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Kenna curtsied when she opened the door to Lorelia's sitting room to find Lady Gilmore standing there.

The woman's voice was cold and dismissive. As was typical for nobles and royals to refer to their servants. Lorelai is just different. "I need to speak with my daughter."

Kenna softly said, "I will inform her that you are here." And she walked into the dressing room, closing the door, and then walked into the bedroom.

What she found had become the normal way that she found her mistress. The doors to the balcony were curtained off, so no light came in from the courtyard. Or so that no one could see in from the courtyard, Kenna wasn't sure. With the room so dark with the absence of outside light, candles illumined the room, not leaving one corner dark or in shadows. The bed was unmade, because within the lumps of covers, lay a fragile woman.

Kenna drew closer to the bed, and found Lorelai, her face the only thing outside of the protection of the covers. But she was not sleeping. Her eyes found Kenna's immediately, as if she was on alert for something – anything – that might threaten her. Her eyes were bloodshot, and Kenna knew it was because her mistress had not slept peacefully since that night, almost six weeks earlier. You haven't slept much more either. Her face was pale, and a little thinner in the cheekbones.

"Lady Lorelai, your mother is here to see you." Kenna whispered, not moving any closer to the bed.

The reply was immediate. "Tell her I am ill. That I have a headache or some other illness." Her voice, raspy from disuse, proclaimed words that had been Lorelai's excuse since that night. And Kenna nodded in obedience and turned to go back and speak to the Lady Emily.

But the door swung open, revealing an infuriated mother.

Kenna raced to intervene, to try and keep Lorelai's mother from her. "Please, Lady Gilmore, your daughter is not feeling well and wishes to be left alone to…"

Emily pushed her aside as if she was nothing, advancing on the bed, her voice loud and grating in the before quiet setting. "How dare you refuse to see me yet again!"

Kenna watched as the form on the bed sat up, pulling her body up against the headboard of the bed, pulling her knees close to her chest. Lorelai's face was pale, the only thing that gave her color to her face were her eyes and the healing cut on her cheek. "Mother, please, I am not well." Her voice was so unsure of itself, as if it didn't trust itself to use the right words.

Emily now stood right above the bed, her face fuming with rage. "I don't care how you are feeling. You don't refuse to see your mother. Ever."

Kenna had never heard Lorelai raise her voice to her mother. Lorelai would talk about her mother behind her back, when Emily left the room. She would mock her mother, belittle her mother, and cry over things that her mother had said. But she had never raised her voice to her mother.

And this was the first.

Lorelai's voice rang out through the bedchamber. "Mother! Please leave me!"

Kenna watched as Emily took a step back, startled. But Lady Gilmore recovered quickly.

"Lorelai Gilmore! You will not speak to your own mother that way." Her hand reached out to physically correct her daughter's mouth.

But Lorelai had anticipated that, and moved out of the bed to the side opposite of her mother, clutching the sleeves of her nightgown pulled down into her hands. Outside of the bed, her face was more visible, the scar even more pronounced across her face. And the dark circles underneath her watery eyes. She was shaking, and her voice shook even more as she backed up against the wall away from her mother, "No!" She screamed. "Don't touch me!"

Lady Emily's voice held so much anger as her daughter pulled away from her. "You think that because you are now engaged to a prince that you can treat your own mother like this? That you are better than I am? I brought you into this world." Emily now walked around the bed to the corner that her daughter was backed into. "I raised you. I had you taught how to act like a lady. You are engaged to a prince because I did my job with you."

As the mother drew closer to her daughter, something came to her eyes, Kenna could see. And Emily asked, "What happened to your face?"

Lorelai's hand reached up and brushed the red scar that marred her face – a physical reminder of the horrors of what had happened that night. Lorelai was not just shaking, but trembling now, her arms now crossed in front of her body, almost shielding herself from the feelings that were raging inside of her at her mother's careless words. She opened her mouth to tell her mother, to try and put to words the swirling storm that had become her life. But no words came out – only a small cry, as she sank to the ground.

No nonsense Emily now looked on with confusion. Kenna knew that Lorelai's mother had never been around when Lorelai had been emotional – that most of Lorelai's life had been spent away from her mother, kept out of sight and out of mind. Watching Emily confused and unable to understand left Kenna wanting to run over and comfort Lorelai.

Emily's words were now softer, and she asked again, "Where did you get the cut on your face?"

Lorelai just shook her head, her mouth still trying to form words. Nightgown pulled around her, she was still shivering.

Starting to get irritated, Emily regressed back to her usual interactions with her daughter. "Lorelai, this is completely out of hand. You will speak to me. You will answer my questions. If you refuse, I will send…"

The words seem to break the entire room. They echoed off of the walls, bouncing off of startled looks, hardened hearts, and disbelieving faces.

"I was raped."

Kenna knew that saying those words out loud for only the second time since it happened was enough to hurt Lorelai all again. It shattered Kenna's heart to hear the soft words from such a sweet girl. Just as it had that night.

But watching the two of them, Kenna was drawn to Emily to know how she would respond. The elder Lady Gilmore seemed frozen in time. Her face recoiled for a split second, as her mind entertained the idea of something so horrible happening to her daughter. But Kenna watched with utter grief as something more harmful came to her face: disbelief. Distrust. And most devastating: anger.

"What do you mean?"

Confusion was now on Lorelai's face. And Kenna could have quoted the words that came out of her mistress' mouth. Because they were the words that flew through Kenna's mind. "How many meanings to that phrase are there, mother?"

Emily turned away from her daughter, now pacing the floor. "Who did it? When did it happen?"

