The master spy or Puss in the boot adventures

IV. Unforgivable nights

1. Duke of desires

Whispers of the Duke's lascivious conquests blazed through the palace like wildfire. Sharp Moustache couldn't restrain his burning curiosity, and old Mer-Mer, the wily feline, eagerly fed his intrigue.

"Sharp Moustache," purred Mer-Mer with a wicked smirk, "the Duke never settled for a mere single queen. He luxuriated in the sinful embrace of more than two at once."

Sharp Moustache's eyes burned with shock. "But what of the King? Was he even aware?"

Mer-Mer's eyes darkened as he detailed the monarch's scandalous debauchery. "The King, a feckless figure, would gyrate his rear like a courtesan and shirk his royal duties. The Queen, wearied by his neglect, sought solace – and forbidden delight – in the arms of... the Duke."

"And what visage did this Duke bear?" Sharp Moustache pressed, voice trembling with a mix of disbelief and revulsion.

Mer-Mer paused, his mind summoning a vivid image. "He was haughty and pretentious, strutting with the pomposity of a vanity-fueled fowl. He sneered at commoners like me and even deigned to punish me for the slightest hint of defiant eye contact."

"But you still managed to win Cardinal Richelieu's favor?" Sharp Moustache challenged, incredulity thick in his tone.

With a reluctant sigh, Mer-Mer admitted, "I was a double agent, playing both sides to sate my own ambitions."

"Both sides?" Sharp Moustache's voice nearly cracked. "But why side with the Cardinal?"

"For silver and empty promises of honor," Mer-Mer confessed bitterly. "And the Queen promised me... pleasures unspoken."

At the mere mention of Queen Anna, Mer-Mer was flooded by memories of their fateful nocturne in her sumptuous chambers after the ball. There she lay, provocatively draped on her silken bed, her purr a seductive call.

"Your Majesty," Mer-Mer had whispered, bowing deeply, heart racing in the presence of such forbidden beauty.

"Enough of your formalities," she had cooed, beckoning him over with a languid pat on the bed. "Come to me."

Reluctance warred with desire as Mer-Mer approached.

"Are you not enraged by my transgressions?" the Queen implored, her voice a trembling murmur. "Aren't we still... something more?" Her words cut deep, a blade slicing through his heart, sealing his fate as lost to her forever.

"No, Your Majesty," he stuttered, voice shaking. "I am not angry... merely a humble servant of the kitchens. What conceivable allure could the Queen of France harbor for a wretched lowlife like me..."

"Oh, Mer-Mer, I beg of you... I never meant to wound your soul... but I cannot help it... I have fallen, deeply ensnared in love...but with the Duke..."

"Of course, Your Majesty..." he answered, despite the tempest raging inside him. "Your happiness is all that matters..."

Yet beneath his resigned words, a cavern of despair yawned within his chest, a wound destined to fester in the shadows of his soul.

2. Midnight secrets in the Garden of ...Desires

"Tonight at midnight, in the garden, you are to meet the Duke and stealthily guide him through the secret kitchen door to my chambers," she whispered fiercely in his ear, a promise of rewards as dark as the night itself.

Mer-Mer could not mask his seething disgust at the prospect of colluding with the arrogant Duke. Yet the seductive Queen Anna pulled him closer, drenching him in kisses and tender caresses, igniting a complicated inferno inside him.