Chapter one : Wild Horse
Saint Germain En-Laye, 1650
So this is the horse they all talked about.
A seven-year-old Phillippe de Lorraine was admiring a legendary horse in the king's stable. He was accompanied by one of the apprentices of the king's huntsman. Louis de Rohan, who was also a friend of his older brother. The horse was truly a sight to be seen. It was purely white with black hoof and bright brown eyes.
"You are not lying this time!" Lorraine cried excitedly. He reached out from outside of the stable fence to touch the horse.
"Be careful and don't blame me if you get hurt." Rohan tightened the lace of his boots and warmed the blond boy who was trying to climb over the stable door.
"If we were not so short of hands, I will certainly not ask a little boy like you for help. Did your brother explain your duties to you? When I am hunting with the king, you will stay in the stable, to answer the valets of the noblemen when they have to change a horse or saddle."
Phillipe hated the tone of Rohan. Rohan was actually no more adult than he was, but he liked to play superior just because he was the closest friend of the young king.
"If I was not so boring, I will not agree to help you anyway." Said the little boy with ill-temper. "My brother tells me that it is so easy to touch under the girls' dresses when you help them to mount a horse!"
Rohan pulled out a horse and snapped the boy hardly on the back of his neck.
"You talk dirty for a boy of your age."
Due to the Fronde, Anne of Australia, the queen regent had fled from Paris with the twelve-year-old king and those who remained close to her into the Castle of St. Germaine en-laye. It had been two years already. Henri de Lorraine did not come with her but only arrived recently. He was the master of horse in the king's household and also an important military man. During the rebellion he supported the royal family but was against Cardinal Mazarin. So he was sent to wars shortly after. His two sons were left in the castle and their life hadn't been easy. But little Philippe didn't care that much. His father was a stern man and he enjoyed more freedom when father was away.
The hunting festival was to celebrate the cease fire of St. Germain signed in January that year. But the castle of St. Germain en-laye was not an ideal place for hunting. Neither the size of the stable nor the distance from the forest could be suitable. This was the reason why the hutting did not go very well and they constantly needed more hands. Philippe however didn't care about that either. His only intension was to run away from his brother who was the only person who still controlled him and to have fun without being disturbed.
As soon as Rohan rode away, he went straightly into the stable and brought out that beautiful horse. He was planning to "borrow" a set of saddle and sneak away but he was unlucky because a group of young people just came to the stable and he almost ran into one of them.
"Watch carefully while you are walking, will you?" Said a young man arrogantly.
Phillippe de Lorraine raised his eyes and found none else but Phillipe Mancini, the nephew of Cardinal Mazarin looking at him impatiently, behind him were three ladies who must be his sisters.
"We need three horses." said Mancini, "We need to catch up with his majesty's hunting troupe."
"You may help yourselves." Replied the stable boy with a shrug. He tried to get away simply like this but the Italian young man stopped him.
" Are you one of the sons of that horse master who was sent away by my uncle?" He asked.
"Philippe, behave yourself and don't scare little boys." One of the Mancini sisters, a slightly elder young woman interrupted the conversation gently. She was very beautiful, and when she talked they could hear a heavy but pleasant Italian accent.
"You cute little thing." She touched the blond boy's face with a smile, "Do you mind helping us for three horses?"
Philippe de Lorraine smiled back in return to show his fondness to this pretty young woman.
"Three horses? Are you sure? Shouldn't there be four?"
Laure Mancini, the eldest niece of Cardinal Mazarin smiled again and looked back to the entry of the stable where the last girl following them was standing. For some reason she seemed to be unwilling to go inside but only chose to wait at the gate. She turned her back to them. Philippe could only see part of her blue dress and her long black hair. That young lady couldn't be much older than himself.
"Only Phillippe, Olympe and I will be needing horses." Said Laure.
It would be perfect if the Mancini family only produce girls and no boys at all! Thought Philippe de Lorraine. In order to gain some benefit, he did secretly touch the shank of Laure and Olympe when he helped them to their horses. He noticed that the third girl in blue dress did not want to ride, she had wandered around the stable while others were busy preparing, touching different saddles and stirrups.
"I have to ride on now." Philippe Mancini turned his horse by a circle at the stable gate in a most elegant way. "Will you ladies give me your blessings for the hunting?"
Both his two sisters already on horseback threw him kisses, but he didn't seem to be satisfied and would not leave. Instead, he rode back again to the stable.
