The sitting room was neat and spacious and looked as if it had been recently decorated. Wallpaper on three walls and the fourth, which was really only two large alcoves on either side of a tiled fireplace, had been freshly painted in a pale cream colour to contrast with the richer cream and dark dusky pink of the flowers on the wallpaper. Claire took off Aimée’s coat and hung it up in the hall.
‘This is my bedroom,’ Aimée announced, disappearing into the first room along the short corridor. ‘Look, that word is Paris and that one is bonjour - and that’s the Eiffel Tower. It’s the same as Grandma Édith’s ornament on top of the cupboard in her sitting room,’ Aimée said, and ran out of the room.
Claire pulled back the bedspread and was pleased to see the white sheets and pillowcase had been freshly laundered. She looked around the room. The woodwork - the door, bedside cupboard, narrow bookcase and the wardrobe had been painted in the same pastel green as the script on the wallpaper and the shade on the overhead light. Returning with her books Aimée began to place them on the bookcase that faced her bed.
‘Alain and Dan are here with the cases,’ Claire’s sister-in-law said, poking her head around the door. ‘Oh, la la,’ she sang. ‘I love this room.’
‘It’s mine,’ Aimée said. ‘And these are my books. I have school books in my case, too.’
Smiling, Claire’s sister-in-law said, ‘Shall I tell them to put the cases in the master bedroom for now, while we have something to eat?’
‘Eat? Goodness I hadn’t thought about food. Yes, please, Aimée. I’ll be with you in a minute.’ She turned to her daughter. ‘Sweetheart, finish that later. You must be hungry.’
Aimée followed her mother out of her bedroom.
‘Hi, honey,’ Mitch said, coming out of the second bedroom. Claire took a peek as she passed. It had a double bed and was larger than Aimée’s room. She’d look in detail later.
‘Oh, my God!’ she exclaimed, walking into the sitting room. ‘Where did all this food come from?’
‘We brought it with us,’ Dan said. ‘Aimée’s been baking for days. Come, sit down, she won’t be a minute.’
‘Hardly, Dan,’ Mitch’s sister shouted from the kitchen. ‘I only made the meatloaf and pickle. Oh, and the Tourtiere meat pie.’
‘And the Montréal bagels,’ Dan added. ‘You’ll love them, Claire. Bagels and cream cheese. Come on, tuck in.’
‘This,’ Mitch’s sister said, entering the sitting room with a large bowl of French fries, ‘is what we call an indoor picnic. And, no indoor picnic is good without fries and ketchup. What do you say, Aimée?’
Aimée clapped her hands. ‘They are like chips, fat like Nanny Dudley makes at Foxden.’
‘The fatter the better,’ Mitch’s sister said, forking a mound onto Aimée’s plate. ‘Come on, Alain, Claire, help yourselves,’ she said, taking her seat at the table.
When they had finished eating, Mitch and his sister washed the dishes. While Claire unpacked and hung up their clothes, Dan sat with Aimée on the settee and entertained her with photographs of him and his father standing next to tall trees, piles of logs after the trees had been felled, and trees floating like huge rafts in the river.
Claire was hanging up the last of her clothes in the double-wardrobe in their bedroom when Mitch looked in. ‘I’ve put Aimée to bed. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. I told her you’d go in and say goodnight.’
‘Of course. I’ve just finished in here.’ Claire pushed the empty suitcase to the back of the large wardrobe and shut the door. ‘I’ll go into her now.’
‘Coffee when you’re ready,’ Mitch said, leaving the bedroom.
‘Okay,’ she called, ‘I won’t be long.’
Claire crept into Aimée’s room. She was fast asleep. A triangle of white sheet hung below the bedspread and Claire tucked it under the mattress. Aimée didn’t stir. It was no wonder, she’d had a long and exciting day.
‘We have something to tell you both,’ Mitch’s sister said, when Claire sat down with her coffee. Aimée looked up at her husband and giggled. ‘It’s a secret. We shouldn’t be telling you until we’ve told Mom and Dad, and Dan’s parents, but…’ She held her breath, ‘We’re having a baby.’
‘Congratulations, Sis.’ Mitch jumped up and threw his arms around his sister, then pumped Dan’s hand.
‘That’s wonderful news,’ Claire said, looking from Aimée to Dan. ‘When?’
‘Not until March. It’s a long way off. We didn’t want to tell anyone until I had passed the first trimester date, which was yesterday. But because we have to go home tomorrow, I thought I’d better tell you now.’
‘Tomorrow?’ Mitch made a sad face.
‘What a shame you have to leave so soon,’ Claire added.
‘She has a hospital appointment on Monday,’ Dan said, proudly. He took Aimée’s hand and kissed it. ‘We’re staying with your folks tonight,’ he told Mitch, ‘so we’ll tell them, and we’ll tell mine tomorrow, as soon as we get home.’
‘I’m sorry you can’t stay longer,’ Claire said. ‘I wouldn’t have spent so much time unpacking if I’d known.’ Aimée lifted her hand and flicked the idea away.
‘I’ve left my father to manage on his own. Don’t get me wrong,’ Dan said, ‘he is more than capable. He runs the place like clockwork from the office. But this is the busiest time of year for the logging business. I don’t want him going out with the men and hauling logs the way he did when he was my age.’
Aimée nodded in agreement with her husband. ‘You’ll come over when the baby’s born? Or, better still, when she’s christened. I want my big brother to be her godfather.’
‘It’s a girl then?’ Claire said.
Aimée laughed. ‘Heck, I don’t know.’ She laughed again. ‘And I don’t care.
