Hi:
I am going through writers block. This chapter is a bit shorter than usual. Please review.
vonny25
Chapter 7
D'Artagnan guided Anne to the table, and helped her to sit down, they both turned there gaze towards the kitchen door, as they saw Philippe, running out, dragging Adelyn behind him, who was swatting at him with a kitchen rag, while desperately telling him, "Philippe wait I need to get my apron off!"
Philippe stopped abruptly with Adelyn crashing in to him, as he turned towards her face, and said, "Here let me get that apron off." Without giving her a chance to turn around he puts his arms around her waist, and started untying her apron, as her face turned crimson red.
D'Artagan and Anne were chuckling, fighting not laugh out loud, as the young couple was so cute. Out of the kitchen came Margie a middle age woman that had a few burn scars on her face, she told Philippe, "Messier Philippe, get your hands off Madam Adelyn! Has your dear grandmother not told you to keep your hands off Lady's! Philippe let go of Adelyn, and Margie finished taking Adelyn's apron off. While Anne looked at the scene amused.
Margie told the young couple, "Now go and sit down, I'm serving breakfast, hush now!" Philippe grabbed Margie's hand, and kissed it, before she went in to the kitchen, huffing and puffing. D'Artagnan cleared his throat, to remind Philippe that his mother was there. The young man, straightened up, and offered his arm to Adelyn.
Anne was smiling while sitting at the table. D'Artagnan was standing by her, not knowing if he should laugh, or reprimand the young people. Philippe approached his mother, bowed, took her delicate hand, with his strong callus hand, and kissed it, he said, "Good morning mother, I would like to introduce you to Adelyn, I am courting her, with her father's, and my father's permission." Adelyn curtsied before the queen, and Philippe said, "Adelyn this is my mother."
Anne stood up, and hugged Philippe; the she hugged Adelyn and said, "It is nice to meet you Adelyn, I see you make my son happy." Adelyn curtsied, and said in a low voice, "Your majesty it's an honor to meet you, I am at your service." Anne looked surprised; she did not expect Adelyn to know who she was. After they sat down, D'Artagnan said, "Anne, Adelyn is the daughter of Serge, who used to be the wine master at the palace. Philippe and she are very much in love, she knows everything."
Anne thought that she would have to spend some time getting to know Adelyn. She realized that it was unlikely she would betray Philippe, after what Louis had done to her father. D'Artagnan said grace, and a few minutes later, Margie came out with the breakfast trays, and set them in the middle of the large round table. Anne smiled at Adelyn, and told her, "Adelyn, being that you are so close to my Phillippe, I would like for you to call me Anne." The girl smiled shyly, and nodded her ascent
D'Artagnan served Anne, and the rest serve themselves. Anne said, "Margie is a good cook, I love her pastries." Philippe said, "I am sure Margie is a good cook, but Adelyn was the one that made breakfast." Anne looked at Adelyn, and asked, "Did your mother teach you how to cook? My dear" The girl said without looking directly at Anne, "Yes, your m…Anne, she was a cook at the palace before marrying my father." Anne thought about it and said, "Is your mother's name Annette?" The girl said, "That was her name."
Philippe decided to intervene, and told his mother, "Unfortunately the mother of Adelyn has left this world. I wish I had met her. I am convinced she was an amazing woman, as she raised Adelyn to be the wonderful person she is." Adelyn blushed again, and Anne said, "I am sorry to hear your mother has died, when I was young she used to take pastries to my room, she was a good woman."
After breakfast, Adelyn excused herself, and went to the kitchen to start cooking the next meal. Philippe, D'Artagnan, and Anne went to living area to catch up with each other.
Anne said, "I cannot believe that finally after all this years, I get to visit with you, I want to know all that I've missed."
D'Artagnan responded, "My dear Anne, in Philippe we have an amazing son, I am glad that you will have a chance to get to know him. As you can see we lead a simple life, we work hard, and fortunately, it is paying off. We finish building this house a week ago, before that we lived in the cottage of my parents."
Ann asked, "Will I get to meet your parents?"
Philippe said, "Grandmother and grandfather decided to stay in the cottage for the next few weeks to give us privacy. Tomorrow night we have invited my grandparents, my aunt Giana, and my cousins for dinner, as they would love to meet you."
Anne smiled, and said, "I'll love to meet them too. I will be looking forward to tomorrow. Tell me my son, how do you occupy your time?"
Philippe said, "During the planting and harvesting season, I help father supervise our workers, and I do as much work, as I can myself. Father is letting me run the winery, so I spend a good amount of time there helping Serge, I am learning a lot from him. There is not much work to do in the late fall, and winter, therefore I occupy myself with my studies. I also help Professor Stephan to teach my cousins, Adelyn, and her brother."
His father looked at him proudly, he turned to face Anne, stroke her hand softly, and said, "During the winter, our son runs a school for the children of our farm hands, three days a week for 4 hours, his cousins help him, and even some of the children from the adjacent farms attend. Professor Stephan told me that there is nothing else he can teach Philippe. He suggested having him attend the seminary, or the university."
