UNDER THE BAYOU MOON
by
Valerie Fraser Luesse
Categories: Fiction / Christian / Historical
Publisher: Revell
Date of Publication: August 3, 2021
Date of Publication: August 3, 2021
Number of Pages: 352
***Scroll down for the giveaway!***
Though rightfully suspicious of outsiders, who have threatened both their language and their unique culture, most of the residents come to appreciate the young and idealistic schoolteacher, and she's soon teaching just about everyone, despite opposition from both the school board and a politician with ulterior motives. Yet it's the lessons Ellie herself will learn--from new friends, a captivating Cajun fisherman, and even a legendary white alligator haunting the bayou--that will make all the difference.
Take a step away from the familiar and enter the shadowy waters of bayou country for a story of risk, resilience, and romance.
PROLOGUE FROM
UNDER THE BAYOU MOON
BY VALERIE FRASER LUESSE
Prologue
1947
Raphe Broussard was just a boy when he first saw it—glimpsed it, at least. Mostly hidden in the saw grass and canes, it had temporarily left the tip of its long alabaster tail exposed in the sunlight—a rare mistake. The streak of white offered only a hint of what lay hidden, the promise of what might be revealed. Raphe had watched silently, reverently almost, as the tail thrashed back and forth just once before disappearing into the green, leaving him to wonder if he had truly seen it at all. He told no one.
Over the years, Raphe would return to that secluded spot whenever his mind was troubled, as it was now. He had a choice to make, and it was weighing on him that day as he paddled deep into the bayou, gliding across remote but familiar waters where the pines and cypress trees towered above. They cast this solitary pool in perpetual shade as if a veil had been tossed over the sun, not blocking its hot rays entirely but reducing them to a warm softness. The water was glassy, carpeted around the edges with water hyacinth and duckweed. Floating here on still waters, in a pirogue carved out of a cypress tree by his grandfather, Raphe could quiet his mind and think. He could come to a decision about a thing.
Should he give up his freedom and become a father to his orphaned nephew, or listen to that preacher? Most of the evangelicals who had come into the Atchafalaya Basin seemed well-meaning enough, but there was a particularly strident one, Brother Lester, who had somehow gotten wind of Raphe’s plight and urged him to give Remy, his blood kin, to a “good Christian family”—strangers. The child needed a mother and father, the preacher said. A single young man like Raphe—Cajun, Catholic, and therefore prone to drink—would surely be a bad influence.
Raphe imagined himself as a young father with no wife, limiting his own possibilities while praying he didn’t make some horrible mistake that ruined his nephew’s life. And then he pictured a choice he found completely unbearable—trying to live with the expression on Remy’s face, the one that would haunt Raphe forever if he let strangers take the boy away.
That heartbreaking image—of a child realizing he had been abandoned by the one person he trusted most—was burning Raphe’s brain when the alligator appeared. It came out of the cattails at the water’s edge and silently glided in. What a sight! The alligator had to be twelve feet long and pure white except for a single swirl of pigment trailing down its back like curled ribbon. It passed so fearlessly close to Raphe that he could see the piercing sparkle of its blue eyes. On the far bank, it climbed onto a fallen tree in dappled light, taking in as much sun as its pale skin could tolerate.
Raphe had never put much stock in the swamp legends that the old-timers recounted again and again around campfires. He loved the tales about the white alligator, but they were just entertainment, nothing more. Still, he was comforted by the notion that this enigmatic denizen of the bayou was keeping watch while he wrestled with Remy’s fate and his own conscience.
As he sat silently in his pirogue, the massive white head slowly turned, almost in his direction but not quite. In the filtered light, Raphe could see one side of the alligator’s face, one of those sapphire eyes. Only a few seconds passed before it turned back, gliding slowly across the tree and silently disappearing into the canes.
Fishermen and hunters along the river called the alligator L’esprit Blanc, French for what the Indians had named it—“The White Spirit.” It was strange—all of them knew about L’esprit Blanc, repeating stories they had heard for years, but all those who claimed to have actually seen it were taken by the storm. All except Raphe. While his neighbors speculated about the high price such a rare hide would fetch—if it truly existed—Raphe found it impossible to believe that anyone who laid eyes on something so extraordinary could bring himself to kill it. Still, he kept his sightings to himself.
Raphe looked up at a darkening sky. Rain was coming. He sat in his boat, listening to the wind stir the trees overhead and watching ripples begin to roll across the mirrored surface of the water. His choice was clear.
He would never tell a soul where to hunt the white alligator. And he would never send Remy away. Some things belonged right where they were.
CONTINUE READING STARTING 8/8/21 ON FORGOTTEN WINDS BLOG
Valerie Fraser Luesse is the bestselling author of Missing Isaac, Almost
Home, and The Key to Everything, as well as an award-winning
magazine writer best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern
Living, where she is currently senior travel editor. Specializing in
stories about unique pockets of Southern culture, Luesse received the
2009 Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society for her
editorial section on Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana. A
graduate of Auburn University and Baylor University, she lives in Birmingham,
Alabama, with her husband, Dave.
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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
ONE
WINNER:
A copy of Under the Bayou Moon, $10 Starbucks gift card,
& Flavors of the Bayou seasonings gift box.
A copy of Under the Bayou Moon, $10 Starbucks gift card,
& Flavors of the Bayou seasonings gift box.
(US only, ends midnight, CDT, 8/13/2021)
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