A/N: Okay, here goes another chapter. Again, I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors. I will try to fix as many of them as I can later. Enjoy :) !
"Is there anything else that I should see on this visit?"Anastacia asked as she and her soon to be husband walked down one of the corridors of the palace, arm in arm.
They had just finished having dinner with his parents and a few of their other guests. The dinner table conversation had quickly turned to the impending nuptials, and he, planning to have nothing more to do with the event than showing up and repeating the vows that would be recited to him, had taken the opportunity to excuse himself for a post dinner stroll around the palace. He had taken her with him, knowing it would impede any rejection about his departure. He didn't mind being around her, she wasn't nearly as obnoxious as the other people at the dinner table fawning over them.
"Anything you do not see this time," he started, "you would be sure to see on your next visit."
She smiled. Her next visit would not be a visit, but a permanent move. She would be coming to take her place as his bride, and Queen of his country.
"The ball should be nice tomorrow," she told him. "I saw the ballroom. They've started to hang the decorations. It is already beautiful."
"You should see the sketches of the wedding they have made," he told her with a smile, drawing a quaint laugh from her.
She knew that he was dreading the wedding. She had not spent much time with him, but she could already tell that he was not fond of people lavishing him with unwanted attention. He would much rather be left to his own devices, reeking havoc on unsuspecting victims. Though if you were a victim, that meant he wanted your attention. He was a very unique man, a feet hard to accomplish after being bread your entire life to be just as all of the other wealthy, powerful men of your country, only better.
"Your crowning," she began, "is it to take place before or after the wedding?"
"My father is to relinquish the throne to me in private, prior to the wedding ceremony," he began explaining. "That way, I will have time to get all of my people in place, and remove his squad of buffoons away from my parliament and anywhere else they can ruin things. Then, we will have the wedding ceremony, then our public crowning."
She smiled and blushed at "our crowning". She was thrilled that he had accepted her as his queen. From what she had heard, he did not often let people tell him what to do and there was hell to pay when he was forced to do something he did not agree with.
"So you get to replace everyone?" she questioned.
"Yes, thankfully everyone who served under my father is ancient. So, I get to start with a fresh batch, from parliament to the jester. "
She nodded. Happy for them. She knew that countries were run better when the people helping to run it were faithful to their leader, and their current leader only. When sons took over from their fathers and members from their father's rule were left in their positions, they would often run into roadblocks stemming from the premises, 'well that is not what your father would do'.
A slew of giggles woke her from her captivation with the man walking next to her. She saw a few servant girls walking down the hallway ahead of them. She had seen one of them before. Seeing the girl with the jewel again and the sudden rigidness of the man standing next to her tipped her off that her earlier suspicions were warranted. The girl spotted them and went pale. She continued to stare at them as her strides slowed to a crawl before completely stopping. She studied the girl for only a second before looking up to see that the man standing next to her was staring right at the unnamed servant girl. It did not help to put her at ease when a slightly taller blonde girl walked up next to the dark haired servant girl and looked their way before the smile disappeared from her face. She whispered something into the dark haired girls ear before pulling her off in the direction in which the other girls had disappeared.
Her and the prince still stood glued to their spot. She was trying to make since out of all that had just happened in the past few seconds, because a lot definitely had happened. But she had been bread well. She cleared her throat, causing the man to come out of his daze and look down at her. She kept her eyes to the ground, and they continued to walk again. Yes she had been bread well, by her mother, her aunt, a queen herself, and plenty of other women who were married to very powerful men in very powerful positions.
"Who is she?" she asked, finally breaking the silence of the last couple of minutes. She had been bread to grin and bare whatever her powerful husband dished out, but to always know, even better than he, what she was grinning at and baring.
"No one," he answered, telling her all she needed to know. No one was always the person you had to worry about the most.
A few minute of silence later, she announced that she was ready to retire to her chambers. He politely walked her to her bedroom. He kissed her hand before bidding her goodnight and heading towards his quarters.
He had made it all the way to his bedroom door and had his hand on the latch to enter, but he could not help this gnawing feeling he had in the pit of his stomach. He needed to see her.
He nodded at Radley as he knocked once before entering her room.
"The young miss has left for her brother's village," Radley boomed from behind him.
He turned with a puzzled look, drawing a similar look from Radley himself.
