A/N: potato, I beg of you to either get an account on ffnet or find me on Discord, because I really enjoyed your constructive criticism and thoughts from the last chapter. The only things I want to correct in your eyes is that Baron knew what she meant about poison immediately and maintained his composure to milk more information out of her before taking action and since Louise's husband IS a lot older than her, I'd definitely have her take a second marriage after his death that's happier if I choose to continue this particular 'what if'.
Honestly, therapy for everyone in this story!
Impure Hands Part Three
"You're going to regret this," Chihiro stated in a bored tone as the local lord's captain dragged her down a flower-strewn aisle after she had been stuffed into a fancy red dress and her hair arranged into the area's idea of fashionable.
"Not as much as you will if you don't start cooperating," he shot back, almost dislocating her arm in his efforts to take her to his lord and the waiting priest at the church door to make sure everyone in town could see the ceremony.
Has it really been only three years? She could remember a time when she would have been delighted to marry a handsome man like Lord Gaston, who wasted no time wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close enough to prevent escape.
Of course, in that distant time, she only would have been happy to see him if they hadn't spoken before the ceremony. For the life of her, she couldn't understand all the weeping women that seemed to be local to the area.
The corpse-faced priest cleared his throat like this was a regular ceremony. "Dearly beloved," he began in a gravelly voice, bringing back terrible memories for Chihiro. "We are gathered here today to witness the union of Lord Gaston LeBeau and the storyteller Chihiro. If there are any that know of-"
"Legal reason!" Chihiro announced at the top of her lungs since she knew Gaston was likely to cover her mouth if she waited until the end of the priest's sentence. "Very good legal reason!"
Lord Gaston shot her a look full of rage. "Remember your brother," he growled in a very soft but threatening tone.
"Just trying to save your life before you renounce it," she informed him casually, although her insides seemed to have fallen into her shoes.
It had been two years since she started running, but she'd been suspecting for a while that she'd either have to give herself up or arrange her own death before too much longer.
"What is this legal reason, my child?" the priest asked, looking a bit annoyed at the rude interruption.
"My husband won't appreciate me taking a second husband," she forced herself to admit.
"What?! You're married?!" Lord Gaston roared as the crowd exploded into a thunder of whispers or outcries.
The weeping women could be heard cheering, though.
She made another attempt to escape his grasp, but even in his outrage he was still holding her fast. "Two years ago, I got the chance to leave my husband for being neglectful and cold to me," Chihiro clarified, though the last thing she wanted to do was take back her former identity. "We never officially got divorced, though, and he's been hot on my trail to force me to come back to him ever since because he was getting some nice benefits from a certain kinsman of mine. If his previous record is anything to go on, he'll be here inside a week, and well, you can say goodbye to your head if he even suspects you stole so much as a kiss from me. So yes, I won't lie about you taking that," she growled while glaring at the man since she was still angry that he'd been able to force one on her.
"Y-you're lying! You'd have mentioned a husband before now if you had one!" Gaston tried to reason against this unwanted truth.
"I didn't want you to get the idea that I'd have you if I was single," Chihiro stated flatly while giving him an unamused look. "I also didn't want you to mistakenly think that if my husband were to meet up with an unfortunate accident that I'd consider you worth skipping through the mourning period. I'm married, all right, and he'll be here before long to let you know he doesn't find this sham of a wedding amusing."
"Oh, so what if he comes?!" Gaston snapped, holding her tighter anyway. "What could he do against a lord?"
"He outranks you," Chihiro informed him as blandly as before, though from her upbringing it didn't take much to outrank a lord.
Her would-be groom blinked. "What? Oh, don't you dare tell me that you've got a prince, too! Don't you even dare!" he roared at her.
Chihiro bit her lip to keep from laughing, since the story of how he'd lost his first choice was hardly kept a secret before the lord laid eyes on her. "Define 'prince'," she sidestepped around the question.
Gaston made some outraged sounds that she was sure he'd made as a baby before increasing his grip on her waist. "As in a man closely related to royalty but not the king!"
"Ah," Chihiro commented while nodding. "That definitely cuts out most of the confusion. Since you told me not to tell you, I suppose I can't." But she did let her smirk do all the talking.
"Oh, now I know you're lying!" Gaston raged, shaking her a bit. "Princes don't marry vagabonds! Proce-"
"I came from another place, as you know," Haru informed him in the old dialect that was not taught to commoners. "What would you know about my heritage?"
Gaston blinked. "What was that?" he asked suspiciously even as the corpse-like priest gaped at her.
