Hey Ho, on this great Friday I'm posting chapter 7. You will learn about D'artagnans past. Im also posting some pictures of him on my Tumblr Account and Pinterest. You will also find the outfit pictures of Anne and Constance. Have a look.
Chapter 7: Espionage
Last time in chapter 6:
Henry shyly stepped into the office and hardly dared to look at any of the five men.
"Well, young man, why are you here?" Treville asked.
"Sire, I would like to work for the king."
D'Artagnan and Porthos were surprised at this new development. Aramis didn't seem to be interested, idly fiddling with his shirt. As usual, Athos kept his expression neutral, making it very hard to know what he was thinking.
"Would you four please leave us alone?" Treville asked. D'Artagnan and Porthos were the first to get up and move towards the door. As they passed Henry, D'Artagnan clapped him on the shoulder encouragingly. Aramis followed them with a bored expression and winked at Henry. Atos was the last one. He exchanged a final glance with Treville, before he closed the office door behind him.
"Sit down." Treville offered Henry a seat. The young man gladly took it; he was very nervous.
"Now, why do you want to work for the king?" Treville asked.
Henry looked directly at him now, sure of his plan and his decision despite his nervousness. Treville noticed it, too.
"The Red Guard has ordered one of my best friends to kill my other best friend. Now one of them is dead and the other is going to prison. I can't stay with the Guard any longer."
Treville nodded. "I understand. You're in mourning, and I am sorry for your loss. However, you're still young, the world's your oyster. You could go to university or take an apprenticeship somewhere."
"No, Sire, I can't. I've seen things, you know, working for the Red Guard. And I want them to make up for what they did to my friends."
"Revenge is a bad advisor, son. We have no use for hotheads. Our first duty is to protect the king, his friends and family."
Henry nodded, undeterred. Still full of determination, he continued. "It's not just revenge, Sire. You help people. You protect the people of this town and you help out in Paris. I admire your loyalty to the king and amongst your men. I would like to learn from you and become a part of your team."
Treville was silent for a few moments, having to weigh his decision very carefully. Henry wasn't a bad person and that he was sitting here now, applying for a job, said a lot about him. It was very important that Henry wasn't just out for revenge, but if that were the case, there would have been other ways for the young man.
"Henry, I understand you."
Henry lowered his eyes. That didn't sound good.
"We have to be able to trust you. We had a lot of personnel problems lately and we can't afford any more of those," Treville explained.
Henry felt a little hope again. "I'll prove myself to you," he said.
"That's what I had hoped. And I have an important and risky task for you. Prove yourself and you can stay," Treville said. Henry nodded excitedly.
"We had a lot of defectors to the Red Guard, maybe you noticed that. We want to turn the tables on them now. Do they already know that you're leaving them?"
Henry shook his head. "No, I told no one, I just left."
"That's good. I need eyes and ears inside hat organization and you could be that for me."
Henry swallowed hard, not sure if he was up to this task.
"Don't worry, we'll support you," Treville promised.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Constance sat on her bed in light blue jeans, a white print shirt and a warm, comfortable cardigan, with pink sneakers and matching earrings as the finishing touches. With trembling hands, she opened the envelope one of the servants had given to her a few moments ago. As she had hoped, the envelope contained the documents she had been desperately waiting for. She looked through the pages until she came to the last one and saw that the second party involved in the matter had already signed it. Hurriedly, she got up and went to her friend's rooms.
Anne was in her bedroom. It looked like she had just finished dressing in a sheath dress with an abstract brown, red and blue floral print and a royal blue blazer. On the bed beside her lay a matching blue clutch. "Good morning, Constance," she greeted her friend as Constance entered.
"Anne, I have the documents."
"The documents?" At first, Anne didn't understand, then it dawned on her. "And? Did he sign them?" Constance nodded.
"That's a good thing, isn't it?"
"Theoretically yes, but I'm not sure. They were drawn up by his lawyer," Constance said.
"Oh, I see. If you want, I can have my lawyers look them over," Anne offered.
Constance was glad, since she didn't really want – or could afford to – get her own lawyer. "Thank you, Anne," she said, putting the documents on the bed for her. "By the way, why are you dressed up like that? Did I forget about an appointment?"
