The imposing black manservant who... 247
The imposing black manservant who had
admitted
her now gestured Scarlett and her aunts toward the open door at the
end
of the hallScarlett let Eulalie and Pauline go firstThe bedroom
was a tremendous high-ceilinged space that had formerly been a
spacious
parlorIt was crowded with furniture, all the sofas and chairs and
tables that had been in the parlor, plus a massive four-posted bed with
gilt eagles crouching on top of the postsIn one corner of the room
was a flag of France and a headless tailor's dummy wearing the
gold-epauletted medal-hung uniform that Pierre Robillard had worn
when
he was a young man and an officer in Napoleon's armyThe old man
Pierre Robillard was in the bed, sitting erect against a mass of huge
pillows, glaring at his visitorsWhy, he's shrunk up to almost
nothingHe was such a louis vuitton graffiti bag big old man, but he's practically lost in that
big bed, nothing but skin and bones"Hello, Grandfather," Scarlett
said, "I've come to see you for your birthdayIt's Scarlett, Ellen's
daughter
"I haven't lost my memory," said the old manHis strong voice belied
his fragile body"But apparently your memory fails youIn this
house, young people do not speak unless they are spoken to
Scarlett bit her tongue to keep silentI'm not a child to be talked
to that way, and you should be grateful anybody comes to see you at
allNo wonder Mother was so happy to have Pa take her away from
home!
"Et vous, mesfillesQu 'ist-ce-que vous vouie cettefois?" Pierre
Robillard growled at his daughtersEulalie and Pauline rushed to the
bedside, both speaking at onceMy grief!
They're talking French! What on earth am I doing here? louis vuitton travel bags Scarlett sank
down onto a gold brocade sofa, wishing she was some place-any
place-elseRhett better come after me soon or I'll go crazy in this
houseIt was getting dark outside, and the shadowed corners of the
room were mysteriousThe headless soldier seemed about to move
Scarlett felt cold fingers on her spine and told herself not to be
sillyBut she was glad when Jerome and a sturdy-looking black
woman
came in carrying a lampWhile the maid pulled the curtains Jerome lit
the gas lamps on each wallHe asked Scarlett politely if she would
move so that he could get behind the sofa
When she stood, she saw her grandfather's eyes on her, and she
turned
away from themShe found herself facing a big painting in an ornate
gilt frameJerome lit one lamp, then a second, and the painting came
to lifeIt was a portrait of her discount hermes grandmother
Scarlett recognized her at once from the painting at TaraBut this
one was very differentSolange Robillard's dark hair was not piled
high on her head as in Tara's portraitIt fell, instead, like a warm
cloud over her shoulders and down her bare arms to the elbow, bound
only by a fillet of gleaming pearlsHer arrogant thin nose was the
same, but her lips held a beginning smile instead of a sneer, and her
tip-tilted dark eyes looked from their corners at Scarlett with the
laughing, magnetic intimacy that had challenged and lured everyone
who'd ever known herShe was younger in this painting, but
nevertheless a woman, not a girlThe provocative round breasts
half-exposed at Tara were covered by the thin white silk gown she
wore
Covered yet visible through the gauzy silk, a glimmer of white flesh
and rolex datejust oyster rosy nipplesScarlett felt herself blushingWhy, Grandma
Robillard doesn't look like a lady at all, she thought, automatically
disapproving as she'd been taught she shouldInvoluntarily she
remembered herself in Rhett's arms and the wild hunger for his hands
on
herHer grandmother must have felt the same hunger, the same
ecstasy,
it was in her eyes and her smileSo it can't be wrong, what I felt
Or was it? Was it some taint of shamelessness in her blood, handed
down from the woman who smiled at her from the painting? Scarlett
stared at the woman above her on the wall, fascinated
Pauline whispered in her ear"Pere wants us to leave nowSay
good night quietly, and come with me Supper was a skimpy meal
Hardly enough, in Scarlett's opinion, for one of the bright-plumaged
fantasy birds painted on the plates that held balenciaga fashion bag it