Philippe said, "Since I don't plan to be a priest, but to get married, the seminary is out of the question, and even if I wanted to go to the University of Paris, it is impossible, because I cannot enter Paris. Fortunately enough I desire neither, if I want to learn about a certain topic, I can always read a book. What I really want is to continue living with father, and to form a family."
The Queen mother wondered the extent of Philippe's education, was he truly a candidate for the university? She knew only the brightest, young, bourgeoisie men attended. She decided not to ask and to inquire about it later.
Philippe excused himself by saying, "Mother, I must go to help Adelyn obtain a chicken, I will be back soon." His mother said, "Very well my son." His father followed him with his gaze, and chuckled. D'Artagnan told Anne, "He cannot stay away from Adelyn, even if that means, going to kill a chicken for her." Anne asked, "How serious is the relationship between Philippe and Adelyn?" The musketeer answered, "I think Philippe will be wanting to get engaged soon, they truly love each other." He looked at her with love, and asked, "Would you like for me to show you around?"
A half hour later, they were riding their horses around the property. After showing her the vineyards, the winery, and the land, he took her to the river. Once they arrived at the river, the Gascon, helped the queen mother to dismount, and guided her to a bench that Philippe had made under a tree. Before sitting down, Anne admired the carved bench; the carvings were intricate, and had a timeless beauty to them. She said, "I can see that you have a love for carved objects. It seems to me that whoever carved the bench and the crucifixes, at your home is an accomplished artist. I think I would like to order a crucifix for my reading room"
D'Artagnan smiled, and pointed to the side of the bench. She took a look, and saw the signature of the artist: P. D'Artagnan. She turned towards her love with wide eyes, and asked incredulous, "Philippe is the artist?" Her lover responded, "He has many talents my love, a priest from his early childhood taught him how to carve, and he enjoys it very much. He keeps most of his pieces, or gives them to friends, and family. But on occasion, he accepts commission, last year he carved a large crucifix for a rich bourgeoisie family. They paid him well, and recommended him, to their friends. I believe he accepted a commission to make a bench, and a crucifix this winter."
Ann asked, "Tell me more about the things Philippe can do?" D'Artagnan said, "He plays the flute, and the piano pretty well. He is a natural leader, and our employees love him. He is able to speak, and write, Latin, Greek, Gascon, Spanish, Italian, and English, among many other things. I am very proud of him, I could have not asked for a better son." Anne noticed how the face of D'Artagnan glowed when he spoke of Philippe, she had never seen him transformed in that way when he spoke of Louis, and she could not blame him. She had barley spend time with Philippe, and she was already feeling very proud of him. He certainly was a young man of many talents."
That night Phillippe spoke with his father, he told him. "Father I cannot wait any longer, I want to ask Adelyn to marry me," D'Artagnan smiled at his son approvingly, and told him, "I think that is an excellent idea my son. We must talk to Serge first, but I see no reason for him not to agree."
Phillippe told his father, "I would like to tell mother about it, and get her blessing." Anne entered Phillippe's room at that particular moment. She smiled at her son while asking, "What is it that you want to tell me my son?"
The young man hugged his mother back, and then told her, "Please sit down mother." He guided her to a couch in his room. Phillippe sat in a chair facing her, and D'Artagnan sat on the same couch as her, with an arm around her shoulders.
The Files de France looked at Anne, took her hands in his, and told her, "Mother I am going to ask Adelyn to marry me. I cannot live without her, and I know she loves me, as much as I love her." Anne would have wished a noble woman for her son; but knew it was impossible. Plus she loved D'Artagnan with all her heart, noble or not. She had seen Phillippe with Adelyn, and the happiness of her son, was most important to her.
The queen mother cupped his son's cheeks with her hands, kissed his forehead, and said, "You have my blessing my son. I am happy that you can follow your heart, and marry the woman you love." Her son kissed her hands tenderly, and said, "Thank you mother. I wish you could also follow your heart, and marry whom you love. I never saw it before, but now I see it so clearly. God let the old king discard me, and permitted all that I suffer for a reason, and I believe that reason is Adelyn. For her, I would gladly suffer everything a hundred times. I am glad that Louis was the one destined to be king, and not me. I also know that I would have never known the love of my father, if things had happened differently, so how can I complain? God planned my life perfectly."
D'Artagnan told his son, "Phillippe, you know I would have loved you the same, no matter the circumstances. I have forgiven myself for your sake, but I still wish I could have prevented all that you had to suffer….you'll understand when you are a father." Phillippe smiled at his father, and said "Father, I only hope to be as good of a father as you are to me."
Later that night D'Artagnan and Anne retired to their room after dinner and Phillippe took Adelyn back home. He helped Adelyn to dismount, she said, "Thank you for bringing me home." Philippe said, "Your welcome my love" He kissed her check, and before Adelyn went in, she asked, "Philippe are you enjoying your mothers visit?" He grinned, and said, "I still cannot believe that she is really here, it seems more like a dream; she is so beautiful, and kind." His girlfriend kissed him on the cheek smiled, and went inside saying, "Good night Philippe, I love you."
