Chapter Seven

Christophe felt like he was in a haze for the entire month of August. He drove to Maxine’s house on Money Lane several times a day to make love to her. He was late for meetings, he left work earlier than usual. He rearranged plans. She dropped by his office at the winery and he made love to her in a storeroom, and told her they couldn’t do that again. He avoided the château because Raquel was there and Camille could come home at any moment, but he made love to her everywhere else, even once in a bathroom at a respectable restaurant. He felt crazed. He thought he was in love with her, but more than that, he was addicted to her, and he was terrified she’d leave the Napa Valley and move away, which she hinted at, at times. She had extended her lease for the house on Money Lane until September, but after that, she said she wasn’t sure where she would go. Dallas, LA, Miami, Palm Beach, New York, or back to Paris. She had no anchor anymore, except Christophe. And he desperately needed her. Need had replaced guilt about Joy, but he didn’t care. Maxine was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him, and he didn’t want to lose her now.

It was a relief when Camille left to spend two weeks at Lake Tahoe again, with her old friends from school. Christophe had encouraged her to go. She rarely got to see friends anymore, she had too many responsibilities at the winery, so it was a rare treat for her to have some time away to be carefree and young. She never even went to the city now, and her friends were busy too, with new jobs and lives and relationships. So he encouraged her to take the time off, with the ulterior motive of his having more time to spend with Maxine.

With Camille gone, Christophe didn’t have to make excuses to her or hide, and Maxine could spend the night at the château as long as they left before Raquel arrived. He would take Maxine home in the morning, make love to her again, and then leave for work. And by lunchtime, he was starving for her again. By the end of August, he knew what he had to do and more important, what he wanted. And he knew when. It was all clear in his mind.

At the last minute, Camille decided to extend her stay in Tahoe, with her friends, over the Labor Day weekend. She didn’t know when she’d see them again, since several of them were leaving for graduate school in the East. Most of her friendships were kept alive on Skype now, and they teased her about being a “virtual friend.” No one ever saw her now that she was so busy working for her father, so the two weeks in Tahoe had been like old times when they were kids in school. She had promised her father that she’d come home for the weekend, and apologized profusely for staying until Monday night, but he encouraged her to do so. He wanted every moment he could get alone with Maxine.

Christophe was going to Sam Marshall’s Harvest Ball and had invited Maxine to join him, and she had been working on her costume for weeks. She had something sent from Paris and was making adjustments to it. Christophe was going to wear the same costume he wore every year, and when he saw Joy’s costume in the storeroom in the attic, which Camille had worn the year before when she went with him, a month before Joy died, he was sad for a moment. But he was proud to go with Maxine this year. He knew she would be spectacular, and he had everything planned for her. He made a quick trip to the city before the weekend. He picked Maxine up at her house in time for the ball. She was going to stay at the château with him until Camille came home. Raquel was off for the weekend and the holiday on Monday. It would be their last time together at the château for a while, since Maxine couldn’t stay there once Camille returned. And the anniversary of Joy’s death was looming, which would be painful for Camille and Christophe, but after that he would be free to see Maxine openly, and he was going to explain it to Camille when she was back from the lake.

When he arrived at Maxine’s house, she looked incredible in a costume that molded to her figure and small waist, with her breasts pouring luxuriously from the décolletage, and the huge skirt of the gown rested on wire hoops, and the skirt swayed as she walked. She had even had replicas of antique shoes made, and the wig was perfect, from a theatrical wig maker in Paris, and the mask concealed the lower part of her face. She looked ravishing as she got into Christophe’s car, and they drove to the Marshalls’ vast estate, where hundreds of people were getting out of horse-drawn carriages and cars, in costumes and masks. It looked like the final days of Versailles, as they made their way to the main house, while liveried footmen held out trays of champagne. Maxine’s gown was white, as were her evening slippers, and she held it carefully, so the hem didn’t get soiled on the path. She glanced at Christophe from time to time, and she could sense that he was happy even behind the mask.

