Zoe by Ford TA

Author:Ford, TA [Ford, TA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Create Space
Published: 2010-08-07T04:00:00+00:00

5

The journey home was difficult. Bouchard suffered tremendously from discomfort and complained of numbness on his left side. Marianne barely spoke two words. The tension between them pained Zoé. She sat with her head down in shame, and the family acted as if she weren’t there.

The staff greeted them upon their arrival and Zoé’s childhood companion, Marguerite, who acted as an Abigail to both daughters, was waiting with a joyful smile. That smile disappeared when she saw Bouchard being carried in and the solemn look on everyone’s face.

Zoé was so heartsick over her father’s disappointment and her lover’s betrayal that she barely noticed anyone as she hurried to her chamber.

Madame had grabbed her arm and said, “You are not to leave your room until you are sent for. Your meals will be brought to you.”

Zoé paused long enough to cast one look over her shoulder and catch a final glimpse of the men carrying her father to his wing. He gave her a pained smile. It was enough to give her hope. The events of the past hours had her completely disoriented.

Now alone, Zoé sat staring out of the frosted window in her room. She thought of the count and how the sweet taste of forbidden fruit had soured for them both. She wiped away her tears as flashes of their last passionate moments together played over and over in her mind. She could almost feel the soft touch of his hair as it traveled down her body while he rained kisses between her breasts and over every part of her. Closing her eyes, she fantasized that she was of nobility, or simply of a different skin tone, someone who could have love and happiness without stigma. She fantasized that La Roque loved her enough to want to share in all the desires she had for him.

She went to her small bureau, sat down and opened the tiny drawer where she kept her stationery and inkwell. Taking up her feather quill, she set about writing the goodbye that she hadn’t been able to say to him.

Mon Amour,

For me, our time together was a dream, a fantasy that even now I wish were a reality. I can hear you reciting passages from Victor Hugo. I can see you walking through my boudoir door, daring me to toss all caution to the wind just to relive that dream once more. Last night I lay in your arms. You whispered your love for me in my ear. Now all of my hope and your promises have disappeared. I don’t blame you, for your world is a place in which I would never find acceptance. I embrace the belief that if our circumstances were different, our love would have had a much more deserving end.

I know not what is to become of me, but without your love and that of my dear father, it matters less. All I know is that for a small moment in time I was not Zoé Bouchard, fille mûlatresse of Monsieur Bertrand Bouchard and Capucine Draqcor.

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