A Good Year (21 page)

Madame Passepartout was the first to recover her voice. Emboldened by her second—or even her third—glass, she stretched over and tapped Max on the shoulder. “Well?” she said to him in a whisper that carried the full length of the table, nodding toward Christie and Charlie, “when are they going to announce it?”

“I think they’re waiting for you and Maurice to go first.” Madame Passepartout bridled. Maurice seemed to be hypnotized by something in his cassoulet.

Max called across to Charlie, “Madame here is dying to know if your intentions are honorable,” and was rewarded by a blush from Christie and a broad beam from Charlie. Translations didn’t seem to be necessary.

It was almost five o’clock before the evening chill set in and guests began to disperse. Christie and Charlie put on sweaters and went for a stroll in the vines. Others went down to the village, to recover in the café; or to nurse their stomachs in front of the television; or, in Roussel’s case, to take a nap before dinner. Max waved the last of them good-bye and went inside. He lit a fire in the kitchen and put on the Diana Krall CD that Fanny had bought him as a memento of their first dance on the night of the village fête. As he was rolling up his sleeves and contemplating the mountains of post-lunch debris, he heard footsteps behind him and felt Fanny’s arms slip around his waist.

He had to tilt his head to hear the whisper in his ear. “I don’t think you’re going to do the dishes.”

“No?”

“No. You’re going to do something else.”

He turned so that they were face-to-face. “Well, we could dance.”

Her hands moved slowly up his back. “That would be a start.”

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Mayle’s enthusiasm for wine dates from the time, many years ago, when he wrote advertising copy for a firm of London wine merchants. Naturally, a considerable amount of research was involved, and one bottle led inevitably to another. A devout supporter of the French Paradox, he now lives in Provence with his wife and their three dogs. This is his ninth book, and his fifth novel, to be published by Knopf.

ALSO BY PETER MAYLE

French Lessons

Encore Provence

Chasing Cézanne

Anything Considered

A Dog’s Life

Hotel Pastis

Toujours Provence

A Year in Provence

These Are Borzoi Books
Published in New York by Alfred A. Knopf

This Is a Borzoi Book
Published by Alfred A. Knopf
Copyright © 2004 Escargot Productions Ltd.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by
Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York,
and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of
Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by Random
House, Inc., New York.

www.aaknopf.com

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Irving Berlin Music Company for permission to reprint an excerpt from the song lyric “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” by Irving Berlin. Copyright © 1935, 1936 by Irving Berlin. Copyright © Renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Irving Berlin Music Company.

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mayle, Peter.

A good year / Peter Mayle.

p. cm.

1. Inheritance and succession—Fiction. 2. Wine and wine making—Fiction. 3. Provence (France)—Fiction. 4. British—France—Fiction. I. Title.

PR
6063.
A
8875
G
66 2004

823’.914—dc22 2003065674

eISBN: 978-1-4000-4268-5

v3.0