The de Vere Inheritance

Chapter One - 5th June 1632

"Oh for heaven's sake not again," Elizabeth sighed as she gazed out of the window of the carriage. They were slowing to a stop just a few yards from the new lodgings that had been arranged for herself and Eric in Paris. Four red guards stood waiting at the bottom of the steps on the Rue Sainte-Anastase and Elizabeth knew exactly why they were there. They were waiting for her. Not one of them stepped forward to help her out of the carriage, or to help unload her luggage. Instead she unloaded all of the smaller items herself whilst the driver unstrapped the larger trunk and carried it towards the steps.

"Perhaps you should set it down there Monsieur," Elizabeth called to him. "It appears these men will need to search my things again." Elizabeth paid the driver, all too aware that he was curiously watching the red guards. He was likely wondering what on earth she'd done to earn such a welcome reception in Paris. She had paid him handsomely though, so he seemed to think better of dawdling and instead he was on his way within a few moments.

"Madame De Vere?" one of the red guards queried as Elizabeth removed her hat pin and slipped her hat from her head.

"Well who on earth else would I be; considering that name is all over my luggage? Can we get this over with gentlemen, I've been in that carriage all morning and it's had a poor affect on my nerves."

Elizabeth stood aside and gestured to her luggage. For a few seconds there was no movement whatsoever and she knew that the men expected her to bend to open the trunks herself. She did not as a rule let others dictate, so she smiled blandly and waited. Eventually a man stepped forward and opened her trunk. Another followed him in kneeling down beside it. The two others began to open her hat boxes and smaller trunks.

"Your husband does not travel with you Madame?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course he does you fool. I folded him up and hid him in that trunk you currently have your hand thrust into. I thought it might give you some excitement. After all, this is the third time in the last hour that I've had all of my belongings searched. If Paris didn't know what my undergarments looked like before, they certainly do now!"

The first time they'd searched her, Elizabeth had felt a little embarrassment at the sight of men rifling through all of her things, but those men had been younger and closer to her own age. They'd been sheepish in their search and somewhat apprehensive of touching her corsets and undergarments. These men were older though, and seemed to give not a jot for propriety's sake.

"Where is your husband then? Off gambling away the last of his fortune is he?"

Elizabeth mocked a scoff. "Lord no. It's probably my fortune he's frittering away. By the way do you know who my father is?"

The red guard who had first approached her larger trunk stood up and walked around her luggage so that he was close enough for Elizabeth to smell the leather of his uniform and unwashed male. It was hot in Paris, that she already knew. He'd likely washed just that morning but was slowly boiling alive in his uniform.

"Of course we know who your father is Madame," he exclaimed in a rather smug manner. "He rented these rooms for yourself and your husband did he not? That's how we knew to expect your arrival."

Elizabeth made a mental note to tell her father to keep his mouth shut in regards to her own affairs and took a decided step back. "I'm not halting your search in any way Messieurs, but I do wonder at your being allowed to search a lady's belongings without her husband present in such a preposterous manner. There is also of course the simple fact that I cannot possibly imagine what can have changed between the city gates and here. As I said, this is the third search since I've entered the city. There I was thinking I'd pass through the gates and be within my new lodgings within ten minutes. I'll be sure to tell my father of this pharse."

They chuckled harshly, but Elizabeth did not have time to make any retort. "What's going on here? Bisset; didn't you hear the Madame? She's been searched already!"

Elizabeth turned on her heel expecting to see another red uniform, but the man approaching them from across the street wore a blue one. Taller than any of the red guards, his dark skin and black beard set him apart from most men. He wore a stern expression as he stopped at Elizabeth's side and stared down at the open trunk. A lone earring glinted in the sunlight and Elizabeth thought him almost pirate-like as she gazed up at him.

The man who Elizabeth assumed was called Bisset took a few steps back from her, clearly annoyed by the new man's presence. "Following orders musketeer. Not something you'd understand is it? You lot follow your own rules."

Unbelievably the stern pirate let out a laugh that seemed genuine, but still held a touch of harshness to it. "A red guard who think's he's funny. That's new. The Madame said she'd been searched already. There's no need to do so again is there Bisset? Go on, scuttle off and leave her be! You don't want me to fetch my blindfold do you? I've already had a drink so I'm perfectly poised to aim for one of your heads!"

Elizabeth frowned, not understanding the musketeer's meaning but it seemed to do the trick. The trunk lids closed with a snap and the men were rising to their natural height again and striding away. "I'm sorry but, blindfold?"

The pirate-like musketeer grinned. "I can shoot a melon off a man's head blindfolded, but only if there's rum."

"Ah, I see," Elizabeth replied, even though she did not see. "Thank you for your help Monsieur...?"

He nodded. "Porthos, and that's quite alright. Here, let me..."

The musketeer pirate lifted her large trunk with ease and carried it up the steps to the front door of her lodgings. Elizabeth followed in his wake with a smaller trunk and her hat box. "Thank you again Monsieur Porthos," She supplied as she fished in her small beaded purse for the key to her new lodgings as they stood together on the top step.

"You got a lawyer in Paris?" he asked as he fixed her with a strange look.

"My husband does," said Elizabeth.

"They'll come back." Porthos nodded in the direction the red guards had walked. "You should involve that lawyer before they do. You were right you know. They'd no authority to search your things without your husband present or in the street like that, not unless it's you they're after? In any case you shouldn't have let them."

Elizabeth laughed. "The notion is a fine thing. I've nothing to hide Monsieur Porthos. They can search all they like."

"Yeah but two heads are better than one, you can't have hoped to watch all four of them at one time? They could have planted something."

"I didn't think of that," she supplied thinly.

"Get that lawyer involved," he said with a nod and began to decend the steps again.

"Thank you again!" Elizabeth called out to him. He turned and winked at her before he crossed the street again and turned at the corner. He seemed friendly and helpful, but Elizabeth knew he would not likely be so once he found out who her husband was.