Unfit for Duty

Chapter One

A door creaked open.

Though it sounded loud to Alexandre, the hinges were much too well oiled in the fine palace of his father for it to sound too conspicuous. His trunk recoiled as he winced and looked around, but nothing happened. No one noticed. So with a shrug, he stepped out of the room. Closing the door very quietly again, he made his way casually down the corridor lit warmly with the late morning sun from the broad window at the end of it.

He felt a little shiver despite the warmth of summer when he reached the staircase, but he tried to warm up his body by a quick descent down the staircase. When he reached the bottom he hurried to the dining room where his siblings were busily finishing their breakfast. He felt thankful that Father wasn't there. He must have been busy with business, and Mother must have already been with her business with Madame too, and there was no sign of Cornelius, Pompadour, or Troubadour.

Good, Alexandre thought, at least I don't have to deal with everyone.

He stepped into the dining room.

"Hi, Alexandre!" said Pom. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, you stayed in late this morning," said Flora.

They were acting cheerful and unconcerned, but still Alexandre wanted to make a good impression as he strolled up to take his seat on the other side of Pom. Before his place there was set a mug of hot chocolate instead of coffee as was custom despite the heat of summer along with some fruit and a small croissant.

"Yep! I feel much better!" exclaimed Alexandre. "Just in time to go to the fair today! Where's Father and Mother?"

"Oh, y'know making sure everything okay before we leave," said Flora.

"Victor said he's definitely going to meet us there," said Pom.

"When'd he say that?" asked Alexandre.

"When you were sick," said Flora as-a-matter-of-factly swinging her legs under the table.

Alexandre dove right into his hot chocolate, which was a little more like chocolate milk now as it had long ago cooled. Quickly he ate his croissant and fruit. Though, he had felt that he was hungry when he first had sat down he did not feel very well after he had eaten, but he was not going to let it spoil his day. He had woken up feeling refreshed so the fever had to be gone for the most part.

He tried to keep up after his siblings had finished eating and were rushing excitedly out to see where Father and Mother were, but his sloshing stomach prevented him from running too fast. Luckily the others didn't notice that he was turning rather pale.

They all found Father out in the main hall speaking some final words to Cornelius and Pompadour about some business or other, and he turned in his usual calm manner to the excited shouts of Flora and Pom.

"Hi, Papa! Are we ready to go!" exclaimed Flora grabbing onto one of Father's legs.

"I can't wait! Where's Mama?" asked Pom grabbing onto the other leg.

"Alexandre's all better so we don't even have to leave him behind or anything, so Mama can go too!" exclaimed Flora.

"Yeah, and we don't have to feel bad about leaving him!" agreed Pom.

Alexandre just barely caught up in time to not look too conspicuous, though Cornelius and Pompadour exchanged glances known for grownups to make at one another after seeing him puffing so and looking so pale. However, it was Father's gentle glance that made Alexandre force his tongue back into his mouth in exchange for a sickly smile.