A/N: I'm back! Yeah, I know, I've only been gone for about one week, but to me, it felt like ages :D.
So, first, I want to say that I hardly survived the Season Finale. If you haven't seen it yet, go ahead and watch it! I even allow you to watch it before reading this story :D.
This story just happened, like most of my stories. I've always been interested in History (the Middle Ages, that is :D) and combined with my love for Jisbon, this happened :D. A fair warning already: The characters might be OOC sometimes, but I tried my best to keep them IC. Decide for yourself :D.
So this story is AU, sometimes OOC, and in a further chapter, the rating's gonna be M. But I didn't want to change the entire rating just because one part of a chapter is M, so hence why this story is T :D.
I think that were the warnings :D.
Oh, and a special thanks to Donnamour1969 for beta-ing this story, I love you :D. Check out her stories (especially 'Goldilocks and the Red Wizard', I got my inspiration from that story :D), she's great!
So that was about it! Now, enjoy this story, and don't forget to REVIEW!
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, everything belongs to their respectful owners.
Once upon a time, in kingdoms far away from each other, there were two people.
One was a man. His name was Patrick, prince of Desmond, son to the great King Gale Bertram. Patrick was a tough man on the outside, but a sweet and warm man on the inside. His father wanted him to become a strong leader, but Patrick didn't feel he had it in him. He couldn't walk around the castle, harassing servants. He was really a loving man, had once been a loving husband and father. He'd married Angela years ago, just a normal girl from the village. They'd been young, only eighteen, but he couldn't wait any longer. They had a child a few months after they married, and she was given the name, Charlotte. They'd been happy, until the evil hooded villain, Red John killed Angela and Charlotte when Patrick was away. His father told him it was karma, for not marrying a noble.
And that was when his life became a miserable hell.
The other person in this tale was a woman. Her name was Teresa, Princess of Tara. She would have been heir to the throne if she didn't have three younger brothers. Now James, Prince of Tara, would become king.
Her father, King Virgil Minelli, loved her very much. Everything she wanted she would receive. But being princess wasn't exactly what she wanted. Her whole life, she'd been living in their castle, mostly alone. She had three younger brothers, whom she really loved, but most of time they played with each other. She wasn't supposed to associate with men, not even her own brothers. She lived in the solitude of her part of the castle, and that was all she would ever know.
Patrick and Teresa were different on many things, but they had one thing in common: they had to marry each other in order to save both their kingdoms.
It was destined since their births, now twenty-five years before. They'd both tried to avoid it as long as possible, not wanting to marry, because that would mean they would lose their freedom.
Besides, they'd never met each other, only heard stories about the person.
But King Bertram and King Minelli had been very clear: to get the two kingdoms together, to form a bigger kingdom that would one day be able to grow to a much bigger kingdom, their children had to marry each other, whether they liked it or not.
-YulianaHenderson-
"But father-"
King Minelli cut Teresa off by raising his hands.
"No, Teresa, no more words. It's late already, you're far beyond the marriageable age, and I don't want our family put in a bad light because my stubborn daughter doesn't want to get married. No is no," Minelli explained, clearly angry.
Teresa pouted, still kneeling in front of her father. That made the old man's face soften a bit. He brushed her cheek with his hand, and smiled a faint smile.
"I love you, Teresa, and you know I only want the best for you. Believe me, Duke Bertram isn't a harmful man, so I'm assuming Patrick isn't either. You will love him when you see him," he said, and gently pushed her away. She got up, placed a small kiss on his cheek, and walked away.
When she was sure she was out of Minelli's sight, she kicked the nearest flower she could find. Stupid life, nobody ever listened to her.
-YulianaHenderson-
A knock shook Patrick out of his reverie.
Every day since he last saw them, everyday in the past seven years, he thought of them.
Of his Angela, her blonde hair so full, so soft, it seemed almost surreal. She had sure been a treasure to him, since the first moment he'd met her in the village, he felt as if his heart was touched by an angel. And in some way, that was indeed the truth. She could dig into his body, ridding him of his heart and taking it with her.
That was exactly what she did when she died. A big part, if not his whole heart, was still in her hands, and she couldn't give it back because she wasn't here anymore to smile, to breathe on his lips and to take care of their precious gift, Charlotte.
And his Charlotte. How much he loved that girl, he couldn't describe. She reflected the perfect harmony between the rich and the poor, her chances of a great future small, but that was being compromised by her beautiful blue eyes, as blue as the oceans he once travelled to.
