What if vampires existed on the island of Napoleon's final exile? What can a young maid do to stop them? by Diane Scott Lewis

 

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I wrote this fanciful novel after reading about a story of vampires involved with Napoleon's failed conquest of Russia. Why not set up these enigmatic creatures on the remote island of Saint Helena, a place of myth and hardship?

Enjoy the surreal existence of vampires during Napoleon's final exile. Just who is one of the undead, and who isn't? Young maid Isabelle, a member of the emperor's household, will soon find out. And she must rush to stop a wicked attack.

Here is an excerpt:

Isabelle envied the handsome white stucco colonial house with light gray shutters nestled in its verdant garden. But the Union Jack—the emblem of their imprisonment—that rippled from a flagstaff in front of the structure’s Georgian porch had marred the effect.

This beautiful scenery almost eased her distress over the bat-dream of three nights past, or had that part been real? She stifled a quiver.

“Do you like working here?” she asked the maid who had arranged many of the other ladies’ wraps.

She was a mulatto girl with slightly brownish skin and plump lips. “Yes, it’s one of the best places on the island to work.”

“I imagine it would be.” Isabelle stepped to the ballroom door, watching the ladies twirl like flowers in their gowns of pink, blue and yellow; silks, taffetas and muslins. A reminisce of life back in Europe. She sighed. Not that she would have danced in such company. She turned and helped the other maid arrange wraps and hats in scents of perfume, talcum powder and perspiration. “These English bonnets are not so pretty. Do you like Governor Lowe?”

“I don’t see him much.” The maid held up a wrap with intricate lace on the borders, her gaze admiring. “I mostly assist the Missus.”

“Lowe seems a man of quick temper.” Isabelle said this as nonchalant as she could manage. She caressed a white ostrich feather on one of the hats.

“He can be, but he does not sleep well.”

“How do you know that?” Isabelle kept her tone conversational.

“His valet. . .is my special friend.” She grinned. “He says the governor wanders about late at night.” The maid twitched her lips. “But I should not speak ill of my employer.” Now she watched Isabelle, embarrassment glinting in her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Isabelle decided to leave that topic—though she found that information significant. “Do you know I’m the one who found that poor, dead girl in Sane Valley?” She again pictured Amanda’s distressed face.

The maid started and backed up a step. The feathered hat in her hands wavered. She set it down. “A very terrible sight, I’m certain.”

“Are they still investigating the death?”

“I don’t think so.” The maid averted her gaze and plucked at a ribbon on a bonnet.

“I thought your valet friend might have known whether they thought the death an accident or something more?” In the resulting silence, Isabelle spoke again: “I’m new here, but,” she ran her fingers along a satiny pelisse, feigning indifference, “I wondered if you’ve heard of an animal called the beast?”

                                       

“Everyone knows of that.” The reply sounded more like an accusation, the maid’s eyes sharpening.

“Has anyone ever seen it? Isn’t it more a superstition?”

“No, it’s real.” The mulatto girl twisted at the bonnet ribbon, then turned her back. “But we keep our mouths quiet here.”

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Diane lives in Western Pennsylvania with one naughty dachshund.

Island of Mystery and Exile, by Diane Scott Lewis

 

St. Helena, possibly the remotest place on earth, has many myths besides being the place of final exile and death of Napoleon. Come explore the island's other tales.

A SAVAGE EXILE. If you don't like vampires, don't despair, enjoy the mystery and the unique island in the far South Atlantic. I don't get too graphic. The defeated French Emperor was exiled to St. Helen in 1815, until his death in 1821.

Vampires with Napoleon was a fantastical concept. And fun to write, even with the more 'bloody' aspects, though kept to a minimum. My heroine, Isabelle, is a maid to an arrogant countess whose husband joins Napoleon in his banishment after the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Who in his entourage can be trusted?

And what of the strange tales of a 'beast' who dwells in the mountains? Isabelle fights her attraction to Napoleon's enigmatic valet, Ali, as the secrets, and a few deaths, pile up.

"Isabelle is likable heroine, and I enjoyed watching her make the best of a bad situation. Anyone who enjoys historical romance with a paranormal twist might want to check (A Savage Exile) out."

