~ Josephine ~

Francis and I stand close together, watching a game where Prince Charles is blindfolded, having a number of girls calling his name and have him identify Madeleine from the rest of them. Although, Madeleine is calling out to her fiance very quietly.

"Do you remember this game?" I ask Francis, who is standing behind me, wearing red, just like my shawl and wreath of flowers on my head.

"Yes. And she's getting irritated with him." Francis says, observing the game.

I watch Madeleine, who is shouting Charles's name louder. "He's not listening. He's distracted by this one and that."

"She's impatient. Like somebody else I know..." Francis trails off, and I look back at him with an annoyed look. "You always were. Never finished a game...never sat through a story. It seemed like Mary was the little princess after all." He chuckles.

I look back at Francis with a myriad of emotions flooding my face.

"What is it?" Francis asks, his grin dropping from his face.

"I wish I could be patient. My situation isn't easy." I say, starting to turn towards him.

Francis nods. "I know that. You must feel misled."

"I feel endangered. The boy who attacked Mary, Colin; He told Lola he was forced by someone in the castle." I begin to lower my voice.

Francis looks at me. "You mean someone French?"

I nod. "Highly placed, with the power to threaten him and order him executed."

"Those orders came from my parents."

"When I spoke to your parents, even your father seemed suspicious." I say.

"And my mother?" Francis waits for an answer that I can't give. He lowers his voice as well. "Are you accusing her of something?"

I shake my head. "No... I don't know. I just want to be sure that Colin is returned alive and your parents said he would be."

"Then he will be, or they'll make every effort."

"Can you be sure of that?" I ask, knowing that Francis is getting angry.

Francis looks me in the eye, his voice getting firmer. "You have the word of the King and Queen of France."

"I had their word that we would be married. I'm not sure words mean anything here." I say.

Francis angrily storms off without another word. I need help. And I know who I can trust.

I find Bash, and speak with him privately . "I'm not sure who you fear. The English or the French Court." Bash says.

"The English have threatened me for years, but Colin is the only one who knows who at French Court, wants me gone." I say.

Bash drops his eyes, and brings them back up again. "And you think the word of an accused traitor will matter?"

"If the right people believe him- and I think they might- then yes."

Bash sighs. "All right, I'll go. Best was out of the dungeon is the South Keep. Guards will have a head start, but they are not hunters, and they fear the woods."

"Why?" I question.

"There is much to fear. Dark and dangerous times, Your Grace, but your presence brings light." Bash says, making me smile.

I walk back to the picnic, where Madeleine runs up to me. I smile at her. "Madeleine, hello. Where's Charles? Aren't you two supposed to be together?"

Madeleine starts to tear up. "Charles doesn't want to play with me."

I bend down to her eye level. "Now why would you think that?"

She sniffs. "He's ignoring me."

I give her a reassuring smile. "How about I go find Charles, and you go play some of the games with your other friends, okay?"

Madeleine smiles a little bit. "Thank you, Josie!"

I give her another smile and walk off to find Charles.

I find Charles at the entrance to the tunnels, hoovering against a stone structure near the castle, whispering to someone lingering in the shadows. "I know. I didn't tell anyone. Don't worry.

"Charles, Madeleine feels like you're ignoring her. Who are you talking to?" I walk up to Charles, who is startled by my voice.

"No one." He starts to walk away.

I place my hands on my hips. "Is that quite so?"

Charles turns back. "All right, I was talking to my friend. But she wants me to play with her, too. She gets jealous. She says that when I'm older, I won't even remember her."

I start to walk toward the entrance.

"Don't go in there! She decides when you see her."

I walk back to Charles. "Well that doesn't sound very friendly."

"But she knows things. Because she goes where she wants, and she sees everything, and she knows people's secrets." Charles says.

Is this girl the same person who warned me of the rape plot?

"This friend, who likes to hide... I think she visited me once." I say.

"You're lucky, then. She doesn't like people. Most of the time, she doesn't really speak, but I bribe her with things she likes, or play guessing games with her... to learn things." Charles tells me.

I give him a small smile. "This friend. Does she have a name?"

Charles hesitates. "Clarissa, but don't say I told you."

I turn again to enter the tunnels, this time venturing inside.

"Please don't go in there." Charles begs.

Once I am inside the entrance, Clarissa is nowhere to be found, but I find a small round stone laying on the ground. I pick it up and go back outside, seeing that no one is around me any longer, including Charles.

After the party, I head back up to my chambers to freshen up, and there, I find a girl wearing one of my dresses. "I'm-I'm sorry... I don't know you." The girl is startled, and her face turns white. "Is that my dress?"

