Summary:\u00a0 While waiting for Ben to come home, Marie reflects on her past and what her fate might have been had she not met him.
\nRating:\u00a0 PG13\u00a0 (12,975 words)<\/p>\n
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Reflections<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Hoss Cartwright pressed his nose against the cold windowpane, his reflection stared back at him and he had to lean closer to peer out into the darkness.<\/p>\n \u201cYou figure Pa\u2019ll be home pretty soon, Ma?\u201d\u00a0 He asked, turning to look back into the room where his mother and brothers were sitting.<\/p>\n Marie Cartwright looked up from her sewing and smiled.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019ll be here soon enough and he\u2019ll expect your homework to be done.\u00a0 Now come back and sit down with Adam and get it finished.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss groaned.\u00a0 The last thing he wanted to do was homework.\u00a0 \u201cMa, I\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow, Erik.\u201d\u00a0 Marie said, sternly.<\/p>\n \u201cYes’m, I\u2019m comin;\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Hoss reluctantly let the drapes fall back into place and moved slowly to the dining room table.\u00a0 He pulled out his chair and sat down with a heavy sigh.<\/p>\n His older brother, glanced up from his book and grinned.\u00a0 Hoss had no love of books.<\/p>\n Marie watched until she saw that both sons were working then turned her attention to her youngest.\u00a0 Four-year-old Joseph was building blocks on the floor by her feet, in front of the fire.\u00a0 His small face was screwed up in concentration as he piled his wooden blocks into towers and castles.\u00a0 It was the first time all day that he had been quiet and she had no intention of disturbing him, but she did smile down on his curly head.<\/p>\n She allowed the silence to continue until she saw Adam close his books and lean back to stretch.<\/p>\n \u201cAll finished?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Adam relaxed and nodded,\u00a0 \u201cUh huh, for tonight anyway.\u201d\u00a0 He glanced across at Hoss.\u00a0 His brother had spent the past ten minutes chewing the end of his pencil.\u00a0 \u201cNeed some help?\u201d\u00a0 he asked, quietly.<\/p>\n Hoss looked up and nodded,\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t do these dadblamed sums.\u201d\u00a0 Then he remembered his stepmother was listening and blushed.\u00a0 \u201cWell I cain\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Marie tried to stay stern but his pathetic expression made her take pity on him.\u00a0 \u201cVery well, Adam may help.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss\u2019 face registered relief and gratitude, as he pushed the book at his brother.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, help, Hoss. That doesn\u2019t mean he does the work for you.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam shrugged and pushed the book back at his younger brother.\u00a0 He then got up and walked around the table to lean over Hoss\u2019 shoulder. \u00a0At sixteen, Adam was already tall and beginning to fill out from the lanky boy he had been a year ago.\u00a0 The hard work of the ranch, combined with good food, were developing his muscles.\u00a0 As he leaned over his younger brother, it was clear that he\u2019d have to keep growing fast. For while he still held a slight advantage over his younger brother, Hoss was already almost the same height and showing promise to be good deal broader. \u00a0Adam tapped the pencil a couple of times as he read the questions.\u00a0 \u201cThat one\u2019s wrong, its forty-five not forty-one. See, here\u2019s your mistake, you didn\u2019t carry two over.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCarry it to where?\u201d\u00a0 Hoss grunted.<\/p>\n Adam sighed.\u00a0 At his great age, this simple division was beneath him.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou gotta divide two hundred and twenty five by five so you put it like this,” he sketched a quick sum on the sheet, “five into twenty two is four and two over, so you put down four at the bottom, carry the two and put it here”\u00a0 he pointed with the pencil, “then say five into twenty five is five and put that down and the answer is forty-five.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss frowned.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you see?\u201d\u00a0 Adam asked.<\/p>\n Hoss put on what he considered to be an innocent expression.\u00a0 \u201cI ain\u2019t sure, Adam.\u00a0 Could you show me again with this here one.\u201d\u00a0 He pointed to a more difficult sum further down the page.<\/p>\n Adam grinned.\u00a0 \u201cSure, I \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou finish them yourself, Hoss.\u00a0 Adam\u2019s shown you how.\u201d\u00a0 Marie interrupted.<\/p>\n Her words were almost drowned out by a crash as Little Joe\u2019s tower collapsed and he squealed with delight as the bricks scattered across the room.<\/p>\n Adam shrugged at Hoss and walked over to kneel down by his youngest brother and began to rebuild the tower.\u00a0 Joe watched for a minute then pushed a foot out and sent the tower toppling, his shrieks almost deafening.\u00a0 Marie allowed this to happen twice more before interfering.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s enough, Adam.\u00a0 He\u2019ll get too excited to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam began to stack the bricks back into their box.\u00a0 \u201cSorry, little buddy but your Mama says its time for bed.\u201d<\/p>\n Marie half expected a tantrum but Adam\u2019s next words headed off that problem.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll tell you that story I promised.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe nodded and handed his brother the bricks.\u00a0 \u201cOne about the sterpen\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSerpent, Joe.\u201d\u00a0 Adam corrected.<\/p>\n Marie looked up in concern.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know if that sort of story is wise, Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam put the last brick in place and closed the box.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not a real scary story.\u00a0 Just an old Indian legend.\u201d<\/p>\n Marie wasn\u2019t entirely convinced but she and Adam had been getting along much better and she didn\u2019t want to spoil that with an argument.<\/p>\n \u201cYou coming to listen?\u201d\u00a0 Adam called to Hoss.<\/p>\n Hoss looked appealingly at Marie.\u00a0 She couldn\u2019t resist the pathetic expression and nodded.\u00a0 \u201cLet me get Little Joe ready for bed and Adam can read here by the fire and we\u2019ll all listen.\u201d\u00a0 She figured that this was one way to avoid Joe\u2019s nightmares if his older brother had been economical with the truth.\u00a0 Adam would be less likely to enhance the story if she was listening.\u00a0 Sometimes his monster sounds and strange voices, while making the story interesting, were a little too graphic for his baby brother.