The King is Dead, Long Live the King!
The bells had been ringing for days.
What had, at first, been a welcome bearer of news turned into a dreadful, doleful annoyance as the bells continued to ring throughout the night. King Mikael was dead – all of London knew by now, thanks to those incessant bells – and Finn would be king. The man had the charisma of a lobster, though his skill in battle strategies were second to none.
Elijah should be king, Katherine couldn't help but think, not that dreadful excuse for a prince. The nobles and the commonfolk alike adored Elijah, while they merely tolerated Finn. England would be much stronger under Elijah's rule, as he knew when to charm, when to threaten and when to punish, whereas Prince Finn only knew how to punish. Just like his father.
Her husband wasn't too distressed over King Mikael's death. Katherine was glad; that cruel arse didn't deserve even one of Elijah's tears. Princess Rebekah seemed to be the only one of his children truly affected by his death. The late king had cherished his only daughter. Katherine suspected that he favoured Rebekah because she couldn't overthrow him and take his crown.
"Would you like to retire to your chambers, cousin?" Elena, her cousin and her only lady from Brittany, asked.
Katherine shook her head. Elijah would leave the wake soon, and she wanted to be here when he did. "No thank you."
"I do not mean to question you, but the stress might harm the baby," Elena commented cautiously, pointedly glancing to Katherine's bulging stomach. "You haven't slept all night, what if-"
"Quiet, Elena. Your constant nagging happens to be causing me more stress than a lack of sleep ever could," Katherine snapped.
Elena's large, brown eyes widened, all too similar to that of a doe's, before she lowered her head in shame, eyes downcast. For a split second, Katherine's stomach dropped with guilt and she opened her mouth to say something else, though she did not think to apologise, but before she could a sharp, child-like, mocking laugh echoed through the courtyard.
Aurora de Martel was the Duke of Norfolk's daughter, and Prince Klaus' lady wife. For some unknown reason, Klaus loved her. Though his love, it seemed, wasn't powerful enough to prevent him from seeking the beds of other women. During the difficult times with his lady wife, Klaus chose to hurt his wife in the best way he could think of – he made her jealous, and insecure, and powerless, and hurt.
Although Katherine felt sorry for her, the woman was mad, and only a fool could be ignorant of that fact, as Klaus, the great Duke of Bedford, had been for the last four years of his marriage.
"And what, pray tell, are you tittering at?" Katherine demanded, eyes narrowed viscously towards Aurora.
"Nothing, sister," the Duchess of Bedford replied, wearing one of her saccharine smiles that, it seemed, only Katherine could see through. "Nothing, of course. Only, I think you are quite harsh on your darling cousin. Naturally, some of your behaviour can be blamed on your condition, but it is quite outstanding how much snipe your cousin can take. Count your blessings she hasn't snapped yet!"
She was delighted with herself, a sort of child-like glee that came with being nasty to other children without knowing that its wrong. Perhaps that was Aurora's problem – she didn't know when she was wrong. Katherine forced a smile upon her lips and forced the anger in her belly to dissipate.
"It is quite outstanding, isn't it?" Katherine agreed. "Though, you know what else I find quite outstanding? The fact that you are able to construct jibes when your husband is grieving for his dead father."
The smile never left Aurora's face, and her expression simply became more mocking, as though she was speaking to a small child. "Oh, darling sister. Katherine, dear, you hardly believe that any of the king's children – except for Rebekah, perhaps, since she was his little darling – truly mourn their father? My, my, I thought you were more savvy that that."
"Of course I am more savvy than that," Katherine snapped, her hand balled into a fist. She placed a hand on her stomach and moved in circles, trying to keep calm and not shout. The walls weren't that thick. "And, unlike you, I am savvy in other ways too."
"What do you mean by that?" Aurora asked quickly. Her eyes were wide, worried. She gave Katherine the look that usually wore others down, made them feel guilty, so that they couldn't say a word against her. Katherine wasn't going to fall for it.
"Well, I am, as you put it, quite savvy in the art of keeping men interested. You see, my husband doesn't even think of jumping into another woman's bed. Its a gift, darling sister, to be able to keep one's husband satisfied." Aurora's smile had disappeared, her eyes were as wide as tennis balls as she hastily blinked away tears. "Oh, what's that child's name again? Charlotte, is it? I hear Klaus loves her dearly."
"How dare you speak that child's name in front of me?" Aurora said. She didn't sound angry or enraged, although Katherine suspected that Aurora wanted to sound intimidating. In the end, Aurora only managed to sound like a child.
