Now...

As they entered the house they realised it had been a collection of separate apartments and not a home for a single family. A staircase in the centre of a hallway led up two floors with four doors leading off the ground floor hallway.

They had not met any resistance as they walked into the hallway. Porthos looked around carefully. There was no sign of anyone loitering in the hallway or on the stairs.

He said quietly, 'odd that there isn't anyone to greet us... you don't suppose the old woman was mistaken?'

'She wasn't,' said Aramis from a few yards away.

The marksman was looking at the ground by the staircase, he pointed to something.

'Drops of blood, this must be the right place.'

He looked up the stairs.

'Let's check this floor first,' said Athos.

Aramis nodded, as he crossed to the closest door. It was unlocked. Porthos remained by the door as Athos and Aramis checked the apartment. His friends moved from room to room quietly and efficiently. They all had their guns drawn. As the two men returned to the main door Porthos moved off to the next apartment.

He pushed the door open. Athos followed him in while Aramis stopped by the door looking up the stairs again.

The first room that Porthos entered had several items of furniture, the dust sheets had been removed and evidence of the former occupants was littered around. The homeless Parisians who had been using the rooms had clearly left in a hurry. Porthos wondered if they would have the opportunity to return to the shelter once they had dealt with Robert.

Porthos returned to the internal hallway of the apartment and waited for Athos to reappear from the room he was checking. The swordsman did not take long.

'Nothing,' he said as they began to walk back towards the door of the apartment.

They were both a little surprised to find the door shut. They were more surprised to find the heavy door was also locked.

MMMM

Aramis took a few steps towards the stairs, he was convinced he had heard something. Someone was on the first-floor landing. A floorboard creaked again. Aramis was sure someone was there. He reached the bottom step of the stairs. He glanced back at the door of the apartment Athos and Porthos were searching, he guessed it would do no harm for him to walk up the first few steps and see if anyone was loitering on the landing.

Keeping his gaze upwards and his gun ready Aramis crept up the stairs. As he reached the first turn of the staircase he saw a movement. Without thinking he ran up the rest of the stairs to the first floor. A figure had just disappeared into the first apartment. Aramis followed them. He slowly made his way through the rooms, checking each one carefully. The door was open in the last room, he paused by the door before peering around.

When he found the room empty he took a few paces away. A creak from the room behind him had him pause. Slowly he adjusted his grip on his gun, readying the weapon for firing. He turned quickly and fired missing the man behind him by no more than an inch. Robert smirked as he grabbed Aramis' still outstretched arm.

Aramis pushed the man away with his left arm, Robert stumbled sideways but regained his footing as Aramis reached him. He swung a punch, Aramis ducked out of the way pulling his sword at the same time. Robert rushed forward ignoring the slice of the sword across his side. He pushed Aramis away again, as the marksman was pushed back he kicked out, knocking the man in his thigh causing him to fall to one knee. Aramis took a step back and prepared to kick the man again, this time in the chest.

As he moved forward Aramis found himself immobilised by strong hands on his arms, pulling him back, pinning his arms to his sides. He struggled but could not escape the hold of the man whose arms were encircling him.

Robert slowly rose to stand, a smirk playing on his face.

'Where is he?' asked Aramis as he pulled at the man holding him with no success.

'I wondered if you would find me first...you have saved me the trouble of finding you.'

Aramis frowned, not understanding what Robert was saying.

'He's here somewhere, I'll find him,' retorted Aramis, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt.

Robert took a couple of steps toward Aramis. He looked beyond the marksman and nodded.

Aramis was twisted to the side and pushed into the wall. Whoever had grabbed him was stronger than him and held him there with ease despite his best efforts to push them off.

Robert appeared at his side, 'now that you are also my guest we can begin the second part of my revenge for what you did to George.'

Robert chuckled when he saw the confused look on Aramis face.

'You think d'Artagnan was taken by mistake, don't you? My letter obviously worked. I intended to take d'Artagnan. I want you to suffer as I did. I want you to know what it is to lose a sibling. I know you treat him as if he were a brother. A little brother. I'm going to take from you what you took from me.'

As he spoke Robert had been unbuckling Aramis' weapons belts, he roughly pulled them from the restrained man. The big man holding Aramis against the wall pushed into him making it difficult for the marksman to breath.

Aramis could not believe he had allowed himself to be caught so easily, his worry about d'Artagnan had clouded his usually quick mind. As Robert's words sunk in Aramis desperately tried to work out what he should do. He did not want to call out to Athos and Porthos in case Robert did not know they were there. His friends were his best hope of escaping the vengeful man. He hoped they had heard the gunshot.

The man pinning him to the wall pulled him away and dragged him to stand in the middle of the room, a second, equally brutish and large man moved to stand on the other side of him. Each man had a fistful of Aramis' doublet clutched tightly in their hand, preventing him from moving away.

Robert had moved to stand in front of his captive, 'I think your brother will probably be ready for a last and final meeting with Bardet. We shall go down to join him.'

