Ten Years Later Chapter 33 - The Mediator

In which the king visits Madame amid courtly tensions that mingle jealousy and whispered scandals, and she bravely confides her desire to flee to England, weary of distrust and isolation within the French court. As they converse with a mingling of defiance and tenderness, an unusual alliance forms between sovereign and sister-in-law, promising a fragile peace that might yet brighten the shadows of their troubled acquaintance.