A/N- This story is actually getting longer than I planned.


Princess Catarina Maria de Aragona bit her lip and resisted the urge to burst into tears as her procession approached the harbour.

She forced herself to smile through her heavy veil and wave at the watching citizens, even as she gripped her horses reins so tightly that she nearly tore her silk gloves.

A grand ship was before her, ready to sail her to a grand future.

Yet beneath the royal sails and well dressed sailors, the treasure chests below deck, she saw the green stains on the wood and the terror ahead for her.

She was sailing in autumn, a dangerous time, to a country where she- a Spanish Princess- was an enemy and to a husband of whom she knew nothing.

Nothing except that he was brother to the Englishman who had destroyed the Spanish navy.

Her father, the Emperor, had traded his first born daughter, for peace with England.

Worse still, she was not fool enough to think that this peace would be anything but fleeting, the moment her father rebuilt the navy, the moment England was weak, he would attack again.

She would then be the detested hostage Spanish Princess.

Her own cousin had declared that she would not wager a single coin for the princess to see her next name day.

Neither the Emperor or the Empress were in attendance and her younger brother, the one whom had taken her chance at the crown of the Spanish Empire from her, is waiting impatiently to put her on the ship, glaring warningly at her as she is dismounted.

She had tried her best to argue with her father, to make him see reason, she had even runaway and hid when the day of her marriage by proxy ceremony had come and one of the Emperor's menservants had been forced to lift and carry her down the aisle.

"If I board this ship, I shall be going to my death." She tells him, yet he only sighs as if she being a child.

"Then at least do that obediently."


Caroline was the very picture of wifely obedience as she settled back against the pillows, smiling to show her husband how comfortable she was as the royal barge rocked gently on the river.

She rests her hands on her stomach, barely showing beneath her loosened gown and waits patiently as he fusses with the velvet curtains and the heated bricks at her feet,

"You are aware that we shall be on the water less than an hour?" she chides gently as he once again looks into the river, trying to foresee danger in the almost calm tide.

"The moment the waters turn rough we are docking," he decrees, "I ordered a litter to drive along the riverside as much as possible so that we can be met."

Seeing that their brother has determined the barge to be safe, his siblings and Katherine come aboard, chatting merrily amongst themselves and settling around Caroline, each of them taking their turn to make sure that their Queen had everything she desired to be comfortable.

"You will all either disembark when I tell you or learn to swim." Their brother and captain for the day warns them.

Caroline laughs and gives the signal for the barge to push off from the docks, the drummer beating for the rowers to keep time as they began moving downriver.

In the space of a year, Kol had gone from the fourth son of a minor lord to the brother of the Queen and Prince Consort.

He had risen high with a bright future ahead of him and had been fully set on enjoying it.

He had been rather displeased when Caroline had told him that he was to be married for the sake of peace. Therefore, she had sought to win him over with the promise of princely riches, amongst them being an increased royal allowance and his own palace.

A rather grand new palace that had only been built in her father's reign, on a sprawling stretch of fertile green land, with room for a garden to be designed and outdoor parties to be thrown.

Kol and Rebekah bound from the dock and race each other up the green to the wide, double oak doors excitedly, with the rest of the family following sedately for Caroline's sake.

When they enter, Rebekah is staring at the many glass windows with admiration and Kol has sat himself on the large chair at the head of the table,

"Just think, big brother," he crows to Elijah,

"Had you not been so hasty in your marriage, all this might have been yours."

Elijah laughs and slips his arm around Katherine's slight waist,

"I would rather be the poorest man in the world and married to the woman I love than the richest and unhappy."

He kisses her cheek which she offers with a pleased smile, "Myself, I would rather the crown but I shall settle for thee." She retorts teasingly, winking boldly at the queen as she sweeps past in her new gown of red velvet.

Kol's pleasant façade clouds over slightly at his brother's response. For the last three months, he had enjoyed being the centre of attention at the festivities for his betrothal and his marriage by proxy, yet, Caroline considered, mayhap he had not given much thought to his new wife.

Fortunately, Katherine, eager to prove her worth to her new family, had befriended the Spanish ambassador and, over endless games of cards, had wrought what little details about the Princess she could from him.

"She was raised in a convent with her grandmother, the Empress dowager," she'd revealed to them triumphantly,

"As she had a brother and the Emperor a male heir, not much attention was paid to her, she visited the royal court only rarely so he does not know much about her, beside what he was told to report to us, she is educated and pleasing to the eye."

Since her birth, Queen Caroline had been betrothed and nearly married six times, all to foreign princes varying in age, appearance, qualities and sanity, therefore, as the Princess was without obvious deformities or tendencies towards insanity, she considered her good-brother to be quite lucky.

Mayhap, Kol had been hoping for more.

Caroline rests her hands on her stomach as the baby stirs within her, "We are sure she is a lovely girl," she tells him soothingly as Niklaus brings a chair for her to sit down in,

"Perchance, you will enjoy decorating this palace for the two of you to make a merry home?"

Kol smiles at the thought and lifts his head, sniffing the air eagerly as the servants come in, bringing the dishes that had been ordered for the light meal.

Caroline eyes the quail eggs eagerly and Niklaus leans right over his sister to fetch her the plate. They eat as a family, without ceremony, so Katherine is beside her, telling her all the naughty gossip of the Court, which- as the Queen- she should not be made aware of when a breathless messenger bursts into the room.

He takes the knee before the Queen as she slowly turns to face him, yet hands the written missive to Niklaus,

"What is wrong?" Caroline demands as her husband breaks the seal and peruses the message before cursing,

"The ships bringing the Spanish princess to England have been attacked by the French," he tells her,

"Two have been sunk already and the one bearing the royal seal is floundering."

Caroline's eyebrows shoot up, "How does the Princess fare?"

He shakes his head, "They are unaware, yet they believe that the ship is trying to make it to our waters," he stands and takes her hand,

"Give me leave to go and fetch her, with our navy, I can drive the French away and bring the ship to land."

Caroline the wife wants to refuse this request, to demand that he stay onshore by her side, safe and loved, yet Caroline the Queen knows that if any man can wrest a victory on the seas, it is the one before her, "Go with God and my blessing," she tells him, placing a hand on his hair lovingly,

"We shall meet you in Dover."