“Very long. And yours?”

“Peaceful. It’s too quiet here without Pilar.”

“I never thought I’d hear you say that.” Marc-Edouard smiled at his wife as he slid into a large blue velvet chair near the fireplace.

“Neither did I. How were your meetings?”

“Tiresome.”

He was not very expansive. She turned in her seat to look at him. “You’re still going to Paris tomorrow?” He nodded, and she continued to watch him as he stretched his long legs. He looked no different than he had that morning and seemed almost ready to take on another day. He thrived on the meetings he called “tiresome.” He stood up and walked toward her with a smile in his eyes.

“Yes, I’m going to Paris tomorrow. Are you quite sure you don’t want to join Pilar and my mother in Cap d’Antibes?”

“Quite sure.” Her look was determined. “Why would I want to do that?”

“You said yourself that it was too quiet here. I thought perhaps…” He put his hands on her shoulders as he went to stand behind her for a moment. “I’m going to be gone all summer, Deanna.”

Her shoulders stiffened in his hands. “All summer?”

“More or less. The Salco shipping case is too important to leave in anyone else’s hands. I’ll be commuting back and forth between Paris and Athens all summer. I just can’t be here.” His accent seemed stronger now when he spoke to her, as though he had already left the States. “It will give me plenty of opportunity to check up on Pilar, which should please you, but not any opportunity to be with you.” She wanted to ask him if he really cared, but she didn’t ask. “I think the case will take the better part of the summer. About three months.”

It sounded like a death sentence to her. “Three months?” Her voice was very small.

“Now you see why I asked if you’d like to go to Cap d’Antibes. Does this change your mind?”