A burst of pain erupted from the back of Marc’s head and a warm substance dripped down his neck. As his head smacked off the floor for the second time, his vision began to fade out.
Marc awoke to indistinguishable yelling. He still only saw black as he struggled to open his eyes and see what was going on around him. I’m still alive, he thought to himself.
As he cracked one eye, he saw the ravenous woman still on top of him but preoccupied with yelling at another woman across the room.
Marc took this opportunity and brought his hand up, striking his attacker and casting her to the wooden floor. As she fell from her perch, he used her momentum and drew himself up to address the other three raiders.
Marc stumbled as a sharp sting and dull throb presented itself from the back of his head. He took a second to probe the injury and, as he brought his hand back, he could see the sticky red liquid that covered it. Alarm ran rampant through his body.
Suddenly, a hard object hit Marc in the head as another hit him behind the knee. He found himself falling to the ground, unable to hold up his body any longer. The grain of the aged, wooden floor dig into the flesh of his knees as his weight crashed down upon them.
The crack to his head sent a warm sensation down his neck to his ear, and trickling into his shoulder. A sudden urge to vomit filled his throat as a morbid senselessness enveloped him. The room began to falter and tilt. Silence fell upon Marc’s ears and color began to fade from sight.
He knew he was at the mercy of his assailants, yet he couldn’t muster the strength to raise his arms in even the faintest of protests. All he could do was stare at the jarred entryway that was his shop’s door to the contravening masses moving through the street.
Although he could no longer feel anything, Marc sensed he’d sustained another hit to his head. Despite the lack of pain, he fell forward, his face colliding with the hard wood of the floor.
As he lay, face down on the wood, something drew his attention. For a moment he saw him, a dark figure with long white hair and red eyes stood watching the events that took place. An expression of joy covered the figure’s face as he lethargically chewed on a piece of bread.
Marc tried to call out with his eyes, begging him for help, but the white-haired man continued chewing, as if he wasn't aware of what was happening around him. Marc brought his gaze back to the doorway; his vision began to fail and a tunnel clouded his vision.
Suddenly, from the gaining darkness, a face came into view. A woman was standing in the doorway. He couldn’t place her, but he felt like they’d crossed paths once before.
Twisted with fear and concern, the face of the young woman was unlike the savage scowls of his attackers. Her expressions were not dominated by rage and wretchedness, but by concern and unease.
Marc’s gaze drifted from her face to her hands where she held a small knife. As he lay dying on the floor of his beloved store looking up at this woman, the urge to protest finally ended and he let his eyes close.
CHAPTER ONE
Arising from a horrifying dream, Gabrielle gasped, as though she’d never breathed before. Despite her eyes being open, they had yet to come into focus and the world around her was blurred and dark.
Sweat ran down her back, soaking her nightgown and giving her the sensation of being wrapped in a chilled towel after a cool bath.
Gabrielle’s sandy blonde hair looked black as the remnants of her nightmare had caused her hair to cling to her face. The dreams—though sometimes sweet—were her only confirmation that she was, in fact, living the life of another woman.
The nightmares were always different, but they all had one thing in common, the dark figure with white hair. Shaking the horror from her mind, she thought back to what Alexandra said the last time they spoke. About how this was her decision to live the lives of the bracelet’s previous owners, but an adventure like this came at a price.
That price was her previous life, the life she lived with her mother in Envisage. But decisions like that were in her past, Gabrielle had already jumped into this exploit and there was no turning back.
As her vision became clearer, she could tell she’d awoken in the spry hours of the morning, when the Earth was awakening from a long slumber.
The sun was beginning to creep across the French hills and through the small, lone window, clouded with morning dew. The cold, stone walls and floors went from gray to tinted brown as the warm sun poured in and illuminated Gabrielle’s room.
She was in a servant quarters located near the palace kitchen, where many of the resident maids lived. She shared this small room with two other women, who seemed to have already begun their day. As Gabrielle looked across the chamber at their neatly made and vacant beds, she began to think it was later into the morning than she thought.
