by T E Elliott
“Grand-mère,” he said as he brought her hands to his face, “I finally took your advice and got that haircut.”
The old woman laughed cheerfully, “Yes, that’s better! And you all thought I was crazy!”
Everyone looked at each other and laughed as well. Devereux bent down and kissed her cheek, “You were absolutely right, Mother, we should have listened to you.” He let out a deep belly laugh.
Léa hugged her around the neck and told her, “You were right about everything, Grand-mère.” The older woman squeezed her tight.
“I’m glad to hear the happiness in your voice, young one,” she answered and patted her back.
Duchesse d'Aramitz arrived expecting to swoop in and save the day, ready to be received back with open arms and repentant hearts. Instead she found no one to greet her as she stepped down from the carriage. The footman had to open the front door for her, and she stepped in finding Devereux nowhere to be seen. “Highly unusual!” She huffed and went to the nearest service bell, range it once and waited. Nothing. She rang it twice, more vigorously than before, to no avail.
Finally, she went looking for someone, anyone to scold for abandoning their post. As she stalked around, she thought she heard something—voices and laughter. She entered the Great Hall and gawked in wonder at the spectacle of servants and people she’d never seen before dancing as if it were a holiday. Wait, she did know these people. She squinted and discovered that several Du Bois’ were among the dancers.
Audric signaled for the music to stop and turned to Léa. Duchesse d'Aramitz started at the sight of him, she took in several quick breaths, certain she was seeing the ghost of her husband. She took a deep breath and swallowed, looking more closely at the man. His face was darker than her husband’s, the thin layer of dark hair that still covered Audric's face. A sob escaped her as she realized it was her son.
Audric took Léa’s hands and knelt down. “Léa. Beauty,” he smiled, “I ask you but once more, my life, my love is in your hands to accept or deny. Will you marry me?”
Léa responded with feeling, “Your life I give back to you as well as my own, that we might live it together. I give you, not just my presence or my friendship, but my heart, as well. Your love I accept with all my heart!”
Audric rose and embraced her as the room exploded in applause and cheers. Duchesse d'Aramitz discreetly made her exit so as not to be noticed. But someone did notice. Madame Villeneuve made her way through the exuberant crowd, past the well-wishers and back-slappers to Audric's side. She spoke into his ear, “Your mother is here, I believe she’s gone in the direction of the gardens.” He nodded his acknowledgment and whispered the news to Léa, then went in search of the woman who raised him.
He found her sitting on a bench in the formal gardens watching the little bluebird in her nest. Audric's heart stirred with compassion for her. As hard as she could be, he knew she’d poured her life into her son. It suddenly became clear that in that was the problem as well as the solution.
“Mother?” he said as he sat on the bench beside her.
She didn’t turn. “It’s funny how you spend your life tending something so helpless and dependant, then one day he flies off and there seems to be no need for you at all any longer.”
Audric rested his head on her shoulder. “And yet, even the mother bird still has wings to fly.”
She turned to face him and cradled his face in her hands. “I thought you were your father when I saw you just now. He would be so proud of you, Audric. Whether he would be equally pleased with me, I’m not so sure,” her voice cracked.
“Can I tell you what I see when I look at you?” She returned his look with eyes at the same time hungry and uncertain. He went on, “I see someone who would move mountains just to make an impossible path open for her son. I see someone who exiled herself just so her son wouldn’t be alone. You’ve poured your life out for mine, Mother,” he took her hands in his, “and I honor that and I love you for it.”
Impenetrable Duchesse d'Aramitz began to cry. Her son wrapped his arms around her and held her.
“Against all forces to the contrary, you and Father raised me with love and dignity, without help from the world, and as you were told, without help from God. But that’s just it, Mother, you have tried to take God’s role in my life and that is a burden far too heavy for you to bear. As I now soar to new heights, fly with me from time to time, but perhaps now it is time for you to spread your own wings and have a life of your own. Travel, see the world. Go beyond the city, beyond Paris.”
“Travel by myself? That wouldn’t be very enjoyable.”
“I think I might be able to help you there,” Léa’s voice sounded beyond them. When they turned to her, she approached them. “My sister Juliette would very much enjoy such a trip, and I think you’d find her a suitably genteel companion, Duchesse.”
The Duchesse stood up and faced her, “My dear, it would seem I owe you an apology, and I fear even that would not be sufficient. I have behaved in a less than honorable way toward you and your family. Something that I’m coming to realize has caused a rift between my son and myself as he, rightly, begins a new life with his wife. I would be very sorry to not be a part of that, but I don’t know that you can forgive me now.”
Léa stood before her once enemy with the grace of a lily—elegant beauty that stands tall and strong. She regarded the now humbled lady before her and weighed her words and feelings. “Duchesse, you have treated me and my family with the greatest contempt and degradation, and there can be no taking back the deep hurt that you have caused not only us but your own son as well.” She paused and Audric rose to stand beside her. “But to punish you now would serve no one. The plans you made that caused harm, were used for good by God himself. So, if you will provide no further imposition to our happiness, then I will not stand in the way of yours.” She held out her hand to the woman, “Shall we call a truce?”
