BBC Musketeers / The things we do for love

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Last time in chapter 21:

Inside, the room was almost completely dark, their flashlights providing the only illumination. It was also dank and musty, with an unpleasant mildewy smell. There was no furniture; no chair or bed or even a table. In the farthest corner of the room, a man was cowering on the floor.

Treville trained the beam of his flashlight on the crouching figure. The man tried to shield his eyes from the sudden glare after days of complete darkness.

"Monsieur Cluzet?" Treville asked. The man before him was almost unrecognizable. His clothes were torn and tattered, his face and hands dirty. He looked haggard and generally in no good condition.

"Yes, that's me," the man answered, his spirit apparently unbroken. Porthos helped him up and supported him on the way back upstairs. Athos took some photos of the room and the general conditions with his cellphone, before he followed the others.

All three teams left the building as quickly as they had entered, Cluzet hidden in their midst, still leaning on Porthos. Quickly the equipment was returned to the car trunks and the whole group drove back to the chateau.

"I want to go to a hospital," Cluzet complained, once he had realized that they weren't headed towards any of the many hospitals in Paris.

"We have an excellent doctor at Chateau Fontainebleau. He has already been summoned and can provide the necessary medical care. For your own safety, we'll avoid the hospitals," Treville reassured him in a soft, almost silky voice. Athos and Porthos, who were in the same car, knew better. Yes, the security would be better at the chateau, but that wasn't the main reason. So far, nobody but them knew that they had found and rescued Cluzet, and they wanted to keep it that way for the time being. He wasn't their hostage, but they wanted to use the shift in the balance of power to their advantage, trusting Treville in this matter. The man was a brilliant tactician, even if the motive behind his plans wasn't always apparent at first.

The sun was just going down when the cars stopped in front of the wide stone steps at the entrance. Porthos, Treville, Nathan and most of the security guards got out, while Athos and the remaining men took the cars back to the garage. Treville and Porthos took Cluzet to one of the more secluded guest rooms, where Lemay could examine him and the man could get some rest and take a shower. In Porthos' opinion the man desperately needed one.

Inside the room, Cluzet sat down on the bed and a few seconds later Lemay arrived and shooed Porthos off into a corner of the room. Porthos had the first watch and would also keep an eye on Lemay. Meanwhile, Treville left for the quarters of the king to report.

Once Lemay had finished his examination and concluded that Cluzet was suffering from beginning malnutrition, exhaustion, a couple of bruised ribs and some abrasions, but had no serious injuries, Athos came in. He and Porthos would guard Cluzet tonight.

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Aramis, Anne, Constance, D'Artagnan and the two recruits arrived back from their trip to Paris an hour after the rescue team. D'Artagnan and Aramis accompanied the ladies back to their rooms, while Marc and Vincent returned the cars to the garage.

Once Aramis and D'Artagnan had made sure that their ladies would be safe for the night, they headed towards the guard room. With a little luck, Athos and Porthos would still be there and they could go out for a drink together.

Anne and Constance put away the bounty from their shopping tour and talked a little about their trip.

D'Artagnan was just about to open the door to the guard room, when one of the guards came out. Seeing the two men, he patted D'Artagnan's shoulder. "Boy, did you miss all the fun," he said, grinning.