He was sorely tempted to ask her if she wished him to leave her in France, but that would have been unforgivably petty. Despite claims by many to the contrary, Moreau did have a heart and that heart had a soft-spot for his newly found mother. "I would hope that my god-father would not refuse that which will make two people he cares for so very happy. But we are all under stress, Madame, and I realise better than most that in such circumstances people very often say what they do not mean. Therefore we shall speak no more of it now." his tone was final because he could see how upset Aline had become. "I suggest you take some refreshment now. We have a long drive ahead and I must see to the horses. Be ready to leave in half an hour." That final parting remark was addressed to both women.
<Aline>
Aline watched Andre-Louis depart, then cast her eyes down to the plate before her and the barely touched meal. She picked up the fork with a shaky hand and stabbed at the food, but had no stomach to eat. Why had Mme de Plougastel changed so towards her? In her mind, she and Andre-Louis had acted with discretion and had not performed any unforgivable sin. Why did her guardian blister them so?
Abruptly, she dropped her fork and stood up, �Pardon me, madame, but I am going to freshen up before we depart.� She knew she would regret giving up her breakfast later, but worried about receiving further recriminations. She quickly made her way upstairs to the room she had spent the night, to gather the meager possessions she�d brought with her. Then a thought struck her, what if her uncle refused? He had in the past, allowed her freedom to choose her own husband, but what if he had changed as Mme de Plougastel had?
<Andre-Louis>
Moreau paid for a driver to take them on the next stage of their journey. When the animals were changed, the driver would be too. Moreau knew that these small villages were the hardest to pass. It would look better if the great citizen Moreau sat inside like the master, than on the box like a servant. There was a nip in the air and Moreau blew on his hands to warm them as he waited for the grooms to harness the horses. Then he went back inside to settle his accounts. "Are the ladies ready?" he enquired.
"Hortense!" cried the innkeeper to his wife, "Go find this good citizen's companions and tell them he's ready to depart."
Moreau sat down to wait.
<Aline>
Aline had been sitting on the edge of one of beds staring out the window when he heard heavy footstep come to a halt outside her door. She turned to the door in anticipation, as there came a rap and the door swung slowly open. The innkeeper�s plain wife looked in, �Yer husband�s waitin� for you.�
�Husband?� Aline echoed, then her brain latched onto the idea that she meant Andre-Louis. �Yes, thank you.� She gather her things and proceeded to follow the lady, who led her to Moreau, before seeking out Mme de Plougastel. She took the seat beside Aline-Louis. �Our host�s wife believes us married,� she whispered. �Do you think it a sign?�
<Andre-Louis>
"I think it shows how well we look together." He smiled. "Aline, you and I have been destined for each other since we played at Gavrillac as children. I loved you then, but didn't realise it... it took a revolution to show me the truth. Perhaps for that we can thank the Republic, eh?" The smile became a grin to show that the serious moment had ended. He wanted to take her hand again, but desisted for fear of offending his mother again. Instead, he examined his pocket watch, while they waited.
<Aline>
�I think we�ve both been blind for a very long time,� Aline replied, rubbing her hands together, as she nervously quelled the impulse to let them find his. She wanted to rest her weary head against his shoulder and take comfort in the love it took so long to find. But propriety, in the form of Mme de Plougastel, reminded her that now was not the time to celebrate this love. �Looking back, I can see that it was there. The night you fled Gavrillac, that afternoon when you proclaimed your engagement, and most especially the other day when you faced d�Azyr� it was only when I thought I�d lost you that I begun to realize.�
<Andre-Louis>
"Ironic really, but then I've always said the world is mad." What was keeping Mme de Plougastel? They needed to be away... every surplus minute was one less to reach the German border before they were caught. The tension of that and trying to be proper in his conduct towards Aline was straining his nerves. Much more waiting and Moreau didn't think he'd be able to resist kissing her!
<Aline>
Aline wondered what was keeping Mme de Plougastel. She had spent the last half hour in their room and her guardian hadn�t entered in all that time to collect her things. Perhaps she was still breakfasting alone, Aline thought, trying to avoid worry. �Will you regret leaving the life you�ve made?�
<Andre-Louis>
"No. I've moved on too often to regret anything but being away from you. Besides, people will always want fencing lessons and, though I say it myself, I think maybe even some of mother's aristocratic friends may swallow their pride to be taught by the Paladin of the 3rd Estate." He paused, "What about you? Will you miss France?"
<Aline>
Aline smiled at Andre-Louis's blatant ego. "The strange thing is that I don't think I will miss the things I thought I would," Aline confessed. "I don't think I will miss Paris and the court so much, because now when I think of them I think of the ugliness connected with them... but I think I will miss Gavrillac. I have so many fond memories of my time there, it's like losing home."
<Andre-Louis>
Yes, Gavrillac was home for both of them. Briefly Moreau wondered what would happen to the place when now his Godfather had left it. Not that the estate had ever been rich... not like D'Azyr's... but that didn't matter these days. "All that's good about Gavrillac will be waiting for us in Koblenz." he replied, trying to comfort her.
<Aline>
�I know you are right,� Aline attempted a smile. �It is my uncle I worry for most, it is he that will be most affected by this move. He is as much a part of Gavrillac as the trees and took care of the people there. He was never one for court life, never one to depend the charity of others. I fear it will be harshest on him.�
<Andre-Louis>
"That is why we must make it easier for him. I have a small farm just outside Koblenz." He caught her glance, "Well, what else was I to do with money? I had no need of it myself. Besides, I hope Godfather will accept it from me not as charity, but as partial repayment of the huge debt I owe him."