Questions that Lorelai doesn't want to answer. Questions that could get them killed. Questions that would barely be able to be answered without completely shutting down again.

"It was six weeks ago, Mother." Came the short and quiet reply.

Then came the silence. As Emily expected to hear the name of the attacker. As Lorelai waited for her mother to ask again.

Still with her back to her daughter, Emily asked, "Who was it, Lorelai?"

Again, silence. Kenna watched as her mistress held her face in her hands. And whispered, "I can't tell you."

Fury broke through the shocked mother, her skirts rustling as she turned around so fast and was standing above her daughter so fast. And then she reached down and grabbed her daughter by the shoulders and pulled Lorelai to her feet. Lorelai tried to pull away, but Emily held her fast. And she said, vehemently. "Young lady, you will tell me right this minute. You will tell me."

Shock and fear filled Lorelai's eyes as she shook her head, "No, I can't. He said if I said anything… that…" Her voice sounded like a little mouse, helpless and frightened.

Emily interrupted her daughter, bringing Lorelai's helpless body closer to hers. And yelled, "You liar." Even Kenna shuddered. "One thing, Lorelai. You find out that your father found you someone to marry." Lorelai struggled to get away, but Emily didn't release her. "But you have your own ideas about marriage. You don't want to do what everyone expects of you."

Lorelai just shook her head, and whispered, "No." over and over again.

"So you concocted this whole story to get you out of marrying someone that your father chose." Even Kenna was completely shocked at what Emily thought had happened, that Lorelai was lying about being raped. What kind of mother thinks like that?

A noise startled Kenna out of her thoughts, pulling her mind to the servant that had entered the sitting room. Hating to leave this conversation, but knowing she had to do her job, Kenna quietly rushed out into the sitting room, where the servant announced that the nuns Lady Emily had requested were here and wished to see Lady Lorelai.

Nuns? To see Lady Lorelai? Kenna's mind was going a million miles a minute. What would Lady Emily want with the revered women of the church to come to see Lady Lorelai… Then it dawned upon her as she heard the yelling mother in the other room.

"One more chance to tell me the truth, Lorelai." Emily yelled.

Kenna couldn't hear the reply of Lady Lorelai, but by Emily's response it hadn't been what Emily wanted.

"You are unbelievable. You deserve to be thrown out into the streets to see what life would be like without all of the work your father has put into signing this engagement into being."

Kenna escorted the nuns into the room, the five nuns that were with her.

And she saw that Emily had let go of Lorelai, who was now standing up against the wall. Emily turned to see the holy women walking into the room. And she acknowledged them. And she said, "Let's get this over with. Thank you for coming."

A terrified cry came from Lorelai, "Mother, what are they doing here? What's going…"

One of the ladies spoke up, and said, "We are here to verify your virginity so that the engagement may be finalized on paper."

Her mistress' eyes flew from the woman speaking to her mother, and a pleading look preceded her pleading voice, "No, Mother, please! I already know that… I can't…"

Emily just dismissed her daughter's cry for help with a wave of her hand, and Kenna watched as the mother abandoned her child.

One of the nuns led Lorelai to the bed, helped her lay down, and then held her hand. Another went to her other hand, two went to each of her legs. And one positioned herself between Lorelai's legs.

By this time, Lorelai was crying uncontrollably. Her eyes closed so tightly, but tears still falling over and over again down her cheeks. When the nuns at her feet made her bend her knees and spread her thighs open, Lorelai started to beg them. Or beg someone. "Please. Don't. Please. It hurts…" Her hands were now gripping the bedsheets, her fists white and tense.

Kenna herself was crying watching this already tortured soul suffer even more. As the nun opened her up, Kenna had to look away as she heard the scream of Lorelai. A scream with no words. No tangible words. But a scream of pain. Repressed pain. Pain not from the touch but from the memory. The memory that the touch brought out. The scream that signified the breaking of her entire life. Right before her eyes. And it was happening again.

When Kenna turned away, she found herself staring at Lady Emily, who was looking on with a hardened face, almost angry and put out. Emily didn't look away, didn't shy away from her daughter in so much pain. And her face was stone cold.

It lasted only a few seconds. It didn't take long to see.

As they pulled away from the exposed girl on the bed, Kenna watched as Lorelai pulled the blankets around her body.

And she heard the nun speak openly to Emily. "Your daughter is not pure before God, the church, or the state." It sounded so cold. And so loud. Kenna saw the blankets on the bed physically shake at the words. "There will be no signing of the engagement papers."

Then they were gone. As quickly as they had come, they were gone. Leaving behind the truth for Emily to realize that something had happened to her daughter.

But that wasn't how Emily saw it.

"How dare you!" Her voice was uncontrolled and loud as she walked to the bed.

Lorelai sat up in bed. Her face completely confused. And questioning. And hurt. And, to Kenna's amazement, angry. "What? What are you talking about?" Her voice, still weak, carried just a little bit farther than her words had.

Emily now stood above her, looking down with condemnation and hatred. "You were only asked one thing. One thing: keep yourself pure until you are married."

"I did. This wasn't…"

"But you decide that you want to do what you want to do. Like a common whore."

Kenna flinched at the harsh word."

Lorelai's voice gained some strength. "Mother, this wasn't a choice I made!" She was desperate to make her mother understand.

Emily turned and walked towards the door. "Then who was it?"

Lorelai looked down at her hands and again said, "I can't tell you. He…"

Emily now turned back to face her daughter, "You have ruined your father and I. Now not one royal will want you. All of the riches that would have come from your marriage to Prince William are gone now. I hope you know what your decision costed your family."

Emily was just about out of the door when Lorelai called out to her, "I'm pregnant."