‘Is Mr Shaw at home?’ she asked.
‘Yes, madam. Whom shall I say wishes to see him?’
‘I’m Mrs Shaw,’ she said, entering and ignoring his glance of surprise. ‘You’re new here. What happened to Richardson?’
‘He retired, madam. My name is Jenkins. Shall I announce you?’
‘Yes, Jenkins. Where is Mr Shaw?’ She discarded her gloves and removed her hat as a gesture of having returned to stay.
‘He’s with a guest in the drawing room.’
She steeled herself. ‘Is that the lady who is staying here?’
‘Yes, madam.’
Glancing in the hall mirror, she automatically touched her hair back into place where her hat had flattened it. So it was just as Joanna had written and Daniel had moved his mistress into the house! Fury threatened to choke her. As soon as she had challenged them and could estimate the damage done, she would banish the woman from the house and establish herself once more in her own realm. She could not believe that Daniel, seeing her again, would have forgotten how he had always loved her. If all that had been between them failed at this crisis in their lives she would let her heart break, but not yet. Not now. Her whole future was at stake!
She followed the footman to the drawing room where he opened the door and announced her.
She had a lightning image of the scene before her. The woman, clad in a crimson velvet gown, was sitting opposite Daniel with her back to the door as they played chess at the games table. They both looked up simultaneously as Lisette was announced, the woman startled and turning pale as she glanced over her shoulder. Daniel sprang to his feet with a wide grin of total delight illumining his whole face at the sight of Lisette framed in the doorway.
‘Darling! You’re back again! Why didn’t you let me know? I would have met you!’ He swept forward to seize and kiss her before spinning her round to face the woman who had risen from her chair. ‘Look who is here, Lisette!’
Lisette caught her breath in astonishment. It was Josephine de Vincent, whom she had not seen since their farewell at the convent so many years ago. Then suspicion and anger soared in her again at this betrayal by someone who had been her friend. If Josephine had shown any pleasure at the sight of her then she could have dismissed all suspicion, but that was not the case. The woman, her face wracked by guilt, was in total distress
Lisette drew in a deep breath. ‘I’m very surprised to see you of all people, Josephine,’ she said coldly, detaching herself from Daniel’s arms.
‘I’m sure you are, Lisette,’ Josephine replied in a shaking voice, gripping the back of the chair as if needing support at this climactic moment. ‘I was planning to come to you in Lyon and tell you everything that you should know, but now you are here instead.’
‘How did you meet Daniel?’ Lisette’s voice rasped.
‘When I was looking for you after my arrival in England. Having seen you on the screen I had recognized you instantly and went to the Shaw Studios. That was three weeks ago. Daniel kindly offered that I should stay here instead of in a hotel and I accepted gratefully. You and I have much to talk about, but how it will affect our friendship I do not know.’
‘I thought friendship meant trust and contact, but you abandoned the nuns at the convent even as I believe you have betrayed me.’
‘How could I keep in touch with them when any contact with the convent would have reminded me constantly of the worst mistake I have ever made in all my life? I wanted to try to forget and to make amends in whatever way I could.’
Lisette sank down on to a nearby chair. ‘I don’t know what you are talking about,’ she said in angry bewilderment. ‘You were a benefactor at the convent and they always spoke most highly of you.’
‘They never knew how bitterly I regretted being instrumental in the adoption of your baby.’
Lisette’s face drained of all colour and she sat very still. ‘Are you telling me that you were responsible for my baby being taken from me?’ she uttered in a horrified whisper.
It was Josephine’s turn to look puzzled. ‘Isn’t that what you were talking about when you spoke of betrayal? I thought you meant that at some time you had guessed what had happened.’
Suddenly Lisette realized that this was all about the adoption of her baby at the convent and not the possible ensnaring of her husband.
‘What are you trying to tell me?’ she demanded, reaching for Daniel’s hand and finding his warm, reassuring clasp.
Josephine pressed her palms together and linked her fingers nervously as she prepared herself for what she had to say. ‘First of all it is a terrible confession that I have to make to you. I knew the couple, Arnaud and Rose Dubois, who adopted your baby. They were good friends of mine.’ She paused. ‘No doubt you will hate me for the rest of my life, but it was I who recommended your baby to them, knowing how desperately they had always wanted a child. They were already in their late forties and had never been able to have any children of their own.’
‘How could you have been so cruel to me?’ Lisette burst out in torment.
‘I did it in all innocence!’ Josephine exclaimed, lifting her linked hands up and down in anguish at what she was confessing. ‘The abbess had mentioned to me that little Marie-Louise was to be adopted and I thought immediately of my friends. I knew that with them your baby would have a good home and be cared for with love.’ She paused, looking in appeal for understanding at Lisette’s stony face. ‘Then, when you recovered from the aftermath of the birth, I learned that you had intended all the time to keep your baby, but it was too late for me to do anything about the adoption. The abbess had arranged it and my friends had already sailed for the States where Arnaud was taking up a diplomatic post at the French Embassy in Washington. It is where they began a new life with your daughter.’
‘Did you ever have news of her again?’ Lisette implored, hardly able to endure what she had been told.
‘Yes, I went to live in New York for some years where I married and was widowed again in a very short time. I visited Arnaud and Rose quite often in Washington and was able to see how Marie-Louise was growing up to be a lovely girl and very like you, Lisette. Sadly, Arnaud died some years ago and then when Rose was taken very ill I went to be with Marie-Louise and help her with the nursing. It was after her adoptive mother’s funeral that Marie-Louise found the documents showing her true parentage.’
‘How did she react?’ Lisette’s voice was barely audible, and she closed her eyes in fear at what she might hear, tightening her grip on Daniel’s hand.
