“Charlotte. I suspect you would like to protect her from Monsieur Bastion’s visits.”
* * * * *
Since Lottie had mentioned nothing about Bastion visiting, Gabriel concluded that she either had chosen not to tell him or she hadn’t known. Gabriel avoided the LeClerc house and, with the exception of seeing her on Sundays, steered clear of Lottie as well. Yet Rosette and Agnes still made time to see one another, so that had to be the source of Alcee’s information. What more did they know that he did not?
Joseph’s including him in the plans for the expansion of the café and their house had provided not only a welcome distraction but an opportunity to explore a field he had not considered before. For years, Gabriel had dreamed of Paris and engineering school, and then, for years, abandoned almost all hope of that possibility. He envisioned a time when he and his father might develop a relationship and eventually the future he had lost would be found again. But that brief experience after leaving the tailors’, seeing Jean Noel with his white wife and son, sowed a seed of doubt of a happy reunion . A seed planted in a reality he could not deny.
Until recently, Gabriel’s life path consisted of one road that led from home to the café and back to home again. He had committed himself to helping Rosette and Alcee, and, when they could travel without him, he would be free to find a path that diverged from theirs. Gabriel didn’t resent Rosette and Alcee. They never demanded or insisted that he pack his ambitions into a storage crate. He had made that choice, just as he now had to choose to close off those forks in the road that led to Lottie and to Jean Noel.
Joseph Joubert, however, was not someone Gabriel would have expected to clear the wilderness and create something worth navigating. When they first met, Gabriel resigned him to a class not much higher than a common laborer. Until Joubert occupied the same seat in the corner of the café for days on end, he had thought of him only as someone hired to complete construction jobs. His constant presence around Rosette irritated him. Why would he think a woman of her beauty and intelligence would be interested in a man with no formal education, no status, no pedigree? And he continued to ask that until Lottie announced her party…when he realized he could substitute her name for his mother’s and ask the same question about himself.
A humbling lesson in judging others, one God must have decided it was time for him to learn. Since then Gabriel spent time with Joseph, not just on the jobs at the café and their home, but at others in the city. Joseph asked for Gabriel’s input, and when his ideas were not workable, he explained why. He brought him into homes, some Gabriel expected they would demolish for firewood, and showed him how to look beyond what was in front of him and imagine what could be. God taught Gabriel to not judge Joseph so Joseph could teach Gabriel how not to judge houses.
One day, he hoped soon, he would share that with Joseph. Today, though, they were laying out the new footprint for the café. Gabriel saw the towering stack of lumber but no workers and figured Joseph would be talking to Rosette. She had already started serving customers, so he helped her with a few tables. But there was still no sign of the builder. During a lull a few minutes later, Gabriel asked when he would be arriving.
“Roll up my sleeves, p’tit. You are much neater than I,” she said. “As for Joseph, when his workers delivered the lumber this morning, one of them gave me this note.”
He stopped and opened the paper, actually a billhead much like LeCroix’s but with far less embellishment. Under Joseph’s initials in the upper-right corner was printed Design, Build, Remodel. His handwriting was as precise and careful as his plans:
Dearest Rosette,
I trust that William has delivered this safely into your hands, and I beg your forgiveness for not being able to tell you the news in person. But the hour at which I received notice and the necessity for me to depart as soon as possible prevented me from doing so.
Please ask Gabriel to check the bills of lading at both the café and your home to make certain the lumber has arrived as per our orders. In the case of any discrepancies, he has my authority to contact the suppliers and remedy the situation as an agent of J and J Builders. Of course, if he is uncomfortable doing so, I will remedy the situation upon my return. I would hope to start the jobs as soon as possible.
I should be returning within a few days from your receipt of this note. As always, I look forward to our morning coffees and conversation.
Yours truly,
Joseph
Gabriel folded the note, handed it back to his mother, and rolled up her other sleeve. He wanted to speak carefully so as not to make Rosette defensive or unduly worried. But she spoke before he could mentally rehearse what he wanted to say.