Chapter Two : Brothers
Philippe de Lorraine never thought he would go to Paris with the court. This was surely the result of what had happened during the hunt. His punishment was to be Philippe Mancini's servant for three months. When he learned the King's decision, he thought he would rather be whipped, at least the torture wouldn't last that long.
There was nothing that he didn't hate about that Italian dandy. But most of all, he hated when Mancini read books he couldn't understand, talked about poetries and theatres of Paul Scarron that were totally strange to him. He later discovered a portrait of Scarron and it just released a butterfly into his stomach.
The Cardinal had decided to return to Paris. It seemed that Gaston of Orléan was finally willing to make peace. Now it was the time for the regent to regain power in the capital. He wrote to his eldest niece Laure Mancini and asked her to bring her brothers and sisters to Paris for a family reunion.
It would be a whole day's travel from St. Germain-en-Laye to Paris. The Lorraine boy couldn't bear the discomfort on horseback. He tried to play some charm and ask Laure to take him in the carriage. But as he peeped inside the carriage he noticed a boy sitting beside Olympe and her younger sister Marie- a black-haired boy wearing a deep blue travel coat who had pale skin and big green eyes.
Philippe de Lorraine quickly hide himself to avoid being seen by that black-haired boy. No. He no longer wished to have anything to do with duke of Anjou since that day of hunt.
The king's carriage just stopped because someone brought over a message. He was surprised to see it was his brother on horseback. Louis de Lorraine handed a letter from the front of Bordeaux to Queen Anne before starting to look for the Lorraine boy in the crowd.
" Over here!"He waved to his brother.
"Phillippe, I will go to Bordeaux with father, to war." Said his brother when he came over.
"What about me?"Asked the blond boy.
"I thought of bringing you with me, but I couldn't. We are at war in the south and you are too young to get close to those dangerous places. You should go to Paris with the king." Explained his brother, then he lowered his voice, "We couldn't afford being suspected to disobey the Cardinal again by deliberately taking you away from his nephew, could we? "
"But when will you come back?" To his surprise, the blond boy felt upset to be separated from his brother. After all his own brother was a much better company than Philippe Mancini.
"That will depend on the turns of the war and father's decision."
The king's carriage was moving again. The blond boy had no choice but to follow. His brother grabbed his hand quickly and bided him farewell.
"Be good and don' t get into trouble again!"
"If you go to war without me, you need to bring me a present, or I will never forgive you for leaving me behind." Said the younger Lorraine boy.
"Where am I supposed to find present on battlefield?" Retorted his brother.
The Mancini's carriage started to move, Phillippe de Lorraine rode on beside the carriage while thinking hard to make the task even more difficult for his brother.
"Find me a book of Paul Scarron!" The idea suddenly enlightened him, "And burn it in a monastery!"
He could hear his brother's heartily laughter from behind the carriage;
The sun was almost set when they arrived at the palace. The Lorraine boy was so tired that he felt sore from head to toe. Unfortunately he had to tend to the Mancini family first. Mademoiselle Olympe had not been in good mood since she fell from the horse and stopped taking ballet lessons with the king. She found a way to blame her sister Marie for everything. That evening when she got off the carriage, her long pearl necklace tangled with her sister's dress so she pushed Marie in displease.
The blond boy took the opportunity to hold Marie from behind.
"Be careful, my prettiest Mademoiselle Mancini." He whispered into her ears.
Blushed, Marie tried to push him away. The boy pretended to lose balance, laughing and staggering exaggeratedly a few steps before accidently stepped on someone else.
The blond boy turned around and regrettably found the Duke of Anjou who had been on the same carriage with the Mancini girls that evening. He must had been too tired to remember that.
The little Prince looked at him without any expression, taking off his gloves slowly, picking up a blond curly hair from his shoulder where the Lorraine boy had accidently touched and flicking it off with two slender fingers. Finally he wiped this coat again as if there had been some kind of dirt on it.
"Not even worth watching." Sneered the Prince before walking away.
The blond boy was furious. But except for making faces behind the duke's back, he dared not say anything.
When Philippe Mancini finally went to bed, the Lorraine boy was so exhausted that he quickly fell asleep the moment he threw himself to a couch outside the chamber. Yet he kept dreaming about candlelight. A light that wouldn't go off and hurt his eyes.
"Hey, wake up." Someone poked him. He tried to hide himself deeper in the couch but that obviously didn't work.
"Wake up now!" The person started dragging his hair.
"If you don't wake up now, I will tell my brother that you called me a freak."
The Lorraine boy immediately jumped up and sat straightly on the couch.
