Suspects(47)

“I have never had a Thanksgiving meal like that,” he said, looking dazed and sleepy by the end of it. “It was superb. You spoil me while I’m here, Theo. It gets harder and harder to go back to my awful apartment.”

“Should you cheer it up a little? Can I do anything to help?” she asked him, happy and relaxed to be with him.

“I suspect that burning it down would make more sense. It’s pretty grim. I have to do something about it, but I never have time,” nor the interest either until now, in case she saw it one day when she came to New York. She had no sense of what he did at work since he couldn’t talk about it, but she could tell that he was stressed at times when a case wasn’t going well. He had a lot on his shoulders, saving lives was the goal, but losing them at times the reality when a mission failed. It mattered to him to his very core to prevent loss of life among his teams, and the victims.

She had no idea that he wore a bulletproof vest when he went to work on most days, since he never told her. It would have frightened her if she knew. She didn’t know if he was on the front line at times or mostly in the office.

They ended their Thanksgiving in bed making love. It was a perfect end to a perfect evening, and they were asleep by midnight in each other’s arms. She realized that she had much to be thankful for, despite the terrible losses of the year before. Mike couldn’t replace Matthieu and Axel, and never would, but he had put joy in her life again, which she never thought possible.



* * *



—

The morning after Thanksgiving, she got a call from the realtor about the chateau. The Chinese potential buyer had given up, and the man from Houston who wanted to buy the chateau for his wife had won. He was going to pay way over her asking price, and wanted to buy it fully decorated, minus the items she had specified. It was better for her that way, and easier for the buyer. He was planning to hand his wife the keys on Christmas, and she would have nothing to do except pack and arrive. Theo was giving them all the linens, and the practical items too, like everything in the kitchen, none of which she needed in the city.

The price the buyer was paying was astronomical, and she couldn’t believe she had gotten her price and more. He wanted a thirty-day closing, which was very fast, and very few inspections, just the most basic ones, which meant that by Christmas, if they signed the preliminary paperwork soon, the chateau would be his and out of Theo’s hands. She was both happy and sad about it. It was bittersweet.

She walked into the kitchen to tell Mike, who was reading the newspaper, and he was happy for her. She didn’t tell him the dollar amount, which seemed indiscreet and was embarrassing. But she said she was very pleased and had gotten more than her asking, and much more than she’d hoped for.

“That must be some place,” he said admiringly.

“It is. But it was never mine. I never minded. And now I’m going to have to run like crazy to get all our clothes out and the art that I’m keeping, or selling at Sotheby’s.” She knew it would be a painful mission, especially when she got to Axel’s room, which she hadn’t dealt with at all. She had never gone there to pack up Matthieu’s clothes either, and now she had all of it to do, as soon as she could manage it. She wanted to do it herself, out of sentiment and respect.

She called her office to ask her assistant to hire an art packer, and the rest was just clothes. She was lucky she didn’t have to pack and move all the furniture, and everything else. The curtains alone would have been a massive project to take down. They were antique and beautiful, originally purchased from another chateau. The new owner was wise to keep them. From that moment on, she felt as though it was the buyer’s chateau and not hers, or even Matthieu’s. It was time for it to be passed into other hands, honorably this time.

Over the weekend with Mike, she didn’t feel sad about it. She felt as though she’d done the right thing with the chateau. It deserved a life with people who would use it and love it, and she could never have done that again.

She told Mike on Friday night that maybe she should buy a little country house in Normandy, where she could spend the weekends. She hadn’t thought of it until now, but she liked the idea.

“With a big house next to it for your security guards, I hope. You can’t be in the country alone,” he reminded her. It wasn’t a pleasant thought for her. She no longer had the freedoms she had once enjoyed, despite the many comforts in her life now.

He’d never been to Normandy, so they drove to Deauville the next day, with the ocean and the beach, the quaint shops, two big old-fashioned hotels, and the ancient Normand houses that were very picturesque. Finding a house for herself there appealed to her, and worried Mike.

“I’d feel better with you in your apartment in the city, with good security all around you, and plenty of alarms, and panic buttons.” She knew he wasn’t exaggerating. He saw dangers for her everywhere.

“I can’t live like that forever, Mike,” she said as they ate lunch at a little bistro. She was having onion soup and he was having a wonderful bouillabaisse, chock-full of local seafood and rouille to add to it.

“You have to, Theo. You can’t avoid it.”

“The whole world isn’t going to try to kidnap me,” she insisted.

“It just takes one who succeeds, or a group of them,” he said unhappily.

“I miss driving, and living like a normal person,” she said wistfully. “I used to drive myself to the chateau on the weekends.”