It seems to me now as if the path I have traveled was one of inevitability. Looking back I see that to think I had any power over what would eventually become of me was a conceit, and required me to willfully ignore the influence of the unseen hand that guided me for so long. But at the time I was a foolish girl and I did just that, and you will see how, eventually, I became aware of just how totally my destiny had been dominated by another.
Chapter 1
My family were never especially wealthy, but we did bear a proud name, from which we inherited a fine house, and the obligation to project a certain outward grandness. Truth be told, the country about our house in the Limousin was poor, and many of the other great houses and châteaux in these parts were now crumbling ruins. A wave of misfortune seemed to have passed over the great families hereabouts these last hundred years, with whole families sickening and dying of unexplained maladies, leaving their estates to ruin. But our house at least still stood, and within it's walls our family lived our lives in spite of the rot and decay that seemed to be slowly swallowing up all the lands about us.
That is not to say we knew nothing of misfortune. My mother passed away when I was young, a loss my father never quite recovered from. I have only the vaguest recollections of her, and my sister Severine, three years younger than I, remembers nothing. Father loved us as well as he could, but was not an overly affectionate man, and with only my sister for company I recall the house being a lonely place. Father recognized his shortcomings, and must have felt the best thing he could do to raise us well was to remarry, and so when I was ten years old he announced that we would be gaining a step-mother.
I met her for the first time the night father announced the engagement to us. He had called my sister and I into the library, where he spent much of his time working on one or other of his histories. He was seated upon an armchair, and standing beside him was a tall young woman whom I had never seen before. I was surprised to see a visitor in our house after dark, as we had had no guests at dinner, and none had been announced at the door.
"Genevieve, Severine, I would like you to meet Mademoiselle Catherine. She is to become my wife the Madame Marmontel, and your step-mother"
Father beamed widely, and motioned for us to come a little closer. The lady was tall and slim, and had a statuesque quality of stillness about her that seemed striking in someone still young. She looked first at Severine, then turned her eyes upon myself, and as she did I was transfixed. Never had I seen such beauty! Gathered upon her head her dark hair was full and luxurious, and her skin of her face had a milky smoothness accentuated by full pink lips. Her long lashes batted once as she cast her gaze over us, and her darkly-lashed eyes twinkled with a smile as she met my gaze. She moved towards us sinuously, her long skirt swishing, and bent a little at the waist to bring her face down to my height. As my father gazed weakly on, she placed her alabaster hands on my cheeks and kissed me sweetly on the lips, before treating Severine to the same greeting.
"I hope to get to know the two of you very much better after I come to live with you", he said. "We shall have such fun together", she promised.
That night I lay awake with my head swimming with thoughts of the future, and with apprehension at what this strange and exciting woman would bring to our home. I could never have imagined the strange and wondrous things that she would bring upon our house.