The Road To Love: Endless, #1

By Christopher Whitta

Introduction

Set in the city of Amiens, Northern France in the 19th Century A Love Affair follows two young lovers. The story begins in 1822 and takes us through to 1831. During their courtship Amelie and Etienne have to overcome a number of unforeseen obstacles.preventing their living 'happily ever after'.

14 year-old Etienne Antoine Charles Fournier, is the son of the Mayor of Amiens, Monsieur Antoine Charles Fournier. 12 year-old  Amelie Charlotte Gardet, was born two and a half years after Etienne to Thomas and Charlotte Gardet.

The friendship between Antoine Fournier and Amelie's parents is long-standing, so it was virtually inevitable the two offspring would fall in love. The little girl Etienne had never really noticed before, is to him suddenly, the most beautiful girl in the world.

The fates are destined to interfere with young Etienne. His mother died at childbirth [or so he was told by his father], but then he discovers his father was lying to him. This sets in train a number of critical events where he loses his memory, is called Alexandre, recovers after a couple of years, to find his mother has returned but his father has died.

Amelie has grown even more beautiful and for a short while, they share the bliss of being in each others company. Amelie goes to Paris with her employers the Charpentiers, leaving Etienne bereft until his mother by sheer good fortune, decides to visit Paris.

There, Etienne falls in with some rogues and is beaten to within an inch of his life. He is thrown apparently dead, into the Seine and somehow survives this trauma, but once again has lost his memory.

He becomes a 'bargee' on the Seine, recovers his memory later and then is told his mother died shortly after he disappeared and consequently with both parents dead, Etienne is now one of the richest men in France. Amelie more than two years later, has given up any hope of finding Etienne and succumbs to the charms of another, whom she marries.

Etienne has also given up hope after he recovers, for he is disfigured and maimed after the beating, so believes Amelie would spurn him. He finds what he believes to be love, but realises he cannot be unfaithful to his only really true love and deserts his wife on their wedding night.

Amelies husband dies after a few short years together and by chance [perhaps] Etienne and Amelie attempt to find each other when it is too late. So begins

A TIME For LOVE

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Whitta
• Release date: Dec 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393680512

Book preview

ENDLESS

BOOK ONE

The Road To Love

Introduction

The Road To Love begins with the meeting between 12 year-old Amelie Gardet and 14 year old Etienne Fournier at the Amiens market day at the end of September 1822 and follows their brief time together, until tragedy strikes the Fournier family. Etienne loses his memory the night before his fifteenth birthday, and is lost to his father, the Mayor of Amiens.

Monsieur Fournier succumbs to the devastating disappearance of his only child, many years after Etienne’s mother Marguerite also disappeared, only to reappear on the same night their son disappears. All this is too much for Etienne’s father, who has a crippling stroke and dies.

Etienne recovers his memory after about eighteen months of being in a coma and it is nearly two years before he finally meets his mother, and he and Amelie are together again, this time only until a major catastrophe changes Etienne, perhaps forever.  Loss of memory for the second time is not Etienne’s major difficulty, as he is badly maimed and thrown in the Seine but is rescued and restored to health by an amazing Paris doctor.

The now half-blind boy is adopted by the barge owner and named Robert who works the barge for a few years, but later his memory returns and he goes to his uncle, a lawyer who tells him he is now one of the richest men in France.

The star-crossed lovers however, are still rent asunder; Amelie even marries, but her heart is always with ‘the boy from Amiens’. That boy believes all is lost when he hears of Amelie’s betrothal and also marries, but his marriage is fleeting as he too cannot shake off the deep set and irrevocable yearning to be with his only true love.

He decides to sail to England and lose himself there, but Amelie’s husband is cut down by smallpox and dies, after which, given the appropriate time for mourning, she sets out to find her true love once more.

PART ONE - MEETING AND PARTING

Amiens. Northern France . 28 September 1822

Chapter One. The Market

The last summer market day at Amiens was at its busiest in the early afternoon, as two young friends arrived to pursue their separate endeavours. The young man whose story will now be related, is 14 year-old Etienne Fournier, a handsome young man of pleasantly sunny disposition, with wavy brown hair and searching hazel eyes. He is tall for his age at 178 centimetres and of a deceivingly moderate physique which belies his prowess as an athlete.

