Nights at Les Aulnes
M gane has built a life she wants to keep. In Cherbourg, she shares a home with Charly, a marriage grounded in affection, and the everyday demands of work at Littoral Services. Then an offer brings her to Les Aulnes, a grand house in Normandy whose new owners have plans that reach far beyond housekeeping.
Louise and Gabrielle want to host private evenings where consenting adults can explore their desires. They need someone to prepare the house, coordinate the staff, and welcome the guests. For M gane, the opportunity promises more responsibility and the chance to set her own terms. Before accepting, she insists on clear boundaries. Privacy matters, but discretion must never become an excuse for ignoring the people who make these evenings possible.
As preparations give way to the first parties, M gane discovers a world where social confidence does not always mean honesty. Guests bring their agreements, attractions, and carefully protected versions of themselves. Behind the polished rooms are employees with schedules, bills, and lives of their own. Carla, a housekeeper with a sharp eye and a direct manner, helps M gane see what an elegant welcome can conceal.
The encounters also unsettle her private life. Her growing closeness to Isabelle awakens feelings she cannot dismiss as part of the job. At home, Charly deserves more than a reassuring account with the difficult parts left out. M gane must find a way to speak about desire, affection, and uncertainty without deciding in advance what her husband is allowed to feel. The freedom offered at Les Aulnes raises questions that follow her through her own front door.
Then small discrepancies begin to accumulate. A gray pouch, misplaced papers, missing money, and conflicting accounts turn ordinary details into possible evidence. A key changes hands. A time no longer fits. What first seems like confusion becomes harder to explain, and M gane finds herself trying to establish what happened while others would prefer a simpler story.
Her position leaves little room for careless accusations. She is responsible for the work, dependent on the trust of the owners, and increasingly concerned about people whose private lives could be exposed. Listening is no longer enough. She must distinguish what she knows from what she suspects, and decide when protecting a confidence would mean allowing a lie to stand.
In Nights at Les Aulnes, Corine de Lignac continues The Private Diary of a Cleaning Lady with an intimate story of desire, trust, and the price of silence. Set between Cherbourg and the Normandy coast, this third book brings discreet sensuality and bisexual attraction into a suspenseful portrait of working life. Through M gane's diary, private parties become the setting for questions about marriage, independence, and the unequal power to make oneself heard.
As the accounts unravel, M gane must choose what she owes her employers, what she owes the people beside her, and what she can honestly promise Charly.
Customer Reviews
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
