The Count had been very kind to me <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And had put his small castle at my disposal <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had not written since the accident <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which so shattered me that I was unable to write <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He strongly believed in me and had published<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Vulture and the Ferryman <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which was very popular <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As was Lou le Monstre my second book <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My third book which I had not named was mostly in pieces <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I had been since the accident <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My second wife Lou and my daughter from my first marriage <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who we had never named were both staying with me <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had been joined by the Count’s daughter <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who was also named Lou and acted unofficially as my secretary <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But she was more of a hindrance as she fancied herself as a poet <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had read her work and it showed great promise <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was also a talented artist <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But sadly she was aware of all of these extraordinary talents <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which spoilt her as she could be very unpleasant <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I considered the best way to filter this was to ignore her <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which to a great extent worked as she did not care for this <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her eyes I was a great writer (which I am not) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am a successful writer but not great one <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a while I noticed that she was spending more time <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With my wife and daughter which I welcomed <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it gave me the time I needed to write again <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The words were there but they were in no real order <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quite frequently Lou Lou and Lou would walk down to the river <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To swim and sunbathe as the weather was always hot <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was invited but I did not accept noting that I needed to write <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were other reasons as I knew that if I began to laze <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That I would most probably never surface from my traumas <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My wife was beautiful and my daughter was beautiful <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whereas the Count’s daughter had a certain Germanic charm <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I felt that she harboured a jealousy as whilst pleasant to look at <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She did not have the Mediterranean looks of Lou and Lou <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even at their worst they were so casually beautiful <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whereas Lou in my view had boyish looks <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her hair was quite short <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And as she was quite tall and erect <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This did nothing to dispel<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The masculinity that she tried to hide <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also noticed that her behaviours were casual <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One might even call them seductive <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But apart from being a decent person <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(my first wife left me for another love)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was still thinking of my dearest friend <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who had died tragically in the accident <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had been driving the car <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a way her teases made me angry <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As they trivialised my recent history <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And insulted my wife and daughter <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is why my visits to the river were rare <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As like my wife and daughter she would go topless <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But hers was a forced exposure that went unnoticed <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By everyone but me it was seductive and she knew it <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wondered if God was punishing me for my carelessness <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That led to the car leaving the road <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But God is not a cruel God <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had been careless <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it had not been deliberate <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In certain ways I thought God was testing me <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lou was the serpent in our midst <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her talents had attracted me <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And she knew that <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which was dangerous <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had not disclosed it <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I was writing again <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slowly but surely <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It might I imagined be a passing perfume <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I had no reason for excitement <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But deep down I was happy <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I loved my wife <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I loved my daughter <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I was writing again <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The title of my third novel <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had decided was to be called <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Le Serpent <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was writing a live account <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of my time at the castle <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the seductions that I was facing <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hoped that if I ever finished the book <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That I might make peace with myself <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And more importantly God<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Count had been very kind to me And had put his small castle at my disposal I had not written since the accident Which so shattered me that I was unable to write He strongly believed in me and had published The Vulture and the Ferryman Which was very popular As was Lou le […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14337"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14348,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14337\/revisions\/14348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}