Aramis handed me a letter with the royal seal on it.
"Your father should read this, it comes from the king himself
"Well ... do we want to leave?" Asked Porthos.
"Yes, it's time," I said, getting on Raoul's back. I rode back home with the two musketeers. This took us about 3 days. We spent the nights outdoors, but the Musketeers were so kind as to provide me with something like a tent with their uniforms. The two musketeers also took turns keeping watch. We had no difficulty in getting to Louches, in spite of everything I was relieved when our house finally came into view.
"Father!" I called happily when I got home. It was late in the evening and my father hadn't even dreamed that we would be visit him now. My father was at dinner, but then jumped up in surprise and hugged me: "Jeanne, there you are again!" He said.
He invited the musketeers to the table and served our best wine to celebrate the day.
"Thank you for bringing my daughter back," said father.
"But that's not all," said Porthos.
Aramis nodded encouragingly and I gave my father the king's letter.
He opened it without hesitation and began to read. I could watch my father's eyes widen. Then tears came to his eyes as he put down the letter: "My daughter ... a national heroine ... you should be called Jeanne D'arc!"
I got very embarrassed and looked down. Jeanne D'arc? National heroine? That was a little exaggerated ...
My father looked at the two musketeers for a long time in silence before he said: "Would it be too much to ask if you could help us move?"
Now I was the one who made big eyes: "Moving ??? Why that?" I asked the group.
"The king asks us into the palace. He has already made rooms available to us. The king wants to rehabilitate us," said father.
At that moment I was so incredibly happy as I had not for a long time. The time of poverty seemed over, we could go back to the palace. My father provided the two musketeers with straw mattresses to sleep on. I slept in my bed and got up early the next morning. My father borrowed an ox and a donkey with a cart from the neighbor, where we could transport our belongings. In the evening everything was stowed away and we set off. It was mainly Porthos who looked after the donkey on a tow line. The donkey was, unfortunately ... its species true and totally stubborn. He often stopped for no reason, so that Porthos almost fell from the saddle. We often heard Porthos scolding the donkey loudly: "You damn beast! Get moving or I'll pull the fur over your ears!"
But that made the donkey even more stubborn and puffed up its ears.
"Porthos has no patience ..." said Aramis.
"Obviously," said father.
When we entered a village in the evening and wanted to spend the night in a tavern, a bottle of wine came flying towards us. Then the landlord dragged a totally drunk soldier out of the tavern. Obviously the soldier had started a fight. But we got rooms anyway. My father slept in one room with the musketeers and I, as a woman, got a single room. The landlord could not be persuaded, although I said that I didn't mind sleeping with the men in the same room. Well, I wasn't a little kid anymore and there are different rules.
After another 3 days of riding we reached Paris. When we arrived at the gates of the Louvre, Aramis announced to us at the house and court master: "Count Jaques de Fleur and his daughter Jeanne."
"Greetings, sir. A maid will escort you to your apartments. I estimate that you will want to get ready before the king receives you."
A shy looking maid stepped forward and we first said goodbye to the musketeers. The maid led us through many corridors until she went to a door and opened it.
"This is your room, sir," she said with a curtsey.
Then she went to the door across from the room that had been assigned to my father: "And here is your room, Madame." She also said with a curtsey. When I entered the room, she said, "Pull the bell rope if you want something."
Then she closed the door of my room and I heard the door of the other room slam. I looked around in amazement. The room was huge and lined with velvet and gold everywhere I looked. There was a huge four-poster bed in the room and a sofa with a coffee table. A huge wardrobe was built into the wall, where I found beautiful dresses made of the finest fabrics. Through a small door I came into a bathroom that was covered with marble and gold. I hadn't seen so much pomp in a long time. I picked out a dark blue dress with gold decorations on it. White lilies were embroidered on the corset, which reminded me a little of the uniform of the Musketeers. In addition, the dark blue reflected the color of my eyes well. When I looked in the mirror, however, I noticed that my brown, shoulder-length hair was totally tangled and dirty. So I had to wash my hair first, because that way I couldn't possibly appear before the king. I did that alone because I wasn't used to it any other way. I rubbed my hair dry for half an hour ... then I tied my hair back in a ponytail and put on the dark blue dress with the white embroidery of lilies. I was surprised that the dress fit almost like a glove, although I had a Rubens figure and looked at myself again in the large mirror next to the four-poster bed, which had a golden frame. Suddenly there was a knock on the door.