Born into the lap of luxury and a time of turmoil, Duchesse Eleonore Vigneron experiences her coming of age in the Court of Louis XVI . Embroiled in the chaos that surrounds Versailles, Eleni uses her unique blend of wit, charm, and beauty to ensure...
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"She was fury, she was wrath, she was vengeance." --- Sarah J. Maas, Queen Of Shadows
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10 novembre 1802 Firenze, Italie
Dearest Journal-Friend,
I have been too disheartened and despondent to write properly most days, and for that I must apologise. I do wish to write my thoughts and feelings. At the same time, I wish not to put them in words. I fear that if I do, the hatred and anger and desire to simply be free shall bubble up to a point where I can neither contain nor control it.
It is today that I gave birth to my third child. She is beautiful, with a long graceful neck like a swan and small tuft of hair as black as a raven's. I think when she is a woman, she will be something stunning to behold indeed. People say she favours me and yet I think she is far more beautiful. I can only hope she favours me in temperament and not her father. If there is any kindness and mercy in the world, such a sweet and lovely child shall inherit nothing from him.
She is Mademoiselle la Duchesse Odelie Yvonne Vigneron, and I intend to have her secretly baptised as such. It does not matter that her father is Italian and the French have taken our titles from us, those few who survived. One day, and not far from now, we shall reclaim what is rightfully ours. I will go through the appearances of allowing Romano to claim her as his daughter, the first-born daughter of an Italian Duc at that. She is of higher ranking in the Court of Firenze than she would be at home, but I do not care. Here, she is her father's daughter and she shall grow to be just like him. The world will end before I allow this to happen.
It is wrong to wish a child did not exist and yet I cannot rejoice in the existence of Odelie. She is proof of my failing, to never desecrate my own body by carrying the child of le diable. I vowed to keep the world safe by refusing to create more monsters. I look at her and wonder if her father's tainted darkness lurks inside her.
It is because of me this has come to pass and one of my beloved attendants and confidantes killed for her own part in things. One day, Emilia did not come to help dress me and the herbs that kept me from bearing the child I dreaded did not come, either. Later that night, Romano did not have trouble with me. It excited him when he showed me Emilia in the cage, her arms and legs tied and a strange contraption in her mouth. It kept her lips parted but an object stretching them, leaving her unable to make only small whimpered sounds. She had been beaten in the same way he does with me. With her, he did not stop to hide his darkness nor to preserve her beauty. She looked like a wild animal whipped within an inch of her life.