Duchesse d'Aramitz took her hand, “You’ve been more than generous, Mademoiselle. I accept, what’s more, with my gratitude.”
“Now, if you both are ready, I believe we have a wedding to get to—two, actually,” Audric stepped in.
They both turned to look at him, lips parted in question.
“Now?” the Duchesse asked incredulously.
“Yes, well, in light of recent events, I thought it wise to proceed quickly this time.”
“Two? But how?” Léa asked.
“Come with me,” he gave them a secretive smile and held out his arms to escort them both.
They returned to the Great Hall where Audric signaled to Devereux, who then ushered in a man Audric explained was a sympathetic Huguenot. He had traveled there from Switzerland with Léa’s father. At their meeting three weeks prior, Audric had given Du Bois a letter that explained everything, which was to be given to what Huguenot leader he was able to find.
Audric turned to Léa, “After we talked about how a wedding could possibly take place, as will likely not be a surprise to you, I researched until I found what I hope you will find an acceptable solution. Do you happen to know the legend of St. Valentine?”
“I know of him, but not much about his story, no.”
“Well, in his day, the emperor of Rome decided he needed more soldiers for his army and so forbade Christians from marrying and thus have an excuse to avoid conscription. Valentinus, a priest, defied the order and secretly performed weddings. I had to ask myself, what makes marriage legitimate in God’s eyes, is it the church, is it the government? Valentinus thought it valid to defy the government, would it be equally right now to defy the church when it is wrapped up in the government?”
“And what was your conclusion?” Léa asked.
“My conclusion was that even if our marriage weren’t legal in terms of the government, and not performed by the legally accepted church, that it would be sufficient for it to be witnessed under God and a part of the church. But, it still troubled me, for your sake, that there was no way to h
ave a real church wedding, so I kept looking. I stumbled across something called ‘proxy marriage’ that is sometimes performed for those of high rank who live too far away from their intended to marry expediently.”
“Oh! Like King Henry IV!”
“Yes, very good, you know your history better than I do,” he smiled.
“Hm, I rather like knowing something you don’t, it makes me feel that much smarter.”
“I always knew there were many things that you excelled in that I didn’t, it’s why we’re so perfect for each other,” he winked and continued, “So, how would you feel if Édouard married you in my stead? Just as a placeholder, of course,” Audric was quick to explain. “By all legal and moral accounts it will be I who is marrying you.”
“But...I can’t imagine the priest in town has agreed to that, he wanted me to denounce you as a fiend not so very long ago.”
“Quite. Well, my household is known to the priest in the city, and as far as he is concerned I am Duc Rousseau of Château Rousseau and it is unlikely that he’ll ask questions. Édouard has already made the necessary arrangements, if you are willing that is. You can be there and back by nightfall if you leave soon after the ceremony here.”
Léa only had to think about it for a moment before she said, “If I know anything through this whole ordeal of the past months, it is that God has brought us together. I may not know the Holy Scriptures as well as you do, but I seem to remember a line that says, ‘What God has brought together, let not man separate.’ If this is the only way for us to be together, then so be it.”
“How well you have seen to every detail, Audric!” Duchesse d'Aramitz interjected.
The couple gave her a doubtful look. Audric ventured, “I believe Isaac and Rebekah may have stood on even less ceremony for their marriage. I wonder, Mother, whether that is what you had in mind when you planned our wedding.”
“I beg your pardon, what are you implying?”
Audric raised an eyebrow suspiciously, not thinking it possible that she hadn’t thought this matter over before now.
A look of horror came over her face, then dignified embarrassment. “I’ll admit I hadn’t thought my plan through completely, I had nothing in mind beyond the fact that she was of a sufficiently agreeable rank and disposition.”
Audric sighed and took her by the shoulders, then stated with emphasis, “My dear Mother, promise me you won’t implement any more such brilliant plans in the future.”
“Well, well,” she looked to the side and Audric tilted his head and waited. Turning back to him, she conceded, “Very well, I promise. Though this turned out just fine in the end, after all.”
Léa took in a deep breath and was quick to say, “And with that, I believe there was something we were about to get to.”
Huguenot ceremonies were simpler than traditional ones. When it was ended and the couple were invited to kiss, Audric whispered to Léa, “There will be time for that later, you have to leave now if you will be back before dark.”
After Léa and Édouard left for the city. Audric sat on the steps of the château waiting impatiently for his bride to return. Francine slipped out the door and sat quietly beside him.
“There have been many times when I’ve wanted to leave these gates and see what I was missing in the outside world,” Audric told her, “but there have only been a handful of those times that I felt I would crawl out of my skin because I couldn’t leave. One of those times was when Lisette was taken away, and again when Léa left the first time, and now, when I cannot even attend my own wedding. The official one anyway.”
