Sorry it has taken so long. I swear that school does wish for you to have a social life outside of school.
Anyway, I've tried my best to write this chapter and its taken me ages. God knows when I'll be able to write the next one, but don't worry, I haven't left it abandoned. There's a little summary at the bottom of the page if you don't understand some of the french words.
Rose watched Charlie leave the hall and sat in her seat on her own for a bit. She thought back over the conversation she had just had with Charlie. For a time agent, she thought he was pretty weak at keeping secrets, even though she had guessed most of them. She recalled her first meeting with Jack during The Blitz, when he seduced her but eventually crumbled and the truth came pouring out of him like water breaking through a fractured dam. Maybe he just did not deny everything as she was right anyway.
She tried to think about the mission that he and his friends were undertaking. If it was top secret then it must be something serious. Extremely serious, she thought to herself. She did not like the way the agency handled themselves. From what she learnt from Jack, they abused their power of time travelling. It was clear from what Charlie had told as well that they did not seem to be very ethical.
They had stolen two years of Jack Harkness' life without a clue what he had been doing for two years. In fact, she could not understand how Jack learnt of this, as if he had lost two years he would not realise it. Then, somehow Charlie had become apart of the Time Agency even though he is from the 20th century.
Someone must have taken him there, Rose thought as she recalled he had said it goes against the entire agency. She instantly thought of Marie as the culprit in this situation.
What would they be doing here anyway? Rose thought. They are obviously not here to record the events of the French Revolution.
Rose got distracted when she saw the Doctor entered the room with the girl she had seen earlier. Gabrielle. They were both had locked arms which made Rose jealous. How dare she? Rose thought, but was instantly sickened by the amount of jealousy she had for this girl. The Doctor was always like this, she thought. He had mentioned something before about his previous companions.
"In all I have had roughly, 8 male companions, unless you include UNIT then it raises drastically, two robots and well over 20 female companions." The Doctor had said.
"Well you little stud." Rose had replied and threw a pillow at him.
Rose smiled at this memory, and watched the Doctor with insane jealousy in her eyes. The Doctor was hers, but her envy dropped when they both separated. Gabrielle was speaking to the Doctor, but she got bored of watching the two and eyed the people around the room instead. Her eyes settled on a woman crying in the back on her own. She had noticed her earlier but was too distracted by Charlie. Then, she was surrounded by her friends, but most had left. Gabrielle had walked into her view point but Rose ignored her as she was leaving the room. She had no time for silly little girls like that and got up out of her seat and made her way across the hall.
She kept her eyes on the woman and tried not to look at the Doctor. She noticed she was being far too possessive over the Doctor, as he was not hers in the first place, and calmed herself down. She still did not want to talk to him right now anyway.
From this distance, she could see the woman had been crying a river. She was unsure whether she should walk over or canoe over at this rate. The woman's make-up was ruined and she was clearly the victim's wife or fiancée. Rose sat down next to her and noticed the Doctor was speaking to the other girl of the trio. Marie.
"How are you?" Rose asked and placed her hand on the woman's arm, but the woman pushed it away.
"My fiancé has just been murdered. I am cloud nine. What do you think?" The woman said and Rose ignored this as the woman was upset. In other circumstances, Rose would have bitten back, but now was not the time.
"My name is Rose. What is yours?" Rose asked, trying to sound as sincere as possible.
"Jeanne. Jeanne D'Artois. We were meant to get married soon." Jeanne said and got a tissue out of her pocket in her dress.
"Your fiancé? You did realise he was seeing someone else do you?" Rose asked, treading dangerous ground here.
Jeanne looked shocked and hurt at this.
"You think I am stupid? You think that I have not been noticing what my husband has been doing these past few months? It's that Austrichienne. I could swear she's Austrian. Look at her, the little bitch, trying to sway that poor man. She wasted no time after her lover died did she?" Jeanne ranted and was looking directly at the Doctor. Rose tried her best not to laugh, and keep a straight face.
"How long has she been here for?" Rose asked. She might as well kill two birds with one stone. She could possibly get some extra answers about the murder and the Time agents in one go.
"A few months. She arrived with her two friends and instantly mingled with the rest of the parlement. I was suspicious of them at first, as they did not seem to fit in right, but I ignored the other two and concentrated on her. Marie Orléans. She had already slept with a number of aristocrats already, but did she ever get mauvais discours? No, but The Queen does for nothing in particular. She swayed my betrothed easily and I instantly hated her for it." Jeanne said and she had stopped crying.
"You think she would have murdered him?" Rose asked. She knew she was not going to get many answers out of Jeanne about the Time Agents, but tried her luck with the murder instead.
"Of course I think so. Then again, I could have killed him because I was so angry at him." Jeanne said and noticed the look on Rose's face, "Non, Non, Mademoiselle Rose. I did not mean to say I had murdered him. A figure of speech, as they say. Saying that though, I know of many people he had angered over the last few months and any of them could have killed him." Jeanne said and Rose took an interest in this,
"Who?" Rose asked, curious to find out.
"Well, there was me and Marie, probably her two friends, and half of Versailles. It would take to long to explain how he angered each and every one of them, but in some way he had annoyed everyone at some point. Some to the point of no return." Jeanne said and blew her nose on the tissue she still held in her hand.
"Thank you, Rose. I did not mean to snap at you earlier. I am going to bed. I hope I will feel better in the morning. Good night." Jeanne said and gave a little smile to Rose and left the hall to her slumber.
Rose felt sorry for the woman. She had loved this man, and the past few months must have been a torment for her.
Rose got up and made her way to another woman, to try and catch whatever they were talking about.
"Who was murdered?" She asked a woman in the group. The woman turned around smiling, but her smile dropped when she saw Rose. Rose could see that this woman did not approve of her in any way, but Rose tried her best. She knew who the victim was but needed to know more.
"Haven't you heard? It was Louis Theréson. Now go along and fetch me a drink, like a good little girl." The woman said and made a hand gesture to get Rose away from her. Rose gave her this look of pure hatred. How could people be like that? She thought to herself.
Rose noticed the Doctor was at the food table and looking directly at her. However, an incident had disrupted the hall.
What a holiday this turned out to be, Rose thought as she watched guards enter the hall.
AUTRICHIENNE:- This is the term used in the French Revolution by Radicals and Revolutionists against Marie Antoinette. It literally means Austrian Bitch. I just thought I'd add it, as Austria was not in France's good books.
PARLEMENTS:- These are similar to the Parliaments in Britain. A group of Aristocratics would gather in these places and discuss, and eat to their delight. I'm not sure if Versailles could be called a Parlement, but hey, it's fiction. What the heck.