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| Masks |
Part 1: Laces and Ribbons
_“Ah! Here you are finally, Oscar! You’ve arrived at the right moment, I was just in need of your advice. What do you think? The pink or the green one?”
Petrified with horror, the questioned hesitated a few seconds between succumbing to a heart attack, gulping down her gloves out of indignation or spiking the author of the question. A few seconds only, just the time for her beautiful azure eyes to burden itself with dark clouds heralding of the worst storms…
_“So, don’t you say anything? Mind you, I want an honest advice! It is since this morning that I am undecided between those two there, I had almost chosen… but it is atrocious having to make such a decision! Look, aren’t they both absolutely fabulous?”
Oscar didn’t hesitate anymore. The third option seemed to her more and more tempting, she crossed the threshold, she raced straight towards the multicoloured mess scattered on the reception room’s floor and planted herself in front of the handsome young dark-haired man who was there, sitting cross-legged.
Totally unaware of the tornado that was about to hit him, André sighed with tiredness considering the fabrics strewn around him: one could have an idea however, such a dilemma wasn’t humanly endurable!
_“May I know what your game is?”
Anyone who would have listened to this would have understood that a tempest was blowing up at this question surd of repressed anger but the young man, unperturbed, carried on his idea.
_“Look at these laces!” He resumed rising up a rapt face, “And this cut, this style, without any doubt it will perfectly fit me! Now, it’s all a question of knowing what colour does suit me the most…” said rustling the silk of a man’s shirt in the light of that end of afternoon.
In fact, it was thanks to the respectable size of the clothing that was possible to define the final utilization of it because otherwise, what André was brandishing seemed to have come out directly from a brain possessed by a furious madness. The laces of the jabot and of the cuffs had transformed in cascades worthy of the basin of the Neptune’s fountain and the sleeves, sewed with such an abundance of fabric, couldn’t fail to evoke at the slightest gust of wind the sails of a Barbaresque galleon; the lot of a fine pastel colour that called to mind the tender complexion of a newborn piglet.
_“It’s true that this colour is lovely, isn’t it? What do you think about it, I am sure that it would be perfect with m…”
_“Well, now that’s enough!!!” Oscar exploded, angrily seizing the piglet that she sent flying against an armchair.
_“You don’t like it, I see…” André approved. “At the end you are right, the green one will match better with my eyes.”
_“What? With your… WHAT?!!” the young woman chocked herself.
_“How WHAT!” he objected, exasperated, rising in all his height.
“My poor Oscar, one would say that you don’t really realize the gravity of the situation! Have you never heard of the set? Presently is all the vogue at Versailles!” He retrieved his rapturous smile carrying on with a tone of confidence. “Look, the other day I was talking about it just with the Baroness of Saint-Gély, do you know who she is? Well…”
_“André! Oscar roared.
_“But yes, come on: the Baroness of Saint-Gély” That sort of fatty guinea-fowl-brained!”
_“André!!!”
He burst in laughing. “Well, yes, I know that is a bit wicked say such a thing, but you must admit that the nature didn’t spoil her, poor thing! And furthermore she is married to a man slim like a cockerel… it is very easy, this is not a couple anymore, it is a brood!
_“ANDRE !!!!”
Unable to stand anymore Oscar seized brutally the man just a second earlier she considered like her best friend, almost a brother and shook him frenetically grabbing him by the flaps of his jacket (of a cute lavender blue!).
_“Are you done with making fun of me?” she shouted at his face, or better, at his chin, because he stood taller than her of a good head, “Don’t you think that this comedy lasted enough? Who do you think you're fooling with? Who do you think you're dealing with? Now you are going to explain or I swear you that I will strangle you with that ridiculous shirt!”
Though certainly sincere her last threat still remained largely presumptuous: despite the military discipline to which she submitted herself every day, Oscar knew perfectly that her slender and supple figure couldn’t rival in brute force with the one of his athletic companion. But shaken like she was with astonishment and anger, she and her sword felt widely capable of making carnage. Her anger was fuelled even more by the candid expression that he wore!