Even though the peasants didn't know what she said, they clearly recognized the language from Sunday sermons, making them whisper anew about what this could mean.
"Oh, neglected your studies, have you? Can't say that surprises me," Chihiro sighed while trying not to stare at how his chest and arms looked like they wanted to rip right through his fancy attire. "You've clearly been thinking about other things. Though I will be fair, it's not like my husband's recognized as a prince these days. He had a bad argument with his uncle, so he came to work for a kinsman of mine. My kinsman decided he liked the man enough to keep him in his service, and gave him certain privileges in exchange for sticking around. As one of his rewards, I was meant to be little more than a nail in his foot to keep him around, and he certainly treated me as such. There will be trouble with my kinsman too, you know. His wife won't stand for it when word reaches him of what you're trying to do, so even if my husband decides he's done chasing after me and starts looking for a new home, my kinsman may just threaten to declare war on this country if your head isn't delivered to him in a burlap bag."
Although the priest's eyes still seemed dead, they were almost on fire as he loudly slammed shut his holy book. "Disperse! There will be no wedding today!" he announced as loud as his gravely voice would allow. "Go to your homes!"
"No, stay where you are!" Gaston snapped at his own people before glaring at the priest. "What's happened to you, D'Arque, you never defy me!"
"She just confessed to being the Baroness von Gikkingen. I will have no part in angering the Baron or King Lune of Alon," he stated flatly, tucking his book under one arm and turning on his heel to march into the church and slam the door behind him.
"Good choice," Chihiro complimented him with a smug smirk, though her heart was sinking. She'd been hoping to keep names out of her old life, but she supposed there was no getting around it if she wanted to avoid what the arrogant lord clearly had in mind for her next twenty-four hours.
The priest's announcement made Gaston stop short before slowly turning his head to Chihiro. "The virgin baroness?!" he demanded, mercifully making the crowd whisper even louder to themselves as some of them also chose to go home over supporting their lord.
The group of silly but attractive women, including a clear set of blonde triplets, remained where they were with eager eyes in case Lord LeBeau was still determined to marry this day and needed a backup bride.
Chihiro scowled at the man before intentionally using her nails to pierce his grip until he released her. "You know, out of all the titles and pet names I had back then, that was the one I was happiest to let go of." She finally managed to slip herself loose from his grasp, though she rubbed at her waist sorely from how hard he had been gripping her.
"I don't believe it. I heard you looked like a troll!" the lord tried to protest, making her glare at him and cross her arms.
"Oh? Who is this informant? Alon is a good distance from here, and my father didn't believe in showing me off to anyone he deemed unsuitable. We all know my husband didn't show me off," she added bitterly.
"W-well, it's just that… I mean, you were married for a whole year? And he never laid a hand on you?!" Gaston asked in complete disbelief while giving her another once-over.
Chihiro groaned, even though she wasn't all that surprised that was what surprised him. "I'll use small words to avoid confusing you. When a person is sincerely in love, no one else will do. It doesn't matter what other people look like, how pleasant they are, what their rank is, or how much money they have. Even a lookalike isn't enough," she added with a certain amount of venom since she knew even now that he was still thinking of the one that got away from him, and not her specifically. "A literal goddess could have offered herself to the Baron, and he'd have given her the exact same speech he gave me the minute we were alone. One thing I will give him credit for is that he did explain on our wedding night that I wasn't the problem, he was." She sighed tiredly. "That's probably the truest thing he ever said to me. Not that there's much more to go on, since he immediately left after saying that and didn't try speaking to me until after I realized I didn't have to return to him after the ambush."
Lord Gaston was gaping like she was speaking the ancient tongue again.
"Maybe that was all too much," she mused darkly. "Let me try again. If you want to live past this week, apologize for trying to force me to marry you! Pick out someone else!" she added while dramatically sweeping both arms toward the crowd of hopeful women, who immediately responded by both trying to be the one to stand out and 'subtly' sabotaging anyone they perceived to be doing a better job at attracting attention.
It only took a few seconds until it devolved into an all-out cat fight. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that the triplets were fiercest when pitted against each other.
"To be honest, I'm so furious with you that I'd even consider marrying one of them my apology! Release my brother and let us be on our way if you don't want to be part of the collateral damage when or if my husband catches up to us! By heavens above, marry all of them if you want, but leave me out of your love life if you want to live!"
Gaston blinked. "Wait a minute," he said suspiciously. "If you're the Baroness von Gikkingen, how is that little lard ball your brother?"
