Character Interview:Marie-Ange from Angel Heart by Marie Laval

Devonshire, 1815

A mysterious Templar relic.
A web of intrigue and lies.
A woman about to lose her heart.

Marie-Ange, the young widow of an English officer, accepts an inheritance in France only to find that everything in Beauregard is not as it seems. Why is the sinister Malleval so obsessed with her family? What exactly is this mysterious Templar Cross he believes Marie-Ange can lead him to? And could her darling husband Christopher still be alive?

Marie-Ange finds herself trapped in a dangerous web of lies, political intrigue and mystical possession, and the only person to whom she can turn for help is Captain Hugo Saintclair. Yet the enigmatic Hugo represents a danger of a different kind …

Angel Heart is a lavish mix of romance, adventure and a hint of the supernatural, largely set in France against the turbulent background of Napoleon’s return from Elba and his ultimate defeat at Waterloo.

Hello Cheryl and thank you very much for welcoming me on your blog again. Today I am interviewing Marie-Ange, the heroin of my debut historical romance ANGEL HEART, which was published in October 2012 by MuseitUp Publishing.

First, let's set the scene. We are in Paris, in January 1815. It is very late at night and a young woman sits alone in her bedroom at the Golden Pheasant, a small but respectable inn rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. Red embers glow faintly in the fireplace, the room is dark and the young woman shivers in her blue dressing gown, which is old and frayed, and far too big for her. I step closer. I would love to know who she is and why she looks so sad.

1) Who are you? I ask in a soft voice so that I don't startle her.

She looks up and I am struck by the intense, pale blue of her eyes. She pulls the lapels of the dressing gown more tightly around her body and lets out a deep sigh.

'My name is Marie-Ange Norton', she answers, 'and right now, I don't really know who I am anymore. Until tonight, I believed I was the daughter of Catherine Beauregard, a French aristocrat who fled the horrors of the Revolution, and William Jones, a lawyer from Plymouth.'

She lets out a deep sigh and stares into the dying fire. 'The thing is, I just found out that William Jones wasn't my father after all...'

2) Are you married?

'Yes!' she answers immediately, and this time her eyes shine and a smile stretches her lips. 'I married the love of my life, Christopher Norton six years ago. They all said he died when his ship sank at the battle of Corunna, but I knew it wasn't true, I knew he was alive!'

She leans a little closer and whispers. 'I saw him this morning, by pure chance, when he was visiting minister of police Fouché. I talked to him, but he didn't recognise me. Poor Christopher, he is much changed. He looks harsher, meaner. He must have lost his memory. These things happen in battle. I don't know why he was visiting Fouché, because there is no way my Christopher would work for such an evil man.'

She closes her eyes and adds in a fervent voice. 'I will find him again, and this time I will make sure he remembers me. Everybody told me to forget about him, but I never could.' She points to her old blue dressing gown. 'This is his, you know. I wear it every single night.'

3) Are you staying in Paris or going somewhere?

'I am travelling to Beauregard, near Lyon, to meet Uxeloup Malleval, a relative of my mother's who invited me to collect my inheritance.'

She shudders. 'I heard such dreadful things about his father Edmond - the ambitious, blood-thirty revolutionary man who married my grandmother. I can only hope Uxeloup is nothing like him.'

Pensive, she strokes the cover of an old sketchbook. 'I cannot wait to see Beauregard, where my mother grew up. She loved the chateau so much she made dozens of sketches of it.'

4) Is this her sketchbook?

'It is indeed. Uxeloup Malleval insisted that I brought it with me. I don't see why he should be so interested in old drawings and watercolours. It's not as if the sketchbook contains any important secret, is it?'

5) Who is the man I saw you with - the tall, dark-haired gentleman who looked very annoyed when you came back from the Opera earlier tonight?

'Capitaine Hugo Saintclair? He is always in a bad mood! He is a friend of Uxeloup Malleval's and my escort to Beauregard. He doesn't like me because I belong to an old aristocratic family whereas he had to fight every step of the way to get to the top and become a cuirassier officer.'

She shakes her head. 'The man is so arrogant. He believes that no woman can resist him! How wrong he is! I could never be seduced by a brutish, insufferable and bad-tempered man like him.'

6) It is very late and I must go now, but before I leave, I would like to ask one last question. If you were granted three wishes, what would they be?

Marie-Ange joins her hands and answers. 'I simply must find my darling Christopher, and help him remember the love we had. Then I would like to spend some time in Beauregard and get to know the place where my mother grew up. Who knows, maybe I'll find some long lost treasure...'

Her cheeks flush and her eyes shine a little more brightly. 'My third wish would be to be rid of that awful Capitaine Saintclair, and never, ever, to see him again!'

(I can't help thinking that her voice is a little too forceful when she says that, as if she is trying to convince herself.)

Thank you Marie-Ange, and good luck for the rest of your journey to Beauregard.

Purchase at MuseItUp Publishing, Amazon UK, or Amazon.

Originally from Lyon in France, Marie Laval studied Law and French History at university there, and developed a passionate interest in the Knights Templar and their association with the occult. She has used her specialist knowledge now to create this stunningly lavish mix of romance, adventure and a hint of the supernatural, largely set in her native France. Marie now lives in Lancashire, Northern England, where she tries to balance her passion for writing with her busy family life and her job as a foreign languages teacher.
ANGEL HEART is Marie Laval’s debut novel. It is published by Muse it Up Publishing.
Her second historical romance THE LION’S EMBRACE was released by MuseitUp in February 2013.

