CHAPTER 27

          Finally, her suspicions were confirmed.

“Now I can see things pretty clearly. You did want to be a rugby player too. Anyone watching you out there could see what a natural talent you have. Why didn’t you go for it, Sébastien?”

          He looked out to the men on the pitch and then spoke with a kind of resigned modesty.

“My grandfather could see how good I was. He had played all his life, and he was a great player. But it never got him anywhere. Originally, he played it for acceptance into the community. I never told you, but he was half-Algerian, and he always felt like an outsider. That’s why he took it so badly when my mother disgraced the good name, he’d built up by having an affair with a married man.”

          Cassandra looked at his profile. It was proud and harsh. A warrior’s profile.

“He’d always regretted his