"Your Grace, forgive me... It's so beautiful. The tailor gave it to me to return, and I-I thought... I should never..." The girl runs her hands over the smooth fabric of the dress, but starts clutching at her arms in fear. "My skin is on fire. My skin is on fire!"

I step forward, concerned. "Is something wrong?"

"No! Stay back! It's poisoned! My skin is burning. It's burning!" The servant girl falls to the ground, which sends me on a desperate mission for help.

I'm screaming while running down the corridors. "Guards, someone, help me! Somebody help me, please! Guards!"

I continue to run down the corridors, trying to find my guards, ignoring the coldness on my skin, since I had dropped my knit shawl in my chambers.

I find Francis and several men, and return to my chambers, where the girl is no longer there. I point to where she was standing. "She was right there on floor. She was dying. Where-where... could she have gone?"

"They took the evidence... Whoever did this failed in their attempt on you." Francis turns to one of the guards. "Go! Now! An assassin with a dying girl could not have gone far." He takes my hand, trying to comfort me, and continues to talk to the guards. "Go! Go!"

The guards take off after the girl, leaving Francis and I alone. "She was right there! How could anyone have escaped with her?" I'm hysteric. Then, an idea dawns on me. "The passageway..."

I take off toward it, with Francis following closely behind me. "I don't know how far it goes, or where, but..." I open up a small door, and we look into the darkness. "Could they have gone through here?"

Francis holds a fingers to his lips. "Shh..." He pauses for a moment, listening for something. "No... No, they'd echo. We'd hear them. These passages are all stone, nothing in them...but I didn't know one connected to this room."

"You know about them?" I ask, finally calming down.

Francis nods. "This castle's been built over centuries. The passageways...they connect the older parts to the new." He closes the door tightly, and we walk back to the other part of the room. "They're mostly sealed up now, dead-ends. I'll have the guards check them anyway. Where were your guards when you came in?"

"Well, they-they... They weren't here. I-I saw the servant, and I-I thought it was safe." I say, still shaken up a bit.

"They'll be dealt with, but in the mean-time, that English envoy needs to be detained and questioned." Francis starts to turn around.

I nod. "Do that..." Francis has already taken off. "...By all means."

That night, just during sunset, Mary, our ladies, and myself have gathered to await the news on the girl and Colin's recovery. We don't know if Colin has been found yet. We haven't heard whether he is dead or alive, and Lola is very nervous. I sent the five girls off to question servants and guards.

Francis joins us, and pulls me aside. "The English envoy has been questioned. He had an alibi for everything."

"I'm not surprised." I raise my eyebrows.

Francis looks me in the eye with seriousness. "I hope you know I take your position seriously and I want to help... As best I can. As I suspect my brother is already doing. I saw you talking. He's gone after Colin, hasn't he?"

"Yes. Are you angry?" I ask as I play with my diamond necklace.

Francis only nods when I said what Bash was doing. "No. No. You need more than a show of our support, but it's-it's near dark. He should be back by now. You must have given him some lead."

"He was following a trail from the South Keep. That's all I know." Francis turns away from me to leave, probably in search of Bash, but I have more to say. I grab his hand. "Thank you."

Francis gives me a smile, and leaves me. My ladies and Mary report back to me.

"We've talked to the last of the servants, and the guards." Aylee says.

Lola continues. "No one posted outside any of our doors or in that corridor saw someone leave you room with a body or a dying girl."

"And they would have." Kenna finishes.

I sigh. "They must have used the passageway."

In the passageways, I hold three glass marbles in one hand and a candle in the other. "Clarissa?"

I hear nothing but the echo of water droplets hitting the ground and my own voice. "We can play if you want." I lay my candle down and pull out the three marbles, which I put on the floor. "If you can hear me, come and find me."

I get up and walk back to my room, but I stop dead in my tracks when I hear a noise behind me. I turn around, and the marbles are at my feet. "Does this mean you'll speak to me?"

"I have a guessing game for you. I'm going to guess something, and if I guess it right, you roll the marble back to me. If I guess wrong, you keep it. It's yours." I pick up one of the marbles. "I think you know who's trying to hurt me and my sister."

I roll the marble, Clarissa returns it, and I ask another question. "Who is it? Is it the English? Is it Queen Catherine?" I correct myself. "No, I'm, I'm sorry, I'll ask one at a time."

Clarissa shoots two marbles at me, keeping the third, and wanting me to guess again. "Is it the English?"

When she doesn't answer I go off after her. "Clarissa? Clarissa?"

Clarissa is gone once I arrive, but she left behind a golden key and some crushed glass, which I pick up.

After taking the key Clarissa left me, I go off in search of the door it opens with a fake note, just in case I'm caught. But before I can test the key in the Queen's door, I am interrupted by a servant.

"Your Grace? Are you here to see Queen Catherine?" He asks.

