d'Artagnan And Her Musketeers (The Cosette D'Artagnan Romances, book 1)

Chapter 25

It was a mere two hours later that Cosette finally woke up. Porthos spent the half of the night with her. So, he saw Cosette stir awake, but also groan in pain due to the bullet wound and recent surgery.

"She's awake," said Porthos. Cosette knew that from the minute she woke up that she was in trouble.

"welcome back from the Dead, d'Artagnan," said Aramis. Cosette expected him to be angrily talking to her. However, he was sounding more or less relaxed than she thought he was.

"Where's Athos?" Cosette asked in a raspy voice.

"He's alright, better than you are, by the looks of it," said Aramis. Cosette could tell he was done stitching. She could see that her corset which kept her female things from showing. Aramis put her shirt back down. "You're lucky, five more inches and Athos could have killed you."

"I'm sorry..." Cosette said. The two men looked at her. They knew she was referring to her secret.

"D'Artagnan, when were you going to tell us you were a girl?" Aramis asked. Cosette was dreading this day was coming. She could tell he was a little bit betrayed, and she couldn't look at those brown eyes, as it was just like looking at the eyes of a puppy.

"d'Artagnan, look at us," Porthos told Cosette but she still couldn't listen. But she couldn't look away from Aramis and Porthos anymore. They did save her life.

"Can you blame me?" Cosette asked. "My father disguised myself as a boy because he felt it was safer for me to travel with him. A...and you guys wouldn't have taken me seriously if I were a girl when I challenged Athos. I...I decided to keep it up just until my papa's death was avenged." She slowly got up but the bullet wound was painful. She winced, as Aramis pushed her back gently into the pillow, so Cosette didn't make another move and continued on. "Just a pathetic, fifteen year old girl who acted foolishly. I just never meant for it to go this far. "

Cosette also realized that she had revealed her real age of fifteen instead of eighteen. She wanted to cry. Aramis and Porthos looked at each other. It was if they discussed this before she woke up. Cosette's fear got even worse and she began wondering: Did Athos know?

"Does Athos know?" Cosette asked. No one answered. They looked at each other. She wanted to know if her friend knew. She slowly got up again.

"Aramis, Porthos, does Athos know?" Cosette repeated.

"No, we haven't told him," Aramis said. He went to ease her back down to the bed. He went to check his handiwork to see if it was undone. Cosette remembered that Aramis hated it when his needlework was undone. He covered her back up with the blanket.

"Yet," Cosette said, not bothering to hide the sadness in her voice. "I wouldn't blame me if you all must hate me for it."

"We don't hate you, kid," Porthos said.

"You don't?" she asked.

"But we will admit, we are a little upset you didn't tell us from the start," Aramis said. Instead of being in an angry tone, it was gentle. Aramis pushed the soaked hair from her forehead.

"I'm sorry," Cosette apologized, tears forming in her eyes. Porthos wiped them away.

"We forgive you, lass," said Porthos, "but do us the honor of telling us your name, Your real name. It's not 'Charles.' We know that for sure.""Why didn't you tell us you were a girl?" they asked again.