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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27 decembre 1803 Roma, Italia
Dearest Journal-Friend,
It is that day, the point in time when what must be done cannot be undone. I did not have the strength I needed and proved a failure. As is so often the case in the world I inhabit, one who fails must die.
I ride, fully cloaked and with a red wig and beauty patch that does well to hide my identity. There is little to be done about my eyes, the unmistakable blue eyes of the Roi's lineage, only darker and much more intense. I look at the world that passes by through a wispy veil of black lace that shades my gaze from view.
Yvonne and I are what we once were, the bourgeoisie mother and daughter stealing off in the night. Yvonne and Delphine Abriele, taking a journey from the austere gaze of Rome that revealed itself to be as dangerous as the frivolity of Versailles and the politics of Paris. We are fugitives twice over now. We are Monarchist exiles whose asylum became espionage, treason, and murder.
I suppose it is fitting to say what happened. I kept my date and my promise to Orlando. He trusted me without any hesitation, and even slipped a beautiful ruby ring on my finger to be worn next to the one symbolising my marriage to Antonio. "You are as much my wife as his now, Eleonore."
His whispers sent shivers down my spine and gave me confidence to do what needed to be done. For those who are like me, the hunt for blood and the art of seduction are one in the same. The more he spoke, the more he trembled like a young man who had never before touched a woman, the greater my desire became.
I do not know where such strength and confidence came from in one so young, but before I did it, I entwined my body with his and stroked and kissed him into the frenzy that so often occurs when we are together. This time, though, I whispered, "I am here to show you not only Heaven, but what bliss awaits above even that."
He believed me, and I kept my promise. Our bodies were both locked together, consumed by the power of the most tempting kiss one can give to another. I was lost to even myself, far within the throes of ecstasy when I felt the blow on the back of my head. It was Antonio, who had come into Orlando's rooms uninvited.
I was so far outside of the realm of this world, the blow did not touch me. It did, of course, enough that the blood I was willing to take from another ran from the side of my ear. The second blow was harder and aimed at the base of my skull. I felt the blood down the back of my neck and came to, though not in time. Antonio had the upper hand and when my fangs went for his throat, his hands locked around mine. He held my head immobile as it bled and pain returned like a blackness.
It took pain to remind me how much I hated him. He was the first man to ever offer me the choice to love him. He was the first man to ever offer me a kind of freedom, and I ended up hating him more passionately than even I knew. If I had chosen to love him, he would have shattered my heart. No man should be given that level of vulnerability. Oh, how I despised him for making it all seem so reasonable.
