Richelieu spent the next few days brooding about the situation. He couldn't influence who his minions consorted with but he could put a stop to it. It was time to put a stop to Milady's disobedience. He would unravel her himself if needed. He just had to do something about the man who was behind her recent 'distraction.' That musketeer, the one who had observed him at the ball, he was onto him. It was about time he had a word with the one they called Athos.
He went out of his office, down to the drawing room. Spying the three of them around a table, he walked by and stopped by the man he believed was Athos, his suspicious eyes wondering what it was about him that Milady had dropped her defences for. He looked nothing special. But she always did have a knack for scouting out people who could be useful. She had found Buckingham and that rat was of use. This one looked like a blank slate however. He tapped Athos on the shoulder, the man turned around with a look of surprise. 'I wish to speak to you.' Athos looked at him a minute and simply replied, 'speak then.'
'In private.' The other two men with him shrugged and carried on playing cards. Athos nodded to them and stood up, waited for Richelieu to say where he would like to talk. The cardinal selected a room nearby and motioned him in. Athos didn't even have to raise an eyebrow to let his friends know what to do, the moment the door closed, they leapt up and stood on guard either side of the door. This gave them a vantage point to overhear the conversation as well as being on hand if things got a bit heated.
Athos faced his adversary with cool disdain. Now that he had seen what the man of the cloth was capable of, he could no longer afford him respect.
'What's all this about?' he asked, without preamble. Richelieu shot him a look of loathing and which startled Athos a little. He took care not to show it.
'I wish to speak to you about Milady de Winter.' Whatever he had expected, this wasn't it. Athos raised his eyebrows in surprise. What was the wily cardinal up to?
'What about Madame de Winter?'
'I am concerned about the nature of your relationship to her.'
'What would you be concerned about? Not that it is any business to your Eminence.' Richelieu glowered, the man was impudent. He was a Comte to be sure, he could tell by his bearing, but it didn't mean he had a right to talk back to him, no matter how polite his manner.
'She is a lady of delicate emotion and your...dalliance with her certainly won't help. She is inclined to hysterics and fits of excess emotion. Her reactions could be extreme. I strongly advise you withdraw from her affections as gently as possible as though not to provoke her wrath.'
Athos stared at him incomprehensibly. He knew Milady before she had been Milady, he knew she had a cool head about her, that any excess of emotion was due to the fact that she kept everything bottled up inside. In that way she was much like him. Richelieu didn't know her at all. He couldn't possibly know that they used to be married.
'I assure you, you don't know anything about our relationship.' He said a little stiffly.
Richelieu grinned slyly at him, just another man who had fallen slave to Milady's manipulative charms. Athos sensed this conversation was taking a turn for the worse. A flash of suspicion entered his head. What was the cardinal up to? Was he trying to warn him off?
'She is not all as she seems. She is not exactly an innocent woman if you know what I mean.'
'If you're talking about her previous affairs, I don't believe that is any of your business.'
'She is not to be trusted! She traps any man she can for ulterior motives, money, information, documents, anything she can get' he snapped. Athos' coolness in the face of the obvious left Richelieu getting angrier by the minute.
'And how do you know this?' The question disabled him for a minute. He was unprepared for this assault. He changed tack.
'I am concerned for her well being and state of mind. A lady must be protected from hardship.'
Athos snorted, a gesture he wasn't known for, but he didn't have much else to show his incredulity. The cardinal was looking at him curiously.
'I am simply wondering why you would take any interest in her welfare at all, considering you don't give a damn about her state of mind.'
Richelieu protested, he held all of the Lord's creatures in consideration.
'That's rich coming from you. You don't even treat her like a lady' Athos hissed, getting angry at this hypocritical leader of men. Richelieu's face contorted in gargoyle-like fury. The way this man was defending her was too much. 'She's not a lady, she's a high class whore' he spat out, seconds before realising he'd made his mistake in showing his hatred.
Athos now knowing for certain how Richelieu despised Milady, could tell how he was determined to destroy her by any means necessary. He stepped forward and demonstrated that their business was theirs and nobody else's. Richelieu looked at this musketeer in surprise. He had underestimated the man. He wasn't quite the pushover he had originally thought. This was no rat like Buckingham.