He had promised her, when she had been just four years, that he would take her to it. Charlotte was filled with joy, could not wait to go see all the wonders he told her about. Too bad she didn't get the chance to see them.
"Come in," Patrick said, and the door opened slowly. Patrick didn't need to look up to see it was his father.
"Patrick, my son, are you coming?" King Bertram asked, and Patrick nodded, absentmindedly. He didn't want to go, because today, he was going to meet his future wife, and he was terrified to death about that.
"Is everything okay?" Bertram asked. Patrick again just nodded.
His father sighed, and walked over to him to sit beside him.
"Are you scared?" Bertram asked.
"Of course I am. How can I know if this Teresa is really a nice lady? What if she's not, then I'm stuck to her."
"Yes, the possibility is great."
Patrick crossed his arms at this. No denial from his father that it couldn't happen, nothing.
"I need to tell you something, and I'm sure you don't want to hear it, but I'm telling you nonetheless. Our kingdom, kingdom Desmond, was once two smaller kingdoms, named Ulster and Oriel. To get these two together, there was only one way, and you might already have guessed it-"
"Two powerful people from both kingdoms had to marry to turn them into a bigger kingdom. I know."
"Yes. And these people were none other than my grandmother, princess Cedany of Ulster, and the Earl of Oriel, Earl Frederick. They didn't want to get married, especially not with each other, because they didn't know each other. But when they met, they fell in love head over heels, and they had five children. See, don't be afraid," Bertram said. He stood up and left the room.
Patrick sighed. Well, that as no encouragement at all. Five children, none as beautiful as Charlotte, he was sure of that.
-YulianaHenderson-
"Tess!" Maid Grace whispered from the castle.
Teresa looked up, and smiled when she saw her.
"Grace. Nice to see you before I lose my freedom forever to get married to a complete stranger," Teresa said dryly. Grace sighed.
"I'm sorry, Tess, but I can't help you with that. But I just wanted to talk to you for now," Grace said, and sat down beside Teresa on the bench. Teresa continued to stare in front of her, stroking one of the flowers that grew there. It was quite a beautiful garden, even if it was the only thing Teresa saw in her life.
Grace had been outside the castle, if only to see the nuns she lived with, or her aunt, Yolanda.
She'd told Teresa that King Minelli was quite the loving man, and was very kind to his servants. She got paid not enough to buy a big house for her own, but it was enough to help her aunt. Teresa had always thought that Grace had a lot more freedom than she did, but it turned out that freedom wasn't a good thing sometimes. Freedom could get you killed. As long as you were in the safe surroundings of a castle nobody could do you harm.
Suddenly, Grace turned around to face Teresa, and hugged her.
"I like you, Teresa, though I'm not supposed to. You're my best friend, and I'll miss you when you're gone," she whispered. Teresa nodded, and hugged Grace back.
Her father always told her that they were superior, and they shouldn't become friends with servants.
But ever since they were just little girls, they'd been best friends.
Grace's mother died in childbed, and her father died a few years after from a long illness. She became an orphan when she was just five years old. The nuns at the monastery took her under their wings, and that was when Grace and Teresa first met each other. The nunnery wasn't that far away from the castle, and sometimes, Grace would sneak into the castle whenever she could. When she was twelve, the nuns could do nothing more for her, and decided to let her go, Then, she went to work for the king, and he was happy to have her. He was a noble man, and his sons were driving him mad. He hoped another girl could change them. He'd always loved children, and couldn't bear to leave this poor girl alone.
Officially, maids weren't supposed to wear noble clothing, but since Grace was the best friend of the princess herself, she received old dresses from Teresa. They sometimes looked funny on her, considering Teresa was shorter than Grace.
"What do you think? Will he like me?" Teresa asked, and Grace pulled away.
She smiled.
"I hope he does, or I will hit him in the face!" Grace exclaimed, making punching moves with her arms. Teresa chuckled. Grace was, just like Teresa, an adventurous girl. The only difference between them was that Grace could show that, and Teresa was supposed to follow protocol to be a proper princess.
"Watch out with that, or they might put you in the dungeons."
"Well, I hope not. Now, let's stop talking about me, and start talking about you! What dresses are you going to take with you?" Grace asked, and Teresa shrugged.
"This dress?" Teresa asked, and Grace motioned for her to stand up and show it.
