A/N Thanks for the appreciation guys! I really appreciate the reviews, the favourites etc. I think, for the moment, to avoid having several weeks between chapters I'm going to have to go a little shorter and more often, so this chapter is a little bit shorter than my usual, although it is still 2500 words long, so not too bad!
Let me know what you think!
B xx
Chapter 4
Her body ordered a hasty retreat, but her feet wouldn't obey. Her heart ordered her to start screaming, in anger or in pain, but her mouth was not co-operating. Instead she stood, for what must have only been a second, taking in the horror in front of her, of Lucie, pressed tightly against Athos. She watched has his hands came up to grip Lucie's shoulders and she moved away from him. From this distance, d'Artagnan couldn't work out what was being said, but she could see that Athos was speaking quietly to Lucie, who nodded after a moment, then stepped past him to enter the room where her brother lay in his sick bed.
Suddenly free of her inability to move, she moved to take a step forward, but paused again as Athos turned to go down the steps and froze himself. Confusion swept over her for only a moment before she heard the icy tones of Constance, demanding that he tell her how the general was, so that she might pass the information on to their queen. Athos answered her in his own clipped tones, making no effort to explain himself to what was evidently a furious Constance, and Charline felt her heart break just a little. It had been a long time since he had made her feel this way.
Staying in the shadows of her vantage point, she heard the angry footsteps of Constance stalking back out of the yard, and watched Athos' head droop to his chest in defeat. He stayed there for a moment before making his way down the stairs, calling for Aramis and Porthos as he went. Still d'Artagnan waited in the shadows, bravely fighting the tears that were threatening to choke her.
She should ask him about it; there must be a perfectly simple explanation to what she had witnessed. Yet somehow she couldn't bear to ask. How cowardly could she get? But there was that little voice in the back of her head that pointed out to her Lucie's obvious beauty, of the simplicity of a life with someone like her, rather than hiding a relationship with a stubborn woman who pretended to be a boy so that she might fight and battle for her country alongside him. Perhaps he had been tempted for a moment, however much he professed to love her. However much she believed that he might.
Lurching forwards, she rested her hands on the wooden railing that ran along the balcony. Breathing deeply, she forced the negative thoughts back, urging the confidence she had in Athos to come forth, but it was a difficult battle.
"D'Artagnan? Is that you?"
Dammit. She froze as Porthos called for her. She had forgotten that her hands on the balcony would be seen, if not the shadow of her looming above them. To her shame, she panicked. She didn't want to go down there as they would know instantly that something was wrong. She didn't want to face Athos until she had more control over her thoughts. Taking a step back, she sharply pulled her hands away from the banister.
"D'Artagnan? Are you coming down?"
Shut up Porthos! She wanted to scream. She had no idea if Athos was still in the yard, and drawing attention to her present position was not helping her warring emotions. Seconds later, the batter of boots on the stairs told her that indeed Athos had been in the yard – and he knew exactly why she hasn't come down.
Moving quickly, Charline opened the door to her rooms and slipped back inside. She paced for a few seconds, trying to decide which emotion she would lead their discussion with. When he opened the door and stepped through it, a frown crossing his brow, she had a clear winner.
Fury.
"Don't even start," she hissed as he began to speak. "I am so angry at you Athos, and I can't even shout at your properly in case someone might hear us!"
"I take it you saw Lucie kiss me?" he asked infuriatingly calmly.
"What I saw," she growled. "Was her pressed up against you and your lips pressed together."
"And did you see me push her away?"
"I didn't see you push anyone, Athos. I saw you kissing, each other."
"No, d'Artagnan. What you saw was Lucie kiss me. She must have kissed me just as you saw, because our lips touched for about two seconds before I pushed her away."
He was still being far too calm, and horrendously reasonable. It made Charline want to unleash her full temper and scream at him.
"Is this what I am to expect Athos? Is this your way of hiding me?"
She knew she was being altogether ridiculous. Even before they had fallen in love Athos had hardly been a womaniser. It still hurt.
Athos dropped his chin to his chest with a sigh. "D'Artagnan," he said. "I cannot do anything about the fact that she kissed me. I didn't encourage her, I didn't respond. All I did was push her away and apologise for anything I had done that made her think that I was interested."
Charline glared at him, but she had nothing to accuse him of. She had thought that Lucie had taken a liking to her, after all.
"Then I told her that I was not available to her, or anyone, and she smiled at me and went to see her ailing brother."
The fact that he had told Lucie that he was not available, that he had insinuated that Charline existed, stopped her for a moment. She could see that he was telling the truth.
"Can we be done with this now, please?" Athos asked, working hard to keep his exasperation out of his tone.
Being reasonable when she was hurt was clearly still not a skill that d'Artagnan possessed. Half of her wanted to tell him that she believed him, that she loved him, and move on. The other half of her was still furious that he had even let Lucie get close enough to him to kiss him in the first place.
Athos stared at her in her silence. She could see his own anger and frustration at her mistrust growing. After several moments with neither of them moving or speaking, he finally narrowed his eyes at her.
"I came up here to check that you were alright, having seen something that must have hurt you. I understand that. I have been there before, if you will remember."
Her eyes widened in surprise at his reference to Alain, as her would-be fiancé had never been mentioned since Lupiac by either of them.
"I have explained what happened, I have apologised..."
"No, you haven't!" she snapped.
"I would have if you had been at all reasonable with me, d'Artagnan," he growled back. "I can explain nothing else to you, and I refuse to waste my time talking to you until you willing to listen."
With his speech finished, he turned on his heel and swept out of the room, leaving her gaping after him. How dare he? How dare he be angry with her?
She ignored the part of her brain that was telling her that her stubbornness had yet again expanded their rift into something entirely new. After all, she was absolutely stubborn enough to keep hold of her anger until he was ready to actually apologise.
