Manon and Belle Pt. 15

Manon sent Melissa off to have a hot bath, on the grounds that it would ease her over stuffed stomach, and Belle left to help her in her bath. This seemed to involve a lot of laughter and splashing for a bit, before a somewhat damp and grinning Belle returned to Manon.

"What on earth was all that noise dear?" "Oh sorry miss, I was just helping Mel in the bath," Belle said with an utterly failed attempt at innocence.

Manon was writing a note, another already written. "Oh, that's a wardrobe identity code," Belle said, reading it upside down. "Who are you writing to miss?"

"You remember Ferguson, we met him London early last year? Well he's the wardrobe's resident in Lyon in Burgundy now."

"Oh yes, he was nice miss. Terribly funny, totally clueless about women?" Belle said.

"That's the feller, tried to chat both of us up," Manon said grinning at the memory of his discomfort when he'd twigged why he wasn't getting anywhere with either of them.

Belle wasn't completey averse to occasionally being fucked by a man, but charming though this man was, he hadn't remotely tempted her. He had the grace to laugh about it afterwards with them, and they'd parted on good terms.

"Well, I'm writing to him, to suggest he takes a look at our grumpy stall holder's daughter, see if she can be useful. Even if it's only in his dummy job as commercial attaché at the embassy, a good lawyer is always helpful."

"Er miss, we don't know her at all?" Belle said.

"Indeed, and that is why it is a letter of introduction only and not actually recommending he employs her. If she's even a fraction like her mother though, I reckon he will. We'll go back tomorrow, and talk to the old witch, get the details we need and give her the letters to pass on."

"Then Belle, I am going to write to Linette and Vallon, and tell them we will be leaving for home as soon as we can, and asking them to pass that information to the Wardrobe. I feel the need for our home fires Belle."

"Yes miss. Melissa miss?" Belle asked.

"I decided that just now Belle. If I can find Eric, I will ask to buy her, take her home with is, if she wants to come. Even if she doesn't I'll offer to buy her and free her. Give some cash to get her going in her new life."

Manon turned, hearing a loud sob from the bathroom doorway, where Melissa was standing, water dripping off her onto the floor.

"Miss, really, you'd want me to come with you?" she asked crying.

"No, not would, I do want you to come with us, if it can be arranged. Even if you don't I can buy you and free you, give you enough money to set you up for a little while at least."

Manon looked at Belle, who was equally perplexed, as Melissa closed the bathroom door, and they could hear her crying on the other side of it. Belle made to go to her, a little cross that she'd been so rude as to shut the door on her mistress, but Manon stopped her.

"No Belle darling, it's alright. I don't think the girl had the least idea that was possible, and she's probably best left to think about it on her own. She's not naturally rude, so shutting the door on us like that? Well, she'll come out when she's ready."

Manon finished writing her letters, and shortly after the bathroom door opened, and a contrite looking Melissa, wrapped in a towel, asked for permission to come in.

"Of course you can, come sit here with me," Manon said. "No next to me, on the sofa," she corrected when Melissa went to kneel by her on the floor. Belle pulled the desk chair over and sat facing them.

"I'm very sorry I was rude miss, I shouldn't have shut the door on you like that," Melissa said quietly.

"No you shouldn't, and in due course you will be punished for that, but I'm not angry, I think I understand," Manon told her. Melissa was wringing her hands and Manon took hold of them to stop her.

"Miss, would you, I mean, really, do you want to buy me?" I'm sorry if that's rude," she said.

"Under the circumstances, no it's not rude girl. Yes I do want to buy you Melissa. I've lost a lot on this trip, the other girls, and I don't want to lose another," Manon said quietly.

"But I won't make you come to England with me, not if you don't want to. So if you'd rather stay here, I will free you and let you go, though honestly that will make me sad."

"Me too," Belle added quietly.

"But Melissa, I have to be able to buy your contract or buy it out at least. I've no idea of who to talk to at the hotel without Eric," Manon said.

"Umm, well miss, thing is. Please promise you won't tell on me, I promised Eric I'd never say anything?" Melissa said nervously.

"I can't give you a blanket promise about something I don't know about girl. I won't say anything about whatever it is if I don't have to though."

