Sold like a piece of meat, to the highest bidder. In her case it was the King, the arranged marriage between their kingdoms was decided at birth, but the recent war sped up the timing. Soon after the wedding, the king insisted on consummating their marriage. Against her protests and struggles he forced her into his bedchamber and completed his duties as a husband. The poor little Queen felt scared and alone, abused and betrayed by her own family. She was just a child, just a girl not even old enough to fill out her corset completely.
The next few weeks she walked through the new castle, avoiding eye contact with anyone who crossed her path. She felt ashamed and dirty to be used every night the way the King used her, touched her. Even the way he looked at her made her sick, she just wanted to go home, but she knew this was her home now.
Maidens would look at her, and snicker, laughing to themselves, never once addressing her as their Queen, not asking if they can make her more comfortable, they did not seem interested in her well being at all. She took in a deep breath, the little Queen was sad and heart broken more then anything. She didn't want this life, she wanted love, passion, and a family. Her feet had lead her to the garden where she saw the Gardener. He was tall; his arms were sculpted with muscles that strained as he dug a hole in the garden. She stood there for a moment, mesmerized by this man. He looked up at her and smiled, "it's an apple tree." She looked to the sapling that he pointed to; she smiled "I love apples."
"Good, what brings my Queen out to the garden at such an hour?" he asked as he began to move the sapling into the hole.
"I just wanted to find some place I belong…somewhere I am wanted." She said as she sat down on the short cobblestone wall that lined the pathway.
"I will always be here, if you ever need the company." He smiled kindly at her and bowed, then shoveled dirt onto the sapling, to fill the hole.
"Thank you, you have been the kindest to me. Most of the maidens ignore my existence, they snicker and laugh as I pass by." She crossed her arms and pouted.
"That is because they are jealous of you." He explained, "they are servants, they have no nobility in their blood, you are a royal."
She smiled, feeling special and unique. The Queen finally felt like a prize, someone to be valued and admired. She thanked the Gardener for his kind words and took her leave, heading back into the castle and up to her bedchambers. That night she could not sleep, she felt sick. Tossing and turning, she ran to the window at one point, opening it and spewing her dinner out it. With her head spinning she made her way back to her bed, and laid down, attempting to go to sleep for the night.
"You are with child." Came a voice from the door of her bedchamber.
"Excuse me?" the Queen asked confused.
"My dear, my Queen, you are with child. You will have a baby, the King will be so pleased." Spoke the voice as she walked forward, she was much older then the Queen.
"Your majesty…" she whispered, "you are the King's mother."
"Yes dear child, I am. I am the grandmother of the babe you have inside. I could not be happier." She smiled.
"That makes one of us." The little Queen mumbled and turned away.
The old Queen snarled and walked up to the bed, yanking the blankets away, "You ungrateful little wench! How dare you, this life is a gift, the best life you could ever have! At least my son loves you!"
"There is no love." She spat at the old Queen.
This resulted in a hard smack across her face; the little Queen's eyes welled with tears as the sting set in. The old Queen turned away sharply and left, leaving the little Queen to cry softly to herself. She didn't want the child; she was still a child herself.
From that night on, for weeks, the King took his wife to bed, preforming the marital acts to her. Every night she begged him to stop, pleaded to leave her be. Never did he listen; never did his grip ease up. She never left without a new bruise, or fear of pain in the morning. She prayed that it would hurt the baby, even make her lose the baby, but she continued to get sick at night and sometimes in the morning. Until one day she was tired of the repetitive abuse, nightly vomiting, and all the whispers. One night she was making her way down the grand staircase, stopping a few steps from the top, she threw herself forward. Tumbling down, rolling skipping sets of steps at a time, she stopped at the bottom in a heap. She began to bleed on her head, and blood dripped from her nose. Strong arms scooped her up and carried her away.
She was gently placed in her bed, her eyes were black and blue, bruised and unable to open. She drifted to sleep shortly after, and didn't awake for a few days. Sunlight from the open window graced her face one morning, the warm sensation was enough for her to smile, as she opened her eyes she winced at the pain. She was bruised all over; bumps and purple patches of skin covered her body. She threw off the covers and looked down, she gasped when she saw the blood, smiling she felt victorious. A few weeks past and her stomach extended more then before, she was still with child. That day she spent seeking out midwives of the castle, to better understand what she was to expect with this pregnancy and what it would me to be a mother.
