Encounter in Paris
A few months after my trip to Istanbul on the Orient Express I received an unusual letter. It had been mailed to my publisher, who had forwarded it on to me. When I opened it, I found that it had been written by one Mademoiselle Madeline Du Bois. Now, I had never met Ms. Du Bois, and yet she wrote as though we were old friends. In fact, as I read on, she hinted that we had been more than friends. She wrote that she would be visiting Paris in a few days, and she was hopeful that I could meet her there.
I was fascinated! Who could this woman be? I assumed that she must have read some of my books, and fantasised that we had met. But then I came to a paragraph that said, "I'm certain that you will remember my sister, Contessa Juliette di Lombardi. Juliette will be staying with me in Paris. She would like to meet you again and discuss your latest book."
Juliette! My beautiful Contessa, whom I had met and made love to on the Orient Express! I had of course thought about her often, but I had assumed that I would never see her again. But here was an opportunity to meet with her once more.
Immediately I realised what had happened. Juliette had not been able to write to me herself, of course, so she had convinced her sister Madeline to write to me and arrange a rendezvous. They did not know my London address, and so they had written to my publisher, and asked him to forward the letter to me. And the letter had been worded very carefully. In the event that it was opened by someone else, they would have assumed that it was Madeline and I who were romantically linked. As Madeline was not married, that was perfectly acceptable.
Of course I sent a telegram to Madeline at the return address shown on the letter saying that I would be delighted to meet her and her sister in Paris on the suggested date.
It was late afternoon as the 'Fleche d'Or' drew into the Gare du Nord in Paris. As I looked anxiously out of my compartment window, I spotted Juliette on the platform, with an attractive younger woman whom I assumed to be her sister Madeline. As soon as the train stopped, I stepped out onto the platform and hurried over to them. "Madeline!" I called out. The girls saw me, and Madeline ran over to me and threw her arms around my neck. "James, darling!" she exclaimed. "It's so good to see you again!"
Madeline unwrapped herself from me. "You remember my sister, Juliette?" she asked. "Of course," I said, taking Juliette's hand and kissing it. "I'm very pleased to see you again."
Juliette blushed and smiled her lovely smile. "I loved your latest book," she said. "I hope that we will have a chance to discuss it while we are here."
"I'm sure that we will," I said.
I collected my luggage and we set out for the hotel. In the taxi the girls explained what had happened. Juliette wanted to see me again, but of course she could not write to me directly. So she and Madeline had planned l'deception. Madeline would pretend to be with me, and when we were in public she would flirt with me just enough to suggest that we were having an affair.
Madeline and Juliette had already moved into a suite at the Hotel de la Concorde. We reached the hotel, and Madeline clung to my arm as we collected the room key. As this was Paris, the hotel staff would not be outraged at the idea of an unmarried woman sharing a bedroom with her lover. Of course, it would be Juliette with whom I shared a bedroom, and we had to make certain that nobody found that out. We left instructions that we were not to be disturbed, and that the rooms were not to be serviced until after we had left each morning.
The suite had two bedrooms and a sitting room. As soon as the porter had left the suite, Juliette threw her arms around me and kissed me passionately. "Oh, James, I've missed you so much!" she said. "And I've missed you," I said. "What a clever idea, arranging this little deception so that we can be together again."
Madeline coughed discreetly to remind us that she was there. "Let's go to dinner," she suggested. So we dressed for dinner. Both of the girls looked stunning in their evening gowns. As I walked into the dining room with a beautiful woman on each arm, every male eye in the room, and most of the female ones as well, were staring at us, or should I say they were staring at Juliette and Madeline.