Revenge of the Black Virgin Read Online Free PDF Page B

she was
particularly concerned that their son was being affected by this
terrible change in his father.
    After their divorce, several years earlier,
Anna and Luc had arranged a convenient situation for the benefit of
Daniel. As their large property had two houses on it, Luc moved
into the smaller home, leaving Anna and Daniel in the larger.
Daniel could stay at his father’s house whenever he wished, but
once he retreated, Luc became silent and unapproachable.
    Of course Daniel couldn’t understand why his
father was withdrawing from him. He was further upset that Luc no
longer wore his wedding ring. When Luc and Anna sat him down one
day and told him they were no longer married, Daniel took it
hard.
    So did Luc. Breaking up his little family was
yet another one of his failures.
    Anna had to be strong for the both of them.
She managed to contain her son’s grief and distract him with
promises of outings and sleep-overs with his cousins and friends.
Then she turned her energies towards her ex-husband.
     
    One evening, with Daniel safely at his
cousins’ for the night, she took a roasted chicken, a dish of Luc’s
favorite stewed eggplant and a bottle of wine over to his house.
After eating, drinking and much prodding she managed to get him to
talk. And because he trusted her, he eventually confessed the
entire sordid story.
    “I know it sounds crazy but it really was
love at first sight. Or I guess I should say lust .”
    He felt no embarrassment with Anna, ever. He
loved her, and he didn’t want to hurt her again. But that pain was
all in the past, and mostly healed. He sighed, and looked across
the table at the intelligent, sensible woman whom he’d married nine
years earlier out of duty. They were both in graduate school and
she was pregnant.
    “And when did it turn into love, do you
think?” she asked.
    Luc knew that some men would flinch at this
type of question coming from a former wife, but he understood that
Anna wished only for his happiness. He didn’t marry for love, but
they now loved each other in a way that would last, despite
divorce, for the rest of their lives.
    “Within a few days, I suppose. I wasn’t
absolutely sure until that last day, when I made her promise to
come to Nice with me.” He ran his fingers through his hair,
noticing he needed a haircut. “I didn’t even plan it. It just sort
of happened.”
    “And she said yes?”
    “Not right away. I think she was too shocked.
But I managed to convince her,” he admitted sheepishly.
    Anna was looking at him with shining eyes. He
supposed she was remembering how convincing he could be when he
wanted something. She was the one who had asked for the divorce.
She knew she couldn’t make him happy, and decided she had to let
him go.
    “And you believed her when she said she’d
drop everything and go with you to Nice?” Anna asked gently.
    “Yes. I did.” It did sound improbable when it
was put like that, he thought. “Maybe I just wanted it so much that
I couldn’t see she was frightened. Maybe she lied just to get away
from me.”
    That thought disturbed him even more. At the
time, he’d been so sure that Joanna shared his passion. So sure
that he’d gambled everything.
    “And now you think she was lying?”
    “Yes. What other explanation could there
be?”
    “A change of heart? A family emergency, you
said?”
    “A contrived emergency, you mean?”
    “Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt,”
Anna insisted. “What do you think happened?”
    “ Madame Guillmont told me that her
fiancé had made a sudden appearance at the gîte that
afternoon. When Joanna came back to collect her things, they
quarreled. Everyone could hear them. And then nothing —they
disappeared during dinner.”
    “Is that all you know?”
    “ Madame said there was a family
emergency. That’s all she would tell me.”
    “So perhaps there was. Is it so impossible to
believe?”
    Luc hung his head. Anna was so fair-minded.
So insightful. Maybe she was