The more she learned the more scared she became. Walking back to her bedchamber that night the King crossed her path, but he wasn't alone. He had two women on his arms, they were laughing and touching him all over. She didn't love the King, so she didn't understand the feelings of rage, disgust, betrayal, and abandonment. After all he was her husband, he vowed to be hers, and she his. Clearly only one of them took the vows seriously, even if she didn't want any part of their marriage. She looked down the hall in the opposite direction, seeing a large stained glass window, she knew what she was going to do. She took a helmet from a near by suit of armor and stormed towards the window. Throwing the helmet, shattering the glass, and running with a leap, she flew through the window. Landing in soft snow, but being completely covered no one could see her from above, or in passing. No one had seen her smash the window, or jump. No one had heard it. No one found her that night, it wasn't until the morning when the Gardener came, that she was found.
Weeks had passed before she woke up, but when she did, he was there. Her rescuer, her friend, as she looked up to his face, her heart began to race. She looked down at her stomach, she was much bigger then she remembered, she figured it wouldn't be much longer until the baby would come. It was too late to try again; she had to face the reality of being a mom to this child.
She went home to her King and delivered her child, a princess, a baby girl. The child was pale skinned, just as she had become from her time in the snow, her touch was cold, which turned the child from her. She couldn't soothe her, she couldn't warm her, she didn't want her, and it seemed like the baby knew it. She never stopped crying, never slept, and never fed from her mother's bosom. One day the Queen took her crying daughter to the garden. There she begged the gardener to take her away, for she couldn't' nor wouldn't keep the child. As soon as the babe was in his arms her crying stopped.
The gardener did as his beloved asked, he took the child away, and when he returned he never spoke a word of her again, the Queen never asked. From that day on the Queen had the Gardener, in bed nearly every night. The King never spoke of it, he barley called her to court, after all she knew she was just a token, a pawn of the kingdom, not worth much to anyone but the Gardener.
As the years passed and the Queen herself grew into a beautiful lady, catching the eyes of many. Dukes, Lords, Princes, Kings, any visiting noble found themselves in her bed at some point of their castle visit. She wasn't discrete about it either. No one mentioned the lost princess, no one seemed to remember she had even been pregnant before, but she did. No matter how many lovers she took, she still felt a hole in her heart, one only a child could fill.
One night the Gardener came to her door, and she permitted him inside. That night she conceived a child with the Gardener, the one man she truly loved. As weeks went by and she began to show under her corset, the whispering started again. When confronting a servant she was told the story.
"My Queen… if you cannot be a mother, I know of a wet nurse- please let us help you. There is no need to devour your own child."
The Queen looked at the maiden with disgust, "You DARE speak to me as if you know me? You DARE make accusations suggesting I consumed my child! On your knees wench!"
The maiden fell to the ground as the Queen gave her a shove, "next time bite your tongue, or you wont have one." She snarled and looked up at the other maiden with blonde hair, "rumors are messy, clean it up will you? I don't want to see either of you in my castle again. And as far as my child goes, he is safe with me." She slapped them both.
The queen stormed off to her chambers hoping to find the Gardener there, but he wasn't there. He didn't come at all that night, or the next. When he did finally return, he was different. He was withdrawn and reserved, and when he finally noticed the Queen and her unborn child, he denied the paternity.
"You have man after man in your bed and you expect me to believe it is mine? I can no longer serve you my Queen, my heart is no longer yours, by this time tomorrow I will be gone, and I will not return." The gardener spoke out of disgust.
Heartbroken beyond words, and angry with the man she loved for his betrayal the Queen followed him. When they reached the canyon the Queen stayed hidden, observing the Gardener and his interactions with Snow. Unaware that it was her daughter, full of jealousy and rage she thought of eliminating the one thing that was talking away her happiness, and how was she to do it? A Knife would be too messy, drowning would require strength of which a pregnant Queen did not have.
No, she would use poison. She knew of a recipe and she could easily get the girl to eat it. When she returned with apples from the tree, injected with the poison, Snow didn't hesitate, letting the woman in. All it took was a few compliments and a smile. Though the girl felt oddly familiar, the Queen only focused on be riding herself of the child, just like she had so many years before.
The queen left before Snow took a bite, she felt no guilt, it was a sleeping poison, not a killing one. She just wanted him back, and she got him back, in a glass coffin from the 7 brothers in the canyon. When he kissed Snow, the poison left her and entered him…