"Aramis," Anne said, her voice suddenly very low and tense, poised on a terrifying precipice. "He said he has been in love with me all of this time, since before I left Spain. If this is true, if he is truly so overcome by his feelings that he would behave so rashly, so selfishly..."

She trailed off, her thoughts skittering in a dozen directions, catching hold of threads and tying them at last together.

"Even at his worst, never before has the King refused my counsel," she said. "He will not see me, and he has now given Rochefort the power of the crown. This cannot be coincidence."