I am trying to finish the chapter in the midst of dealing with a major auto repair and several other things. I finished the first piece of it, and decided to post this part, and hopefully the rest of the chapter tomorrow. I hope you enjoy, and if you have a few moments, let me know!
Aramis finally took his hands away from his eyes as they became more accustomed to the light, squinting up at Richelieu's red-clad figure looking down at him.
Speaking in a voice raspy with disuse, he struggled to make himself heard as he said, "Do you honestly think you are going to get away with this?" deliberately leaving out Richelieu's title, and knowing full well that the man was vain enough to notice and be upset about it. "My brothers will find me, even if it is after my death. They will not stop until they uncover the trail that will lead back to you. Your position as Minister does not give you leave to do this. Your arrogance and conceit..." not being able to continue when an irate Richelieu roared back at him.
"Silence, or I will have you gagged!" he responded angrily. "I can do this and much more, and no one will question my authority. You, my reprobate Musketeer, are living on borrowed time. You will feel my wrath for your words, never doubt that. You will be punished daily from this time forward in a manner I will proscribe. Maybe it will curb that unruly tongue of yours," whirling around dramatically and slamming shut the gate.
Richelieu spoke to the leader of his men, outlining what he wanted done before leaving to return to the palace.
Once he had left, a ladder was dropped down ino the pit, and the mocking voice of the men's leader spoke once again. "You really shouldn't have angered him. We have our orders." Aramis heard the clinking of metal as the man moved.
Reaching the bottom of the ladder, he looked down at Aramis, then indicated the rim of the pit, which was again ringed with weapons pointed at him.
When the man lifted his arm up into the air, Aramis beheld a length of chain dangling from it. The man reached down and grabbed Aramis' shackled hands and attached the chain he held to the chain linking his prisoner's hands together. He them walked over to the wall and locked the other end to an iron ring on the wall.
"We are to carry out our orders once each day. This will keep you from attempting the move you tried before. He does not want you killed," he paused for a moment, "yet." But he desires you to be punished for lack of respect."
Before Aramis had an inkling of what the man was going to do, a booted foot hit him solidly in the stomach. As he gasped from the pain of the unexpected attack, the man laughed and began climbing back up the ladder.
As he watched, his breath coming in gasps, the grate was closed and locked. The light disappeared, and he was alone once again. Curling up as much as he could into a fetal position, he fought against the despair gradually growing stronger in him.
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Back once more in the garrison, Athos, Porthos and d'Artagnan sat down with Laurent. They began asking him questions. He was now completely open to answering whatever he was asked.
As anxious as they were to see if he might have any information they could use to help them to find their missing brother, they knew they needed to go slowly. They would be dredging up old and painful memories of the only family left to him in the word, of his life with a brother who had mercilessly bullied him, and it would not be easy for him to relive them.
"My brother never really earned wages honestly," he said in answer to a question about how they paid for a place to live and the food they ate. "He would be around the house during the day, drinking. At night, he would go out and meet some men down the street. I peeked through the window once and saw five or six of them meeting up with him. He wouldn't come back until early in the morning, just after dawn. But he almost always had coins jingling in his pocket. I asked him once where he went every night, but he got upset and hit me so hard I landed against the wall, so I didn't dare ever ask him anything again. He has always had a very bad temper. I heard him once talking to someone just outside the door before he came in. He probably thought I was still asleep. They were talking about some man they had beaten up."
The Musketeers looked at each other, their thoughts when hearing of the character of Laurent's brother were immediately of Aramis helpless in the hands of such a man. He was very clever with his words, but would they anger the man, cause the same kind of violent reaction? And what of the rest of the men holding him now? Were they of the same ilk? They also still had no idea of who had hired them, or the reason behind taking him.
Laurent was speaking again. "I just tried to avoid him as much as possible, but we lived in a one-room building, so it was difficult. I did whatever he told me to do, cooking, cleaning, errands. I didn't question anything he told me to do. I was afraid of him. He even..."stopping at the memory of something else.
D'Artagnan gently asked him, "What else did your brother do, Laurent? Take your time."
Laurent slowly said, "He...My father told him once...he told him he was no good. He said Mattieu should ...get out. My brother...he ...hit my father...so hard. His head hit the wall. He just crumpled up...down the wall. He ...just laid there," the tears were falling now, the memories tearing him apart. But he continued. "My mother...she...she was never the same again. One day, I came back...from doing an errand. She...she was...laying on the floor."And then, he couldn't go on any more, the sobs overwhelming him.
D'Artagnan put an arm around his shoulder, and pulled him against his own, letting him take his time getting his emotions under control again. He looked up at Athos and Porthos, all three of them's eyes reflecting their unspoken thoughts again of Aramis helpless in the hands of such men. Each one of them was suppressing the thought that that they might not see their brother again.