<Aline>
�I�m sure he will be most grateful,� Aline smiled and reached out to stroke the back of his hand reassuringly. They would only know when they got there, which wouldn�t happen until Mme de Plougastel appeared. They should have departed already.
<Andre-Louis>
Moreau seemed to sense what Aline was thinking. Where on earth had his mother got to. "Perhaps you should check on M. de Plougastel." he suggested. Not wanting to walk in on a woman who might be in a state of undress. "We really should be going, or we won't make the border before sunset."
<Aline>
Aline nodded in agreement and set off in search of her guardian, beginning with the room they spent the night in. She knocked timidly on the door before entering.
<Andre-Louis>
Mme de Plougastel had gone into the garden after breakfast seeing as Aline and Andre-Louis didn't want her around them. All Aline seemed to want was to destroy their reputations and give her chastity away before she had obtained her uncle's consent - stupid little girl that she was. Fortunately she had the sense to stop the two from going too far.
After a while she wandered back into the inn and saw Andre-Louis sitting there impatiently. "Will we be going anytime soon?" The sooner they were in Koblenz the better.
<Aline>
Before Aline found it necessary to try the door, she heard voices in the parlour and deduced Mme. De Plougastel had come out of hiding. It was a very god thing that Aline had packed the lady�s things up when she was collecting hers, or they might never reach the border before nightfall.
She hurried downstairs and into the parlour where her suspicions were confirmed. �There you are Madame!� she exclaimed. �Andre-Louis and I were beginning to worry, but now that all is ready we can begin,� she took the older woman by the arm and lead her to the carriage, knowing her lover would follow immediately. �I have collected your things from the room and the innkeepers wife has packed us some provisions, so everything is in order.� Well, almost everything. If her guardian was going to continue in this foul mood this was going to be a long trip indeed.
<Andre-Louis>
Moreau marvelled at the way Aline handled his mother... but then she did know her so much better than he did. After a final word with their host, Moreau followed the two women out to the carriage and clambered in. As soon as they indicated that they were settled comfortably, he would give the signal to the driver to go.
<Aline>
Aline shifted her skirts around to make herself as possible and indicated that she was more than ready to depart. �I can only imagine poor uncle Quentin is mad with worry.�
<Andre-Louis>
"Then we must reach him as soon as possible." Replied Moreau, then he stuck his head out of the window and shouted "Drive on!" The coach jerked and lurched forwards, rocking slightly as they left the stable yard of the inn. Moreau had hoped to leave sooner, before the townsfolk were about their daily business and crowding the streets in the process. The carriage made slow but steady progress towards the eastern gate, beyond which lay the open road to the border and Koblenz.
<Mme de Plougastel>
Ignoring Aline's rude jostling of her into the carriage, once it took off she settled on making the pair see reason. "And what do you play to do with your life now that you are no longer the revolution's assassin?"
<Aline>
Aline gaped in astonishment, �I do not understand this antagonism, madam! Andre-Louis has just saved our lives at his own peril. There is no call to badger him.�
<Andre-Louis>
He couldn't help it, he just had to hold out his hand to Aline. To see her defend him against her close friend made his heart swell. "To be fair, Madame, you can hardly call me an assassin. I did not challenge those men. They challenged me. At first it was in the belief that, as a member of the Third Estate, I would not know how to use a sword and would be easy to kill... yes, Madame, they sought to murder me as D'Azyr," he would never call that man father, "murdered Philippe de Vilmorin. After the first duel, however, they challenged me with open eyes. Those men honestly thought they possessed the superior skill and could win... had I let them, they would not have extended to me the mercy I extended to many of them. They would not have been satisfied with a simple wound... they wanted death. I merely defended myself to the degree required... how is that assassination? " He gave his mother a disarming grin.
<Mme de Plougastel>
The frown lines around Mme de Plougastel�s mouth and forehead softened, her eyes stared off into some none existence point in the distance, perhaps a moment in the past, as she realized it was too late to be a mother. Perhaps she was never cut out to be a mother, certainly Plougastel had never provided her with the opportunity (he blamed her infertility � pity she couldn�t prove him wrong). She wanted to protect her son from the dangers he would certainly face when they crossed the border, where their roles would reverse and those who despised the new regime in France might wish to attack the face of the republic as represented by young Moreau. After all he had gained some notoriety with the duels he fought and his earlier activism.
Was it not that very reason that she had been thoughtlessly lashing out at him since they left, and as a consequence Aline as well. Andre-Louis represented the revolution, the force that murdered her friends and family and drove her from her home. She knew it was foolish to blame him, but when there was no other outlet�
She exhaled slowly, feeling as though the weigh of the world rested on her chest � crushing her. �You are right. D�Azyr and his colleagues were behaving most reprehensibly,� the lady confessed. �But those royalist residing in Koblentz will not see that point, those �migr� fleeing persecution will remember how horribly you were portrayed in the papers and that is how you will be judged. They may try to hurt you and in doing so, Aline as well. It may be too late to be your mother, but it would pain me to see you hurt.�
<Andre-Louis>
With his free hand he took his mother's an squeezed it. "Don't fear for me." he said, more kindly now. "I can defend myself against those bullies, and Aline too. As long as I am with her, they won't dare harm her, I promise."
<Aline>
Aline was grateful the air had cleared between them, it was good to have her friend back. Andre-Louis�s hand in her one hand, she used the other to stroke Mme de Plougastel�s reassuringly. This was the moment she had hoped for, this sense of unity and optimism that conquered the dread of what was to come. She gently squeezed her love�s hand.
This thread continues from Gavrillac and Desperately Seeking Solace
This thread continues in Koblenz
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