\u00a0 There had been too many nights lately when Joe had disturbed her sleep.<\/p>\n Half an hour later Joe was settled in his mother\u2019s arms by the fire, while Hoss sat at her feet.\u00a0 Adam\u2019s voice was deep and soothing as he told, a toned down version of the tale of the serpent, which lived in Pyramid Lake.\u00a0 By the time the story was finished Joe\u2019s eyelids had closed.<\/p>\n Adam reached over and took the sleeping child from Marie.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll take him up to bed.\u201d\u00a0 He said, softly.<\/p>\n Marie nodded, \u201cTime for you to go too, Hoss.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss\u2019 protest was quiet but heartfelt.\u00a0 \u201cI wanna stay up to see Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot tonight, he maybe very late.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe said he was gonna call by Mr. Hanson\u2019s to talk about selling him some of our pigs.\u00a0 I bet Mrs Hanson, talked him into supper.\u201d\u00a0 Adam said.<\/p>\n Marie smiled, \u201cYes, I expect that\u2019s it.\u00a0 He might be another hour or more.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss grumbled a little but Adam\u2019s promise of another story persuaded him.<\/p>\n Marie watched the boys go upstairs with affection.\u00a0 It had been a perfect evening.\u00a0 No quarrels or tantrums, all the chores done and even the homework pretty much finished without too much trouble.\u00a0 She got up from her chair and wandered to the window, drawing back the heavy red drapes she looked out into the yard.\u00a0 All was quiet and her silent reflection stared back at her.\u00a0 She reached up and patted her hair into place.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t look too bad for a woman approaching thirty, she decided.\u00a0 She was a lucky woman, three fine sons and a wonderful husband; the ranch was prospering and Ben promised her the world.\u00a0 Things could have been so very different.\u00a0 Her mind wandered as she waited for her man to come home, the picture staring back at her changed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ******<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The young girl twirled and watched her reflection in the shop window respond.\u00a0 The skirt looked fine in the glass but in reality it was becoming dirty and torn.\u00a0 She pulled her black wool shawl more tightly around her shoulders, her thin blouse not giving much protection from the breeze, which had sprung up.\u00a0 Above her the clouds were darkening and a storm was imminent.\u00a0 She must get to shelter, and her room, while not luxurious, was at least dry.\u00a0 A few minutes later as the raindrops began to fall she pushed open her door and gratefully closed it behind her.\u00a0 A piece of paper on the floor caught her attention.\u00a0 She bent to retrieve it and shuddered.\u00a0 Her rent was two weeks overdue and her landlord was threatening eviction in five days unless she paid.\u00a0 Paid with what she didn’t know.\u00a0 Today she had lost her job as a kitchen maid.\u00a0 She had hoped that she would be permitted to move into the big house where she had been working but a dropped and broken dish had put an end to that idea and her job.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She sank down into the one comfortable chair and sighed.\u00a0 She didn’t have to be in this predicament.\u00a0 She could have stayed in the convent.\u00a0 Living there as a child after her parents died had been safe; food to eat, a good education, a warm bed and love. But, and it was a big but, once she had reached fifteen a few months back, staying meant entering the order and somehow she couldn’t see herself as a nun;\u00a0 her sunny nature under a nun’s habit, her every move and word watched and prayers all day.\u00a0 She wanted to live life to the full.\u00a0 She snorted as she got up to prepare some vegetables for her supper.\u00a0 Live life to the full, well, she was certainly doing that; a hovel to live in, leftover vegetables from the market for supper and hard work waiting on rich people.\u00a0 She didn’t mind the hard work, but she did envy the women who had come to her employer’s house in rich satins and silks with such vibrant colors, and their laughter as they talked about parties and balls.\u00a0 No use wishing, she had chosen this path and she had to make the best of it.\u00a0 Tomorrow she would have to look for work and new and even cheaper lodgings.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The job she found was as a junior seamstress in a dressmaker’s, nicer work but poorly paid and the cheaper lodgings were in a run down area called the Flats.\u00a0 Built on the mud of the estuary it was cold and damp or hot and sweaty depending on the season.\u00a0 Fevers ran through the inhabitants in summer and rats bothered them in all weathers.\u00a0 One damp room and still she could barely pay her rent. There was one plus, her neighbor Francine was kind to her.\u00a0 She was perhaps two or three years older than Marie with a baby and she was happy to pay Marie a small sum to mind the child in the evenings when she was working.\u00a0 Marie had asked if she was a widow and Francine had laughed, but not answered.\u00a0 Francine only talked of what she would do when she was rich.\u00a0 A rich man was going to come to the Flats and sweep her off her feet.\u00a0 Marie very much doubted that anyone rich would visit the Flats; sailors maybe, who seemed to frequent the bars, and tramps and thieves were all she saw.\u00a0 The money Francine paid her came in handy and Marie loved children, even if the baby was nearly always asleep. Francine always seemed to have enough money and she wore bright clothes with no mends or patches, but she put her clothes first, such beautiful clothes but to Marie’s convent bred mind a little too daring. Her rooms were no better than Marie’s. The older girl had told her that she worked on the docks but Marie couldn’t imagine what she did there that earned her so much money.\u00a0 The docks hardly worked at night.\u00a0 Marie had walked there once during the daytime and it seemed to be full of sailors and men lifting heavy crates, hardly a job for a woman.\u00a0 Maybe Francine worked in one of the bars.\u00a0 Marie shuddered at the thought, she had seen fights and drunks in her daytime walk how much worse it must be at night.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Marie wandered from the window to the warmth of the fire.\u00a0 The dressmaker’s had provided material for clothes.\u00a0 It wasn’t good business to have her girl in rags, but the food had still been hard to come by.\u00a0 She had existed in this way for several months until a chance meeting had shown her a way out, a way, which had seemed so simple at the time. How naive she had been then.\u00a0 How innocent to think that Francine was just a nice girl serving in a waterfront bar.\u00a0 She knew better now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Why it’s little Marie, is it not?”