Honeymoon in Paris: A Novella

when we were
    children. A mouse!’
    I wasn’t sure I knew the answer.
    And then, as we finally walked back into the
    house, as Hélène busied herself with the milk pan and Aurélien began to
    wash his poor, battered face, I stood before the portrait.
    That girl, the girl Édouard had
    married, looked back with an expression I no longer recognized. He had seen it in me
    long before anyone else did: it speaks of knowledge, that smile, of satisfaction gained
    and given. It speaks of pride. When his Parisian friends had found his love of me – a
    shop girl – inexplicable, he had just smiled because he could already see this in
    me.
    I never knew if he understood that it was
    only there because of him.
    I stood and gazed at her and, for a few
    seconds, I remembered how it had felt to be that girl, free of hunger, of fear, consumed
    only by idle thoughts of what private moments I might spend with Édouard. She
    reminded methat the world is capable of beauty, and that there were
    once things – art, joy, love – that filled my world, instead of fear and nettle soup and
    curfews. I saw him in my expression. And then I realized what I had just done. He had
    reminded me of my own strength, of how much I had left in me with which to fight.
    When you return, Édouard, I swear I
    will once again be the girl you painted.



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    Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England
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    First published 2012
    Copyright © Jojo Moyes, 2012
    All rights reserved
    The moral right of the author has been asserted
    Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
    ISBN: 978-1-405-91084-2