11 June, 1560. Marie de Guise is dead.
Mary does not cry. She does not know if it was mere coincidence, the timing of her mother's death and Francis's revival, or if her mother's life was the price to pay for Francis's. She thinks that if that is the case, she can make peace with it. Her mother was suffering - suffering, sick, and had never played a large role in Mary's life besides. Mary needs Francis. She loves him. If her mother's life is the price to pay for his...so be it.
5 December, 1560. Francis de Valois is dead.
Mary cries. She screams. She hates the world. She grieves the loss of her husband, who she knows to be the only man she can ever truly love. She blames England. She takes back her decision to give up her birthright to the English throne. She plans to move against Elizabeth, until those plans are brought to a screeching halt when she finds that it was not Elizabeth's fault, but that of her own countrymen.
She loved him. He is dead.
Sometimes, she wishes that she was dead too.
She will love him for the rest of her life, and she will never let him go.
16 October, 1561. Lola Fleming-Narcisse is dead.
Mary sobs and rages against Elizabeth Tudor. She has lost her very best friend, and without Lola she is lost. She is sure that Lola would never, could never, have been involved in a plot against Elizabeth's life as the other queen insists.
What she does not know is that she is wrong.
She vows revenge against Elizabeth, swears to Gideon that she will take her nation, her throne, her life if need be.
9 March 1566. David Rizzio is dead.
Mary screams and cries, begs for mercy, when it happens. Afterwards, she knows that will never forget and she will certainly never forgive. Her friend, her secretary, her most loyal companion, had been murdered before her very eyes by men meant to be loyal to her. Held back from saving him by her own husband, who had led this witch-hunt against her.
And yet, she is used to it. She loses everyone in the end.
She will see them all dead and David avenged.
10 February, 1567. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley is dead.
Mary does not shed a single tear for Darnley, although she may for herself, for Bothwell, and for her infant son. She had allowed Bothwell to kill him, because Darnley and those he let surround him had removed all other choice.
She is glad that he is dead. She is not prepared for what comes next.
Lord Darnley's death is the beginning of her undoing.
20 October, 1570. Sebastian de Poitiers is dead.
Mary can do nothing but sob for hours. For days. She is inconsolable. Bash had been the only true friend she had left, and he has left her. He is gone. He has flown away to - where? Somewhere that she cannot find him, somewhere she cannot follow.
She remains awake the entire night and weeps into her pillow.
She will never forget him.
14 April, 1578. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell is dead.
Mary laughs until she cries. It is all that she can do in the face of such news.
She does not know why she is surprised. She had been well aware of his imprisonment, and she had accepted one fact above all else long ago.
Mary Stuart had always been doomed to lose everyone she loved. Now she has.
There is nothing left for her.
8 February, 1587. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, is dead.
Mary faces her death with as much dignity and grace as she can muster. When the executioner kneels before her and begs her forgiveness, she only smiles.
"I forgive you, for now I hope you shall make an end to all my troubles," she says, and places her head on the block.
The axe falls.
She wakes up in a better place, to a face that she knows and loves more than anyone.
She is happy.
