Spring 1624-1628

The spring finally came, just as the roofs began to yield under the heavy snow.The once lively old castle was now desolated again, after the children's departure.Françoise and Maximilian had been watching their children leaving the house and starting their own lives for the past seven or eight years.It all started eight years ago, with their oldest son's marriage.Now he was probably lying somewhere in the ocean, food for fishes.Remont, their other son suffered the same fate, abashing their family and being executed for conspiracy.Only the girls were somehow happier.Some of them in the Convent and the younger ones still at home.

Even so, everything changed in that fateful late spring, as Madelon's letter to her parents arrived at the castle.In just a few words she announced her parents that she arranged with the abbess to accept Eleonore and Louise, the family's younger twin girls, at the Convent, along with Marion, Denisete and Beatrice, who were already missing them.

But the two girls weren't exactly happy to have their futures already decided, so they received the news with tears and jitters.They knew that, if they were to be sent at the Convent, they would probably come to no good, having to spent the rest of their lives caged between the tenebrous walls of their prison.
They tried to persuade their parents to let them spend a few more years at home, but didn't succeed.And when they learned, in another letter from Marion, that the abbess planned to send the twins in a religious mission somewhere in a Convent in Algiers, the two of them knew that they had to do something, anything in order to prevent this from happening.Their only problem was that they had absolutely no idea what to do or where to begin from.So they waited.And waited.Until the time of their departure came and they still had no plan.

They said their goodbyes, hugging their family and crying on Cornille's shoulder.Just like their older sisters did four years ago, in the winter of 1624, when they left from home.
They spent a few months in the Convent, supervised by the nuns, studying and learning and, at the same time,  happy to meet again with their sisters.

Finally, when everything was ready they left again, this time for Marseille, where they were going to go aboard a ship that would take them to Algiers.The journey on the Mediterranean Sea was a tough one, but, for the two sisters, it represented their last moments of freedom.Everything, from the salty breeze to the ship's oscillations made them long to be free to roam over the seas.

As crazy as their dream seemed back then, just two weeks later it was one step from becoming true, when they set foot on Corse's shore.There, they met some young fishermen who promised to help them escape.Unfortunately, in the night of their escape the coast was attacked by pirates, who set fire to the hovels and proceeded to seize the people and get them on different boats.

By the morning, Eleonore and Louise found themselves aboard an unknown ship, along with frightened women and children.Daunted by the dreadful pirates from various races, who were snarling and showing their teeth at them, the two girls didn't dare to protest and resigned themselves to being examined by their dirty, ravenous hands.Finally, they were separated, with Louise being sent in down the ship and Eleonore remaining on the footbridge, surrounded by pirates.When three of them tried to come near her and teared her corset, she let a scream escape her lips and tried to respond, but was easily calmed down by a blow of hilt.
When she regained consciousness she was tied up by a mast, her body sore and already full of bruises.
She heaved a sigh.Her lips were chapped because of the salt water and wind and her skin was smarting after so many hours in the burning sun.
Her dizziness vanishing, she noticed a man watching her from a few meters.His skin was tanned and quite weatherbeaten, but his eyes were vivid, giving her careful consideration, so Eleonore started feeling quite like an exotic animal.But, because the man didn't seem to intent to have anything to do with her, she gave him short change and closed her eyes, falling asleep because of the exhaustion.

She came to herself late in the night, awakened by the night's cold air and realized she wasn't on the bridge anymore, but in a small cabin, probably somewhere underneath the deck.Still suffering from a wretched headache she remained on the dirty bed, praying that sooner or later she would finally wake up from that nightmare.Sometime in the morning her sister joined her and continued to take care of her for the next week.
A week later, when she recovered and was finally able to get out of bed and take a few steps outside, the two sisters finally learned what their fate will probably be: the pirates were going to sell them on the slave market and they would probably end up in a harem.

Terrified by what they heard, Eleonore and her sisters tried to escape that night and jumped into the water, only to be caught again by the pirates and let to the captain's stateroom.
And then, right there, in front of their eyes, Eleonore recognized the same man from her first day on the ship.

Spanish by looks, English by eyes.Definitely French by manners.His accent gave him away the moment when he introduced himself: Christian Louis de Montmorency-Luxembourg, prince de Tingry, duc de Beaumont, comte de Luxe and, of course, Pirate.The Dark Lord of the Mediterranean.Eleonore could almost anticipate the electric shiver his lips sent trough her the moment when he kissed her hand.Everything about this man threw a scare into her body.Every little detail about him fascinated her.

One hour of dialogue later, the two girls were prepared to leave his cabin, when the Captain stopped Eleonore by placing his hand on her and clenching her shoulder.She almost let a whimper escape, but managed to abstain.She cast a look full of fear at her sister, but couldn't say a word.
Everything after that seemed almost unreal.The way he undid her corsage, playing with the laces while kissing her skin.Him, guiding her to the bathtub and the hot water washing away all her bad memories about the past weeks.

And then her first night in his arms.

The night that kept repeating itself over and over again.