Hi Dear readers:

Time flies, and I lost perspective of things. I am late updating all of my stories. I have been very busy and I will probably be slow with updates until mid-July, after that I will have more time.

Vonny25

Chapter 8

Adelyn and Philippe were beside themselves after their engagement. They could not wait for their wedding day, but knew they would have to wait at least until spring.

D'Artagnan and Anne were sitting by the river. Anne said, "I wish I could stay here forever, but I know it is impossible. However, I am glad that at least, I will be visiting regularly. D'Artagnan said, "I will miss you my love. How I wished we could get married." The Queen mother reapplied "Me to love. It would make me the happiest woman in France. But at least when I come next time, our son Phillippe will be marrying the woman that he loves."

D'Artagnan placed a hand on Anne's check, and then kissed her softly; Anne deepened the kiss, and wrapped her arms around her lover's neck. The musketeer pulled her to him, and she wrapped her legs around his body. He lowered her to the grass, and under a moonless sky, they gave themselves to each other.

The next morning after breakfast D'Artagnan, and Phillippe had to go to meet with some potential clients, at the winery. Anne took the opportunity, and went to find Adelyn in the kitchen. When the young woman notice the queen mother was in the kitchen, she curtsied, and said "May I help you, your majesty." Anne smiled at the young woman, placed a hand on her shoulder, and said, "Adelyn, soon you'll be like a daughter to me, it would make me happy if you forget about calling me by my royal titles, and call me Anne."

Adelyn looked at her future mother in-law apologetically, gave her a timid smile, and said, "I am sorry, but it is hard for me to get used to calling you Anne, I promise I will try harder." Anne asked Adelyn to keep her company, and they both sat in the living area. Anne asked Adelyn, "Is it hard for you to call my son Phillippe, by his name." The girl giggled and said, "Not, of course not, he likes me to call him that, soon I hope, I will be able to call him husband."

Anne smiled at her future daughter in-law, and told her, "In that case, it should not be that hard for you to call me Anne, after all Phillippe is a File the France, and I have never heard you trying to call him by a royal title." Adelyn responded, "I know Phillippe has noble blood in him, but he tells me he is a farmer, and he acts like one, at least when he is not acting like an artist, or a teacher. He has told me about his past, and like me, he has known poverty, and suffering. We are kindred spirits, that is why is easy to avoid royal titles."

Suddenly the young woman appeared worried, and asked, "Should I be calling Phillippe by a royal title?" Anne let out a soft laugh, and told Adelyn, "Of course not my child, you are to be husband and wife, and more intimate names are appropriate." Anne gave Adelyn a side hug, which Adelyn returned. The older noble woman said, "You know Adelyn, I always wanted to have a daughter, and I think I have found one in you." Adelyn manage to mumble with tears in her eyes "Thank you Anne."

After dinner Anne and her two men were sitting, while conversing with each other. Phillippe excused himself, and went to the cellar, coming up a few minutes later. He approached his mother, and told her, "Mother, I would like to present you with this crucifix, for your reading room in the palace. I hope you like it. Father told me the dimensions of the room, and while I would have liked to give you a bigger crucifix, I believe this one is the right size for a room of that size."

The Queen mother admired the crucifix her son made her, and thought it was a piece of art. She wondered how Phillippe could have so many talents, while Louis appeared to have no talents at all. Well that was not exactly true, he was actually talented at finding beautiful women, but that was more a liability than an asset. She kissed the cheek of her son, and said, "Thank you, Phillippe, it is beautiful, every time I see your art work in my room, I promise I will pray for your happiness."

Phillippe was very pleased with the reaction of his mother. He smiled broadly, and said, "I am glad you like it mother. It makes me very happy, that you will pray for me each time you see the crucifix. The power of prayer is central in my life."

Later that night Anne and D'Artagnag, were laying side by side in bed, Ann had her head resting in her lover's armpit. D'Artagnan asked his love, "Anne, you have not told me how Louis is doing. As I live so far from Paris, I get very little news."

Anne had not talked about Louis, because there was nothing good to say. She sighed, and answered, "As he has grown older his selfishness has increased. He throws balls at the palace at least twice a month, while the people of Paris are starving. He also keeps a regular lover, but that does not stop him from getting other women. I feel so bad for the girl's he has dishonored. I tried to talk to him about it, but he got upset, and is now ignoring me. I think the guilt of thinking he killed Phillippe is eating at him. It appears to me that he became more dissipated, a few weeks after he was informed of Phillippe's death."

