Inexplicable Incidents: Day 3

Word Count: 18,025

Summary of Events:

The scouts Étienne had sent out arrived back with mostly bad news; the Mardeaux forces had two camps laying west and northwest of their position with a combined total of 2,500 men — ten times what they had — at their disposal; the scouts also reported that the commandant and several other men were captives, which prompted a call to rescue them, but Étienne denounced it, lest they leave Beaudroit defenceless, leading to the deaths of some 100 times more people than were captive behind enemy lines. Aline was making purchases at the market when she ran into M. LaFleur, who needed help getting to a place near the armoury, which Aline had never seen before, but she did her best to help him find the place anyways . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Arriving at the street along which the solid building stood, Aline and M. LaFleur turned and walked toward it; Aline was pleasantly surprised to notice stones at the top of the building were engraved; the upper stones bore VI1489, while the lower read Arsenal.

“Rather courteous of them to label the building,” M. LaFleur said.

“Indeed,” Aline said. “I see it was built after this all began.”

“It is almost three quarters of a century old,” M. LaFleur mused. “It is well-built.”

“Trempré has never fallen,” Aline said. “In fact, I don’t believe conflict has ever come to its outskirts. Everything has been further east.”

M. LaFleur nodded, still gazing at the rather imposing building. Then he turned and looked at Aline.

“Merci beaucoup for your aid,” he said. “I do believe you know more of this place than you realise, Mademoiselle.”

He took up her right hand lightly with his left, raising it up while also bowing partially, his dark eyes locked on her until his lips, warm and soft, lightly pressed against the skin at the base of her middle and ring fingers, when his eyelids dropped over his eyes; all of time seemed to hang frozen for a moment before he loosened his hold on her hand and raised his body, letting her draw her hand back to herself as his dark eyes locked on her gaze again.

“Au revoir,” he said softly and gently before turning and walking away with a measure of confidence.

“Au revoir,” Aline whispered, even though she knew he wouldn’t hear her.

Her face felt as warm as if she were looking squarely at the sun, which was playing hide-and-seek behind the clouds today, and would not have so warmed her face even if she looked in its direction.

The skin on her hand still felt the sensation of his soft lips, even as she rubbed repeatedly to try and force the sensation to go away, digging in with her fingernails to try and scrape the sensation off of her fingers.

M. LaFleur was still in sight, surveying the buildings around the armoury with confidence, obviously having been told what he was to look for to know when he reached his destination, even if he had not been well-told how to get there.

Finally he disappeared around the corner of a building — although not before the quickest of glances toward her; indeed, it had seemed a very furtive glance, almost as if he’d been hoping she would still be waiting there for him to glimpse one more time — and Aline felt as if she’d been freed from some sort of a bond that had rooted her to the ground.

Turning, she headed back the way she’d come, doing her best to quell and quiet herself, for there was something supremely affecting of M. LaFleur’s touch and presence, and even though Aline didn’t deny enjoying it, she had to say that she was frightened of it, as she knew not what it was or why she felt it, much less what to do about it, but felt that getting rid of it as quickly as possible was the best thing.