D'Artagnan burst into Aramis' room but it was cold and bare: no Aramis, and his favourite weapons were gone. Only the older pistols, plus a psalter too large to carry, were on Aramis' table.
Porthos arrived, took one look and turned away. He and D'Artagnan hurried back towards the stable, where Athos would be readying horses - and were impeded by a commotion at the dovecote.
The dovemaster was distraught. "My prize bird! Gone!"
Around him, pigeons flapped in their wicker cages and kitchen boys tried to shepherd the loose birds back into their nesting places in the pigeonnier.
Athos arrived and cast his eyes over the chaotic scene.
"A pigeon," said D'Artagnan.
Athos looked sideways at him.
"He can cover fifteen leagues in an hour," said the dovemaster. "He is my fastest bird, and he always knows his way." The man wrung his hands in dismay.
Porthos said to Athos, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yes," said Athos. He sighed with the air of a man who will once again be called upon to sort it all out. "Aramis has vanished on a suicidal mission to save the Queen, alone."
D'Artagnan added, "With a pigeon."
Xxx
The evening passed, and turned to night. Racaut sent up food for Anne, fine cuts of beef and ham, dried fruits and warm pastries, with several bottles of good quality wine, and invited her ladies to descend to the kitchen to eat with his people - but they would not go. Racaut sent no more food.
Anne pursed her mouth at this discourtesy. "We will make a picnic," she declared. "At least he has been generous with the wine."
"Let me taste it first, madam," said Odette.
The horrifying idea permeated the room.
"In case it is - tainted," said Odette, but her tact was too late. Anne allowed her to try each bottle as it was cracked, and the wine was pronounced safe, but it was clear that from now on, all food under this roof must be suspect.
Anne's chamber was furnished with a richly carved bed, draped in many coverlets. Its curtains were heavy and promised snug sleep - if sleep would come. Her ladies had cots in the adjoining room.
"Odette, stay with me," said Anne. "I am afraid to sleep alone."
"I won't let him near you," said Odette, embracing the Queen.
She undid Anne's hair, and brushed it, and helped the Queen from her formal clothes and into a gown fit for sleep.
"It is strange that the King is not here," Odette said. "How you must miss him!"
"His majesty must always be missed wherever he is not," said Anne automatically.
"I would hate to be parted from my husband," said Odette with a sigh. "If I had one."
"A queen must bear separation from her husband, for the good of her country," Anne said. It was true, but in this case, it was not the King she missed, but his soldiers. Separation from the King was, at present, a relief. He was anxious about the unrest in Paris, and had become agitated at the idea of dying at the hands of the populace, with no heir.
Anne could neither advise him on his command of the people, nor provide him with a son. This trip, whilst unwelcome, at least was to give them a rest from these problems.
Her doctor had assured her that a time of separation might prove efficacious in afterwards getting a child. He had seen it many times, he said, where the wife rests in some distant part, and then returns to discover shortly thereafter that she and her husband are expecting a happy event.
Anne had been a little skeptical about this. "How can being apart get a child quicker than being together?"
"It is sometimes the will of Heaven to provide a miracle when it is least looked for," said the doctor.
Now she regretted taking this doctor's advice. Unless help came soon, Racaut would force himself upon her and she would be lost.
Anne climbed into the high bed. Odette joined her and waited for Anne to settle, tucking the covers snugly around the Queen and smiling at her. They were of an age, and Anne marvelled at how different their prospects were. Odette was the pretty daughter of a Comte, with dark eyes and the look of the South. She would soon attract some courtier and marry well. Anne had been selected for marriage to the French heir, and from that moment became a queen, living not for herself, but others.
She had devoted herself to the King. She was a model royal wife. And it seemed very hard that she was to be ruined, having never once transgressed.
Curled up together, the candle snuffed, Anne asked into the darkness, "Odette, do you have a lover?"
"No," said Odette. "That is. No."
"There is someone something less than a lover then," Anne surmised.
Odette heaved a sigh. "He will not declare himself. We see each other but seldom. And he has - other loyalties. I wish he were free. If I were married I could have my own household...not that I would leave you, madam," she added with belated embarrassment.
Anne let it pass. "So there is a particular man?"
Odette hesitated.
"I am not easily shocked," said Anne. "Saving only the King, name any man in France and I will accept your choice."
"He is not a nobleman, your majesty."
"Oh! A commoner."
"Yes. Lower, even."
"What's lower than that?" Did she love an unlettered priest? A tradesman?
"A soldier," said Odette.
"I suppose that's true."
"He has no money. Lives in barracks with the other soldiers. His prospects are limited. And he could be killed in battle any day."
Anne cast her eyes to the shuttered window. Starlight glowed between its slats. The rest was darkness. "You paint a grim picture. What is his attraction, this low born, penniless man?"
"He makes me laugh," Odette said simply, and Anne's heart jumped.
"Then keep him," she said after a while. "Who is he? Perhaps one day I can help him to a promotion."
"Porthos," Odette replied. "Of the musketeers."
"I know him," Anne said in surprise. "He is tall, fierce looking. He favours fashionable dress."
"Yes! That's him." Odette wriggled beneath the covers. "Oh, he looks so fine in his musketeer uniform! He is so handsome!"
"I confess his charms are lost on me," said Anne. "But we each have our secret good points."
"He is a most affectionate lover," Odette said coyly, and struck again at Anne's tranquility.
Odette soon slept, snoring a little, but Anne remained awake a long time. When she slept, she dreamed, of safety, and strong arms, and a blue cloak, fluttering on the breeze.