A Powerful Little Love

Chapter 49

"Athos!" Amorette sobbed as she felt the lump on the side of his head again.

With a dragging sound and a sickening thump the set of drawers and door gave way to Porthos' Strength.  Once through the door he pushed the set of drawers back the way they had come and stepped into the room.  He strained his eyes against the near-darkness, turning in the direction of Amorette's sobs.  She glanced up as Aramis and D'artagnan followed, a worried frown encasing all of their features for a few seconds until from below a gruff voice groggily said, "Stop being so dramatic."

Amorette's head shot down to stare at Athos who lifted a hand gingerly to the side of his head.  He sat up with a groan and ignored Amorette's attempts to push him back down.  He didn't protest though when she helped him move backwards a little to lean his back against the bottom of the couch. 

"Someone should fetch a doctor," Amorette called to the room as D'artagnan lit a few candles. 

Porthos chuckled lightly.  "Yeah, good luck with that one!" he said as he nodded towards Athos.

"I'm fine," Athos muttered.  "Aramis can examine me if he so wishes but there's no need for a doctor.  If we called for one every time one of us hit our heads we would need one in permanent residence at the garrison.  He raised a hand then to wipe away some of Amorette's still falling tears.  "Are you alright?" He asked her.

Amorette stared at him incredulously.  "You were the one who took a knock to the head!"

"I meant about that," he said with a reserved nod towards the other end of the room. 

Amorette's shot had hit Gaspard in the chest, killing him almost instantly.  He lay upon her rug in a pool of his own blood.  Amorette couldn't bring herself to look at him any longer than to ascertain yet again that he was very much dead.  "He would have killed us both," she muttered only loud enough for Athos to hear.  Aramis retrieved a sheet and placed it over the corpse as they all watched.

"You don't have to justify your actions to me," Athos replied.

Amorette shook her head as she started to cry again.  She hit him lightly on the chest.  "Why did you come bursting in like that Athos?  You're lucky he only knocked you on the head!  He could have shot you as soon as he set eyes on you!  Why would you be so foolish?"

Athos sighed heavily as he tugged at Amorette's ostentatious pink skirts until he was able to drag her onto his lap.  "Most likely for the same reason that you stepped between me and him just now!  That could have been called foolish too!  Perhaps we will simply have to look upon those actions differently."

Amorette felt her jaw dropping as his cobalt blue eyes bore into hers, as bright as a pair of sparkling sapphires despite the knock to the head.  Was he saying what she thought he was saying; without actually saying the words?  She felt his hand resting gently at her waist and let him pull her into his chest.  In that moment Amorette didn't care who saw; she leaned in as he captured her mouth with his in a passionate kiss.

When they finally broke away for air, Amorette didn't even need to turn around to know that all eyes were upon them in that moment.  She felt her cheeks heat at the silence throughout the room and scrambled away from Athos back onto the floor where she had been sitting a few moments ago.  No one else seemed to share her trepidation though; they were all grinning rather mischievously.

Little over an hour later, Amorette had changed into a more demure dress and was standing on her tiptoes in the doorway of the tavern where she knew the musketeers often drank.  It was still busy despite the lateness of the evening and Amorette afforded that to the Bastille breakout.  Everyone had congregated here to wait for more news, although there wasn't likely to be any until morning.  The city gates had been closed and any prisoners still within the city would have likely gone to ground for fear of being caught by one of the many patrols.  Treville seemed to have shared that opinion for he had ordered that his four best men take leave of their duties to rest until morning.