"Because we decided he is," Chihiro informed him defiantly, since now wasn't the time to get offended over such a worn-out insult. "I am his sister, and he is my brother because we love and take care of each other. He's certainly better at it than the one I grew up with."
For some reason, that was the wrong thing to say to Lord Gaston.
"Is that so?!" he demanded at a loud volume before grabbing her arm and pulling her close again. "Well, I've decided that you're a liar, and a very good one! So unless you want your precious 'brother' to be a head shorter, you're going to stop putting up a fight an-AUGH!" he suddenly screamed in pain as a sudden sharp whistling was cut short.
Chihiro didn't wait to see what the cause was. She immediately broke his hold on her again and wisely jumped off the steps leading up to the church so that he couldn't grab her again. She started running the second that her feet touched the hard ground, since she knew there wasn't much time to see if she could release her brother from Gaston's dungeon. LeFou, Gaston's favorite henchman, tried to hold her back with a spear, but since she'd already seen him train, she knew how to kick the spearhead away from her and tear it out of the short man's hands, though she didn't get the opportunity to do much more than point it back at him with a firmer grip than he had done.
The women stopped fighting each other at the sound of their lord's cry, even as he doubled over in pain from the arrow sticking out of his thigh. They were on the first steps of a stampede to him when a different sound rang through the autumn air.
"Halt, in the name of the king!" a captain yelled as the buildings around the church seemed to be a dam that could no longer hold back the flood of soldiers that swarmed the area.
"Be at ease, Lady Gikkingen," a soldier informed her as he and a squadron took up protective stances around her, separating her from LeFou, who was quickly taken into custody by another pair of soldiers. "You're safe now." With a bit of difficulty, he was able to politely pry the spear out of her unwilling hands.
"I'm sure you'll forgive me for conflicting amounts of relief," she informed him, even as Lord Gaston became flanked by two rows of soldiers covering him, the closer one being swords extended to him while the second row leveled arrows between the first row for complete coverage.
The women were afraid enough to run for their homes at the sight of so many soldiers, perhaps deciding that the chance to marry a handsome lord wasn't all that appealing in the face of real danger.
"D'Arque!" he called out, limping close enough to the church door to bang on it. "Let me in for sanctuary!"
The only response to that was a heavy clanging of a lock being set in place.
"Traitor!" Lord Gaston howled like an animal.
"Smart traitor, though," Chihiro couldn't resist musing out loud, making the soldiers close enough to hear her snicker in appreciation.
Then she saw this country's monarch ride close on a perfect white stallion. She had to blink a few times since there was more than a passing resemblance to her husband of the man in the crown. 'Not that it should be a surprise. They're second cousins, after all.'
If anything, King Adam almost looked like what her husband and would-be husband would have produced if men could have children with each other, but it wouldn't have shocked her if there was some family blood between the king and the lord as well. They both certainly had large chests and arms, though the monarch's hair was nearly the same shade of dark blonde as her husband's.
"Lady Gikkingen," King Adam greeted her with a warm smile as he briefly paused next to the squadron surrounding her. "I'm afraid I must insist that you spend the coming winter at the royal palace. You will get along splendidly with my queen, and it will be a treat to find out which of you can devise a better insult for Lord LeBeau."
To the people peeking through their windows at the proceedings, her automatic but elegant curtsy for the monarch would have been the final proof of her noble upbringing.
"May I be so bold as to assume that your lady the queen is in good health and that I and my brother are far from the only guests you will be hosting, your majesty?" Haru asked with the courtesy she'd been raised to be given to royalty, realizing that there was no point to clinging to her common identity at this point, even as her heart sank into her stomach that the chase was likely over.
Though she supposed she could count this as a victory. Her husband could have taken her back much sooner if he had swallowed his pride from the beginning and gotten the local kings involved when she began hopping from one kingdom to the next.
But it was still important to make it clear that she and the little boy she'd claimed were a package deal.
"Correct on all counts, my dear kinswoman," he assured her without batting an eye before turning to face Gaston with a scowl. "You should have taken her offer, LeBeau. The Baroness von Gikkingen has more than one tie to royalty, and you know full well I wouldn't hesitate to offer your head to King Lune for lesser reasons."
The dark-haired lord glared at the king with enough hatred to ignite a volcano, even as he tried to stand tall in spite of his injury. "Just how many brides do you plan on stealing from me?!" he demanded.
"Technically, we're still at zero," the king responded blandly. "Belle wanted even less to do with you than Haru does."
"That's debatable," she couldn't resist muttering under her breath, but a fond side-look from the monarch made it clear he didn't mind the contradiction.
