Mon amour, ma vie

4

"What's that sound?" Someone said.

"What are you talking about, sir?" The other man asked.

"Don't you hear it? I can't describe it, but it sounds like a loud wailing." The first man said, his curiosity growing stronger.

"I bet it's just some peasant, let's keep going, sir." The second man said, slightly annoyed.

"No, this sounds almost like a child. Something's wrong." The first man said. He looked around and could hear the cries getting louder. He went to the left, and it only got louder. At this point, the second man could hear the cries, and it wasn't the cry of a woman, it sounded like a child.

"Do you hear it, Lucien?" The first man asked.

"Yes, it seems to be coming from that barn over there." Lucien said. The first man nodded and they moved their horses over to the left. The sound only seemed to get louder. The first man jumped off his horse, Lucien, behind him. The first man reached the front door, but it was locked, but the cry kept getting louder. The first man eventually knocked the door down. As he headed in the first room, he saw the second door. Going up to it, he heard the cry at its loudest and knocked over the second door.

"Napoléon, what is it?" Lucien asked. Napoléon stepped inside and was quiet, what he saw made him frown. He was a woman, you, laid across an old mattress with blood coming out of your hands. Your hair was flared out, your dress torn with blood, your body was thin, you almost didn't look alive.

What was more disturbing though, was the child crying on the other bed. Napoléon walked over and picked up the baby, making it cry even louder, the child looked hungry. It looked like someone had come in and tried to commit murder but forgot the child.

"Lucien, check her pulse." Napoléon said, cuddling the child closer to his chest. He saw the baby's dress and realised the infant was a girl. She had a head full of black hair and your eyes. Napoléon thought she was a pretty girl.

"She's breathing, but barely." Lucien said. "What are we going to do?"

"Let's bring her and her child back to my palace. I'll have a doctor fix her up there. She looks like she's been through something awful." Napoléon said.

"Might I ask why we're taking her?" Lucien said. Picking you up in his arms, making sure to support your neck. He noticed the blood on your legs, it made him wonder what had happened here.

"I figured I could give her a job at the palace. She looks like she'd been through a lot. And anyway, with Joséphine gone, I miss having pretty women to look at." He said. Lucien nodded and walked out of the barn back to the horses. It was the first day of December and was unusually cold. The old barn seemed to have had no heating system, poor thing, she must have been freezing.

Lucien placed you gently on the front of the horse and hopped on. Napoléon put the baby in the basket, she was still softly crying, but it wasn't as bad. Lucien knew his brother was up to something more than wanting a new maid, but he didn't say anything, he felt bad for the girl, it was obvious she had been through something awful.

"Let's go, I don't want people to start thinking that something bad has happened." Napoléon said, his horse starting off to the journey with Lucien behind him.

Once there, Lucien hopped off and held you in his arms again. You were still half dead, probably a little more, but you'd live, he'd seen soldiers in worse conditions. Napoléon took the infant from the basket, which was now wrapped in a blanket. The child had seemed to calm down, but was still fussing in his arms. Napoléon wondered what had happened to a young mother and child, but he'd save his questions for later; there wasn't much use in talking to a bleeding, passed out, nearly dead person.