Page 17 of Never Have We Ever
Chapter 5
What was supposed to be a lovely day with her mother and sister ended with Valeska’s daughter spilling orange juice all over the Chantilly lace tablecloth.
“Daniela!” It didn’t matter how quickly Valeska sprang into action. Once the juice sank into the tablecloth, it was over. The Monegasque restaurant would soon bill the Dubois family for cleaning and repair costs.ForChantilly lace.“Mein Gott,why are you so clumsy like this?”
“She’s a baby.” Marlene took care of her granddaughter’s sticky hands while a waiter leaped forward with napkins and cleaning solution. Valeska apologized profusely with her highly accented French. “Babies are clumsy. You think you were twirling batons at her age?”
Valeska was almost in tears over a damned tablecloth.It’s notonly the tablecloth, is it?She had been stressed for weeks. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. Because the older Daniela grew, the more destruction she left in her wake. The girl was a little over three. How much worse would it get? Flashes of her teenaged years consumed Valeska.
She wished that was the only thing bothering her as of late.
“That’s why I left the kids with the nanny,”Hailey sighed from the other end of the table. “I learned with my first one like you are now, Valeska. You’ll see that these locales are no places for children. Especially babies!”
“She’s three,” Valeska mumbled. “Three is more than old enough to conduct herself.”
Both Marlene and Hailey snorted in disbelief.Fine. Mother of two and mother of three. Have at me.No matter what Valeska did, shewas always the more inexperienced one. Hailey would lord everything she could over her big sister. That meant her practical mothering experience as well. Hailey was pregnant with a fourth kid for all Valeska knew.
As for her? Daniela had been enough of a handful since she was born. It was apparent from the moment she drew in her first breath, screaming in the echo chamber of a Parisian hospital,that she was Daddy’s little girl and therefore he was the only one she had to impress. André had been smitten with his daughter from herconception,let alone the day Valeska brought home the doctor’s test results. Naturally, Valeska was grateful that her husband loved their daughter so much. But since he still spent plenty of time away from home, he didn’t have to deal with the dirty aspectsof childrearing. He had never changed a diaper or disciplined the growing girl. That fell upon Valeska’s shoulders. Or the nanny’s.
Was it too much to ask for some quality time with her family? Hailey rarely got to see her niece, and Marlene spent more time home in Austria those days. Only since the Dubois family moved to Monaco two years ago had she made a greater effort to visit her oldestdaughter.
At least it got Valeska away from her mother-in-law. That woman started crowing for a grandson as soon as Daniela’s novelty had worn off. Didn’t matter that the little girl was the spitting image of every other Dubois woman, with her golden curls and big blue eyes. Or that she fluently spoke French first, and was commanding English second. Valeska couldn’t even have a fellow German-speakerin her daughter.
As apparent whenever Marlene tried to converse with her granddaughter in German. After the third attempt to ask her about her favorite TV show, Marlene turned to Valeska and said, “Why can’t she speak German? Are you not speaking it at home?”
“I speak it all the time around her. So does the nanny.” Lena had two jobs: speak German around Valeska, and speak German around Daniela.It actually infuriated Valeska that theonlytime she could get Daniela to count to ten in German was when she did it for Lena.Sometimes I think my daughter hates me.Valeska glanced at Daniela and couldn’t get a glance back.
“Enroll her in the international school and make her take German.” That was Marlene’s final piece of advice on the matter. “As long as she lives in Monaco or France, shewill never forget French. She’ll have to learn English in school. So, make sure she learns German somewhere. Your children are destined to become trilingual.”
“Yeah, aren’t you so lucky?” Hailey laughed. When the waiter asked if any of the ladies would like an after-lunch cocktail, she was the only one who turned it down.You’re pregnant again, aren’t you?Hailey was the only one in three generationsto marry another Catholicandlive up to some of the oldest tenants. “My kids speak English and German.”
“What about Gaelic? None at all?”
“My husband may be Irish, but we don’t live in Ireland.” Like the Dubois family had uprooted from Paris and moved to Monaco, the Undercrofts now called London home so Hailey’s husband could make them even more money. “Why would my children know Gaelic? Notlike it’s useful, either! French is much more practical. Consider yourself lucky, Valeska.”
Valeska did consider herself lucky. Just because her anxiety was always spiked and her insecurities manifested every time she went home…
No, no, she wasn’t going to think about that while enjoying a rare lunch with both her mother and sister. This was good for Daniela. Not only was she around her maternalfamily, but she surely must be picking up German listening to the three of them talk. Then again, she thought the same thing about the conversations she had with Lena.
“How are the French lessons?”
Valeska knew that tone in Hailey’s voice. Another thing to lord over her sister. “I still take them, of course. I understand most French TV now.”
“But you still can’t read your husband’s letters?”
I regret ever telling you about those.André rarely missed a letter when he was away from home. Sometimes he arrived home before the letters, and he pretended to know nothing about them.He’s a terrible actor in that regard.The few times he admitted to their existence, he told his wife she would simply have to study French harder so she could read them all one day. The last time he mentionedthem was a year before. There had been a certain sadness to his voice, as if he were upset that Valeska’s French comprehension still wasn’t good enough to better understand his,“Hello, my wife! Today I went to a meeting in Taipei and I…”letters.
Not that Valeska didn’t try. If she had an evening to spare, she would sit down with her French dictionaries and treat the letters as special homework.That’s why her husband wrote them, right? His effort to help her understand his language.Says the man who barely knows any German.
“No, I can’t.” Valeska forced her daughter to sit up in her seat.It’s her naptime soon. Why did I think this was a good idea?“Romance languages are too tough for me. Especially French.”
“Imagine Portuguese.”
“I’d rather not.” Hailey waited to continue as Marlenegot up and suggested taking Daniela with her to the restroom. As soon as both were gone, she said, “If you want my honest opinion, Valeska, he’s probably fooling around on you.”
Valeska bristled to be reminded of that reality. “I’d rather not discuss that.”
“My husband’s friend’s wife helped him do business in London a few months ago. She says he was very friendly with the British interpreter.Little more than Frenchmen should go, if you know what I mean.”
