My Brother's Crown

by Mindy Starns Clark

  “Wow, that’s really something,” Blake said, scanning the wooded shore. Then he turned to me, eyes sparkling. “I don’t know about you, Renee, but I don’t want to wait till dinner. You feel like decoding right now?”

  I laughed, gesturing at our surroundings. “Sure, though it might be kind of hard to concentrate. I don’t want to crash into a downed log or something.”

  “No problem. I got this.” He turned on the motor and brought us downriver a short ways, around a bend and then over to the left bank, where we puttered to a stop at an abandoned dock. Most of the horizontal slats were gone, but the vertical posts remained, and that’s all we needed. He tied the boat to one of those and then settled in beside me, our little vessel held fast as the water lapped gently at the hull and the breeze kept us cool.

  As Blake dug in his bag for the printout, I told him how I’d done some research on breaking simple codes. I began rattling off some of what I’d learned online this afternoon, describing grid ciphers, the Cesar shift, and polyalphabetics. But then he interrupted me to make one very good point.

  “Remember what the journal said? Jules designed the code to help Catherine with her counting, handwriting, spelling, and reading. To decipher it, she had to count off and cross out certain letters. That’s not a substitution cipher. That’s an elimination cipher.”

  “Elimination?”

  “Yeah.” He finally produced from the bag a pencil for each of us and not one copy of the list but an entire stack of duplicate copies. “Here’s how I see it. The reason there are so many letters is because we’re going to be crossing most of them out, until all that remains are the letters that make up the words. Like this.”

  Across the margin on the top page, he wrote R W E O N P E M E L.

  “Now, assume this is an elimination cipher, and your instructions are to delete every other letter. What does that leave you with?”

  I did as he said, reaching out with my pencil and crossing off the W, O, P, M, and L.

  “Oh.” I laughed. “It says ‘RENEE.’ ”

  “Exactly. That’s what we’re dealing with here. Except that it won’t be as simple as every other letter. The pattern will be more complicated than that, like count five and cross out one, then count three and cross out one, then count one and cross out one, and so on. Or it could require multiple passes, like go through and cross out every tenth letter, then go through the remaining letters and cross out every fourth. Like that.”

  I sat back, exhausted at the very thought.

  “How can you say this will be a piece of cake? Do you know how many potential patterns there are for counting off and crossing out? Good grief, Blake. This could take forever.”

  He smiled, clearly enjoying the moment. “First of all, you don’t have to try out patterns on the entire thing. You just do the first line or two, enough for a potential word to stand out. Once you have that, then you can try feeding it through the rest to see if works.”

  I shook my head. “But I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

  “Well, think about what you learned online. What’s one of the first things to look for when decoding?”

  I thought for a moment. “You determine e. That is the most frequently used letter, so you look for whatever seems to be popping up the most and assume that particular letter probably stands for e. But that’s with substitution ciphers.”

  “True, though the same principle can apply here. Try to find counting patterns that allow most of the e’s to stay. Of course, that’s for English. I’m not sure about letter frequency in French.”

  I pulled out my phone, did a quick search, and we looked at the results together. In the French language, the most frequently used letter was also e, followed by s and a.

  With that in mind, we divvied up the pile of copies and then set about trying various patterns, counting off and crossing out to see if what remained made any sense. I didn’t have much luck, but eventually Blake seemed to hit on something promising.

  “I have words,” he said excitedly. “I tried a one, one-two, one-two-three, one-two-three-four, one-two-three, one-two, one pattern and that left this.”

  I looked at his page, where he’d written down the letters nousavons. With a space, that made nous avons, French for “we have.”

  I gasped.

  “Keep going,” I said, watching as he counted and crossed, counted and crossed. Excited, I flipped my stack of papers over and wrote down each of the uncrossed letters from his page. Soon I had added a long string, which I broke down into words. Nous avons tous nos croix à porter. “We all have our crosses to bear.”

  My pulse surged. “That’s it! That’s it! Keep going!”

  Eventually, we got through the whole list, and for the most part were able to figure out the correct spacing that would turn the remaining string of letters into words. There were five places, however, that made no sense, three vvvs or three ppps in a row. Stumped, we both stared at those for a moment until it hit me.

  “Punctuation. What’s the French word for ‘period’?”

  “Point,” he said, so quickly that I shot him a glance.

  “Did you major in French or something?”

  He smiled. “No. We lived in Marseille for a few years when I was a kid.”

