2017 A to Z Challenge Blog: T is for Tellula Gossifer Tells All!

Good morning. Today, we begin the last week of this year’s A to Z Challenge Blog. I’m going to miss visiting some of the blogs I’ve been following each day. Hopefully, the bloggers will continue to post songs and stories now and then. This week’s letters should present quite a challenge for some of them and me. I can’t wait to see how they handle X, Y, and Z!

Our letter of the day is T, and while there are some terrific, tantalizing, titillating T words out there, I’ve decided to introduce you to a tattletale. Today, I’ve got a real treat for you. My “new” old friend Tellula Gossifer dropped by with an acquaintance, and they’ve got an incredibly juicy tale to tell you. You will be shocked.

Tellula has been following my blog and is especially interested in finding people like myself and those who occasionally read my minor scribbles, discriminating people who have the knack for irreverent curiosity, digging out the juiciest of tidbits and passing them along. You might say tattling is her favorite pastime. But seriously, at times, don’t we all? Today is no exception. Why she’d barely made it inside the door when she mentioned a young woman who’s been the talk of the town most recently, Arose Du Mouchelle. I just had to invite her here to share her news with you.

T is for Tellula’s Tell All Tale

“You remember dear Arose Du Mouchelle,” she begins. “A more ill-fated heiress you would be hard-pressed to find. She is the daughter of François Du Mouchelle. A widower, that is he was, until Lady Katherine Abbott, formerly of Gloucester, caught wind of his prosperity. Her ladyship came in lock, stock, and barrel, with her two daughters and six cats, and quickly became the next Mrs. Du Mouchelle.”

(Tellula sometimes over dramatizes things, you know, but I love her dearly, so I don’t interrupt.)  

“A few short months after her father’s marriage, Arose just disappeared! We were told the child– well, if you can call a woman of twenty years a child–being gifted, had been sent abroad for ‘lessons’, but in truth, the chit vanished. Years later, she returned, but from where? No one really knows. And then, when Lady Katherine’s oldest married, off she goes again. Rumor has it she actually ran off with the notorious pirate, Captain St. James and no one knows where she is!

My dear readers this is the most scandalous story of the year! I must hear more. My fan is moving a mile a minute.

“This brings me to the guest I’ve brought with me,” Tellula  says. “Through delightful happenstance, during a meeting that was  purely coincidental, I am now in the confidence of  Miss Beatrice Cleary. I  discovered she had a front row seat to what transpired only days before the young lady’s most recent exodus from Le Mason Du Mouchelle in Montego Bay. I have invited Miss Cleary here to share your delightful tea. I knew you wouldn’t mind one bit, not when you hear the tawdry tale from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.”

She giggles and so does Miss Cleary. I try to maintain some decorum. After all, I am the hostess. 

“Please make yourself comfortable, Miss Cleary. You too, Tellula. Have a seat by the window. Have a teacake,” I say with earnest. “One lump or two?”

Once the pleasantries are attended to, Tellula gets right to the matter at hand.

“Miss Beatrice,” she says, “Do tell dear Susanne what you saw Thursday last.”

“Well, I sees Arose walking down the center of the street, you see.” Beatrice’s bustle squeaks as she shifts in her seat. She continues, “I then spots those no account Murphy boys hawking about. I just knew they was in for some trouble. I sees them glaring at her in her fine frock.”

Miss Beatrice smiles, reaches for another teacake, and shoves it whole into her mouth. I’m at a loss for words, but the food disappears, and she continues her story.

“I runs up to her and tells her –‘that’s Shaw, Faolan and Liam. They ruined more than one lady’s good name they has’.”

“My goodness, did she heed your warning?” I ask.

I know those Murphy boys–ruffians each one.  

“Well, you think she would have walked off, but she didn’t. Next thing you know, quick as a wink Missy herself lays out the biggest one, Shaw, on the street. Blood splattered everywhere, but not a drop on her ladyship’s jumper. She bows her head and walks off. Cool as a cucumber that one.”

“Fisticuffs in the street? My goodness.”

If I were delicate, I might faint at the idea of such unladylike behavior.There you have it, dear friends,  A first  witness account of what has taken Saint Anne’s Parish by storm. Where has Arose Du Mouchelle been all these years and what in Heaven’s name has she been learning? Do her actions have anything to do with why she left, and possibly in the company of a notorious pirate?  I have an inquiring mind, and I really must know! 

There you have it. I hope you enjoyed Tellula’s Tall Tale. On a serious note, gossip and tattling may be entertaining at times, but we all know the damage tall tales can do. Prevarication, half-truths, misconceptions based on a grain of truth are dangerous tools in the mouths of the unscrupulous. Can you imagine how much worse it would’ve been for a woman’s reputation in the seventeenth century?

 Who is Arose Du Mouchelle? She is the main character in “new to you” author Andrea Roche’s novel, Nights Arose.

The Blurb:

In a time and place where women are bred to be lambs, Arose has the soul of a tigress.

It is 1693 on the isle of Jamaica, and twenty-one-year-old, Arose Du Mouchelle, is the mixed-race heir to a sprawling sugar plantation. From an old gypsy, she receives a matriarchal heirloom: the Gem of the Red Spirit. She spends years in exile, learning its secrets and mysteries, the most important of which is the ability to enter the Astral Plane. In exchange for her powers, Arose must act as the sentry between this dimension and her world, forcing back the creatures held captive there.

Morel, a voodoo Priestess, covets the Gem. Taking hostage Arose’s family and the port town, she attempts to force Arose to give up the powerful amulet. Morel’s plan is to rule over the evil creatures imprisoned in the Astral Plane, unleashing them upon the rest of humanity.

While evading Morel’s henchmen Arose collides with Captain St. James a notorious pirate, whom she has already met in a vision. Leary of him at first, he gains her trust after he aids in her escape. She is knocked unconscious and wakes to find she has been had – both he and the opal gone. However, even if she recovers the opal she’ll have a bigger decision to make: keep the opal and doom her family, or give it to Morel and let the world fall into a demonic wasteland.

https://www.amazon.com/Nights-Arose-Andrea-Roche-ebook/dp/B01N1G9MPC

About Andrea:

With an intense love for words and chocolate, Andrea feels like an author these days with the release of Nights Arose. Her witty tall tale as Tellula, which I embellished a bit, apologies to the author, sent me scrambling to buy the book.

You can follow her here.

www.Facebook/NightsArose

www.twitter.com/Rose121562

www.andrearoachauthor.blogspot.com

 

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