The Lovers

by Catherine Rey

  Our hearts, as you must know, are filled with light…

  Ta, ta, ta! “To drown in the abyss – heaven or hell… Who cares? Through the unknown, we’ll find the new.” Sorry, gentlemen… I’ve now forgotten what follows…

  Lucie confided that she would have liked to knock on Messiaen’s door to find solace. She urged me to reveal as many details as I could from my time with Messiaen at the Stalag… Talk to me about his divine music! Talk to me about your Saturdays! I love the music and the man so much, Monsieur Lucien, she often said. I will help you remember…

  Well… ahem… that’s what we talked about yesterday on the phone. Messiaen, again… The Saturdays… The washhouse in the snow… The birds at dawn… Then I asked her how she intended to resume her project… How would she make a living? Lucie shunned my question. I offered to send her some money, to help her through… You can always repay me later or consider it a gift, I said. She was quiet at first, then she burst into tears, accepted the money and thanked me… If I don’t help her, who will?

  Coming back? No, she didn’t talk about coming back to France… Well, of course, I offered to accommodate her. I told her she was very welcome at my place, here in Paris or in Beaux-de-Provence, any time. But she said she’d prefer to stay in Australia. Yes, she would try to have another go over there, that’s what she said… I’ll try to have another go and be happy, were her words. In Australia.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you, merci, is too small a word to express my gratitude to the friends who have helped and supported me over the last four years. This novel would have never seen the light of day without their generous patronage. To honour our friendship I dream of another word broad enough to encompass not only friendship but also sisterhood, loyalty, complicity, esteem, care and love.

  But there is no such word.

  Still, I wish to thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

  Thanks to Tom, my husband, who spent many hours reading the successive drafts of my manuscript before patiently editing them.

  Thanks to Dominique Joly, Caroline Chatignol, Jean-Luc Chatignol, Xavier Hennekinne and Tim Herbert for being my generous and inspiring patrons.

  Thanks to Jan Cornall and Karen Lane for giving me enough assurance to write my novel in a language other than mine.

  Thanks to Céline Poirier who has helped me in the darkest days of my life.

  Thanks to you all.

  MERCI.

  Love is as love does.