobe, a bedside table with a lamp and another table with a basin of water. The floor was wide wooden planks with a small, thin rug just inside the door. Colette immediately jumped on the bed and established herself at the foot.

The floor looked very hard, Leo thought with discouragement.

“We will do the same as we did last night,” Gabrielle said. “I will tell you when you can turn around.”

Leo turned away and fished his nightshirt out of his bag, which lay on the floor, and proceeded to take off his boots. Behind him he could hear the sounds Gabrielle made as she took off her own clothes, and he tried heroically not to envision how she would look naked. Her waist had been so slim and supple when he grasped it this evening….

Stop, he thought.

But it had been a long time since he had had a woman. Too long, he thought. That’s why he was reacting to this circus girl, he reasoned.

“All right,” Gabrielle said, and he turned around. She was wearing the same long nightgown as the night before, and her hair was loose around her shoulders and down her back. She had a brush in her hand, and as he watched she went over to the bed, sat on the edge of it and began to brush her hair.

He watched, fascinated, as the silken strands slid through the brush. “You have beautiful hair.” The words were out before he could stop them.

“Thank you,” she said, clearly surprised.

He cleared his throat. “Well, if you will lend me a blanket, I will bunk down on this rug.”

She stopped brushing and looked at him. “You don’t have to do that. You can share the bed with me—as long as you keep to your side.”

He stared at her in astonishment. “Are you sure?”

“I am sure, but you must understand, Leo, that I am not inviting you to take liberties with me. I am simply allowing you to have a comfortable place to sleep.” She looked at the rug. “That rug doesn’t look too clean.”

He looked at the bed. It was an ordinary double bed, the kind that a married couple would share comfortably. But they were not a married couple. He thought about what it would mean to lie so close beside her.

I might get more sleep on the floor.

But the rug definitely did look dirty. And the floor looked hard.

“All right,” he said. “Thank you.”

She nodded. “Is there a side that you particularly like? André always had to sleep on the left side of the bed.”

“No,” he said. “Either side is fine with me.”

“Bon. You can have the left side, then. I am used to having the right.”

He walked barefoot to the bed, feeling huge in his white nightshirt. She looked so delicate and so beautiful as she sat there brushing her hair.

He got in under the covers and watched as she finished brushing and took a ribbon and tied her hair at the nape of her neck. She stood up, folded back the covers and slipped into bed beside him.

“This is awkward, no?” she asked.

“Very awkward,” he replied. He had to curl his legs because the dog took up the bottom of the bed.

“I am sorry that we seemed to denigrate your countrymen tonight,” she said. “We of the Robichon circus tend to be very proud of the quality of our riding.”

“So I gathered,” he said. “This disguise of you being my husband is very difficult,” she said. “You saw tonight how astonished everyone was that I would marry a man who is not a good rider.”

Leo sat up. “Wait a minute. Who said I wasn’t a good rider?”

She looked up at him. “I don’t mean to insult you, Leo….”

“Well you do insult me,” he said hotly. “I’ll have you know that I am a bloody good rider. You and your friends may know some circus tricks that I don’t know, but…”

She also sat bolt upright. “Circus tricks! I am not talking about circus tricks! I’ll bet you can’t even ride a horse in shoulder-in.”

“What the hell is shoulder-in?”

“Hah!” she cried. “Shoulder-in is the most basic training tool of all classical riding. And you haven’t even heard of it!”

Why am I even arguing with this girl? He forced himself to calm down. “This is pointless,” he said. “We should get some sleep.”

“Certainly,” she said. “There is no point in arguing with you. You are too ignorant.”

It took all his discipline not to reply.

“Turn out the light,” she said, then turned her back on him, pulled the covers up over her shoulders and shut her eyes.

She was giving him orders again. He set his jaw, leaned over to the lamp and turned it off. Her voice came through the darkness.

“Good night.”

“Good night,” he replied.

Silence fell on the room. He was acutely aware of her sleeping but two feet away from him. Under the same blankets. She breathed so lightly he could scarcely hear her. His pulse was racing from the argument, he told himself. This is going to be a long night.