- An Outstanding Legend Hortense The Third Part Four The Courtiere Of The Queen

Tùy Chỉnh

Being accepted in Louvre, the young chevalière was given a fencer's garb and several court gowns tailored for her. Including Madame de Tréville herself, the Gardes de la Reine, those who had decent swordplay counted two in total. They were the Queen's lady-in-waiting, Madame de Tréville and the new courtière, Annatoire of Champagne. The remaining were just ordinary court ladies.

Annatoire was a person with mysterious background, at least in the other court ladies' eyes. She had etiquette of a proper noble, yet denied to be one. Her words usually seemed contrary to her actions, which made them suspicious of her. A person with such a shaded past should not be qualified for, they said, the royal court; yet this person was recommended to Her Majesty personally by Madame de Tréville, they didn't dare object.

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August 1624... Louvre Palace...

Mademoiselle Gautier, the royal seamstress, a baron's daughter, in contrary with the other court ladies, seemed having interest in the new courtière. Despite the shaded past they rumoured, only Mademoiselle was the one got along well with Annatoire; except for of course Madame de Tréville. At least, they held no dispute nor grudge against each other.

Annatoire's daily duty as the Queen's courtière revolved around being a guard, a maid and an advisor. Each day she would wake the Queen up at a set time, brush her hair, prepare the gowns and inform Her Majesty which things would have her attention for the day. Each night she would read a chosen book for Her Majesty, or play violin until she slept. Amongst the courtières, Annatoire might be the most unknown, yet also the most privileged; the Queen tended to keep Annatoire by her side all the time. With the rumoured affair of the Queen with Duke Buckingham going around in Versailles for such long time, the Queen usually would ask Annatoire to masquerade as her and refuse the request for audience when the Duke came to Paris for diplomatic negotiations with King Louis XIII, to settle the matter. The King was pleased to see the affair between his wife and Buckingham was just a rumour, but the Queen was not.

"Thou ever hast to... refuse thy beloved, Mademoiselle Annatoire?", asked the Queen as her courtière brushing her hair in a morning.

"Excusez-moi, Votre Majesté?"

"How doth it feel? Heart-breaking, or relieving?"

"Ah, I never had a beloved, Your Majesty", replied Annatoire.

"Oh, I thought thou did know... At thy age they may have had a betrothed already...", faltered the Queen.

Annatoire remained silent for a while and continued her work. At her age they might have had a betrothed to depend on for the rest of their life, bearing children and continuing the noble bloodline; that wasn't the case of Annatoire, or we ought to call, the eldest daughter of de Beaudelaire family. Being raised in one of the families with the noblest heritage in the whole realm, and as the sole heiress of its fortune, her pride didn't permit her to bow down the subordinate. She was a cousin to the King, albeit rather distant, after all. However, in this Louvre and in this mask of a courtière, all of them were which she must tightly keep a secret.

"Ah, Mademoiselle Annatoire...", called the Queen, "Hast thou known..."

"Yes, Your Majesty?", replied Annatoire curiously.

"The court hath been rumouring this, a strange tale... A comte suddenly went missing from his estate, without leaving a word behind. And last year, there was the uncanny disappearance of the King Father's distant cousin... It was too abnormal to be ignored, was it not?"

Annatoire was curious to know who was the count that left his estate, and his reasons. There was a chance he was in Paris, too, but the exact whereabouts were impossible to tell. Was he a merchant now? A tailor? A guard? A musketeer?

"It seems I did not hear those rumours, Your Majesty...", said Annatoire.

"I overheard them from the King's Musketeers. Thou hast an interest in rumours?", said the Queen amusingly.

"It seems not, Your Majesty. Though I enjoy discovering rumours, rather than just hearing them...", replied Annatoire.

"Such an extraordinary lady", complimented the Queen, "Though thou sayst thou art not of the blue blood, I still sense the high nobility in thee. Thou art well-knowledgeable, generally far more than any courtier in Versailles, which seldom a commoner-born could be..."

Nothing let loose could escape the Queen's perception, it seemed. But the young chevalière could not give up the secret either. If it was its time to be unveiled, then she would let it unveil.

"My mentor and his fiancée taught me all things I should know, Your Majesty..."

She knew well it was a lie, yet a white lie. Monsieur d'Artois, her mentor did teach her his swordplay, but all the remaining manners and etiquettes were learnt in her days as an aristocrat's daughter. She also knew her manners contrasted with her attitude, which attracted the courtiers' doubt to her. But as she was the protégée of Monsieur and Madame de Tréville, she was more or less protected from ill rumours, yet not from prejudices they had for her.

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Château de Beaudelaire, Reims...

It had been a year since the disappearance of the young duchess, and the servants still couldn't find any sight of hers. The second daughter of the family, Marie de Beaudelaire, then had been sixteen and longing for a betrothed. She had been having an eye for a count of her age, Auguste du Pierrot, a well-mannered young man with a passion for drama. He usually acted as mime to entertain her, it was for that she adored him. The Duke approved this marriage as he received the news from the butler, not only for the man was promised to be a good husband, he was a noble too; even if Marie married him, the family would not be targeted with prejudice of marrying a commoner. He also received the news of the disappearance of his eldest daughter, the Third Duchess, but he turned a blind eye on it as he believed his daughter, his precious canary, had escaped her gilded cage to seek for the better. If she had gone to Paris, then his old friend M. de Tréville would have offered the child his help; if she had gone to anywhere else, there were his trusty subordinates from his days as a captain of the royal guards who would have surely not left her alone. Hortense was his eldest daughter, a child who strived to be great, she would not be a disgrace to her family, who descended from the noble blood of Valois. If there was something could pull his daughter to her knees, it was fate then.

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October 1624, Gascony...

In Gascogne, here was the d'Artenade family, an ancient noble family had long gone into decline. They had just lost their dear estate, the old château Artenade, when they were unable to pay the debt after the death of the grandfather. The father, once a musketeer, had to retire early long ago due to a severe injuries to his right arm, this helped plunging the family deeper into unpaid debts. Their only hope to survive for the time being, was to send their only child to Paris; the child would become a courtière in the Palace, helping herself a place to shelter and her family a mean to pay off the debts.

The d'Artenade father initially intended to send his child just to be a maid in the Palace, but as she grew up, he taught her his art of sword, for her to protect herself on her long way to Paris; he hoped his child would somehow be trusted for being one of the Queen's Guards too.

On her route to Paris in her father's will, Hélène d'Artenade knew not she would be involved in the swashbuckling adventures of the Musketeers, with her company a fellow courtière; unbeknownst to Hélène, it was to be the most memorable adventures for them the Queen's Guard; and perhaps the most peculiar too.