He sat down on a sofa and motioned for Reggie to join him. “I am fortunate to have him.”
She sat near him, their knees almost touching. “What kind of business are you in?”
“The kind that makes money.”
“The profit motive drives you, I guess,” she said coolly.
“When one grows up without money, yes, it can be a motivating force.”
“But you came to Provence as a child. You must have not been in too desperate circumstances. Traveling here from Canada couldn’t have been cheap, even back then.”
He flashed a look that was inscrutable. Yet for one terrible instant Reggie thought she had gone too far.
“It’s none of my business, of course,” she added hastily.
“No, it’s all right. As I mentioned, my mother was French. So we did not have to pay to stay anywhere. We had the family cottage. And back then we came by boat, third-class steerage. Followed by third-class steerage on a train. It was very cheap, if not very comfortable.”
“Of course.”
“And once one arrived in Provence, how one got there became irrelevant.” He stood and looked out at the breathtaking view of the Luberon valley. “It is glorious.”
She joined him. “It is.” She added, “My mother would have said that God was in fine form when he created Provence.”
“A religious woman, I take it?”
“A good Catholic, just like me.”
“On her dying bed my mother said to me, ‘Never forsake your faith in God. It will keep you, in the good and especially in the bad.’ She was a wise woman.”
“And has it kept you, in good and bad?”
“No life is without pain. I am rich now, but once I was not. Once I…” He smiled. “I think dinner is ready. You will sit next to me. Alan is joining us as well. You should ask him about his theory on French versus California wines. It is most interesting. He is completely wrong, of course, but it is worth hearing nonetheless.” He walked her into the dining room.
After the meal was done, they had more drinks and then dessert out on the lower patio next to the pool. Rice joined them for a few minutes but then abruptly left. Whether this was on a high sign from his employer or not, Reggie didn’t know. Waller stared moodily at the water.
“You have a pool at your villa, correct?”
Reggie nodded. “I swim. In fact, after this meal I should probably swim a couple of miles to work it off.”
He waved this comment away. “Ridiculous. You are in superb shape.”
“You don’t have much fat on you either.”
“I do what I can,” he said modestly. “Americans eat too much garbage, but you have obviously escaped that trap.”
“Being wealthy gives me certain advantages many Americans don’t have. I can afford to eat right, and I have the time to exercise.”
“Here, a peasant can go to market and get the freshest ingredients for a few euros. And they walk to market and thus get their exercise.” He paused and added, “But I judge no one.”
Reggie felt her face flush uncontrollably at this statement. Fortunately, Waller was not looking at her. You only judged hundreds of thousands of people to their deaths.
She rose. “Thank you for a wonderful day.”
He said, “You are not leaving.”
She flinched for an instant, since it was not clear if that was a question or a command. “It’s been a long day.”
“But it is still early.”