D'Artagnan thought about the words of Anne, and said, "He is still young. I hope he will change as he gains maturity. How I wish I could guide him, as I do with Phillippe….but I know I lost that right the day he was born."

The Gascon, wiped the tears that were on Anne's cheek's, and then kissed her, trying to ease the pain that both were feeling. No matter how Louis behaved, he was still their son, and they could not help but fear for his eternal soul.

The next morning Aramis arrived to the D'Artagnan state. Anne and D'Artagnan were taking a walk, and Phillippe welcomed the priest. He took him to the sitting room, and offered him, wine, bread, butter, and cheese.

After the priest settled down, Phillippe said, monsignor Aramis, I would like to share some good news with you. The former musketeer looked at him, and asked, "And what would that be Phillippe D'Artagnan?"

The young man smiled at him, and said, "I have requested the hand of the woman that I love in marriage, and she has agreed to take me as her husband" Aramis almost choked on his wine, but Phillippe did not notice, and continued speaking, "Adelyn and I would be honored if you would agree to officiate at our marriage."

Phillippe did not expect the reaction of the priest, and was glad that Adelyn was not present. Aramis stood up, and started pacing while speaking, "But that is not possible, is this woman even a noble, and even if she is…. it cannot be, and why is God punishing me like this. What is the use of the creator making me a genius, when he interferes with my well laid plans." The young man feared that the older man was going mad.

Fortunately, for everyone, D'Artagnan walked in the house, and noticed that his friend was going through one of his very long monologs. He gave a reassuring smile to Phillippe, before facing Aramis. D'Artagnan told his friend, "Why are you pacing like a caged beast, Aramis? Calm down, and explain to me, what has you in this state."

The priest sat in one of the chairs, looked at his friend, and told him, "Phillippe cannot get married, no to a commoner, not to a noble woman." The Gascon told him, "And who asked for your opinion? My son can marry whoever he wants, and his future bride is an amazing woman."

Aramis tried to calm himself down, after regaining some of his composure, he looked at D'Artagnan in the eye, and told him, "Phillippe cannot get married because his brother Louis is a bad King, and I think we should replace Louis with Phillippe." D'Artagnan looked at him, and said, "You've gone completely mad Aramis, that is something that cannot be done."

Phillippe thought that the man was for sure mad, he said, "Forgive me monsignor, but that is impossible. Let me remind you that God himself choose Louis to be king. I wouldn't try to take that away from my twin brother. Most importantly, I am going to marry my fiancé, and continue to lead a simple, but happy life. Do you forget that hermits raised me, or that I learned humility in prison? The power and riches of the world have no hold on me.

Desperately the priest turned to D'Artagnan, and pleaded, "You cannot permit this D'Artagnan, I am sure you know that Phillippe would make a better king than Louis." D'Artagnan said trying to control his anger, "Phillippe has no interest in being king, so forget about it. Say you will officiate in my son's wedding, before we decided to use a different priest."

Aramis was not happy about it, but knew that at the moment he was defeated. He would have to think about something else. Not wanting to lose his friendship with the D'Artagnan, he said, "That will not be necessary. I will be honored to celebrate the marriage of our young File the France to his bride."

Phillippe cringe at the title but let it go since the priest appeared to be more reasonable, and he wanted to continue to have his help in getting his mother to visit with him, and his father regularly. He smiled, and said looking at Armis, "Thank you Father Aramis, I know it will mean a lot to my father, since he considers you a brother."

That night, Anne said her goodbyes to her loved ones, and held her tears back, as she had learned to do, as a little girl. It helped to know that she would be back for her son's wedding. With great dignity, and natural elegance, she claimed on to the carriage followed by Aramis. Phillippe, D'Artagnan, and the other young men of the family escorted the carriage for most of the trip to the monastery.

Two day's latter the Royal carriage, and a group of musketeers arrived to take the mother Queen back to the palace. Anne was sad to leave her family behind, but had many happy memories to sustain her until her next visit.

The Queen Mother was sitting in her carriage; she knew the trip back to the palace in Paris was a long one. Before long, her eyes were heavy, and she fell asleep. After a while, she started dreaming.

Anne was young again, only 16 when she found herself with child after sleeping with D'Artagnan. Her husband despised her, and gave her no attention, so she knew she had to be creative if she wanted to survive.

