History

TW: addiction, implied assault, abuse, human trafficking, miscarriage

Antoinette Vigneau was born in Bordeaux, one of the richest trading and wind production centre of the country, located in the south west of it.

Her father, Antoine Vigneau, owned a small print house, which had been in the family for several generations, and supported him, his wife and six children.Antoinette grew up surrounded by the smell of ink and paper, and the grinding sound of the press.

She could have easily spent her life in that shop, married one of her father's colleagues, vendors or occasional employees, become a housewife and a mother, if her father hadn't been a little too fond of Bordeaux's most prized product: wine. Always indulgent, Antoine managed to remain relatively functional, until his wife died, when Antoinette has just turned seventeen.

Despite her best efforts, the shop ended up losing all its employees, who they could no longer pay, being closed more often than not, and then, finally, only occasionally open. The work became first sloppy, then late, then ended up disappearing entirely, until, two years later, her father started to talk about pawning the machines in it.

At that point, Antoinette, in agreement with the eldest of her sibling, Sebastien, only fourteen at the time, decided to go look for a job. She had not received any proper training to be anything but a print shop assistant, so she sought that out.

But a short, slight girl did not look like the idea candidate for that job to just about anyone, so Antoinette ended up seeking employment as just about anything else, ending up with a post as a servant.

Initially, she could not believe her luck: an elegant mansion, in one of the nice parts of the city, with a decent pay and enough time off to still be home often enough to help. And without having any experience or training as a maid! Eventually, she started to hear stories.

The house changed maids fairly often, which wasn't unusual, really, except her particular post was the only one with such a high turn over. It was also the one for which, according to the laundress, were only hired exceptionally pretty girls.

Antoinette knew she was easy on the eye even at that point, but thought nothing of it, until she met the man of the house, monsieur Camille Givernet. Givernet was in the habit of travelling a lot for his work, so whenever he came home, he treated it as a sort of holiday, during which he spent a great deal of time enjoying what his beautiful home town had to offer. Including his home.

Now, to finance his company, monsieur Givernet had chosen to marry well, prioritising a strategic marriage over a passionate one, but that did not mean he had given up on passion in general. That was how Antoinette found out what criteria was used to chose the maids around there.

Rejection was not a prudent choice in her position, not when the shop was constantly on the brink of disaster and the debts kept piling up, so instead she tried with resistance, with doubt, with ambiguity, improvising herself femme fatale between scrubbing a floor and polishing a plate.

It could only last so long.

Eventually, one way or another, monsieur Givernet had his way, but since antagonising him would have only meant losing more than she already had Antoinette decided not only to put on a happy face as she was bleeding inside, but even to challenge him, make sure his passion for her would remain alive while she looked for a new post.

Except there were no posts available for Givernet's designated victim.

Two years went by. Antoinette's family stopped seeing her, only accepting her money and letters, while gradually, her only hope became sparing just enough to be able to leave the post and go somewhere else, somewhere where no one knew her, in the hopes of restarting, being lucky, this time in earnest.

Eventually, monsieur Givernet found himself in the position of having to leave again… just as it became apparent that Antoinette was pregnant. Now, Antoinette had no interest in keeping the child and might have acted consequently, but Givernet and his wife had been unable to conceive for a while, so a pact was imposed to the young woman: she would be allowed to stay in the house as long as they wanted for the baby. She would then be released and sent away, with a good reference, while the family would get to keep her baby.

A month later, Antoinette miscarried. She didn't tell anyone, knowing that, if the situation became apparent, she would lose everything again, she sought out help through her social network: she wanted passage to somewhere. Anywhere, as long as it was far away.

She paid the entirety of her savings for it, even begged for little loans from acquaintances… only to discover that, once she arrived to England, the destination that had been chosen for her, the man who had brought her wanted more. And he would not be satisfied until he got it.

What to do then? Oh, the man had an idea. A very clear one.

He brought Antoinette to a house where he did receive a payment, in exchange for labour that was, in some ways, similar to that that Antoinette had done for Monsieur Givernet, but much less voluntary.

Now technically owning an enormous amount of money to a strange woman, Antoinette found herself stuck in a London brothel, where she spent nearly two years of her life. Two years during which she did her best look trustworthy, meek and lost, two years during which she learnt English, how to move around London and what her options were. Two years during which she failed to escape four time and when, finally, succeeded on her fifth attempt, she ended up accidentally burning down a section of the building, together with the baggage she had planned to bring with her.

No matter: she chose to leave with only the clothes on her back rather than stay in that situation a minute longer. So she ran. She ran to the east end, where the vast majority of London lived, where anyone could disappear if they were fast enough. She went back only once, in a vain attempt to retrieve some of her things, only to hear from a colleague that the madam had given to a gang of thugs the assignment of retrieving her. After all, her debt was still there, unpaid, several zeros too long to be ignored.

So there she stays, hoping to change enough to not be found. It has now been a few months and her only friend, a mysterious Irish gal who somehow also speaks French, hosts her on the occasions in which she prefer her warm embrace to that of her regular lover. The situation is precarious, but for now, Antoinette will make do. She has no other choice.