Meet Marie de Trieux from The Salty Rose by Beth M. Caruso

 

If you have followed my book bogs at all, you should know by now that one of my favorite things is character interviews. So I have a treat for you today! Beth M. Caruso is here with a conversation with Marie de Trieux, the heroine from her book The Salty Rose. You'll also be able to read an excerpt before you download your own copy. Be sure to follow the tour and leave your questions and comments along the way. Best of luck in the giveaway!

Marie du Trieux, a tavern keeper with a salty tongue and a heart of gold, struggles as she navigates love and loss, Native wars, and possible banishment by authorities in the unruly trading port of New Amsterdam, an outpost of the Dutch West India Company.

In New England, John Tinker, merchant and assistant to a renowned alchemist and eventual leader of Connecticut Colony, must come to terms with a family tragedy of dark proportions, all the while supporting his mentor’s secret quest to find the Northwest Passage, a desired trading route purported to mystically unite the East with the West.

As the lives of Marie and John become intertwined through friendship and trade, a search for justice of a Dutch woman accused of witchcraft in Hartford puts them on a collision course affecting not only their own destinies but also the fate of colonial America.

Read an excerpt:

The Couvenhoven’s tavern on Pearl Street was not far from the docks and in view of incoming ships reaching their long journey’s final destination. Business was booming ever since the West India Company opened up the fur trade a couple of years before. Throngs of people poured into our little Dutch colonial port town from faraway places of Africa, Europe, and Brazil. With travelers seeking their fortunes in our frontier commodities of wild animal skins, mostly beaver pelts, the town bustled and grew.

Pieter came to New Amsterdam with his father and mother about six years after I arrived in the Dutch colony with my family. They had a little more clout than us Walloons and more money too. His mother never really liked me. She thought I was unrefined. Only briefly having known the culture of Leiden and Amsterdam in my early years, most of my formative years were spent being raised like the Natives we first encountered on Manhattan. It was no wonder I didn’t carry myself like the ladies fresh off the ships from Holland. But I had true grit. Why would a man want refinement when strength, endurance, and flexibility were more useful qualities here in the rowdy Dutch colony?

Eventually, his mother saw the attraction between us. I don’t think his parents liked it that he had a fancy for me. They thought they were much better than my family of Walloons. Their feelings did not stop our passions. The closeness of the tavern nearly every day and night made Pieter and me became all the more infatuated. His mother, an old scold, was not pleased when we flirted, but her glare couldn’t stop us. After all, Papa told me to have fun. Pieter and I were both in our early twenties and ready for an adventurous tryst. It never took us too far from the tavern.

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Today, we’re in 1658, talking to Marie du Trieux from Beth M Caruso’s novel, The Salty Rose: Alchemists, Witches & A Tapper In New Amsterdam.

Thank you for your interview, Marie du Trieux. How old are you and what do you do for a living?
I am forty years old. I own and run a tavern with my husband Jan Peek in the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. In your day, the city is called New York.

Can you tell us about one of your most distinguishable features?

My face is not commonplace and people do not forget it. I have dark hair, penetrating eyes and a slightly Gallic nose which reflects my Walloon heritage.

What would I love the most about you?
I do not hesitate to speak my mind. I don’t care who you are or what you do, just treat me respectfully and we will have no problems.

What would I hate the most about you? 

I’m stubborn and do not tone things down even if it is to my detriment.

Where do you go when you are angry? 

I get on a small boat and sail up the Hudson River if time permits. The scenery calms me down. However, I don’t normally have much time so I walk briskly to visit my sister whose husband owns a brewery in New Amsterdam. Sarah has a way of calming me down. Her husband Isaac’s fine beers, with their unique flavors and distinctive hops, do as well.

What is your greatest fear?
I fear separation from my family again.

Do you think the author portrayed you accurately?
Yes. She sensed me. I was very happy about it since her husband and children are my great grandchildren. We have a connection.

What is your idea of a perfect day?
My perfect day is a profitable one at my tavern. Jan, my beloved husband, is home and not out trading in the wilderness. Our favorite fiddler friend comes to play old Walloon songs at the tavern and we dance for hours. Everyone is merry and no one wants to make trouble, especially the sheriff.

Do you have children?
Yes, I have several. Nine altogether. The first son is an explorer and Native interpreter based in Beverwyck (your present-day Albany). Another one wants to run a bar near Fort Orange. Others are still with me but sadly, I lost a daughter when she was only three.

What is your most treasured possession?
My most treasured possessions are my rose bushes, the native sea roses that grow around my tavern. I am extremely protective of them. Hurting or destroying them is a sure way to cross me and get banned from my tavern forever.

If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today?
I’d have a family day, spending time with Jan visiting one of the trading posts slightly up the Hudson. Then, in the evening, I’d open the tavern only to friends and family for dinner and merriment one last time.

Award-winning author, Beth M. Caruso, is passionate to discover and convey important and interesting stories of women from earlier times. She recently won the literary prize in Genre Fiction (2020) from IPNE (Independent Publishers of New England) for her most recent novel The Salty Rose: Alchemists, Witches & A Tapper In New Amsterdam (2019). The Salty Rose is Beth’s second historical novel and explores alchemy in early colonial times, an insider’s view of the takeover of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, and the Hartford Witch Panic with information she gathered from previous and ongoing research. Beth’s first historical novel is One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America’s First Witch Hanging (2015), a novel that tells the tale of Alice ‘Alse’ Young and the beginnings of the colonial witch trials. She based the story on original research she did by exploring early primary sources such as early Windsor land records, vital statistics, and other documents. She lives in Connecticut with her family. Beth kayaks and gardens to unwind.

Website: www.oneofwindsor.com

Email: oneofwindsor@yahoo.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/oneofwindsor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethmcaruso/

Beth M. Caruso will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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