A Desperate Fortune (44 page)

She might have been writing of King James VIII.

I could tell you the end to
his
story, but I have a sense I’m not done with him, or with his followers, yet.

So let me finish where I started:

Once upon a time, a baby girl was born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Her name was Marie Anne Thérèse Dundas.

Her baptism, on July 25, 1710, was written down into the parish register…as was, in the very next entry, the note of her death, on the fourth of September that year. She had lived only six short weeks.

She wasn’t given a chance at a life. So I gave her one.

Writers can’t truly change history, but we can decide, as I said, where a story should end.

Not being fond of the ending of Mary’s tale, I wrote a different one.

I wrote a better one.

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1. “Mistress Jamieson” tells Mary when they meet: “My mother likes to say some people choose the path of danger on their own, for it is how the Lord did make them, and they never will be changed.” Do you agree? Was it more true in the past than today? Did Mary purposely choose a path of danger? Who else?

2. The author has people in her own life with Asperger’s syndrome who helped her with Sara’s character. What was it like to be in the point of view of a person with Asperger’s syndrome? Did you have any preconceived ideas about Asperger’s? Did they change?

3. Journeys (physical and otherwise) are a prevalent theme in many of Susanna Kearsley’s books. What journeys can you identify in this book, past and present? How do they differ for female and male characters?

4. Mary takes “Mistress Jamieson” as a role model. “She closed her eyes a moment…and allowed the poise and grace of Mistress Jamieson to settle round her shoulders like a robe before she turned.” Is there anyone you use as a role model in this way? Why do you think it’s helpful?

5. Why does Mistress Jamieson teach Mary the cipher?

6. Susanna Kearsley has said, “Never underestimate the power of an animal to reveal character within the story.” How does the dog Frisque further the plot? What does Frisque tell us about Mary? About Hugh? In the present, how does the cat Diablo serve these purposes?

7. I fear the man across the street…
What did you think of MacPherson when he is first introduced? Did you have him pegged as a hero? If not, when did you begin to change your mind? When did Mary stop fearing Hugh? When did you? Can you identify what makes you feel safe or not safe around someone?

8. Hugh was a man of his time. If he lived in the present, what sort of job would he have? What role in society would he fill?

9. Compare the meeting of Mary and Hugh with the meeting of Sara and Luc.

10. It is Luc who points out to Sara that Hugh has fallen for Mary, long before she realizes it: “A woman can start with a man she might find unattractive and slowly begin to see good in him, grow into love with him, but this is not how it happens with men. We’re much simpler.” Do you agree?

11. In fiction, as in life, what people appear to be may differ from what they are. While Hugh first appears as a sinister character, “Jacques” appears to be a charming gentleman, but is he? Do you think Thompson is a good man or a bad man?

12. By “seeing” the story as it unfolds in the past, the reader is not only a step ahead, but also often has more knowledge than Sara as she deciphers the journal. How did this affect your reading of the story in the present?

13. If you’re familiar with Susanna Kearsley’s writing, you may recognize a number of references to characters, both in the past and the present, whom the author has introduced in other novels. Did you recognize anyone? (Hint: Characters also seen in
The Winter Sea
,
Mariana
,
The Splendour Falls
,
Season of Storms
, and
The Firebird
.)

No book of mine is ever written without the help of a number of people. It might take a book of its own to thank all of them, but here are some who deserve special mention:

I’m grateful to Catherine Heymann and Jacques Chiaffrino, my hosts for my time in Chatou, who graciously allowed me to use their Maison de Chatou as the model for my Maison des Marroniers; and to their neighbors, Colette and Marcel Saby, for allowing
their
house to be Luc’s for this novel.

I owe a great debt to the film director and writer Franco Amurri and his wife, Heidi, who generously helped arrange for my personal tour of the Palazzo Balestra—the former palace of King James VIII in Rome—and to Veronica Schiavulli and Oscar Garibaldi of Volpes Case, for being my guides through that building and showing me all of the corridors, stairways, and rooms they were able to.

I’m also indebted beyond measure to Edward Corp, professor of British history at the University of Toulouse. Not only for his books
A
Court
in
Exile: The Stuarts in France, 1689–1718
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004),
The
Jacobites
at
Urbino: An Exiled Court in Transition
(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), and
The
Stuarts
in
Italy, 1719–1766: A Royal Court in Permanent Exile
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), all of which have proven invaluable to me in my research, but also for his great kindness in sending me his personal photographs of King James’s rooms, which Professor Corp took on his own private tour of the Palazzo Balestra in 2011, and which included brilliant color images of the painted ceilings in the king’s gallery and cabinet.

And finally, as ever, my thanks to my mother, who, born with a natural editor’s eye, always makes my books better.

New
York
Times
and
USA
Today
bestselling author Susanna Kearsley is known for her meticulous research and exotic settings from Russia to France to Cornwall, which not only entertain her readers, but also give her a great reason to travel. Her lush writing has been compared to Mary Stewart, Daphne du Maurier, and Diana Gabaldon. She hit the bestseller lists in the United States with
The
Winter
Sea
and
The
Rose
Garden
, both RITA finalists and winners of RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards, and won the RITA in 2014 for her novel
The Firebird
. Other honors include National Readers’ Choice Awards, the prestigious Catherine Cookson Fiction Prize, and finaling for the UK’s Romantic Novel of the Year Award. Her popular and critically acclaimed books are available in translation in more than twenty countries and as audiobooks. She lives in Canada, near the shores of Lake Ontario.