Isola: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of physical and emotional abuse.

Marguerite and Damienne travel for two days towards the city of La Rochelle. The city stinks with waste, and Roberval’s small mansion sits directly on a busy market street. A young servant, Marie, leads Marguerite and Damienne to their cramped chamber. The women eat a small meal and set up their bed, grateful to not be travelling anymore.

In the morning, Marguerite wanders the house to find firewood and food. She enters Roberval’s richly decorated but long-vacant bedroom and looks over the find furnishings. Marguerite finds Marie with the other servants who busily prepare for Roberval’s arrival. Another maid, Alys, brings up firewood and stools for the women, and she takes away their muddy clothes. Marguerite hears Roberval’s arrival, and Alys returns with an invitation to dinner. Marguerite rushes to dress, wanting to make a good impression.

Marguerite and Damienne attend the banquet, and although Roberval greets Marguerite happily, he speaks only to his other guests: his secretary, a captain, a navigator, a banker, and a shipwright. The men discuss their journeys in exotic lands, including to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in New France.