Chapter fourteen the letter
Athos was at home gathered around a table with his friends to discuss Kate's sudden change in behavior. What he had told them shocked them beyond belief. "I,... cannot believe this!" Porthos said with his jaw hanging open. "Believe it, I saw it with my naked eyes." Athos replied, shaking his head in disapproval. Aramis paced around the room as he replied, "Maybe it's the royal way to act, perhaps she needs to go with him to speak to crowds and hold his arm." Athos with a look of anger, said to Aramis in disagreement, "how can you say this is a normal way to act? You have worked with the king before, for you whre once his priest for his own church, you know how the men and women alike need to act when working in the palace. She was not doing something that was normal, he obviously told her to do it knowing she would know no better!" Aramis began to grow angry at his friends verbal attacks. "Why are you mad at me? How do we know the policies didn't change?" "They changed three seconds after he saw her face." Athos replied, getting more and more upset. Porthos interrupted their argument before it got out of hand. "Gentlemen, we are not to solve a problem if we are to fight amongst one another, we must be peaceful." Aramis shook his head and replied, "you mean intoxicated!" Porthos balled up his fist, and attempted to punch Aramis for insulting him. "At least I am peaceful when I am intoxicated!" Aramis dodged the hit, and grabbed Porthos by the shoulders pushing him back against a wall. "Men!" Athos cried to stop the fight, "this house cannot take a blow to the wall without it collapsing, stop this fighting now!"
It was true, the house was so old the walls where almost as thick as cardboard. It could barely hold up during light rain, let alone a down pour. The brokenness of the home brought many problems with leaks and infestation of insects, but they couldn't afford to fix any of it without risking starving themselves or their animals.
Porthos and Aramis, both breathing heavily and still very angry, stopped fighting knowing what Athos was saying was true. Athos sat down quietly at the table, to demonstrate to them how gentlemen should act. Aramis was the first to sit, since he knew as a priest he needed to demonstrate good godly behavior, and Porthos followe afterward, simply because he didn't want Aramis to look better than him. No man spoke a word until they where all in good patient moods with one another.
"Now what shall we do about this?" Asked Athos, being the first to speak after minutes of angry silence. "I do not know, we cannot go over to the kingdom and cause a riot for no reason, than she'll never be happy with us again!" Aramis replied. "We must act somehow, the man, I fear, could be taking advantage of her for sexual reasons." Athos replied, disgusted with the thought of Louis' possibly risque acts. "Now we can't assume that either, this very well could be a change in policy." Aramis replied. Athos said as he drank some of the milk he poured himself, "is all your going to assume is nothing? We must try to point out what he may be doing. You know he likes young women, and why else would he have asked her to hold his arm? He could very well be trying to get her in bed with him!" The very thought brought sickness to the men's bellies. Aramis knew it was possible he could be trying to rouse her into sleeping with him, but still, their was that 'or maybe', thought in his mind.
He always told Kate to be true to herself, and not fall for the sexual temptations a man may pull on her, but anyone can make a mistake, and she wouldn't be the first woman to lose her cleanness to him. Many other women gave their lives up to live with him, and while Kate was working for him to build her life up, he could still try to knock it down with his lies and charm. "I know he must find her desirable, she is a lovely girl." Porthos exclaimed. The men agreed with him, but more questions kept coming to the surface. "And she is very young, remember the young man who broke her heart that one time?" Said Aramis. "Ah yes, the boy named Joseph, he broke her heart and for many nights, her heart was poured out of her eyes and onto her pillow." Athos replied, remembering the pain he saw her go through. "I couldn't do a thing for her, none of us could, we had to wait a while for her to realize that there was a man out there for her that would love and respect her." "Louis, is not one at all! He would use her as a way to bare him a son, and rule the kingdom in more ways as a king with a queen by his side than alone." Aramis replied. "What can we do than?" Asked Porthos, with a scared look in his eyes. "I do not know," Athos replied with a sigh.
Nightfall came about, and the men had not decided what they where to do for Kate. No idea came to mind after many hours of careful thinking, and thorough examination of the situation. Athos resumed doing his household chores, while Aramis went to the church to pray for a way to help Kate. Porthos left without saying goodbye or where he was going. Your guess as to where he would be my dear readers, would probably be where he was. (The bar).
Athos was in Raoul's room cleaning it up after he nearly destroyed it earlier that morning, preparing for the war. As he placed items belonging to his son back into their spots, he noticed a folded piece of paper with a red heart on it, inside his nightstand drawer, when he was trying to place back his sons journal he kept to keep track of his training progress. It was not only the red heart that caught Athos' eye, but what the word written within the heart had read: To my dearest Kate. "What is this?" He wondered. The curiosity of what his son had written got the better of him, and found himself reaching down for the delicate letter.
