A few days had passed in the village since Leon and Madeleine had disappeared and while some muttered 'good riddance' and thought nothing of it, thinking it would be better if they were out of the picture, especially since the boys were still seeking vengeance against Leon for the proposal fiasco, it was the last thing they needed to be concerned about.

The weather was getting colder which meant winter was coming, earlier than usual and their focus now was on keeping warm and gathering wood and supplies to last them for months and an unwelcome reminder for the boys and men that they needed to hunt for food for their families before the snow came and settled in the forest.

However, Amandine, as she and Martine made their way across town, was thinking of other things for she was heading towards the uninviting and dark corner, where no one dared to go for a good reason since it had the…

'Maison de Loon?' Martine said, as she walked her usual three feet behind Amandine, struggling to keep up with her, for she was walking very fast,

'Why are we going there?'

'Because, Martine, that's where Antoine is and he is going to help us with our plan to get Leon to marry me!' hissed Amandine. 'Weren't you paying attention at ALL a few days ago? We even sung it together!'

'Oh, right,' said Martine, 'but what's Antoine and the asylum got to do with it?' which made Amandine sigh and growl in frustration.

'Martine Descartes, you are, without a doubt, the STUPIDEST person I have ever met! Isn't it obvious?

Antoine is the warden of the asylum and he'll..' Amandine began, only to be interrupted by Martine,

'He'll do what?' she said.

'Oh, never mind, you're too thick to get it anyway, so I'm wasting my time telling you. You'll find out when we get there, now stop dawdling and hurry up!' Amandine said, while carrying a huge sack that jingled as she walked and it didn't take a genius to figure it out what it was.

But Martine wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and she asked, rather stupidly,

'Amandine, what is in that sack?'

'It's for me to know and you not to find out, it's my little secret,' said Amandine, although she knew what it had been for, but she had decided that she needed it more and it was only going to be wasted on things that she thought was unnecessary.

A little while later, the two were soon outside the door of the asylum, as the wails, rattling of bars, screeching, mad laughter and moaning of the poor, unfortunate inmates could be heard, which made Martine shiver in fear, worried that one of them could escape and launch an attack on them.

'Amandine, let's get out of here,' she said, her voice wobbly, 'This place gives me the creeps,'

'Shut up, Martine, you snivelling coward!' said Amandine.

'All these loonies are locked up and restrained so they won't get out and we are not leaving until we get Antoine to come to the tavern, so suck it up or my fist will soon be friends with your thick skull! Is that clear?' she said.

'Yes, Amandine,' Martine snivelled, as Amandine knocked on the door or rather pounded it impatiently and the little sliding window opened.

A pair of brown eyes appeared and stared warily at her.

'Antoine d'Arque?' she said.

'Who wants to know?' a male voice said.

'It's Amandine LeGume,' Amandine said, 'I have a business proposition for you, as you owe me a favour.'

'Hang on, I'll be right out,' Antoine said, as he opened the door and squinted against the sunlight, like he hadn't been out for a long time.

He was the nephew of Monsieur d'Arque and the only surviving relative he had when he had passed away and Antoine, rather reluctantly, had to take over and be the new warden of the asylum, a pale, sad and beaten down young man, with lank sandy hair and wore baggy, wrinkled grey clothes, which matched his personality and mood.

Unlike his uncle, Antoine absolutely hated his job and his role of supervising and committing the sad, crazy and possibly dangerous patients as he loathed hearing their wails, howls and screeches of despair and witnessing the horrific abuse of them, while the staff looked on with sadistic smiles and couldn't understand why his uncle had enjoyed it so much.

'What favour do I owe you, mademoiselle?' he said, suspicious and wary.

He was surprised that the most beautiful and admired woman in the village was asking him to do something for her, since they never saw each other on account of him being cooped up in the asylum all the time.

He wasn't a particularly attractive man, as he looked jaded and ragged as the patients so it was a bit of a surprise and a welcome sight to see Amandine take interest in him and whatever she wanted him to do, he certainly wouldn't say no to her but he didn't know what he was really getting himself into.

'Come to the tavern and we'll talk,' Amandine said, using her sickly sweet voice that lured men to her and Antoine was proving to be no exception.

'Alright, anything to get out of this awful place,' he said, 'it's sucking the life out of me,'

A long wail soon echoed through the building.

'Oh, shut up!' shouted Antoine to the unseen patient.

'I'll be back whenever I can!' as he followed the girls, leaving the door unlocked, not caring if any of the patients escaped, although the staff had ensured that they wouldn't, as the wails and rattling of bars faded into the distance.

In the tavern, which was empty since the men and boys were out hunting and Genevieve was busy cleaning the two rooms she and Amandine had, Amandine and Martine sat on one end of an empty table in the corner near her special area and Antoine on the other, so they were facing each other.

'Alright, Miss LeGume, why did you bring me here?' he said.

'I don't usually leave the asylum but I can make it worthwhile to get some sunlight and some fresh air,' said Antoine, as Amandine passed him some ale, 'and a decent mug of ale,' as he drank it, savouring every sip, since it was a rare thing for him to have.

