Bride of New France by Suzanne Desrochers

prayers of the day have been completed and the girls lie exhausted in their cots, that Laure talks to Madeleine about the future she dreams of for them. Their future, if it is to be any good at all, will take place beyond the hospital’s courtyard, when they have been released from the Salpêtrière. Usually, Laure talks about how the two of them will become the best seamstresses in all of Paris and how they will have their own lace-production workshop with their very own apprentice girls and become as famous as the women of Alençon. After they have produced the finest, most expensive royal lace for some years, men from the court will come to seek their hands in marriage. With their new fortunes, they will then be able to afford silks and satins for their creations. Although after meeting the Duke in Tailleur Brissault’s workshop, Laure no longer mentions the part about the marriages. Besides, Madeleine has often told Laure that she never wants to get married.
    After Laure recounts each plan for their future, Madeleine replies in the same way. “That sounds like a wonderful life, Laure. If it is meant to be, God will grant us what we need.”
    Laure can’t think of any reason why God wouldn’t want them to become renowned seamstresses. She really wishes that Madeleine could muster a little more enthusiasm about their futures. Instead she seems only to be interested in praying and in the banal routine of their paltry existence at the hospital. Perhaps it is because Madeleine has always lived under the strict rules of an institution and has not seen that it is possible to live another life, one that is not controlled each moment by religious superiors.
    Still, Laure cannot imagine waking each day in the meagre light and fetid stench of the dormitory room without seeing the gentle face of her dearest friend. Leaving Madeleine is the hardest part of being banished to Canada by the Superior. Much of Laure’s thoughts in the past weeks have been preoccupied with how to get Madeleine to accompany her. She knows that somehow the trip, the banishment, will be less agonizing if her friend is with her. Tonight, while she was reciting the act of contrition to the others, it came to Laure how she would get Madeleine to come. She has decided to tell Madeleine the one story she knows about Canada.
    Laure waits until most of the girls have stopped whispering and there is the sound in the dormitory of deep breaths. She then tells Madeleine that she has a very important story she would like to share with her, that it is a story written by a Queen. She heard it when she was a servant in Madame d’Aulnay’s house. Madeleine expresses the same peaceful indifference each time Laure mentions her years with Madame d’Aulnay. She feels no envy toward Laure for the enchanting life she had as a younggirl living with a wealthy woman in the city while Madeleine was a poor inhabitant of a Sulpicien monastery in Aunis.
    “What an exciting life you have already lived, Laure. Tell me about this Queen and her stories,” Madeleine says, accustomed to these late-night interruptions to her prayers and sleep.
    Laure tells Madeleine that the story was from a book written by a French Queen, Marguerite de Navarre. One of Madame d’Aulnay’s afternoon visitors brought over the book, and the women sat together reading the stories. “Madame d’Aulnay said that the Queen of Navarre had been too clever for a woman. A monk who lived during her time thought that the Queen should be thrown into a sack and dropped into the Seine for writing such stories, but that never happened, because the Queen was too well loved.” Laure can feel her cheeks start to burn as she lays the foundation for what she really wants to express to her friend. Will Madeleine who is always so kind and gentle grow angry for once at being asked to go to Canada? Does she love Laure enough to make such a tremendous sacrifice?
    “The story the Queen wrote was about a young woman named