Francine slipped her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder.
He continued, “But...I will be officially married before the day is out, who would have guessed that?”
“I would have guessed that, Monsieur. You just lacked the opportunity.”
He smiled back at her. “You and Édouard were married in the city, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” she smiled. “Would you like me to describe the place and what will be said?”
“Yes, I would appreciate that, Francine.”
Francine and Audric had a long history together, it was true, she’d known him all his life, but they had a special bond because of the fact that she was especially aware of his inability to leave. She would always come and describe in detail the things everyone had experienced in the city. It was one of the main reasons he was drawn to her as a boy.
“The church in the city is a large one. The main sanctuary is about as big as the Great Hall, with rows and rows of pews to sit on, and a raised altar surrounded by statues of saints, ” she began her description. “But it will be in front of the elaborately carved oaken church doors that they will say the vows. The priest will speak of the purpose of marriage, ask if both are there under mutual consent, then they will say the vows. The priest will ask...”
Audric spoke the words instead, “Yes, I will love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, forsaking all others, keep only to her as long as we both shall live. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part…”
Before Édouard spoke the words, he whispered to Léa, “I am but the messenger, from Audric’s heart, to my lips, to you.”
And he said the vows with such sincerity, she almost believed that it really was Audric there with her. When the carriage rumbled past the gates at dusk upon their return, it had barely stopped before her smiling husband opened the carriage door to greet her. He helped her down and they stood in rapture, gazing into each other’s eyes.
Édouard tried to discreetly slip the ring into Léa’s hand but she turned to him then to kiss his cheek and hug him.
“Thank you, Édouard,” she whispered.
He bowed in humble deference, then turned to his own wife and hugged her close as he led her away, his task now completed.
Léa turned back to Audric and placed the ring on his finger, then said, “Will you kiss the bride now, husband?”
He smiled with all the love and feeling that he’d held back for so many months and kissed her in beautiful release.
Chapter 28
The next morning, Audric watched his bride as she slept and a flooding sense of love and peace washed over him. A different kind of ache surrounded his heart, that of complete happiness, because he knew that while pain sometimes walks with love, sometimes love also just walks with a joy that fills to overflowing and runs over.
Léa stirred and stretched as her eyes fluttered open. She saw him watching her and closed her eyes again, “Mm, good morning, mon amour.” She smiled but kept her eyes shut. He traced a finger along her jawline and stopped at her chin. “Are you awake?” he whispered.
“Almost,” she stretched again.
He twirled the string of her nightdress on his finger and said, “I have a wedding present for you.”
She opened her eyes and turned on her side. “Is it another library?” she asked wistfully.
Audric laughed, “I knew that’s why you agreed to marry me! But, no, I’m afraid I only have one of those.”
“Ohh,” she moaned in feigned disappointment.
He turned to the table beside the bed and picked up something wrapped in leather and tied with a chord. “But it is something to add to it.”
She sat up and took it from him, running a hand over the leather and giving him a questioning look. Untying the chord and lifting the flap, she found a stack of papers filled with Audric's neat handwriting. “Your writing!” she exclaimed.
“This is a very particular story that I wrote just for you.”
“What story is that?”
“Ours.” He smiled.
“I’ll treasure it,” she hugged it to her then leaned toward him for a deep kiss. Léa glanced over the first page and ran a hand over it while Audric lay back down and brought an arm behind his head. After a minute, she set the story aside and lay do
wn on her stomach beside him.
“You know, I rather like your hair,” she said as she ran her fingers through the hair visible at the top of his nightshirt and along his neck.
Audric laughed, “Do you now?”
“Yes,” she moved to his face, brushing her hand over it. “I wouldn’t trade it. Though I am happy to see your face better now.”
He smiled. “Sais-tu à quel point je t’aime, ma chèrie?”
Léa thought about his broken body lying on this bed not so very long ago and said, “I do know how much you love me, and now have but the rest of my life to prove my love to you.”
Audric reached up to touch her face and tears sprang to his eyes, “Don’t you know? You already have just by being here with me.”
She smiled and kissed him, then hopped out of bed. “Now I have a wedding gift for you, but you have to come with me.” She pulled at his arm until he sat up then started throwing clothes at him.
“What? Where are we going?” He laughed.
“You’ll see. Father should have delivered them by now.”
“Them?”
Léa led the way to the hedged garden door, when Audric stopped her and took a deep breath.
“Darling, I haven’t been in there since the day you left me.”
“Truly?” she answered, and a wave of sadness came over her. “I’m so sorry for the scars that day left you, both on your hands and your heart. I hope the garden will not be tainted to you now, please believe me when I say I will never leave you again.”
“I know,” he lowered his head. “We’ve had some delightful memories in there too, haven’t we?”
“Yes,” she smiled, “and we’ll make more, I promise.”
“Lead on then.” He gave her a tentative smile.
It didn’t take long before he saw what her surprise was in the garden. He excitedly ran the rest of the way to the cottage.