6 A Letter for London

CHAPTER 6 A Letter for London The King was suspicious. He had been fooled by the Cardinal before and did not wish to be humiliated again. "I'm eager to see you wearing the diamonds I gave you," the King said when he told the Queen about the party. The Queen grew nervous when she heard this. The King was watching her closely. He noticed that the subject of the diamonds seemed to upset her. "When exactly is the party?" she asked.

"I forget the date," the King said. "I will ask the Cardinal." "So this was the Cardinal's idea?" she asked. "Certainly. Why do you ask?" "And was it also his idea that I wear the diamonds?" the Queen asked. "What does that matter?" the King replied. "It doesn't," the Queen said. "Good," said the King. He thought about her reaction and tried to understand what her secret could be. "I shall count on seeing them." After the King left, the Queen began to cry. What shall I do? she thought. The Cardinal must know everything already, and soon the King will know, too. Suddenly a voice from behind her asked, "Can I help, your majesty?" It was Madame Bonacieux.

"You have nothing to fear," she said. "You can trust me. Those diamonds were in the box you gave to the Duke, were they not? We must get them back." "But how?" the Queen asked. "They are with him in London. The King and Cardinal will be watching everyone who tries to travel there." "Write a letter to the Duke. I will make sure it gets to him," Madame Bonacieux said. "My husband is a good, honest man. He will do anything I ask." The Queen thanked her and wrote a short note explaining everything to the Duke, which Madame Bonacieux took and ran home. To her surprise, her thoughts kept returning to D'Artagnan. He was brave and handsome, and he seemed to be very much in love with her. Meanwhile, Monsieur Bonacieux was thinking about the Cardinal's friendliness and

dreaming that the Cardinal would make him rich. "I have something important to tell you," Madame Bonacieux told her husband when she entered their apartment. "You must help me deliver a letter to a man in London. I can't tell you more, but believe me, this is very important." Monsieur Bonacieux hadn't seen his wife in a week and was angry that she didn't ask about his stay in jail or explain how she had escaped from her kidnappers. "Don't you want to know what has happened to me?" he asked. "Yes, of course," she said. "But this business is much more important. Our future may depend on it." "Our fortunes have changed since I last saw you," he said. "In the past week I have become a close friend of the Cardinal." He held up a small bag of coins.

"He has been very kind to us. Look at this money he gave me." "You would serve a man who mistreats your wife and insults your Queen?" asked Madame Bonacieux, shocked. "You must be careful. The Cardinal's friendship can disappear as quickly as it arrived. We should serve the people greater than him." "I only serve the Cardinal now. There is no one greater," he said. "What on earth did you want me to do, anyway? What's this letter, and who's in London?" Madame Bonacieux worried that her husband would ruin her plans. "Oh, it was nothing," she said, pretending to change her mind. "I just wanted to order some dresses. I thought we might sell them here." Her husband didn't believe her and decided to report to the Cardinal. He told her he had to run an errand and hurried away.

Left alone, Madame Bonacieux felt helpless. What have I done? she thought. I promised to help the Queen, and now my own husband works for her enemy. There was a knock on her ceiling. She looked up and heard D'Artagnan's voice. "Madame, please open the side door. I shall come downstairs at once." D'Artagnan came in and told her that he had been listening through the floor of his room. "Your husband is certainly a sorry specimen," he said. "But from your conversation with him I learned four things. First, I learned that he is a fool. Second, I learned that you are in distress, which makes me happy because it gives me a chance to help you. Third, I realized that I would risk anything to help you. And fourth, I learned that the Queen needs someone to go to