August 5th 1665.

The ship blew it's final whistle and began to pull away from the shore. The deck of the ship was a mess of crying girls, clutching to one another and sobbing as they waved goodbye to their loved ones and home, forever. Rachel turned away from them, stifling back her own tears. "Be Strong." She told herself.

Rachel checked her ticket. Room 7-B it read. She picked up her trunk, surprisingly light, and began the walk to her cabin. Rachel tried not to concentrate on the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Although she'd put on a brave face for her family back home, she was scared to death. She'd never spent a night away from home, and now she was off to spend the rest of her life in some new land.
"It's the opportunity of a lifetime!" Her father had declared. The opportunity of a lifetime for him, perhaps. The country was paying great money for young girls such as herself to join this expedition. In exchange for Rachel, her father had received enough money to pay off his debts.

"You're selling me!" She'd cried to her father when he'd told her the news.
"No! Not at all!" He'd said sternly. "We are giving you a new life, a better life! You'll be married off to a good husband with means, and begin a family in the new world! You'll be a pioneer, you'll be a part of history!"

"What if I don't want to?" She'd begged him. "I want to stay here, in France! It's my home, Papa! It's where I belong."
"If you stay here you'll have no chance." He'd said shortly. "We are broke. Your dowry is pitiful, no man will come for you. The king will give you a new dowry when you head to the new world. Don't you understand, this is life or death! Stay here, and we will all starve." His eyes drifted off towards the bedroom where Rachel's little brothers slept soundly. Guilt filled her stomach and she felt uneasy.

"Your mother would have wanted this for you." He said slowly. "The kind of life she'd never had. A lovely home and a farm, filled with chickens and cows. A much nicer place to raise children that this musty old apartment on the outskirts of town, don't you agree?"

"Okay." She'd whispered through her tears, thinking of her little brothers. "Okay, I'll go."
"That's my girl." Her father said, smiling slightly. A tear ran down his cheek as he'd pulled her into an embrace. It was the only time she'd seen her father cry.

It was with a heavy heart Rachel had packed up her belongings into an old trunk and headed off to the ship. A Monsieur Le Fontaine had greeted her, along with a group of one hundred or so other girls, from the ages of thirteen to eighteen.

"You have been given the gift of a lifetime, mes filles." He said brightly, clapping his hands together. Monsieur Le Fontaine was a funny man. Short in stature, he was barely taller than Rachel herself, but his black top hat added another seven inches. He wore a crisp black suit and walking stick, that he was constantly twirling in his fingers. With every word he said he added an extra amount of enthusiasm. He almost made Rachel forget how scared she was.

"You are les filles du roi! The King's daughters, chosen to represent France! Aujourd'hui we begin the adventure! Are you excited?" He looked around at the group of girls. None of them looked particularly excited. Some were even crying.

"Yes? Great! This is the first chapter of your new lives! You will board this jolie ship, l'arc-en-ciel, and be transported all the way from France to Nouvelle France! That's right, the New France! You are some of the first to live in this new land. There is of course, towns in place already. Many are home to brave men, pioneers in this land. Hunters, soldiers, farmers, fur traders; these men are filled of adventure and of course, plenty of money!"
He looked around expectantly, but the girls' faces remained for the most part expressionless.

"The only thing they are missing is a wife! And that is when you come in, my dears! You, beautiful and well endowed young girls will make the perfect housewife! It is up to you to populate the Nouvelle France, and create a country as stable and as thriving as France!" He finished with a slight bow.

"Will we be picking our own husbands, or will they be picked for us?" A blond girl to my right asked. She was beautiful, with bright green eyes and fair blond hair. Any man would be overjoyed to receive her as a wife.

"Ah, Excellent Question!" Monsieur Le Fontaine said brightly. "There will be social soirees, for you to meet the gentlemen of Nouvelle France. If however, none has asked for your hand in marriage after a month you will be assigned a man. Does that clear things up?"

Rachel nodded along with the other girls. Then she was hit with a sudden realization. She might not be picked at all. She was not the typical beauty. With a jewish nose and dark complexion, Rachel stood out among the other girls here. What if a man sent her back? What if nobody wanted her? Panic set in and she felt tears well up in her eyes yet again.

"With all that being said, on a board L'arc-en-ciel!" Mr. Le Fontaine announced, throwing his arms in the air with excitement, with Rachel shared none of.

Now, heading to her cabin, Rachel was filled with doubts. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She wanted to be home, back with her family. She wanted to sit with her little brothers and read them fairy tales, she wanted to cook dinner for her father, she wanted to lie down in her bed knowing everything would be okay.

She arrived at the door 7-B and knocked twice. No answer. She opened the door and went inside. The room was crisp and clean, and Rachel had to admit, a little too bright. From the white walls to the white bed sheets it was all a little too much. The only contrast was the girl sitting on the bottom bunk bed. Her clothes were dark and gritty, her blond hair fell long and straggly, looking like it hadn't been washed in days. Her face was wet with tears as Rachel's was.

"Hello." Rachel said quietly. "Um, sorry to bother you... I'm Rachel, and I suppose I'll be sharing the room with you." She trailed off, biting her lip.
The girl just stared at her, sitting motionless on the bed.

"Well, I'll take this bed over here..." Rachel tossed her bag onto the opposite bed and sat down, facing the girl. There was a third bed, the top bunk of the other girls' bed.
"Do you know who's sleeping there?" Rachel pointed towards the top bunk.

The blond girl shook her head. She raised a hand and wiped her tears away.

Rachel turned back to her bag, rummaging through it's meager contents. A hairbrush, a toothbrush, a few outfits; until she found what she was looking for. A picture of her family, painted by her mother many years ago. Their smiling faces looked back and Rachel and she held it close to her chest, vowing never to forget each and every one of them. Suddenly a voice spoke up from across the room.

"I'm Brittany." She said.
Rachel turned around. "Hi, Brittany."
"How old are you?" Brittany asked.
"Sixteen, and you?"
"Same." Brittany smiled shyly at her.
Rachel returned the smile. Maybe it wasn't so bad, this trip, she decided. Maybe if she just gave it a chance she might actually enjoy it. And it wouldn't hurt to have a friend there along the way.
"Want to go for a walk?" Rachel asked Brittany, who nodded happily.

Author's Note:

First of all I hope you enjoyed it :)

I would like to say that I am trying to stay as true to history as possible :)

The "Filles du roi" aka The King's Daughters were real. n the 1600-1700's hundreds of thousands of young girls from the ages of 13-18 were sent from their homeland of France, to "Nouvelle France" (New France) which is today the eastern part of Canada.

After France won the war versus England for Canada, they started to send men (and a few women) to built houses and towns and work as fur traders. But the ratio of men to women was off so they send the girls along to populate their new world. The girls were also given dowries, paid for by the king. The girls' families were also given money.

As you will see later in the story, there are Natives of Canada. These tribes are correct for the time and place. The "Mowhawks" were the biggest tribe of the area surrounding Montreal. There are many stories of terrible things the Mowhawk did to the french settlers, but the settlers did just as much harm to the Mowhawks. It was an ongoing war, as the settlers were taking all the land previously occupied by the Native tribes.

Also, as will be included later, the settlers would marry a Native women with the traditional native ceremony. Then, they would be given luxuries and fur by the women's village. They would they a few years, have children with the native, and build up a stock of goods. Then sadly, on most occasions, the settlers would run away and leave their native family and never return.

These half Native half European children were named "Metis" and were often shunned by both the Natives and the Europeans.

I really hope to stay as close to history as possible, but please correct me if I'm wrong :)