The Phoenix in a Foreign Labyrinth

Chapter 16 – Farewells

After Alice had shown Claude and Yune around what was to be their new home, she took Yune aside and said to Claude that there was something she wanted to show her about the bath. The two of them went back upstairs into the bathroom, and Alice closed the door.

This was the first time they had been alone together since Claude’s return and Yune immediately tried to take Alice into her arms, but she turned away from her. ‘I’m so sorry, Yune,’ she said, her voice laden with regret. ‘I’m leaving Paris tonight for good.’

Even knowing already that Alice would leave, the realisation that this might be the last time they would ever see each other filled Yune with a cold dread. ‘Please, Alice,’ begged Yune, now almost on the verge of panic, ‘please let me hold you just one last time.’

‘Yune, my sweet girl,’ replied Alice, seeing Yune’s distress and trying to calm her, ‘if I allow you to do that, then, like the Hou-ou, I might never be able to let go of you again. No matter what your new husband might think of me, I at least have enough decency not to allow that to happen.’

Yune could see clearly now how much Alice had changed over the past four years – she was no longer the spoiled little girl who wanted a living Japanese doll to play with, but a grown woman with a growing sense of responsibility. But at that moment, Yune wished that Alice had still been selfish and just taken what she wanted so that no blame could attach to her.

‘Please go, go now with him. Take my carriage and leave me here,’ said Alice, still facing away from Yune, her voice trembling with emotion. ‘Despite those fine words I said a moment ago, I’m afraid, afraid that if I even as much as see your dear face once more I shall lose my mind and ruin your new life. Go, please, I beg you.’

Yune stood there despairingly, realising that Alice’s resolve was absolute, and there was nothing she could, or should do for that matter, to try to shake it. So, as her final act of obedience to her former mistress, Yune bowed deeply, left the room, and went back downstairs without saying anything more. She told Claude that Alice needed to check that everything had been completed to her satisfaction, and that they could return to the Gallerie in her carriage.

It was only when Alice heard the carriage leaving that she dared move again. She went out onto the street, hailed a cab and asked the driver to take her to the Gare du Nord station, where her luggage was already waiting.