\u00a0 A pleasant voice stopped her on the street as she made her way home.\u00a0 “You are far from the convent, my child.\u00a0 Let me escort you home.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie turned to see who the owner of the voice was.\u00a0 “Oncle Charle!”\u00a0 she exclaimed.\u00a0 Her voice full of surprise.\u00a0 Her mother’s brother, Charle, was someone she had seen rarely in childhood and even less since the death of her parents.\u00a0 Her father had been a merchant, not good enough for her mother’s rich family.\u00a0 When her parents had died of fever, Oncle Charle and Tante Marguerite had become her guardians but they had not taken her in, they had paid the convent for her keep instead. <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “It is\u2026 good\u2026 good to see you\u2026”\u00a0 she stuttered.\u00a0 “I am no longer at the convent.\u00a0 I am past fifteen and\u2026”\u00a0 she let the sentence drift away at his disapproving look.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “We planned for you to become a novice.\u00a0 Your aunt and I would have made the donation required.\u00a0 Why did you not ask them to contact us?”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie wilted under his stern gaze, “I did\u2026 did not want to bother you.\u00a0 You have been so kind since Mama and Papa died.” It did not occur to her that Charle, as her guardian, would have taken control of all her father’s assets until she reached twenty-one; money that was rightfully hers.\u00a0 I have a job at a dressmaker’s and I am managing fine.” She lied.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “A dressmaker’s?\u00a0 That is no place for my sister’s child.\u00a0 He reached in his pocket and Marie quite expected him to hand her money.\u00a0 Oncle Charle had always handed mother money when he visited.\u00a0 Instead he drew a small white card from his pocket book and handed it to her.\u00a0 “Your cousin Edouard is the owner of this place, he will find you more suitable work.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie took the card and stared at it, Edouard Darcy, it read, Furs and Silks.\u00a0 What did that mean?\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Her uncle saw her puzzled frown, “He imports fine fabrics from the Orient and exports furs.\u00a0 He also has one of the finest establishments for fashionable women in all of New Orleans.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie almost smiled.\u00a0 Her cousin was a dressmaker or at least he owned one.\u00a0 Her father had always had a knack of getting at the root of things and she guessed she had inherited it.\u00a0 Call things as they were he had always said.\u00a0 She had also heard him telling her mother that Oncle Charle must always dress things up and put on airs.\u00a0 She understood what he had meant now.\u00a0 Papa had not been so very different from his brother-in-law, he had just been more honest about it.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Marie chuckled to herself.\u00a0 Innocent she surely had been, or she would have known that her father’s store must have fetched money when it was sold.\u00a0 She would have questioned where that money had gone.\u00a0 She knew now that Charle had taken her money and used it to cover his own debts.\u00a0 She would have also wondered at his motives in placing her with Edouard.\u00a0 Marry her off to some young man as innocent as she was and no one would question him about his brother-in-laws assets.\u00a0 Keep her in his sight too, so that if she became curious he could stop the questions before they had uncovered anything. \u00a0<\/em>She had gone to the address on the card and within days she was working for her cousin in his furs warehouse but that hadn’t lasted long.\u00a0 Within months of her sixteenth birthday her cousin had found other work for her.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “A pretty girl like you shouldn\u2019t be hiding away in a warehouse, cataloguing fabrics, she should be wearing them.”\u00a0 Edouard had accosted her one day in the office and placing a slim well manicured hand beneath her chin had surveyed her from all angles. “I have a much nicer place for you to work.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If Marie had been wiser in the ways of the world she would have been suspicious of his interest in her beauty.\u00a0 He was after all a cousin.\u00a0 But she trusted everyone and believed he was helping her out of kindness.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Now thirteen years older and a whole lifetime wiser, Marie could recall his leering expression and eyes that had crawled all over her.\u00a0 She remembered the same feelings on her first day in her new work place.\u00a0 Standing on the steps of an imposing house in the French Quarter of the city she had almost turned and fled.\u00a0 Maybe she should have done.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Come inside, my dear.”\u00a0 Eduoard had answered her knock on the door.\u00a0 “It’s early yet but there are a few patrons I wish you to meet.\u00a0 Ah, but first we must find you more suitable clothes.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie was twice surprised; first because it was past midday and yet Eduoard called it early and second because she had worn her best dress, one made with fabrics from his own warehouse.\u00a0 She followed him into a spacious hallway and then through an ornate doorway into a small<\/em> anteroom.\u00a0 He pulled on a thick red rope and a bell echoed somewhere away in the house.\u00a0 Within minutes a girl, a little older than herself came to answer his call.<\/em>\u00a0 She was dressed in yellow silk in a style much as Francine wore<\/em> but altogether much richer and fashionable.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0“Louise, this is my cousin, Marie.\u00a0 Can we find her something pretty to wear, she will be joining us as a hostess.”\u00a0 Eduoard held out his hand to introduce them.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The girl’s smile turned to a frown and she ignored Marie’s outstretched hand.\u00a0 “She is small, but maybe we have something.\u00a0 Come!” she commanded.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie glanced nervously at her cousin, who nodded.\u00a0 “Go with Louise she will dress you and give you instruction on your duties.”\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie had never forgotten the shocks of the next few hours.\u00a0 The dress Louise provided was a beautiful emerald green silk with decoration of lace around the elbow length sleeves and the scooped and very low neckline and lace, which Marie tried to arrange to cover herself, and Louise insisted on re-arranging to show as much neck and bust as possible.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “You are here to entertain the gentlemen as they drink and play the tables.\u00a0 They expect to see something beautiful.”\u00a0 The older girl sneered at her.\u00a0 Louise herself was showing plenty of creamy flesh but she wasn’t nearly as pretty as Marie.