All for One Read Online Free Page A

will be any time soon, though, and in the meantime, M. de Tréville needs to know someone is plotting to discredit him.” Pulling the bed sheet up to cover the young man’s torso, he turned to his two companions. “He needs to see the letter as soon as possible. Léandre, you and Perrin ride back to Paris with all speed—and don’t speak to anyone of this but M. de Tréville himself. I’ll stay here until our new friend is well enough to travel, then bring him to Paris with me.”
    The image Perrin had planted of a leisurely afternoon spent in bed vanished like a soap bubble, though Léandre had to agree they needed to start for Paris without delay. They should be able to make it as far as the inn in Auxerre before nightfall, after all. Keeping that thought in mind, Léandre nodded, rising and clapping Aristide on the shoulder. He and Perrin had the better part of the bargain—Aristide would be sleeping alone. “We’ll see you in Paris, then.”
    “Watch your backs,” Aristide added as he rose to clasp each of his friends’ shoulders. “Unless it was a random brigand who shot him, someone else may be looking for that letter.”
    “If they’re not wearing the uniform of the Royal Musketeers, they’re an enemy until the letter is in M. de Tréville’s hands,” Perrin agreed, all joking aside now that the matter of their captain’s reputation, perhaps even his life, rested in his hands. “We got Orphée settled in the stables and this fellow’s horse as well. A big draft animal, not an aristocrat’s steed. Shall we have the innkeeper send up lunch for you while you watch over this one?”
    “And a bottle of wine, if you would,” Aristide agreed thankfully. He supposed he could have walked down to the taproom himself, but he felt a strange reluctance to leave the stranger’s side, even for such a simple errand. Of course, it was critical for the man to recover so they could learn who was behind the plot to discredit M. de Tréville. “Ride swiftly and arrive safely,” he added.
    “A safe journey to you as well,” Léandre replied. “Let’s hope you’re not long behind us.”
    “The message will get through or we’ll be dead in the attempt,” Perrin finished, hand on his sword in promise. “All for one….”
    “And one for all,” they finished in unison.
    “Let’s ride,” Perrin declared, striding out the door, calling for his and Léandre’s horses.
    Léandre paused long enough to ask for a luncheon and a pitcher of wine to be brought to the room where Aristide sat with the stranger before heading to the stables. Perrin had saddled both their mounts and was stepping into the stirrup when Léandre joined him in the courtyard. He spent a moment enjoying the long, hard lines of Perrin’s body as he settled onto his horse before crossing quickly to his own mount. With a swirl of dust, the two rode out of the inn yard and turned onto the road back to Paris.
    They had barely made it to Cussy-les-Forges when they heard hoof beats pounding hard behind them. The brush on either side of the road offered good cover. Perrin glanced at Léandre and saw the same concern in the blond’s eyes. As one, they reined their horses off the track and into the woods to see who was following them.
    Léandre held his mount still behind the concealing foliage, the scent of Perrin’s sweat teasing his nose as they watched a rider sweep past without slowing. “Looks like a merchant,” he commented, observing the heavy saddlebags bouncing against the horse’s sides. “Probably worried about running into thieves along the road.”
    “Probably,” Perrin agreed. “Better safe than sorry, though.” They walked their horses back onto the road and spurred them on again, trying to cover as much ground as possible before the fading light added to the danger of their mission.
    The sun had sunk below the horizon, leaving the landscape covered with ever-lengthening shadows, when they finally reached the first farms