In Pieces
Her name had been Katherine de Madina.
Stephen, King of England, whom some called the usurper, paced the mortuary where the broken body of his half sister lay in state. Though a bastard, born of a union outside of wedlock from Stephen's father on a young pretty Spanish/Arab maid, Stephen had always held her in high regard and had even set her up as a Princess of England.
She had been captured on her way to join him and had been held at Chester palace, ransomed. When Stephen paid and sent emissaries to fetch her, they brought back a broken body of a woman in pieces. Stephen swore vengeance and his full wrath upon those who had dared harm this young lamb whose only crime was being his sister.
He walked to her body again and looked down at the face of the woman he had grown to love. She had been very beautiful once. He sighed. She would have been a very beautiful girl if she had not been killed so earl in life. She had been just ten-and-four. To be murdered and sent to him in pieces…
Stephen slammed his fist against the slab that held her washed and dressed body ready for the grave. She had lived much of her life a servant, become a lady of England, and would be buried as a Princess of England.
Stephen sighed and laid his hand on her brow and took a shaky breath. "I will avenge you Katie. Sweet, sweet, Katie. God is cruel indeed to remove you from this earth, but I will find the men who did this to you. They will beg for death before I grant it…as you no doubt did."
He kissed her brow and tried not to think what sort of hell she had been through. Instead he started to plan the hell he would put her killers through when they were found.