"You should. I like that dress," Grace said. Teresa smiled.
"You can borrow my other dresses while I'm gone, Bonnie the Beautiful, because I don't need them then," Teresa said, and Grace laughed. She hugged Teresa again.
Being without Teresa for a long time would be hard, but she just hoped she would be able to do so.
-YulianaHenderson-
"Lisbon, are you ready, my dear?" King Minelli asked, knocking on the door.
His sons, James, Thomas and Michael, were already done for almost an hour, and were sitting in the carriage.
Of course his oldest child, and the only woman, had to take forever to get ready. She'd been in her room for almost three hours now with Grace, and it didn't sound like they were dressing. They were likely chatting about all sorts of other things.
He heard a groan, and soon after that the door opened, revealing a grumpy Teresa, already fully dressed, and Grace standing behind her.
"Stop calling me Lisbon, father," she muttered, turned around to give Grace a quick hug and then walked past her father.
Grace smiled, and bowed out of respect. Minelli waved it away.
"Your Highness, may I ask you why you keep calling Teresa, Lisbon?" she asked.
"Ah. Well, my dear Grace, that's an interesting story. A few years ago I went to the Kingdom of Portugal, to their great cities, like, for example, Lisbon. It was a beautiful city, especially their beaches, and-"
Grace smiled. She loved to hear stories about the King's travel stories. If she were rich enough, she would travel forever and never come back.
Sometimes, when she stopped thinking about how her parents had died, she imagined King Minelli to be her father. He was such a great man; she would die to have him as her father.
-YulianaHenderson-
When Teresa exited the castle, she saw the two carriages all ready to drive away. Their clothes were folded and put into trunks on the back of the first carriage, her father's.
Though they had their own carriage, all four of them insisted on sharing one, because this might be the last time they could do so.
"Ah, there she is! I knew it-three hours. Tom, you owe me," Michael said, at which Thomas slapped him on the arm.
"Ouch! You didn't need to do that!" Michael exclaimed, and hit him back. The little banter soon turned in a fight that James liked too much to stop.
Teresa opened the door, and pushed them away from each other.
"Stop it, both of you!" she exclaimed, and sat down beside James, rolling her eyes when Thomas and Michael shot a few glares at each other.
"Why did you two have to come with us? Father and James could have handled it," Teresa muttered. James looked at her sympathetically. He placed a hand on her knee, squeezing it gently.
James cared a lot about her, and when he heard that they were going to see Teresa's future husband, he was happy to come with her. Then her father wanted to join as well, to look after her and talk a bit with his old friend King Bertram. As always, her younger brothers didn't want to miss a thing and wanted to come.
Sometimes her brothers acted like toddlers. It wasn't that strange though. She was the oldest, with her twenty-five years, and then came James, twenty-three. He wasn't really childish, but Michael, twenty-one and Thomas, eighteen-they were children. Her father couldn't control them, she had to admit, and maybe that was why she did it for him. He was an old man, she could not forget that.
She presumed that was why her father didn't want to be in a carriage with these nitwits. She was a surrogate mother for them sometimes, though she couldn't help them with everything. She was a woman; how could she know anything about men, even when she lived with four of them?
She always had the feeling she could connect more with Grace than with her own family.
Just when they started to drive, Grace ran outside, enthusiastically waving at them. Teresa smiled. She placed kisses on her hand and waved them towards Grace, laughing and chuckling. The boys just groaned.
"Women...," James murmured, and Teresa shot him a death glare. He quickly looked outside, avoiding her gaze. The other two laughed.
"You're the first one to marry, of all of us. I thought I would be the one to fulfill that role," Michael said. His ego was great; too great for Teresa's liking.
She rolled her eyes.
"If I do marry that Patrick, I hope he keeps me and that you have to leave," she hissed, but her tone sounded more teasing than mean.
Michael acted as if he was hurt, but smiled at her.
"Love you too, Reese," he said, and leaned over to plant a small kiss on her cheek.
-YulianaHenderson—
Patrick was led to the gate where Princess Teresa would arrive.
His father had told him how to behave with royals, though Patrick knew all about it. He had read about princes and princesses in books he got from his father, and it wasn't like they hadn't invited other royals over every once in a while. Patrick wanted to go to their castle; being out of this one would be a relief.
King Minelli was very clear: he insisted on coming to them. Maybe it was because he wanted to show off his carriages and beautiful daughter.
Patrick didn't know what to expect, though.