\u00a0 “You will need to let your hair down and brush it over your shoulder too.”\u00a0 She snapped, losing patience with this timid girl.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Ah, Louise, you must be gentle with our new hostess, she has much to learn.\u00a0 She was not brought up in the clubs as you were.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie turned to see a much older woman watching them from the doorway. Only her good manners stopped her from gasping.\u00a0 This woman was large, grossly over weight, and at least fifty but she was dressed in the same style as Louise.\u00a0 Her more than ample bosom practically spilling over the neckline, if one could call it that, of a vivid pink dress.\u00a0 He throat, ears, fingers and wrists were weighed down with gold jewelery set with an array of precious stones, none of which matched but all of which looked expensive.\u00a0 Her hair was no color Marie had ever seen before, and it’s red tones clashed horribly with the dress and her face was stiff with makeup, her lips a color that almost matched her hair but not quite..\u00a0 In other circumstances Marie would have laughed, the woman looked so incongruous, but here she was too nervous to do anything but swallow hard and avert her eyes.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “I am Madame Colette, Louise looks after our club hostesses but who knows maybe in time you will come to work for me in the private rooms.\u00a0 Monsieur Eduoard has said you will work as a hostess for now and Louise will begin by showing you the club while it is still early, later it will be too busy for you to do anything but work.”\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie wasn’t sure what a hostess was supposed to do, or what private rooms were for, but every step in this strange place was making her wish she had remained at the warehouse. Madame Colette disappeared through a heavy mahogany door and Louise ushered Marie into the hallway again.\u00a0 “Here one of the girls greets all our gentlemen, you will not need to do that until you have been here for several months, it takes skill to know what each of our gentlemen like.\u00a0 But you maybe asked to help by taking coats and hats and brushing them down ready for when their owner leaves.” <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0She swept on to a salon with beautiful drapes and ornate decoration on the walls and ceiling.\u00a0 Marie glanced at some of the paintings and then quickly looked away again.\u00a0 Each one showed a woman naked or draped only in some fine fabric, not the sort of painting she had ever seen before.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Louise saw her blush and smiled, “We have paintings by some fine French artists, do we not?\u00a0 Not the sort of thing you had in your convent.\u00a0 These are the gaming tables,” she waved her hand at several round tables covered in green and then at others which had strange markings and numbers on them.”\u00a0 You will learn how to play all the games we offer and assist at the tables when required.\u00a0 But that can come later.\u00a0 For tonight you will be serving drinks.\u00a0 You will take the orders from the tables and collect the money and then serve the drinks.\u00a0 Anton our bartender will help you if you find it hard to remember all the orders.\u00a0 Remember to smile at the gentlemen and if they want to talk then you may sit and entertain them as long as no one is waiting for drinks.\u00a0 There are several other girls so you may find that if it is quiet you can learn the games as you talk.”\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “But what do I talk about?” Marie asked, puzzled.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “You are well educated.\u00a0 Edouard brought you here for that reason.\u00a0 You talk about whatever is their pleasure, but nothing too serious and never about their business unless they wish it.\u00a0 Keep conversations light and always make sure their glasses are full and they can play at the tables whenever they wish.\u00a0 On some evenings we have music and the gentlemen may wish to dance with you.\u00a0 They pay for that privilege and you will receive a small percentage if you are popular.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n And so had started her new life.\u00a0 She had served drinks, talked, learn the games of chance and sometimes danced with the clientele.\u00a0 In time she had begun to enjoy her new work, it was not onerous and socializing with handsome young men and rich old ones was pleasant for the most part.\u00a0 She had been working there for a few months when she had been introduced to a man who was to change her life.\u00a0 She remembered her introduction to M. Marius D’Angerville with affection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was a busy Saturday night and she had been serving drinks for several hours when in her haste she tilted a whole tray of glasses as she passed one of the poker tables.\u00a0 In horror she watched as four glasses of the best champagne and two glasses of Napoleon brandy slid, as if in slow motion, into the lap of a distinguished looking gray haired man. Edouard had been there almost immediately.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “You careless girl, look what you have done.”\u00a0 He shouted.\u00a0 “I am so sorry Marius, I will pay for your clothes to be cleaned and all your drinks for the rest of the evening are on the house.”\u00a0 He helped the older man to his feet and began brushing him down.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marius pushed away Edouard’s hands and looked up at Marie with a twinkle in his eye.\u00a0 “It was not her fault Darcy, I must have pushed my chair back.\u00a0 There is no harm done and I will pay for the drinks I caused her to spill.\u00a0 That is, of course, if she will come sit with me and bring me luck.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie was too surprised to argue; she knew that the accident had been all her fault because she was in a hurry, the chair had not moved.\u00a0 Within minutes she found herself sipping champagne beside this unusual man.\u00a0 He was not tall or broad in the shoulder, but there was something in his manner that made others listen and something in his gently probing questions that made her talk.\u00a0 In between poker hands, most of which he won, he encouraged her to tell of her life and how she had come to be working here.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Then you do not live here at the club?”\u00a0 He asked, when she mentioned her home on the Flats.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “No I have rooms in a\u2026”\u00a0 she found it hard to describe the narrow alleys and squares on the docks, but he seemed to understand.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “That is good, my dear.\u00a0 Keep your own home, do not allow Edouard to persuade you to take rooms here.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She had been contemplating asking Edouard just that and, if he had offered her rooms here, she would have jumped at the chance.