Authors: Susan Lewis
She nodded and smiled as she sighed. âA very tragic end, but a real one,' she said, âbecause it is death.' Her eyes went to his. âLucile and her German didn't have a happy end either, because she found she didn't love him after all.' Her expression showed some anxiety that the same fate might be awaiting them.
He appeared amused. âIt was the plan for her to fall very deeply in love with a Frenchman,' he reminded her. âIf Irène Némirovsky had lived, that is what she would have written. It is in her notes.'
She laughed at having been read so easily, and put right so wonderfully. âSo are we very deeply in love?' she asked playfully. Then, more seriously, âThat's how it feels to me.'
âIt is how it feels to me too,' he said, linking his fingers through hers.
She looked down at their hands, then raising her eyes back to his she smiled as she remembered the line he'd once written on a card for her, reminding her of what the quotation in
Suite Française
should really have been. â“
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever
,”' she said, speaking the words aloud.
Recognising them and realising how appropriate it was now, his eyes remained on hers as he continued the verse:
â“
Its loveliness increases
;
it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams . . .
”'
As the beauty of the poem and its promise stole over her, she went to put her arms around him and said, very softly, âWhatever the future might hold,
mon chéri
, I need to be with you now . . .'
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Epub ISBN: 9781409021179
Version 1.0
Published by Arrow Books 2007
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Copyright © Susan Lewis 2007
Susan Lewis has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
Lines from
Suite Française
by Irène Némirovsky, translated by Sandra Smith, published by Chatto & Windus. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Ltd
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First published in Great Britain in 2006 by
William Heinemann
Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road,
London, SW1V 2SA
Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at:
www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm
The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780099492337