This tale begins with a young man...
Antoine Perreault was a noble from birth with a deep loyalty to crown and country, who would lay down his life for his beliefs. As his country was in the midst of the Hundred Years' War with England, he knew that someday he may very well have to do just this. Although Antoine was very skilled with sword, he was not consumed with battle alone but was a kind and compassionate man.
And with a young woman...
Cherise, a beautiful and graceful young woman but also quiet, for she was carrying a secret that if known would surely see her burned at a stake.
This tale continues with a joining...
Not much is known of the courtship and marriage of these two, but it is clear there was a deep love and understanding between them.
On a fair spring day in the year of our Lord, fourteen hundred and twenty-seven, Antoine and Cherise were traveling toward a small town with the name Pontoise. Travel was slow, for Cherise was large with child.
The reason for this untimely voyage was the arrival of hundreds of Roma gypsies, called "The Egyptians" by the people of France, at the gates of Paris who were soon redirected to the town of Pontoise. Cerise desperately wished to speak with these people.
They were welcomed by them, for like bad rumors that will not go away, the Roma were not like they were thought but a good people.
To introduce a third.
Sometime in the night, Cerise was awaken by a fierce pain and knew that the time had come to deliver her unborn child.
By the light of that spring moon, baby Marguerite came quietly to her life with the assistance of the Roma women.
Marguerite, although she did not share her mother's gift, was much loved. Cherise taught her to do all the things a female child should be taught. Antoine, only slightly disappointed at having a girl child, taught Marguerite the ways of a warrior, what little could be taught a girl no more than an infant.
When Marguerite was a toddler of two, her world changed drastically. The Dauphin, uncrowned King Charles VII, sent a young woman by the name of Jeanne d'Arc, who came to be known as Joan of Arc, to relieve the siege at Orleans. Antoine accompanied her and lost his life so that France would have a King.
Cherise was distraught at losing her husband and perhaps seeing her own mortality, made arrangements for the care of little Marguerite should death consume her also.
That would happen sooner than anyone could realize. Cherise met her end at the hands of a simple virus and carrying out her wishes, a servant took little Marguerite to the Roma.
At the tender age of three, Marguerite was to be no more. Marguerite Perreault ceased to exist that day and Riahsha was born...