So Dear Readers, here we are at the final chapter.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Athos sent two of the stable boys into the forest to retrieve the horses that had been tethered there by both groups. He had yet to decide whether he would leave them at the Lodge or take some of them back to the Garrison. Horseflesh was a precious commodity, and he was angry at the sacrifice that had been made. He was angry at Henrietta Maria's abandonment of them to their fate. He was loath to swell the royal's commodities with fifteen well trained horses. It was a ridiculous reaction, he knew, but he was warring with his emotions. Aramis was upstairs with a desolate Porthos, and he needed to vent his anger.
And so he ordered the coach to be brought around and he practically dragged Sir Edmund Temple outside and pushed him into it to be sent on his way to meet up with Henrietta Maria, Richelieu and the Red Guard on the other side of the Forest for the return leg to Le Havre. He could not bear to have the man in the same house as his brothers and the boy who Porthos was refusing to leave.
"I am to go alone?!" Temple spluttered in indignation.
Athos's hands involuntarily clenched at his sides after he had slammed the coach door.
"We have a duty to meet our Captain and ensure Mistress Cromwell returns safely to Paris to face the charges you levelled at her. The Cardinal will expect it, as will the King," Athos said succinctly, his voice low with contempt.
"You will have two coachmen for company," he added, before angrily turning away from this hateful man.
oOo
The Garrison
Two days later, Porthos and Aramis stood together where Treville had stood, in the small mortuary.
Aubin was the only occupant this time. Porthos had brought his own blue cloak along and he now gently covered Aubin's body, and lit the candle at his head.
"Un soldat noble," he murmured. ("A noble soldier")
Porthos let the cloak fall over his face.
"When I first met 'im, I couldn't stand 'im," he said,
"He was a Red Guard," he growled, looking up at Aramis, "You know?"
"I thought he was a sassy little beggar," he added, giving a short laugh that he quickly cut off.
Aramis put his hand on Porthos's shoulder and rubbed gently. Porthos's hatred of the Red Guard was the stuff of legend.
"But he 'ad such a big heart. He showed me you can't always judge people."
"An Unlikely Brotherhood, my friend," Aramis whispered, putting his hand on his back to lead him out.
"You would have liked him, Aramis. He could have been our fourth." Porthos said quietly.
oOo
It was decided that Aramis was the best person to ride a day ahead and gently inform Aubin's family of his death, thus avoiding the shock and sad sight of Porthos suddenly appearing with the lad's coffin on the back of a cart. After Aramis had spent time with them, they would be better prepared to receive their son back.
Porthos was proud to escort Aubin's body home the next day to be buried on his family's land.
Aramis had told his mother and father and two brothers that Aubin had died with honour, alongside the King's Musketeers, foiling a plot against the King's sister. He was a hero, he said, as he handed over a letter from Cardinal Richelieu who had granted, to his credit, a pension to them for the debt France owed their son.
Porthos and Aramis had accompanied the family to the small church, where they laid flowers on the altar that held annual flowers for his real parents. A tradition they would continue, now that his first family was complete, and were united once more with God.
On the morning of their departure, Porthos reached into his pocket and pulled out the small, hand carved horseshoe and held it out to his mother, and he told her of the morning in the forest, and the stag.
Claudette looked at it and her eyes filled with tears. She looked across at her husband. When he nodded, she reached across and folded Porthos's fingers around it.
"You keep it, Monsieur Porthos; to bring you luck," she whispered, smiling softly.
Porthos could not speak then, and just nodded.
That was thanks enough to Aubin's mother.
When the two Musketeers took their leave a few hours later, Porthos had left the family in no doubt as to the heart and humour and fire that was Aubin Fabron.
oOo
Henrietta Maria was safely escorted on the final leg of the journey to Le Havre. She had the company of Sir Edmund, who would explain succinctly no doubt why Elizabeth Cromwell was not with them.
Now, several days later, with Richelieu's return to Paris, he and Treville faced each other once more across Richelieu's desk.
"You realise, she is a scapegoat." Treville says quietly.
"Of course I do! But protocol declares we have a guilty party, and Sir Edmund has been very clever."
"So he will go back to London untainted." Treville sighed.
He rubbed his hand across his face,
"What will become of her?"
Richelieu was standing over his desk, his hand running along the impressed leather.
"That depends on the English, but I am sure they will take the word of Sir Edmund on that," Richelieu he said quickly, his long fingers now playing over his inkwell.
He was happy to leave the aftermath to them. As for France, secrecy was the best policy, according to the Cardinal. It avoided complications. In matters such as this, he really did have a heart of stone.
