Page 105 of Under Her Protection

"Telephone me."

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

Vivienne went.

She passed Seraphine in the small antechamber, in the black dress she always wore, eyes on Vivienne for one full count, the small downward tilt of the chin Vivienne had, in eleven years of membership, learned to read as both approval and warning. Vivienne returned the tilt with one of her own. Vivienne went out into the rue de Sévigné and into the back of the car where Eric had the door open.

Avery slid in after her on the left.

Leo was in front.

Leo had been in front, beside Eric today and Vivienne knew something was going on but she didn’t know what. When she had left her bedroom this morning Avery had been there and announced the change.

Leo had reappeared at the lodge this evening and had travelled with them to Maison Noir but she had been silent. Vivienne had felt the proximity of her in the car. Had wanted to reach for her, but that was ridiculous of course.

Leo had not, in the front of the car on the avenue Matignon, turned around once.

Vivienne, in the back, had her phone in her left hand and the wool of the dress gathered in her right and the three messages and the unopened photograph sitting against the inside of her left palm, and she watched the back of Leo's handsome head for the length of the avenue Marceau and did not say anything until they had crossed the place de l'Étoile.

"Eric."

"Madame."

"Home."

"Yes, Madame."

She did not look at Avery.

She looked at the back of Leo's strong neck under the elastic that held her dark hair back, and she watched the small clean line where the elastic ended and the skin began and she waited until they were on the avenue Foch and the streetlamps were sliding their yellow over the inside of the car in the rhythm they did at night, and then she leaned forward six inches and put her hand, briefly, on the headrest behind Leo's right ear.

"Leo."

"Madame."

"I have had three messages. From her. While we were at Maison Noire."

"Copy."

"The content of the messages is not corporate."

"Copy."

"It is sexual. It refers to what we were to each other. It includes a photograph from the apartment in Zurich which I have not opened yet, but which I believe to be of the two of us, in a state I would prefer not to describe, which she intends, I think, to publish."

A beat.

"Copy."

"Leo. Can we speak privately at the house?”

Leo didn’t respond and Vivienne noticed her , but Vivienne took that as a yes. Leo was still her staff and her staff would not refuse her.

Vivienne sat back.

She put the phone face down on her thigh and she put her right hand flat on her own sternum, and she watched the back of Leo's head for the rest of the avenue Foch and the rue de Chaillot, and Avery, on her left, looked out of her own window at the avenue Foch's plane trees in their bare December selves, and Avery, who was Leo's sister, did not look at Vivienne once.