Flowers, Swords and France

When Charles spoke to Duke Treville, his attitude and tone were not particularly respectful. It was not like he was facing an elder, but rather like he was facing a friend.

But there is nothing that can be done. Although the current Duke of Treville is Charles's father-in-law, perhaps because he is too familiar with the nature of the Duke, Charles cannot have the same sense of respect for his father-in-law towards the Duke. , on the contrary, he treated his friends kindly, and his cousin was not dissatisfied with it. For him, who was always easy-going and funny,

Besides, before he married Charlotte, he had seen a lot of the Duke's behavior. He was a standard playboy, and his behavior could be said to be quite humorous or even absurd. There was really no way to make him feel that way in his heart. kind of respect.

However, the Duke was not angry because of Ciel's attitude. To be honest, given his character, he would feel embarrassed if Ciel treated him respectfully.

"Oh! Look, who is here!" At this time, the Duke's eyes turned to Clovis, who was being held by Charlotte, and then he took it directly, and then squatted down and lifted his grandson with a smile on his face. Got high, making Clovis laugh.

Seeing her grandfather and grandson so intimate, Charlotte couldn't help but smile - isn't the best way to please a mother is to make her children happy?

After playing with his grandson for a while, he put Clovis down again and let him run into his mother's arms again.

"Oh, I didn't expect that I became a grandfather all of a sudden. It's really hard for me to adapt!" Looking at his grandson's lively and innocent look, Duke Treville couldn't help laughing. "Time flies so fast. It’s amazing, I’m already old before I even notice.”

"You are not old yet, you are quite energetic." Charles immediately complimented his father-in-law.

"Hey, I'm old...I'm old...I don't have much energy to move now. How come I'm not old yet?" The Duke shook his head, "I'm already fifty years old, and I can no longer compare with you young people. !”

When he said this, he became a little more desolate, no longer as frivolous as when he was joking with his son-in-law just now. Apparently, he truly felt the horror of the passage of time and the loss of energy.

Charles came close to him at this time and found that the Duke's golden hair was originally neatly combed. Although it was still very neat now, some grayish white could be seen between the temples. Although his face was still well-maintained She is very fair, but fine wrinkles are already densely covered at the corners of her eyes and forehead.

He is indeed old. Ciel couldn't help but sigh in his heart. This is a fate that no one can escape.

"Okay, let's stop talking about such depressing things and let's go in together!" At this time, Duke Treville cheered up again and pointed to the door, "It's much warmer inside."

Then, the couple followed the Duke and walked in. Once inside, they took off their coats. At this time, Charles's mother-in-law, now the Duchess, also came over and hugged Charlotte. , and then the mother and daughter were chatting and teasing Clovis next to them, creating a happy scene.

While mother and daughter were talking, Charles noticed that his father-in-law next to him gave him a look.

"Char, can you come over and talk to me?"

Ciel was slightly surprised, but immediately nodded in approval.

He also knew that his father-in-law had not specifically called his minister here just to watch them bring their grandson over for a visit. He must have something to entrust him with, or something to be busy with. help.

However, as a son-in-law and a member of the family, he didn't mind helping out if he could.

Led by Duke Treville, they came to the Duke's study together.

Since the death of the late Duke of Treville, in order to express his grief, the Duke decided to seal up his father's bedroom, keeping everything intact, and he lived in his original room, making it the center of the entire mansion. However, when Charles followed him, he was surprised to find that no one passed by along the way, which showed that his father-in-law was well prepared.

And...it shouldn't be a trivial matter, Ciel felt a little nervous.

Soon, the two people sat down again, and then the Duke's breathing became a little messier, but he was obviously still trying to calm down. Then, he asked Charles a question he had heard before.

"Whiskey or brandy, Charles?"

"It's up to you." Charles spread his hands, much more relaxed than before, "But it's best if we drink less, so as not to use our brains when talking about things. Besides, we'll go there later Why don't you smell like drunk when you meet your wife?"

"You're right, Charles... We have to drink less, and we can't delay the business." The Duke nodded lightly, then he took out a bottle of brandy from the wine cabinet, and walked to sit next to Charles. down.

Then he and Charles each poured themselves a glass of wine.

After the wine was poured, the Duke picked it up directly and drank a large gulp of it, as if to calm his mind.

Then, he suddenly raised his head and looked at Ciel.

"Ciel, can you do me a favor?"

"You can just say it?" Charles calmly took a sip, and then looked at the Duke, "I am your son-in-law, do you still want to see me outside? I will help as long as I can."

"Hey, great... Ciel." After hearing Ciel's statement, the Duke finally calmed down. "Actually, it's not that anything happened to me. What could happen if I wander around all day long, drink some wine and play cards? What happened... was Phillip."

"Philip? What's wrong with him?" Charles looked a little surprised on the surface, but felt a little reassured in his heart.

When the previous Duke passed away, because he was dissatisfied with the old Duke's disposal of the inheritance, Charlotte's brother Philip, the eldest grandson, wanted to make a fuss, and also tried to persuade his father to fight against his grandfather's will, but in the end the whole family After the showdown, due to the resolute attitude of Charlotte and Charles and his father's retreat, his resistance finally failed, and he could only acquiesce to the Duke's arrangement unwillingly.

However, Charles can understand his resistance. After all, Philip has always regarded himself as the direct heir to the long branch and the natural leader of the Treville family. The psychological gap between his grandfather and his grandfather in distributing the inheritance is too big. Besides, if he is resentful, he will lose the face of the whole family in front of outsiders if he keeps making troubles, so in order to appease him and slightly reduce his resistance, Ciel decided to give him some compensation - in his operation Afterwards, Philip became one of the national inspectors of church property, responsible for investigating and cleaning up those church assets that were improperly confiscated during the Revolution so that the government could return them to the church and allow the empire to reach a compromise with the church.

