---
Ezekiel Connor changed into more comfortable clothes and had an early supper.
All Connor had to do was to keep Verne until the Count got back.
However, that did not mean he should not have a little fun.
---
Jules was crumpled at the bottom of the stairs. A shooting pain flashed across his back and he tried not to move but he wanted to find a way to rest comfortably. There wasn't, Jules flipped onto his back and arched, and that worked, just until he got tired in that position and finally had to slowly return to his side where another jolt of pain shot across his back. He withered and was still and until most of it had subsided.
Jules slowly sat up. The afternoon sun shone through a small window
The room could not be bigger than his flat, but it was pretty empty, nothing to use as a weapon and nothing to hide behind, all there really was, was a narrow cot without any covers and a wooden chair.
Using the stairs as support, Jules lifted himself up and began walking with the walls. He tested the window to see if it would open, and it did. The only problem, other than it being only big enough for a ten year old to climb through was that it was a bit high to climb out of without some sort of help.
He was too tired for this.
The last two days had worn him out and now, he had no idea what to do.
---
"Jules, I would like you to explain these drawings to us." The duke said as he pulled out a few of his sketches from his satchel that Tom held.
Jules was lying down on the cot; he had not even bothered to look up.
"Really now, Jules it would be so much easier if you corporate."
Jules threw the duke a look of complete disgust.
"There is no need for faces, Jules." the duke said.
Jules refused to answer all the questions that were asked. For his efforts the duke gave him a bloody nose and a split lip as well as a pounding head ache.
The duke went to the back of the room and pulled out a key from his pocket.
He unlocked the door and motioned Tom and Mike to bring Jules.
---
Phileas had gotten an answer from the townspeople. This was a small town and there were few people that ever used coaches. Apparently there was a coach that had past through town and was now in the northern edge of the town.
Phileas and Rebecca headed towards the north end of town while Phileas sent Passepartout to go get the Aurora from the English Embassy in France.
---
Pain racked his body, he could not control his thoughts, he wasn't even sure if they were his own thoughts anymore. All he wanted was for it to stop. But he kept fighting. Why was he fighting? He was sure that if he stopped resisting that it would be so much easier.
His body convulsed with pain. The metal binding him to the chair cut deeper into his wrists.
He desperately wanted to stop fighting but something deeper would not let him. He held on. Hoping that whatever was inside him was right. He fought.
He screamed, draining his lungs of all oxygen, and passed out, letting the blackness take the pain.
---
The north end of town was small but Phileas still had to search.
They found only three houses in the northern end of town and Phileas rode to check out the furthest house as Rebecca went to the closest. They would meet up at the middle house if they found nothing where they were.
If the other does not make it to the middle house the cousin in question must head for the first or last house.
---
The duke sighed; he was hoping that the boy would last just a little longer.
"Make sure he won't get out." The duke ordered and walked out of the cellar and into the house.
Count Gregory was going to be in Paris in two days. The town they were in was less than a day's journey.
Connor only had to make sure that Jules did not escape between now and then.
---
Nothing here.
Maybe that was a good thing. But that also meant that she would not know how Jules was.
Why do things have to go both ways?
Rebecca returned to her horse and rode off to check the second house.