\u00a0 She had never been into the upstairs rooms, where some of the girls and Madame Colette lived, but if they were half as nice as the salons then they would be magnificent.\u00a0 She was about to question him further on why she should not accept if her cousin offered, when the next poker hand was dealt and she had to remain quiet.\u00a0 By the time it was over the subject had changed and the men were discussing politics.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marius became a friend; he always looked for her whenever he came to the club and when he found out that she knew little of the city he escorted her on walks.\u00a0 She had discovered that he was a fencing master and with just a little persuasion he taught her how to handle an epee.\u00a0 Those summer months were some of the happiest of her life; made even happier when Marius introduced her to the man who would become her husband.\u00a0 Jean de Marigny was a few years older than she, but his boyish good looks and his air of innocence made him seem younger.\u00a0 He came to the club with friends and she noticed that he was always the butt of their jokes; the one who paid for drinks, the one who was teased, the one who ran errands.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Marie settled herself more comfortably by the fire, as always, in the warmth and safety of this room she could conjure up pictures that would have distressed her anywhere else.\u00a0 In fact for years had distressed her and given her nightmares.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jean was not as she had at first thought, not the charming young man, but a man manipulated by his mother, a man who could not make a decision if his life depended on it.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “He is a rich man, my dear, or will be when the old lady dies.\u00a0 Do not let him slip away.\u00a0 He likes you, be nice to him, but not too nice and you will secure a rich husband.”\u00a0 Edouard had whispered to her one evening.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie wasn’t sure she wanted a rich husband, she wanted love and romance like the ladies in the novels she had read in secret at the convent.\u00a0 Then she would return to her damp, drafty room and a rich husband didn’t seem so bad after all.\u00a0 Francine was fascinated by her life at the club and pestered her to ask her cousin if there was an opening for her.\u00a0 She was a good friend and Marie did introduce her to Edouard but no job was forthcoming.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Do not bring her here again.”\u00a0 He had thundered, when Francine left.\u00a0 “She is not of the sort we wish to employ.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie had knocked on her friend’s door that night to offer an apology, but Francine would have none of it.\u00a0 “It is not your fault cherie.\u00a0 He is an ignorant pig, he refused to allow me to take the baby with me. I would not wish to work in his club, do you know he takes all of his girls’ earnings and just pays them a wage?\u00a0 Then she had stopped and raised an eyebrow, of course you do not know, you never go upstairs, do you?<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie had agreed that she did not, but for hours after she had puzzled on Francine’s word,\u00a0 finally settling on the explanation that her cousin must take the wages of the girls who lived on the premises to cover their rent and then pay them the difference.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “If you need to do that sort of work then come to me, I will see that you are looked after and for half that price.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie shook her head, she did not understand what Francine meant.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Never mind, come we will share the fish I have for supper.\u00a0 I did well today.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Marie tucked her feet under her and stared into the fire.\u00a0 She had never asked enough questions, never doubted anyone.\u00a0 But how that had changed after Jean.\u00a0 Jean continued to seek her out.\u00a0 He seemed to like her strong character and he deferred to her.\u00a0 He listened to her advice on which furs to buy and what the ladies were wearing this season.\u00a0 He even took her to his warehouse to see the magnificent furs he had bought and gave her a beaver hat and wrap as a present.\u00a0 She had stroked it lovingly and he had asked if she liked it.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful, but I was thinking of the poor beaver.\u00a0 It must be terrible to be hunted and killed for such a purpose.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jean laughed, \u201cYou funny child, we need furs to keep us warm and think how beautiful you will look wearing it.\u00a0 Besides I need furs to make me wealthy so I can buy you all the things you want.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cTo keep us warm in New Orleans?\u201d\u00a0 she queried.\u00a0 \u201cWhy, it is so hot, I need no wrap at all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThen I will buy you diamonds.\u201d He had replied.\u00a0 \u201cIce to keep you cool.\u201d\u00a0 He had taken her hand and slipped a ring on her finger, large and garish with diamonds and rubies, it weighed her finger down and felt uncomfortable.\u00a0 \u201cSee you will marry me and want for nothing.\u00a0 I will take you to meet my mother and we will arrange a date for our wedding, yes?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>Jean, the man she had married for security and affection and had grown to love. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Looking back, Marie couldn\u2019t recall if she had ever accepted his proposal, she supposed she must have done for within the week she was dressed in the finest satin and standing in Madame de Marigny\u2019s parlor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMama, may I present Marie D\u2019Oliviera, we are engaged to be married and we seek your blessing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The old lady rose to her feet and barely touched Marie\u2019s outstretched hand, before seating herself again.\u00a0 \u201cYou are indeed beautiful, my dear.\u00a0 Are you from a New Orleans family?\u201d\u00a0 She made no indication that Marie should sit but Jean led her to a hard upright sofa with wooden arms.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMy father was a merchant in the city.\u201d\u00a0 Marie replied, trying not to fidget on the uncomfortable seat.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe old woman\u2019s lip curled, \u201cAh, trade.\u201d She muttered, \u201cAnd your mother, was she from a French family too?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cOh, yes, my mother was Helene D\u2019Arcy, my grandfather owned a plantation but my Oncle Charle sold it when he inherited it and he moved to the city.\u201d\u00a0 Marie said, eagerly; wanting this woman to think well of her family.