As would be expected of the son of the Mayor of Amiens, Monsieur Antoine Fournier, Etienne dresses well but plainly, with a nicely tailored jacket and breeches and a silken shirt open at the collar with a quietly contrasting blue cravat. Etienne was greatly fond of his kepi (peaked cap) which offset his wavy locks; locks that peeked out from under the caps rim at will. His father Antoine had presented Etienne with this light-brown kepi last March on his birthday and from that day on, his head was never bared when outside.

Charles Voclain, his friend and neighbour who had accompanied Etienne to the market, was a year older, a few centimetres shorter and a stocky red-headed young fellow.  Master Voclain was of course far wiser in the ways of the world and women and accompanied Etienne, solely to watch a rather pretty young maiden who was performing as an acrobat.

Charles had fallen hopelessly in love with this young temptress a few weeks ago when the acrobats and troupe of actors had performed outside the Town Hall. All the bewitching charmer had done was smile at Charles and that meant ‘lifelong devotion’ from Master C. Voclain.

Charles was a happy, rather devil-may-care young man who had befriended Etienne in 1818 when the Mayor's son had begun studies at the privately run Renancourt Ecole. Charles’ father was a successful businessman who lived next door; a highly respectable address which was of paramount importance to the Voclains.

Both boys were only children, with the difference being that Charles had a doting Maman who protected him from his rather stern and autocratic Papa, while Etienne just had his Papa and the housekeeper. Emilienne Travert, a widowed woman of Amiens, tried with admirable success, to become a surrogate mother to this handsome and affectionate, but motherless child.

Emilienne was 32 years old, of medium height and appearance, handsome rather than pretty, slim but not svelte and with the strength of Boadicea. She managed the care of the Fournier household at 10 Rue de Conde with complete ease while her greatest strength was her ability in the kitchen. Everyday she would produce petits manges (little eats) to surprise her charges and there was never a shortage of breads and cheeses. Luncheon was always a varied selection of meats, breads, cheeses and fruits.

Antoine Fournier did his best to help with Etienne’s upbringing and loved him completely, but the loss of his wife Marguerite, the boy’s mother, in 1808, was a wound that never healed. This was not the only wound Antoine carried without respite and which meant his affection for and devotion to his only child, was tempered by the physical and mental agony he suffered constantly.

Etienne, as a baby and a small child was first left in the care of Charlotte Gardet nee Paquet in Paris and then Emilienne Travert when Antoine moved to Amiens in the vain hope of leaving behind the ghost of his beloved Marguerite. The frequent visits from Antoine’s greatest friends Thomas and Charlotte Gardet when they all moved to the region, were the saving grace for Antoine who was able to observe the love and tender care of Etienne by both Charlotte and Emilienne. The breakthrough occurred when he began reading stories to his infant son, who reacted with a beautiful smile and a hand seeking his father’s, gripping it as though he would never let it go.

The bond between father and son became seemingly unbreakable.

Thomas and Charlotte's daughter, Amelie Charlotte Gardet, was born on the 27th of September 1810, two and a half years after Etienne at the Gardet family home Les Chenes, 15 kilometres from Amiens. To Etienne now aged 14, two and a half years was a lifetime and the former presence of ‘the wee girl with pretty auburn hair’ when Thomas and Charlotte had visited in earlier years, was of no interest. So it remained as Amelie’s brother Antoine, was born in August 1812 and the twins Stephane and Suzanne in October 1815. Etienne knew who the children were and was fond of them, ‘mais les cieux’ (but heavens) they were such babies!

Saturday the 28th of September 1822, changed both Etienne and Amelie’s lives completely as that mischievous little archer Cupid prepared his quiver to assault the newest ‘jeune couple amoureux’ (young couple in love). It had been nearly eighteen months since Etienne and Amelie had seen each other as Etienne became more involved with his studies and Amelie started as a maid at the home of a wealthy textile merchant, when she had turned eleven a year ago.

Amelie had no work on this particular day as her benevolent employers knew she was pining for her family, it being her birthday the previous day. They had sent her home in their own carriage, as she was already making quite a mark on her Master and Mistress. Her birthday evening was a delight with her siblings more excited than Amelie, as the family’s presents were unwrapped and admired.

The next day, Saturday, Charlotte knew of some excellent cloth for sale at the market being held not far from the Fournier home, so the family started out for Amiens after a light luncheon. They arrived shortly after Etienne and Charles who had already gone their separate ways, Charles to stare unashamedly at a pretty acrobat and Etienne to find a small painting or etching to hang on his wall. Not more than one half-hour later, Cupid would be readying his ever brimming quiver.