Pushing her wet hair from her face, she brought herself around and placed her feet on the cold, stone floor. A chill ran up her legs, which brought a smile to her face, for that meant she was no longer in the dream. With her eyes adjusted to the brightening room, she looked down at her wrist.
There it was. The driving force behind the magic she had yet to be able to explain: the bracelet. She rotated her wrist, wondering how it translated everything she heard—including her name—into something she could understand.
Though it looked a bit older than when she wore it as Aideen in her last life, it still held its beautiful markings. She reached down and spun the bracelet in place as she thought of all the new things she learned throughout this journey.
Gabrielle had discovered early on that she was in France, as a maid in the great palace of Versailles. From what she remembered from her schooling, she knew she inhabited a troubling time within French history. Gabrielle slouched out of bed and dragged herself to the full-length mirror as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
She stared at her long, lean body and admired her curves. She was older in this life and her host body was very beautiful. Placing her fingers on her hips and twirling herself back and forth, she guessed she was in her late teens, with long, sandy hair and icy blue eyes. Gabrielle stretched up, stood on her tip toes, wrinkled her nose and eyed herself in the mirror.
She’d been in this life for two weeks now, learning all she could and using the power of the bracelet to retrieve her host's memories. The power of the bracelet hadn’t wavered at all from her last life when she fought alongside Heather and Fionn.
Gabrielle had witnessed Aideen’s tragic tale, but she didn’t know what happened to Heather and Fionn. She liked to think their souls found peace, now that their stories were told.
Gabrielle spun herself around in a sudden sense of urgency as she realized she was supposed to be working in the kitchen. She threw on her standard uniform, glancing back at herself in the mirror to flatten her dress and mush down her mess of tangled hair.
She had only just collected herself when the chamber door flung open and one of her bedfellows came charging into the dim light. It was Claudie, and she looked disheveled and stressed.
Her normally perfected bun of blond hair was loosened and unfurled. Setting her gaze on Gabrielle, Claudie’s eyes widened as she raised her arms and brought them crashing down upon her hips.
“Shit, Gabrielle! How is it that you are only now bringing yourself to the day? Madame Toinette is furious! Look to my bun, she thrashed it well!” Claudie ranted, more frustrated with her disheveled bun than Gabrielle’s slow start.
Claudie flew to the wardrobe, flung it open and threw an apron at Gabrielle’s feet. Gabrielle felt bad for Claudie, vanity being a prominent trait of hers; she knew the bun incident would bother her for the rest of the morning.
“Claudie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause such a fuss. Why didn’t you wake me when you and Hilde rose for the day?”
“What, and deprive you of what little rest you would have gotten?” scoffed Claudie, “Your terrors seemed to taunt you endlessly last night. It cost all of us our rest.”
Sheepishly, Gabrielle fell
to her knee to retrieve the apron Claudie had thrown at her. It was bad enough that her dreams often caused her to lose sleep, but she hated it when others suffered. Gabrielle opened her mouth to once again apologize, but closed it, realizing nothing she could say would break Claudie’s frustration.
A small mirror adorned the interior of the wardrobe, and Claudie was tugging at her hair in a hurried attempt to repair her bun.
With her gaze on the floor, and chin on her breast, Gabrielle clutched her apron and tied it in a messy bow behind her back. As she looked up to continue fussing with her hair, she found that Claudie was looking at her, mouth ajar and eyebrows furrowed together in disgust.
“Why is it that, no matter how many times I show you, you still cannot manage to properly draw your ties for the apron?” Claudie walked to Gabrielle and twirled her around to repair the sullied job.
The head mistress, Madame Toinette, was very strict on what she expected from the servants in the palace, and she tended to dwell on small details.
In order to ensure that all servants exuded elegance of the highest degree, Gabrielle thought as she mimicked the formal tone of her boss. More like to ensure that all servants are humiliated… treat us like we’re dogs...
