quickly grabbed hold of a tree branch that extended out over the water. The Comte grabbed onto his foot and pulled himself up and over - they sighed with relief. But at that moment, they heard a crack and watched with horror as the tree branch slowly bent and ...
until it almost seemed as if it would break.
But it didn't.It held firm.It was a strong branch.
The Comte placed his foot on Lauzan's neck and sprung onto the bank.
"Come on",he barked impatiently,"there's damsels in distress somewhere around here."
Lauzan rolled his eyes and...
and wearily got to his feet. Master is
obsessed with these damsels in distress, he thought. "I don't know how much more I can take of this incessant and obsessive need to rescue, rescue, recue," he mumbled. The Comte heard him. His face red with rage, his frame rigid with anger, he
said "Look it's either this or rape and pillage and if you don't buck your ideas up you'll end up with rape everytime and it's very tiring,so
grasped Lauzan's ears and roundly gave them a twist saying as he did so,"sheesh Loz-you just have no style man".
Lauzan grinned sheepishly and taking his watch from his waiscoat pocket he...
noticed the time - oh crap - he was late- for his....
the Swedish masseuse he had booked for the morning. Without a backward glance, he
strode off purposefully leaving Valmont sitting on a washed up tree trunk pondering his...
narcissistically too.
But Lauzan returned saying that Swedish massages were all very well but nowhere near as good as helping his master to rescue damsels in distress.
Valmont laughed and told him he had been reading too much romantic literature so he leaped up off the log and off they....
strode into the sunset where there were
two Swedish masseuses patiently waiting to
see to them.These they ignored,as befits two men of their stamp,shaking their heads in astonishment that anyone could think otherwise.
"Fancy" said Lauzan,"anyone thinking Swedish masseuses are remotely interesting."
Valmont laughed too."What a bore",he said.
As he did so an aristocratic lady rode up and....
Valmont was immediately entranced. She was lovely- her slim figure enhanced by the simple, white dress she wore that contrasted with her flowing dark hair. Her skin seemed to glow with an inner light. He was unable to see the color of her eyes, as she kept them modestly lowered as befitted a lady of her station in the presence of a man, as yet a stranger to her.
"What vision is this?", he asked himself, shaking his head in confusion at such an angelic apparition- one appearing so suddenly, so softly, as if in a dream. As he came back unto himself, she lifted her head and spoke saying,
"Are you looking for a good time boys?"
"What do you have in mind Madame?",Lauzan answered warily,winking at the Comte.
"Well",she said,"we are having a party over the weekend at the chateaux and my three neices are coming and they have no dancing partners.Do you dance?
"Passably",answered Valmont,"we both....
love to dance but only certain dances, such as
the black bottom,the bunny hug,the skirt and stuff like that but Lauzan here can do the la raspa and the Boomps-a-Daisy quite well and he does the double-shuffle as good as anybody.
She jumped down off her horse and,handing the reins to Lauzan,took Valmont by the arm and led him.....
out of earshot of his faithful servant.
"Look", she said, "you look like a reasonable guy - but I'm not so sure about your friend. He has an unsettling air about him. The last thing I want to do is expose my nieces to an unsavory influence. What's the deal with him?", she nodded in Lauzan's direction.
The Comte drew a deep breath and began to explain that
while he was well aware that Lauzan was ill-bred and somewhat uncouth he was also very cunning and loyal and they were characteristics that were useful to him in his line of work.
"My friend",he went on,"also has....