"What about you?" He bent down a little from his horseback to talk to the black-haired girl in blue dress who had just come out from the stable.
"I am not going to bless you." The girl replied.
"Why not?"
"I hate hunting, especially in spring. I believe you are all senseless butchers."
"Does that include your bother?" Philippe Mancini laughed.
"Especially my bother." Replied the black-haired girl.
To thus Mancini made no further comments. He gave a whip to his horse and went away, stirring some dust behind him. His two sisters quickly followed him. Laure looked back to the black-haired girl before she sped up.
"See you around, little princess!" Said she loudly.
That little princess Laure had just called walked along a few steps towards their direction, her long black hair was moving in the wind. Philippe de Lorraine looked at her with curiosity. He found her very pretty. Not the same kind of glamourous beauty as the Mancini girls processed, but a more delicate and refined one. Yet he did not know who she was and couldn't even guess.
"What are you looking at?" The little princess wrinkled at him, "Bring that horse to me, now." She was pointing at the most beautiful horse that young Lorraine tried to steal earlier that morning.
"Didn't they just say you won't ride?" The boy was confused.
"You ask too many questions." The black-haired girl raised her chin slightly.
"You can choose another one, that one is taken." Said the blond boy He was now clearly offended.
The girl was quite surprise to be answered in this way. She raised her eyebrow.
"Do you know who you are talking to?" She asked.
"Who cares?" The boy rolled his eyes. It is true that he liked all pretty girls except those who were too arrogant. There were just as much like this one in the court. All they know is following around powerful people and being rude to less important ones. He decided that he had no time to please them in vain.
"My father is the king's horse master and I decide I get that horse today. Unless you can get the king's direct order, you are not going to have my horse."
He swung his whip on purpose to show off. For a moment he was rather pleased with himself until the girl grabbed him even harder than Phillippe Mancini had did earlier. He couldn't help moaning, she was too strong for a little girl.
"I say give me that horse!" Ordered the black-haired girl ferociously.
"Go get the king's order if you are able!" The Lorraine boy now lost his temper to this endless argument.
"Oh there is no need to call for the king." She said coldly when she picked up a stick on the grand, "You are going to obey ME."
Philippe de Lorraine was now astonished.
"You want to fight me?" Asked him unbelievably, "I never fight girls!"
"What girl?" The black-haired girl pulled open the front of her dress with one single hand. Following by another swift and efficient movement, the dress was completely stripped off and threw to the ground.
Philipp's mouth dropped. He couldn't even close it back. She was wearing a boy's shirt inside with riding breeches and boots.
He didn't get enough time to look closer because she ran into him in a sudden and punched him hard in the face.
The next moment both of them were on the grand, wrestling and rolling on each other. Young Lorraine had fought with his brother since like forever, he could get into the situation quickly in any ways possible. Tearing, biting, there was nothing that he would not dare. His opponent however, was not so experienced in fighting. Although some advantage had been taken by surprise, it was soon lost in the small battlefield. The blond boy now got his rival's hand pitched form the back, but while he was thinking of the next step, he happened to see that blue dress on the grass sliding into the mud, its decorative border completely ruined.
This made him paused for unknown reason. He tried to pull away the long black hair of his opponent to get a better look just to make sure whether this was a boy or a girl. By doing so, he had to slightly move his knees.
He regretted this in a second. The very moment he loosed his grasp, he received a good kick and then everything just turned dark.
Phillippe de Lorraine did not know how long it had been before he was wakened by the sound of loud hunting horn and horses. He opened his eyes and saw the entire hunting troupe before him. A young man leading the troupe was sitting on horseback and looking down upon him.
"Give him some water." Said the handsome young man on horseback. He had nice brown hair touched by dark red. Although seemingly not so different from any young man of his age, his blue eyes with calmness and wit did made him quite easy to be distinguished among a huge group of people.
"Mademoiselle Olympe had an accident during the hunting. She fell off her horse." Began the young man, "She told me that her saddle was loosed and broken. A boy in stable that she did not know has prepared her horse."
"This is Philippe de Lorraine, second son of the Count of Armagnac. " Explained Louis de Rohan riding beside the king.
"The count of Armagnac is fighting for me." Said king Louis. His voice was still soft like boy but his tone was settled almost like a man, "He will not indulge or tolerate his son to trouble Cardinal Mazarin's family."