The evening was even more grandiose than Maxine had expected. Everyone had gone all out, as they did every year. It was in celebration of the harvest, which wouldn’t happen for a few more weeks, but it combined the Labor Day holiday with the anticipated success of the harvest, and the vintners were expecting a good crop this year.

They were assigned to a table near the dance floor, and Christophe danced with her all night. He saw Sam in the distance, and went to chat with him for a few minutes, while Maxine waited at their table. Phillip was with his father, and asked Christophe if Camille was there, and he said she wasn’t, and had stayed at the lake with friends. He seemed disappointed and said he wanted to tell her he was engaged. He introduced his fiancée, who looked to Christophe like another one of his models or spoiled girls. She was very pretty but was complaining about how hot her wig was, her corset was too tight, her shoes hurt, and the mask made it hard to breathe. Both fathers laughed as Phillip and his fiancée walked away so she could sit down and take off her shoes.

“That’s going to be a long road, if he marries her,” Christophe commented.

“I tried to tell him that,” Sam said with a sigh. “Kids never listen. He thinks she’ll be beautiful forever, but the sound track is pretty tough,” he said and Christophe laughed. “Who are you here with tonight?” He had heard him say that Camille was at the lake, and wondered if he had come alone.

“Maxine de Pantin,” he said easily.

“Ah, the countess,” Sam said and hesitated for a minute, but they were always honest with each other and he had to be again. “Be careful, Chris. She’s great looking and very charming, but something scares me about her. I don’t know what. There’s something very calculating about her. I don’t know why she’s here in the Valley, I thought she was after me at first, but I can’t stand her, and I let her know it right away. Just be cautious, don’t make any fast moves, and see what happens.” Christophe nodded, but he wasn’t worried. Sam wasn’t used to Frenchwomen and how flirtatious and artful they could be, or seem, at times with no ill intentions. He knew her well now, and he wasn’t afraid. She was sincere, he was sure of it. He was sure she had just been playful with Sam and he had misread it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Christophe reassured him.

“Is Elizabeth here?” Christophe asked him. The crowd was so huge, it was hard to tell who was there.

“No,” Sam said matter-of-factly, “she’s in Washington for a committee meeting. This isn’t her kind of thing anyway.” He wasn’t disturbed about it, and seemed to accept that they had separate lives. He was too busy hosting the event to spend any real time with a date anyway.

Christophe went back to the table then where he’d left Maxine, and she was starting to look anxious by the time he returned.

“What took you so long?” she said plaintively.

“I was talking to Sam. His son just got engaged.” Maxine was unimpressed by the news, and her own sons had disappointed her that summer. They were supposed to come to visit her, but her older son, Alexandre, had gone to Greece with friends instead and was still there, and her younger son, Gabriel, had flunked his exams at the university he attended, and had to spend the summer taking classes to try and pass them in September. But in the end, it had left Christophe and Maxine with more time to spend together in their hidden romance, so she wasn’t sorry.

They walked in the gardens, and danced a lot that night, although Maxine was hot in the dress she had worn. Christophe introduced her to the friends he recognized in their masks and costumes. And at the end of the evening, they watched the fireworks that Sam had for them every year, in spectacular colors and displays, a rose, a flag, fireworks in every shape and color. Someone said he spent half a million dollars on them, which Christophe knew was possible. And after the fireworks, the guests began to drift away. It was always an impressive evening, but Christophe was glad to leave with Maxine. He had a bottle of Cristal on ice waiting for them at the château. They wanted to get out of their costumes, and talk about the evening while they unwound. Christophe took off his wig as soon as they came through the front door of the château, and Maxine did the same, and let her almost jet black hair fall down her back freely. She took off her shoes and loosened the corset that had constricted her all night. It felt good to be home, while Christophe poured the champagne into two glasses, and smiled at her.

“You looked beautiful tonight,” he said in a gentle voice.

“That’s good, because I couldn’t breathe,” she said, laughing. She took a long sip of the champagne, and then looked at him in surprise as he dropped to one knee in front of her, in the château kitchen.

