One Midnight (ONC 2024) ✔️

Chapter Eleven - Officer Moreau

1720
The water rushes all around me, and my body basking in its coolness. I contemplate going further into the river, knowing that it is not a good idea to do such a foolish thing. I enjoy my quiet, my peace in this water. I know there are risks of alligators and underbrush that could take me in their grasp in a mere moment. I suppose that is the thrill of it, that keeps me still in this water, and I never want this moment to end. Not for anything in the world.

"Hey, hey!" I hear a voice cry out. I turn my head to look, but can't make out the figure standing at the foot of the crescent.

"Do not do this! I repeat, do not do this! It is far too dangerous. Who are you and why are you in the water?"

The voice is a strong masculine voice. It sounds familiar, like one of the officers stationed here under French order.

"I am quite all right, sir," I say in reply.

"But you can be overtaken in seconds. There are things underneath that are enough to fell even the strongest man. I thought you were an alligator until I noticed the clothing."

I gasp when I look down and notice that I am still in my underthings, my night clothes are sprawled out on the ground. In the faint moonlight, I see that it is Officer Moreau. He stands, looking down on me as he gets down to my level, kneeling.

"Do you need help getting out of the water, Mademoiselle?" he asks.

"Madame," I croak out the words; it sounds foreign and almost like poison at the tip of my tongue.

Francois comes into my mind as I hear the word madame, reminding me once again, that I am a married woman. His body heavy against mine, him breathing on my neck. The pain. The bleeding afterwards. No. I do not want to think of it. I cannot.

"Oh," he says, peering in the darkness. "Madame Guidry, is that you?"

"Yes," I say. "It is me."

I notice that he is not saying anything at all. He stands above me, frozen, with wide eyes.

"I will let you out," he says. "Do not stay in the water a second longer. There is an alligator advancing."

I have no time to think at all, for the man has taken me with full force. My wet clothes weigh me down, and he almost loses his balance, but picks me up as if I am feather light. He sets me down on the grass and breathes, his shoulders rising and falling.

"That was close, Madame Guidry," he says. "A little too close. A few more seconds and you would have been that creature's midnight snack."

"Thank you," I say. "You saved my life."

"Promise me that you'll never do something like that again."

"All right."

"And why is a married woman by herself at night?"

"I could not sleep. Why are you not at home?" I ask.

He chuckles, wrapping his arm against one knee as he looks up at the sky. "The same. I could not sleep."

The silence between us is so thick that I can cut it with a knife. The dark haze of midnight falls over us and I only sit there in his presence, letting my own thoughts run.

"Do you do this often?" I ask, finally deciding to break the ice between us. "Come out here alone?"

He nods. "Almost every night. I have troubles sleeping. And you, it must be because of where you were, no?"

I turn to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"Being in the prison," he says, with a frown. "It must have been suffocating for you."

"It was. I would rather not talk about—"

"You do not have to talk about it," he says, looking on at me with an earnest expression on his face. "I understand if you come out here without Francois."

I shudder at the thought of being with Francois anywhere in the world. The way he claimed me like I was nothing more than one of his animals in the backyard. Or nothing more than some metal on his forge, forming me the way he wishes.

"You are right," I say, nodding. "I have been alone for so long, it is the only thing I am used to."

"Most of us could say the same," he says, looking up at the sky. "Military men like us, we do not stay in one place for very long. Always the next outpost."

"How long have you been here?" I ask.

"Two months now."

"And how long will you be staying?"

He shrugs. "For how long Monsieur Bienville needs me for. My first posted station was in Mobile, but I ended up here in La Nouvelle Orleans instead. I prefer it here anyway. It is quiet."

"Not in my home. Francois is always working at the forge when he is not at home. It is loud, but it reminds me of home, so I do not mind the noise."

He furrows his brow. "Where is home to you? I grew up in Masclat."

"I have never heard of it," I say.

"It is a very small commune in Lot. It is nothing like Paris. It is a tiny blip compared to it, but it is a wonderful commune."

"Oh yes, I know of Lot. One of the women at the prison was from Lot. Paris is where I grew up, sir. We actually grew up in the same neighborhood, my husband and me. He lived on a different block."

He nods, as if taking in everything that I am saying to him. Does he believe me? I know that I am saying the truth, but for all he knows I could be lying to him through my teeth.

After all, I am a convict. I am, to Officer Moreau and men like him, disgusting filth, discarded at a moment's notice. I am nothing more than a blight on society.

"I suppose the threads of fate have brought you together then. And you can call me Nicolas, not sir. I think we have established that now that we know each other."

"But you're an officer," I reply, narrowing my gaze, curling up my lips.

In honesty, I should hate this man. I should hate him to my very core, but I can't find it within me to do it. I do not know why, but there is something in the way he holds himself. There is a confidence there, but he has never once spoken ill of us, all the women that arrived here.

"I may be an officer, but what good is my title here? King Louis is not here. This is not France, not to me at least. I left France for a reason, Madame Guidry. I want to help expand La Nouvelle Orleans, and I think you may be an asset. I've seen the way you are. You are strong and you assist the men in taking down cypress trees. I am starting midnight meetings at my home, a few of the men and women are planning on helping Bienville expand." 

"Why midnight?" 

He smiles. "Midnight is the best time to meet, for some of the others are still sleeping. The group has to be kept secret. I still do not trust some of the men, namely your husband." 

I nod. "My husband is..." 

"Cruel and starts arguments. He is the blacksmith's apprentice, yet thinks he is God's gift to man, I hope I mean no offense. Francois and I have never gotten along and I do not want my meeting to turn into a death match between the both of us." 

I cannot help but laugh at what he has just told me. 

"Madame Guidry," he says, looking at me. "If you can help, will you come to the midnight meetings?"

"Please do not call me that, Nicolas. If I am to call you by your name, you must call me by mine."

"Which is?"

"Marie Antoinette, but you may call me Marie. And yes, I will be there."