Gates of Gold

Table of Contents

• Runaway Horse
• An Unexpected Reward
• A Warning
• The Palace
• Madame’s Dogs
• Disaster
• Doctor Fagon
• Endless Etiquette
• A Season of Rain
• The Letter
• Doctor Revel, My Father
• The Coming Ball
• Royal Sled Race
• The Grand Ball
• Marly
• Nightfall at Versailles
• Rumors of Poison
• No Safe Place
• When Sparrows Fall
• Sleeping Child
• Beyond Gilded Gates
• Then and Now: France

Runaway Horse

Cécile is walking back home through the meadows just outside of her village, Rileaux, when the earth begins to shake. Instinctively, she drops her basket of mushrooms, and she falls to the ground. Soon, she sees a pack of dogs following a trail through the meadow, shortly followed by hunters on horseback. She realized the hunters are from the nearest estate, Marly, of the Sun King, King Louis XIV. They still wear black, most likely due to being in mourning for the King’s late son, the dauphin.

The pack of dogs reminds her of the dogs that became pets, before becoming dinner when the frosty winter of 1709 killed many peasants across France. If the weather hadn’t been so cold, and they weren’t so poor, perhaps Cécile’s mother could’ve survived her pneumonia. But alas, her mother died in that winter. And after the winter, a famine ravaged the country. Even now, Cécile and her father still struggle to feed themselves.

But if Cécile lived in a palace like those hunters, she’d never be hungry again. She’d wear the finest dresses; a new one every day of the year! She’d ride in a gilded coach each day, and dance the night away to candlelight.

When Cécile stands up, brushing dirt from her skirts, she sees a brown horse poking around her fallen mushroom basket. She knows she needs those for dinner. Slowly, she turns around and backs up closer and closer to the horse. She doesn’t want to scare him off.

At last, she feels him nuzzle her palm. Cécile turns around, but a moment later, she hears a woman calling for help.