Treville did not like it, he knew Elizabeth Cromwell would not leave the Chatelet; but he did not speak. There was nothing more to say. He was sure that Richelieu would come up with a suitable sanitised account for her family, should it be needed.
As he opened the door to leave, Richelieu called out;
"Let us hope that Henrietta Maria remains with her husband and does not grace us with her presence for quite some time. Perhaps her people will learn to love her."
oOo
Later, Athos sat with Treville in his office, both in sombre mood. Treville's meeting with Richelieu had left a bitter taste in his mouth.
This whole affair had taken its toll.
Six dead Musketeers; one dead Red Guard. Eight of his men injured; who would bear their scars for the rest of their lives.
And Porthos, who would bear the scars on his heart at the loss of a young man so full of promise.
Plus a young woman, in the wrong place at the wrong time, who was now lost in the depths of the Chatelet.
But the two regiments were secure, he thought bitterly.
"I tell you, Athos," he hissed as they shared a brandy. "I will not rest until she is free, no matter how long it takes."
"She was wrong, but she did not deserve her fate," Athos said in agreement.
They stayed in Treville's room until the brandy was gone and the skies had grown dark.
oOo
Six months after the Queen returned to England
It had taken time for Porthos to allow the sad face of Aubin's mother to fade. He doubted he would ever forget her. Spending time with them while they buried their boy, he had seen that Aubin was well loved by those people who had taken on a small frightened boy and made a fine man of him.
Porthos would never like the Red Guard; he would always hold them in contempt.
But, on occasions when he had had too much to drink and was feeling sentimental, he did acknowledge that sometimes, there may be one amongst them who may not deserve his distain.
Once, after a fight in The Wren, he had stepped over one of their number, before muttering;
"I'm sure your mother loves ya."
Aramis had seen the sad look that instantly passed over his friend's face then, and had pulled him away and sat him down in the corner.
Now, Porthos allowed himself a small smile when he thought of Aubin;
All heart and humour and fire.
oOo
Following Henrietta Maria's return to England, momentous events occupied France's armies for the next fourteen months.
Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu led the suppression of the Huguenot revolt that culminated in the Siege of La Rochelle during 1627-1628, which led to the blockade of the city until its eventual surrender.
Richelieu continued to build on his power, and in 1629 he was made duc de Richelieu, and a Peer of France. Political alliances were now the order of the day.
PARIS - 1630
The Garrison
One overcast Autumn morning Porthos, Athos and Aramis, now known as The Inseparables, had just returned to the Garrison from a mission to deliver contracts to a particularly difficult landowner in Reims.
Tired and hungry, they all dismounted and handed their horses to the stable boy, Jacques, who came running from the stables.
Suddenly, there was a commotion in the Archway.
Porthos looked up, and his breath hitched in his chest.
There, spitting fire, was an angry, skinny young man stalking toward them; his sword drawn.
"I am looking for Athos!" he yelled.
Athos had turned and now fixed his eyes on the boy.
"You've found him," he said quietly.
"My name is d'Artagnan of Lupiac in Gascony. Prepare to fight; one of us dies here!"
"Now, that's the way to make an entrance!" Aramis said, in admiration.
Fiery little bugger, thought Porthos to himself, as he reached into his doublet, his hand curling around the small hand carved horseshoe he always kept there.
Across the courtyard, steel rasped against scabbard as Athos unsheathed his sword.
oOo
EPILOGUE
Edmund Temple had returned to London untainted, and picked up the trappings of his life. He fulfilled his notion to sponsor Elizabeth Cromwell's brother in his ambitions, not through altruism, but because it suited him.
How would he know that he had made a grave error of judgement and that the newly elected Member of Parliament for Cambridge would soon have a religious epiphany that would complete his puritan radicalisation?
How would he know that the days of Royal courtiers were numbered, and that his family tradition of allegiance to the Crown would soon end in ignominy?
How would he know that within twenty years, the King he served would be butchered on the block and his widow, Henrietta Maria, would flee to France in penury?
Oliver Cromwell would alter the face of the English monarchical system, and Civil War would be the result.
The End.
A/N:
So there it is.
Sorry about Aubin, I hope you understand; sweet little Trailblazer that he was.
Sir Edmund's world will eventually crumble, and Treville has said he will not rest until Elizabeth Cromwell is out of the Chatelet.
Thank you once again for reading and reviewing :)
I will be back as soon as the plot bunny sorts out the complex mess in my brain that appears to the the sequel to "The Sound of My Voice."