Quick info this story involves mentioned of characters from a show called Da Vincis demons just wanted to let you know enjoy
I lowered the carriage window as it came to a stop. The early morning chill caused a faint low fog that drifted just above the ground, giving the grounds an eerie mystical look. You almost expected to see some sort of specter gliding along.
Whenever I'm awake I love witnessing all of these sights you can see, it almost makes the idea of magic seem real. Sometimes the air will be just cold enough to make you feel wide awake, the sun will cause everything to have a faint glow, and the dew on the grass and the flowers seem to sparkle.
I could hear the driver faintly begin to argue with one of the guards. Bless him for trying to make the whole argument silent because he thinks we are both still asleep. Our carriage was attempting to gain access through gates into the king's castle.
The carriages lack of movement made my mother sit up quickly and she corrected herself from her very unladylike position. She had been attempting to lounge on the uncomfortable carriage bench.
"We are there then I presume?" My mother asked, glancing out the window with me.
"Yes after many boring, long, and tiresome hours we are finally here" I assured her with a smile. I had to put on a brave face for her.
As we waited to be granted entrance I felt a sense of relief, terror, sadness, and anxiety. What we were about to do was a big gamble. Well actually it wasn't in a larger prospective. The deal had practically already been sealed. However, all I could think was that this was still some elaborate prank being pulled on us. It just all seemed unreal.
"I think I'm going to vomit" I honestly told her as I leaned back.
"Ana" my mother chuckled at my honesty.
"Nerves and lack of food" I informed her as my stomach growled on cue.
"Well if they let us in, hopefully we'll be able to eat something before we have an audience with the king"
"If we have an audience. Giancarlo seems to be having a quarrel with the guard so silent that any mime would probably wish he could perform as excellently as he" I joked and my mother laughed in response.
"That's why we haven't moved? Give me a moment"she said, giving me her mother knows best look, as her composure quickly changed from my mother to the noble Lady Donati of Florence. Grabbing her skirts in one hand she opened the door and stepped outside.
"Excuse me, may I ask why we seem to be stuck in spot where there isn't a ditch?" my mother asked the two arguing men.
"My lady, he says we were not supposed to arrive for another fortnight, and that he can't let us in since our arrival was so unexpected" Giancarlo explained.
"A fortnight?"my mother asked turning towards the guard.
"That was the time the king had estimated" the guard answered her.
"Even with his wife being who she is he has no understanding of the Italians" my mother joked with Giancarlo and then turned towards me.
"Anastasia come over here, and bring the letter with you" she asked of me. I quickly obeyed as I grabbed her little clutch, gathered up my skirts, and amazingly was able to get out of the carriage without falling over anything.
"Thank you" she graciously smiled at me as I handed her the clutch and she took out the letter. The guard began reading it the moment my mother handed it to him. I had no curiosity as to what was in it. About a month ago we lost my father to an illness. Having no heir to pass his legacy onto my mother and I strived to find a way for us to keep our home. My father was the master of coin for the city of Florence, and that's an important business that can't be left unattended to.
I knew my mother was prepared to do anything to keep me and my little sister off the streets. She tried to run my father's position to the best of her ability and was even willing to contact someone who didn't bother to take notice of our existence. My aunt, Catherine De Medici. Her reasoning behind it, was that she believed my father did not deserve the money he received after her father died. Even though she got to become a bloody queen. Why did she disagree with having her brother receive a sum of money? That's because my father was the son of her father's mistress Lucretia Donati. Now the penny drops.
Due to the fact that my mother is quite persuasive woman, she went one step further then I would've ever thought of doing. It's no secret, even in Florence, that the king despises his wife. With that in mind my mother sent a letter to my aunt's husband, King Henry of France, and described to him our situation. She even offered that the Donati family would pledge their loyalty to France, help fund France if it ever needed help, with what was left of my father's inheritance, and it would spite his wife, if he would give us any sort of help.
After about three weeks we received a response to come as quickly as we could to have an audience with the king. With that we took our best footman with us, had the staff look after my younger sister, Giuliana, and came to France with the quickest transportation we could afford.
"See what it says there?" My mother asked the guard. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as she seemed to push her attempt at being regal.
"'As soon as possible', and here we are" she paraphrased for him.
"The staff has just woken up and the king won't be awake for half an hour" the guard told her the truth.
"Well we can wait-"I told him politely but my mother held a hand up.
