This time it was the two girls who exchanged looks.
“What does that mean?” Whenever her grandmother dodged an answer, Lottie was suspicious.
“Charlotte, we can discuss this later, since it seems another friend awaits in the courtyard.”
Justine squeezed the bridge of her nose, and Lottie instantly developed a coughing spasm that required holding her hands across her mouth.
“Then I really do need to leave, since my friend is already in demand. Those potential beaus of yours move tout de suite, Charlotte.”
“Actually,” said Grand-mère, entering the room so Justine could pass through the door, “it is not any of the gentlemen from last evening.”
Lottie exhaled.
“In fact, I am not sure what reason Gabriel Girod has for being here.”
Lottie heard Justine’s footsteps as she headed down the stairs and out the door.
Grand-mère waited for an answer, while Lottie mentally followed Justine.
* * * * *
Madame LeClerc was not the woman Gabriel expected to see as he walked through the courtyard.
Her expression reflected that she, too, was as surprised to see him. She closed the book she was reading then set it on the seat of the rocker after she rose to greet him.
“Gabriel, how can I help you?”
“Good afternoon, Madame LeClerc.” He removed his hat and nodded dutifully, his mind searching for an appropriate and honest response without revealing too much. “I am visiting the girls’ home this afternoon, and I stopped by to see Mademoiselle Charlotte.”
She peered at him with curiosity. “So, would she be expecting you?”
He knew an answer in either direction forebode problems, but to appear intimidated would invite more questioning. “Perhaps.”
She said, “I see,” in a way that suggested she would rather not. “Please wait here.” Madame LeClerc turned and left, not inviting him into her home.
Gabriel paced, alone, and waited for either Lottie or her grandmother to deliver a verdict. Abram and Agnes had Sunday off, so he could not depend on either of them for information.
His emotions wound through him like rope cords. For weeks, he had warned Lottie of the day coming when she couldn’t depend on the predictability of her grandparents’ absence on Sunday afternoons. Worse than their anger, Gabriel feared the consequences for Lottie. She couldn’t be locked in her room any longer, but the few freedoms she did have would likely be eliminated. As he walked back and forth along the cobblestone paths, voices from Lottie’s room drifted below, too indistinct for him to determine what they were saying. If they talked much longer, Gabriel would have to leave without her. The anxiety of their being late, and possibly endangering or disappointing the men and women waiting on them, took its toll on the hat brim he clenched and unclenched.
And always there was the torturous happiness of being with Lottie every Sunday. Even though they had reconciled themselves to the paths of their lives, Gabriel looked forward to the times their roads had to cross. How much longer they would be able to continue these visits depended on factors neither he nor Lottie could control. But the time they did spend together, he could hardly concentrate on teaching. He had to pull his eyes away from following the tilt of Lottie’s head and the curve of her lips as she smiled at someone writing his or her own name for the first time. Gabriel could hardly smell lemons or almonds without thinking of her rushing through the gate to meet him, and he would fight to keep his breath steady when they walked together. It pained him to think that another man would feel the softness of her cheek against his hand. Yet he would endure whatever proved difficult to spend time with her.
He heard footsteps down the stairs, but it was Justine, not Lottie, who turned and walked through the hall toward him.
“What are you doing here? Lottie’s grandmother looked quite perturbed,” Justine said, her voice just above a whisper.
“Yes, I expect she would be.”
“Has Lottie not stopped that orphan thing, whatever it is the two of you do? I thought she, well, with the party and…I just imagined she wouldn’t continue.”
She left unsaid, “being seen with you,” but Gabriel understood, because he imagined the same. Justine didn’t wait for an answer. “I need to be going. I hope…” She shook her head. “I don’t know what I hope.”
Minutes after Justine closed the front door behind her, Gabriel heard footsteps too light and too hurried to be Grand-mère’s. Nervous excitement ripped through him as he waited for Lottie to turn the corner of the stairs.
Fastening her cape as she walked and, surprisingly, already wearing her bonnet, Lottie’s eager smile was more than he had hoped for.