I do not own "Fable 3" or any of its characters. Based on the 2010 XBOX game.
Rated M for Explicit Adult Content.
This story is based on a wonderful suggestion by Fallon-Idalia. We both want to explore the idea of a 'forced marriage' and here is one possible result in the Fable-Universe!
When the Princess begs her brother, King Logan, to spare the villagers and her childhood love, he decides to honour her request – but she must pay dearly.
Love By Decree
#2
Major Jackson Edward Hardwicke Swift opened his latest missive from the King. He scanned the usual greeting and formalities and then his mouth dropped open in shock. His pipe tumbled from his lips and he had to fumble to catch it before it struck the surface of his desk.
Now, what I write of next is something that will undoubtedly surprise you, Major. It is imperative that you fully realise that you are under no obligation to accept what it is that I offer you. As you will see, there will be a consequence if you do not, but it need not overly concern you, as that 'consequence' relates to a traitor to Albion.
In exchange for a generous raise in pay and new equipment and plentiful supplies for Mourningwood Fort, I offer you the hand in marriage of a very eligible and highly accomplished young woman. She is beautiful, cultured, well-educated, of a splendid family, possesses fine temperament, and is, in every way, extremely desirable as a potential wife.
However, this same woman is also a traitor to the Crown, and thus to Albion, and if you do not wish to accept her in matrimony, she will live out the rest of her days in the Castle Dungeons. She will never walk free nor see the sun ever again, but neither will she be executed. You needn't fear for her life.
I have decided upon this unusual course of action for reasons of my own; however, I will reveal one of them to you. This woman agreed to do anything I asked of her if I would grant her a boon. For a man with your scruples and admirable principles, it will please you to know that she did so to save the lives of eight people, all of whom were to be immediately executed.
I will not explain why I have chosen you to be the man who may or may not decide to accept her as your wife, only that I have. I also will not explain why I am exacting this particular price from her. However, the offer to you is a good one. There are no concealed liabilities regarding the lady, so be easy in your mind if that is of concern.
I expect a response from you within a ten-day. If you do not respond, the offer will formally and irrevocably be withdrawn.
There is nothing undesirable about the young woman, so you need not concern yourself on that matter. In fact, if it will help you to decide in her favour, I will add that she is one whom almost any man in Albion would do anything to not only wed, but possess.
Major Swift, also known as 'Gentleman Jack', who was held in high esteem and loved and respected by his men, was caught by his second in command, Captain Benjamin Finn, in a rare, and possibly a once in a lifetime, instance.
The Major was seated at his desk, mouth agape, pipe held awkwardly in one hand, letter clutched in his other, eyes wide and unblinking, and the man himself utterly speechless.
When the younger man addressed him several times in succession, the Major didn't even hear him.
"Gods, Amaleigh, he can't mean that!"
Amaleigh sobbed desolately into Elliot's neck. They clung to each other as if to a lifeline, but it was of scant comfort.
They were in their favourite place in the Castle Gardens, a place they had called their own since they had been children. It was a sweetly secluded spot behind an ancient weather-worn statue of a King whose name had long since been erased by the elements.
How fitting, Amaleigh thought, as she gazed tearfully over Elliot's shoulder at the statue. This man's name had been erased and lost forever by forces beyond his control. Now, her and Elliot's love faced the same terrible fate. Logan was forever erasing; nay, mercilessly extinguishing, any hope for their love and a future together. To save Elliot's life, she had forfeited her very heart and any chance for happiness along with it.
"Oh, but he does, Elliot; he told me so! He's so angry and hurt! He wants to punish me, but at the same time he has just enough love for me left inside him that he allowed me to save those people."
"And me," Elliot whispered, his voice shaking. He stroked her back and kissed the nape of her neck softly, tenderly, as if he feared she would shatter like crystal.
"Yes, and you," she choked. His kisses, once so pleasurable and exciting, now filled her with unfathomable sadness. Each gentle kiss, each rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, each moment of time that passed, was like a small piece of Death eating away at her soul.
Did she even have a soul any longer? She felt as if she had no heart, and if that was so, wasn't she now a soulless creature, forever doomed to despair? Even hollow emptiness would be preferable to the agony that was now slowly and raggedly cleaving away every shred of happiness she had ever possessed..
"You feel pain,"Elliot whispered, sensing her thoughts. "You have a heart, Amaleigh. It still beats, and it still loves. Logan could not take it from you."
"But he took you from me. What good is my heart if it can only be filled with anguish?"