"Oh, well, thank you miss." Melissa sucked a big breath in noisily. "Thing is miss, it is Eric you need to talk to. The hotel does own me miss, that's true, but well, Eric owns the hotel, so he's the only one can sell me really."

"Melissa, are you sure?" Manon asked. She just nodded yes.

"Well, now I really need to talk to him," Manon said. "Melissa, what about the rest of what you heard?"

"Miss, please, I'm all confused by that, can I just think about it for a bit? Please? It's all so much, more than I'd ever dreamt of."

"Yes you can, now off to bed with you, I need to think too. Belle will look after you. No chains tonight Belle, and find her a nightdress please. I want to sleep with both my girls tonight, without any games," Manon said.

"Thank you miss," Melissa said, creeping out as though she was apologising for even being there in the first place.

Belle watched her go. "I think she's in shock miss."

"As good as yes, Belle. Go comfort her, just sit with her, cuddle her or whatever she needs, I'll be in a bit. I just need to think for a while."

"I want to go home Belle, but it seems we aren't done here yet. Apart from resolving Melissa's future, I find that this business about Janine is weighing on me as well. And I'm no closer to working out who the hell Stephanie is."

"Please don't be long miss? You still need to rest, even though you are so much better," Belle said, and kissed Manon on the cheek.

Manon sat for quite a while, watching the darkness overwhelm the room, leaving her in a little pool of lamplight. The story they'd heard from the stall holder, about the Duke recalling his younger sister and forcing her to leave the army, ate at Manon.

She thought it had to be Mary-Louise, the girl Janine had fallen in love with, and the fact that Janine had as good as vanished once she was discharged from hospital only made it all seem worse. As did the news that the Duke was dismissing women from his household troops, Janine's regiment.

Sighing, as frustratingly she didn't have enough information to make any sense of all this, she went to bed. Belle had left her nightdress out, and Manon undressed quickly slipping it on before climbing into bed. Melissa immediately climbed over her, moving from the middle of the bed, and lay on her side, hugging Manon to her, as Belle did the same on her other side.

Manon woke the next morning to find that Belle and Melissa were already up. Belle was fully dressed, having come back from ordering breakfast be delivered, and Melissa was burbling about, tidying up and collecting dirty clothes and putting them in a laundry bag. Belle had done her chains up again, and Manon enjoyed the sound of gentle rattling that accompanied her movements.

She was wearing a short white nightdress, one of Manon's own in fact, that Belle must have given her last night, and she looked very fetching in it. So much so that Manon was considering grabbing her and peeling it off her, but that impulse was interrupted by the arrival of breakfast. So telling herself tea first, and pretty girl second, Manon put a robe on and went and sat with her girls.

Manon made Melissa kneel by her this morning, and hand fed her, having got Belle to switch her hands to being cuffed behind her back. She was just licking Manon's fingers clean, humming happily, when a knock on the door interrupted.

Belle answered it, to find the assistant manager standing there, looking very uncomfortable.

"Ah my lady, my apologies for disturbing your breakfast, but there is a gentleman downstairs from the Dukes household, who wants to see you," he said.

"Well, I'll need half an hour to make myself presentable, then you can have him shown up please," Manon said.

Manon hadn't seen a grown man squirm with embarrassment before, though she'd made a few do it in pain in her time, but this poor man looked like he'd wriggle out of his smart suit if it went on much longer.

"Problem?" Manon asked.

"My lady, it pains me to have to say this, but he is demanding to see you my lady. Now. He, ah, has an escort my lady, of the Guard."

Manon and Belle exchanged glances, this didn't bode well. "Well, be that as it may, would you please convey a message to this, gentleman on my behalf?"

"Of course my lady," he said sounding relieved, though his face curdled when he heard what the message was.

"I will be ready to see visitors in somewhere between half an hour and an hour, and he is of course welcome to wait for me. Got that?" Looking slightly sick, the man nodded.

"Now since it is obviously inappropriate for me to entertain a strange man in my rooms, he will require the use of another room. You have some rooms for people to conduct meetings in on the ground floor I believe, perhaps one of those would do."

"Yes my lady," he said.

"Oh and one more thing. I do not meet with men, or indeed women, that I haven't been properly introduced to. So kindly ask him to do me the courtesy of having his card sent up to me, otherwise I shall be quite unable to entertain him. All clear? Good."