_“For God’s sake... Oscar! Are you done shouting like that? You should be careful, you know: I wouldn’t like to offend you but when you shout, you get some little red patches, there” and he pointed at her cheeks, “this makes you a bit hideous I assure you and…”
_“Shut up, André!! Explain to me, at once!!!” she ordered, exasperated beyond endurance but secretly destabilized by the strange behaviour of her friend.
_“Explain what, I would like to know.”
Oscar closed her eyes.
Kill him. Kill him now! But at the same time, difficult to make a corpse to speak. She clenched her teeth, trying to recover a bit her composure.
_“All right” she resumed dully, for the moment contenting herself with killing him with her eyes, “all right, you want to play the fool for I don’t know what a reason but all right! As you seem to not to understand I will try to be clear. I want to know the reasons for the masquerade that you have been putting forth for a month!”
_“The masquerade?”
What an air of perfect innocence, if only he didn’t bat the eyelids like a frightened doe, this idiot!
_“Yes, the masquerade! Do you want me to refresh your memory? Do I have to remind you of the day that you announced me that you didn't want anymore to accompany me to the military quarters nor to attend the training exercises, like this morning, for example?”
_“So what, it is you the Colonel of The Guard, isn’t it? It is up to you do such a things.” he grumbled with supreme indifference.
_“But you adored that!” Oscar roared, more and more disoriented. “To the point that on your demand I let you teaching the handling of weapons to the young inductees! You were the best one, the most keen on fencing, don’t you remember perhaps?”
_“MMMMyes...” the young man exhaled, indifferent to the compliment if it was one while it contained so much hostility. “It was above all so dirty… three waistcoats soiled in fifteen days, you see! It was time that I stopped those stupid things or else soon I wouldn’t have anything decent to wear!”
_“André…”
_“Oh, there is no need to roll those dumbfounded eyes! I bring to your attention to the fact that I still accompany you at the Court when you assure the security of the Queen, so…”
_“Ah, yes? To frivolously talk to your Baroness with the partridge head?” Oscar mocked him, boiling again.
_“With guinea-fowl head…” he specified, mellifluously.
_“Guinea-fowl, partridge, I don’t give a damn about it!!! But what’s the matter with you then, you want to drive me crazy? In my turn I bring to your attention a thing: we have been raised together, André! So I know you better than anyone else! Then you will never make me believe that you can turn yourself into… into THIS!!!” and pointed an accuser finger at the fabrics outrageously coloured spread out on the carpet.
Not at all intimidated André planted himself as well in front of her, with arms akimbo.
_“Ah, there, that's what it's about! It is always the same thing with you, when an idea it isn’t yours it must be inevitably stupid! Like the one that consists in letting a bit of elegance gets in this house for example! So, tell me, when you wanted to wear a dress I didn’t make a fuss out of it, as far as I know!”
From dumbfounded the azure eyes became again furious in a second.
_“How dare you…” she babbled, not expecting come out a fact that she didn’t wish anymore to remember, above all not with him, nor with that tone.
_“And yet it is the truth. If you have the right to your private life, so I have, I think!”
_“B-but this has nothing to do with it!!!” she defended herself, happy that her confused blush passed for anger.
_“Yes, this is what you always say when you don’t know anymore what to say.” he remarked with a knowing air.
Mad with rage Oscar opened her mouth and realized that in effect she was short of arguments. Setting her jaw she looked at him for a moment, trying to decipher that limpid look she didn’t know anymore.
_“Well, I am sure that you are hiding something from me” she hurled, concealing her uneasiness skilfully, “and I swear to you that I will be able to find out what is it! And in the meantime…” she turned around to leave again with furious steps, “I am meeting you up outside in five minutes! Fencing session!” and as she went past she gave an avenging kick to a shirt treacherously placed on her way.
_“Well, and then, what should I pick: the pink one or the green one?!” she heard behind her back.
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