"You did not know?" the large man questioned.
"Of course I did not know," Greg told him.
"They told me you knew. Their brother's wife is giving birth and they all went to be with them," Radley explained.
"And what did I tell you?"Greg half yelled, not really mad, since the man at least knew her whereabouts. "The only time she is supposed to leave this palace is if you have received word from my mouth directly. Do you understand that?" Greg asked rhetorically. "Gather the horses, you are coming with me. You big oaf."
"At least I am not about to take off in the middle of the night pursuing a woman I cannot have while the woman I am to marry sleeps a few halls away," Radley retorted.
"Shut it," was Greg's only reply as he entered his room to prepare some things to bring to the village with him.
"She is fine Thomas," Cecily reassured him as she blocked him from entering the bedroom where the midwife was currently with his wife as she gave birth. Another one of Sarah's screams echoed off of the walls, causing everyone who had not yet gone in the room to cringe.
"She does not sound like she is fine," Alice responded, causing Cecily to give her a look.
She had a hard enough time trying to reassure Thomas without them causing more fear. "She is fine," Cecily said turning back to Thomas. "Now I am going to go back in here and if anything changes," she was interrupted by a knock on the door before she could finish.
Emma went to open it and revealed four men on the other side of the door.
"Ello darlings," Greg started. "Not going to invite us to the party, were you?"
Emma turned to look at Cecily with a frightened look, knowing that they had helped Annalisa leave the castle without his permission. Amelia, Alice, and Giselle also looked afraid, while Thomas looked confused. What were they doing at his door? He had no time for guests when his wife was obviously being tortured on the other side of the bedroom door. Cecily, however, just rolled her eyes at her fiance and his friends before retreating back into the bedroom. A few seconds later the door opened again and Cecily pushed a confused Annalisa out into the atrium.
The confused look was replaced by anger when she noticed Greg with his, 'you can't outsmart me' smile on his face. She did not speak to him as she went down the hall into the second bedroom.
The smile disappeared from his face also and the rest of the room remained quiet as he marched down the hall behind her slamming the door for the second time.
Thomas still confused, just pointed in their direction as he turned to the three men that had arrived with the royal son. James was the first to speak.
"Nevermind them," he started. "Congratulations, I hear you are about to become a father."
This allowed Thomas's mind to return fully to what he was truly concerned about. "Yes, I," but before he could finish another blood curdling scream came from the other side of the door causing the men to look at the door as if a three headed dragon was about to emerge from the other side.
"Well then," Amelia started brightly, "shall I make tea?" She did not wait for anyone to respond before retreating into the kitchen.
"What are you doing here?" she spat at him as he entered the room.
"That's funny, I should ask you the same thing. Seeing as you knew you were not supposed to leave without my permission since you lied to Radley before you did so."
"What do you care?" she returned taking a step closer to him. "You said yourself, you do not care about what I do."
He had no reply. He had implied that with the words that came out of his mouth. Knowing she had won this argument, she turned and went to the window.
"If you do not mind, I would like for you to leave," she told him. "This is a family gathering and I do not wish for you to be here."
He had opened his mouth to begin yelling again, but the door opened before he could get a word out.
"Annalisa, come quickly," Emma said urgently. "Your help is needed with Sarah and the baby."
She immediately began walking to the door, throwing a cold and firm "leave" over her shoulder as she brushed by him.
If she thought he was leaving here without her, she had another thought coming.
"I don't understand what is taking so long in there," Thomas said.
"Calm down Thomas," Alice told him as she watched him pace. "She said it would be any minute now."
"That was an hour ago," he told her.
"Just please, have a seat," James told him. "You are making me dizzy walking around in circles like that."
Thomas sighed, but complied. He sat on the edge of the seat of the chair that sat next to the sofa, ready to spring to his feet if need be. They all sat quietly, each of them deep in their thoughts. It was only a few minutes later when they heard a high pitched squeal ring through the air, calling them all from their thoughts. Thomas rose to his feet, and began towards the door. He would finally be allowed into the room where they had been holding his wife and unborn child hostage.
"Don't," Giselle said stepping in front of him. "Cecily said they would come for you when they were ready."
"But it is over," he argued, "the baby is here."
