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called Aurélien “Father” or “Dad.”
    “The way you look at Pauline,” he continued. “You better be careful.”
    Robert was about to say something back, but Jules was already on his feet.
    “Let’s go,” he said. “It’s getting late and I’ve got work to do.”
    They headed back toward Fonteyne and remained quiet for about a mile. Finally, out of breath and peeved by his brother’s infernal cadence, Robert said, “What about Laurène?”
    Jules stopped in his tracks and Robert bumped into him.
    “What about her?”
    “When are you going to marry her?”
    Jules burst into his light laughter.
    “You laugh just like Louis-Marie,” Robert said.
    “And like you!”
    Both brothers shared an amused look.
    “I like Laurène a lot,” Jules admitted.
    “I can see that. … I remember when her hair was still in pigtails. She’s become very pretty.”
    Jules pushed a pebble with the tip of his boot. Talking about Laurène made him uncomfortable.
    “And, naturally,” Robert said, “Dad took her under his wing.”
    Robert glanced at Jules and decided to be more specific.
    “It’s not surprising, since you two like the same people, the same things and, above all, the same women. …”
    Jules said nothing. He waited a few seconds before taking off toward Fonteyne. Tired of following him, Robert let him walk away.
    I hope he does marry her , Robert thought. He’s going to be thirty soon.
    His brother took a bend in the road and disappeared behind a tree. Robert sighed.
    His hair is too long, he always wears the same turtleneck and those boots he had six years ago, and he still behaves like a college kid most of the time, but the son of a gun is good-looking. … If only because of him, I’m glad I came. … And he’s right, I have to be careful and not stare at Pauline so much when I’m around her and the others …
    “Jules tire you out?”
    Lost in his thoughts, Robert was startled by Laurène’s voice behind him.
    “It’s impossible to keep up with him,” she added with a smile. “I guess you don’t charge up and down your hospital’s hallways like that, huh?”
    Robert, disconcerted, smiled back at her. Once again he was reminded of how attractive she was. But, distracted, he did not pay her any particular attention. He was still too affected by Pauline’s presence to be receptive to anyone else. Just the same, his experience with women being what it was, he noted that Laurène was looking elsewhere as she talked to him, seemingly uneasy. The observation annoyed him.
    “He’s in great shape,” he said, dryly. “Just like my father. …”
    The young woman turned to Robert and set her pale eyes on him.
    “It’s too hot out,” Robert said. “I’m going back to the house.”
    And he headed for Fonteyne with the kind of energetic strides that would’ve killed him an hour earlier. A pace, in fact, just like Jules’s.
    Dominique was watching Alexandre as he slept. As always, she felt a great deal of love and tenderness for him. She could hear the children playing outside, shouting with excitement. She reached for the bowl of candy on her nightstand. She could never resist sweets. Also on the nightstand, the photo of her father proudly standing between his daughters seemed to taunt her more and more every day.
    That’s where Alex and I should be, she thought. In Mazion, at Daddy’s …
    How many times had she made that suggestion to her husband … to absolutely no avail? On that point, at least, he stood his ground. “A Laverzac doesn’t produce wine outside Fonteyne!” he replied every time she brought up the topic. Louis-Marie and Bob, that was different. They’d gone to Paris to start a career. But Alex being a wine producer thirty miles away from his father? That was unimaginable. At least for him. …
    When Laurène came to work at Fonteyne, Dominique had feared that Jules would fall for her and that an additional wedding would leave her father alone for good in Mazion. It was