Chapter 10

Contrary to her expectation the breakfast with Claude had been pleasant. Her daughter had been cheerful, high-spirited, and talkative. Catherine held the young Leith responsible for her relaxed state of mind. A connection she would never have expected but she tolerated it northeless. No one knew better than she did that the true value of a woman was merely measured at her dowry, her father's titles and her ability to bear heirs. Love only played a secondary role.

She would gladly spare Claude a fate like hers and allow her a marriage with the young man she chose herself. As a regent she would certainly have found ways of doing that. But now things looked different. She had to convince not only Charles but also her husband, who had already made an attempt to marry the princess off to a wealthy Lord for a nice lump of gold for France. And to top it all Stephane's influence on Charles had grown during the last couple of weeks. In principle even the lowest servant had probably more influence on the king than his own mother. Nevertheless, she would leave nothing untried to keep the promise she had made to Claude.

To her relief Lord Narcisse had stayed away from breakfast. But the king too had been notably absent. Later she had learned that Charles had apparently skulked off at the first dawn of morning and that his Lord Chancellor got his hands full with government affairs and tracing their king.
She had run into her son earlier this afternoon while he was sneaking through the private hallways of the royal family looking tired and unbearable pale. Her question for his well-being had simply been ignored. Just like her general presence.
It was only when she grabbed his arm and dragged him into his chambers when he came out of his terrifying trance. But he had remained unresponsive to her warning words. His condition was frightening and she intended to talk to Narcisse about it. She hated to admit that if there was one person at court who could possibly get through to the King of France, it would be the Lord Chancellor.

Feeling demotivated, Catherine returned to her own rooms. Only to stop dead in the doorway, staring at the hustle and bustle taking place in her chambers in bewilderment.
"What on earth are you doing here?" She shouted angrily after shaking off her rigidity. A great variety of her personal belongings had disappeared from the rooms. Including most of her clothes, some carpets, her vanity table as well as the big antique chest she had brought from Florence.
Fabrice Darntelle who entered her chambers just this moment, bowed before her.
"If you wish you can also take these curtains with you."

It costed Catherine all her self-control not to scream out her answer.
"I demand to know what's going on?! How dare you lay hand on my property?" She furiously snatched her dressing gown from one of the servant girls before she could put it into one of the chests. Startled, the skinny thing backed away from her and looked at Fabrice, searching for his help. He nodded encouragingly at the young woman, wrested the garment from Catherine's grip and handed it back to the maid.
"We are moving your belongings to your husbands chambers. The order comes from him and if you have a problem with it, please refer to Lord Narcisse. These poor people are just doing what they've been told." She felt everyone's eyes focused on her. Frown lines appeared between her eyebrows while Catherine wrenched her dressing gown out of the maid's hands once again. She hissed furiously in Fabrice's direction and stormed off to the opposite wing of the castle, her skirts flowing wildly.

Before she could tear open the doors to Stephane's chambers, they were opened from inside and out came her husband, being engrossed in a conversation with one of his servants.
"Good work, tomorrow you can begin with the remodelling of the dressing room. For the time being it should still fulfill its purpose. I'm sure my wife ..." Narcisse stopped in mid sentence the moment he spotted his furious wife rushing towards him.
"And here she is. Catherine, I was already expecting you." To his servant he simply said: "You may leave now."
"How dare you arrange my move to your chambers without consulting me first?!" The Queen Mother hissed angrily, pushing past him into the room to look at the extent of the catastrophe. All her belongings had already found a new place and it already looked as if they had always been here.
"I've told you about this decision last night. And since you didn't make any effort to initiate your move yourself, I took matters into my own hands," he explainded tersely.

Catherine threw her dressing gown against his broad chest in disgust.
"So this is what it looks like when you're trying to give our marriage a chance? You obtain sexual intercourse by fraud, move my property behind my back and above all you actually feel in the right! This is not the way how a proper marriage should work, Stephane!" She shouted out in frustration and had to fight a certain inhibition upon seing her belongings between his furniture.
"I don't think you are qualified to judge how exactly a good marriage should look like." With this insult Catherine planted herself in front of him and aggressively tapped her fingers against his chest.
"Don't you dare dragging my marriage with Henry into this conversation! I'm pretty sure you do not want to hear what I think about your three dead wives either, or were they four?" She spat at him angrily.
"Nevertheless it is no secret that Henry and you have led separate lives in separate rooms. He paraded his whores and mistresses around before God and the whole court to see. Faithfullness is a word your dead husband couldn't even spell."
Catherine didn't know what made her more angry. His attempt at throwing mud at her marriage with Henry or his refusal to respond to her accusations adequately.
"How rich of you to bring up faithfullness," she said with an ice-cold, sharp voice. For Stephane himself had not been faithful to his Lola and no one knew better than her since it was her bed where he sought shelter and sexual fulfillment.

"It's old news that I in fact do desire you, Catherine," Narcisse replied with a neutral expression on his face.
"You always desire the things you cannot have. And as soon as you have reached your goal, you start to get bored. I know you and see right through you, Stephane! Lets be honest with each other. At least once. You have your fun at shooing me and demonstrating your newly gained power. But sooner or later you will get bored. So let us shorten things and go right to this stage. Yes, you might be right, Henry and I have led separate lives, but this kind of arrangement ..." Catherine's speach was stopped by her husband as he put his hands on her shoulders in a soothing way.
"No, Catherine," he whispered softly. "You and I, we will have a real and honest marriage. A wife's place is right at the side of her husband. In public and private, sharing bed and board. I will not allow us to live separate lives. We are both aware that there were some women before you. And just as your marriage with Henry was far from perfect, my marriages weren't perfect as well. But you are my equal – I have met my perfect match, just like you've said in the past. And I am lucky enough to be able to call such a strong, intelligent and beautiful woman my wife."

Catherine cast off his hands from her shoulders grimly. In her eyes an infernal fire was shining, however her expression was harder than the arctic winter.
"Then let me tell you - this is not an encounter on equal footing but merely a miserable attempt on your part to dominate me," she told him unforgivingly, pointing at all her belongings that Stephane had moved to his chambers against her will. "Now if you'll excuse me, after all I have to acquaint myself with these new circumstances."
With these words she dismissed her husband, who had no doubt that he was no longer welcomed in his very own chambers. Narcisse raised his hand to make a move to caress her cheek. Her icy gaze however stopped him in the middle of his movement.
"We're going to talk tonight, ma Belle", he said and left the room.

My dear readers, I'm overwhelmed by your reviews! And I have a confession to make: As you may have noticed - this is not Narcisse's POV - I did forget about this chapter - but I promise: next one will be his POV. :-)

at D: always the first one, my dear - and thank you. Your feedback is always music to my ears.

at MediciQueen: Thank you, my Queen. :-) Narcisse's POV will follow, no worries. Sometimes I get a bit confused as I have already witten 16 chapters in German but not everything is translated yet.

at CallmeCordelia1: Many thanks, Dear. I can't believe how much fun I have getting into Catherines head. Hihi

at demedicigirl: thaaaank you, Hon, well, they kind of let us out in the cold with the Catherine - Narcisse storyline. So I needed to fix it - at least in my imagination... :-)

at G: I'm overjoyed that you love it. And I love writing it! Thank you, Darling.

at Suzan: there you are, Honey! Welcome back to the world wide web, my friend. ;-) And thank you for leaving these kind and encouraging words.