The Duke of Anjou was kneeling beside the couch, looking at him with a candle in his hand.
" Get up and follow me." Said the dude without any explanation.
"Where are we going?" Asked the blond boy. He tried to bend down to seek his boots left under the couch and noticed that the little duke wasn't wearing any shoes.
" There is a secret passage over there," The duke pointed at the corridors. " bringing us to the king's chamber."
"What?"The Lorraine boy cried out.
"Sh, hush!" The Duke of Anjou put one finger over his lips and blinked in candlelight. The shadows of his lashes were flickering on his face. "Don't wake up Phillippe." He casted a look at the chamber entry of the Italian young man.
So the Lorraine boy had to follow the little Prince in silence. He was not fully awake and was having a headache. He couldn't see very clearly in this condition. For a moment he thought he was walking in a painting, following a mysterious, beautiful shape in candlelight. Oh no! He corrected himself quickly, what am I thinking? What painting? Am I getting infected by Philippe Mancini?
"Say, your Highness, may I ask why you're going into the king's chamber? And why are you bringing me with you? It is midnight! What if his Majesty got angry? He punished me not long ago, remember? What if he got offended and wanted to punish me again? What if…"
The duke of Anjou suddenly stopped. The Lorraine boy was lucky enough not crashing into him this time.
"Do you ever stop talking?" Asked the duke.
" I when I am nervous." Replied the Lorraine boy.
It was the first time for him to see the little Prince actually smile.
" I haven't asked you the reason why you covered me and took punishment for me last time."
" Why? Because I am not stupid."Replied the Lorraine boy, " I knew the king was warning you, but he didn't want to punish his own brother so he hinted me to take the punishment."
The Duke of Anjou looked at him closely from the top of his blond hair to his swelling bare feet, starting to make the Lorraine boy uncomfortable.
" I guess you are right."Said the duke with a slight smirk," why does everyone know him better than I do?"
The blond boy had nothing to say.
" I see you also have a brother," Continued the duke, " You two seem to get along well. I bet you have never worried that your brother being angry with you or just ignoring you from time to time."
" My brother?" This comparison actually surprised the Lorraine boy, "But this is different…."
"Why? "Asked the duke swiftly, "Why different?"
The blond boy was once again unable to reply. But the duke was not expecting his answer. He turned his back and kept walking in the corridor.
" Do you know what happened last time in my brother's chamber when we were still in Paris?" He asked the Lorraine boy.
" I don't."
" The mob of the rebellions entered the place. They brought the valet with some gold and got into this secret passage. They went in my brother's chamber just like that."
The Lorraine boy never thought something like that would happen in a royal suddenly found the corridor quite terrifying.
"What happened then?" Asked him.
"Nothing." Replied the little Prince, "They just want to scare him. And he wouldn't give them the satisfaction so he was lying there, pretending to be asleep from beginning to end. "
They finally stopped at the end of the corridor.
"But the truth is, "Continued the Duke of Anjou, "He couldn't sleep by himself in that chamber ever since."
King Louis was sitting on bedside, wearing his night gown. He heard a sound from the secret passage and jumped off bed with alert, pulling out a knife from under his pillow.
"It's only me," Said the duke of Anjou calmly, "with Philippe de Lorraine."
"What are you doing in my chamber? "Asked the young king.
The Prince made no reply. He put down the candle, sealed the secret passage and indicated the Lorraine boy to help bringing an armchair to block the passage entry. Then he pushed the blond boy into that chair.
"No one can sit in an armchair when the king is standing." Louis pointed out.
" He is here to guard the secret passage for you tonight."Replied the duke of Anjou,"And you are going to lie down now."
"I'm not tired." Argued Louis angrily.
The little duke picked up a soft, fuzzy blanket and wrapped his brother up gently. The Lorraine boy noticed that the king did not look as scary as he remembered but more like an ordinary twelve-year-old boy. Half of his brownish red hair in the blanket and the other half mildly rubbed loose by his younger brother. Louis yawned carelessly.
"How is he ever going to be helpful? "The king shoot a glance at the blond boy in the armchair.
" You want real guards instead? To let them know that you cannot sleep because you are afraid of something coming out through that passage door?" Asked the king's brother.
" He will also talk."
"No he won't. I got his weakness."
The Lorraine boy had to look away. My God, Father, brother, Holly spirits and whatever, why on earth didn't you bring me to war? He thought silently, eyes almost filled with tears.
Louis said nothing more. He wrapped himself tightly in the blanket and sank deeply into the pillow with eyes closed. The duke of Anjou laid down beside him and rested his head on his brother's shoulder.
"When will mother come back?"
"Tomorrow."
