A Daughter of the King by Catherine Pettersson

Author:Catherine Pettersson [Pettersson, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: touch of romance; 1600s France; history of Canada; Les Filles du roi
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2021-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

“The colonists of New France are vigorous men, well-made, nimble, and self-reliant. They are always ready for war, and capable of enduring great fatigue. They are born in a good climate, are sufficiently nourished and accustomed from childhood to physical exercise, hunting, fishing, and canoeing.”

~ François Dollier de Casson, Priest

The Saint Anne

Boundaries separating mademoiselle from demoiselle no longer existed on the Saint Anne. The only lines of distinction drawn were ill or not ill. Although, miraculously, Madeleine was alive, she remained in a weakened state and stayed with the rest of the suffering in the more spacious, although dank, mademoiselles’ quarters on the bottom deck.

Those in the earliest stages of the grim malady lay furthest back from the entrance in beds fashioned from straw. Those convalescing, like Madeleine, lay closer in. Anyone of sound body slept in the demoiselles’ quarters one deck above. Eight and twenty girls began this voyage. Disease had claimed three.

Madame La Plante, at first insensible when Jacques carried her to the quarters below, was now coherent. When she awoke to find herself “alongside the riffraff,” she attempted to move. Between the roll of the ship and her weakened state, she resigned to remain among her inferiors, but not without a good deal of complaint.

Madame’s thin fingers gripped the edges of a blanket. Her face, so white from illness, glowed in the dim light. “I must be returned to my quarters this moment! It is not fitting for me to lie on the floor.” She paused, overtaken for a moment by a spasm of coughing. “It diminishes my station. Undermines my authority.”

Jeanne formulated her first response silently. How is it you can worry about such trivial matters as station in a time such as this? While three of your charges resting forever at the bottom of the ocean? She fought the urge to shake the vainglorious woman. Jeanne, as she often did with Madame, passed over her first response, formulating a second, milder alternate. “You will be well again soon, Madame. The captain tells me that in a matter of days, we will once again step foot on solid earth.”

Jeanne pressed a cool cloth to Madame’s forehead. She was the only one who would tend to the old woman. Teeth and the other mademoiselles refused, so great their hatred toward her, while the demoiselles were simply too frightened to do so.

Madame La Plante moaned, then added softly, “Solid earth. Oh, how I look forward to the end of this infernal rocking.”

“I will not so much as look at a glass of water after this voyage.” Jeanne said, causing Madame to muster a smile.

A fit of coughing once again overcame the old woman. When it calmed, she said, “I shall be forced to endure yet one more trip back to France, and then I shall resign my post. I will be the ancient age of fifty in one short year. Too old for this sort of business.”

Jeanne resisted exploring any personal topics with the lady, but her

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.