‘“Think I’m drunk, do you? I want that cash, I’m telling you, and then I’ll be off this very night.”
‘And he started to search the house. Talking to himself. Swearing. I didn’t dare leave my room, and he came back.
‘“You’re going to tell me where you stashed it!”
‘And believe it or not, Jean, he hit me! That night, I was scared to death. I wondered whether he wouldn’t be capable of killing me.
‘I just managed to push him down the stairs and lock my door. He fell on the way down, and next morning he had a bruise on his head.’
He knew she wasn’t telling him all this for no reason. She was staring at him too hard, as when she had an idea forming.
‘He keeps getting extra punishments, and I’m wondering now if he ever will come back.’
He guessed dimly what she was getting at – it meant in a roundabout way … ‘Whereas you’re here, and you’re not going to leave.’
She sighed and asked for a glass of water, which he went to fetch directly from the well, as it would be colder.
‘Stay by me a little longer. There’s no hurry this morning. All this time I’ve been lying here, I’ve been thinking. I’ve had to reach the age of forty-five to spend all day in bed! Before that, sick or not, I just kept going, like an old farm animal. What are you thinking about?’
‘Nothing.’
‘You’re not regretting it?’
‘What?’
‘You know very well what I mean. Anyway, the twenty-two thousand francs, guess where they are?’
He shuddered. He wanted not to hear what was coming. He had the unpleasant feeling she was trying to tempt him.
‘You’re sleeping right by them, every night. You’d only need to stretch your hand out from your bed. The dressmaker’s dummy. You know? You just unscrew the stand and it’s hollow inside. That’s where it is.’
Ah. He had not been mistaken then, when he had woken up in the middle of the night before the end of his blissful dream. It was starting. Or rather starting again.
‘Now, I’ll tell you what I’ve been thinking. About the house. If you don’t agree, I won’t be cross. Well …’
She glanced across at the brickyard.
‘Sit down. When I’m lying here, I don’t want to have to crane my neck at someone standing up, you look too big. Take the chair. Yes, go on, bring it closer. Oh, what’s the matter with you this morning? Are you in a bad mood? Is it because I’m so repulsive to see now? I’ll be better soon, yes I will, don’t you worry. They’re not going to get me this time. Now then, how much do you think a house like this would fetch at auction?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘With the land and the charges, it could be up to a hundred and twenty thousand francs … And don’t forget I’m entitled to a third, well … once Couderc dies, because I’m his daughter-in-law, and I was married under a joint property contract. So that means forty thousand francs would come to me – see?’
‘Er … yes.’
‘Forty thousand, plus another twenty-two, that’s sixty-two thousand. Over half the price of the house. Now, suppose I get a loan from the Land Credit Bank, or take out a mortgage on the rest? I know that’s difficult.’
She was talking more prudently now, with little glances, anxious and shrewd.
‘And … suppose someone is prepared to stand guarantee.’
He still didn’t understand.
‘You told me you’d never had any of your mother’s inheritance. Not that that’s any of my business. You’ve got a right to it. If you’re offended, now say so right away and I won’t go on.’
‘No, I’m not offended.’
‘You would hold the deeds, until I could pay it all back. So you wouldn’t risk anything. Then listen, this is what happens next. See, I’ve thought plenty about this, and I’ve got my head screwed on. In the market … Well, in the market, those women all laughed at me for getting the incubator. But they’ll soon see the results. Here, we don’t have enough land. But say, at the same time as the house, we bought the brickyard.’
He winced and automatically looked across at the little dwelling with the rose-pink roof.
‘For a start, that would mean we could get rid of Françoise and her lot. They’d have to go somewhere else; they wouldn’t find any work round here, people know them too well. The brickyard we could get for next to nothing. Pass me the magazine from the chest of drawers.’
It was a farming magazine. She showed him the pages full of advertisements for pedigree poultry and chicks.
‘See, we could buy a big incubator with room for a thousand eggs. Then, instead of selling chicks at the market, we could send them all over France, in these little cardboard boxes. Look, this is what they’re like.’
‘Yes.’
‘Now I’m not asking you to reply at once. Take time to think. Are you sure you’re not offended I’m telling you all this? I said to myself, say your father turns up, he could any moment. Them over there, they won’t dare do anything for now. Long as I’m in bed and I’ve got the scars, they’ll be too afraid I’ll bring charges. Oh, will you look at that! Here she comes again, the cheek of it, right under my windows.’
He leaned out and saw Félicie, who was walking along the towpath with the baby on her hip. She looked like a little girl playing dolls, an insolent little girl who liked to exasperate the grown-ups.
Nose in the air, she was staring across at her aunt with a contented smile, and when Jean appeared, she blinked three times to say hello.
‘Don’t look at her!’ said Tati. ‘She’ll start thinking you’re after her. She runs after men like a heifer on heat … and … What’s the matter?’ ‘Nothing.’
‘Is it what I said about her?’