"Now, now, have I struck a nerve?" Katherine asked, a cruel smile worming its way onto her lips. She was being horrible – brutal, even – but Aurora wouldn't shy at the chance to wound her, so why should Katherine? "It must be quite terrible, to see your husband love his child, from another woman, so, so dearly, when you cannot give him one yourself. Heartbreaking, even."
Silence. For the next hour, neither Katherine nor Aurora made any jibes or any attempts to start conversation. Katherine was aware that she had went too far, but found that she didn't really care. Aurora had been horrible to her when she first came to England from Brittany, a large duchy in the north west of France, and now Katherine was simply returning the favour.
The silence only subsided, however, when Elena announced that the royal family were approaching. Instinctively, Katherine shot up from her seat and marched towards Elijah as quick as she could. There was no doubt that she looked ridiculous, with her large, comically large stomach causing her to waddle, but, for once, Katherine allowed herself to look anything less than perfect.
She wrapped her arms around her husband, tucking her head into the crook of his neck. From the corner of her eye, Katherine saw Queen – no, Queen Dowager – Esther tutting. Public displays of affection were looked down upon, as Katherine knew well, but did the death of a family member not allow a sanction?
Forcing herself to ignore her witch of a mother-in-law, Katherine focused on Elijah. She cupped his face in her hands, checking him over for any sign of sadness. She found none. His cheeks weren't damp and his eyes weren't rimmed with red. Actually, the only people who seemed upset were Princess Rebekah and the Queen Dowager. Although, while Rebekah was sobbing and hiccuping and crying her eyes out, Esther merely looked angry, most of her glares being directed towards Klaus.
There was no time for suspicions or secret accusations, she reminded herself. Her sole focus should be Elijah.
"How are you?" she asked him finally, having checked him over a hundred times before saying a word. Katherine already knew the answer.
"Quite alright, surprisingly," he said in low voice, not wanting his mother or Rebekah to hear him. "I may have never been close with my father, but I had expected to feel some manner of emotion when seeing him in a casket. I felt nothing, Katherine. Not a morsel of emotion, of anger or grief or fear. Nothing. It was as if he was a stranger."
"Perhaps he was," Katherine whispered. They excused themselves rather abruptly and went to their chambers to speak in private. As soon as they were inside, Katherine spoke freely. "Your father never paid you or your siblings any attention, and when he did it was to insult you. I, for one, am glad that you care nothing for that horrid man."
"Katherine," he scolded, a smile playing on his lips.
"Well, I am." She lowered herself onto a comfortable by the fire, hands caressing her bulging stomach. Even the most comfortable chair in the palace only managed to offer her the tiniest bit of comfort. "Is there any news of what caused his death?"
Elijah shook his head and sat himself down on a chair in front of Katherine. "No, nothing. The physicians can make assumptions, but that's all they are – assumptions. And they're quite far-fetched as well."
"And what 'assumptions' are they making?" Katherine pressed, sitting up eagerly.
Her husband scoffed and waved his hand in dismissal, but Katherine knew that the physicians must have said something of importance, as Elijah looked troubled, staring at his hands as though they were must fascinating thing in the world. She said his name once softly, and again, sterner this time, when there was no response.
"I do not wish to worry you with the fanciful theories of melodramatic speculators," Elijah said with a voice that commanded no argument, "who no doubt want us to pay them an excessive sum so they can come again and rob us some more in return for theories."
"And I thought I was the pessimist in this marriage," Katherine remarked, a smile on her lips that Elijah had to return. "Now, you are going to tell me what the physicians said or I will find out myself."
His smile quickly turned into one of mischief. "And how will you do that, oh, nosy wife of mine?"
"I have my ways, Elijah," Katherine informed him. "But I would much prefer to get the proper story from you than a garbled version from others."
Her ladies were brilliant for getting her information. Their husbands, brothers, fathers and, in some cases, lovers tended to babble on about classified information that ought not be spread among courtiers. These men needed someone to complain to, to share their burdens, and who better than a mindless woman? The issue was that these women actually had minds, and they loved to gossip.
She had gotten through to Elijah, judging by his defeated sigh. He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair and fell back into his chair. A breathy laugh escaped his lips as he observed her with something akin to admiration in his eyes.
"You really are something else, Katherine," he remarked, a warm tone to his voice. Katherine tried to keep a serious face, but she couldn't help but smile. "The physicians think that my father's death was more than just some unfortunate ailment. That it was planned and orchestrated by someone with superb skill in the art of poisons."
"And who would that be?" Katherine had an idea.