~ Long and Short Reviews

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Instead of beasts, an airport is the latest news from this mysterious rock situated in the far reaches of the South Atlantic Ocean. 

I'd planned to visit St. Helena when I first wrote about Napoleon, but the expense to travel there is outrageous. First, you fly into Cape town, South Africa, then wait for the Royal Mail boat to arrive, schedule iffy, and sail to Jamestown, 2,000 miles away. You must seek permission from the British government, who still owns the island. Now the airport makes it easier to travel.

Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène by François-Joseph Sandmann

Many myths surround this isolated 'volcanic fist' at the bottom of the world. One concerning Napoleon is that a hurricane swept over the island, rattling homes, ripping out trees, on the day of his death, May 5, 1821. This has since been debunked. It was actually a nice day, weather-wise.

Whenever anything goes wrong on St. Helena, people claim it's Napoleon's Curse. Rain on a parade, wind shear at the airport, any misfortune. But this seems a 20th century invention.

One story has the island's ancient tortoise, Jonathon, is so old that he actually met Napoleon. But Jonathon isn't quite that old, and he doesn't make house calls.

But vampires? The mythical creatures of St. Helena are the Moncat, a cat-like critter with pointy ears and a monkey tail. A sea serpent was reported sighted off the island in 1848 by the HMS Daedalus. A frightening beast 60 feet long. 

Of more recent sightings, a blonde mermaid, bathing near the mail ship RMS St. Helena, that serves the island. Wishful thinking. (Okay, that's my granddaughter in her mermaid costume)

The most prevailing story is about a Portuguese soldier, Fernao Lopes, who was abandoned on the deserted island in the sixteenth century for criminal activities. He endured thirty years in complete solitude. His ghost is said to still haunt the hills and caves.

Find out more about me and my writing on my website: Dianescottlewis

Diane Parkinson (Diane Scott Lewis) is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Napoleonic Historical Society. She’s had several historical novels published. Her most recent is the Revolutionary War novel, Her Vanquished Land. 

Her upcoming novel Ghost Point, the 1950s Potomac oyster wars, love and betrayal, will be released in September.

Diane lives with her husband and one naughty dachshund in Western Pennsylvania.

Rewrite a Novel or let it Die? by Diane Scott Lewis

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Years ago I read a novel called Desiree and became interested in Napoleon, especially in his exile on the strange island of St. Helena. I started to research this exile and found numerous resources at the Library of Congress (in those Dark Ages days before the internet). One resource would lead me to another, one book published at the very time, 1817, Napoleon was on the island (1815-1821). The description of the odd landscape, flora and fauna of St. Helena, a remote volcanic atoll in the South Atlantic fascinated me.

Approach to St. Helena

I’d lived on Guam for a few years, so understood the isolation of an island in the middle of nowhere.

A story formed in my head, and my alternate-history novel began to take shape. What if Napoleon met a woman on St. Helena, and rallied to escape his exile?  I worked for years on this book, even corresponding with a Napoleonic scholar who had visited the island four times. I read dairies of Napoleon’s servants who’d accompanied him there, plus information from his English captors who held him prisoner under the strictest of circumstances.

I wanted to humanize this much-written about man, without bending the facts too far—other than the escape of course!

I finally sold the book to a small on-line press and was thrilled. Until I saw the price they put on my ebook. As an unknown author, few would pay that inflated price, so the book languished.

I was so enamored of my own research, that to salvage some of it, I wrote a short novel that took place on St. Helena, A Savage Exile, in which I added vampires to the mix.

Next year my contract with the other publisher will be up, and I’m dying to rewrite the original book and present it to my current publisher. But now my ideas have changed. I want to replace my heroine with another, older, smarter woman, change the dynamics, and shorten this very long book. I have misgivings about the rewrites. Should I forget about it? It seems I’m constantly rehashing this story, but then again all those years of research going to waste!

St. Helena map, 1815

We’ll see how the summer goes, as I’m working on a time-travel at the moment. I might electronically drag out that dusty tome and hack away and see what happens. (in fact, I’ve already started).



For more information about my books, please visit my website:
http://www.dianescottlewis.org