Disclaimer: I neither own Reign, nor profit from this story.

Catherine couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Not only was Mary planning to take her children's birthright, but she had removed them from the protection of the Castle right under Catherine's nose, taking them to the village virtually unguarded.

Calling her most trusted guard she ordered that a dozen men should ride out immediately along with the boy's nannies and retrieve them. Mary was welcome to continue on herself, but her boys would not be going down to the village today. Catherine would go herself, but she would only slow them down either on a horse or in a carriage, and it's not like they would have to look beyond the main road…they couldn't possibly miss them.

Making her way to the throne room for today's audience she instructed her ladies to inform her as soon as the boys were back and prayed for a quick release from this particular duty.

She really had no say in anything that went on. Her duties primarily consisted of helping to smooth ruffled feathers, and was otherwise essentially ornamental. Over the years she had gleaned quite a bit of useful information from different complaints, but today she was simply not in the mood.

Just before she was announced to enter, someone tapped her on the shoulder.

She spun her head around quickly, unaccustomed to her attention being summoned in such a manner and immediately frowned when she saw who it was. Honestly, her husband seemed utterly incapable of keeping his hands to himself!

"Good afternoon my love."

Narrowing her eyes Catherine continued to glance suspiciously as Henry took her hand and kissed the back of it before clasping her fingers in his own and leading her the rest of the way into the throne room, leaving the guards at the entrance to announce them en route.

-/-/-/-/-

The afternoon had been relatively uneventful with mostly peasant disputes and a disgruntled minor family who's daughter had be indelicately handled by a supposed suitor. He then abandoned her when she fell pregnant and her parents were seeking restitution, preferably in the form of a marriage. Their relationship was well known, and even blessed by the parents who were now besides themselves because his treatment of her had resulted in her ruin.

As the last of the petitioners filed out, Catherine had already exited the throne room and was preparing to make her way back to her own rooms. She had cleared the rest of her afternoon so that she would be immediately available when the boys were found, but she was pulled out of her reverie when she heard footsteps fast approaching. Turning to see who it was she was presented with her husband trotting to catch up with her…just when the day was supposed to become relaxing.

"Catherine, if you would just wait a moment."

Her husband never ran after her. If he wanted her he sent someone else, or pulled her along if he was especially insistent, but he never chased her. After their very first year it had always been the other way around.

"Yes Henry, what is it that you need?" She inquired setting her posture in such a way that if he had any sense left in him he would leave her alone while she waited of the news.

"May I walk with you?"

Clearly this was not a day for sense, or sensibility.

It took her a moment to process he request, his completely reasonable request which highly unusual for her very alpha male husband. Why was he being so nice to her, vying for her attention like this?

It was likely that he was just eager to bed her and was cajoling her to that end.

At her expression of curiosity he reasserted his petition, "I simply wish to walk with my wife, unless you have some objection?"

"No of course not husband," she replied still a bit wary,

They were about to turn in the direction that Catherine was originally traveling when one of Catherine's guards came rushing up to meet her. The look in his eye caused her whole body to freeze. Something was wrong.

"You Majesties," he huffed out, clearly out of breath, "the Princes are missing."

Although she was expecting something like this her heart still seized at hearing it so plainly.

"What do you mean they are missing? Where have they gone, and why have you come all the way back here to report this instead of staying out there looking for them?" inquired the King,

"All of the guards that were available are already looking, and I have already dispatched more from the Castle to aid them, but I thought that you would like to be informed."

"I will join them," Henry stated, turning to go and change into more suitable clothing.

"And I as well, have two horses prepared."

"Catherine, you shouldn't."

"They are my children Henry, I will not rest until I know they are safe…until I can hold them in my arms and kiss their sweet heads."

"Very well, but you will ride with me. Go and get Bash to join the search if he has not already. You can take us to their last known whereabouts and he will guide us from there."

"Catherine," Henry called, a moment before she had fully turned to return to her room. Turning to face him, a look of worry and moderate annoyance written clearly on her face, Henry knew that he had made the right call by halting her before she got herself into too much of a tizzy, "we will find them."

Nodding once, as convinced as she would be by mere words, she continued along her previous route as fast as her legs could carry her.

-/-/-/-/-

"Charles," Mary called, already out of breath and getting tired from her flight with the boys. She was equal parts glad for their seemingly boundless energy and exhausted by the pace they had set.

"Charles, how did you know about the secret door in the carriage?"

"It's Henry's and my little secret. The stables are the one place were we can go where no one minds or bothers us and our nannies never think to look. We like to play in the carriages when no one uses them and so we found out that several have those secret doors."

Clever boys, Mary thought.

After they had gone on a while, Mary was reasonably sure they were headed in the direction of the Castle, she needed to stop and take care of an increasingly pressing issue.

"Boys, will you go one just a few more paces while I take care of something." Nodding their heads they skipped on ahead, but not far enough that she couldn't call out to them if she needed to.

Unfortunately the shadow that had been following them was far too accomplished about being soundless with just about everything she did to be heard, even by Mary when she was right on top of her.

Just as Mary had gotten settled into her intended task, she felt a rag being pressed over her nose and mouth and the world started to turn sideways.

"I'm sorry Mary," came the tortured voice of the not quite Castle ghost.

"I know that you have come to love them, but my mother must pay for what she has done."

As Mary passed out her last thought was of how foolish she had been, Catherine had warned her, and she had not listened. Now those two sweet boys were in danger of being hurt or possibly even worse.

It was all her fault.

-/-/-/-/-

The King and Queen had made it to the site of the carriage along with their small contingent of Bash and the guards. As much as Catherine somewhat resented Henry's insistence that she ride with him, it was comforting having him so near when she she was such a worried mess.

When they arrived Henry helped her down with care. If she wasn't in such a hurry to get the search on its way it would have been a touching moment.

The guards began attending to the bodies while Henry and Bash sought to determine which direction they may have gone. Catherine surveyed the scene with a heavy heart. So many lost today, so many had given their life for her children…her children who were still missing.

Something left in the brush caught her eye. It blended so well with the surrounding that she almost didn't see it.

It was Clarissa's covering.

At first Catherine didn't recognize it because she never would have thought she might see it out here. What was it that Mary had said? That she had just found out about the family she never knew that she had and that the hair tied around the locks of Charles and little Henry seemed ominous.

"Henry, Sebastian!"

The two men came trotting over and she asked, "could they have gone this way?"

Having had no luck so far, they set to work looking for indications that Catherine might have found something, Bash eventually called back in the affirmative. The footsteps were in fact indicative of a path that fit with a passage of Mary and the two boys.

Taking a moment to embrace his wife Henry grasped her hand and indicated for Sebastian to proceed.

Tracking was much more tedious and careful work so the horses were left riderless and drawn behind them. Relieved that they had at least gotten this far, Henry and Catherine just focused on looking around for any obvious clues while Bash focused on the subtleties in the brush.

They would find the boys, they had to.