Gabrielle could feel her face redden and her fists clench as she thought about Madame Toinette and how she loved watching the other servants wriggle in fear.
Rage was replaced with confusion. This wasn’t Gabrielle talking, this was her host. In her real life, she was polite, if a bit shy. Whoever’s life she was witnessing had a deep hatred for Madame Toinette, and the rage that bubbled in her gut was altogether unsettling.
“Thank you.” Gabrielle’s voice was small as she centered her apron in the mirror, regaining her state of mind. “I don’t know why I cannot seem to get that bow tied correctly.”
“Well, if I only knew the answer to that, and to why you are unable to wake on time, I would have to manage my bun only half as often.” Claudie let out a bellowing laugh as she raised her eyebrow and brushed some soot from the back of the dress.
Another loud bang rang through the stone walls of the small room as the door was cast open once again. Hilde entered the room, looking similarly disheveled, and Gabrielle knew Madame Toinette was taking her rage out on the others.
Hilde’s normally smooth olive skin was pale and rosy blotches of frustration swelled in her cheeks. She was Gabrielle’s height and had long, jet black hair that was pulled into a not-so-Claudie tight bun.
“Madame Toinette is furious with the two of you. If you aren’t in the kitchen soon, it will be the switch for all three of us!”
A chill ran down Gabrielle’s spine. ‘The switch’ was a thin, whip-like cane that the head mistress carried on her at all times. It had a small, ivory ball for a handle and thinned to a point at the other end. It was only about as long as an arm, yet stung as though you were hit with a club when she brought it to the back of your legs, butt and back.
Gabrielle’s heart leapt into her throat and she instinctively clenched her fists again. She had come to know the edge of this cane quite well during her time in the palace.
Without further deliberation, the three girls were on their way to the main kitchen. The hallway was lit only slightly brighter than the servants’ chambers, with similar stone flooring and bland and empty walls.
Despite the dread Gabrielle felt, the sweet smell of roasting treats made her mouth water. She filled her lungs with the amazing smells of basil, fresh bread and sugar.
An image of the switch came into view as they rounded a corner and were standing at the entrance to the kitchen. The cream stone walls seemed to flow like a wave as they billowed into cathedral ceilings. On the opposite side of the kitchen, a large fireplace roared and several iron pots hung from hooks over the flames.
Gabrielle brought her apron up and dabbed at a drop of sweat that threatened to plunge down her face. Claudie gave her a sharp look and she dropped the apron, bringing her hands back down.
Great wooden tables covered in food and chef projects filled the room and several cooks cut and plated an assortment of foods. Large glass doors ran the length of one side of the kitchen, constantly revolving as people came in and out.
It was like a choreographed dance, as servants spun in perfect harmony to avoid each other at the last minute. Gabrielle had seen this many times since her arrival, but it still astounded her.
A tug on her wrist brought her back from dreams of delicate treats and Gabrielle looked up to see Claudie who was staring blankly at something. Her face was still radiant even in fear.
Across the kitchen, ushering the servants in and out as if she were herding animals, was Madame Toinette.
CHAPTER TWO
Madame Toinette shot a piercing gaze through the bustle straight into Gabrielle. The head mistress brought her hand from her waist to brush a piece of greying black hair from her eyes. She was an ugly skeleton of a woman, whose lifestyle had aged her quicker than nature had intended.
Her piercing brown eyes bore into Gabrielle as she locked on to the target of her frustration. Her skin was pale and dry with deep wrinkles encasing her eyes, probably due to constant scowling. Wow...maybe dad was right, your face really CAN stick like that! Gabrielle felt a bubble of giggles creep up her stomach and into her throat but, luckily, they were squashed before it was too late.
The head mistress squeezed the switch cradled under her arm, resembling a horse trainer holding a riding crop. Vomit threatened to burst from Gabrielle’s lips as she realized she would soon feel the burning sting of wood against her skin.
