She Lost Her Name, She Took Back Her Place novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Foster Home Luncheon

The old man lay propped on three pillows with a tube in his arm, and he waved the nurse out before the door had closed.

"Sit, child. Closer. I am too tired to shout."

I sat on the edge of the visitor's chair.

"You knew where the jacket was," he said.

"I watched the valet, monsieur."

"Don't lie to a sick man. It is bad luck." He smiled with half his mouth. "I don't ask how. I ask what you want."

I considered the answer for as long as I dared.

"My place," I said. "The one my parents lost me from."

"Honest. Good." His eyes closed, then opened. "A clause is a piece of paper, Élise. My grandson is as stubborn as I was at his age, and he will not marry a signature. If you want him, you will have to be someone he cannot walk past."

"And if I don't want him?"

"Then you will be the Rochefort who saved a Visconti, and I will say so to everyone I know." He patted the blanket twice. "Go home. Sleep. Next Saturday I will be out of this bed, and you will come to the gala."

I stood up.

"Monsieur," I said. "Who else knows I was in this room?"

"Only Adrien. And the nurse." His eyes twinkled. "The nurse is paid not to talk."

On Tuesday, Margaux held her charity luncheon for the children's hospital in the conservatory at the back of the house.

Thirty women sat at six round tables among the potted lemon trees. The silverware was Sterling silver. The flowers were white tulips.

I wore the gray dress Margaux had sent up and stood beside her at the door, shaking hands and smiling.

"This is Élise," Margaux said, again and again. "Our daughter."

Her voice shook on it a little every time.

Bianca moved through the room in pale yellow, kissing cheeks and filling glasses herself.

She had been at my side all morning, helping me with names. She told me who was the president of which society, whose husband was a minister, whose son had left whom.

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