Chapter Two
Monsieur Frederic Fournier stared in barely concealed grim shock as he gazed upon the misshapen features that ruined the upper right side of the child's face. There was a certain bluish and translucent quality in the pinched hairless skin that pulled down slightly the boy's eye but it was the entire lack of a right nostril was the largest cause of the child's misfortune. The monsieur then quickly noted that the twisted eye was of a colour which could only be compared to the vivid and slightly golden shimmering green of a Peridot and that it and its twin was framed by long thick lashes.
He continued with quick inventory as he observed that the nose which lacked a nostril was very fine and straight and the child also possessed full rosebud lips which were admittedly very pale and drawn at the moment.
"You are the devil, Madame!" gritted out Mon. Fournier as he tightened and shifted his grip on the almost amusingly stunned child to a more comfortable position. "How dare you brutalise a child!"
"B-but M-monsieur! He is the spawn of the devil! He…"
The gentleman glared coldly the stuttering woman and wrathfully augmented his earlier statements. "He is merely a child who has unfortunate facial blemishes but you, Madame, is the evil one to torture a defenceless bébé!" The Monsieur continued scornfully along this vein until he rendered the woman completely speechless with shock, anger and perhaps, hopefully, a little shame. When he saw that he had made his point clear to the creature, Mon. Fournier finished his verbal flagellation by informing her that he never wanted to observe such behaviour from her again and if he ever heard even a breath of news reporting her abuse of the child he would make it his pleasure to give her a taste of the same then placing her in a nice gaol to give her time to consider her sins, and would also consider it a privilege to offer the same reward to any other abuser of children.
It was impossible to decide who was more astonished… Madame du Bois or her young much-abused nephew! They both stared in utter astonishment at Monsieur Fournier, who was now negligently inspecting the bump at crown of the boy's head, seemingly unaware of the shock he had given them. The aunt recovered first. The good monsieur watched quietly as she shut her gaping mouth and turned a very unattractive shade of puce. She glared poisonously at them as she spun her bulk away from them as she stormed away as much as a very bovine-like woman could.