“Darling Maxine, will you marry me? We can’t get married until October, and we can’t announce it until then. But I want to marry you as soon as we can after the anniversary date. Will you be my wife?” As he said it, he pulled a small red leather box out of his pocket. He had felt for it a thousand times that night, waiting to give it to her at the right moment. It was the ring he had bought in the city at Cartier two days before, and Maxine looked at it in wonder as he slipped the ring on her finger and stood up and kissed her. This was what she had been hoping for, but she didn’t think he would make a move until after the anniversary of his wife’s death in October. “You haven’t answered me,” he said gently after he kissed her again.

“I was too stunned.” She clung to him as though they were both drowning, and in some ways they were. “Of course I’ll marry you.” She looked at the ring he had put on her finger. It fit perfectly, and it was beautiful and worthy of her.

“Let’s get married in mid-October. I’ll tell Camille after her mother’s anniversary date.” He had been thinking of it constantly ever since he decided he wanted to marry Maxine, and there was no point waiting. She could give up her rented house on Money Lane, and move into the château. He didn’t want to live with her unmarried, with his daughter.

“Do you think Camille will be shocked?” she asked, looking concerned, but they both knew she would be, and he didn’t answer her for a long moment.

“She’ll adjust, this is sooner than any of us expected, but she wants me to be happy.” He thought of what Sam had said to him that night about Maxine, but Sam didn’t know her. She was a wonderful woman who had been through hard times, and now he would protect her, and nothing like it would happen to her again. She wouldn’t be driven from her home, and Camille was a good, loving person and would come to respect her, and maybe even love her. He wanted to be sure he made provision for both of them in his will, so Maxine would feel secure. He said as much to her when they went to bed that night, in the room and the bed that he had shared with Joy. This had all happened very quickly, but he was convinced it was the right thing to do. He wasn’t going to continue having a clandestine affair with Maxine. If he wanted her that badly, then it was right for him to honor her and marry her. The last two months had been too crazy. They all needed to share a peaceful, normal life together, and marrying her was the only way to do that. He wasn’t Sam, dating a congresswoman who put her career first, didn’t want a commitment to any man, and kept their love affair a secret. Christophe wanted to be out in the open with Maxine. She deserved to be his wife and not just his mistress.

“We have a lot to plan in the next six weeks,” he said to her quietly as they lay in bed in the dark, and Maxine felt the ring on her finger. She was silent, making plans of her own. She wanted her sons to come over and meet Christophe, and she hoped he would find jobs at the winery for them, even if they couldn’t be paid legally. And she had to find a place for her mother. She couldn’t leave her where she was in Paris forever.

“I was thinking about my mother and my two boys,” she said to Christophe as she rolled over and kissed him.

“We’ll talk about all of it tomorrow,” he said in a deep sexy voice as she smiled at him in the moonlight. He didn’t know it, but he had saved her, and hopefully he would never know the dire straits she’d been in when he met her. She had come to the Napa Valley to find a man like him. She had set her sights on Sam Marshall, but Christophe was so much better, so trusting and so kind. Sam had a sharp edge to him and saw through her.

“Thank you,” she said, as she kissed him, and then she worked her magic on him again. It was what she knew how to do best. And all he could think of as he made love to her that night was how much he loved her and that she was going to be his wife. She wasn’t Joy, whom he had loved with his whole heart and soul, but he needed Maxine now, as he had never needed any other woman. The last year without Joy had nearly killed him. Maxine had rescued him from his grief and loneliness, and they had a bright future ahead. With Maxine, he knew he would lead a more glamorous, sophisticated life than he had with Joy. But Maxine was the right woman for the next chapter. He could hardly wait.

She lay looking at him after he fell asleep that night. She had lived by her wits all her life, and he was the answer to her prayers. Soon she would be living in the château with him, and she would be the wife of an important vintner. No one could touch her now, and nothing would stop her. And surely not his daughter this time, she was such an innocent. Camille was no match for her. It was all going to be easy now.