In French

Chapter Twenty three

    I watched her silently as I mulled it over in my mind. I came to a conclusion pretty fast, “Fine, we shall plot and have revenge and then you will be reunited with them.” I went over and gave her a quick hug. “Come along, you have to become acquainted with my ladies in waiting.”

 ******

    Time passed and Agate did not get along with my other ladies in waiting all too well, she was far too protective of me. She shot Giselle down every time the poor girl opened her mouth and after a few weeks of this it got to the point where I had to remind Agate that I was the leader and her bossing the others around was not acceptable.

    “I have had it!” She snapped one day when it was just the two of us. I flinched. “I need to act now. Otherwise by the time we think of the grandest ways of ruining my sweet husband my children will have grown up and married off. No, I will have to start a rumour…No, you will have to start a rumour. It would be too strange if I did about my own husband.”

    I spluttered, dropping my sewing into my lap where it was practically enveloped by the thick folds of my skirt. “And what would I say?”

    Agate shrugged, it was written clear across her face that she was desperately thinking of something horrendous. “I don’t know…Anything…What is the King’s favorite opera?”

    Frowning I thought long and hard about it, “Iphigénie en Aulide by Gluck. We went to see it in Paris not long ago and for days afterward the King was positively raving about it. Yes, that is his favorite one.”

    “My husband hates that opera. Start it small and then we can mount the rumours up,” She shrugged and begrudgingly I agreed.

******

    It was not particularly difficult to spread the rumour, I started with Giselle and then one of the larger gossipers of my ladies in waiting and soon it was talk of Versailles that the King’s favorite opera was getting slated horribly and disrespectfully by his third cousin, Agate’s husband. The Duc de Toures.

    Rumor number two had to be broadcasted not long after number one if the momentum was to carry on building and spiraling. “Apparently the Duc de Toures has been writing an awful lot of letters that have been heading in the very same direction of London.” I told the group at large as we sat in one of the rooms while I fiddled with a harpsichord.

    One of my ladies spoke up, “How did you find that out?”

    “I have been told by some people that he had been acting out suspiciously so I had tabs kept on him…”I shrugged it off nonchalantly. “It seems like I was right to now though does it not?”

    The women murmured their agreement. “But-but are you sure?” Agate would have thrived in the theatre arts. She sounded disbelieving and horrified.

    I put a hand on her arm tenderly, “it is true I am afraid.”

    “You must distance yourself from him at once!” One of the ladies said immediately. “You cannot afford to be dragged down with him if he really is a traitor.”

    “Yes,” Giselle agreed, “do you know what was said in these letters? Was there anything condemning?”

    I shrugged and shook my head, “no, I do not know. I did not allow the letters to be tampered with I just wondered where his vast amount of letters were being sent to.”

    Rumor number two spread through the courtiers like wildfire. I do not know what the Duc thought whenever he heard about the rumors of if he put up a fight to deny them and nor did I care. Soon he would be banished from court with hopefully his titles stripped and then Agate was free to swoop in and save her sons.

  ******

    “We need one final rumor.” Agate whispered to me. “I have seen him walk down the hallways and he is mostly alone. It is getting to him and I feel that he will not last much longer.”

    I had my toddler August on my knee, bouncing him up and down as I pretended that my leg was a horse and was making the “clip clop” noises which was making him laugh. I paused and glanced at Agate, “alright but take care we only want to banish him Agate, remember that.”

    She shrugged, clearly thinking about all the possible lies that she could spread about her husband and was obviously reveling in it.

    As I was lying in bed that night I was reading a book that was not particularly interesting then I heard Philip come in. He was changed and then came and lay down beside me. He had a frown on his face. “Is something troubling you my dear?” I asked setting the book aside.

    “The Duc de Toures.” He said quietly. “I have been hearing an awful lot of things about him lately that I am not sure whether to believe or not.” He stared at me then. “You are close to his wife. Is what I am hearing true?”

    “You mean the opera and the letters?” I pushed snuggling up closer to him.

    “There is more to it than that.” He seemed bothered. “I have been hearing that he insults the clothes that I wear, the wigs as well.” I hadn’t thought that Agate would be able to spread a rumor that quickly but then again it was probably warped versions of the opera rumor that had been twisted into the King’s clothes.

    “How insulting!” I gasped. “He is a rude, vile man and I would not put it passed him to say those things. You must be wary, Philip.”

    “Hmm.” He mused before sighing it away and kissing me on the lips.

 ******

    It was a few weeks later and the rumors against poor Agate’s husband had really taken a turn for the worst. Constantly I was hearing things said about them and a small, guilty part of me was relieved that for once it was not me that was the centre of the gossips attention.

    When Agate decided to finally hammer the final nail in her husband’s coffin it was the worst rumor of them all. “His dog?” Giselle was astounded. “He kicked the King’s dog?”

    “Yes!” One of my other ladies nodded with wide eyes. I was not acting the shock on my face when she blurted this out. “Cursed the poor creature and kicked it hard in the ribs.”

    I pulled a face, “are you sure? It could just be an over exaggeration.

    The woman was shaking her face slowly, “no My Lady, I am sorry but it was definitely true.” The King was going to be furious. He adored his dogs but if it was being said that his prized one had gotten injured then surely the Duc would be facing his punishment sometime soon.