Beauty

by Sadie Johnston

  Jeanne grinned. “I’m glad that you think so. I look forward to seeing your child grow.” She paused. “Do you think it’s a boy?”

  “I do,” Constance said, turning back and rubbing her stomach. “I don’t know why, but I just have a feeling.”

  Later in the evening, they were clean and freshly dressed. They had eaten their first full meal in five months and spent a surprisingly comfortable dinner with her family. It had not nearly been full of the awkwardness she expected, but she wasn’t going to complain. Of course, her aunt had been silently scandalized by Constance’s implication that she would be sleeping in the same bed with Tristan before being formally wed, despite the fact that they had been together for five months, but there was no arguing with Constance.

  After all this time, she did not think she could feel okay sleeping without him.

  They lay in bed, under several blankets with a fire in the fireplace. Constance snuggled deeply into the crook of his broad shoulder with her cheek pressed against his chest. She enjoyed the way the warmth seeped into her skin and she realized just how much she had missed that feeling, and how much she used to take it for granted. God knew that she would never take these things for granted again.

  “I missed beds,” he declared. “I tried not to think about it and be positive about things, but I think I can safely say now that I really missed sleeping in a bed.”

  “Same here,” she agreed with a quiet laugh. “I missed bread, oddly.” She sighed contentedly. “Where should we go?” She changed the subject after a moment.

  “Didn’t we have this conversation this morning?”

  Amazing how their lives could change so entirely in the course of a single day, just a few hours even, and yet it all came down to the same discussion. That was a strange thing, now wasn’t it? “We did, but the question remains. And we have more options now.”

  He nodded and kissed the top of her head. “Do we want to stay in France? I might be able to wrestle some connection from my parents that would assist us in setting up somewhere in the country. I’d like to be away from the crowds of the cities. I definitely don’t want to live anywhere near Paris.”

  She could imagine that he didn’t, and could understand why. Cities and crowds didn’t really appeal to her either. She hadn’t had much use for society when she was younger and she had even less use for it now.

  “I hope you realize that wherever we go, Jeanne will be coming with us,” she pointed out warmly. She knew that Tristan wouldn’t mind. After all, they had her to thank for giving them the chance to be together.

  “I anticipated as much.” He chuckled deeply. “I’m glad to hear it. She is a good woman and I know how much she means to you. I wouldn’t want to see you two separated any longer than you already have been.” Tristan kissed her hair again. “Besides, maybe if she were here, she might be able to help us make a decision,” he teased. “Where do you want to go?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted with a little smirk, getting back to the topic at hand. “There is a part of me that would like to see the Americas, visit the colonies. Or just go... far away from here, like I always wanted to. But then, I don’t know that I want to live too far from my family. They made mistakes, but I know that they love me.”

  “They do,” he agreed, “or else we would not be here now.” He held her a little tighter to his chest, leaning his head on hers. “I guess I understand the feeling. I’d like to see far off places, but this is my home. And now that there is a child on the way, I’m not sure that I want to take too much of a chance.”

  “That too. I suppose we should stay close by, just somewhere new, somewhere away from all that’s happened, where we can be us.” She realized that getting away didn’t have to mean going that far. It just had to be somewhere they were free to live the way they wanted. Isn’t that what everyone needed? She had spent so much time in constraints and cages that the idea of freedom was incredibly appealing. She knew that she didn’t have to go to the other half of the world to find it.

  She knew that she could find it anywhere that Tristan was, because now she knew of men and of beasts, and that she could find a way to live a happy life, despite either standing in her way.

  The End

  Keep reading to learn about the author’s research for this project, as well as a note about the character of Constance and more about the author herself!

  ~*~

  If you liked reading about Constance and Tristan’s love story, please consider leaving a review on Amazon!

  Fact & Fiction

  From late June of 1764 to mid June of 1767, a beast did terrorize the countryside of the province of Gévaudan, with occasional ventures into neighboring provinces. The boundaries of Gévaudan roughly equate to the department of Lozère in modern day France. The attacks took place primarily in the mountains of Margeride and occasionally the hills of Aubrac.

  Information from this time is scarce and sometimes unreliable, so the death count varies depending on which accounts you follow. There is also the matter of deaths being attributed to the Beast that weren’t, or that were its work and weren’t registered. Still, most reports place the toll easily in the dozens and some say as many as one hundred and thirty. That’s just deaths and does not include the numbers from attacks where the victims survived.

  Although there were some attacks on men, there were no recorded male deaths, and the Beast showed a strong preference to avoid men and attack women and children. It also acted unlike a “regular” animal in an aversion to attacking livestock.

  Many hunts were conducted, but the Beast wasn’t caught for three years.