The man to Aramis' left shifted slightly, Aramis glanced at the man's fisted hand and noticed some dried blood which he suspected was not Bardet's.

Aramis pulled at the two men holding him, 'it's me your issue is with, let him go. He didn't hurt George…'

'But he was there...and you killed my brother so I am going to kill yours.'

'George was trying to kill both of us...I had no choice, I didn't want to kill him…'

Aramis was prevented from any further explanation as Robert punched him across the face catching his cheek and jaw. It took the marksman a few seconds to regain his composure, he scowled at Robert.

'You did not have to kill him.'

Aramis knew there was no point trying to reason with the man.

A loud bang distracted all four men. The two men holding Aramis both turned to look behind them slightly loosening their grip as they did so. Aramis was the first to react. He swung both his arms down and back causing the men to let go of him. As they did so Aramis brought his arms up behind the men and pushed them forward, towards Robert in one swift movement. The big men knocked Robert to the ground, all three landing in a heap.

Aramis did not see the aftermath of his escape, he ran from the room with haste, continuing passed the stairs towards where he hoped to find a servant's staircase. Robert had stated that d'Artagnan was being kept on a lower floor, Aramis guessed his friend was in a cellar or a servant's area below the ground floor. With luck, the back staircase would take him straight to his brother.

As he wrenched the door open and found what he was looking for he glanced back in time to see the two big men heading down the main staircase. Aramis knew he had a few seconds to spare, he intended to use it wisely to find his brother before Robert did.

MMMM

'Where do you think 'e went?' asked Porthos.

The two men had tried banging on the door to draw Aramis' attention. Initially they had thought the door might have swung shut and somehow become stuck. When there was no sign of the marksman Porthos had put his shoulder to the door with no success.

'I have no idea, he was keen to look upstairs,' replied Athos as they looked around the apartment for something to use to break the door down.

'Let's try this,' suggested Porthos pointing at a broken off piece of mantlepiece, probably set aside to burn in the hearth by the most recent inhabitants of the apartment.

Between them, they hauled the heavy piece of wood towards the door. After a moment to ready themselves, they swung their improvised battering ram at the door. It took them several swings before the heavy door began to splinter.

They dropped the piece of wood. Athos stood back as Porthos gave the remains of the door a swift kick. The door swung open revealing the gurning faces of two big broad men waiting for them in the hallway.

Athos ducked back, narrowly avoiding being shot by one of the men. He glanced across to Porthos who had been forced to do the same. They pulled their own guns and stepped forward ready to aim at the men only to find them both charging through the door at them.

The two men were surprisingly quick for their size. Athos' gun was pushed aside before he could properly aim. The man wrapped his meaty hand around Athos' wrist and squeezed with enough pressure to make Athos yelp in pain and drop his gun. The man pushed Athos back towards the closed door of one of the rooms of the apartment. As he hit the door Athos managed to regain his wits. He could not draw his sword whilst his right arm was held captive by the man in front of him. Athos reached around for his main gauche and started to pull it out. The man, who clearly had training in combat anticipated the move, he twisted Athos right arm around, forcing him to turn and lose contact with his main gauche which was half drawn. As he was pushed face first into the door he heard the weapon crash to the ground uselessly.

Before the man could attack him further, Athos used his still free left hand to turn the handle on the door he was pressed up against. He knew it was a risky move, but he was running out of options. The door swung open, Athos pushed forward. The man, not expecting the move lost his balance, falling forward. Athos turned back around as the man fell pulling lose at the same time, in one quick motion he pulled his sword and pushed it into his assailants back. The man struggled for a few seconds, his limbs moving, seemingly with no direction, before he became still. A final breath escaped him with a sigh.

MMMM

Aramis took a quick look around the corner before ducking back to the safety of the stairwell. It looked deserted, but he could not take any chances with no weapons to defend himself with. He took another look to satisfy himself before hurrying along the dimly lit corridor looking in each room as he passed.

One room had the door half open he paused for a second before resting his hand on it and slowly pushing it. His eyes widened at the sight within.

D'Artagnan was lying, tied to a small low bed, ropes wound tightly around his wrists and ankles. The man had clearly been beaten, blood and bruising covered his face. His clothes were twisted, a couple of the buttons on his doublet were missing.

But his friend was conscious and staring in his direction, a stunned look on his face.

'No,' said the restrained man quietly, 'you need to go...he wants to hurt you.'

'I know, we've already had a chat,' said Aramis as he hurried into the room and began to untie the rope around d'Artagnan's right wrist.

'There are men…'

'I know I've had a chat with them as well,' replied Aramis with a wry smile.

'Robert wants to kill me to get back at you for George,' d'Artagnan said.

'I know.'

'Are you on your own, did he take you as well?'

'Athos and Porthos are here...somewhere,' Aramis replied glancing upwards.

He had not been able to work out why his brothers had not appeared either when he was talking to Robert or now that he had found d'Artagnan. He hoped that nothing untoward had occurred.

D'Artagnan gasped, looking over Aramis' shoulder. Without looking Aramis knew his time was up.

MMMM