\u00a0 It was only afterwards she wondered why she had played their game.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Madame de Marigny frowned. For the next two hours the old lady asked many pointed questions, disguised as gentle enquiries and when Marie eventually rose to follow the maid to collect her wrap she felt as if she had been accepted.\u00a0 That was until she overheard the conversation between Jean and his mother as she came back to the parlor.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou cannot expect me to give my blessing to such a union.\u00a0 Her father was nothing more than a merchant and not a very successful one at that.\u00a0 And the D\u2019Arcy\u2019s are simply not received in good company.\u00a0 Her grandfather was caught with a young girl in less than savory circumstances and when the father called him out, he shot him.\u00a0 Her Oncle is known to cheat on the fur exchanges and that cousin of hers runs a house of ill repute.\u00a0 I will not have it Jean, you will get rid of her immediately.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBut Mama, none of that is Marie\u2019s fault.\u00a0 What was her grandfather supposed to do, allow himself to be shot?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIf he had half an ounce of decency, then yes.\u00a0 The girl was ruined.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou have no proof that Charle D\u2019Arcy, cheats, you just don\u2019t like him because his company is more successful than yours.\u00a0 Father was not such a good businessman and D\u2019Arcy exploited that, as for Edouard he is a rou\u00e9, but then I am not marrying her cousin.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cJean, my dear, she works in that \u2026 that house!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMama, she is a hostess in the club, nothing more and she does that because her Oncle stole all her father\u2019s money and left her with nothing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou are a fool, my son.\u00a0 Listen to me and get rid of her, she is not for you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie waited for Jean to disagree with the old lady, but there was only silence.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Now, many years later she realized that Jean had been as strong as he dared.\u00a0 He never disagreed with his mother for long and he had, in this instance, gone as far as to defy the old lady and marry her.\u00a0 It was totally out of character.\u00a0 To begin with the marriage had been fun.\u00a0 Jean showered her with gifts and spoiled her like a little child.\u00a0 The only shadow had been his visits to his mother.\u00a0 After a visit, to which Marie was never invited, he would be depressed and would quote his mother constantly.\u00a0 The old lady threatened to cut him off without a penny and most of Jean\u2019s money came from her.\u00a0\u00a0 He worked in her company and, although it would be his when she died, he had no say in the running of it. \u00a0But for the most part Marie was happy. They had a little house with a courtyard and Marie grew roses and bougainvillea on its walls.\u00a0 She had a horse which she adored and rode recklessly all over the city and she was loved.\u00a0 Life was perfect.<\/p>\n She was remembering the moment when she knew she was expecting a child and how she longed to tell Jean, but he had not come home, when an older son re-appeared.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth sound asleep.\u201d\u00a0 Adam grinned.\u00a0 \u201cYou finding pictures in the fire?\u201d he nodded toward the leaping flames.<\/p>\n Marie smiled up at him.\u00a0 Goodness he was growing tall, and so handsome.\u00a0 \u201cNot exactly, I was remembering New Orleans.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam seated himself on the heavy table and rested his chin in his hands.\u00a0 \u201cDo you miss the city?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, but not all my memories are good.\u201d She said, softly.<\/p>\n Adam watched her face with the firelight flickering on it and making her hair shine. \u00a0Sometimes his feelings for her were confused. She was so beautiful and not that much older than he. \u00a0Her mouth had smiled but her eyes were sad.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t a child anymore and mixed with his feelings were half heard conversations and mysterious happenings around the time of his father\u2019s marriage.\u00a0 The things he had overheard had formed into a picture that he only half believed.\u00a0 Should he ask, indeed could he form the right questions?\u00a0 How did one ask a stepmother if her past was something to be hidden, something of which she was ashamed, a scandal that could destroy them all.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you ever think of Jean?\u201d\u00a0 he began.<\/p>\n Marie\u2019s head shot up and then she calmed herself, what did the boy know?\u00a0 He had been just a child when Jean had worked here.\u00a0 A gentle smile replaced the shocked expression, he wasn\u2019t much more now.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, I loved him very much.\u00a0 I do not forget him and your father does not forget your mother.\u00a0 They were our first loves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen why did he leave you?\u201d\u00a0 Adam\u2019s question was as blunt as any sixteen-year-old can be.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a long story.\u201d She smiled at him and touched his hand.\u00a0 \u201cI was about your age and Jean was a much older man,\u201d her eyes twinkled, \u201che was all of twenty.\u00a0 \u201cI was too young to see anything but a way out of poverty with a man I loved.\u00a0 I failed to see that Jean was more immature than I was.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t exist without his mother,\u201d she raised an eyebrow,\u201d and his mother hated me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut why would anyone hate you?\u00a0 She didn\u2019t even know you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAh, but one doesn\u2019t have to know a person to hate them, do they, Adam?\u201d she smiled.<\/p>\n He caught her meaning immediately and remembered the early days of their relationship.\u00a0 He blushed to the tips of ears.\u00a0 \u201cNo, I guess not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHis mother worked hard to drive us apart and finally she succeeded. Jean believed what he saw and did not stop to question, so he ran away.\u00a0 He came here and worked for your father, but then you know that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe said things\u2026 I mean he \u2026\u201d\u00a0 Adam blushed and stumbled for words.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of them were true, Adam.\u00a0 You heard from him that a man was discovered in my bedroom, did you not?\u201d she waited until Adam, red-face, acknowledge that he had heard that rumor.<\/p>\n \u201cI was young and in love, I wanted no other but Jean.\u00a0 His mother paid a man to creep into my room late at night.