BBC Musketeers / Coast of dreams

The city of perfume

"I know, Porthos felt the same," he mumbled, still half asleep.

Constance sat up, wriggling out of his grasp. The sudden movement made him open his eyes.

"What do you mean? Porthos?"

D'Artagnan thought for a moment. It wasn't really his place to tell her this, since it was something between Porthos and his friends, but he could trust Constance and knew that she could keep a secret.

"Porthos isn't from Paris originally. He came here as a young boy with his parents. He can hardly remember and sometimes he says, he's glad about that. When they fled, he lost a lot of relatives. And even once they had reached Paris, he had a hard time of it, alone with his mother in a foreign country. Only when he became a soldier, did he feel a sense of belonging. That's why this life, this job, is so important to him."

Constance nodded and snuggled back against D'Artagnan, who had closed his eyes again. Now she understood Porthos a little better, even though she had a hard time picturing Porthos as a young, frightened refugee. He always seemed so solid and self-assured.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Later that morning, D'Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos and Athos met in Porthos' room to go over the things they had found in Feron's secret office. Apparently, D'Artagnan and Athos hadn't gotten very much sleep last night, as evidenced by the dark circles under their eyes, and the occasional yawn. Aramis and Porthos grinned. They were happy for Athos, that Jeany had been able to join them.

In front of them, Aramis, Porthos and Athos had the printouts of the scanned documents they had found in Feron's office. Last night, Nathan had transferred the files he had found on Feron's computer onto a thumb drive, which D'Artagnan was currently going through. They had decided not to involve Treville yet. Once they knew exactly what they had found, they would inform him and then he could act upon their results. He wouldn't be of much help with what they were doing right now. And they understood that the captain had more than enough to do with ensuring Louis' safety. Athos was just glad, that Treville seemed to be back to his old self.

For a while, the only sounds to be heard where the shuffling of papers and the occasional loud yawns, but after an hour, Aramis gave up. "We'll never get this done alone. Neither you nor I know exactly what we're looking at here. I think we should let the experts take a look."

"No, this is our job, we shouldn't involve anyone else," Athos decided.

"Aren't Anne and Constance already involved anyway?" Porthos remarked. "So, what difference would it make if we ask them?"

Athos couldn't say anything against that argument, so he just nodded resignedly.

Aramis immediately got up and left in search of Anne and Constance. At this time of the day, they probably relaxed in the garden.

Meanwhile, Porthos and D'Artagnan decided to grill Athos. "So...looks like you had a late night."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Athos said, feigning innocence.

"Well, the way you've been yawning..." Porthos suggested.

"Maybe...."

"Man, don't make us drag every word out of you!" D'Artagnan said, but, ever the gentleman, Athos didn't say anything more, just smiled softly to himself.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The evening before

Before he headed up to his room, Athos had learned from Aramis that Jeany had arrived. He had snarled at Aramis for not telling him right away, and then headed straight for Jeany's room. He had hurried back to the house so quickly, that Aramis hadn't even had time to defend himself.