Definite spoilers for the end of season one. Just saying, I live in the United States so the Musketeers doesn't start again until the 17th. I want season two so bad! So no spoilers please!
Guest: And here is the adorable Queen Anne for you. :)
Queen Anne was content. Happy even. The baby was being extra kicky inside her stomach today. She smiled, lightly rubbing a hand over her swollen belly. She'd escaped from her maids for a brief stroll through the palace in peace.
The halls were warmed by summer, the decorative walls and marble floors tinted gold by the thick light shining through the windows. It illuminated tapestries, statues, all the things Anne didn't care about right now. Her mind was solely occupied by her child inside her and serene thoughts of a certain Musketeer she didn't see nearly as often as she'd like.
The world sounded so quiet in the empty halls, but the beauty was so loud.
Not paying attention, the queen took a wrong turn. The polished floor disappeared from beneath her feet. Gravity wrapped her its arms and pulled.
Pain in her ankle. Agony in her hip. Lacerations on her arms and legs. Anne tumbled down the steps. A cry warbled past her lips.
She finally thudded to the ground. Aching and pulsing with pain. She lay there still and unmoving. Pain was unimportant. Any injuries she sustained were meaningless. But her child. She'd already lost one baby, she could not lose another. The baby had stopped kicking.
Anne lay there praying. She prayed and she prayed and prayed.
"My queen!" A single set of pounding footsteps rattled the floor and her bones. Anne realized she was crying.
The man knelt beside her. Her vision wasn't clear. Musketeer uniform, brown hair, brown eyes. But not Aramis. Where was Aramis? She wanted Aramis.
"What happened, my queen?" Anne vaguely recognized him. He was the newest one. She could not remember his name. "Where are you injured?"
"My child," was all she could say. "My child has to be okay."
The new Musketeer picked her up. Though she knew he was trying to be gentle, he rattled bruises and scrapes. She gasped in pain.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," the young man said. The trek through the halls back to the queen's chambers was a haze of dull pains and she even thought she blacked out once.
NotAramis laid her down on her bed. The queen relished the plush comfort of the mattress.
NotAramis began shouting for maids and a physician.
She grabbed NotAramis' wrist like a vice. "My baby," she whispered desperately. "The physician has to check my baby."
"He will," the musketeer said. "I'm sure your baby is perfectly fine, your highness. We need to make sure you are alright as well."
"My baby is all that matters to me."
Queen Anne was consumed in dark and morbid thoughts, remembering her first child she lost. She didn't notice the physician had arrived until she felt him pushing on her stomach. He pressed on several spots as the queen watched intensely.
The bearded physician stopped and looked at the queen. "I'm sorry your majesty, but I really can't know if-"
The queen gasped.
"Your highness? My queen, what is it?"
A large radiant smile split the queen's face. "My baby. I felt him kick."
The room filled with cheers. Anne smiled, rubbing her belly lightly. Most was right again. If only she had Aramis.
D'Artagnan is up next. It may take a few days, because I'm planning on making it long and intense. For you Debbie. ;)