  “Well, there you go.” I changed each trio of ps to periods. That seemed to fit. “So what’s French for ‘question mark’? Does it start with a v?”

  “Point d’interrogation. No v.”

  I thought for a moment. “How about ‘comma’?” As soon as I asked the question, I remembered the answer.

  “Virgule!” we both cried at once.

  Then I made the change, replacing each of the triple vs with a single comma. Together we gazed down at what our efforts had wrought. Two sentences, one short and one long. Forty-four words total.

  “Okay, Mr. Marseille,” I teased. “Why don’t you say it for us in English.”

  “Sure. So this was the secret message that Jules gave Catherine via the Persecution Pamphlet. Ready?”

  I nodded, handing him the page.

  His face grew serious as he took it from me, held it high, and began to translate. “ ‘We all have our cross to bear as well as our crown to cherish. My cross is light compared to the sacrifices of many, especially our Savior, and my crown is filled with many jewels, including having you as my sister.’ ”

  “Okay, so this is Jules’s parting message to his sister.” He held up the page and began to read in his deep baritone. “ ‘We all have our crosses to bear as well as our crowns to cherish. My cross is light compared to the sacrifices of many, especially our Savior, and my crown is filled with many jewels, including having you as my sister.’ ”

  I breathed in the words like fresh air. My crown is filled with many jewels, including having you as my sister. How wonderful to know that, after all their conflicts, in the end Jules and Catherine parted lovingly. I wasn’t sure what happened to him after that, but given that the Talbots were able to come to America and eventually set up a paper mill here in Virginia, my guess was that Jules Gillet and his descendants continued to have an ongoing influence within the family, including the branch that immigrated to America.

  Taking back the page, I folded it up, tucked it carefully into my pocket, and then helped him gather the other pages, which he returned to his bag along with the pencils.

  “Thank you for helping me,” I said earnestly.

  “Thank you letting me help,” he replied.

  We shared another long, deep kiss, one that somehow managed to pull me in close and send me somewhere far, far away all at the same time.

  With a sigh, I settled back against the seat as he untied the boat and brought us out to the middle of the waterway. As our journey continued downriver, hands entwined, we alternated between chatting and laughing and falling into comfortable silences. How easy he was to be with, I thought. How perfectly suited our temperaments were.

  It wasn’t until we were nearing our destination
that Blake mentioned he’d recently given this vessel a name. “It had one on it when I bought it,” he added, “but I’ve been trying to think of something different, something of my own. Then this morning, it came to me.”

  Intrigued, I turned in my seat and got up on my knees, leaning toward the back until I could see where he’d painted it on. There in black hand lettering was the new name:

  Cu(NO3)2 4Ever

  Copper nitrate forever.

  A laugh burst from my throat. Turning, I gave him a big kiss on the cheek.

  “Like it?”

  “Love it.”

  “I wasn’t trying to be presumptuous with the forever part,” he added, looking a little embarrassed. “It worked with the formula.”

  “Works for me too,” I said, hugging him again. I hoped it just might prove to be true.

  Looking ahead, I could see the restaurant up on the right, its outdoor deck sparkling with twinkle lights in the gathering dusk. As Blake reached behind us to turn on the motor and putter in toward shore, I couldn’t help but gaze at him and at the beauty that surrounded us.

  Events of the past week had served to remind me of my eleven-greats grandmother, Catherine Gillet, and the treasure that was her journal. Though she lived more than three hundred years ago, her actions and honesty inspired me.

  Now that her story had been brought to mind, I realized it was time for my own to begin. And though I wasn’t sure where it might lead, at least I was finally willing to take a leap and find out.

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. My Brother’s Crown takes place in two different time periods, alternating between Catherine’s story in 1685 and Renee’s in the modern day. Did you like this format? Why or why not? How did the structure allow these concurrently unfolding narratives to inform and enhance each other?

  2. Before reading this book, did you know much about the struggle of the Huguenots in seventeenth-century France? If so, did this story provide new insights? Do you feel that you have a better understanding of that era and the situation now that you’ve read My Brother’s Crown?

  3. When Renee and her cousins are young, they come upon a grisly scene in the woods that has somehow been cleaned up and rearranged by the time police arrive. Which part of that event do you think would be more damaging: witnessing something that horrific at such a young age or having no one else believe that it was ever actually there?

  4. A running theme in the historical portion of My Brother’s Crown involves the decision of where to relocate if forced to leave France. Catherine longs for city life in London, while her brother and fiancé both seem to be leaning toward the Plateau, one of the most rural parts of France. Which location would you prefer? Why?

