Disclaimer: I don't own Reign or any characters associated with the show.
After Catherine had been pulled brush on that side of the castle, they had bound her hands supposedly in an effort to keep her from poisoning them before her gown, jewels, and crown had been ripped from her, and was replaced with a dirty peasant's dress that barely fit around her huge belly and smelled of sheep dung. It was the. coffiputrid she could barely stand the stench and almost gagged when she pulled it over her head. They even replaced her shoes with boots that were at least two sizes too big for her. It was quite humiliating to have them all standing around watching her, but at least they didn't make a move to touch her.
When they got her moving again, their pace was so fast that she was left staggering along behind them as they tugged her along with pulls on the damn rope that held her arms. The damn boots coupled with the lateness of her pregnancy had her unable to keep up and their sneers at her made her even more angry. She hoped and prayed that any moment would show Henry's arrival to have every one of them cut to shreds, but it seemed to be in vain. Did Henry even know yet?
The sun was hanging low in the sky when they emerged from the forest and although it seemed to her as if they had been walking for days, it had actually only been a couple hours through the rocky territory. An old, seemingly abandoned, mill was before them. Their hideout perhaps? When the doors of the barn was opened and she was ushered inside she was ordered to get into a wagon. Try as she did she couldn't get up on her own very quickly, but she almost had it when she was pushed in as hard as possible to the floor of the wagon. She tried to shield her belly from most of the impact and her arm popped as all of her weight landed on it. She couldn't help a soft cry that escaped her lips as pain shot throughout her body. The man who jumped into the back had no mercy on her whatsoever though. Gagging her mouth he dragged her as close to front of the wagon as possible before lifting her into a long wooden crate that appeared to Catherine as one of the common coffins. She panicked when the lid was closed on her. How was she going to be able to breathe? Were they going to bury her in this thing? Would she die here? Oh please, God no!
Tears formed in her eyes at the thought as she felt their baby kick inside of her. If Henry didn't find her, she would never hold their child in her arms. They had picked out names for both a girl and a boy, and although Henry had been adament she was carrying another little princess she felt sure the babe was another prince for the Valois line. One with curly red locks and dark brown eyes. A nose and ears like his father and the sharp Medici mind of her people. Her hope for the future seemed to disappear as she felt the wagon jolt forward. How would Henry ever find her now? It would be sacrilegious to stop a funeral procession, and he didn't even know in which direction they had taken her.
She rode in the dark hell of the coffin for an undetermined amount of time, and at some point her body had given into the stress and fatigue and she had fallen into a dreadful sleep full of soldiers and blood and death. She was only jolted awake when the wagon stopped. She could hear lots of voices around her. More men had arrived? She hadn't the slightest idea what was happening outside of her coffin, but the stop didn't last long. The wagon was off at a faster pace this time as well, and Catherine was thrown about in it. What was happening? Were they being chased? Had Henry found her? The small hope she had held was dashed when the wagon slowed to the same pace as before. What had caused the disruption though?
It wasn't long until the wagon came to a halt again when she heard two sets of boots jump back up into the wagon and stalk forward, dragging the box to the ground beside of the wagon. When the lid was cracked open and her gag removed, Catherine took the first non suffocating breath she had had in hours. The night air was cool through the peasant's dress, but she could deal with it for fresh air. She was pulled out of the coffin and told to get on a horse. There were more men with them now, but she didn't give a damn! It was a ridiculous notion. She was a skilled horse woman, but this was outrageous to think she could handle the wild animal that pawed the ground that they had presented her with.
"I can't ride a horse! Do you even have two eyes to see how heavy with child I am?!"
The leader of the band of ruffians, Scarface, looked her over with the blackest of eyes for her outburst before speaking with a danger in his voice that sent a chill down her spine.
"Do you even know what a sword will do to that soft neck of yours? I don't take order's from the King's bitch. You may rule him with what's between your legs, but you haven't the slightest bit of authority here. Have her gagged and bound to the horse."
Unable to really put up any kind of a struggle, Catherine was sat upon the nervous animal and her hands tied around the neck of the animal while her legs were tied around the horse's belly. In the position she had to lean her full weight against her belly and hold to the horse's mane to keep from falling as they took off through the night at a full gallop.
It wasn't long until she felt a sharp pain in her lower back and abdomen. She had felt a dull ache in her back since she had been thrown down in the wagon, but she had hoped it was just from the impact of the fall. As the pain grew inside of her she bit down on her lip to keep from screaming out. She was going into labour, and she wouldn't get any compassion from these men. Oh God, the baby! She couldn't stop and the birth could kill her and the baby before she even got to wherever they were going.
Suddenly her dream from a few weeks back came into her mind and for the first time ever she prayed it would come to pass. For the first time she hoped that there was something good that could come out of her damn gift. Granted it was a fool's hope, but it was all that she had to cling to and she needed something to sustain her through whatever was to come.
