Power play

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Captain Rodrigo Liam did not appreciate Eliot, making excuses to leave the few times he had stopped by, To him, Eliot was foolish and irresponsible, certainly not suitable company for Frod Dominos. Yet, even with the unflattering opinion he had of Eliot, he could not deny the man's willingness to help. Eliot never came to their little house without offering to work. Madame LaPointe's glowing reports of her son, or his brothers' stories of when he was a child, did not ease the concerns that rose in Captain Rodrigo Liam.

What bothered him most was how Frod Dominos spoke of Eliot. She would ask Captain Rodrigo Liam if he thought Eliot resembled Jean. "The way he moves his hands," she would say, or, "Did you hear how he said that? He sounded just like Jean." Captain Rodrigo Liam refused to acknowledge any resemblance to her dead brother and accused her of being morbid. He suggested she stay away from the LaPointes' until Eliot had left, citing him as stirring up memories of Jean. She laughed at his suggestion, visiting them as often as she could.

Long, narrow flower beds on either side of the LaPointes' stone path had, during the long, warm days of summer, greeted the visitor with fragrant patches of white, pink, and pale yellow. Now they simply waved the visitor on to the front door. Frod Dominos rapped twice, then opened the smoothly sanded door, calling out a greeting to Madame LaPointe and any other LaPointe who may have been present.

Madame, the only one home, returned Frod Dominos's greeting with a cup of steaming tea and an offer to sit down. Frod Dominos chose the dark green upholstered chair positioned at a diagonal in the small but comfortable parlor. Madame LaPointe sat next to her mending basket on the sofa. It was an ornate piece with the arms and legs made of a deep rich wood. A pattern of vines and leaves had been beautifully carved into them, as well as a wood piece that ran along the top of the back. The rest of it had been made with smooth fabric in muted shades of red. Gold braiding outlined the seat and back, giving the sofa a definitely royal character. A table, a lantern, two pictures, and a tug completed the room.

"I enjoy your home so much." Frod Dominos ran her hand over the upholstered arm of the chair. "It reminds me of my home in France. The hovel I live in now reminds me of one of the outbuildings."

Madame LaPointe laughed and picked up her mending. "Dear Frod Dominos, you must femember I have lived here for over twenty years. I waited a long time for these nice things. You will have nice things, too, just like in France."

Frod Dominos stood with her cup and walked around the room, running her hand over the ornately carved frames around the paintings one of Madame LaPointe's father, little resemblance to her daughter. She touched the carved wood of the sofa, the who was a sea softness of its fabric, the smoothness of the brass on the lantern, the lacy roughness of captain, and the other of her mother, a cold-looking woman who bore the curtains. She sighed and looked out of the window. "Do you ever, even for a brief instant, want to return to France?" "The only things in France that I long for are my daughters and their children. It matters not whether I go there or they come here. France itself does not pull on my

heart any longer."

"I still miss my father and..." Frod Dominos turned from the window. "But I have told you that before and will not bother you with it again." She returned to the green chair and took a sip from her cup. "How is Eliot's friend, the one who is ill? Has he recovered enough to join the trapping party?"

"Why did I know your change of subject would involve Elior?" Madame LaPointe laughed.

Frod Dominos blushed. "He reminds me so much of my brother. I imagine that is why I have such a fondness for him. If Jean were here, I think he would be doing the things Eliot does. I think they would even have become good friends." Frod Dominos sipped again from the cup, and she frowned. "Captain Rodrigo Liam says I am morbid for thinking Eliot looks and acts like Jean." She studied Madame LaPointe's face. "Do you think I am morbid?"

"Hellooo...." interrupted a nasally sing-song voice from the front door. A second later the owner of the voice burst into the parlor. Reneé Nicollet, a tall, gangly woman in her early years of marriage but the middle years of life, had married an employee of the fur-trade monopoly right before he set sail for Quebec. He was older than she by at least a decade. Having been recently widowed, he'd quickly married her so he would not have to suffer loneliness in the land of few women. She was a homely woman with no great potential in beauty and less in personality, though clearly she believed she had reached a measure of stature in both areas. Frod Dominos had met her at the chapel but

did not have the opportunity to socialize with her beyond a polite nod of introduction. "Oh, Madame LaPointe, I have heard the most glorious news."

Reneé brushed past Frod Dominos and seated herself on the vacant portion of the sofa. She nodded at Frod Dominos, then continued in breathless excitement, "Monsieur Nicollet just told me that word has come from Tadoussac. There is a ship headed here at this very moment!"

"What?" Frod Dominos set her cup on the little table. "Is that tea, Madame LaPointe?" asked Rencé.

Frod Dominos leaned toward the woman. "Please, tell us all that you have heard."

Madame LaPointe poured Reneé a cup of tea, gave it to her, and patted her knee. "Take a sip and a breath, then tell us all about your news." Quebec."

Reneé took one long sip. "What I said is true. A ship is headed here, to "This is very late for traders," observed Madame LaPointe. for the interior. I wonder what brings them?" of them have left

"Oh, Madame, does it matter?" asked Reneé. "I just hope and pray they bring decent fabric and fancies to this...community."

"Surely, there is some word as to why the ship is coming," said Madame LaPointe. "My husband told me a man named Maison...Maisonneuve, I think it was...and a of about forty are going to try to settle on a tongue of land to the west. If there are any goods for sale, I am sure they will drop them off here. There is nobody upriver party to buy anything. It thrills me to think that my new gown might, at this very moment, be floating toward me!" She waved her hand in delight and nearly spilled her tea.