The Rainbow Bridge Read Free Page A

room in his shirt-tails, knees apart, feet at right angles, apparently unable to move. On the floor lay the fragmented glory of his new dress uniform. She covered a smile; he looked like a peacock that had met with a serious accident. Of course, he needed to dress up for the Count who was to come to dinner today. But why was he frozen in that extraordinary position?
    ‘Look what I did, Colette, I put on my boots before my breeches, then I tried to get them off, and my spurs caught in the braid of my dolman.’ Colette looked behind him. She could see that the spikes of his spurs were entangled in the delicate braid of the glorious silver and blue jacket at his feet. It made her toes curl just to see the damage he would cause if he moved. ‘If I pull the braid, I’ll be disgraced!’ Colette knelt down and disentangled his spurs, carefully easing back the trapped braid as she did so.
    ‘That’s it, you’re free now; you can take your boots off,’ she said.
    ‘That’s how I got into trouble in the first place, Colette.’ He stood on one leg, grasped the heel of his boot, tried to heave, lost his balance and began to hop backwards.
    ‘Well, don’t do it again!’ she laughed, snatching away theprecious dolman. ‘Come, let me take the spurs off first, then I’ll pull.’ She undid the buckles and removed the wickedly spiked wheels. ‘I’m glad I’m not a horse,’ she said. Gaston sat down on a chair and held out a boot. She took it in her hands; it was smooth to touch and smelled excitingly of new leather. Then she began to pull.
    ‘It’s coming!’ Gaston held hard to the sides of his chair, bracing one foot on the floor. The boot came off with an audible ‘fop’ as the vacuum was released. ‘Now for the other one.’
    ‘How will you ever manage on your own?’ she asked.
    ‘I may have a servant, otherwise I’ll just have to rely on my friends to help.’ The second boot proved more difficult. Colette leaned back while Gaston braced himself. ‘Pull … it’s coming!’ At that moment his stockinged foot slipped away from him on the polished floor, his body weight shifted, the chair tipped forward and the back hit him on the head with a stunning crack. Colette lost her balance and rocketed back with the boot.
    ‘Oh, your poor head,’ she said, struggling to her feet. For a second Gaston didn’t stir. She threw the boot she was holding to one side and rushed to help him. He stood up groggily, then swayed alarmingly. She grabbed him about the waist and held on. At that moment the door was thrown open and Madame Morteau stood staring at them from the doorway.
    ‘What on earth is going on here!’ she demanded. ‘Gaston, you should be ashamed … and in your shirt-tails.’ Her look moved to Colette, who didn’t dare release Gaston in case he fell. ‘Colette, out at once! Have you no sense of propriety!’
    ‘But, Mother, she was only helping me off with my boots!’
    ‘I don’t see why that should involve her embracing youabout the middle.’
    ‘I fell … Mother; she’s only a …’
    ‘I don’t want to hear about it! The sooner you leave for your regiment the better.’ She turned to Colette, who had stepped back, half dismayed, but yet half delighted with the excitement. ‘Colette, you are wanted in the kitchen. The Count du Bois will be here shortly. I don’t know how you expect poor Margot to prepare dinner on her own. There are still peas to be shelled.’
    ‘Madame, I haven’t met the Count. Is he married? Has he children?’ Madame Morteau pursed her lips in the way Colette had seen her do when she disapproved of something.
    ‘No, the Count is not married …’ she replied shortly. ‘Now, run along.’
    Colette hurried off to the kitchen, aware that Madame had answered only part of her question.

CHAPTER 2
Colette Valenod
    If Colette had looked out of the landing window as she hurried down to shell peas for the Count, she would have seen a crowd around the statue of St Vincent