\u00a0 She had already made sure that Jean was out drinking.\u00a0 Jean came home and discovered this man. He didn\u2019t wait for explanations. He was drunk and he wouldn\u2019t listen to me.\u00a0 He ran from the house and before I knew it he had gone from the city.\u00a0 I never knew where, until your father came to me four years later and it was too late.\u201d\u00a0 She drifted away into her own thoughts again until Adam asked another question.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened to you after he left you?\u00a0 Where did you go, how did\u2026\u201d he stopped and his head dropped to his chest, embarrassed at what he had been about to ask and even more embarrassed that he thought he knew the answer.<\/p>\n Marie\u2019s mouth twisted in a wry smile.\u00a0 \u201cRumors are always more dangerous than the truth, Adam. Never judge someone until you have walked in their shoes.\u00a0 Someday when you are older I will tell you my story but for now it is in the past.\u00a0 Your father accepts and that is all I ask.\u201d \u00a0She sat forward and smiled at him, \u201cNow, shouldn\u2019t you be heading for bed, you have school tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam nodded, his curiosity was aroused and he wanted to know so much more, but it was clear that Marie had told all she intended to for tonight.<\/p>\n Marie sighed as she watched her stepson climb the stairs to his room. Would it never end?\u00a0 The boy had heard more than a few rumors that was certain, but was he ready to know the truth, and would she ever have to tell her own son to stop others imparting the knowledge of his mother\u2019s past.\u00a0 Ben said that he loved her and he had married her, and that was all anyone needed to know, but twice men had died to protect her honor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She could still hear the scream echoing in her head.\u00a0 Her scream as she realized that the man beside her was not Jean.\u00a0 Jean was standing in the doorway the light from the hall spilling into the room and illuminating the bed.\u00a0 She was sitting bolt upright, her nightdress low and revealing and her eyes wide with fear.\u00a0 How could Jean not have seen her fear? How could he not have noticed that the stranger had only removed his shirt.\u00a0 She must have woken when the front door had opened and closed and the intruder had not been quite ready for Jean\u2019s arrival.\u00a0 But her husband had not waited.\u00a0 He had not confronted the man, he had not asked what was happening, he had just run.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She remembered jumping from the bed and grabbing a heavy vase that stood near her dresser.\u00a0 She had hurled this at the stranger and then reached for a pair of scissors.\u00a0 The vase shattering near his head and then her frenzied attack had made the man retreat to the hallway.\u00a0 She had got a glimpse of him in the light before he ran down the stairs and into the street, laughing.\u00a0 The man had been laughing!<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It had taken a while for her heart beat to return to normal, but when it did she headed to the salon and poured herself a large measure of Jean\u2019s best brandy.\u00a0 She knew she had seen the trespasser somewhere before, but the memory wouldn\u2019t come.\u00a0 By morning the whole of the community seemed to know of the incident.\u00a0 As she walked to the market, people whispered behind their hands, ladies stepped to avoid her and she felt their hostility.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She had waited a few days for Jean to return but when he didn\u2019t she put on her most sober dress and walked to the mansion of her mother-in-law.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI only want to know if my husband is here?\u201d\u00a0 she asked for the fourth time.\u00a0 The butler had obviously been given instructions not to admit her and was dancing about uncomfortably as she refused to move from the doorstep.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHe is not here.\u201d An imperious voice announced, \u201cDo you expect him to stay in a city where he is made a laughing stock by his wife?\u201d\u00a0 Madame de Marigny had been standing just inside the library and now she stepped into the hallway.\u00a0 \u201cYou are not welcome here, nor in any other decent house in New Orleans.\u00a0 Get back to the slums from where you came.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n She had gone back to the little house and for a few days lived in blissful ignorance of what was to come.\u00a0 The first demand for money from the landlord and no change in her purse and reality had hit her.\u00a0 She was no better off than she had been before she married Jean, in fact it was worse for now she had no job and no respectable business would employ her.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The logs in the great stone fireplace shifted and sparks jumped up into the chimney.\u00a0 She moved to add another piece of wood to the fire and then sat back to watch the flames lick around it.\u00a0 There was no escape for the log just as there had been no escape for her as the New Orleans community closed its ranks and left her an outsider.\u00a0 She had struggled on for a few more weeks by selling items from the house then when all hope was gone, she had met Francine in the market.\u00a0 She recalled her horror at Francine\u2019s suggestion.\u00a0 Oh, how naive she had been.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCome work with me.\u00a0 There are plenty of sailors on the waterfront who pay well for a night with a pretty girl.\u00a0 I could share your house and we\u2019d save on rent.\u00a0 Men would pay a lot to come to a pretty house instead of an alley in the docks or my rooms.\u201d\u00a0 Francine had been eager to draw her in.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI couldn\u2019t do that\u2026 it\u2019s horrible.\u00a0 How can you go with men you do not know.\u201d\u00a0 Marie had almost wept at the idea.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Francine had shrugged, \u201cYou did it and not even for money, why not to earn a living.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not the same I was married to Jean and I loved him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Francine had laughed, \u201cBut it was more fun with your lover, wasn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Anyway this is business, you don\u2019t have feelings for them, It\u2019s just a job and it pays well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie had cried.\u00a0 Even Francine believed that she had taken a lover. In desperation she had sought out her cousin Edouard and asked for her old job back.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cOf course cherie, I always need good hostesses come to the club on Thursday and we will find you a suitable position.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The suitable position turned out to be acting as a housemaid for Madame Colette.