The Sunflowers: A Novel of the Sun King's Court

Chapter Six

Louise.

"You think that you're quite clever, don't you?" Tante Susanne said to Louise as they sat in her coach on their way to Paris. "A bourgeois — you, the wife of a bourgeois! Do you know what a scandal that would be, Louise? Be thankful that we were able to pay for the family's silence! It would have ruined your sister's chances to make a good marriage... and you would have been miserable living with that gossipy old cow. Madame Herve is not as gracious as she seems, niece." She sat back against the seat and turned away, the coners of her lips turning up in a smile. "And you would have ended up just like her had you been so foolish as to carry through with your plan to marry her son."

Louise turned to gaze out the window at the farmers' fields as they passed them. The brutally cold winter had started to fade into gentler spring, and Louise could see that the bud were already beginning to form on the trees and that the shoots of wildflowers and other plants were already peeking out of the ground. "Would I have lost my status as a noblewoman?" she ventured.

Tante Susanne spun her head to face her, frowning. "What do you think would have happened, you foolish girl? Did you think that you would be as lucky as Marguerite de Rohan was when she married Henri Chabot? No, Louise, you wouldn't have been as lucky as the Duchesse de Rohan! You wouldn't have been able to extract a promise from the king that you would be able to keep your rank as a nobleman's daughter! Especially since he's a bourgeois! The Princesse de Rohan at least had the good sense to fall in love with a member of her own class!" Tante Susanne sniffed, then reached into the folds of her cloak for her tabatiere so that she could take some snuff.

Louise watched her aunt take some snuff with some fascination. It was well-known that while many nobles at the court took snuff, the King himself detested it. But it certainly didn't deter him from from giving snuffboxes as gifts to the courtiers he honored. The snuffboxes, called boites-a-portraits, reminded Louise of small jewel caskets. The top of each box was decorated with an enamel miniature of the King, as a reminder of not only who their monarch was, but as a way to remind his nobles of the great debt he owed to them for their service, whatever it was. Tante Susanne tucked the tabatier back into the folds of her cloak, then settled back against the cushion of her seat once again. She shook her head, tutting and sighing defeatedly. "We will have to get you some new gowns. What you have isn't suitable for court," she said. "And we'll have to teach you how to walk and how to talk... The King prefers women who are lively, effervescent. Not dull and boring like his wife the Queen... and not as insufferably silly and naive as Mademoiselle de La Valliere."

Louise de La Valliere. Or, more specifically, Francoise Louise de la Valliere de La Baume Le Blanc had been the King's maitresse-en-titre for some time. It was said that he had met Louise while visiting the household of his sister-in-law, Henriette-Anne d'Angleterre, the Duchesse d'Orleans, and they had both fallen deeply in love. The King's affair with Louise had been kept an open secret until after the death of Queen Anne a few years ago. Now, though he was quite demonstrative of his affection for Madame de La Valliere, who had some of his heart, but not all of it, but who had been well rewarded for the sacrifices she had made and the children she had borne the King.

"But Mademoiselle de La Valliere is a duchesse," Louise said. "Surely that means something!"

Tante Susanne shook her head, smiling patronizingly. "The King has tired of her. There are others. There is a new one, Athenais de Montespan, who is clever and witty and everything that Mademoiselle de La Valliere is not. But you, Louise, have something that Madame de Montespan does not. You're young and pretty, and you have that certain something that the King is looking for. It's different, you see. It changes from day to day. But no matter what, you must be able to attract his attention and keep it, even if a woman like Madame de Montespan is your rival for it."

"If Madame de Montespan outshines Mademoiselle de La Valliere, then she might outshine me, too," Louise said dismally, casting her eyes down so that she wouldn't have to see the dismayed expression on her aunt's face.

"Not so, niece! Now stop talking like that at once!" Tante Susanne rebuked, reaching over and placing her hand under Louise's chin, jerking her head up so that she would have to look at her.

"Now listen to me: when we get to Paris, you will let me take you to the salons, especially that of Madame d'Albret, so that you can see how she and her Precieuses speak and conduct themselves. Once we've determined that you're ready, we'll secure you a position at court."

"But which position?" Louise asked, the thoughts in her head beginning to swirl as she pictured herself at Versailles with a new dress and the most impeccable of manners, being presented to the King. And of course he would be enchanted, and hold out his hand, commanding her to rise and look up and him so that he might see her face.

And then what would happen? What had happened before? Had he fallen in love at once, or had it been a long courtship, an exchange of letters and quiet words, and sighs and kisses stolen in moonlit orangeries? Would he send her jewels and lay his kingdom at her feet before he bedded her?...

"I have connections at court who can assist us with that," Tante Susanne said quickly, letting go of Louise and sitting back in her seat once again. "Just do as I say, Louise, and you'll be mistress to King Louis by this time next year, and enjoy all of the privileges that come with it."