Title: Eleanor's Bed - Mireille Calmel - book
Summary :
A first novel where the supernatural and sensuality mingle with History, recreating an unsuspected Eleanor of Aquitaine.
1137 in Poitiers.
Eleanor, the very young Duchess of Aquitaine, is stamping her feet with impatience. Today, Loanna of Grimwald arrives at her court. She is fifteen years old, like her. A new lady-in-waiting for Eleanor, perhaps more interesting than the others, for she is said to be very piquant.
What Eleanor doesn't know is that the beautiful Loanna descends from a line of druids, fathered by Merlin the Enchanter and Viviane, guardian of druidic secrets. From mother to daughter, these women watch over the destiny of England. Like her ancestors before her, Loanna is a bit fairy, a bit witch... She is sent to Eleanor with a mission: to become her friend, her advisor, her shadow, and to ensure that one day she marries Henry, the heir to England who is still only four years old.
Loanna forms a tender friendship with Eleanor in the Aquitaine court with its very liberal morals. But fate thwarts her plans: Eleanor is given in marriage to Louis VII, the dull King of France. No matter, Loanna follows her to the French court... Because as long as Eleanor doesn't give Louis a male heir, all is not lost for Henry!
A surprisingly masterful first novel, driven by the verve of Mireille Calmel, where the supernatural meddles with human life, sometimes cruelly, but often in the service of love. The characters are caught in the whirlwind of rivalry between France and England, in a fierce battle between the Christian Church and ancient pagan beliefs, a world disappearing forever...
What more can be said, except that Mireille Calmel has talent? There are few writers who bend history to their story, to the point where one wonders if it really happened like that.