"No, you didn't. I have a meeting with Louis' lawyers, but I don't really need you to be there, so you can have a little time off. And before you say anything, no, you deserve it."
Constance wanted to object, but how could you be mad at a person like Anne.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
The women talked for a few moments longer, then Anne went to one of the larger rooms for her meeting with the lawyers. They were already present and Anne apologized for the slight delay. However, the lawyers were accustomed to having to wait far longer for her cousin, so they didn't mind. Among the four men, Anne recognized Louis' assistant, Adrian Combelle.
"Monsieur Combelle, I didn't know that you would join this meeting."
Combelle sketched a short bow. "I have some free time and thought I'd offer my help."
Not wanting to seem rude, Anne reluctantly accepted. What harm could it do to let him sit in on the meeting….
"Well, Messieurs, let's start, we have a lot to discuss."
They all took their places around the large round table set up in the middle of the room. After about an hour they had developed a strategy to contest the acquisition of the buildings in court and to buy up other properties on the market themselves. Anne was satisfied with the results, and after the tasks had been allocated, the meeting broke up.
Adrian Combelle, who had watched the meeting wordlessly, retreated to his office. Once he was sure that he was alone, he reported the new strategy to the duke. As soon as Savoy had read the message from his spy, he wanted to know whose idea it had been and who was taking the lead in this project. Combelle typed a short message in reply, before he powered down his computer and went to Louis.
In his own office, Savoy waited for an answer from Adrian. A few seconds later, one word appeared on the display of his phone. Anne.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
When D'Artagnan, Porthos, Athos and Aramis had left Treville's office, they went to the training facility in the basement, taking advantage of the unscheduled downtime to work on their skills. First stop was the shooting range. While Athos and Porthos tried out new small caliber guns, Aramis worked on his sniper skills, and D'Artagnan busied himself cleaning his gun. Next, Aramis, Athos and D'Artagnan engaged in a close combat exercise, with Porthos watching from the sidelines and offering tips for improvement. D'Artagnan had just managed to throw Aramis on the mat, only to be taken down himself by Porthos, when Treville and Henry entered the room. The exercise ended and four more or less disheveled and slightly sweaty men were waiting to hear what Treville had to tell them.
"I talked with Henry. We've come to the conclusion that he needs to prove himself."
They had already expected that. After what happened lately, it was difficult to trust anyone new.
"Henry will be our spy within the Red Guard," Treville informed them. This was surprising news. D'Artagnan was slightly shocked. "Captain, he's still very young and has been through a lot, do you think it's worth the risk?"
Treville looked straight at him. "I knew you'd say that. That's why I want you to be his liaison."
No easy task for him. D'Artagnan snorted softly.
"He's all yours now. I expect a full report by the end of the week," Treville said, lightly pushing Henry towards his four best men, before he left.
Athos and Aramis went over to where Porthos was sitting on a bench. "Looks like you got your work cut out for you. Next time you'd better not question Treville's decision," Porthos advised. D'Artagnan rolled his eyes. Athos took pity on his younger friend.
"It was obvious that you'd be his liaison, your time in the army makes you the best candidate. You were in a recon unit after all, while we were with the infantry, snipers and tank division."
D'Artagnan nodded. He had already come to the same conclusion.
"Recon unit?" Henry looked at D'Artagnan questioningly. Aramis answered for him. "All four of us were in the army and we all had different specialties. Our dear friend here was with a reconnaissance unit. They work deep within enemy territory, scouting out possible targets. They were always in danger. To protect themselves, they often pretended to be members of the enemy forces."
Henry regarded the young man standing before him with different eyes now. D'Artagnan was tall and tanned, but not built as solidly as Porthos. Henry had always regarded him as less dangerous. Now that he saw him in full combat gear, however, he realized just how muscular and strong the man really was.
Before anyone could say anything else, the door opened. They had expected one of their colleagues, but instead a man in a suit entered. "Messieurs, my apologies, I think I have lost my way."
As soon as Aramis recognized the man, he jumped up and drew himself up in front of the visitor. His face was livid with anger and it was all he could to not to hit the man on the spot. Porthos and Athos were surprised at their usually calm and collected friend.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Aramis ground out between clenched teeth. Savoy just smiled at him.
