A Powerful Little Love

Chapter 74

Constance had not been sure whether Sacha's words had been true, but it seemed he wasn't the only one to have heard such rumours. People were beginning to open up the window shutters or step out onto the streets for the first time in days to observe the goings on around them; so much so that they became caught up in a crowd at a market square. Constance didn't dare speak to the lawyer though, lest she give him away. They trudged on in silence, Estevan and Manuel only leaving them again as they reached the gates of the Châtelet. Only two armed men accompanied them and as they hurried down a flight of steps into the gloom of the old prison and rounded a corner, Sacha suddenly acted. From nowhere he produced two pistols and killed the two Spaniards before Constance had time to take stock of what was going on.

He turned to hand her a pistol and Constance closely observed his face for the first time that day. She could see the devastation in his eyes close at hand and knew then that he was aware of Claude's death. She was glad that she was not to be the one to tell him, for she was barely holding it together for herself. She could comfort him though and she did, placing a gentle hand over his and squeezing. Sacha gave her a small conflicted smile that did not reach his eyes and Amorette felt her own tears falling. She put her arms around the lawyer briefly and felt his whole body shuddering as he tried to supress his sobs.

"Madam we need to move from here, someone will have heard those shots!"

Constance pulled away and accepted the shot and powder that he hurriedly dispensed into the pistol he had given her and then they made their way ever so slowly through the dank corridors of the prison. She tried to keep her mind from wandering to the inhabitants of the cells they passed, sure that her own husband would have had a hand in arresting a lot of them. Constance's trepidation began to rise as they rounded corner after corner and met no one. There were no Spaniards to be found until they reached the corridor where she knew the musketeers were being held. As they rounded the corner, the bodies of the Spanish men littering the floor and the empty cell told Constance all that she needed to know. The musketeers had found their own way out.

Sacha was shaking his head knowingly. "I should have known," he whispered. "I was at the Hotel de Ville when all of the commotion broke out three days ago. I and some other lawyers were barricaded in the buildings surrounding it; but not out of choice. The stewards there would not let any of us leave no matter how hard we tried. Perhaps if I had been able to..."

Amorette saw his eyes glaze over as his mind wandered. "Sacha don't think on it," she said gently. "There was nothing that anyone could have done. Claude was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Come to think of it, how did you come to know what happened?"

Sacha seemed to recover himself a little and nodded to her. "Sorry, I keep losing track of thought. From the building I was being held in I saw you all being led here and Claude was not among you, so I managed to find a way out of the Hotel de Ville. My first thought was to see if I could help any of you but this place was too heavily guarded. I went to the Palace and it seems that when they left, they only had a skeleton guard watching over the courtiers there. Buckingham had riled them up and taken back most of the Louvre. He told me what he knew, and told me about Claude...He said most of the Spanish had gone out into the streets in search of the King and Queen; not believing that they would leave the city behind so easily."

"The Spanish have more faith in our King than we do right now," Constance mused.

"Their faith is ill founded then," he said solemnly. "Paris is still under the siege of the Spanish. I know the Louvre is in safe hands for the moment but all the Spanish would have to do is round up their men and take it back. Perhaps I should have come here first, but when I saw you and the Cometess being led from here I followed in the hopes that the musketeers would take care of themselves and it appears I was right to think so. I did not think I should be lucky enough to get the chance to free you all. Even so it backfired. Amorette is still in their clutches. I had hoped to free both of you."