First RoV fic, written for 100Women on Livejournal. Madame du Barry was quite the interesting antagonist for one so minor in the grand scope of things, and I was surprised at how calmly she accepted her exile given her obsession with finery and wealth.
My name is Marie-Jeanne Becu, but you may know me as Madame du Barry. I ceased to be Marie-Jeanne so long ago I scarcely remember her.
I was born nobody, destined to remain so while starving in the streets, selling my body just to be able to eat. I don't like to remember those days too much, even though it was through selling my body that I met the man who would change my life.
King Louis XV had an eye for pretty girls, but somehow he made me feel as though I was different from the others. Special. And the fact that he could give me all I wanted and more certainly didn't hurt...how could I not fall in love with him? I was somebody when I was his mistress, I never wanted it to end.
The obsession and the greed became a sickness, devouring more and more of me every day. I killed his wife just to ensure I'd never have to share my vast wealth with another woman. I used tears and sex and womanly wiles to manipulate him, and it always worked. With his aid I even shamed the little princess Marie-Antionette into acknowledging me.
I thought it would never end, but then he fell ill. Smallpox, they said, giving him less than a few weeks to live at best. I would lose my lover, and along with it the lifestyle I'd worked so hard to achieve! I begged, I pleaded, I cried for the physicians to save his life, but it was no use.
Before he died, my beloved asked to have his sins absolved and I was forcibly removed from the palace. I was to live out the rest of my days in a convent, but my own sins would eventually come back to haunt me and land me here, in this prison cell.
Tomorrow is the day of my execution.I won't lie by saying I don't fear the icy grip of death, I'm actually quite terrified. But fate is a force stronger than anything, which we cannot fight.
Even as I await the executioner's blade, I regret nothing.
Sincerely,
Marie-Jeanne Becu