She gave him a look that told him she was not going to allow him to enter the room until she received the signal from the other side of the door. She had been put in charge of keeping the peace in the "waiting room" after Cecily had gotten tired of having to come out of the room every five minutes due to Thomas's cycles of insanity.
He sighed before sitting back on the couch. He knew that it had been taxing on the girls to have to deal with him while trying to help his wife deliver his child, but he could not help it. It had been hours since he had seen her, and the cries coming from the other side of the door signaled that there was now a new little life that had been brought into the world that he was now responsible for.
"I wonder what it is?" Emma said excitedly.
They did not have to wait long. A few seconds later, Cecily opened the door and beckoned for Thomas to come in. She again closed the door behind him. About ten minutes later the door opened again, and out stepped Annalisa with a bundle of blankets. The girls immediately stood and made their way over to her.
"What is it?" Amelia asked.
"A girl," she told them. "Her name is Grace."
"How is Sarah," asked Giselle, still smiling down at the baby.
"Fine," she told them. "She is just resting now."
He watched as all of the girls continued to coo over the baby. He would never figure out how those little things could just melt the intelligence of women away. When a baby was around, it was as if all logical priorities shifted to illogical mindlessness. Lisa for example was furious with him, but did not even notice him sitting across the room on the sofa. She went back into the room with some protest from the girls and a smile still on her face.
The rest of the night, he knew, would be used to make sure that Sarah and Grace remained in good health. He decided to retire to the bedroom he and Lisa had argued in earlier that night, knowing that she would be retiring to that room after she had finished her honorary midwife duties.
A couple of hours later, she joined him in the room. The smile disappeared from her face as she entered the room. She looked away from him, but did not say anything as she closed the door. He rose from the bed as she began to undress. She was too tired to go through it again with him tonight. She just wanted to get in bed as soon as possible, as she feared she would not be able to stand much longer without passing out.
"I told you to leave," she said digging through the drawers that she had put her things in when they first arrived.
He did not respond. He drank in the sight. He had not seen much of her or been alone with her since their argument the night of the party. His eyes fell to the yellowing area of skin on her left arm. It encircled her upper arm, and was clearly in the shape of a hand. He frowned to himself, still regretful that he had been so rough with her.
She stopped digging through the drawers, but remained with her back to him when she felt his fingers softly brush the area where the healing bruise was. She took in a sharp breath as his fingers ghosted across her skin, and tears sprang to her eyes at his gentleness. He saw her shoulders fall in defeat. He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face him. She remained with her head lowered, so he placed a finger on her chin, lifting her head so she would look at him. She closed her eyes tightly letting a tear slip down her cheek before opening her eyes to look into his.
He brought his lips down to hers and placed a soft kiss there. "I am sorry," he told her, stroking her cheek with his thumb. He gave her another kiss, a little more firm than the first. She felt his tongue slide across her lips and she parted them, allowing him access. The kiss became more heated and before she knew it she was being lifted off of her feet and being laid down on the bed with him on top of her.
His lips moved from hers, to her neck. "I am so sorry," he repeated between the kisses he was placing on her neck and face. Clothes were quickly removed and before she knew it, he was moving inside of her as she tried to stifle her moans from the ears of the sleeping people who littered the living room as well as the new parents and their newborn daughter.
She wrapped her legs around his hips and clung tightly to him as he continued to thrust slowly into her. She forgot about the duchess and everyone else. They were the only two people on earth that mattered during that moment. He was hers for now, and she would hold onto him as long as she could. Regretfully, she knew it wouldn't be forever.
"What is going on?" she questioned, raising her head from his chest.
"I don't know," he replied.
They had been asleep three hours at most. They were the last in the household to fall asleep and apparently the last to wake up according to the commotion coming from the living room. They both got out of bed, quickly and haphazardly putting on clothes before going out into the living room.
She walked into the living room behind her and saw that her brother, sister, and cousins were clearly in a panic. She was trying to gather what was going on, but everyone was talking at once and she could not hear one person clearly. She stared dumbly at them until Emma noticed her and ran to her wrapping her arms around her. She returned the embrace as her little sister's tears showed she was clearly upset about something.
Everyone stopped and looked at her, after realizing they had entered. Greg too was wondering what was going on, but the look he received from James told him he did not want to know.
"What is going on?" Lisa asked with a trembling voice, clearly afraid of the answer.
