Fiction: Jaudon – An American Family (a novel) [20]

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Chapter 20. Paris World Fair


May 1, 1889, was a beautiful day for a wedding. Dominique was two months pregnant with their first child. Claude had yet to warn her that there might be a problem with the child’s skin color. In France, the child would be welcomed, but Claude wasn’t so sure how the birth would play in San Antonio.

    The wedding was held outdoors in a garden of spring flowers and blooming apple trees. Dominique wore all white and Uncle Louis gave her away. Joc DeSalle came from Paris to be Claude’s best man. He offered his Paris apartment to the newlyweds and rode back on the train with them to Paris the next morning.

    They stepped off the train at three that afternoon. The air of Paris was filled with excitement. People from all over the world were descending on the city. Soon the Fair would open, and there was a “wild-west show” in town that everybody was talking about.
    The newlyweds said good-bye to Joc in front of the apartment building and paid a man to bring their luggage up the stairs. The apartment door closed behind the exiting man, and Dominique came into Claude’s arms.
    The sun was setting as she lay with her head on his chest listening to him breathe. He was running his fingers through her long dark hair. “There is something I need to tell you, and I don’t know how to do it.”
    “Mon amour, you can tell me anything. You know how much I love you. There is nothing you can say that will change that.”
    She had raised her head off his chest and he pushed himself up on the headboard. “I have mixed blood.”
    She shook her head. “I don’t understand. Why is that bothering you.”
    Claude threw his legs over the side of the bed and put his head in his hands. “My mother was a slave – a black woman. I’m a quarter black.”
    Dominique moved closer and placed her hand on Claude’s back. “I see this is hard for you, but it changes nothing for me. I love you. I don’t care what blood brought you into my life. You are here, I love you, and I hope you love me. We are going to have a baby together. You should be happy, not sad.”
    Claude got up and walked to the table on which sat a decanter of cognac and poured a glass. He took a big gulp and came back to the bed. “The baby may be the problem.”
    Dominique gave him a look of shock. “How can a baby be a problem? Do you not want our child?”
    He put the half-empty glass on the nightstand next to the bed, lay back down, and pulled her to him. “Of course I want our child! And if our child is black, he or she would be fine – in France. But I don’t know what the reaction will be in Texas. I worry about the safety of our family. My father and mother were almost hanged because of my birth. America is not as understanding as France.”
    “Then we stay in France.”
    “I haven’t told you this in order to prepare us for hiding away. I just wanted you to understand what you have gotten yourself into. We’re going back to Texas, and if the baby is black, then we will love the child with all our heart, but I wish for you to be prepared for the reactions of those who will not accept our child – or us as its parents.”
    “Mon amour, as long as you are by my side, nothing can hurt us.” They made love again, slowly, with deep caring, expressing a bond that could never be broken and would endure.
    They went to eat that night at the small café close to the apartment. Paris was alive, and laughter echoed throughout the city. It was a grand time to be in a city such a Paris. At the restaurant, Claude learned that Buffalo Bill Cody had set up camp at Neuilly, in a large field close to the Bois de Boulogne, a park most Parisians visited on their days off or for summer-night strolls. It was a short walk from the apartment, and it was on the way to the fairgrounds and Eiffel’s tower.

The next day, early, Claude and Dominique left the apartment and walked to the campground of the Wild West Show. At first, they weren’t let in. The guards were French and had orders to keep everybody out who was not part of the show. Claude spotted a cowboy on a horse and shouted, “Hey, pardner, how about having these guards let a fellow cowboy in?”
    The man, who looked possibly taller than Claude even when not mounted on a horse, rode over and looked closely at Claude. “You don’t look much like a cowboy to me.”
    “The Circle J Ranch outside of San Antonio, Texas. My daddy rode with Goodnight and Loving on some of the first cattle drives.”
    The man on the horse laughed. “I’ll be damned! What you find in Paris!” He nudged the horse over to the guards, and Claude and Dominique walked in.
    “If you’re looking for Bill Cody, he’s over yonder.” The cowboy pointed at a huge tent toward the middle of the camp.
    Claude hollered at the rider’s back as he rode off, “Thanks!”
    They started toward the tent and Dominique observed, “That was a very nice man. I believe we will be just fine in Texas.”
    Claude glanced at her, but could only shake his head. He couldn’t explain Southerners to himself, how could he explain them to someone who had never been there?

    The flaps to the tent were open and Bill Cody sat at a table drinking coffee and talking to four reporters. Upon seeing Claude and, more arrestingly, Dominique, he put his coffee cup down, stood, removed his big hat, and did a half-bow. “Welcome, beautiful lady. Come in – I’m sure one of these gentlemen will give you their chair.”
    All of the reporters jumped up at once. Dominique selected a chair in the middle and took a seat. Bill sat back down and asked, “What can I do for you, madam?”
    Dominique put on her most charming smile. “My husband wanted me to meet you. He said you are a legend around the parts he comes from.”
    Bill looked at the tall man behind her, cocked his head to the side, and asked, “Where would that be, son?”
    “San Antonio, sir.”
    Bill surveyed the reporters and explained to them: “That’s the home of the Alamo. The most sacred ground in Texas. We have a true celebrity among us. He has traveled all the way over here to bring me greetings from the heroes of the Alamo. This is truly a great day.”
    The reporters mobbed Claude and began throwing questions at him so fast he couldn’t answer, or even deny that he was there with greetings from anybody. He watched as Bill offered Dominique his hand and the two walked into another part of the big tent, separated by more flaps.
    It took Claude almost ten minutes to get rid of the reporters and make his way through the interior flaps of the tent. Bill and Dominique were enjoying a glass of wine and laughing.
    Claude was not laughing. “What the hell was that all about? You know damn well I didn’t come here with any greetings.”
    “Reporters are like a hungry pack of dogs, son. A story is like a bone to them, so I gave them one – you. Now, please, sit and let me pour you a glass of wine. It was a gift from some big shot, and it’s very good.”
    Dominique patted the chair next to her. “Come and join us. Mr. Cody was telling me about the time he spent in your home town of San Antonio.”
    Bill handed Claude a glass. “I was there during a range war. It seems some rancher blocked off the free range and the other ranchers couldn’t graze their cattle. It almost turned into a shooting war.”
    “That was my father. He stopped allowing people to cross his land. He was within his legal rights to do so.”
    Buffalo Bill showed some amazement. “I meant no disrespect. I was only carrying dispatches back and forth from San Antonio to Austin. But I remember it was like waiting for a bomb to go off. I’m damn glad they worked everything out.”
    Claude took a long drink of his wine and stood up. Dominique stood also. Claude put out his hand and the two men shook. “Thank you for the wine. If ever you get back to San Antonio, maybe I can return the favor.”
    Bill took Dominique’s hand. “Thank you for gracing my humble abode, most beautiful lady. I hope you and your husband will come to the show on the fifth of May. It will be worth seeing, I promise you that.”
    “We’ll try, Mr. Cody. It has been a pleasure meeting you.”
    Claude said nothing until they were out of the gate. “Who the hell does that pompous peacock think he is, just dragging you off like that? I had no idea what he was doing to you.”
    Dominique put her arm through his. “Are you jealous of that old man?”
    “I worry that you will walk into something you cannot handle. Americans are different, and you have to be very careful. There are those who take what you may think of as only a kind courtesy to be a signal that it’s okay to take liberties.”
    “I promise you I will be more careful.”
    “I love you, Dominique, and it would kill me if anything happened to you.”

Copyright © 2019 by Ed Rogers