They'd been at it for days. Catherine and Narcisse had been staring at that letter for what seemed like an eternity. They'd been hold up in her room with a giant pot of tea and an endless supply of paper that they had tested their code cracking skills on. Nothing had worked. Then one day, after a sleepless night, it happened...

"I've got it!" Catherine exclaimed, putting the paper down on the desk and pulling out another blank piece. "I'm so exhausted that this gibberish finally started to make sense."

"Catherine we have been at this too long, you're probably just delirious." he said, barely audible while wiping the sleepiness from his eyes. He walked over to the desk as she was furiously scribbling her work down before she lost it in her tired brain. He looked down at what she was writing. "My God, you have got it."

"It's numbers..." she said.

"Coordinates." he corrected. She pulled out a map and started marking it off. "There. This is the next meeting place she said pointing to the map.

"And if your work is accurate, this says that it's happening tomorrow morning." he said.

"Tomorrow morning? How are we supposed to gather enough men that we can trust that quickly?" she questioned. Narcisse studied the map.

"We may not need that many men for this. I know this spot. It's an old farm house. With the lay of the land, we may be able to sneak in and blow the place while they're still inside. Get me two men and some gunpowder." he said as he marked off an attack plan.

"Even that is impossible. I no longer have any men I can trust. They are all loyal to Charles, who only seems to listen to Martel de Guise. I can't be sure they won't tell the King what we're up to. Can't you use your own men?" she asked.

"All of my men are days from here on another mission. They'll never make it back in time." he told her.

"Is it possible for you to pull this off alone?" she asked.

"Alone? Maybe remotely, but it's practically a suicide mission. The chances that it succeeds and allows me to keep my life are small at best." he said.

"You risked your life before for France, in that fighting ring. This is no different. We may never get another chance. All you have to do is light some gunpowder..." she said.

"That was different. I actually stood a chance there. This...I'm not going to die unless I'm at least mostly sure it will do any good. It's not worth the risk. I'd barely be able to pull it off with two." he explained.

"Please, Stephan..." she started.

"No Catherine, I'm sorry. Get me the men, or this isn't happening." he said, and then he left.

"We'll see about that." she said to herself.

Catherine woke before the sun the next morning. She put on her riding habit and trousers and packed a bag full of gunpowder and the map that Narcisse had plotted out the day before, and snuck out the south keep and to the stables. If Narcisse wasn't going to take care of this, she would. It was her only option. The Brigade had to be stopped now, before they grew too powerful and destroyed them all. If all went well, she'd be back before lunch, and if it didn't, well, who would miss her? She understood that it may cost her her life, but she had to try to save her family, no matter how much they hated her at the moment. Lord knows, they weren't doing a very good job of saving themselves.

She stopped her horse just short of the farm house and tied her reigns to a tree. She crept up on the building from behind a hill and looked over to make sure no one had arrived early. There was no one in sight. She knew she had to work quickly, there was no knowing how much time she actually had before they showed. She went down and edged herself around the wall of the farm house peering in windows and doors to see if anyone was inside. The coast was clear. She went inside and started laying a line of gunpowder around the inside of the building, being careful to make sure it could not be seen. She ran the line outside and behind a bush where she could light it from.

"There. One down, two to go." she said quietly to herself. She laid two more lines of powder according to Narcisse's plans and ran back over the hill to wait for the men to arrive. When they got there she would have to light all three lines and haul ass out of there with out being seen. Sounded simple enough in theory, the problem was, the lines were spread out pretty far apart. Now that she was looking at the distance from further away, she started to worry. How was she supposed to get from one end of the property to the other without being noticed and back before it blew? She had really gotten herself in over her head now, but it was far too late to back out because they were coming now, and they would surely see the lines if she let them alone too long. And she was sure she'd never be able to get away if they did. She waited awhile as the men filed into the farm house. When no more had shown up for awhile she headed for the first line. She pulled a flint from her pocket and lit the first without incident. She took off as fast as she could toward the next and struck the flint again. This time it was a bit more difficult. The flint wasn't sparking as much, but still she lit it and made her way to the last. As she came up on it she thought maybe she may just pull it off. She already had two lit and no one had seen her.

'I can do this.' she thought to herself. 'Just one more. Almost there.'

She got to the last one and struck the flint. Nothing. No spark. She panicked. She struck the flint again and again, and only small little flickers of light escaped. None enough to light it. She looked up to see the other two lines making their way toward the building and knew they had to strike at the same time. She moved up the line a bit so it would get there faster and struck the flint again to no avail. She kept trying. She couldn't fail. Not when she was this close. She started striking it furiously as she prayed for it to light. She was so distracted by the task at hand, she didn't hear the men approaching. She only realized it when the tip of a sword slid into her view. She stopped what she was doing and slowly looked up. Out of the corner of her eye she could see others kicking a break in the gun powder lines to stop them from burning further. There were at least four of them. She swallowed and then bit her lip. The sword went to her throat.

"And who do we have here? A woman? A noble by the look of your clothes. What kind of noble woman would come out here all on her own? Have you no guards? No men in your family?" The man asked.

"There are. In fact they're out there right now. There's more of them than you. They hear me scream, they will come for you." She lied.

"Save it. We already know there's no one else out there. Who are you?" He said as he grabbed her collar and pulled her closer to the blade.

"I'm nobody." She said.

"Well, if you're nobody, then no one will miss you." He said. He pushed her up against a tree, his arm at her throat holding her back. "Tell me who you are and how you found us, and maybe I might make it quick and painless. She spit in his face.

"Now that wasn't very lady like." He said.

"Let me have a go at her." Another man said from behind him. Catherine looked over at him licking his lips and shivered with disgust. She wasn't afraid to die, but there was one thing she was afraid of...

'Maybe if I make them mad enough they'll just kill me and get it over with.' she thought.

"I guess you can't get a woman any other way." she said to him. He backhanded her across the face. She winced.

"I can't figure out if you enjoy pain or you're just stupid." said the first man. The second pulled out a knife and forced her onto the ground. He kneeled down in front of her and put it to her chest.

"Try anything, and I'll make sure your suffering lasts for days." he growled as the first man and the other man behind him grabbed her arm to pin her down. She started to struggle. He pushed the knife up against her, not enough to pierce the skin...unless she moved. He leaned in. His lips practically brushing up against hers. "Why struggle? Just sit back and enjoy it." he sneered. She bit down on his bottom lip as hard as she could. Her teeth going almost all the way through it. He pulled back, growling. "You whore!" he said as he stood and kicked her.

She yelled out in pain. No...this couldn't be how she died. It couldn't come down to this. Not again. For the first time ever, she wished she'd listened to Narcisse. No she hadn't been afraid to die...but it never occurred to her what might happen before she died.