Her opportunity presented itself a week later, when the King threw a Royal ball to celebrate the anniversary of their wedding. Anne stayed with her husband at all times, made sure he drank plenty of wine, and finally humiliated herself by begging her husband to spend the night with her. Her husband was not kind about it, and told her, "The only reason I tolerate copulating with you, is because I need a heir, I rather be with my lover." After that, he took her roughly, and left her in bed feeling like a used rag, while he went to find his lover. The experience was totally humiliating, but she could not regret it, as now her life, and the life of her child was safe.

The pregnancy was a happy one, clouded only by the fact that she could not be with her true love. How she craved him by her side, loving her, and telling her that everything would be all right. But they had to keep their distance to avoid rumors.

Before she knew it, her water broke, and she went to the birding suite. She still remembered the lack of privacy. The only thing between her, and the royal advisors was a thin semitransparent silk drape. She remembered struggling for hours before the first baby came, and after seeing him for just a minute her husband took him away, and all the dignitaries went with him to celebrate.

A half hour latter a second son was born. She was delighted, and held the child in her arms tenderly until her husband came, and took the child from her. She gave the baby to him willingly; as she was sure, the king will present him to the rest of the court to establish his place in the Royal family. She slept for a few hours, and woke up to find only one of her son's in the cradle. She called her attendant desperately, and inquired about her second child. The woman looked nervous, and without answering her questions, left the room.

An hour later, the king and her confessor entered the room, and informed her that her second child, died shortly after birth.

She woke up from her nightmare screaming, tears running down her face. After orienting herself, she cursed her dead husband for taking her child away from her, and condemning him to grow away from his family. The truth said, at last the old king looked after the wellbeing of Phillippe. It was Louis who had condemned his own brother to a life worse than death.

She would never forget how wasted, and sick Phillippe was when D'Artagnan got him out of prison, or the torments he had suffered. Just thinking about it made her cry. As she cried images of his thin arms, mated hair, and his suffering face invaded her mind. Her son still bared scars from his time in that hell called Bastille.

The mother Queen wept for her children; she was delighted that Phillippe was now happy, and healthy. She had enjoyed her visit at the D'Artagnan state more that she thought possible. Her once sick, starving son was now strong man with many talents. He had been so loving towards her, as if she herself had raised him. He showered her with his love and care, and she returned his love in the same way. The boy was so easy to love, and admire.

Then she thought about Louis, as strange, and illogical as it sounded, he was the one that had been hurt the most, by growing up apart from his brother. She believed that if Phillip and Louis had grown together, like identical twins, they would have complemented each other, and maybe just maybe, her older son would have a loving hearth like his brother, or at least his brother to guide him as a moral compass.

The Queen mother was truly worried about the King, it seemed that the attempts against his life were increasing. How she wished, D'Artagnan could be in charge of his security again. But that would be very selfish, as Phillippe needed his father, and D'Artagnan needed Phillippe to experience the joys of fatherhood, so long denied to him.

After traveling for 3 days the carriage of Anne arrived at its destination, surprisingly Louis was there to meet her. She walked to the top of the stairs, where Louis was waiting for her, he kissed her hand, and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. The King offered his arm, and escorted her to her quarters. He invited her to share dinner with him that evening, and she agreed.

Over at the Vineyard of the Sorrowful, D'Artagnan was missing Anne terribly. He rarely smiled, and his appetite had diminished. Phillippe was too involved planning his wedding, and spending time with Adelyn to notice despite his caring nature.

One evening D'Artagnan decided to go fishing, to try to distract himself. He found Serge by the lake admiring the sunset, and trying to fish, with his mutilated hands. The musketeer admired Serge for his unbreakable spirit, and determination to care for his family the best that he could. When they lived at the Palace, Serge and D'Artagnan were only acquaintances, now they were good friends, and valued each other's opinion.

Serge had noticed that D'Artagnan was sad, since the Queen mother had left. He could only guess the reason, but he was not blind, and had noticed the loving glances that they exchanged. He could not blame the Queen for loving the musketeer, after all, he was handsome, and most importantly he had saved her son from dying in prison, not only that, but treated him like a son.

The wine master could not blame D'Artagnan, for falling in love with Anne, as she was, beautiful, and gentle. He felt sorry for his friend, as it was impossible for him to fulfill his love for Anne.

Serge patted the musketeers back, and said, "My good friend, it seems to me that you have bee sad for a while now. If you need someone to talk to, you can count on me. I am discreet, and soon we'll be family."