Etienne’s father had magnanimously given him one sous to spend; a sous was quite a lot of money 1/20th of a franc: the franc being equivalent to one English pound. Etienne headed for an artist’s stall which was run by a young painter Louis Favre. He crouched down to look more closely at one work that was almost hidden; a painting of the River Somme.  Favre had created an impressive  landscape which offered a fresh appreciation of a stretch of the river a little beyond the bridge to Camon which lay about 15 kilometres from Amiens.

In later years Favre became a distinguished member of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture..

Etienne offered Favre the one sous his father had given him to ‘use wisely’, as he felt strangely attracted to this landscape, but was sure the artist would refuse such a meagre amount. It would mean he would have no money to spend for the rest of the afternoon, but he believed he had claimed a magnificent prize. Favre saw the boy genuinely admired it (and was Mayor Fourniers’ son) so agreed to sell and rather generously gave him a couple of ‘denier’ (pennies) back.

Taking his treasure, Etienne went over to the pantomime area where he had agreed to meet Charles at 1.45pm. Both boys had their fathers’ pocket watches, but as Etienne had anticipated, Charles was so enmeshed in Cupid’s detritus that time was of no import to that young lothario.

Having paid his penny fee, Etienne sat down on one of the upturned boxes made available for watching the show and as he sat, a boisterous, familiar and very cute couple of youngsters ran up. They both jumped on one of the makeshift boxes next to him and with great glee cheerfully greeted Etienne as ‘your excellency’, then tumbled off and rolled around the ground in peals of delighted giggles.

They were the 7 year-old Gardet twins, Stephane and Suzanne whose mother arrived close behind, admonished the young delinquents and ordered them to get up, sit down and behave yourselves. Both then offered their mother such a sweetly innocent stare with a most solemn carriage, that presaged much further mischief before the day was done.

Bonjour Etienne. Charlotte Gardet said to him with a warm smile I trust my young rapscallions haven’t annoyed you? Bonjour Madame Gardet, Etienne replied but then was rendered speechless at the appearance of the most beautiful girl in the world! Amelie Charlotte Gardet had arrived on the arm of her father, transfixing Etienne as he realised the vision before him was the ‘little girl’ he had hardly even noticed before.

Being still somewhat a child, Amelie [almost] refused to glance Etienne’s way although she felt a great need to do so, as she instantly absorbed this exemplar of Adonis before her as she approached. Decorum determined her impressive ignorance - naturellement!

Amelie had grown from a slightly chubby, quiet 10 year old, into a beautiful young woman-child whose red hair had darkened to a deeper shade of auburn. Her previously rather pallid skin tone was now alluringly fair, set off by her extraordinary azure blue eyes. Her figure which was fast losing its childlike appearance, displayed a sylph-like elegance.

Her mother could claim credit for making the charming chequered pattern dress of blue and light grey linen and cotton which was her birthday present to Amelie the night before. A single-buttoned crimson cape with grey lining finished off Amelie’s birthday present, one that would have made the Sphinx turn its head. In short, the young girl who had by contrast often noticed Etienne in the past, now stared demurely down [after a sidelong glance which set her heart fluttering] and quickly sat down beside her father where she was hidden from young Master Fournier’s view.

Thomas and Charlotte’s Antoine, the 10 year old philosopher, whispered to his big sister, Il t'aime bien Ami, je pense beaucoup (he likes you Ami, very much I think). ‘Ami’ blushed a charming red which simply set off her moistening eyes, as she shushed her brother, while squeezing his hand with affection.

The puppet show began and provided much humour and delight and at the end, after repeated calls for more,  the small curtain came down, the puppeteers took their last bow and the crowd began to disperse. The Gardet family stood and smiled their farewells to the young man (well the twins hugged and giggled theirs) and began to move off. Charlotte Gardet took in the forlorn despair on the face of the young man she knew so well, as he stood stock-still once more, completely entranced by her oldest daughter.

Had one enquired about the plot of the puppet play, Etienne Fournier would have been unable to offer a rational reply, as his mind was numbed, his reactions stupefied. Such is the power of love. 

2.  The Request

The Gardet family’s horse and carriage was tethered across the market field which meant a walk of a few minutes, with Amelie shielded by her rather large papa. She had managed another quick glance at Etienne