You can meet Marie here:
http://marielaval.blogspot.co.uk/
http://museituppublishing.com/

Guest Blogger: Marie Laval, Author of The Lion's Embrace

Arrogant, selfish and dangerous, Lucas Saintclair is everything Harriet Montague dislikes in a man. He is also the best guide in the whole of the Barbary States, the only man who can rescue her archaeologist father from the gang of Tuareg fighters that has kidnapped him. As Harriet embarks on a perilous journey across Algeria with Saintclair and Archibald Drake, her father’s most trusted friend, she discovers a bewitching but brutal land where nothing is what it seems. Who are these men intent on stealing her father’s ransom? What was her father hoping to find in Tuareg queen Tin Hinan’s tomb? Is Lucas Saintclair really as callous as he claims—or is he a man haunted by a past he cannot forgive? Dangerous passions engulf Harriet’s heart in the heat of the Sahara. Secrets of lost treasures, rebel fighters, and a sinister criminal brotherhood threaten her life and the life of the man she loves.

Does forever lie in the lion’s embrace?

One night in the Sahara with the Tuaregs

by Marie Laval

Thank you very much, Cheryl, for welcoming me on your blog today to talk about the release of my second historical romance The Lion’s Embrace. The story takes place mostly in North Africa, in Algeria to be exact, in 1845. Lucas Saintclair is hired as a guide by Harriet Montague to rescue her father, a British Museum archaeologist, who she believes was captured by a gang of Tuaregs in the far South of the country.

Writing The Lion’s Embrace was a fascinating process, not only because I got to fall in love with my hero (I know, it sounds corny but it’s true!), but also because I discovered the beautiful landscapes Lucas and Harriet travelled through on their way to Tamanrasset, and the culture of the people they encountered. One particular group of people are at the centre of the plot: the Tuaregs, also called ‘The People of the Veil’ or the ‘Blue Men of the Desert’ because of the indigo veil all men wear from around the age of fifteen and never, ever take out.

Having never been there myself, I had to find a way of getting a real ‘feel’ for the place, its people and its history. I surrounded myself with photos and paintings of the Sahara, of oases and ksars (which fortified villages) and the magnificent Hoggar mountain range. There is a wealth of paintings from the early to mid-nineteenth century ‘orientalism’ movement. Among the most famous painters are Eugène Delacroix, Alphonse Etienne Dinet, Eugène Fromentin, to name but a few. They give you a wonderful sense – if a little idealised - of the places and the people.

I also read Tuareg poems, legends and stories, and listened to a lot of music. One song in particular caught my imagination and I played it over and over again as I wrote The Lion’s Embrace  It’s a modern song and I have no idea what they are singing about, but I find the melody poignant and haunting, especially the monochord violin, the imzad, which can be heard throughout.

The imzad is a traditional Tuareg instrument only played by women. It is at the heart of the Tuareg culture and society because of its link to the Achak, the code of honour every Tuareg must live by. Those who stray from the path and who commit dishonourable acts are said to have lost the ability to ‘hear the imzad’ in their heart and are therefore cast out of their family and their tribe.

Here is the link to the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5z7AcjE-YI

As they travel across the Sahara desert, Lucas Saintclair and Harriet Montague spend a few days with a Tuareg caravan. Every evening, they sit under the stars and listen to musicians playing the imzad and to stories and poems. The story-teller pulls out round pebbles out of his ‘bag of tales’, which is a skin pouch. Each pebble represents a different story and he tells the stories in the order the pebbles were withdrawn from the bag.

This is an excerpt from The Lion’s Embrace when Lucas and Harriet are at the Tuareg camp. The tale is based on a real Tuareg story.

The women played their instruments all along, drawing long, monochord sounds that at times sounded almost like laments and perfectly matched the mood of the audience, silent and attentive under the starry sky.

By the end of the evening, Harriet shivered with cold. Lucas wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He rubbed her arm with the palm of his hand to warm her up.

“The brave is reaching the end of his journey,” he translated, his voice low and a little hoarse. “After wandering in the desert for weeks, he finally finds his beloved’s camp, but it is deserted under the stars. There is only the cruel wind to answer his prayers, the cool moonlight to kiss his lips, and the vast, empty spaces full of solitude to chill his heart. So he lies on the sand and waits to die.” He paused. “And that’s love for you. Brings you nothing but pain.”

Despite the slightly mocking tone of his voice, the words made her dreamy.

“It’s beautiful, and so sad.” She found his hand, squeezed a little. “Love isn’t all pain, you know. It can be the most wonderful feeling in the world.”

She should know.

The Lion’s Embrace is available from https://museituppublishing.com/
Also from http://www.amazon.com/The-Lions-Embrace-ebook/dp/B00BACDSK6
And http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=marie+laval+the+lion%27s+embrace

Originally from Lyon in France, Marie Laval studied History and Law at university there and developed a passionate interest in historical research and the study of ancient civilizations. The beauty and mysteries of the Sahara desert always fascinated her and provide the background for THE LION’S EMBRACE, a story of adventure and romance set in 1840s Algeria and England. Marie Laval now lives in Northern England with her family.

THE LION’S EMBRACE is Marie Laval’s second novel. Find her online at http://marielaval.blogspot.co.uk/