  In June of 1765, the king sent a hunter to catch the Beast. A large wolf was killed and paraded to Paris, so as far as the Crown was concerned, the matter was over. But the attacks began again towards the end of the year. Whether this was a new Beast or the same, having not been caught, no one can say for certain, but it seems unlikely there’d be two monsters. This second Beast seemed warier and kept his hunting region more defined and narrow, to mountains where escape and hiding was easy.

  The Beast (or the second Beast) was shot by Jean Chastel on 18 June 1767, after three bloody years. The Beast was not heard from again.

  In my story, Constance and Tristan are fictional. There was, however, a Comte (Count) Moncan and Comte Morangis. There was also a Marquis d’Apcher and a Jean and Antoine Chastel.

  Theories about the Beast abounded both then and now. Some say it was a circus animal, like a lion or hyena, that escaped. Some say it was a wolf. Others say it was a dog and wolf hybrid that was trained to kill and was under control of a master. In this last theory, Jean Chastel was suspected of being involved. It was said that perhaps a noble was the Beast’s master, and Comte Morangis was suspected. That part I did not make up, but other crimes I’ve assigned to him are the work of my plot.

  Morangis was a widower and had two young sons. During the time of the Beast, he split his time between Saint Alban, Paris, and Versailles. The details regarding his military experience and financial problems are historical as well.

  It was said during early readings of this story that Morangis’ escape was anticlimactic. Perhaps it was, but historical records say that Morangis died years after the time of the Beast. I didn’t feel right re-writing that much of history.

  There wasn’t much in my research about Comte Moncan, aside from his being in the province at the time of the Beast, so the wife and niece I gave to him were also of my own invention.

  Hopefully for all that I made up and got wrong, these personages will forgive me.

  Further, I do not live in France and am not a scholar of French history. I have long been intrigued by the story of the Beast and wanted to write about it. This is the story I chose to tell. I did what research I could, and I hope I was relatively accurate, but I apologize to my dear readers for anything I was incorrect in. I hope that you will forgive me and allow me to call it literary license.

  A Note about Const
ance

  Constance de Marin is a creature of my imagination, but the painful truth is that what happened to her as a teenager has happened to too many people through history and still happens today.

  Many assaults go unreported, because of reasons very like Constance’s. The victims are threatened and afraid for their lives, or they are ashamed, even though it’s not their fault, or they know it’s the word of one against another and they fear they won’t be believed. And these things are still strongly felt by victims today. One can only imagine what a woman in Constance’s time would have felt.

  I wrote this story because I wanted to show how two people in pain can heal and find happiness.

  I believe that love is beautiful in all its forms, including the physical, and anyone who uses it as a weapon is desecrating something wonderful. I dedicate this story to all the women, men, and children who have suffered, those who survived and those who did not. May they all find peace, and may the survivors find their happy endings.

  If you feel as strongly as I do, I highly recommend that you donate or volunteer with organizations to help victims, such as RAINN or the Joyful Heart Foundation.

  “Serve God, love me, and mend.” ~ Much Ado about Nothing, William Shakespeare

  About the Author

  Sadie Johnston is the romantic non de plume of the science fiction/fantasy writer K. B. Thorne, who was previously known as Mia Darien. (If you’re thinking that’s a lot of voices in one head, you would be correct.)

  Born a Connecticut Yankee in nobody’s court, K. B. Thorne grew up to brave snow and talk fast.

  She started reading when she was three and never looked back, soon frequently falling asleep with a book under her cheek. At eleven, she discovered Night Mare by Piers Anthony and entered the world of grown-up fantasy fiction. As you can guess, it was all over from there. She started writing at fourteen, then she met vampires as a teenager and the concept for what would become Adelheid (now the Blood Rights Series) was soon born. Mia Darien followed a few years later, and the books were released.

  However, K. B. is also a third-generation Trekkie. Somewhere in a vault at Paramount is a very angry letter written by her grandmother when Star Trek: The Original Series was cancelled, so sci-fi is in the blood too—alongside a love of love, and an adoration for her first love of epic fantasy.

  K. B. Thorne is the evolution of Mia Darien after years of learning and living. She has taken both of those things to become a smarter, better writer with a fresh new face and take on the literary world. Thorne writes the urban fantasy, fantasy, and sci-fi, while Sadie Johnston writes the romance.

  These days, when she’s not desperately trying to find time to write, she works as a freelance editor/cover artist/formatter and happily lives her unconventional life alongside her very own Named Man of the North and their mini-tank. (Who is, you know, their son.)

  Please join Sadie at her website (http://authorkbthorne.com) and on Facebook!

  Other Books by Sadie Johnston & K. B. Thorne

  The Distance Between in the Here, Kitty Kitty Anthology

  Hope in the Reaching Out Anthology

  The Twelve in the Bellator Anthology

  Imperfect in the Amor Vincit Omnia Anthology

  Personal Responsibility in the Good Things Anthology

  Ashes to Sunrise Anthology, Edited by Mia Darien