Porthos inclined his head. “I would have taught him sword fighting anyway.”
“But he didn’t know that,” Athos said. “What I don’t understand is why he would lie and tell Comeau he was his son, when it should be obvious Comeau would know he wasn’t. I wonder why he didn’t use Comeau’s horse trading as the true string on which to draw the lord’s purse.”
“Or perhaps he did,” Aramis said, raising an eyebrow.
“Or perhaps he did,” Athos said, and sighed. “And Comeau lied to us.”
Porthos frowned. “Well… perhaps, at that… but you know, I went back there and I asked around this morning before coming here.”
“You went back there?” Athos said. “You didn’t tell us.”
“I’m telling you now. I was going to tell you, but you were so shocked at the horse trading…” He shrugged. “Well… You see… I went back, on the way here, and I talked to the servants and maids at the house. And all of them agree that Monsieur de Comeau tossed the boy out on his ear and gave him short shrift on his attempt to blackmail him.”
“Yes, but did he intend to kill him, perhaps so that he couldn’t talk to his wife.”
“His wife,” Porthos said, remembering. “Well, the thing is that the maids tell me Guillaume continued coming to the house, you know, and that he went and talked to his wife too.”
“He I assume being Guillaume?” Athos asked.
“Yes, of course,” Porthos said.
“And were you so enterprising as to go and find out from his wife what exactly Guillaume had talked to her about?” Athos asked.
Porthos shook his head. “What I hear, from the maids and everything,” he said, “is that his wife was of higher birth than him, and… you know, a true lady, full of her own importance. As such, I figured she wouldn’t want to talk to someone like me any more than she would want to go out in public in a stained gown, you see…”
Athos stared, eyebrows raised. “I suppose we should send Aramis to talk to her?”
“Indeed no,” Aramis said.
Athos looked at Aramis and Porthos could tell that Athos was surprised, which was not a very common thing with him. “No?”
Aramis sighed. “It turns out that Madame de Comeau is the friend of a lady who… well… she wouldn’t hold me in esteem.” He looked at his nails, which he usually did to disguise embarrassment or to hide confusion. “The thing is, at any rate, that she doesn’t consider me aristocratic enough to be part of her circle.”
“You?” Porthos asked, and sat back on his stool so heavily he almost caused it to overturn. Only a quick grasp of the edge of the table saved him. “You? Who were the lover of a duchess and who are routinely courted by princesses. You are not noble enough?”
Aramis sighed. He flecked away some imaginary dirt from his doublet. “Well, you see, Porthos, it is like this, that princesses and duchesses don’t care how noble you are and are likely to consider you noble enough for them if you are noble at all. But people like Madame de Comeau who are in the lower degrees of nobility… indeed, at about my level, like to flatter themselves that they are far more noble and of more ancient family line than they are, and thus they wouldn’t dream of associating with me.” He looked up. It was hard to tell if his green eyes were sparkling with something that might be annoyance or amusement or both combined. “I’m afraid, Athos, that you’ll have to talk to her. You, with your looks and every appearance of being descended from crowned heads, she might be willing to talk to.”
Athos made a face, and seemed to be about to refuse, but finally nodded, his expression still grim. “Very well, if I must talk to the woman, I will. Though I can’t imagine what you expect me to find.”
“Only what Guillaume told her, and what she might have answered,” D’Artagnan said. “Always taking in account her expression and reactions, of course. You must rely on your sensible examination of the circumstances.”
“But what do you hope to find?” Athos said.
“Anything, nothing,” Aramis said. “I don’t know. But if her husband did the boy violence, then she might know it.”
Porthos nodded. “This leaves as suspects Monsieur de Comeau, Amelie’s father and mother, my… father and, I suppose, my cousins.”
Aramis nodded. “I should mention,” he said, “that I talked to some people I know this morning.”
“People, you know?” Athos said.
“Mostly people of the female persuasion, I assume,” Porthos said, unable to resist ribbing his friend.
Aramis turned to him, his eyes oddly serious. “I can’t determine that either of Amelie’s parents approached the boy,” he said. “But both of them asked around enough about their daughter. And your Amelie’s father stayed at the Hangman for a while.”
“How did you find this out?” Porthos asked.
“Ah…” Aramis shrugged. “You’d be surprised what mendicant friars see and hear. I simply asked some whose normal station is near the tavern. It was easy enough, by description of her father and mention of where her mother would be from, you see…”
“And my father?” Porthos asked. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Oh, there was no love lost between himself and his father. There hadn’t been for many a year. But the thing was that no matter how much Porthos told himself his father was a boar and a madman with no manners and worse morals, he was still Porthos’s father.
Porthos could remember being a little boy in Marie’s care and thinking his father was the biggest, the strongest and the most wise man in the world too. He remembered seeing everyone in St. Guillaume du Vallon deferring to his father and thinking that he was truly the most important of men. Somehow, the old, cantankerous man who had sent Porthos to Paris and now refused to admit Porthos existed inhabited the same body as the idolized giant of Porthos’s childhood. And he didn’t wish either of them to have committed murder, much less murder of Porthos’s son.
Aramis shrugged. “Your father also looked around, though he must be credited with looking for you first, and then Guillaume. I think he spoke with Amelie. Guillaume’s sister. Other than that, I haven’t found much.”
Porthos closed his eyes and hoped his father hadn’t done anything stupid, but then he had to open his eyes again and go on hoping. He drank the wine in his cup, and nodded, all around. “I shall talk to de Termopillae,” he said.
“I shall go with you,” Aramis said.
“And I,” Athos said, speaking as though he were being asked to sacrifice himself to some unknowable pagan deity, “shall go and interview Madame de Comeau.”
“And I think,” D’Artagnan said, slowly. “That I shall go back to sleep.”
Porthos wondered if the boy was truly still addled from his knock on the head, or whether he wanted to stay home to see if the beautiful wife of his landlord would put in an appearance. Either way, it was a temporary affliction and would surely pass.
A Lady’s Boudoir; The Commerce Stain; The Matter of the Jewels
"WITH Madame de Comeau?” the little maid asked Athos, giving him the once-over with a shrewd evaluating air.
Athos had dressed in his best and least-patched uniform, brushed his hair and tied it back. He held his best hat-the one with the plumes still feathered out and in good condition-against his chest as he spoke. He was aware that he looked, if not regal-it was hard to look regal in a patched suit-at least noble and dignified. He was also aware-had been aware since he’d reached manhood- that there was a certain air he could put on, a certain way of moving, that gave people the immediate impression he was highborn and much too good for his surroundings and their company. He now threw his head back, with just that expression, and the maid gaped at him.