Family Tensions
Date: 7/29/2024,
Categories:
Taboo
Author: Verhaalen
... managed it, juggling work in the business and running the home. Louis didn’t seem the helpful sort when it came to domestic chores, a throwback to more traditional married life structures.
‘Get some red out of the rack, would you? I’ll get the cheese and some bread, Antoine. Do you want some fruit?’
‘Of the forbidden kind?’
‘I’ll have to watch what I say, won’t I…and close my bedroom door.’
‘You knew that I was there?’ he stammered in reply, caught out by making that simple confession.
‘Yes, now come on. Lunch will be over before we’ve had a chance to sit and enjoy it together. I don’t get the chance when he’s about.’
Antoine heard the change of tone in her voice. ‘His moods are unpredictable…you mean?’
‘No, they’ve become a part of him.’ Margaux smiled wanly and picked up the tray with their lunch. ‘Out on the terrace, vite!’ she laughed, her face suddenly transformed. ‘Enough of this. I want to learn all about you and what your plans are now that you’ve become an A student at university. I’d like to breathe some different air, too, while you’re here.’
He knew then, after hearing what she had said and with the sun in her blonde hair, that he had fallen under the woman’s spell. Lust could so easily take over and he would be in danger of making a fool of himself.
♥
The‘to do’ list that he had been set was whittled away far too quickly. The office manager, not Margaux, opined that he had tested his spreadsheet and, he too, liked what ...
... Antoine had produced in a matter of hours when he had time for himself. He would talk to Louis and see if an expert in such things could develop it further.
‘Antoine had better copyright the idea, he may be onto making his fortune!’ The three of them laughed, but Antoine knew that Margaux was being drawn in and that she now took more than an aunt’s interest in her ‘nephew’.
Alone again, she spoke softly to him. ‘Don’t rush the work or I’ll not know how to distract you or myself.’ She was flirting and now stood close as she grabbed at his hand. ‘Louis is staying over an extra day…’
‘And it bothers you being alone with me for too long?’ he answered directly and on meeting her wondering gaze upon him.
‘You’re learning, darling, how to read my mind.’
‘It’s the same for me, but then you’ve known that for some time.’ He gave her hand an answering squeeze before leaving Margaux’s side. Footsteps were to be heard in the corridor beyond.
The door was pushed open without a knock on it first.
‘We need some help in the vat room and cellar,’ Jean, the foreman, a short and burly man told them. ‘Monsieur Louis said that I should ask Monsieur Antoine if he could help us with the work.’
‘I’m coming. I’m through with the work here for the day, if that’s alright with you?’ he asks of her.
Margaux waved him off, a moment’s look being exchanged. She was finding it difficult not to be captivated by her nephew’s ways with her. ‘Your uncle’s jobs for you here are over, so ...