‘At first in dismay that she had never known she was adopted,’ Josephine continued. ‘Then, when I explained that I had been instrumental in her adoption, she began questioning me about her true parentage. She wanted to know everything about you both. I told her the whole story.’
Lisette looked at Josephine with the first faint light of hope in her eyes. ‘You know where she is?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘Yes, I do.’
‘Do you think she would let me write to her?’
Josephine exchanged a meaningful glance at Daniel, letting him reply.
‘There’s no need to write,’ he said, joy in his voice. ‘She’s here. In our home. Reading in the library. If you hadn’t come home as you have done you would have found us on your Bellecour doorstep next week.’
Lisette dropped her face into her hands, overcome momentarily by all she had learned during the last few minutes. Then, raising her head again, she stood up.
‘Come with me, Daniel,’ she said.
‘Wouldn’t you like to meet her on your own as I did at Josephine’s suggestion?’ Lisette shook her head. ‘No, we are a family now. That’s how I want to welcome her.’
At the library door Daniel turned the handle and opened it for Lisette to enter first. Their daughter was curled up in a wing chair, her kicked-off shoes left on the carpet, her dark curls bent over the book that she held.
‘Marie-Louise,’ Lisette said softly.
/> The girl looked up quickly. A lovely young nineteen-year-old with lustrous blue eyes in a finely boned, expressive face, her chin touched by a tilt of determination inherited from her natural father. Never taking her gaze from Lisette she put the book aside before she unfolded herself and rose to her feet. She and Lisette were of similar height. Neither made any move. In the long look they exchanged much passed between them. Then the girl spoke.
‘Maman Lisette,’ she whispered emotionally.
Lisette nodded, beyond speech or action in her joy. It was as if all the love she had felt when seeing her daughter for the first time had flooded back into her heart with abundance, filling at last the hollow that had been there all through the years. Then simultaneously she and Marie-Louise moved towards each other, smiling and then embracing, both in happy tears. For Lisette all the years fell away. This was a new beginning.
Daniel left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. He knew from a long talk he had had with Marie-Louise that she wanted to stay with them. Although the bond she had had with her adoptive parents would always remain, she was already at ease and contented in his company, as she soon would be with Lisette.
Josephine left for France the next day, having made her home there again, and when she went it was with Louise’s forgiveness.
Daniel was glad that he would not be leaving Lisette on her own when his military duties took him away from her. With war threatening to break out at any time he had already been contacted by the Ministry of Defence to become a newsreel cameraman at the battlefields. He had also been given the responsibility of recruiting a team ready to film whatever this war should bring about. Jim would have been the first to volunteer to accompany him, but a foot injury some years ago would keep him out of uniform. It meant that Lisette would be in charge of the studios with Jim as her right-hand man.
Daniel was sure he would get leave home from the war sometimes and then he would be able to sort out any problems that might arise, although he was confident that Lisette would be able to cope with anything that came along. After all, entertainment would be needed as never before to lift the spirits of servicemen on leave as well as those of anxious civilians at home.
Then a short while after Lisette’s reunion with her daughter and far away in Sarajevo a fanatic shot an emperor in his carriage and it was the spark that plunged Europe into war. Flags flew, marching bands played and recruitment sergeants ignored the age of volunteers and signed up every one of the men who queued to enlist, even the still growing boys whose mothers thought they were at their lessons in school. Lisette received a letter from Maurice telling her that he had enlisted with the French Flying Corps and she said prayers for him.
Daniel gathered his camera team together. They had to go through military training like everyone else and then he was given the rank of captain.
Throughout this time Lisette and Marie-Louise became close. The girl marvelled that her birth parents should be so young and lively in their outlook on life when her adoptive parents, much as she would always love them, had been old in their opinions and in their ways. With Lisette and Daniel she felt free to express her views and ideas, however outrageous, such as she never had before.
‘Could I have a part in a Shaw film?’ she asked one night at dinner, looking expectantly at Daniel. ‘I don’t mind being in a crowd and milling about in the background.’
Daniel grinned widely. ‘I don’t think anyone would ever be able to keep you in the background for very long.’ It was his last night at home before leaving for France in the morning and he was in the mood to grant her anything. ‘Lisette is in charge now. If you have her permission to start acting you have mine too.’
Lisette gave a pleased nod. ‘A second generation Shaw actress. I like that idea.’
‘Then my screen name shall be Marie-Louise Shaw!’
The girl saw how she had pleased her father with this announcement. In her heart she was deeply afraid of what he would face in the trenches, for this dreadful war had taken hold in terrible ways. She thought she understood him well enough now to know that he would never hold back with his camera, but would be at the forefront of any charge. Then, if filming proved impossible, he would sling his camera strap over his shoulder to take gun and bayonet to play his part.
Lisette stood with Marie-Louise when the time came for Daniel to depart. A military car had come for him and the driver had jumped out to salute and hold the door open. Daniel and Lisette gave each other a long look. They had made love the previous night with all the passion that the years had never diminished and now he was leaving to face untold dangers in the field of war, his last kiss still warm on her lips.
‘You have to come back to us, Papa Daniel,’ Marie-Louise said sternly to hide her heartache that this newfound father was going away. ‘How else can I learn to be a true star of the silver screen without your tuition?’
He smiled. ‘Just try to be as good an actress as Lisette. You can learn more from her than you ever could from me.’
Marie-Louise ran a few steps after the military car as it drew away. Then she came to a halt and continued to wave her farewell to him. Daniel’s last sight of Lisette was of her deliberately holding both arms out to him in the classic way of the heroine in motion pictures welcoming home the hero. It was her own private message to him.
Brilliance Page 31
