[Landry 05] • D'Or Et De Cendres

Growing up in her beloved swamp, Gabriel is supremely happy, despite the ever-

widening rift between her Mama and her conniving, whiskey-drinking Daddy. Her

classmates tease her, calling her "La Femme Au Naturel," the Nature Girl,

because she seems more interested in poling her pirogue through the canals

than she is in romance. But Gabriel nurtures her own secret dreams. Then, days

before her high school graduation, rich cannery owner Octavious Tate surprises

her in a secluded pond and shatters her innocence.

Pregnant and desolate, wishing to spare her dear Mama the scandal, Gabriel

agrees to a shocking plan that will allow Octavious's frigid wife Gladys to

claim the baby as her own and will net Gabriel's furious Daddy a huge payoff.

Hiding in a tiny abandoned playroom in the Tate mansion, Gabriel is miserable.

Her only visitor is Mama, whose mission as a Traiteur, a Cajun healer, gives

her an excuse to treat Gladys Tate's "pregnancy." But nothing is more

wrenching than the moment Gladys takes baby Paul away forever.

Returning home to the swamp, Gabriel drifts in a world of twilight gloom,

brightened only by chance glimpses of her son. But as Jack Landry's reputation

as a swamp guide grows, a hunting party brings handsome, gentle Creole

millionaire Pierre Dumas to the bayou. Falling desperately in love, Gabriel

will not heed the voice warning that their joy may bring her more grief than

she can bear....