\u00a0 It took only a few hours for Marie to discover the purpose of the upstairs rooms. It horrified her to learn that this was only one step up from the trade that Francine plied on the docks. \u00a0Her tasks including putting fresh linens on the beds, changing the towels and adding perfumes and oils to each room in case a massage was required.\u00a0 She had protested that she wanted to work in the club salon and Edouard had shaken his head in pity. <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cI could not have one who might cause a scandal in my salon,\u201d he had replied to her request.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBut I have done nothing, Jean was mistaken.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Edouard raised one elegant eyebrow, \u201cIt is not what one does only what one is thought to have done that ruins a reputation and a marriage. Maybe in time people will forget and we can reconsider.\u00a0 After all I am not asking you to take clients, merely to service the rooms\u201d He laughed at his own joke.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was not long after her conversation that she was passing Madame de Marigny\u2019s house on the way to her work.\u00a0 She was late and in a hurry but as she passed she saw a man talking to her mother-in-law in the walled courtyard.\u00a0 The iron gate was closed but she could see enough to know that the man was her cousin Edouard, now what business could he possibly have with her mother-in-law?\u00a0 Probably buying furs, she reasoned, but why here and not at the warehouses, where he could see the merchandise?<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Marie slipped from her chair and knelt on the hearth, taking up the poker, she pushed it into the fire and raised a log to make it burn more brightly.\u00a0 How could she have been so innocent?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The one bright light in her dark world was the occasional contact with Marius d\u2019Angerville.\u00a0 She had told her story to Marius and he had been outraged that such a thing could have taken place.\u00a0 Quicker than her own brain, his had put two and two together and made the connection.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cDo you not see, ma Cherie?\u00a0 Madame d\u2019Marigny wanted Jean to leave you and she has succeeded.\u00a0 Perhaps not quite in the way she hope; for she meant him to go back to her not to run from the city.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cNo, I do not see.\u201d\u00a0 Marie was exasperated at Marius\u2019s suggestion.\u00a0 \u201cHow did she achieve this?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cShe paid, my dear, she paid.\u201d\u00a0 Marius paced up and down his studio.\u00a0 \u201cSomehow she found a go between to get her a man who would break into your house and for Jean to find you in\u2026 a\u2026 shall we say compromising position.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cShe does not mix with people who would do such a thing.\u201d\u00a0 Marie protested.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAh, but she does.\u00a0 D\u2019Arcy for one.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMy cousin, Edouard?\u00a0 Do not be so ridiculous, Marius.\u00a0 He would not harm me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marius sniffed, \u201cD\u2019Arcy would do anything for money.\u00a0 I am sorry to say this, my dear, but the D\u2019Arcy family are not known for their honesty.\u00a0 The old man killed more than most in the duel, and despite what you have been taught it is not always the righteous who win the duel.\u00a0 Charle stole from his father and from his brother-in-law, yes\u2026\u201d he wagged a finger at her, \u201che stole from your father and he paid his gambling debts with your inheritance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBut Oncle Charle always gave mother money when he visited.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cA pittance to show he was looking after his sister and to shame your father, it was no more.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cEdouard is the worst of a bad lot and he will bring you down.\u00a0 I have no doubt that he was paid to find the man who ran from your bedroom.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Even listening to Marius\u2019 explanations she refused to believe that her cousin was involved.\u00a0 Of course, when challenged, Edouard had denied any involvement and a duel had been inevitable. Much to Marie\u2019s dismay Marius had been injured in sword fight.\u00a0 She gave thanks that Edouard had declared honor satisfied at first blood but she still blamed herself.\u00a0 Marius was badly injured and he never walked well again.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n She shivered as she remembered running from the oaks, running to escape but there was no escape.\u00a0 She could not bring herself to go back to the club and so after several weeks of near starvation, the worry for her unborn child became too great and she had sought out Francine.\u00a0 The bright flames made the tears sparkle as they dried in long rivulets on her cheeks.\u00a0 Francine and her daughter had moved in, and all through Marie\u2019s pregnancy the money Francine earned while Marie minded her little girl, supported them both.\u00a0 What would care for three, could never support four and with the baby still only a couple of months old Marie had been drawn into Francine\u2019s world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI have fed you for six months without complaint, now you must help.\u201d Francine stated baldly.\u00a0 \u201cWe cannot live on what I earn.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBut what can I do?\u201d\u00a0 Marie cried, \u201cWho will look after the children.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cRemember old Madame La Roche, she lived opposite us in the court?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie did remember.\u00a0 The old woman reminded her of a wizened black crow and her son stole from the cargoes on the docks to keep them.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cShe will look after the children in the evenings while we work and you will have all day with your baby.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cNo I couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 I won\u2019t have my baby go to the Flats and I won\u2019t work\u2026 I won\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Francine took hold of Marie\u2019s arms and shook her.\u00a0 \u201cYou have no choice.\u00a0 No one will employ you, this is the only work for girls like us.\u00a0 It pays well and with the house to bring them to, we will earn enough to feed us all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marie swallowed hard.\u00a0 Francine was right there was no other way and she did owe her friend a debt for the time she had worked selflessly to care for them all.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n