"He is just a boy." Retorted Rohan, perhaps for friendship, perhaps just to avoid any consequences of his own."I assure you, Sire…"
The king raises one hand and stopped him from talking.
"Do you know who took that horse, boy?" He asked Philippe de Lorraine, "I remember ordering that no one can ride that horse except me."
The blond boy almost choked on the water he was drinking. He noticed that the very horse he had been fighting for was now standing a few steps away from the king. Its saddle was lost and one of the stirrups was hanging around its stomach.
"I…I don't know her." replied him quickly, "A black-haired girl in blue dress. That blue dress!" He pointed to the dress still buried in mud not far away.
He could see King Louis suddenly went out of color. He pulled his horse and turned to the guards.
"Guards! Go find the Duke of Anjou immediately!" Shouted him.
The whole troupe of the king's guards was now on action.
"You!" Louis stared angrily at the blond boy on the ground, "If anything should happen to my brother, you will be punished."
In about one hour the hunting troupe managed to find the Duke of Anjou, the younger brother of King Louis XIV. He fell off horseback near a promontory. That wild horse had been too difficult to handle. He was lucky because expect for a broken ankle he was not seriously hurt.
As he saw from a distance that everyone was looking for him and the king himself was calling his name, he seemed to be embarrassed and his face blushed scarlet.
Louis got off horseback quickly and almost ran to his brother, putting his hands on his brother's cheeks, examining the little scratches that could be seen there. They were not serious but just very obvious. Among all people only Philippe de Lorraine would know that those scratches did not came from the fell but their fight by the stable.
"Does this hurt?" Asked the king to his brother softly.
The young duke shook his head.
"I told you that horse is too wild for you, why don't you just listen to me?"
The duke did not answer, he only lowered eyes.
"This is the second accident today. The king was now talking loudly to everyone, removing his hands from his brother's face.
"In the morning the council proposed that we go back to Paris in one week."He said loud and clear, "My mother thinks that we should do so to regain our control and power in the north region. But not all of you support this proposal…"
The noblemen in the hunting troupe made no sound. They were all listening to the young king.
"Cardinal Mazarin will be the one who makes the final decision." Continued Louis, "And none of his family member who he entrusted to me shoud have any accident before that. I hope I made myself clear enough."
Then he looked back to his brother.
"Mademoiselle Olympe goes to ballet lessons with me recently,"he told his brother, "I admit that she is sometimes —overexcited and not knowing how to behave."
The scarlet color on the face of Duke of Anjou now completely diminished. He turned quite pale in a sudden.
The king leant himself to his brother, talking into his ears.
"But she is one of the nieces of Cardinal Mazarin. She. Is. Our. Guest."
"Did my brother go to the stable with the Mancini girls?" The king now turned to young Philippe de Lorraine, "and has he touched the saddle of Mademoiselle Olympe?"
The blond boy was completely caught in surprise this time.
"Be careful with your answer, boy. Remember you already made a mistake."
For the first time in his life, Philippe de Lorraine realized that he was involved in something very important. And he also realized that despite the age, the name and the appearance, some people could be truly distinguished from the others.
"Answer your king." Louis asked again.
The blond boy looked at the duke of Anjou who was standing behind the king，a boy who called Philippe just like himself whose face was now as pale as marble and eyes losing focus for some kind of horror.
"No, Sire." He opened his month finally, "His highness was standing outside the stable all the time. I prepared the saddles all by myself. It was completely my fault."
"Very well, you will be punished." Louis nodded and turned away, "Since you are still a boy and this is the first time you make a mistake, I won't be too harsh on you. But you really need to learn the lesson. "
"Yes, sire." The Lorraine boy bowed deeply.
Then the king left, followed by everybody else.
Not knowing if he was finally left along, he didn't dare to raise head for a very long time and kept looking at his shoes until he felt a hesitate touch around the elbow.
The blond boy suddenly became angry again.
"You are a freak. Do you know that?" He looked up and said cruelly. "A freak! It will not surprise me that Philippe Mancini only pretends to like you! In fact I don't even believe your own brother likes you!"
Revenge was sweet.
Phillipe de Lorraine laughed when he left the duke of Anjou all alone by himself in the cold spring weather. The wind was not yet gentle enough to blow away all the troubles.
So the little duke stood there with his long black hair moving in the wind. He looked as if he was a frozen porcelain doll.