"You know, LeBeau, this is a very nasty habit of yours. Always going after the one girl that sees your personality more than your appearance."
"Oh, you had women, too!" Gaston huffed like he thought the king was no better.
"But I grew out of that, thankfully. Belle wouldn't have had me otherwise," King Adam mentioned almost casually, like he had made peace with his youthful misdeeds. "Unfortunately, I believe you've used up the time you had to similarly grow. Since you wasted the second chance Belle begged me to give you because she wanted you to become better as well, I'm afraid I have no choice but to hand you over to your latest victim's husband to deal with as he sees fit."
"I knew it," Haru moaned while covering her eyes with one hand. "Tried to save your life, but you wouldn't let me. I hope you wrote out a will before the ceremony."
"Do you really think he can beat me?! Me?!" Gaston roared, sounding once again like an animal.
"Did you think I was making ominous threats for no reason?" Haru couldn't resist asking him, although she was already tired of trying to beat sense into the man. "I've seen you train because you thought I'd be impressed and watching him train was one of the few amusements I had in his castle. I predict the only reason you might live past today is so that your leg can heal up for a longer, more satisfying duel than if he handled you right now."
"You know, dear, that is an excellent suggestion," a familiar voice mused from behind her, making her flinch on reflex before she slowly turned around with a nauseated expression.
He was as handsome as he was on their wedding day. But she still found it depressing that he had more of an air of tired triumph on the day she nearly wedded another man as he approached with his usual confidant march.
Toto, the magician he'd hired to track her every time she slipped his grasp, was marching beside him, and he was carrying a half-grown cat in one arm that was definitely less than thrilled about being carried. The white cat in question was constantly trying to escape or claw its way out of the magician's grip while yowling.
It was mostly instinct, but she knew immediately. She slipped through the soldiers that had been covering her and marched right past her husband to take the heavy cat away from the smirking magician.
Haru held him up to her face by the armpits. "Have we learned anything about dueling when I'm not around to rein in your temper?" she asked the cat point blank, making him scowl at her before wrapping his paws around her neck for a needy hug. "You rascal," she sighed, adjusting her hold until she felt like she was holding a much younger child. But she couldn't resist scratching his brown ear to make him purr. "This better not be permanent, Toto," she informed the older magician warningly.
"It will wear off with the next full moon," Toto defended himself with raised hands, though he was still smirking wickedly enough to say he wasn't all that sorry.
"Are you an adult or not? You know full well it's going to be years until Muta gains enough knowledge and power to put up a fair fight," she scolded the man, partially because her brother's prank spells were a major reason they'd delayed this day for so long.
"He didn't believe we were here to help," the tall dark-haired man defended himself, but the Baron put a hand between them to signal the end of the dispute.
"Haru, I know you're still upset with me, and we can discuss that in private," her husband stated quickly with a dark expression. "But you need to tell me right now; how far did Gaston go with you?"
"He forced my first kiss out of me and left some bruises on my arms and waist," she reported, since there was no reason to save the lord's skin. "He was also going to try forcing the ceremony anyway after I told him about you and threatening Muta's life to get me this close to a priest. Other than that, mostly he was a thick-headed brat with no ears."
"Hey!" Gaston protested angrily.
"Fine," Haru sighed while sending her eyes heavenward. "He was a thick-headed pig with no ears. You get the idea."
"Oh, I do, indeed," Baron growled as he glared at the man who had tried to help himself to his wife. He spared a single glance at the arrow still sticking out of the lord's leg. "Treat the wound," he ordered, still glaring at the man. "My wife is right; I won't be satisfied with anything less than a long, painful duel to the death."
Lord LeBeau gave the exiled prince a dismissive once-over before calling out to Haru. "How can you say he'd beat me so- Augh!" he screamed as a soldier pulled the arrow out while he was distracted.
"You have brawn. He has brains, brawn, speed and endurance," Haru informed him without thinking twice about it as she slightly jostled the cat in her arms like rocking a baby. "Congratulations; you're one of the few opponents that will have me rooting for my husband."
Muta gave a loud, sarcastic meow that seemed to mean, 'that's saying a lot.'
Baron gave her a distressed look but sighed since he understood she was still unhappy with him. "I think we're ready whenever you are, cousin," he called to King Adam, who had to tear his gleeful eyes from Lord LeBeau as he was taken into custody and chained up before being thrown into an enclosed carriage made of thick iron bars that had ridden up while Haru was distracted with her feline brother.
Even though it bore no resemblance to the carriage of so long ago, Haru once again felt the familiar chill that always accompanied seeing one.
