The Paris Daughter

While Juliette writes the letter, Lucie and Ruth catch up. Lucie admits she only vaguely remembers her early years in Paris and that Juliette refuses to let her talk about Mathilde. At her request, Ruth tells Lucie an abridged account of her own time in Paris and about Elise who she says is very kind and a little broken by regret. Later that evening, Lucie sneaks out her bedroom window to meet with her Italian American boyfriend, Tommy Barber. Lucie keeps their relationship a secret from Juliette because Juliette refuses to accept that Lucie is no longer a child. Lucie also keeps her love of art a secret from her disapproving mother as well as her particular admiration for the artist Olivier LeClair. Lucie and Tommy visit the gallery nearby, which is run by Bouet and shows many of Olivier’s paintings. Ordinarily, Bouet doesn’t let them stay long since they’re not looking to buy anything, but when Lucie introduces herself and tells him she was childhood best friends with Olivier’s daughter, he appears unnerved and leaves them be.

Elise is living in Paris off the meager profits of her sculptures, although she never sold her carvings of Mathilde. Ruth visits, bringing news of her meeting with Juliette and “Lucie”, as well as the letter from Juliette. The letter is terse and impersonal, simply informing Elise of the barest facts of Mathilde’s death. Elise plans to travel to New York to reunite with the Foulons.

Lucie adores art despite Juliette’s disapproval, and she spent her whole childhood drawing secretly where Juliette couldn’t see. Lucie and Tommy met at college where Tommy persuaded her to take an art course after seeing how well she could sketch. For months, Lucie visited Tommy’s family home to paint, but he tells her neither of them are likely to be welcome at the moment since his mother is furious he quit college. He was failing his classes anyway and now plans to sell Christmas trees with his cousin. At home, Lucie paints a Parisian street from her memories and plans to give it to Juliette as a peace offering to prove to her mother she too remembers what they lost and left behind. Arthur tries to dissuade Lucie lest she anger her mother who long forbade her from painting, but Lucie is determined.

Juliette is in the bookstore talking to Paul. She acknowledges she might have been too harsh on Lucie growing up, even though she feels like Lucie is ungrateful. Juliette admits she’s always angry at everyone and everything, especially the LeClairs, and that she feels as though neither she nor Lucie deserve to be happy since Lucie didn’t turn out as Juliette hoped she would. Lucie enters the shop carrying the painting, which Juliette initially mistakes as a peace offering in the form of a rare book for the store. To Juliette’s fury and disappointment, Lucie instead reveals the painting. She begs Juliette to love her for who she is now rather than who she was prior to the bomb and laments that she can never do anything right while her dead siblings can do no wrong, asking Juliette to try and move forward and live in the present. Juliette responds by tearing the painting into pieces.

Lucie leaves the bookshop crying and disillusioned. She drops the pieces of her painting, but they are picked up by Jack Fitzgerald, who owns Bouet’s gallery. He is impressed with her paintings, and when Lucie explains that her mother destroyed the painting because she disapproves of art, he offers to rent her one of the studios above the gallery for a pittance. Fitzgerald and Bouet have an arrangement whereby Bouet funds Fitzgerald’s gallery, allowing Fitzgerald to foster artistic talent by offering out the studios to up and coming artists for next to nothing. Lucie is delighted with the arrangement; Fitzgerald even provides all the necessary materials for her art, and she spends hours every day there producing paintings and decorating the walls of the studio. The more she paints, the more vividly her memories and dreams return to her.