Part I

May 1796

Raoul Louveaux, hands clasped behind his back, paced leisurely in the convent's old drawing room in Ville-Marie, New France (Montreal, Canada) as he awaited his seventeen-year-old daughter's arrival with Mother Superior. He just arrived on that beautiful spring day to inform Christine that he was taking her back to Louisiana immediately to find a husband. As soon as Raoul received her letter, stating her intentions to become a nun, he immediately packed his trunks and boarded the first ship to New France. He would be damned if his only child and heir to his fortune would waste her fertile years as a nun. He did not work hard all these years for that girl to become a cloistered spinster for the rest of her days.

As an impoverished young man, Raoul, whose French ancestors held titles of nobility, dreamed of owning property and wealth again. He did so by ridding his employer's plantation of "deviled" beings, winning the old Frenchman's daughter, the late Elyse Louveaux, as his wife. A year after arriving in Louisiana, Elyse died in childbirth, with her most faithful servant, Yvette, and her ten-year-old daughter, Josephine, whom Elyse knew to be her husband's illegitimate child, at her bedside.

He had no other legitimate heirs to his plantation. Therefore, he needed Christine to carry on the legacy he revived.

Just then, his thoughts were interrupted by the wooden, double-doors opening as Mother Superior and his daughter entered the drawing room. Raoul's eyes shined with pride as he took in Christine's beauty and poise. She looked just like her mother, and with that intriguing beauty, Christine would draw every bachelor's attention in Louisiana.

Christine Elyse Louveaux was medium height and slim with creamy skin. Her hair was as dark as a raven's feathers, which was done up in bun and covered with a white kerchief, and her eyes were as blue as the summer sky. She stood before him with pouty lips, and the impassive stare that her mother often gave him. Raoul imagined Christine smiling and wearing brightly-colored gowns, as opposed to the frown and simple dark gown and white apron she wore before him.

Father and daughter beheld each other after nine years of estrangement. Although they paid each other with the proper respects, there was no love between them. They were strangers to each other. Christine didn't want him in her presence for she knew that he came to take her back to Louisiana. Josephine, who was allowed to write to Christine, warned her to not state her intentions to her father to join the convent, but Christine thought that she was marking her independence. Unfortunately, the young woman was about to face a very rude awakening.

"I shall leave you two alone," said Mother Superior, closing the double-doors as she left the Louveauxs to themselves.

Once alone, they stared at each other, wondering what the other would say or do. Raoul made the first move.

"Salut, Christine," he said.

"Salut, Papa," returned Christine, dispassionately. "I was not expecting your visit."

"You should have expected it after the letter you've sent me. Joining the convent? Have you completely lost your senses, girl?"

"Papa, I have found my calling here at the convent. I can perform the work of the Lord here, and atone for living off the backs and blood of a people who should not be enslaved," said Christine.

"You dare to degrade your means of support?" he questioned, restraining himself. "It is because of slavery that you are even here! I paid good money for the best education and religious training available, and you show ingratitude?"

"While I am grateful, monsieur, I have been given the opportunity to do something good that doesn't involve oppressing others."

He clasped his hands behind his back again as he began, avoiding her gaze.

"Well, allow me to be blunt about your decision: I was not pleased by your letter, and I have dismissed this notion of yours to be a nun. You and I both know that you were sent here to be educated as a proper wife to a proper husband, and you knew very well that I would not approve of this nonsense of you joining the convent. I'm taking you home to Louisiana. Your education and training here is finished."

Christine's heart dropped at her father's announcement.

"But Papa," she said, "I don't want to go back to the plantation. I have explained to you in my last letter that I intend to stay and become a nun. It is my godly duty, and I intend to honor it."

"That is out of the question, Christine. It is my decision that you will not waste your life being cloaked in black and white like an old kitchen maid-"

"Papa! That is disrespectful!"

"Don't interrupt me again, girl! You will come back with me and take your place in Creole society so that you may marry and continue the Louveaux lineage."

Christine challenged her father's glare with one of her own.

"I made my decision, Papa. My place is in the house of God!"

Furious at her insolence, he shouted, "Your place is wherever I determine, young lady! And your place is in the home. As a gentleman's wife and mother to his children!"

"Uncle Lasalle is married, and he will continue the family lineage!" challenged Christine.

"His lineage, not mine, and I forbid you to ever bring that blackguard's name in my presence! If your maman would had survived your birthing, I would not had bothered to be here, but I had done so to see you married off, and my wealth and blood passed on to my grandsons. The discussion is over, just as your notion to become a nun is over. Understand?"

Christine turned from him, her arms crossed, and stifling back hot tears. Her father, feeling a little sympathetic, cooled his temper, and stood behind his only child, placing his hands on her shoulder.

"Christine," he said in a controlled tone, "if you had other siblings, I would gladly approve of you joining the convent. However, you are my only child, and heir. You must do your first and foremost duty in making sure that the Louveaux lineage, my lineage, continue forever, and that is through marriage and procreation."

Sadly and secretly, Christine agreed with Raoul. Although her greatest aspiration was to be a nun, and to live a life of purity and humility, Christine also knew that there was no one else in her immediate family to continue her father's lineage. If Raoul was on good terms with her uncle, then there would be no need for Raoul to take her away from the only home she ever loved. But she knew that that would never be the case. Now, it was up to Christine to choose to disobey her natural position on this earth, or to be a good Catholic girl and "be fruitful and multiply."

Christine sighed, and turned to Raoul, holding her head high with dignity. "Alright, Papa. I will do my duty to our family…and continue our lineage."

Raoul nodded, smiling with satisfaction. "Good, cherie! We will leave at the end of the week to give you time to pack, to say good-bye to your peers, and for me to take you shopping. A young woman like you needs the latest in fashion to attract a good husband. I will come back tomorrow afternoon to take you to some dress shops. Understood?"

Stifling back her tears, Christine replied, quietly, "Oui, Papa, oui."

He left the drawing room as abruptly as he arrived. Tears streaming down her face, Christine plopped on the sofa, crying into her hands. Yet, she was unaware of a raven that sat on the windowsill, gazing at her with glowing red eyes.