Read Online BLUE BAYOU ~ Book I (historical): Fleur de Lis by Parris Afton Bonds - Free Book Online Page A

side, and who, after all, were the Bourbons when compared with the Mortemarts?
    Her head had come up imperiously, her back had straightened, and in that moment the apples had gone tumbling from her apron. As she scrambled to regather the apples, the ridiculing laughter of the visitors had shamed her. Heat had flushed her face. Then, suddenly, she had glanced up to see Philippe, sitting on his heels before her—helping her to collect the scattered apples!
    From that moment, she was hopelessly in love. When he courted and married her in a whirlwind of a few weeks, she felt she was truly the most blessed of women. All of Paris was charmed by the Golden Couple. Well, not quite all. Among the court were the usual ill-wishers of a couple who seemed blessed with everything: good looks, health, wealth, and love.
    For appearance’s sake, however, the outnumbered foes put on their best faces and mingled with the friends of the couple in greeting. Natalie counted the du c’s eldest and favorite daughter, the Duchesse de Berry, among her friends. When the poor woman had lost her husband five years earlier, she had simply added to her lovers—and her weight.
    Philippe tugged Natalie away from conversation with the duchesse to search out his uncle, who was in actuality his mother’s cousin. Since Philippe’s grandfather had died before Philippe turned thirteen, the intimidating knight had acted briefly as executor for the Marchesseau estates. Even after Philippe reached his majority, he still leaned on his uncle for advice.
    The man was not difficult for Natalie to spot despite the crush of masked guests. Claude Fabreville continued to wear the black robes of the knights of Malta. A well-curled wig covered his close- cropped hair, which was now thin and gray as was his waxed moustache. She pitied his frumpish wife, whom he had married for her modest fortune. He openly acknowledged the deed, having needed the king’s dispensation to marry. For years, he had neglected his wife, leaving her to wilt at her family’s country estate.
    Perhaps there was something in the smothered rumor that he had once been an “intimate” friend of the late Monsieur.
    Still, he was the only relative Philippe had left and, as attorney general, had procured tax rebates and other privileges for the Marchesseau silk industry. “Uncle,” Philippe said, “I have the best of news for you.”
    “You took my advice?” Claude asked. “You purchased the Compagnie des Indes stock?”
    Natalie slanted her husband a worried glance. He hadn’t told her of the purchase, perhaps because he believed her ignorant in matters of finance.
    “ Oui , but that is not my good news,” Philippe said, his arm encircling her waist tenderly as if already protective of her new condition. “We are finally to be blessed with a child!”
    When there was no immediate response from his kin, Philippe covered the awkward silence. “Now that I’m to be a father, I thought I’d do something really worthwhile—perhaps purchase a seat in Parlement to pass on to my son.”
    At that Natalie had to smile. “You are so certain it is a son?” she asked in a lowered voice.
    “Let me offer my congratulations,” Claude said at last. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, the duc is desirous of my attendance.”
    Once the old knight was gone, she asked, “How many shares of the Compagnie des Indes did you buy?”
    He shrugged his shoulders. “A thousand. But the return will be ten times that much.”
    With the paper value of the shares more than eighty times the total value of all the gold and silver known to be in France’s Banque Royale, it seemed to Natalie that the outcome of such a venture should be obvious. Still, she told herself, they could easily afford to lose the money. Before his death, Philippe’s grandfather had increased the family’s silk fortune through wise investments, and upon the death of Philippe’s father, Philippe had inherited the Canadian fur company, almost