"If you let him know now and we walk to the front door of the castle, instead of riding up, surely that would be enough time for preparations to be made correct? Such as holding our audience with the king over breakfast?" My mother asked of him.
"Erm yes?" He answered not knowing if that was a hypothetical question or not.
"Good then" my mother gave him a nod. With that she tossed her clutch to Giancarlo and he luckily caught it with his excellent reflexes.
"Giancarlo, ride ahead of us we'll meet you there eventually. Shouldn't you be off now? Ana make sure to hold your skirts whilst we walk we mustn't get them dirty" she said so quickly as she laced her arm through mine and surprisingly the gates opened. Loyal to the French king or not, the man knew it wasn't smart to pick an argument with my mother.
I chuckled at my mother's delighted smile and we slowly made our walk to the front door.
This would've been a successful showing of how my mother always gets her way, until it started to rain. It began as a drizzle then slowly but surely it turned into a downpour.
"Don't give me that look" my mother said as we shivered and stood in front of the fire in the dining hall, on top of a old carpet meant to soak up any residue.
It had come as quite a shock to the manservant that answered the door when he found us absolutely soaked and out of breath from making a run for the castle. My mother had quickly straightened herself out and told him who we were. I like to think that if Giancarlo hadn't arrived before us he wouldn't have believed her. To my embarrassment though, two maid servants followed behind us with large washcloths to soak the wet footprints we left behind as he led us to the dining hall where a warm breakfast was already set.
"I'm not giving you any look" I laughed at the situation we were in, through my shivers.
"I can't control the weather, how was I supposed to know?" she made an excuse for herself.
"I believe you, I just find it funny. Hopefully the king will as well"
"Now I'm going to laugh" my mother rolled her eyes at me with sarcasm practically dripping through her voice.
"At least we are here though, and look at how magnificent this place is" I whispered to her in excitement. I had never seen any place like this before, it was almost like stepping into a fairytale.
"Try not to be to amazed otherwise people will know we aren't as aristocratic as we act"
"For now at least, I have the feeling this meeting will be quite the success. Besides you have quite the sass and composure of one that I'm sure anyone would ever doubt otherwise" I encouraged her. There was a high pitched squeak as one of the large wooden doors opened. To our left there was no doubt in our mind that the man who had entered was the king, just by the prescience he seemed to command wherever he stepped foot. My mother and I did our best to curtesy in our now damp dresses.
"It takes quite the woman to command my staff to do her bidding" the king greeted my mother with a kiss on both cheeks and did the same to me as well.
"We are in a difficult situation my lord ,so there is no time for waiting"my mother joked.
"And thank you again for inviting us. We have spoken before so you know who I am, but let me introduce my daughter, Anastasia Donati, my eldest" she introduced me. Unsure of what to do I awkwardly curtsied again and then cringed as I realized that, that was the wrong thing to do.
"Of course, good morning" he nodded towards me.
"Good morning sir"
"Would you actually mind for a moment if I had a private word with your mother?" He asked of me. I clenched my teeth at the question. Part of me wanted to just say no to him and curl up in front of the fire until I fell asleep. I smirked at the thought of me pulling that stunt in front of the king. However, the young lady in me choose otherwise as I gave the king a nod, and tried to ignore the sloshing noises my shoes made, as I left the room.
I found the hallway unattended and was about to press my ear to the door to eavesdrop, except it quickly swung open again and a maidservant came rushing out of it. Once she was gone I did another attempt at eavesdropping. The damn door was to thick. All I could hear were the muffled words of "proposal" and "better". There was no use in being anymore nosey, so I walked down the halls looking at the artistry upon them. The walls were covered with amazing tapestries of battles the castle had withstood and family portraits. There was even a Da Vinci blueprint from one of the war machines he promised to make my grandfather. Speaking of Da Vinci apparently there's a rumor that at one point, him and my grandmother were a thing.
At the end of the hallway there was a lone suit of armor with the royal seal placed just above the shoulder. I hated those, they always gave me the feeling that someone was in them watching me through the small slit in the helmet. Making sure no one would see me, I walked up to the creepy little thing and stood on the pedestal it was placed on, opened the helmet, and glanced inside. Just like I had known, there was no one in there, I could now resume walking the halls peacefully without that thought in mind.
"What are you doing?" A male voice slowly asked behind me. It sounded amused and slightly confused. With a quick glance behind I slipped off the pedestal and fell into a pair of arms that were fast at catching me. Once we both straightened ourselves out I looked into the strangers eyes and they were blue, gorgeously blue.