"Oh, my love!" He cupped her tear-streaked face and kissed her trembling lips. "I am so sorry! I wish you had chosen me to die!"
Amaleigh jerked back, eyes flashing angrily even through her copious tears. "No! Would you have done so were you in my place?"
His eyes squeezed closed and his lips twitched and quivered. "No! I... I never could have done! Oh, Amaleigh, you did the best you could. You are not to blame, and you saved so many lives!" He sucked in an uneven breath and opened his eyes. "I love you, and will always love you, Amaleigh. Some way, some how, we'll make our way through this together."
"But he can marry me off any time now! What can we do? I cannot go back on my word, Elliot!"
"I know," he said, seizing her hands in his and kissing her knuckles fervently. "But we'll try and think of something. We have to at least try!"
But Amaleigh knew that there was nothing that could be done.
Major Swift sat at his desk, but instead of holding the letter that had turned his entire world upside-down, he now held a picture of his late father.
"Who am I, Father?" he asked the man in the picture, the man he resembled in so many ways; physically, in skills, and in moral values. "I once thought I knew. I am a man who lives to serve and protect the People of Albion. The King has become a tyrant, yet I still serve him, hoping to serve the People even as I despise what he stands for. Does that make me a traitor in my heart? Is this woman he hopes that I will marry like me in that respect? Did she save those people because she has hope for the future and love of her fellow man?"
His father's image did not respond, of course, but Jack Swift took comfort from the old man's kindly features nonetheless.
"I am not many winters away from fifty years of age, Father," Swift went on after a moment. "The King says she is young. Can a young woman ever be happy with an old soldier like me? On the other hand, would marriage to me not be preferable to a life spent in the dark, damp, and disease-infested dungeons of the Castle?"
Swift then gasped at his sudden realisation. The Castle! King Logan had written that if he refused to marry the woman then she would spend the rest of her life in the Castle Dungeons! That meant that she was likely a woman of high birth, else she would either have been executed, and if not, imprisoned elsewhere. Only people of high rank and import were imprisoned within the Castle Walls.
"Good gods, who is she?"
But he knew that did not matter in the end. What did matter was whether Swift should marry this woman to save her from not only a miserable and quite likely a shortened life, or spare her the fate of living with a man she did not even know and who was undoubtedly of lower birth. He was also middle-aged and had little to offer a woman, especially one so much younger than he. Even if they liked each other, or at best grew to care for each other, would a marriage between them be something she would appreciate or resent?
Marrying someone known to be a traitor would once have been unthinkable to him, but now with King Logan being the feared and despotic tyrant that he was, any traitor was not likely a true traitor. At least not any more than Swift and his own men were. Besides, she had intervened and saved lives. What sort of traitor could she be? He smiled wryly. Not much of a traitor, he suspected. In fact, she was likely just the sort that Logan couldn't wait to be rid of! Therefore, he could be doing her and possibly many other people a great service by saving her from imprisonment.
"Father, I suppose I never needed even a moment to ponder this, did I?" he asked the smiling old man with the large 'gentleman's moustache' that Swift himself had adopted. "I would never force myself upon a woman, and I have no wife, nor have I ever. So, as things stand, I have no wife, no other future prospects of one, and there is a woman who immanently needs me to marry her or else suffer unimaginably. If she dislikes me, so be it; I'll not trouble her. But I cannot allow her to rot in a dungeon."
Swift took a fresh piece of parchment and a quill. He would respond to the King immediately.
He felt as if his father's spirit was beside him as he wrote, and that Jacob Swift approved.
Logan re-read Swift's reply with a curious mixture of emotions. He was pleased that the Major had accepted his offer and agreed to marry Amaleigh. Amaleigh would not have to suffer in the dungeons, and that cheered Logan. He loved her despite everything, and had hoped that the Major would not allow for such a thing to happen even to a woman he did not know.
But at the same time, a surge of jealousy arose in the young monarch. He frowned and let out a hissing breath of anger. What in the Hells was the matter with him? Why was he suddenly so jealous? He hadn't yet married off his sister, so...
Ah, but he was going to. He had to. He had already given the order. Besides, he wouldn't truly be losing his sister, he would be saving her life, not to mention saving her from the fate of a miserable future with that wretched boy, Elliot.
Hmph... Elliot. What a weak-minded and ridiculous fop! Amaleigh deserved better. Even if she would never care for the Major, he would undoubtedly do better by her than that stupid boy.
Wouldn't he? Logan sighed. He would have to believe that that was true, otherwise he would begin to second-guess himself; and that was not something a King should do. Ever.