Excerpt: La Fille de Coquin

“Where’s Patrice?” Louisa asked after a few moments of awkward silence.

“He,” Eliza began, standing up to make her way to the door, “Is on the back lawn, playing with the new cricket bat his uncle sent him.”

“Which one?” Louisa replied, following Eliza out the door, “I don’t know if my mother told you but we have a rather ... large family.”

“No, she has mentioned nearly every single one, as far as I can tell. I heard all about your aunt Amandine, and her children – I think one of them is in the circus?”

“Yes, that would be Felix. He’s about... I think he’s the same age as me. They live in – well, the family lives in Middlesex – you see, my Aunt met her husband after he ended up in France during the 1890s. After they had Jane in 1896, they moved back to England. Bad idea that was,” Louisa added, grinning from ear to ear, “Their son died in the Great War. He was only sixteen, too. He lied about his age to get in.”

“As did most young men his age,” Eliza added sadly, her head bowed to her feet. Louisa noticed Eliza’s momentary withdrawl, but bypassed the moment.

“Did she tell you about her brothers and sisters? She has as many as I do. She only has one younger sister – Mathilde, who we see all too frequently – and her daughters. Pascale and I have been close for years.”

“Your mother did mention her sister. She speaks very highly of her.”

“They’ve worked closely for years. It’s not surprising, really. They are very good at what they do.”

“So I gather.”

“She has a whole hoard of older siblings, too – Jacques, who died when Mama was small – she’s never told us how old. But that’s why Jacques is Jacques – Mama wanted to remember him. And there are three others – Timothee, Hilaire, and Rodolphe. They’re all around somewhere – only they’re a lot older than Mama, so our cousins are a lot older too. Papa’s sister had kids around the same time as Mama. It’s a shame we never see them.”

Eliza was feeling very overwhelmed by this sudden influx of information, and though she was doing her best to listen, she didn’t particularly see how any of this would ever be relevant to her. She smiled anyway; Louisa had an enthusiasm she’d never seen in another human being before.