Breaking

It had once seemed impossible for anything to break Mary, but the attack on the castle had.

Sometimes, when he looked at her, Francis felt as if it would break him too.

Mary was the strongest person he had ever known, so full of passion and fire for what she believed in, for those that she cared for. Not in these last two days, though. She stayed shut up in their chambers for the duration of them - she gave him as much information as she could, but it wasn't enough to track them down.

She seemed so fragile, hurt, broken now. He didn't know how to help her.

Please don't. I can hardly bear to have you look at me, she'd said the last time he'd tried to touch her, and then she had begun to cry. His heart shattered.

So he was surprised to find her out in the courtyard near the prisoners as Bash rounded them up, his mother looking on in concern.

Francis didn't approach his wife at first. He didn't want to startle her, to give her more cause for fear. So he moved over to his mother instead.

"What's Mary doing here?" he asked, his voice low. He was pleased that she was out of their bed and moving, but he didn't want her in the courtyard with the prisoners, where they were trying to find the men who had assaulted her.

"She's looking for her rapist," Catherine replied, "and if you don't catch him that's what she'll be doing for the rest of her life - in every room and in every crowd."

He had to get his wife out of here, then. He couldn't have her out here, when God only knew how finding the man would affect her.

Reluctantly, he approached her, not daring even to touch her shoulder. "Mary?" he said softly. She startled and turned to him, sucking in a sharp breath as she did so, and his heart sank. He had tried not to scare her. "I'm sorry. Please come inside," he pleaded.

"He's not here," she said, ignoring his words. She was twisting one of her rings on her finger, fidgeting, not looking at him.

"Alright. Well, all of these men will be questioned and one of them will lead us to him," he promised.

"And the other men too. The ones who stood there and would have done the same to me or worse," she said, staring up at him.

"Yes." Her hands caught his attention again and he finally reached for them, wanting only to calm her. "Mary, it would be foolish of me to ask you not to think about it, but I urge you to get some rest-"

She jerked her hands away in a flurry of panic and moved several steps away from him. "I can't close my eyes without seeing them," she snapped, whirling to face him again. "Francis, the next hours are crucial. Every minute that passes makes their capture less likely."

"They won't get away. I will find the men responsible -"

"They could be miles away by now."

He hated the fear in her eyes. He hated that he didn't know how to take it away.

"It doesn't matter where they are, Mary, I will hunt them to the ends of the earth."