Acting cool, I indicate to him that I'm dropping off the note. "A private thank you. She'll see it when she returns."

The guard bows and leaves. I bend down and pretend to push the note under the door, but while I'm down there, I finally try the key, and it doesn't work. I leave and try another door, and this time, the key fits. After turning the lock and opening the door, finding Simon in bed with the woman who was in my chambers earlier in the day.

I'm not surprised it's Simon. "Of course. It's you."

The girl pulls the covers up over her chest. "But you were poisoned." I say, looking to her.

"There you go, my dear." Simon tosses the girl a robe and she bolts out of the room. "Her carriage back to Orleans was delayed. My hope was to keep her out of sight."

I am outraged. "So you admit it... That you staged her poisoning to terrorize me." Simon doesn't say no. "Why would you do such a thing? To show me what you're capable of? You showed me that at the convent. England shows me that every time you attack our borders."

"You need to fear us here, at French Court, because your being here angers us very much." Simon says, tying his shirt.

I shake my head in anger. "You threaten me and my sister, but it is the English who are afraid. There are rumors that you Queen is ill... And my cousin Elizabeth is the next in line for the throne, but many say she's illegitimate... bastard born."

"And say the next rightful heir to the English throne is you. Or you sister." Simon continues my sentence.

"But what if we don't want it?" I say, which may or may not be true. "What if all we want is for England to leave Scotland in peace?"

"Show us you're not a threat." Simon says, as if it's obvious. "That you are not here to wed the next king of France for his armies."

I raise my voice. "Armies I need against you! Because England won't stop."

"We need to crush Scotland so we're certain it won't rise against us."

I realize that my pro-Elizabeth sentiment was futile. "You'll never leave Mary and I in peace."

"Someone has to make the first move. Someone has to instill trust. Leave France, abandon the alliance." Simon steps closer to me.

I wrinkle my brown. "And trust you?"

"You think you can trust the French? You have powerful enemies here, and you know it, or you'd be screaming right now for the guards. Where were yours, by the way, when we went into your room?" He gets even closer.

I close my eyes, realizing what he means. "She said yes to both." I say to myself, finally figuring out why Clarissa sent two marbles back. "You have Catherine's support in this."

"Wouldn't that make life for me, and the loss of yours, so much easier?" Simon says, and I finally leave the room.

Francis has come to me in my chambers, and tells me the news of Colin. I can't believe it. "If Colin is dead, then it's over. I have no proof against my enemy. I came here to marry you; a marriage that would protect me and my country. And it scares the English. They fear your country's power."

"They'll fear it when I'm King, I promise you." Francis says.

I look into his eyes. "And I would wait... For our marriage, for the chance of your country's support, if I had some faith that I could survive your mother."

"No..." Francis seems insulted at the suggestion that his mother is involved."

I interrupt him. "I can't prove it. I have no one who will speak openly, no evidence that you can hold in your hand. I have nothing but confirmation from an enemy...and someone else, a girl, who I believe more than anyone."

"My mother would harm you. She has no cause to. She knows that I won't wed you unless it's right for France."

I move my eyes around. "I can't make sense of it either... but she did it. She was behind it all, I am sure of it. She terrorized me... and it worked. If your conscience, your politics, won't allow you to marry me, then the English feel that they have a clean shot at me with the Queen of France as their weapon. Mary and I can't stay here. Even if our mother will understand because I can't bring home any armies- and I can't wed any kings- if I'm dead."

During my morning walk the next day, Francis comes outside to visit with me. I'm guessing it's probably to criticize me about assuming his mother is trying to terrorize me, which I believe is true.

"I believe you." Francis says, causing my head to whip towards him. "And I'm sorry for all that you've been through. I believe that your life is safe here. At least from my mother."

I wrinkle my brow. "How?"

"You'll just have to trust me, and I'll have to trust her love for me." Francis say, and my breath catches.

My eyes widen. "You told her?"

"I raised my suspicions, not yours." Francis tells me.

I sigh. "Even if putting your mother on notice was enough, I have more enemies than you can count."

"Isn't that why you came here...for an ally?"

"And you made it very clear you weren't one for me." I turn towards him more, so I can look into his blue eyes.

Francis looks into my eyes as well. "I was wrong."

"But your duty is to France."

"I'm not talking about our nations. I'm saying that I will be at your side against foes seen and unseen, as a friend." He assures me.

I can hardly contain my smile. "As a friend? Is that what we are now?"

"Well, it's a good place to start if there's to be any real chance between us." Francis smiles back at me.

I laugh a little. "Yes, it is a good place to start."

"Then don't give up, don't run. Stay." Francis extends his hand, and I take it, feeling sure enough that we can marry.