By Any Other Name

Chapter 11

"Guards!" screamed Gardeau as the heavy wooden table smashed into his hip throwing his shot at the miserable Comte off. He looked up in time to see her wide panicked eyes from where she stood panting. Her chair had been thrown back in her effort to push the table into him.

Athos and Aramis had drawn weapons and were currently engaged with the guards who descended on the pair like hungry wolves over a carcass. One guard grabbed Christine roughly by the arm and she cried out. She pulled her blade from the folds of her skirt and plunged it into her captor. He immediately released his grip on her arm and fell. She relieved him of his blade just as another of the guards set his sights on her.

Once the pistol had been fired, Athos had no opportunity to look to see where the shot had gone, but hearing Aramis drawing his rapier and engaging the guards to his right, he drew his as well and met the first attackers that leapt forward at their master's call. The first man fell easily, but they were severely outnumbered. He heard Christine cry out and his head whipped from side to side trying to place her in the room, but everywhere he turned more men seemed to spring from the shadows.

Aramis turned as Gardeau's cry went out and he met the charging guards head on. He fired his pistol as he drew his sword. The first man fell swiftly to his blade but he was quickly replaced by another. Aramis threw his elbow into the face of the man and followed through with a swipe from his parrying dagger.

Then he heard her cry out and his heart stopped.

He plunged his dagger into the breast of his foe, letting it remain there as he turned and ran towards Christine, mounting the fallen dining chair and running across the table's surface to come to a rest at her side just as she met an attacker with the rapier she had pulled from her previous combatant. He stood at her side and deftly fought any man who dared approach his wife. Two more fell to his skill as she defeated her own enemy.

The Lord Gardeau was beside himself as he watched her wield the weapon. The delicate flower he had coveted was stripped away. He watched as her guard flew to her side and the way he reached for her as they defeated his men.

Aramis held her close for half a second as they both acknowledged their relief that the other was uninjured.

With a roar D'Artagnan and Porthos forced their way into the room. They immediately engaged with the remaining men, standing on either side of Athos.

"Aramis! Go!" cried Athos as another man fell to his deadly blade. Aramis nodded and grasping her hand, pulled Christine from the room.

The Lord Gardeau roared and chased after them, nearly colliding with the two men who had been stationed at the front door. They had abandoned their post hearing the commotion from inside and were drawn into the melee.

The Lord's rage had peaked. He plunged his blade into his own hapless man, tossing the body aside in his pursuit of Christine and Aramis.

He had been betrayed again! She had played him as a fool! She was no Duchess!

Blood dripped from his expensive jacket and tarnished his golden hair and buttons.

He roared again as he kicked the doors open to the room where the jewels had been stored and fired his remaining pistol wildly at the pair. Christine cried out as she ducked for cover from the blast.

"Christine!" cried Aramis ferociously, dropping the bag of jewellery onto the floor at his feet as he ran to her side.

"I'm fine!" she panted, "Look out!" she said as she pushed him aside just in time to counter the wild overhead strike from Gardeau with her blade.

She cried out as her blade reverberated from the impact sending shooting pains up her arm. The force of the stroke was so great that she was unable to hold onto her weapon and she fell to the floor. The Lord was incensed, his eyes now a demonic black. He raised his blade again preparing to kill Christine in his rage.

"You lied to me! You're all the same! No woman can be trusted! You too will get what you deserve!" he cried out as he raised his blade to deliver the devastating stroke.

Christine scrambled backwards trying to put distance between herself and the mad Gardeau. Her back hit the crates of weapons and ammunition that sat next to the table that still sparkled with its ornate weaponry. She was trapped, pinned against the crates, but her grey eyes stared up at Gardeau defiantly as he raised his blade.

Suddenly, Aramis threw himself into Gardeau's body and the pair went crashing into the weapon-laden table. The men wrestled on the ground. Aramis came out on top when suddenly Gardeau managed to draw a thin knife he had secreted up his sleeve and he slashed out at Aramis. Aramis had brought his forearm up to defend himself and he felt the blade cut. It cut deep, tracing along the bone of his forearm. He rolled off the Lord and sprang to his feet, grasping a blade from the floor and discarding its ornate sheath.

Gardeau rose similarly, a rapier in his hand. "Who is she?" he snarled as he attacked Aramis with wild and deadly abandon. "What is she to you?"

Christine struggled to her feet, her arm sending white-hot pulses from her wrist to her shoulders as her muscles protested their abuse. She tried to focus as Aramis fought Gardeau. His snarl of pain as the blade cut his flesh shocked her out of her stupor. She saw Aramis and Gardeau face off once again.

Somewhere in the background there was an acrid smoke building. A candelabra had been knocked to the floor when the table was up-ended and the curtains were beginning to catch fire. Gardeau continued to attack Aramis, lashing out at his injured side.

Gardeau was an excellent swordsman and was fuelled by a lifetime of rage, and betrayal – one that he saw satisfied but revisited in the murder of his brother and the revelation that Christine was not, in fact, the Duchess de Bari.

Aramis managed to lock blades with Gardeau, both men sweating and panting heavily in the effort to overpower each other. Reaching forward, Gardeau grasped Aramis by his wounded arm. Aramis let out a strangled cry at the pain, but managed to hold on and continue to occupy the blade, though he was weakening under the continued pressure of Gardeau's grip.

Christine's gaze roved across the floor and spying the large green stone on the dagger that Athos has been examining the day before, she leapt for it.

"Who is she?" Gardeau snarled again as he increased the pressure on Aramis' forearm. He cried out once more, no longer able to fight off the man and the pain. He dropped his blade and a look of feral triumph sprang to Victor Gardeau's face.

He raised his blade in victory to deliver his killing blow…

But the stroke never fell.

The rapier suddenly fell from his hand as Gardeau let out an inarticulate cry. His arms flailed wildly as he turned to face a heavily panting Christine. The jewelled dagger was half-immersed in his back. With a violent thrust Aramis pushed the blade the remainder of the way in and Gardeau fell to his knees.

Aramis pulled Christine into him, sheltering her injured arm, his own damaged forearm bleeding heavily but forgotten for the time being.

Before them, Gardeau knelt gasping as his lungs filled with blood.

"What is she to you?" he muttered again, his eyes round and unfocused, blood speckling his mouth as he stared at the pair of them as if revisiting one of his worst memories as his life seeped away from him - betrayal.

"I'm his wife," said Christine proudly as the Lord Gardeau finally fell back, defeated, and breathed no more.

Aramis didn't stop. His hand found her face and he pulled her into a short but passionate kiss before breaking away. Their eyes scanned the burning curtains and their proximity to the crates of ammunition. His stomach dropped to his feet.

"Go!" he said pushing Christine in front of him. He bent over and grabbed the two bags holding the jewellery with his uninjured arm.

They met Athos, D'Artagnan and Porthos just as they emerged from the dining room.

"Run!" Christine cried as she blew past them, Aramis at her heels. The others did not need telling twice. They ran through the house out the back door by the kitchens. They could hear the pounding of the guards on the barrack's door. They fled to the stables where their horses stood tacked and mounted swiftly, Aramis seated behind Christine, pressing her to his chest.

They spurred their horses from the stable just as the east wing of the home erupted in a blaze of wood, orange fire and gunpowder.

oOo