|
ALAIN It’s your decision…
He laughed
out loud and tapped Andre on the shoulder in amity, but then said:
ALAIN However, goodness knows where the path we’ve
taken will lead us to. Times are changing and who knows? Maybe destiny wants
you to marry a noble woman.
They were
patrolling through Paris
again. Even if the current state of people’s lives and events in Paris was shocking, most
of the soldiers in Company B were almost blind to it. Their hands were tied.
The only thing they could do was helping their own families. Being in French
Guards Company B was no fun at all, but they had no choice. André thought about
what Alain had said about the paths you take in your life and the consequences
that automatically followed after that. He wondered what consequences it would
have for him having entered Company B. If there was something called destiny,
what was going to happen next then?
Suddenly a
huge man, dressed in outworn clothes, came out of the small side road. He held
a firearm in his right hand and was obviously drunk. They recognized him too
late and reacted too slowly to keep him from using it.
MAN Die, nobles!
He shot
straight into the crowd of soldiers before him. Two or three of them attached
him at once. Although he was pretty huge, it was quite easy to pull him down.
He was so drunk that he wasn’t even aware of what he did.
Alain was
the first to realize that Andre was
wounded. He hardly did any noise; he just sank down forward on his horse and
held his injured shoulder.
ALAIN Andre!
Hey, Andre has been wounded!
The
soldiers formed two groups quickly. They knew precisely what to do in such a
case. One group arrested the aggressor, the other rode back to hospital of
barracks with Andre. He was laid down
on a simple bed and the doctor was called. Everything had to happen quickly to avoid
that he lost too much blood. The bullet was still in his shoulder and had to be
put out. The doctor said it would take too long until the effect of pain killers
would sink in, so four soldiers had to hold his arms and legs during the
procedure. Andre wished he would become unconscious so that he didn’t have to
endure the pain, but he didn’t. The soldiers had problems to control him, but
when it was done, he changed into a semi-somnolent state. He couldn’t move, but
was murmuring incomplete sentences all the time.
Oscar received a small sheet of paper the next day, telling: “Dear Ma’am, I
don’t know how to tell you, but Andre
needs you. Come to barracks hospital in Paris.”
When she
arrived at the hospital, she already knew what had happened. She knocked on the
door of Andre’s sickroom and entered.
ANDRE Oscar, what are you doing here? Who told
you…?
OSCAR Are you ok?
She sat
down on the chair. Andre was
overwhelmed by her appearance. She seemed so near now, but still he couldn’t
reach out for her.
ANDRE It was just the left shoulder.
I’ll be well again.
There was
silence for one moment.
OSCAR So you entered Company B. You
could have told me.
ANDRE But it was you who told me that
I could do whatever I’d like to.
OSCAR Yes, I remember.
She looked
at him attentively for the first time. His face was pale and his lips seemed
light blue because of the huge blood loss. Looking back she wished she hadn’t
pushed him out of her life so abruptly, for this accident was a consequence of
it in a way. She sighed.
OSCAR Andre,
I don’t want to be in Royal Guards any longer.
He looked
at her in surprise.
OSCAR I can’t. I can’t stay at the
court and watch all this going on as if nothing happened.
Now she
looked at him with a fierce glance.
OSCAR I want to forget about all
this. I belong to those people who love this country and I don’t want to be
isolated from France’s
problems any longer. I’m not blind and I don’t want to pretend that I am. That’s
why I decided to leave Royal Guards. I think Marie Antoinette
will understand this.
Andre was still surprised, but then he smiled. They would be together again,
as they had always been.
Alain
visited him a short time later. When he saw Andre’s
happy face, he grinned.
ALAIN I’ve always wanted to play destiny. Hey,
your Commander doesn’t look that bad I have to confess. But being a woman she
seems too tough, at least in my opinion.
He laughed,
but his facial expression became frowning again.
ALAIN They did an examination on the man who
attached you. He was so drunk that he can’t remember having done anything.
People still don’t understand that we didn’t join Company B voluntarily. Hah,
as if I’d like to risk my life for those nobles, who are guilty of all this!
He looked
at him.
ALAIN I’m sorry Andre,
but my opinion won’t change. I just can’t stand nobles.
Andre knew what forced Alain to hate nobles. He, too, had gotten to know how
things looked like in whole country and the time when he could watch the
injustice impassively was long ago. But Oscar
wasn’t just a noble. Oscar was Oscar and it didn’t matter whose daughter she was or
which estate she belonged to… He would always love her.
According
to Oscar’s request, she was displaced
to French Guards. First week was hard for her, but she was ready to the
challenges that awaited her, a noble woman commander leading the roughest troops
of Paris. She
was relieved in a way to have the chance to prove her skills, even to herself.
But she was not only pleased about her new troop. Since Andre had been wounded,
she visited him every once in a while. Alain watched their meetings with great
satisfaction. He got used to a lady commander and after several altercations between
the soldiers and Oscar he began to respect her. He didn’t see just a noble in
her anymore, but a friend of his friends’ and a fair opponent in any case. He
was the one who always stood up for her and tried to arbitrate.
It was a
really challenging time for her and it was the same time she began coughing.
First she thought it was a simple cold. Days were rainy now and they were often
outside. But then she began to spit blood and knew it must’ve been a lung’s
disease. When Dr. Lassonne told her that it was
tuberculosis, Oscar refused to
believe. Finally she had found something that demanded full adoption of her.
How could she leave now?
One full
month had passed since she had been displaced to French Guards and Andre finally could leave the bed for some hours. His
injury cured quite slowly. The doctor assumed the unfavourable weather to be a
reason for that.
When Oscar entered his sickroom, he was sitting on his
bed, trying to move his left arm, but the pain was still there; she could see it
on his face.
OSCAR Andre,
are you all right?
ANDRE Yeah, just checking if I can
use my arm.
Oscar sat down on a chair near his bed.
OSCAR It seems you need a recovering
from all this. The circumstances won’t make your injury any better. That’s why
I thought we should take a week off and go to our house in Normandy.
Andre was too surprised to answer.
ANDRE But Oscar…
OSCAR Just once: let us think of
ourselves just once. I need it too, I have to confess. The troop’s challenging
me…
Andre just nodded his head.
No choice:
The days in Normandie
|
|