I inclined my head slightly. “She’s quite impressed with you and this place, you know? Have you known her long?”
“Oh, quite some time. I knew her husband before they were married. A fine man. You knew Jean?”
“Yes, he was my neighbor.”
“Ah, yes, yes. Of course.”
I didn’t wish to speak of Jean Chessal, especially to a friend of his. My conscience was not completely clear regarding him.
“And how is Tania?” he asked.
“Quite well,” I said, not entirely truthfully. “She sends her best.”
He smiled. “Do ask her to come by soon. She is a welcome guest anytime. She doesn’t visit nearly enough.”
“I will ask her, though I somehow didn’t think you solicited visitors here. The guards . . .”
We all laughed. Then, in a brusque but friendly way, he clapped his hands together and sat up straight.
“Now, what can I do for you?”
“Well, frankly, we decided to come to see you mostly out of curiosity. Monsieur Lavoie, here, had some deliveries to make, and I had other business in town, which I chose to put off. Tania had told me so much about this building, and about yourself, that I thought I’d come by to meet you and to see some of your innovations.”
“You did, did you?” There was more than a bit of flint in the mildly humorous gaze.
I raised a hand. “Please stop me if I’m out of line.”
“Be assured that I would, monsieur. It is no small matter that you have been allowed to come this far. You’re aware of that, of course.” It wasn’t a question, and he continued. “But then we’ve carried on this farce long enough. It isn’t every day that one meets such a serious rival face-to-face, is it?”
“I’m afraid I don’t completely understand,” I said.
“Come, come, Monsieur Giraud. Surely you don’t think just anyone can enter this compound. And I do think I’m justified in calling it precisely that. Probably there isn’t another man, or men”—here he motioned to Georges—“in France that I would have allowed within these walls without an official reason. ‘Just wanted to look over your innovations! ’ Indeed!” He chuckled at my ludicrous suggestion. “I admit that bringing a visitor along with you, and one with actual business here, is a charming touch that shows real imagination, and I begin to see what Tania is talking about. But let’s admit the facts, that you came by here for the same reason that I let you in—plain curiosity, all right—and not about our innovations.”
Georges picked up the tenuous threads. “He’s found you out, Jules, No doubt of it.”
