Mme. Roux's Dog

[OrangeblossomTook]

I wrote a little Hair of the Dog for Lent...

Mme. Roux’s Dog

It was an undisputed fact that Mme. Roux acquired both a dog and a husband in the same spring. This would not have been considered odd except for two things; she was known to prefer cats and she had refused the hand of many scions of the city’s old families.

Mme. Roux did not need a husband, even in those days when most women required marriage to survive. Her parents had been on the lake in their sailboat when a sudden thunderstorm blew in and capsized them. The lake that borders the city on the north is wide but shallow. It may be as smooth and reflective as any mirror when the winds are calm but, when they blow; it may seem as if all the water in the lake is being flung at the shore. Thus, Mme. Roux came into possession of a thriving business importing coffee, which she and those she hired ran with skill.

This did not dissuade the suitors. She had money and youth as well as the dark hair, creamy skin, and melting chocolate eyes the women of the city are noted for. This caused Mme. Roux special annoyance on the occasion of the Carnival of her twenty-fifth year.

That Carnival season was considered by many to be the best in living memory. It came neither too early nor too late and the weather was sunny and mild. The tulip trees festooned the city in cream and pink petals and the azaleas were starting to show their white, pink, and scarlet ruffles. Mme. Roux could not enjoy this as she was preoccupied with fending off an unwelcome suitor.

M. Ledet was twice as old as Mme. Roux and his first wife had died under less than desirable circumstances. Mme. Ledet had always been seen in long sleeves, even in the torrid summers of that city. Sometimes she even had bruises on her face. Though the official story was that she had fallen down the stairs of the Ledet home to her death, few believed that. He haunted Mme. Roux and made her dread every party, ball, masque, or parade she attended.

At one parade ball, M. Ledet dared to grab Mme. Roux’s arm when she tried to separate herself from his company. A man who still wore his mask firmly escorted Mr. Ledet away. When Mme. Roux went to look for this man later, she could not find him but she remembered golden eyes glinting under that mask.

After Carnival, purple, green, and gold, give way to purple and black and the people of the city wear ashes on their foreheads. It was in this gentle season between the first budding of spring and its apex that Mme. Roux took her coffee into the garden. It was a perfect pink and blue morning and the full moon was a pale shadow of itself in the brightening sky.

The rising sun revealed a beautiful young man unconscious under the azaleas. He was naked and there was some blood staining the corners of his mouth. With the help of the gardener, Mme. Roux got the young man inside where he quickly revived. When he opened his eyes, they were golden.

At that same time, a gruesome discovery was being made by an early morning golfer in the great park across the bayou. Since his body was found by one of the ponds, everyone assumed Mr. Ledet had run afoul of an alligator that hadn’t had time to drag him in the water, though no alligator was found.

Zita Roux and Connor Cooney were married as spring warmed into summer. Every full moon, she was seen walking a large dog. Some said that was no dog but a wolf. Mme. Roux, however, insisted it was a mix of German Shepherd, Mastiff, and Newfoundland, not a wolf at all. No one really saw the dog well enough to say, since it could only be seen three nights a month on Mme. Roux’s leash and no one in the city had much experience of wolves.

Mme. Roux kept her maiden name and her golden-eyed husband was absent from her moonlit walks but it was considered much more odd that Mr. Cooney was a stranger of no family. When asked where her husband went when the moon was full, Mme. Roux just smiled and said, “Hunting.”

[Ashlyn]

Hmm, methinks said husband was not absent on those moonlit walks!

Brava, OBT, brava!

[OrangeblossomTook]

Thank you very much, Ashlyn.

[daughter_of_kings]

A fine tale, OBT. Mde. Roux chose wisely, I think.