THE VOSS PAPERS
New Orleans seen from across the Mississippi before the fire of 1788: church spires and a windmill on the skyline, sailing ships on the river, townspeople gathered on the levee.

New Orleans

A city the family keeps returning to, on business it describes only in the vaguest terms. Rue Royale, the river wards, and a handful of smaller addresses that turn up in the ledgers more often than anyone has explained.

Places & People

Madame Tebieux in her office, a cream gown, a bouquet of roses on the wall behind her.

Club Marseilles

Rue Royale. By daylight, the finest gentleman's establishment in the city. By other hours, considerably more than that.
A carved and painted wooden statue of Mary Magdalene, in a blue cloak, standing in a whitewashed niche.

Théodorville

The Good Friday Fire of 1788, the statue that came through it, and a horse trader who visits more reliably than most relatives.
Two men face each other in a Spanish study under a portrait of a king, a third man watching from the left.

Other Addresses

Governor Miró's house, the Vauclare plantation, Jean Lafitte's warehouse, the graveyard: smaller stops the family keeps circling back to.