About a year after the girls were born, Francis was on a midnight walk through the woods with Arthur when it started to snow.
"We had better go back Francis," Arthur said sadly.
Francis pouted and pulled the other man close.
"But it is so beautiful out here mon cher. Just look at these beautiful snowflakes." He brushed one off Arthur's cheek and the man blushed.
"W-We need to go home before the children wake up. As much as I would love to stay out here, we can't."
Francis sighed.
"Je sais…and you're right." He slipped his hand into Arthur's and started to lead him back.
As they approached, they heard a faint sound and Francis stopped.
"What was that?"
He shook his head.
"Stay here," he whispered as he gently pushed Arthur into the shadows. "I will go find out."
He crept up to the house and looked around.
It was quiet for a long time before he heard the noise again and he recognized it; it was a whimper.
He spotted something on the doorstep and carefully walked up to it.
When he realized what it was, he gasped.
"Come here mon cher!" he called in shock.
He knelt down and brushed snow off the tiny bundle and picked it up, holding it tightly.
"What is it?" Arthur asked quietly.
Francis turned around and showed him a newborn with blue cheeks that was shivering violently in the cold night.
It was Arthur's turn to gasp.
"S-Someone left a baby on our doorstep? In the middle of winter? It could have died!"
Francis nodded. "Come on. We better get it inside quickly." He pulled out his keys and forced them into the lock.
Luckily, there was already a fire that they had started for the kids that Arthur just stoked back to life and they carried the newborn over to it, trying to warm it up.
"The poor thing must be freezing," Arthur said quietly as he stroked the baby's head. "We have to get it warm before it gets frostbite or hypothermia."
"Oui." Francis laid the baby down and carefully pulled the soaking blanket off and started carefully massaging the tiny limbs. "I wonder how it got here."
"Me too.' Arthur sighed before he noticed a note in familiar handwriting; handwriting he had never wanted to see again.
"I-It's…I-it's her!"
He scrambled away from the note, cowering a little.
"What? It's who?" Francis spotted the note and picked it up, quickly reading it. "Your wife is a sick woman."
"We knew that already!" Arthur yelled before cowering again. "W-What does it say?"
Francis growled a little.
"This is her child. She didn't want it." He held out the note. "This is written to you."
'Arthur,
I had another wretched child and I know how much you love them so here you go. Take it. You DID offer to take any child I had with my new lover anyway. Remember? Before I almost killed you that's what you said. But if you don't want him, or her, I don't really know what it is…I didn't care to know the gender. But if you don't want it, just put it back outside and let winter take care of it for you. Or just get rid of it like I did. And it doesn't have a birth certificate either so it's not really worth your time but I still thought you might want it. But do ONE thing for me if you keep it. I always wanted to name my daughter 'Aglæca' so please name it that if it's a girl.'
Arthur's eyes had long since narrowed and he was growling too.
"She is an evil woman! 'Aglæca'? Why would anyone want to name their child that? Even if they don't want the child don't be so cruel as to name it 'Aglæca'!"
Francis was confused.
"What does 'Aglæca' mean?"
Arthur growled louder.
"It means 'demon spawn' in old English. She wants to name her child 'demon spawn'."
Francis growled also.
"I hate that woman."
'Aglæca' was soon renamed 'Ange' and was moved into Chelle's room.
Even though Francis loved children, he still resisted bringing the newborn into their house.
"We can't take in every forgotten child, Angleterre."
"I know Francis but I had to…" Arthur said, looking away. "It was important…"
"You are aware that she's the child of the wife that tried to kill you, right?" Francis asked, worried about his sanity.
"Still…" Arthur trailed off.
Francis studied his face.
"There's something more to it…isn't there?"
Arthur sighed.
"Yes…she's the sister of my boys…even though she may not be related to me, she's related to them so I can't just turn her away. She's family…and who else would take her? Iain? Ethan? Arion? We're all she has."
After that there were no more arguments.
AN: For those that don't know, Iain is Scotland, Ethan is Ireland, and Arion is Wales. I searched fan names for Ireland and Wales and chose those because I liked them. Still don't like the characters but hey...can't have everything.
But Alice is SERIOUSLY evil. Wanting to name her child 'demon spawn'? And leaving her in the SNOW? REALLY? And poor Arthur is STILL terrified of his wife. Yeah. They are TECHNICALLY still married even though her identity as 'Alice Jane Woods' died. She's still alive as 'Lauren Webb' so...but they try to forget about her.
And there's a small bit of foreshadowing in this chapter but I doubt any of you caught it.
Two more chapters to go and then it's all over!