With the air of a condemned man walking to the gallows, he politely bowed and left.

Manon set Belle and Melissa to work sorting out her clothes, she wanted to make sure she was as well turned out for this as she could be. She had no idea what this was about, but was very much on her guard.

Finished dressing, Manon set about arming herself, both with obvious weapons and a few extras hidden away in her clothing, and Belle did the same. Melissa pleaded not to be left alone as Manon initially instructed, and eventually Manon agreed.

A knock at the door turned out to be a bellhop delivering a visiting card on a tray. It wasn't very informative, having just a name on it, as though it belonged to someone who expected everyone to know who he was. "Count Peter Skandinski" Manon read out, anyone heard of him? Neither of her girls had, which didn't surprise Manon at all.

Belle pointed out that being attended by Melissa, all decked out in her fine new yellow outfit would add to Manon's presence. "I don't really think there will be any trouble Melissa, but if there is, you find something large and heavy to hide behind, and don't come out until Belle or I tell you it's safe."

She nodded at Manon, who smiled as she saw the girl take a deep breath and stand tall once she was dressed. She looked gorgeous, and after Manon had made them sit with her for another half hour, she led them both out of the room.

"This Count should have stewed nicely by now," Manon said. "Belle, Melissa, you must be silent now, but watch everything, remember everything you see and hear, you are my extra ears and eyes."

When they got downstairs to the lobby, the assistant manager almost fainted with relief, and led them to a meeting room that opened off the lobby. There were two guards at the door, both armed with swords and pistols, dressed in the black and white uniforms like they'd seen yesterday.

They opened the door and ushered Manon in, but tried to close the doors on keep Belle and Melissa out, but eventually gave way when Manon just stopped and stared at them.

A tall thin man, well dressed in a burgundy frock coat and pale trousers, stood as Manon turned towards him. He was vibrating with anger, but managed to keep it from his voice as he sarcastically bid Manon welcome.

He must have been about fifty, neatly cut grey hair and a greying beard and moustache, but his face was heavily pockmarked with old scars, probably Manon thought from smallpox. He had a silver crucifix on a chain around his neck, and Manon saw a heavy gold signet ring on his ring finger on his left hand, which he carefully kept from view when he noticed Manon looking at it.

Manon took an instant dislike to him and his manner, which was falsely polite, but his dark eyes glittered like a reptile's, and on top of her dislike Manon instantly decided that this man was very dangerous, though to whom she did not yet know.

"Count Piotr Stravinkly I presume?" Manon said, as he hadn't deigned to announce himself, deliberately getting his name wrong twice.

"Skandinski madam," he corrected, a pained look on his face, "and I prefer Peter."

Manon sat, noisily banging the head of her cane down on the table as she did. "Well just so. I'm not much of a linguist I'm afraid, and we English do find Polish names difficult."

There was a young man at sitting at the far end of the table, taking notes, who jumped when she had banged her cane down. He too wore a crucifix openly on a chain, and looked at Manon, Belle and Melissa with undisguised contempt.

Round one to me Manon thought, as she saw him visibly wince. "I've been in exile from Poland for many years now madam."

"My lady," Manon corrected him. He faltered, and through clenched teeth corrected himself, "My lady, so I am used to the difficulties people have with my name."

"Must be trying for you, poor man. I sympathise, my mother was a French exile, so you can imagine how my countrymen struggle with my name."

"Now, forgive my being blunt, but the message I received must have been mistaken as it said you demanded to see me. So, here I am, what is so important that you are keeping me from my morning coffee?"

Manon felt Belle shift slightly, she was standing at her left shoulder, and prayed that Belle was going to behave. Occasionally Belle had been known to quite lose her temper with people who she felt were behaving badly to her mistress, and whatever was going on here, Manon didn't want today to be one of those occasions. Well, not really.

"Something must have been lost in translation my lady," he said smoothly, smiling without it going anywhere near his eyes.

"The Duke has tasked me with investigating the attack on yourself and your prisoner at the Château, as it appears to be linked to the attack on the palace." Manon nodded at him, that was perfectly sensible.

"Therefore I require from you an account of what happened," he said. Manon just stared at him, and let him fester. A tic in his left eyelid betrayed him, he wasn't as calm as he appeared.

"Require?" Manon said.