"Is she meeting our uncle? "
"That is asecret. I cannot tell you."
"Laure told me that Cardinal wants to marry her to the Duke of Mercoeur so that he will support Cardinal in return. But that man is twenty-four years older than she is. She was crying in the carriage for a whole day. Can you think of any way to save her from this marriage? I like Laure. I don't want her to marry."
Louis did not answer. His brother moved a little bit to have a look, only found the king fast asleep.
The Lorraine boy did not know how many times he had slid down from the armchair and had to climb back on it again. But the last time he saw fires downstairs from the window and finally accepted that he would not get any decent sleep that night.
He went to shake the royal bothers awake. They had been sleeping with their heads together.
"There are people in the garden."Reported the Lorraine boy, " Shouting something I can't tell."
"They are shouting 'Free Condé'!"Replied Louis when he jumped off the bed. "Philippe come here!" He was calling his brother by Christian name.
Louis opened a big chest in the chamber and tried to push his brother inside it.
"I won't hide!"Cried the little duke, struggling and making his black-hair scattered. "We should run by the secret passage!"
"The secret passage is no longer safe." Explained Louis, " We cannot run together. One of us must hide and the other must attract attention."
" You should hide. You are the king."
"THE KING MUST NOT HIDE!" Shouted Louis. "That is my order! And it is your DUTY to obey me!"
He took advantage when his brother was frozen by this fierce claims and pushed the duke in the chest, closing the cover quickly.
Then he ran to the door.
A man dashed into his chamber and took him by the waist. There were lying guards all over the corridor.
" Is this Louis Dieudonné himself ? " The man exclaimed at the top of his voice," Let us see how miraculous he can be!"
The mob behind him was laughing so hard.
" Get your hands off me!" Cried Louis, " My guards are on their way!"
" Your guards, your majesty? Do you mean this one?" The man who grabbed the young king by his collar kicked someone on the ground. It was the poor, unfortunate Lorraine boy who had been beaten hardly in the face. He was sitting there miserably with a bleeding nose.
"I don't think your guards will be on their way so I suggest you go swimming with us…"Laughed the man before he led the mob away with the young king under his arm.
The Lorraine boy struggled up from the ground in horror. The only thing he wanted to do was run away. He was already at the door when he saw from his eye's corner that one man from the mob had not left.
That man was slowly approaching the chest where hided the Duke of Anjou, looking at a piece of blue silk gown showing at the edge of the chest.
This may be one of the strangest moments of his life. Philippe de Lorraine could have ran away by instinct, but instead he felt something he never felt before and stood there hesitating. His blood was roaring inside him.
He would never understand where the courage had come from, but he did it without thinking. He pulled out the knife from under the king's pillow and dashed to that man.
The next moment he heard painful cries, that man was lying on ground, rolling all over with a wounded hand. He swiftly opened the trunk and dragged the duke of Anjou out of if.
" Run! Run quickly! They got your brother!"
The two boys ran as fast as they could, hand in hand. Their bare feet made no sound in the corridors. The Lorraine boy was too excited to feel any pain. The only thing he could remember at that moment was the feeling of another hand within his grasp, a sweaty hand clinching desperately to his own.
The queen's guards were now rushing into the garden from the east gate and dispelled the mob. The duke of Anjou finally let go his hand and ran to his mother. Queen Anne held him tightly with tears.
"Where is my first born?" The queen cried hoarsely, " Where is Louis? Where is the King of France?"
"They said they would go swimming with him." Replied the Lorraine boy.
"Swimming?" Repeated Anne surprisingly, "My God! Go to the pool! Immediately! "
The guards found a rope tiding on a tree beside the pool and dragged King Louis XIV out off the water by it. The king was wet all over and hardly breathing. But when the guards laid him on the ground he coughed and spat out lots of water.
The Queen mother burst into tears. She knelt down on the ground and started to pray. Everyone else had followed her to do the same. "God save Louis XIV!" They cried out.
The boy King once again proved himself to be a God given miracle.
Philippe de Lorraine was kneeling there with his head down. After a while he made a sign of the cross and stand up. At the very moment he caught the eyes of the Duke of Anjou staring at him.
He wiped his nose absent-mindedly, knowing that it was still blood stained and wasn't pretty..He had difficulty to understand how the boy in front of him could managed to survive that terrible night without being touched, remaining to be so clean and beautiful as if the would couldn't change him a bit.
But something did change him, thought the blond boy, he couldn't tell when and how. The Prince's eyes were brighter and his breaths heavier.
He was still wondering when the little Prince decided to take one step forward, grabbing his shirt and kissing him. It was completely unexpected.