With another tug from Claudie, and Hilde leading the way, Gabrielle was dragged through the mass of servants. She felt a rush of adrenaline as gusts of air brushed past her from servants who seemed to think she knew the kitchen waltz.
Madame Toinette stood between two large doors and, for a moment, Gabrielle though this is what it must be like to stand before the gates of judgment.
Sheepish and stunned, she looked into Madame Toinette’s eyes before the anger she saw within them forced her to look back to the floor.
“What have you to say this time, you foolish girl?” bellowed Madame Toinette, taking a half step towards Gabrielle. She could sense that the entire kitchen tilted one ear to what was happening. Gabrielle could feel the air chill behind her as her friends stood like statues.
“I...I...” began Gabrielle.
“Yes, you stupid girl, two ‘I’s’. I believe you have them both, so how is it that you can’t SEE to it that you show up for your duties in a timely manner every morning as your fellow dwellers do? Or is it that you feel you're better than the others?” With this Madam Toinette crossed her arms over her chest and pursed her lips as if she were waiting for a response.
Gabrielle couldn’t breathe. Her hands squeezed the sides of her dress until the tips of her fingers went numb and her arms began to shake. She opened her mouth to talk but it had gone dry and she could only force out a small squeak. Her vision blurred and a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead, over the bridge of her nose and paused on the tip before plunging to its death.
Though she'd only been at the receiving end of the whippings a handful of times, she could feel the thousands of lashes received by her current host.
What she wouldn’t give to be back in her own room, mind entertained by her father’s old books, spinning her globe and reading of far-away places. A sharp pain shot through her left thigh as a snap brought her attention back.
“Look at me, you frustrating creature, not at the floor!” Madame Toinette’s voice came crashing in again as she retracted her switch, and squeezing the handle.
The pain in her thigh began to ring throughout Gabrielle’s body. Tears welled behind her tightly-clasped lids, but she refused to cry.
The first few times she was on the receiving end of the switch, Gabrielle had let the tears flow, but she’d learned that only made the situation worse. Crying and pleading was what Madame Toinette wa
nted and Gabrielle was determined to not give her the satisfaction. Gabrielle also knew she couldn't look Madame Toinette in the eye. That would be insolence and would be rewarded with another beating.
With a large swallow and a flurry of eye-lashes, Gabrielle brought her eyes to the pendant that clung at the base of the Madame’s neck.
“I’m sorry, Madame Toinette,” she croaked between clenched teeth. She paused to clear her throat before continuing, “I did not sleep well last night, so I did not wake with the others.” Gabrielle couldn’t feel her fingers anymore as she continued to grip the hem of her dress as if her life depended on it.
“This is true, Madame! She kept us awake for most of the night. She meant not to...” Claudie interrupted. Hilde looked worried, but she still nodded her head in agreement. Madame Toinette’s head snapped up to meet the eyes of those who dared to interrupt her punishment.
“Did I ask for your opinion regarding this matter, young lady? In fact, was I addressing you at all? Would you like to take this one’s place?” Madame Toinette hissed, motioning with the switch between the girls. Gabrielle could almost hear Claudie’s teeth gnash as her mouth slammed shut.
“It appears that laziness and insubordinate thoughts have poisoned the work practices about the palace. Obviously, you have all forgotten your places as servants to the royal family. You are all to follow the rules and complete your tasks. This is to be done to perfection and without question. For those of you who wish to continue to wallow in your lazy, piggish ways, you will suffer the consequences.” Madame Toinette took another half-step towards Gabrielle.
“Give me your arms,” Madame Toinette whispered, her gaze piercing and her smile wicked. “And hold them still!”
As though willing an ancient oak branch to bend, Gabrielle fought to stretch her arms out for the mistress. In one swift motion, the head mistress grabbed Gabrielle’s wrists and wrenched her sleeves up to her elbow.
CLICK.
The Gabrielle Series Boxed Set Page 15