No one replied right away, and she watched as tears streamed down Alice and Cecily's faces. Thomas was the first to speak.
"She's dead," he told her causing her mouth to fall open. Who was dead? She questioned in her head.
"Mother," he said as if reading her mind. "She is dead."
"Wha…what?" she asked as she too felt tears come to her eyes.
Her mother could not be dead. She was visiting a cousin. Surely if their mother was dead, someone would have told them. Everyone in their village knew who their mother was, clearly someone would have contacted one of them if she had died.
"I sent a message to cousin Florence's house a few days ago," Thomas began explaining. "I told her to come home quickly, as the baby would be born any day now. This morning I received a message back from cousin Florence, saying that she had not seen Mother in over a year. So," he continued, choking back tears, "I went over to her house and she was not there. I went to Mrs. Fernsby's and she said that mother had passed away weeks ago."
"How?" Annalisa yelled at them. "How could she have…," she couldn't bring herself to say it. "How could no one have told us?"
"That is what we are trying to figure out," Cecily said, as she gently stroked a crying Alice's back.
"Everything had been cleaned out," Thomas told them. "She had been burried. They said it was contagious. The house had been sanitized. No one has been living there since, it is empty."
Lisa took a seat in the chair next to the hallway as she felt herself getting a little lightheaded. The room was still quiet as everyone tried to make since of what they had just heard, trying to concoct their own theories of what had just happened.
It was absolutely mad, she thought. How could a person die and no one from their family be notified? Their home stripped bare and decontaminated to efficiency. How could something like this be accomplished without any one of them knowing about it?
Her brows furrowed at the thought. She looked over to Greg who was still standing at the entrance of the hallway. She saw him throw a side glance at James before he looked guiltily at her. He immediately diverted his eyes away from hers.
He wanted to tell her, he really did, but he wanted to do so in private. He wanted to tell her first what had happened, and then he would let the rest of her family know about the letter and her request. He would not have that chance though.
"You knew," he heard her say breaking the silence. He looked up at her and saw that she was looking at him, infuriated. "You knew my mother was dead and you did not tell me."
He looked at everyone else in the room, most of who were staring at him questioningly, waiting for him to reply.
He took a deep breath. "Let me explain," he tried. But she cut him off as she stood from the chair.
"What is there to explain?" she asked him. "You kept the fact that my mother was dead from me. What type of person would lie to someone about that?"
By now the rest of the room had started buzzing about his admission.
"She asked me not to tell you," he told her.
"She is dead," she yelled back at him, getting more in his face. Then something dawned on her. "Wait, you talked to her before she died?"
He wanted to defend himself. Technically, he had not talked to her, but he knew that was not the point Annalisa was trying to make. She was getting at the fact that he had known her mother was dying before she actually passed away. The fact that he had robbed her, perhaps, of the remaining few days she would ever have had with her mother.
"I," he started but was quieted by a firm hand to the face, causing some in the room to gasp. It was a first for him, he had to admit.
"Get out," she said through clenched teeth. "And don't come back. We do not need your charity. We are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves." She had gathered that the reason why he had invited the two younger girls to stay at the palace was because of her mother's request.
"Lisa," she heard Emma in the background. She could tell the girl was afraid and was warning her against putting them all in a position that they were not prepared to make it through. It was clear that the reason that they had been so well taken care of the past couple of months was because of the prince, and whatever promise he had made to their mother before her death. But Lisa, was now telling him that she was declining his offer to keep that promise.
Lisa continued. "I, neither any of my family, will be stepping foot inside of that palace again. Thank you, your majesty, but this family no longer needs you."
With that, she went into the bedroom slamming the door behind her. He looked down at the floor for a while before raising his head and nodding to the men he had arrived with the night before. They all began gathering their things and heading towards the door. James, however, only walked them to the door, telling him that he would stay behind with his fiance and would return to the palace later, hopefully with Lisa and the rest of the girls.
After saying goodbye to his friend, he, Radley, and Alex mounted their horses and headed back to the palace to prepare for the ball. He had guests to entertain tonight, one who had come to see him in particular.
A/N: Well that's the end...SIKE!. This is definitely not the end, we are just getting into the thick of things. Again...PLEASE REVIEW and let me know what you guys think. The longer the review the better! I like long reviews :)