'I have a grand plan and I need you to help me,' said Amandine, 'Maybe some little friends of mine will also persuade you, if the ale hasn't done so already.'

Turning around to make sure her mother wasn't looking, she dumped the sack she was carrying earlier on the table, which revealed a huge pile of coins, which she pushed towards Antoine, knowing that he would do as he was told if he was given money, something that he clearly needed and she knew it.

'Where did you get all that money, Amandine?' Martine said, shocked at seeing the huge pile and had a nasty feeling that it was meant for bribing the warden to help her carry out her plan.

A plan that she was starting to have second thoughts about, although she couldn't let Amandine know that, not after she agreed to go along with it.

'I already told you, it's my little secret!' hissed Amandine, 'and you are not to tell anyone where I got it from, otherwise you will end up with a bruised head if you're not careful.'

'Wasn't that money supposed to be used for…'

'Not another word, Martine!'

Antoine was looking at the coins, which was far more than his meagre wages at the asylum.

Despite being the warden, he wasn't paid well and business had been slow not to mention his uncle hadn't left him very much in his inheritance, so it was a tempting deal for someone who was struggling financially like himself so he said,

'Tell me all, I'm listening.'

'It's like this- I have my heart set on marrying Leon but he hasn't been reciprocating my love and desire for him as he's been playing hard to get but his little game has gone on long enough. All he needs now is a little persuasion to come to his senses.' Amandine said.

'You should have seen the would-be proposal she planned!' Martine said, laughing. 'He dismissed and rejected her, just like that and sent her flying into the mud!'

She soon regretted her words, for she felt the all too familiar hardness of Amandine's knuckles on her head and winced.

'I wouldn't know, I'm cooped up working in an asylum most of the time,' Antoine said, sarcastically, but through gossip outside, he knew about Leon and Amandine trying to woo him unsuccessfully, 'anyway, what has this got to do with me?'

'Everyone now knows his mother is a lunatic,' said Amandine. 'It was only a few days ago that she was in this tavern, rabbiting on about a beast in a castle and quite frankly, that qualifies you for being insane and locked up in the asylum!'

'Madeleine has gone crazy?' said Antoine, puzzled. He didn't know the woman but he knew she was anything but insane, so it was a surprise to him.

'Oh no, Miss LeGume, you surely must be joking! I may not know her personally but she's very sane, if a bit quirky and harmless so I don't know why you want her to be locked up.'

He laughed shakily, hoping it was really a joke, but judging by the bribe of money and Amandine's ice cold stare, she was deadly serious.

'So, what's the point of this plan then?' he said, hoping to get on her good side.

'The point is, Leon will do anything and I mean ANYTHING, to prevent his dear mother from being locked up and being left to rot while no one cares about her!'

'Yeah, he'll even marry someone he really HATES!' said Martine, 'like Amandine!'

'Martine, shut up!' hissed Amandine, whacking her on the head again, in the same place she had hit earlier.

For Antoine, it was starting to make sense, like all the pieces of a puzzle were coming together and he realised Amandine's plan and what role he was to play in it.

'So you want me to commit Madeleine in the asylum unless Leon agrees to marry you?' he said.

'No, I'm inviting you to a tea party!' said Amandine, sarcastically, like she thought the warden was an idiot, 'Of course I want you to put Mad Maddie where she belongs- in the Maison de Loon!'

'Amandine' said Martine, timidly, 'isn't getting Leon to marry you by threating to lock up his mother in the asylum blackmail?'

'No, it's a declaration of my love to Leon!' said Amandine, rolling her eyes at her.

'Oh, how sweet!' said Martine.

'OF COURSE IT'S BLACKMAIL, YOU IDIOT!' Amandine shouted. 'Honestly, Martine, you are really pushing my buttons and I've just about had enough of your stupidity!

This is what I've planned all along and now that dear old Madeleine has gone insane, this is the only way to get him to marry me, so that she won't be locked up!' pinching the small girl on her arm.

'Do you see what I have to put up with here?' she said to Antoine. 'Good help is so hard to find these days and the best you can find is a frog-faced doofus who can't do ANYTHING RIGHT!'

But Antoine was lost in his own thoughts to listen to the girl's rants, as he was trying to digest what she had wanted him to do.

He was feeling conflicted about condemning an obviously innocent woman into a miserable imprisonment in an awful place, surrounded by loonies that no one cared about just because the most beautiful and admired woman told him to.

She was a master at using her beauty to get her wicked way and she was using it on the hapless warden, who was trying to refuse her and Antoine, as simple-minded as he was, was aware that blackmailing Leon into being her husband wasn't going to end well, not that Amandine knew that of course.

'Look, Miss LeGume,' he said.

'Oh, call me Amandine, darling,' Amandine said in her sickly sweet tone.

'Amandine, I'm not going to put Madeleine into the asylum just to get Leon to marry you because she's not insane and doesn't need to be in there! Bribe or no bribe, it's despicable and I want no part of it!' Antoine said.

'Antoine, you can't back out now, not after I've generously given you money that you OBVIOUSLY need, since you are dirt poor and you seem to have the enthusiasm of a dead fish about this plan!

