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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"The old man smiled. 'I shall not die of a cold, my son. I shall die of having lived."--- Willa Cather, Death Comes For The Archbishop
"That's part of what I like about the book in some ways. It portrays death truthfully. You die in the middle of your life, in the middle of a sentence"--- John Green, The Fault In Our Stars
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November 21st, 2015 Aubrey Parish, Louisiana
The knock at the door startles Eleni out of her trance-like state, breaking her much needed rejuvenation. Brian still slept soundly beside her. The last night passed in a bit of a blur for Eleni, one she could have stopped so easily, and yet she chose not to. After washing herself free of all the pain and regret, she slipped out of the shower and into bed next to the innocent young man.
She felt the need to make everything right. Eleni didn't know if what occurred on the gazebo the previous day was Brian's first experience with a woman. If it had been, she didn't want him to one day know it was something less than beautiful. Eleni didn't want Brian to have to know the voice, the thing that seemed thrilled by her baseness and depravity. She suspects he has demons and voices enough of his own.
Eleni did the thing she never does, and she reached for the innocent but tormented young man out of a sense of tenderness and a desire to offer pleasure. She wanted him to remember love and passion as not something sinful or evil, as he undoubtedly already did, but as a beautiful part of life. If it was an experience that kept him from being a priest, Eleni could live with that. If it was something that kept him from growing into a happy and decent man, she would not forgive herself. Because of that, Eleni gave him gentleness and a euphoria that could almost pass for love.
Eleni did the thing she never does, and she used every ounce of self-restraint not to drink from him, but to hold him and make love to him. The confused cries of desire and need were enough to make her feel fulfilled, and as if somehow, a terrible wrong had been righted.
She had kept soothing him back to sleep, but like every young lover discovering an object of adoration and the gift of flesh and blood and pleasure, he kept waking to pull her close to him. Finally, she needed to walk around in the world of dreams, simply to keep Brian and his newly-found sense of wanting confined to his own fantasies. They were so real and so filled with the dark seductress beside him, he could no longer tell the difference. When he struggled and begged within his own mind for physical release, a single touch from Eleni brought him an exquisite sort of beauty he never knew existed.
Eleni let him go on like that until he was exhausted, and even the fantasies and needs of the dream world slumbered. It was only when he was truly at peace that she let her own mind find rest.
