An Elegy for Melusine

An Elegy for Melusine

A Medieval Fairy Tale

Claire Delacroix

Deborah A. Cooke

An Elegy for Melusine

By Claire Delacroix

Cover by Kim Killion.

Copyright © 2004, 2014 by Claire Delacroix, Inc.

All rights reserved.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

An Elegy for Melusine

Dear Reader

I

II

III

IV

V

Maeve’s Book of Beasts

About the Author

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More Books by Claire Delacroix

More Books by Deborah Cooke

An Elegy for Melusine

A Medieval Fairy Tale

Cursed to shift shape for one day each week, Melusine knows that only love can set her free. When she encounters Raymond, a handsome knight in desperate need of help that only she can give, she believes her chance has come. She vows to be his devoted wife and earn his love, even as she chooses to keep her curse secret. When their happy match is tested by misfortune, Raymond vows to prove jealous whispers wrong. Will he be tempted to break his pledge to Melusine in search of the truth? And will his love of his bride survive if her secret is revealed?

Dear Reader

An Elegy for Melusine is my retelling of a medieval fairy tale. This story features Melusine, who is cursed to become half-snake, or half-dragon, for one day out of each week. The curse upon her will be broken if she can find true love with a mortal man. She decides to keep her curse secret from the man she marries, hoping to preserve Raymond’s love for her by protecting him from her truth. Her plan doesn’t work, although you’ll need to read the story to discover the details. Even though it doesn't end well, there are many wonderful elements in this story and it's a favorite fairy tale of mine.

I’ve always wanted to give Melusine her happy ending—and find her the man worthy of her love—but the first order of business in doing that is introducing her to my readers. The story of Melusine is more commonly known in French than in English, partly because Melusine and her story are associated with the Lusignan family in France—Melusine is said to be one of their forebears. The story has similarities to the fairy tales we know but doesn’t have the happily-ever-after we expect. I believe that's because it is a kind of a warning about the perils of fairies and mortals falling in love.

It might be a warning against something more than that. The story was first written down in French by Coudrette in the late fourteenth century, although the more famous version is the slightly later one recorded by Jean d’Arras. Scholars believe that the story was recounted orally much earlier than this, partly because both of these versions are in verse. It could have been a story told merely for entertainment. It could have been indicative of a change in belief, because in the middle ages, fairies became associated with the devil. Or, in a medieval Europe that was more mobile and mingled than it had been previously, the story simply could have been a warning against marrying outside of one’s own kind.

Of course, in our time, we are more readily convinced that partnerships between different kinds can be successful. That belief is behind the popularity of paranormal romances, which do have happy endings in our era. So, Melusine has waited a long time, but now she will get her HEA: she’s a continuing character in my new DragonFate series of paranormal romances and I promise you that she will meet her match. Raymond also has a role in this series, as the ghost who haunts her. The prequel to this series, Maeve’s Book of Beasts, is available now and there’s information at the end of this book about it.

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Knights & Rogues is for my medieval romances

Dragons & Angels is for my paranormal romances

Heroes & Happy Endings is for my contemporary romances.

I’ve enjoyed revisiting An Elegy for Melusine, and hope you enjoy the story, as well.

Until next time, I hope you are well and have plenty of good books to read.

All my best,

Claire

https://delacroix.net

I

They are not the audience I would have chosen, but I have few choices left in these days. If naught else, I have learned to make do with what I am granted—that lesson, apparently, will serve me to the end.

So be it.

I watch them from a narrow window, awaiting my moment. They are more like birds than women, these two, their elaborate garb reminiscent of the fine plumage of birds in courtship. They twitter like starlings, they cackle like hens, they rustle their skirts and huddle together. I suspect from their foolish chatter that they are no more clever than the doves in the rafters.

In my time, they would have never survived childhood.

In this time, they are the ornaments of wealthy men, truly no better than peacocks upon gilded chains. For their own sakes, I hope their husbands get children upon them shortly. Such women do not fare well once they have been savored but failed to satisfy.

But then, my children caused all my woes.

The pair halt upon the threshold and peer into the shadows of the old stone castle. I try to see the place with their eyes, not gilded with memories of mine. There is moss on these floors of fitted stone, and undoubtedly there are mice in the dry brown vestiges of the strewing herbs that had once been thick and fragrant. The merry trickle of water echoes from somewhere within the walls, water that had almost certainly invited itself through a nook. A rogue beam of sunlight shines through the broken roof and sets the dust motes to dancing within it. Those doves twitter in the half-rotted rafters, hidden by the shadows of what remains of the roof.

But still there is grace in the keep’s proportions and majesty in its very size. There is elegance in the arches embellished with a mason’s carving. The beauty of this abode can still be found here by those with eyes to see.

This pair have no such ability.

Is this not terrifying, Marie? whispers one, her eyes wide.

Blanche, we have entered the castle of Melusine! says the other. They cling to each other, shiver elaborately, then step into the keep’s darkness together.

I barely restrain my sneer. What fools they are! I tread behind them, clinging to the shadows, loathing every word they utter. I debate my prospects but they are few. I have faded too far and weakened too much.

This pair will have to suffice.

It is hundreds of years old, whispers Blanche, the timid one.

And said to have been built in a week, for all of that. The one called Marie looks about herself with what might be awe.

By Melusine, they intone together. The sound of that familiar name upon mortal lips makes me smile.

How could your Bernard even think of destroying it? asks Blanche, rapping her companion on her sleeve with a fan made of peacock feathers.

He says he will build me a larger and finer keep, says Marie, lifting her young chin with a pride that will undoubtedly betray her one day. He says it will be more luxurious even than Toussèvres.

Blanche’s eyes narrow tellingly and I guess that she is Lady of this Toussèvres. Blanche walks further ahead, the amity between the pair somewhat destroyed by these competitive comments.