Secrets of the Bayou

By Patricia Holden

In the immediate aftermath of the American takeover of Louisiana, Tom St. Clair returns to the Mississippi River Delta to begin courting the woman he fell in love with years ago, Laura Gayos. When he visits her family's home, he discovers that she is not there. The question is where did she go. He finds the answer from a most unlikely source and sets out to confront her over the wrongs done to both of them by their fathers - their children were taken from her as infants and given to her brother and his wife who are unfit parents hellbent on their own perverse night time activities.
While Tom and Laura are talking out their frustrations with the entire matter, word comes to them that his sister was dying thanks to an illegal surgery gone wrong. They quickly go to her ancestral home and remove the children taking them to the St. Clair plantation where Tom is faced with how to deal with his family, her family, and two plantations that neither of them really want.
After Tom's sister passes, he returns home where Laura is waiting to confirm their love, and move on to the next stage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patricia Holden
• Release date: Nov 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370284627

Patricia Holden

A resident of Flyover Country in the Unites States, Patricia Holden, the pen name of a good Catholic girl from the Midwest, is committed to Christianity and traditional social roles, as well as high arts and culture. Watching politics, observing human behavior and writing are some of her long-time interests. The author known as Patricia Holden is a classically trained soprano and proud citizen of Cardinal Nation, although, during hockey season, Bleeds Blue. She lives with family and a cute and charming tyrant...make that a toy dog. She also crochets.Please, visit this writer's Facebook author page @PatriciaHoldenAuthor for reader fellowship and frequent conversations about upcoming books including voting on cover art, and snippets of upcoming offerings.

Book preview

Secrets of the Bayou

by Patricia Holden

Published by Susan Sampson at SmashWords

Copyright © 2017 Susan Sampson

Cover Photo by Susan Sampson at Destrahan Plantation, May 2015

Other Titles from Patricia Holden on Smashwords:

Turn My Head

Break Through

Third Time’s the Charm

Conflict of Interest

Romeo Night

Last Man Standing

Talk Dirty To Me

High Maintenance coming in December 2017

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table Of Contents

FORWARD

Secrets of the Bayou

FORWARD

In way of a forward, from my blog, cleanromancewriter.blogspot.com October 26, 2017:

In my previous blog post, I announced that my next publication would be my first short story, Secrets of the Bayou. It was inspired, actually, by a trip a couple years ago when my mother and I visited a number of plantations in Southern Louisiana, including the famous one, Oak Alley.

It wasn't Oak Alley, or the famed Sugar Palace Houmas House that captured my imagination, though. It was Destrahan, a plantation very close to New Orleans, and the history we learned from our tour guide, Frank. Frank was, to put it mildly, an effing encyclopedia.

Destrahan, as it happens, pre-dates the American take over of Louisiana Territory. It dates to the 1770s, and as such, the system set up there [when it was founded] including slavery very much reflected European social mores rather than English colonial society. The system of slavery was a variation on Roman bondage where a slave could earn money from work not done for the plantation master and eventually buy his freedom. Families were expected to stay intact with enslavement passing through the mother, and the families were expected to provide for themselves.

This is not the image of slavery that popular culture gives us.

In fact, in school we rarely learn about slave revolts, let alone the one in Louisiana in 1811 which was a direct result of the American takeover, and the imposition of the much less humane American system of slavery. We also don't learn much about the culture of the plantations where company was scarce for the plantation owners, and after a while sisters started looking really good to their brothers. In that part of the country, every plantation had a place for the boys to live after puberty until they were married known as the garconnierre. It was generally placed away from the house, and the only time the boys were allowed in the big houses was for dinner.

That was something else that was different about Destrahan. Unlike the newer plantation houses, Destrahan's dining room was on the ground floor and the stairs were outside the house going from veranda to veranda. Staircases in some of the other houses [were] grand architectural features on the interior.

Given that Secrets is a mini all of these details could not be worked in, but many were, including the role of Mammie who had the charge of raising the household children. According to more than one guide, on every plantation Mammie was the sort of woman no man argued with. (Hattie McDaniel wasn't that far off in Gone With the Wind.)

I just wanted to give some background to my regular readers as the truths of popular culture and actual records never seem to be the same.

Secrets of the Bayou

Tom St. Martin leaped off his horse in front of Bonne Terre, his brother-in-law Richard Gayos’s house. It was named in French, the old language of Louisiana territory, for the land that surrounded it: good, and fertile earth, perfect for raising the tall grass, or sugar cane, that made that particular section of the Mississippi River Delta in Louisiana some of the richest farmland in the United States…now that