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She doesn’t look at him as he rises from the lavatory When he closes the bathroom door behind him, Liv shuts her eyes and slides under the hot water until she can hear nothing at all

Chapter Two

Paris, 1912

‘Not the Bar Tripoli’

‘Yes, the Bar Tripoli’

For a big rave;vre could bear an uncanny resemblance to a small boy informed of some imminent punishment He looked down at me, his expression pained, and blew out his cheeks ‘Ah – let’s not do this tonight, Sophie Let’s go and eat so free of financial concerns We’re only just married! It’s still our lune de miel!’ He waved dismissively at the bar

I reached into my coat pocket for the handful of IOUs I had folded in there ‘My beloved husband, we cannot have an evening free of financial concerns for we have no money to eat Not a centime’

‘But the money from the Galerie Duchamps –’

‘Gone on rent You were behind from the summer, remember’

‘The savings in the pot?’

‘Spent two days ago when you were ne to breakfast’

‘It was a wedding breakfast! I felt the need to ht for a ht’

He patted his pockets, co up only with his tobacco pouch He looked so downcast I ale, Édouard It won’t be so bad If you prefer I’ll go in and ask your friends nicely to settle their debts You need have nothing to do with it They will find it harder to refuse a woman’

‘And then ill leave?’

‘And then ill leave’ I reached up and kissed his cheek ‘And ill go and get soruestion’

‘You ish to eat, Édouard’

‘I don’t see e have to do this now Our lune debut love! I asked one of s I’ on, here’s Laure Laure! Come and meet my wife!’

In the three weeks that I had been Madarave;vre, and, in truth, for some months beforehand, I had discovered that the nureater than his skills as a painter Édouard was the enerous of enerosity He sold his paintings with an ease that must have been the envy of his friends at the Acadé as unpleasant as cash for the pile of tattered IOUs Hence Messieurs Duchaler could afford both his exquisite artistry on their walls and food in their bellies, while Édouard lived for weeks on on bread, cheese and rillettes