  5. How did the life of Suzanne de Naivailles as a member of the court of King Louis XIV differ from Grand-Mère’s life as a Huguenot living in Lyon? Which lifestyle would you have preferred?

  6. As a scientist, Renee has a very unique perspective of the world. Did you find her various science-related thoughts and dialogue contributed to her characterization? Which did you find to be the most memorable?

  7. Grand-Mère was raised Catholic but became Protestant as a young woman. Did the authors handle this dynamic with sensitivity? What were some of the things Grand-Mère appreciated about her Catholic upbringing?

  8. Catherine is by nature—and by circumstance—a brave person, while Renee considers herself to be the very opposite. How do you think our experiences in life play into our levels of courage? What impact do our personalities have on our bravery?

  9. In what ways was Jules pragmatic? As you were reading the story did you find yourself agreeing with Catherine’s frustration toward him, or did you believe he had a viable plan to save his family and care for his employees? Did you agree with the decisions he made by the end of the story? Could you do the same? Why or why not?

  10. Did you empathize with Catherine’s helplessness and lack of rights as a woman in the seventeenth-century? How do you think you would have dealt with the limits put on women in that era if you were in her shoes?

  Don’t Miss

  MY SISTER’S PRAYER

  Book 2 in the Cousins of the Dove Series

  Coming Soon to Your Favorite Retailer

  Continue the discovery of what truly happened in the Dark Woods and join the next generation of Talbots as they come to America, only to be met with a shocking turn of events.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Mindy thanks

  John Clark, my husband, who never ceases to amaze me with his infinite skills, support, and love.

  Emily Clark, my older daughter, who always helps during the writing process but really went the extra mile on this one.

  Lauren Clark, my younger daughter, who has an uncanny gift for helping me think my way to the answers I need.

  Tara Kenny, my ever-helpful assistant.

  Joey Starns, my brother, and Andrew Starns, my nephew, who are always quick to respond to my cries for information and input on book-related issues.

  Charlotte Hrncir of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

  The helpful staff and volunteers of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the National Portrait Gallery.

  The Smithsonian American Art Museum, in particular the gifted experts at the Lunder Conservation Center.

  Leslie thanks

  Peter, my husband, for his enthusiasm and delight as he traveled with me to gather the needed elements for the historical thread of this story.

  Linda Mordell Letsom, a reader and friend, for sharing about her Huguenot heritage.

  Anaïs, Francois, Evan, and Deborah Edom, for their hospitality, love, and inspiration in Lyon, and also for the French language help. (Any mistakes in the story are mine and mine alone.)

  Jean-Louis and Sylviane Theron, for taking us to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and the paper mill in Annonay (along with many other sites), answering my endless questions, and sharing stories of their own ancestors, both Huguenot and Catholic.

  Monsieur Vincent de Montgolfier, for the tour of the Museum of the Paper Mills, Canson and Montgolfier, in Annonay; the lesson in old-fashioned paper making; and for answering my questions. (The Montgolfiers have owned paper mills in France since the mid-sixteenth century. The Canson family was added to the enterprise by marriage. We knew none of this when we first came up with the story of the Gillet and Talbot families, but learning the history of the Montgolfiers and Cansons confirmed that a centuries-old business that crossed the Atlantic was, indeed, a possibility.)

  Laurie Snyder for reading an early version of the historical thread and for her continued encouragement and support.

  Mindy and Leslie thank

  Chip MacGregor, our agent, for all his efforts on our behalf.

  Kim Moore, our editor and friend, for her expertise and encouragement.

  All of the fine folks at Harvest House, for their hard work, dedication, and much-appreciated support.

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  Mindy Starns Clark is the bestselling author of more than 20 books, both fiction and nonfiction (over 1 million copies sold) including coauthoring the Christy Award-winning The Amish Midwife with Leslie Gould. Mindy and her husband, John, have two adult children and live in Pennsylvania.

  Leslie Gould is the author of twenty novels. She received her master of fine arts degree from Portland State University and lives in Oregon with her husband, Peter, and their four children.

  To connect with the authors, visit Mindy’s and Leslie’s websites at www.mindystarnsclark.com and www.lesliegould.com.

  ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

  * * *

  To learn more about Harvest House books and to read sample chapters, visit our website:

  www.harvesthousepublishers.com

  HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

  EUGENE, OREGON

  * * *

 

/>