Philippe went home, and once in his bedroom he went to a familiar drawer, he extracted a pouch, and looked at the ring that he was planning to give to Adelyn after proposing.
The next morning after breakfast, Phillippe told Adelyn, that he was going for a horse ride with his parents. A while later the small family entered the winery, and sat down to talk with Serge.
Afterwards Phillippe went back home and insisted on helping Adelyn. Margie showed up, and took over the meal, to give Adelyn a chance to get ready before dinner.
Adelyn went to the cottage of Phillippe's grandparents to get ready, as it was closer than her own cottage. Phillippe waited for her to get ready. In the meantime, he talked to his grandparents. His grandmother told him, "I hope that your mother is all you hoped she would be." The young man smiled at her, and said, "She is, even better than what I thought. I wish my mother and father could marry, I can see how much they love each other." His grandfather said, "My boy, I wish your father had realized how out of reach the queen mother was for him. Because, I know he suffers by his impossible love, but I cannot regret it, otherwise we would not have you."
A while later Adelyn came out of the washroom looking like an angel, in Phillippe's opinion. He said, "You look glorious, my lady" Adelyn blushed, and took his arm, he guided her to his stallion, and told her, "Adelyn, come with me, I need to do some last minute business." Reason told Adelyn that he should request him to drop her at the country house, to complete the dinner preparation, but she obeyed her heart, and went with him."
Soon the young couple came to an inlet of the River, which was surrounded by tall trees. The poor boy had sweaty hands, and his hearth was racing. Adelyn wondered what business could Phillippe possibly have there. Her boyfriend dismounted with ease, and helped Adelyn to dismount. She followed him to the River edge, and was surprised to see Phillippe falling on one knee in front of her. The young man looked at his girlfriend adoringly, and said, "Adelyn will you marry me?
Adelyn felt like time stopped, she smiled, and said, "Of course I will Phillippe, how much I love you my dear." Phillippe extracted a beautiful ring, out of a small pouch, and slid it, on to Adelyn's fingers. His fiancé admired the gold ring with am, emerald in the middle, and two small diamonds on the sides. She smiled, and told Phillippe, "The ring is beautiful thank you." Phillippe looked at her dreamingly, and said, "Not as beautiful as you, my future bride. It belonged to my mother; I wanted to give you a ring that belonged to my family."
Phillippe stood up, lifted Adelyn, and spun her around while they kissed. She threw her arms around his neck, and after breaking the kiss, she giggled on his neck, causing him to giggle too. They rode back in silence, feeling their bodies against each other, both secretly thinking about the day that they would give themselves completely to each other.
When they arrived to the house, the rest of the family was already there, sitting in the living area. Phillippe said, "I want to make an announcement, Adelyn and I are engaged, she has agreed to be my wife!" Their family members, surrounded them, congratulated them, and hugged them. Michele whispered in to Phillippe's ear, "You rascal, I'm glad you got the girl."
After eating dinner, Phillippe and Adelyn sat at the piano, and started singing as a duet,
Suddenly you're here,
Suddenly it starts
Can two anxious hearts
Beat as one?
Yesterday I was alone
Today you walk beside me,
Something still unclear,
Something not yet here
Has begun
Suddenly the world
Seems a different place
Somehow full of grace,
Full of light.
How was I to know that so much hope
Was held inside me?
What is past is gone,
Now we journey on through the night
How was I to know at last
That happiness can come so fast?
Trusting me the way you do
I'm so afraid of failing you
You my love who cannot know
That danger follows where I go
There are shadows everywhere
And memories I cannot share...
Nevermore alone
Nevermore apart
You have warmed my heart
Like the sun.
You have brought the gift of life
And love, so long denied me.
Suddenly I see
What I could not see
Something suddenly
Has begun.
(Suddenly, from Les Miserable. With minor modifications.)
As they sang looking at each other eyes, Adelyn and Phillippe felt that the song was written for them, as it reflected exactly how they felt for each other, as well as the darkness of their past, and the danger in their future.
Anne had tears running down her cheeks, as she listened to the music, while reclining on D'Artagnan. She prayed that the danger that surrounded Phillippe would continue to stay at bay, and away from the happy couple. Phillippe had already suffered too much. He deserved the happiness of a loving wife, and a family of his own.
D'Artagnan gently cleaned the tears of Anne with his hands, wishing that somehow, he could offer her, the happiness that Phillippe was giving Adelyn.
Thank you for the reviews. They mean the world to me. Please review.
Olivia thanks for the review. I assure you eventually Anne and D'Artagnan will find their happiness.
Heartbeatfan, finally I updated, thanks for the review.
EmmatheEvil thank you for your thoughtful review. I am glad you like the story. I am not sure how long the story will be, I am taking it one chapter at the time.
Oliver Alexander Green thanks for the review. I am glad you like the story.