He sat down on his son's unmade bed, and began to read the letter from the beginning to the end. The words spoken in the letter shocked Athos as well as bring joy into his heart:
My dearest Kate,
oh how do I love thee, your eyes are the windows into your heart, your words are it's very thoughts, and your beauty reflects the spirit I have grown to love within. You are the reason I fight for the country, so the king or any other man cannot take your dreams or future away.
You are, however, what I want for my future. I write this letter to express to you how much I have grown in love with you. Your smile is the light that glows in the dark, and your touch brings life into a very dead, and decayed world that is around me. I didn't know God placed angels on earth to live and love with mere men like me. You are my angel and my guiding light. Please, marry me my darling. I come back from the great war that awaited me, to ask for your hand and heart in marriage. Pour your heart out to me, and I shall carry every loving thought and thing it holds, in a basket to plant in the garden of my home in Heaven, so if one day I leave you, my flowers from the lovely seeds I planted will keep me joyful until we meet again.
Your love, Raoul
Athos vision began to get blurry as the tears formed in his eyes. "My son, loves her!" He exclaimed happily.
Even though he thought of both of them as his children, he always had wanted for them to love each other that way. What a joy that would have brought to his dear wife. He got on his knee's and thanked the lord for revealing to him this letter. "I thank you dear father, for my son has chosen himself a wife!"
Kate sat in her room at her vanity table staring at her reflexion. She was deeply worried about Raoul much more than D'Artagnan. Raoul never fought a war in his life, small battles with little armies of about 100 hundred men, but in this war, EVERY able-bodied man was drafted out, and the men Louis ordered to fight where ten thousand, Raoul among them. "How can he survive?" She wondered. "Though Louis' army is big, there is a chance for something to go wrong out there, despite the great amount of men at war alongside him." She got up and paced the room trying to find peace within herself. No thoughts of any comfort came to mind. The way it was, was the way it was. It needed to be dealt with realistically, and with hope that the great plans for her life and Raoul's, would begin to unfold. "I cannot fight alongside my dear friend, but I can pray for him." She stated to herself. "A life of a military man cannot be safe, I have myself, chosen that lifestyle as my own, why should I get upset?" She walked towards her big window, and gazed down at the empty and dead silent garden. "There is nothing predictable about being a musketeer, all a man in the army can do is fight without wavering, and stand alongside his brothers until the very end." She sighed, as she sat on the floor and looked up at the full moon.
When Aramis came home along with Porthos who was, you guessed it, drunk out of his mind, they where welcomed by a thrilled Athos. "Why such joy? We spoke of grim things this evening," asked Aramis, placing a nearly unconscious Porthos on the couch, as he entered the house. "My son, has made me a proud man this day!" Athos exclaimed. "He is in a war fighting for his country, what father wouldn't be proud?" Aramis asked, while approaching his friend. Athos held the pink paper up for Aramis to view. "This is the reason why I am extremely proud of Raoul," Aramis gazed up at the paper not understanding what Athos was meaning. "What is written on it?" He asked. "My son," Athos began to say as tears came back into his eyes, "loves Kate! He wants to marry her when he gets back from the war!" Aramis was silent, as Porthos shot up awake from hearing those words. "He wants to... marry her?" Asked Aramis. Athos nodded his head, as tears fell down his cheeks. Aramis cheered happily as he hugged Athos, while Porthos tripped as he stood up, trying to do the same. The men danced around and celebrated for the happy news. "Men," Athos said proudly, "Kate is going to marry my son!"
In the darkness of the night, not a sound was heard but of the boots of running soldiers. Raoul, who was sitting behind a rock behind the front lines, stayed silent until the sound of the enemies footsteps drew nearer away. Alongside him sat a friend Rod, who he knew since he had started training, poked at Raoul's sleeve and whispered, "when shall we fight? We have waited for an hour." Raoul looked at his friend, than slowly looked over his hiding place to see if the enemy had gone away. No one was in visual sight. He ducked back down and began to ready his gun. "Captain D'Artagnan told us to stay down until he gives the order to attack, but that was before he left to find the enemies captain, I do not know if we should go now or not.
Not knowing what to do, the boys sat still trying to figure out their next move, but the sudden sound of bombs and guns going off made them panic. The bright lights of landmines going off made the boys scramble to their feet. Raoul's friend Rod was the first to his feet, while Raoul decided whether or not to go and fight for the men he could hear screaming for help behind him. Rod who was now ten feet away, looked back at Raoul still sitting where he was and cried, "come on! We must flee!" Raoul looked back at him, but said not a word. His mind made clear what he would do to protect Paris. He scrambled to his feet, and ran for the enemies firing the guns, and throwing bombs at him. "Raoul!" Rod cried, as Raoul disappeared into the orange light.