It's like you don't care about your job at all!' Amandine said, getting angry that someone else was denying her what she wanted.

'No kidding I don't care about it!' said Antoine.

'Do you actually think I enjoy dealing with the scum of the village being thrown into dingy cells like unwanted beings? Hearing their wails, mad laughter and their desperate cries and rattling the bars on their cells becoming more insane every day, wanting to escape their misery?

Seeing my sadistic staff inflict torture and abuse on them while I can do nothing about it? Well I don't, I hate this job, it has made me as miserable as the patients and I didn't ask to be the warden of the Maison!' he said.

'Well, someone had to do it, Antoine and you are the only relative that Monsieur d'Arque had to take over, just like I have to be the head of the LeGume family as I am the last of them. It won't be for long; it's only until Leon comes to his senses and begs me to marry him!

Your uncle helped mine out years ago and you now have to do the same with me. You owe me, Antoine and you're not leaving until we have a deal and you agree to put Mad Maddie with her fellow loonies, capice?' said Amandine.

'Is that sack full of money not enough to convince you? Well, maybe this will change your mind then,' she then said, seductively, as she plumped up her chest, which enticed Antoine, as he stared at it.

He then knew he was beaten. Like a fly, he had been lured into a spider's web and Amandine was the spider, who was smiling at him, as she had successfully caught her prey and he was now putty in her hands.

He looked at her lustily, as he now decided to help her with her plan and it took a glimpse of her impressive chest to persuade him, along with the money.

'Alright, Amandine, I'll do it,' he said.

'I'll help you, as much as I don't believe in throwing an innocent woman in the asylum, but I'll do it for you just like Uncle did for Gaston.'

'I knew you would come to your senses, Antoine,' said Amandine, smiling at him as she leaned closer. 'You won't regret this and neither will Leon when he and his dear mother come back and grovel pathetically at my knees!

Then, I'll have my prize of a handsome husband and my lovely little daughters and we'll be living happily ever after forever!' she said, laughing evilly. 'But first, we need you to bring the cart to his cottage and leave the tavern before the boys come back from hunting and demanding beer from Mother.

We can't risk having anyone snooping around and singing like a canary to the wrong people,' Amandine said, as she snapped her fingers and Martine trotted obediently behind her, even though the doubts she had before about this plan were coming back to her, out of the tavern, where the cart that Antoine had brought from the asylum was waiting.

Amandine smiled to herself, confident that this plan would not fail this time and that Leon would be hers once and for all.

Dragging some deer from his latest hunt, Jean-Luc was returning from the forest to see Amandine and Martine on the cart from the Maison de Loon and was curious to know why it was heading towards Leon's cottage, yet he had a bad feeling about it and decided to follow, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was.

What Amandine didn't know and was too stupid to realise that the cottage would be empty and she found that out, when she and Martine kicked the door open and found no sign of Leon or Madeleine.

'Leon? Madeleine? Where are you?' Amandine said, as her voice pathetically echoed around the cottage, 'Don't pretend you're not here!'

'Oh, what a shame, they're not here,' Martine said, feigning disappointment, 'looks like your plan isn't going to work after all, let's go back to the tavern,'

'Oh no, Martine!' said Amandine, not deterred by the setback, as they went outside,

'Don't think for a second that you're going to get off scot-free! This plan is still going ahead and Leon and Madeleine can't stay away and hide forever because sooner or later, they have to come back and face the music and YOU are going to look out for them when they do!'

She grabbed Martine by the collar of her top and roughly dumped her on the ground near the water wheel.

'Now, you are to stay in this spot and not move a muscle until Leon and his mother come back and I don't care how long it takes! Don't move so much as a little toe from your post!'

'But Amandine, I'll freeze out here!' Martine protested.

'So what?' said Amandine, 'you have a cape to wear, you'll survive! Now stop acting like a whiny crybaby and do what I told you to!'

Jumping on the cart, she quickly left, leaving poor Martine alone and slumping down on the ground resignedly, to carry out her duty and questioning her friendship with Amandine, as it was turning out to be one-sided and she was on the wrong side of it.

'Great,' she muttered to herself, 'I'll probably be out here for months, waiting for Leon and Madeleine to come back..if they ever do, that is. The things I put up with just to bask in Amandine's glory and she's not the easiest person to please or get close to.

There's a wall there between us and I'm just staring into it, not being seen or heard on the other side.'

Wrapping her thin cape around her in an effort to get warm, she sat down on the ground and signed heavily, bracing herself for the long, lonely and cold months that awaited her, while Jean-Luc watched from behind the bushes, looking pityingly at the girl he loved.

'Oh, Martine, why do you have to put yourself though this?' he whispered, 'Why do you take it from this awful woman who is using and abusing you?'

Feeling hopeless about the fates of the two people he cared about, he headed to the tavern, hoping that Leon was alright in the castle and that Martine would not succumb to the cold due to the selfish desires and actions of Amandine.

Oh dear, Martine is in for a few lonely months in the cold!

NB- I've given the chapters titles- something that I had meant to do, but couldn't think of the right ones until now, in case you were confused.

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