Although he was still a little unwilling, after receiving the compensation, Philip finally accepted the result, and then took his people out to other provinces to start auditing the church assets. Perhaps because he wanted to seek compensation, Philip also worked very enthusiastically and worked enthusiastically with those who followed him. He rarely even went home. Charles had not heard much news about him in the past two years.

"Hey...hey..." After hearing Charles's question, the Duke hesitated and finally drank another sip of wine. "Philip went to Niort to inspect the church's real estate a while ago. He...he was doing official business, and as a result, he had a conflict with someone."

"Who did you have a conflict with?" Charles frowned slightly, and then asked immediately. "How big of a conflict is it? What does he fancy?"

To be honest, this was not beyond his expectation. Philip's personality is almost the same as Charlotte's. He is arrogant and has a high self-esteem. Moreover, he wants to recover his losses at this time, so he will definitely do a very good job. Positive, even unscrupulous.

The so-called official business is just an excuse for the Duke. He must be trying to get rich by putting the traced assets into his own pocket.

But this is not a bad thing for Charles. After all, the more Philip goes too far, although he can make a lot of money, the worse his reputation will be, and the more people he will offend, the old relationship will be broken. It will definitely be used up, and maybe he will still have something to ask for when the time comes - and by that time, he will no longer be able to hold grudges against the Charles couple, and can only accept their will.

"Hey... this... this is really unspeakable." The Duke glanced at his son-in-law with some embarrassment, as if he was embarrassed, "Philip felt that there were problems with the property rights of several vineyards, so he inspected them very carefully. Strictly, I wanted to verify the specific situation, but... I ended up quarreling with someone."

"Did you have a quarrel with the local farmers?" Charles gradually understood.

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

"No, it's not a farmer, it would be great if it was!" Duke Treville sighed again, "It's people from the church..."

"People from the church?" Charles was really surprised now, "How could he get into a quarrel with the people from the church?"

Logically speaking, Philip is helping the church by auditing and returning their old assets, so even if they make a fortune from it, the church won't say anything. Anyway, everyone knows that no one will work for nothing, but Philip actually They all fell out with people in the church, which was a bit beyond Charles's expectation. This shows how fierce Philip was.

"The people in the church were dissatisfied with his ruling, so some people came to the place where he lived to make trouble. As a result, it was difficult to deal with the trouble... Philip was indeed too careless in his work." The Duke said with a sullen face. Apparently he was quite dissatisfied with what his son had done, "If it was just a normal quarrel, forget it, but in the end everyone got into a violent quarrel and actually started shooting..."

"A gun was actually fired?" Charles was really surprised. "Are there any casualties?"

"There are some casualties..." The Duke took another sip of wine, "Actually, Philip and the others also wanted to restrain themselves, but bullets don't have long eyes when fighting! Stray bullets were flying around, causing some casualties over there. Finally... finally killed a priest."

"I beat a priest to death." Charles was not surprised now, but frowned, "Philippe, you did a great job!"

Although the Duke did not tell the truth for the sake of his son, after hearing this information, Charles was almost able to assemble a truth.

After all, his cousin Philippe was a man who had lived in the world of pleasure for a long time. He could not bear the hard life of running around and sometimes staying in remote areas. Therefore, after getting the job of inspecting the church's assets, he only thought about making money as soon as possible and never planned to make a steady income.

When he was in a hurry, he sometimes lost his manners and must have offended everyone. Moreover, the people around him were either servants who had been with him for many years or his friends who only cared about drinking and eating. These people looked down on people from other provinces and could not talk to people in a good way. As a result, conflicts must have occurred.

Originally, they should have had conflicts in other places, but because the Treville signboard was effective after all, the matter could be suppressed, so no one bothered Charles. But this time was different. They actually had a direct conflict with the church, and there was a firefight, and even a priest was killed. In the church system, the priest is the highest clergy of a church, which can be said to be a person.

Although Niort is a rural area in the west, not a prosperous place, and the church is not very influential, it is still a priest after all, and it is definitely not something that the now declining Duke of Treville can suppress. So it is no wonder that when the Duke heard the news, he immediately thought of calling his son-in-law for help.

"Ah... Philip is so careless!" The Duke could hear the dissatisfaction and sarcasm in Charles' tone, so he scolded his son, "But, Charles... you know, he just wants to make some money, and he definitely has no intention of conflicting with the church. He must have done it unintentionally."

"Whether it was intentional or unintentional, the person is dead now!" Charles interrupted his father-in-law unhappily, "If no one was dead, everything would be fine, but now he has beaten someone to death, and he is a priest!"

"That's why I found you, isn't it..." The Duke apologized with a smile, and then looked at Charles flatteringly, "Charles, we don't have much to do now, but you, you are different! You are His Majesty's favorite, and you have means. If you come, you will definitely find a way..."

Because he needs Charles, the Duke is now cautious with Charles, without the style of a father-in-law.

Charles was silent.

The Duke looked at Charles cautiously, fearing that he really didn't care.

"Where is he now?" Charles asked directly after a long time.

"He...he came back yesterday, he came back overnight." The Duke answered immediately. "He's still at home."

When he heard Charles ask this, he finally felt relieved.

"He's smart." Charles frowned, and then shouted like a parent, "Call him here immediately!" (~^~)