"Yes indeed my lady," he said blundering on.

"I'm sorry, you said require? Well, I thought your English was quite good, for an exile Pole living in Aquitaine I mean, but clearly I was mistaken."

Manon talked over whatever it was he was trying to say, and he fell silent. "I require my slaves here to do as I bid, so either your command of English isn't what I thought, or you are under the illusion that I am a subject of the Duke's?"

"Forgive me my lady, poor translation compounded by my poor choice of words. The Duke would be grateful for your account of what happened at the Château," he said, biting the words off as though they hurt him, which Manon thought smiling, they probably did.

Manon gave a brief account of what had happened, not leaving out anything important, but sparing the nastier details, which Melissa didn't need to hear. Skandinski let her finish and then asked a number of questions.

At first these seemed simple requests for clarity, like how had the attackers gained entry to the house, but gradually it became clear that he was trying to establish, as he then plainly put it, "the guards had failed."

Manon had no truck with that, saying in a number of different ways that in 'her considerable experience', the methods and conduct of the guards had been exemplary, and that they bore no blame for the attack.

"It was after all something that no one had thought possible, never mind likely. After all my dear Count, no one at the Palace did any better, and given the death of the late Duke and his wife, arguably things went worse at the palace, despite it being so much better guarded." Manon said.

That clearly stuck in the counts craw, but he plastered a polite smile on his face anyway, as Manon announced she had to leave. "I do hope we can talk more my lady," he said as she left, but Manon ignored that blatant lie and kept going.

"Belle I need fresh air, now," Manon said and marched then out. There was a little coffee shop just off the square that looked decent, and Manon took them there. Although it was a little cool, the sun was out, so they sat outside, drinking their coffee and nibbling at some rather fine pastries.

"So, your thoughts?" Manon asked when the coffee had soothed her temper a little.

"Well miss, he was clearly trying to get you to blame the guards," Belle said. "Which means blaming their commander as well of course. Odd that he never used Cornet Russell's name though," Belle added.

"Melissa, anything?"

"Not really miss, what you were talking about was mostly new to me," she said. "Oh there was one thing that was odd though." Manon waited for her to go on.

"That little fat feller scribbling away, did you see? Half the time when you were talking miss, he didn't write anything at all. Sort of like he chose which bits of that you said to write down."

"No Melissa I didn't see that," Manon said. "Nor me miss," Belle added.

"You did very well Melissa, thank you," Manon told her. "Perhaps we shall have to see how we reward you later? Though we still have to talk, yes?" Melissa nodded and Manon let the subject drop.

"Come along then, let's go and collect my letters, we need to go and see that grumpy stall holder again," Manon said. "Melissa, you need to change, those are for best. Belle, please see to her collar and cuffs again?"

"Oh Granny Foster you mean?" Melissa said as she undressed. Manon looked at her blinking slowly. "You've known her name all along?""

"Er yes miss, everyone does," Melissa said smiling. "She was friends with my dad. Gave my sod of a brother endless grief when he gave me up for a slave."

Manon couldn't help but laugh now. "So when we were buying clothes, and she was making you try them on? She knew you too? All along?"

"Oh yes miss, that's why you got such a good price, Granny's never come out second best in a haggle in her life."

They'd got back to their rooms, and Manon sent Melissa off to change out of her good clothes. When she was back, shrugging herself into a jacket Manon quizzed her more. Belle had put Melissa's ankle and wrist cuffs on, and Melissa had pulled a skirt on, but stopped buttoning her shit when Manon put her collar on.

"So you know Cornet Russell as well? Janine Russel? Comes to see Eric here maybe?" Manon prompted.

"Well I don't know about Cornet, or Russel miss. There's a nice young lady comes to see Eric sometimes, Janine? She was here just recently, she's in the army I think. Oh," Melissa said, as the penny dropped.

"You mean that's the same person I've heard you talking about? The young officer you are sweet on miss? Er, I mean, well, oh," Melissa said, drying up.

"You know what Belle?" Manon said, looking at Melissa still. "Miss?" Belle said.

"With the pretty girls, it's often hard to know which bit to spank first? Have you found that?" Manon asked.

"Well yes miss, it can be difficult. Thing is miss, I take the simple approach, so I just spank them all over, saves me having to make decisions."