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Early evening found them at the palace as planned, listening to the King praise the actions of Rochefort, and ignore entirely any actions on the part of the musketeers in retrieving General de Foix. D'Artagnan could feel Porthos' irritation radiating from him, and all of them stiffened in various levels of horror when the King announce that Rochefort would be the new captain of the red guards.
Charline tried to ignore the sick feeling that coursed through her at the announcement. She managed it almost as well as she had ignored Athos in the last two hours. Arami and Porthos must have been filled in by Athos, as they wisely were keeping out of things, for once.
D'Artagnan felt slightly heartened by the presence of Constance in the chamber, who was sparing a lot of energy to glare at Athos like she would murder him if she was free to. Charline had no way of knowing if he was aware of the ill-feeling being directed at him, as she had fallen into place in the chamber between Porthos and Aramis to avoid him, and he had taken things one step further by standing on the opposite side of the room from all of them, beside Treville.
On their dismissal from the room, Porthos began to grumble about the lack of appreciation they got from the King. Aramis pointed out that they never got any appreciation, and then walked ahead of them quickly before either of them had a chance to respond.
"Where is he going?" Porthos asked.
"No idea," she replied truthfully, but she had a horrible feeling that it was something do with whatever secret he and Athos shared. She wanted to glance over at Athos to see if he had noticed Aramis' exit, but she stopped herself.
"He hasn't said anything about any of the palace ladies, has he?" Porthos wondered.
"Not to me," d'Artagnan shrugged.
They walked in silence outside to find their horses, then waited patiently for the others to arrive. They had several minutes. Charline could tell that Porthos was desperate to say something to her about the events of the afternoon, but thankfully he kept his thoughts to himself and allowed her to ignore him and move around the horses, tightening tackle that was perfectly fine.
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"I can't actually believe that we are having to do this," Porthos murmured to her as he appeared at her side.
"I hate that feeling that everything is about to go hideously wrong," Charline replied drily. Porthos chuckled and joined her for a moment in her watch across the tavern, every now and again returning their attention to the figure of Louis XIII of France as he got drunk and played cards as part of his much looked forward to 'night as a commoner'.
"The captain will kill us," she continued.
"Most likely, but I can think of worse ways to go," he grinned at her then made his way back to the card table, taking his seat beside the King again.
When the fight broke out, d'Artagnan was ashamed to realise she had been taken by surprise. She had allowed herself to get distracted watching Athos hovering in the shadows beside or behind the King. It had been over a week since Lucie, since the rift that opened up between them like a chasm the size of the canyon they had fled over in Spain, and they still were not really speaking. They were civil and professional, but she was still stubbornly refusing to accept his explanation, and he was too damn proud to try again. So instead they had reverted back to the frostiness that had existed between them some months ago; it was almost like she had told him the truth about her sex all over again.
Today she had begun to regret her attitude. She had awoken that morning from a very happy dream, and had instantly bereft to open her eyes and find herself in her room at the barracks, alone as she had been since this had all happened. She had gone down to breakfast with an empty heart, that had started beating hard when she spotted Athos seated at the table, talking with Bernajoux, an ageing musketeer. She had slid quietly into her seat, murmuring a greeting to both of them, and sat quietly, watching Athos has he conversed easily with his old comrade. Once he glanced in her direction long enough to make eye contact, but she wasn't quick enough to make herself react and she had seen a flash of sadness in his eyes and turned away again.
For the rest of the day she had been kicking herself for not smiling at him - for not doing something - and she hadn't been able to get him alone to speak to him. Stubbornness be damned; she missed him.
And so now, when the shouting started and there was a sudden flurry of movement, she found herself a few seconds behind and heard her name being shouted across the tavern. Quickly she fought her way through the building melee and found herself with an armful of King, who she quickly dragged over to the bewildered-looking innkeeper.
"Gus, is there another way out?" she asked frantically, holding tightly onto the King's jacket as he tried to squirm round to get a better view in his horrified fascination of his first bar fight.
She was acutely aware of Athos' presence at her back, as he and Porthos took on the angry patrons.
"The back door," Gus said eagerly. "This way."
The man disappeared quickly into a room behind the bar, but Charline hesitated before she followed him, seeking out Athos to communicate her intentions. She caught his eye quickly and he nodded at her, a gesture she returned with a sad smile before she turned her attention back to her King.
"Come on," she growled at him, pulling him towards the door. "Before they kill you!"
Evidently she had said the magic words as Louis suddenly focused and moved quickly with her. Gus shut the door behind them and crossed the storage room they found themselves in to open the one at the other end.
"Out here," he said. "Quickly."
D'Artagnan led the way, sword drawn, with the King close to her back. The door shut behind them and d'Artagnan spun round, surprised to find that Gus had gone back inside, and more so to find that there was no handle on this side of the door. With one arm she pushed the King against the wall, stretching her sword out with the other as she slowly looked around to see what their exit options were. They appeared to be in an alley that was entirely closed off at one end, leaving only one option available to them.
"Should we wait here?" the King asked. "For the others."
"Hold on, sire," she whispered, the last word especially quiet. "Something isn't quite right."
Just moments after she had spoken, there was movement in the darkness and four bodies emerged out of the darkness, approaching them from the open end of the alley.
"Get behind me, quickly," she whispered urgently, crouching into a fighting stance at the same time that she acknowledged to herself that she had no chance of coming out of this on top.
She gave it a good shot though, her sword making contact with at least two of their assailants before she noticed that the other two had taken hold of Louis. She lowered her sword and reached out a hand.
"Wait, please..."
The blow to the back of her head registered briefly, giving her enough time to think that things couldn't possibly get any worse, before everything inevitably went black.
