"Berlioz? Toulouse, Marie, where are you?"

"Here I am, Mama," came Marie's plaintive voice from about twenty feet away.

Relief flooded through Duchess as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she saw her daughter slowly sit up and rub her eyes. She rushed over to her and scooped the child up into her arms.

"Marie, darling, are you all right?"

The little girl looked confused for a moment before replying, "I guess I had a nightmare and fell out of bed."

Suddenly, they heard frightened cries of "Mama! Mama!" coming from the stream. Letting Marie down, Duchess hurried toward the sound, frantic eyes searching for her son. "Berlioz! Berlioz, I'm right here! Don't worry, everything is going to be all right!"

"I'm coming, Mama." Berlioz rose up from the grasses bordering the stream several feet away from her. "I"m c-cold and I'm wet."

Duchess held her son in a tight embrace before leading him by the hand over to where Marie stood. "Now, children, darlings, just stay here while I go and look for Toulouse."

Marie yelled out, "Toulouse!" as Duchess scanned the area for her oldest. Berlioz joined her, and the two siblings called out their brother's name.

"Hey, what's all the yelling about?"

"Oh, thank goodness," Duchess breathed. She went over to a small bridge, where the voice had come from, and quickly noticed Toulouse's shockingly orange hair, contrasting sharply with the stones of the bridge.

As she knelt down beside him, he told her thoughtfully, "I was having a funny dream. Edgar was in it, and we were all riding and bouncing along-" He seemed to notice his surroundings for the first time. "Oh, it wasn't a dream. Edgar brought us out here."

Duchess barely had time to register Toulouse's words when a loud crash of thunder had all three children clinging to her long skirts. Seeing no other shelter, she quickly ushered them under the bridge. It was a bit cramped, but they all fit, and no sooner had they all settled themselves than rain starting pouring all around them. Duchess arranged herself to block her children from the worst of it.

"What's going to happen to us?"

For a moment, Duchess's fears nearly overcame her. What was going to happen? She had no idea where they were or how they got there. All she knew was that she and her children had been drugged, and she couldn't let herself think about that or she might start remembering why she knew what it felt like to have been drugged.

She took a deep breath. If she'd been by herself, she might have allowed herself to break down, but she didn't have that luxury. She had three children who needed her to appear calm so that they wouldn't be too afraid.

She swallowed hard before forcing a smile. "Well, darlings, as long as this storm holds out, we're going to stay right here. Now you go to sleep, and then in the morning we'll head home." How they were to get home, she had no idea. The children, satisfied that there was nothing to worry about for the time being, soon fell asleep, but Duchess remained anxiously awake until just before dawn.

ooooo

Thomas O'Malley wandered the country lane, his shirt sleeves rolled up and his jacket tossed carelessly over his shoulder. With no particular direction in mind, he lazily ambled along, singing snatches of pub songs. He'd spent the past two days in some quaint little French town, doing various odd jobs for various people, and they'd paid him far better than he'd expected. If he was careful, he could make the money last a month, maybe a month and a half. So he was in no particular hurry to reach the next town.

As he neared a small bridge that arched over a stream, he saw a young woman kneeling at the water's edge, sipping water from her cupped hands. Thomas watched, mesmerized, as she unpinned her hair and shook out pale curls so long that they brushed her hips. After running her fingers through it, she deftly coiled her hair back up and was pinning it back in place when some sound or instinct caused her to turn toward Thomas. Startled, she shot up to her feet, her hair tumbling to her waist again.

"Sorry, miss!" Thomas said amicably. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh, that's - that's quite all right." She blushed but quickly collected herself. "You merely startled me."

Thomas stepped off the road and walked toward her, appreciating that the closer he got to her, the more he noticed how beautiful she was. "Well, I do apologize all the same. My name is Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley, and I am at your service!" he declared with a flourish of his cap.

Just as he'd intended, the young woman seemed intrigued. "Your name seems to cover all Europe," she observed.

"I am the only man of my kind," he grinned. "And what might your name be?"

She arched a brow but answered, "Duchess."

"Duchess - beautiful." He took a step closer, gazing deeply into her blue eyes with his best smolder. "And those eyes…Why, your eyes are like sapphires, sparkling so bright, they make the morning radiant -" what rhymed with bright? - "and light," he finished.

Duchess's mouth twitched at the corners, suppressing a smile. "Very poetic. But not quite Shakespeare."

As if she hadn't loved it! "Of course it's not Shakespeare. That's pure O'Malley, right off the cuff." He smiled down at her. "I got a million of them."

"No more, please," Duchess said firmly. "I really am in a great deal of trouble and I haven't the time for this." She went back to work pinning up her hair.

"Trouble?" Thomas furrowed his brow in a show of concern. He was certain by her calm demeanor there was no real trouble, but it couldn't hurt to act sympathetic. "Why, I could never leave a beautiful lady such as you in distress. What's the problem?"

Glancing at him as if to gauge his reaction, she replied after a slight hesitation, "Well, it is most important that I get back to Paris. But I am afraid I'm not sure where I am. So if you would be so kind as to show me the way?"

Suddenly, Thomas knew where he was headed after all. "Show you the way? Perish the thought! We shall fly to Paris together on a magic carpet, side by side!" He held out his hand to her, waiting expectantly for her to take it. "Just the two of us."

A small voice from behind him said, "Oh, that would be wonderful!"

He whirled around to see a small girl, looking up at him excitedly. He looked back at Duchess, thoroughly confused. Then back at the girl. It was impossible not to see the resemblance.

Looking back at Duchess, he questioned, "Three?"

When he looked back at girl, she no longer stood alone. Two small boys stood at her side, all looking up at him eagerly."Four? Five?!"