D'Artagnan was quiet pondering the idea. He said, "I have been sad, I wish my Phillippe could have his mother with him all the time, he was so happy when she was here." Serge responded, "You are such a good father D'Artagnan. Thanks to you, Phillippe is an admirable young man. If Adelyn and he were not promised, I think I would be plotting to substitute King Louis with Phillippe, he would be an excellent king."

The musketeer thought it was funny, that Serge, and Aramis said almost the same thing. He had not doubt, that if Phillippe ever became king, he would be a hundred times better than Louis was. But Phillippe had a life to live, and an honor code to live by. Phillippe loved Louis, even if he had never met him, and would never ever betray him, unless it was a matter of saving the country."

Over at the palace the young King was trashing in his bed, and mumbling, "Forgive me boy, I had no choice but to kill you." In his recurrent nightmare, he would see a face that looked just like his, looking at him hatefully, then the lad would say, "I pray that you will burn in hell brother." Fire would come out of the mouth of his brother, while he laughed at Louis madly. Then he would walk away completely naked looking as thin as a skeleton. The skeleton then would turn to look at him, his face, and head, covered with an iron mask. "Look at me," his twin would tell him, "There is no pardon for you Louis, you were cruel to me, and humiliated me, without reason, you will burn in hell forever."

Finally, Louis woke up gasping for air, and hyperventilating. After calming himself down, he thought, "I had no choice, I had to kill him, or he would have tried to take the crown from me, or assassinated me. I don't know however why I was so cruel to him. I swear sometimes, it seemed I could feel his pain, and his anguish, it was horrible, unbearable. But it had to be my imagination, because I did not feel his dead. For some reason, I thought I would feel a void when he died, but I didn't. I know it cannot bee, but sometimes it seems like I sense his happiness. Well maybe he is in heaven, and I did the lad a favor by letting him die."

A few weeks after Anne left, Phillippe and Adelyn were sitting by the river talking. Adelyn said while holding Phillippe's hand, and reclining her head on his shoulder, "I cannot wait for us to get married. I am sure we will be happy beyond reason."

The young prince looked at her smiling, and said, "I am sure we will be happy, even if all I had was you, I still would be happy beyond reason. We will have a happy home to welcome the children that God will send us."

Adelyn giggled, and said, "I bet you will have a little boy that looks just like you." Phillippe said, "We will also have little girls that will be as beautiful as you."

Christine the cousin of Phillippe approached the couple startling them. She giggled, and said, "I thought you would be here love birds, now Adelyn, did you forget about that you have a dress fitting today." Adelyn jumped to her feet, and said, "I did, I cannot believe it I forgot."

Phillippe stood up, and said, "You can still make it in time, let's get going." Adelyn and, Phillippe mounted on Phillippe's horse, and galloped in to town enjoying each other's company.

While Adelyn was getting her dress fitted, Phillippe decided to take his horse to the river to drink some water. While he was sitting under a tree, he heard some yelling, and decided to go to investigate. He saw a man, and a young woman. Some vandals were attacking them. The man clearly was an excellent swordsman, but was outnumbered, and was limited in his movements, as he had to stand between the vandals, and the young lady that was with him.

As the gentleman he was he went to aid them. He fought side by side with the other man, to defeat the vandals. It took them a while, and both of them had superficial wounds at the end. Andre turned to Phillippe, and said, "Thank you Messier, my name is Andre, and I appreciate your help. Without your help those vandals would have had their way with my sister."

Phillippe said, "Your welcome messier, you are and excellent swordsman, but you were outnumbered. I am D'Artagnan the youngest, and it was an honor to aid someone as skilled as you." Andre's face light up, and he asked, "Are you related to the great D'Artagnan, the former captain of the musketeers?"

The young D'Artagnan wondered if he was getting himself in trouble, but answered truthfully, "Yes, I am his son."

Andre smiled, and offered Phillippe his hand, which Phillippe took. Andre said, "I knew it, not just anyone could fight, whit such skill, or risk himself for two strangers. You do an honor to yours father's name." Phillippe looked at the man with a puzzled expression, and Andre said, "Let me explain, I am a musketeer, and your father the Great D'Artagnan trained me, there has never been a captain as good as him. I am not dressed in my uniform because I took a short leave to take my sister back to my parents' home. She was with my sister in-law to help her for a few months, as she just had a new baby."

Andre looked at Phillippe's face and found it extremely familiar.

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