Chapter the third.
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"I am unwell..." She said slowly as they found a small bench under a weaping willow.
"My physician's feel I might become unfit to be Queen." She leaned on him once again, He wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
"An; Who says this?" He growled. "I shall have their heads on spikes before dusk."
"I fear they are right." She nearly moaned.
"You are more than fit to lead My Queen." He told her.
"You are kind..." She mumbled, her tiny fingers playing with his large, calloused ones.
"What ales you Snow?" he asked her after a long silence befell them.
"I suppose I had thought I escaped my confinement unscathed - I was wrong."
"You appear fine to me." Said the Huntsman.
"I am barren and weak." She sobbed. "Who will marry a Queen who is unable to produce an heir.? Who will marry a woman who's teeth will fall out by the time she is twenty one? who will want me?"
"Hush now Child." He said, soothing her hair back from her face.
"Hush, you are more beautiful than all. Teeth or not."
The thought had crossed his mind before.
He had wondered, had the lack of sunlight-good food and warmth for all those years wreaked havoc on her bones? Now that he thought about it, In the three or four weeks that he had traveled with her and the week after Revenna's fall, he had heard here nor there of any /womanly/ issues...
If he recalled correctly, Sara spent at least a day or two held up on the couch before her monthly blood came.
In all the time he had known her Snow had never once complained of cramps or cravings.
The thought of Snow white the girl who had thawed the frost and brought forth so much life- unable to bear children from the hands of that /Woman/ made him close his eyes in sorrow and fight back the bile l that was rising in his chest.
"William always wanted children, ever sense he was one himself." Snow muttered.
"William will survive" The Huntsman snarled.
"You don't understand," She mumbled. "William is the only man who would consider marring me now." More tears escaped her eyes.
"I'm worthless Eric. Who will want a barren queen?" having heard quite enough, thin shoulders in his own large hands and gave her a shake for good measure.
"You are not worthless. A woman's worth is not measured on her womb." He told her sternly.
Deep inside, his twenty year old self cringed.
"If I were a nobler man, I would marry you this instant, bairn or no bairn."
The moment that the words left his mouth he felt as though he had swallowed of broken, burning glass.
'Why would she want me?' a voice in his head asked. "you are nothing- You are a drunkard, a bastard, a coward and a fool who couldn't so much as keep a lowly peasant girl alive, let alone a Queen.'
The Queen's face was still. Her eyes had dilated, her cheeks were flushed and her lips were parted.
The stretched on for what seemed like more than an eternity.
'Say something' he pleaded with her silently.
He was about to excuse himself having convinced himself that he had disgusted her beyond comprehension when she snapped out of it.
With a great shuddering gasp and a half hearted sob, her lips crashed onto his.
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