At the full moon, Héloïse’s confinement was lifted; and Marianne stayed in her own room, listening to the distant howls, held still not by fear, but by awe.

“Is that why you won’t marry,” she asked Héloïse the next day on the beach, “because of your affliction?”

Héloïse laughed bitterly, and said, “Hardly, there’s a loup garou in every manor – although most are easier to tame than this one.”