"Well, the physicians were obviously in no place to condemn an English noble, but their implication was quite clear." Elijah looked as though he had no desire to continue speaking. As cold-hearted as it was, Katherine pressed him to go on. If there was a killer loose in the castle, she wanted to know who it was. "There are three people in the castle who are capable of brewing a poison strong enough to stop a heart in mere hours. My mother, Finn and Kol. Now, I am certain my mother would not even think of doing such a thing – she loved my father with all her heart, however she managed it – and Kol accompanied Klaus and I on a hunting trip the day my father died, so I presume we can acquit him of my father's murder. But Finn..."
Finn, Prince of Wales was the least violent man Katherine had ever met. The notion that he would poison his own father was not only improbable, it was laughable. Judging by Elijah's stern expression, he didn't think the same.
"Oh, you can't be serious Elijah!" Katherine exclaimed, accompanying her statement with a hearty laugh. "Finn wouldn't hurt a fly unless it interrupted his reading! Every time I see him he has his nose wedged into a book. He would have to take his nose out of whatever it is he's always reading these days to develop the motive to kill your father, and then he would have to take it out for longer to make a plan and orchestrate the murder of a father he's spoken to twice in his life!"
"I'm glad you find this humorous, Katherine," Elijah deadpanned. "I wish that I could share in your banter, but I am afraid that I cannot find humour in the fact that a king was most likely murdered."
Katherine scoffed. She hated when he got like this; when he treated her like a silly child. "You said it yourself Elijah – that these speculations are 'the fanciful theories of melodramatic speculators'," Katherine replied.
"Because I didn't want to trouble you, and because I knew that you would become so... flippant before you had even heard the entirety of what I had to say," Elijah bit back in a cool voice.
If there was one thing Katherine couldn't stand, it was being treated like she was inferior. "Alright, then. Proceed."
Elijah shook his head. "No, no. You have made it quite clear that you have no time for speculations."
"Oh, don't be a child, Elijah," Katherine snapped, rolling her eyes. "I should have heard the rest of what you had to say before I formed an opinion. Now, proceed."
There was a ghost of a smile on her husband's lips, and Katherine knew she had won. Well, not 'won' exactly, but at least they had come to a stalemate of sorts. "You see, my brother has become quite fond of a lady of low rank here at court. As he is – well, was – the heir to the throne, my father demanded that he marry a lady of a higher station, or a princess, if it could be arranged. Finn asked my father for permission to marry this lady, whose name escapes me, as he had fallen in love with her, and – well, you know my father; he's never been one for true love and happy endings."
"So he refused?" Katherine surmised.
Elijah nodded. "The relationship between my father and Finn was tense, for lack of a better word. Father wanted to make sure that Finn did not marry his lover in secret, so he organised a betrothal with a princess of France – the Princess Camille. Finn battled with my father, they even came to blows once, but Father did not submit. The preparations were only beginning when..." Elijah swallowed. "It is difficult, to imagine my brother performing such a sinful act, but the pieces come together perfectly. The eve before the hunt Finn declined our invitation, saying he had important matters to attend to. What if this, murdering our father, was the 'important matter'?"
She was glad that she had insisted for Elijah to continue. Finn had a motive to kill his father, so the idea wasn't quite as preposterous to Katherine, and he was always a strange boy, unapproachable and living in a world of his own. He should have stayed in that world, Katherine couldn't help but think; if coming out to join us means he's going to murder us all.
A lump formed in her throat and she found herself placing both hands protectively on her belly. "We don't know for certain, anyway, and accusing him of poisoning the king is treason. If he makes arrangements to marry this woman, then we have more reason to suspect him."
"And what do you propose then?" Elijah asked her.
It took her a few moments to answer him as she weighed the possibilities in head. Then, in a low but sure voice, she offered him the only answer that made sense in Katherine of Brittany's mind.
"War."
AN: Thanks for reading for first chapter! I'm not sure how long I want this to be, but I have enough of a plan to make this at least twenty chapters if anyone's interested? I have a lot of pairings in mind already; one of the main ones being Kalijah which I think turns out quite well in this setting, and then Klaroline as well, but there might be a little bit of a wait for them to really get in on! I'm not partial to any ships by the way, as long as it fits into the plot I'll go with it. This won't be a very happy fic, but it will have a bit of fluff and the like, with a lot of death and tragedy. This is sort of, sort of not based on the War of the Roses, a part of history that I absolutely adore and would recommend for anyone to research. I'm trying to write everyone in character, and if you spot any OOC-ness please tell me and I'll see what I can do!
If you're confused at all about anything, write a review or PM me and I'll clear everything up! By the way, since this is the Middle Ages characters might be referred to by a different name. For example, Klaus is the Duke of Bedford as well as a prince, so he might be called just 'Bedford.' Also, if you spot any historical inaccuracies please tell me! Thanks for reading and tell me what you think!