From here he had a great view of the willows that surrounded the castle.
In the fields, he saw two men, one tall one, and one shorter one, and obviously they didn't belong in the castle because Patrick had never seen them before. They were standing next to each other outside the castle.
Patrick waved at the two, but they shied away and left.
Patrick smiled, and continued to look at the road again. Not because he was excited to meet this Teresa, but because he simply didn't have anything to do for now. His father placed him here, to await his new bride. Bertram knew him very well. Patrick was just stubborn enough to secretly leave through the back doors, into the woods.
No, here was possibly the best place.
Patrick felt in his pockets, and grabbed the little drawing out of it.
It was a drawing he let somebody make from when Charlotte was only three years old. He felt he had to cherish her the way she was then, because he knew from stories and knew from experience from Angela that puberty could make a woman go crazy all of a sudden.
He decided not to flee into the woods, but await his future wife in the Great Hall. All this wind made his hair all messy and disheveled anyway.
-YulianaHenderson-
When they still had more than five hours to go, Teresa stopped both the carriages.
Her brothers were driving her mad with their stories about how they killed a rabbit the day before, so she decided to join her father. He was happy to; he felt lonely in his carriage, all on his own.
She stepped inside, and her father smiled at her.
He immediately reached out his hand for her, and she took it, as he pulled he pulled her into his arms.
She rested her head on his chest, feeling how his calm and steady breath made his chest rise. He kissed the top of her head, and she smiled. It had been a long time since he father had last done this, back when she was only twelve years old.
She had had a lonely life in the castle, since she was a girl and had to obey almost every male relative. But she didn't want that, because she didn't understand why she couldn't do what she wanted. She too wanted to run around, playing at being a knight, riding horses in the open field.
Instead, she was supposed to learn etiquette, how to dance, sing, walk, talk, sit and eat properly, how to please a man by obeying him. Her father wanted her to become a noble princess, but she didn't want that.
Of course, King Minelli had wanted her to marry at a very young age, but he saw that that was not what his daughter wanted. All he wanted was the best for her, his only daughter. She was more of a masculine woman at times, but she did have her feminine moments.
"You're not afraid, are you?" he suddenly asked. She looked up.
She straightened and sat on her side of the seat again.
She nodded.
"I am, father. But I'm grateful, I'm sure Patrick is a good man, and-"
"Teresa, I can see when you are lying."
She looked down at her lap.
"I don't want to marry yet, father, I'm not ready for it," she whispered.
He sighed.
"Yes, you are, my love. You are ready. I wish your mother were here to help you; she would know what to say."
She sat back, leaning her upper body against the back of the carriage, and sighed.
"I wished as well," she muttered, and closed her eyes.
Teresa was dancing. Not dancing like she'd been taught, being graceful and limited at the same time.
No, she was dancing, passionately. With a man.
She looked up, wild blonde curls greeting her, meeting clear blue eyes.
She didn't know who this mysterious man was, but she smiled. And she laughed.
They continued the dance, taking soft steps. His hands were on the small of her back, and hers around his neck. And then the man bowed down, kissing her, and she startled when she felt her mouth opening for him, his tongue intruding into hers, playing a sinful game with her tongue.
He pulled away, and looked into her eyes.
"Teresa," a vague voice said. While she saw his lips moving, the voice didn't come from him; it sounded too far away.
"Teresa," he whispered again, though the voice now sounded louder.
"Teresa!"
Teresa opened her eyes. Her father was squeezing her hand gently to wake her, and he smiled when he met her sleepy eyes.
"We're here."
A/N: SO! What do you think? It's awful, isn't it?
Oh, just some information about the kingdoms I've used: Yes, they were real kingdoms once, but I loved the names and I just wanted to use them :D.
About the thing from Lisbon, yeah, well, I wanted to use her last name as well, but since people in that age didn't really have last names, I decided to use it like that :D. I'm not gonna use Jane's last name, I'm afraid, but I love Patrick as well :D.
About the nicknames part (every character has its own version of Teresa's name): It's gonna be explained in the next chapter, don't worry :D. It serves a purpose, somehow :D.
And the title: I don't know, the title changed from 'The Fight of the Slaves', to 'When a duty becomes a want', and now it's 'The Devoted way', but I just can't seem to find a right title. I'll keep it at this one, if any of you knows a better title, you can let me know in a review (*wink wink*)!
Anyway, let me know what you think in a REVIEW, thank you!