"I suppose you're right. Lady Gikkingen, we also brought a carriage for your comfort to my capital," the monarch informed her in a tone that would have been consolatory if he wasn't talking about the main focus of many nightmares over the past two years.
"With all due respect, your majesty, I'd rather walk if a horse isn't available," Haru tried to politely respond while she tried to focus on Toto swaggering close enough to the prisoner's carriage to place a sleeping spell on the arrogant lord to make sure he'd stay docile for the journey.
Baron gave her a sharp look before understanding. "Haru, you see how many soldiers are accompanying us. There's literally no chance of more brigands attacking your carriage."
Haru glared at him while holding her cat brother a little tighter as he growled at the man. "Brave words for someone that not only didn't live through it but could have fought back if he had been there. What a comfort having proper training must be."
He flinched with guilt, as if her tongue was a whip. "Well, I assure you it will never happen again."
"Visiting the marquis? You'd better believe he's lost the right to call me to him ever again. Did he ever confess to engineering the attack for a 'rescue romance'?" she sneered, since it was the first thing she realized after she finally managed to escape the bandits and had a bit of breathing space.
Her husband's expression darkened. "Considering that I found him pouring boiling pitch down the bandit chief's throat in their mountain cave when I hunted the rogue down myself, I made sure Lune needed no further confession before beginning my search for you since your body was never found."
Haru glowered. "Oh, he cared enough to pour pitch, but not enough to think of a-"
"My Lady Gikkingen," King Adam interrupted as he approached the two, still on his steed that was stamping impatiently with the desire to leave. "I am sorry about the nightmare you endured, but I'm afraid the carriage is what I have available for you, and it would be best to leave as soon as possible. Please endure it for a day or so for us to reach my palace. I'll even carry your brother for you," he offered, leaning over to offer his arm for the cat.
Haru gave the monarch a confused look while holding Muta a little closer. "Is there a reason my brother can't ride with me?"
"Well, you do have a lot to speak to your husband about," he pointed out.
"I promise you that Muta can recite my complaints in chronological order in his-" Haru started saying, but then the white cat managed to catapult himself out of her arms and into the king's.
"-Sleep," she finished while glaring at the feline making himself comfortable with a smug purr. "Traitor," she added with a small glare, since it was hard to stay mad at him when he was already dealing with a curse. But her arms still felt horribly empty without him.
Muta actually dared to give a small shrug before motioning with his head to Baron, letting her know that after two years of running and close calls, she was now officially out of excuses.
"Well. Shall we?" Baron asked, forcing her to look back at him as he gestured at a second carriage. It was a simple design, not that different from the one that she had been in when her life drastically changed.
Haru shuddered at the sight of it but forced herself to march in case her husband reached the point where putting his hands on her was now an option. A soldier opened the door for her with a bow, but she didn't slow her pace or wait for her husband to help her in. Thanks to the life she'd adjusted to since becoming Chihiro, she was able to brace herself against the side of the door while taking enough of a handful of the red skirt to keep from tripping.
If she had eaten much in the last twenty-four hours, she probably would have thrown it up from anxiety as her husband took the opposite seat to face her. It did help a little that he also looked nervous and uncertain as the soldier shut the door after them, and orders could be heard about withdrawing from the village and to the road leading to the capital.
Perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised that heavy metallic sounds were coming from the outside of the door, now that entire kingdoms knew that she would escape even if the carriage was still in motion.
'The window's big enough I could slip through. I'm not completely chained up.' Haru stared at her lap, still slightly surprised at how the fine weave felt foreign on her skin. Her father had initially been grooming her in hopes to become queen someday if he could manage it, so he had made sure among other things that she only wore the finest clothing available.
Strange, how two years in peasants' cloth could change even her perception of something she'd, frankly, been taking for granted her whole life.
"Before anything else, it might interest you to know that Toto's wife wouldn't let me hire Toto until she gave me a good tongue lashing for how I was handling our marriage and I swore I'd do better when I caught you. That's what I've been trying to say for the past two years," Baron informed her a bit shamefully while still sounding a bit angry that it had taken this long to tell her something so simple.
"Frustrating, isn't it?" she whispered, looking at him with contempt. "Knowing that you have one sentence that can and would fix all your marital problems, but because the other person would rather do literally anything other than give you the time of day, you're basically helpless and miserable for an undetermined amount of time that could easily be the rest of your life. All because the other person refuses to let you have any say in your own marriage. If you're expecting me to be apologetic that you got a taste of your own medicine, think again."
Baron blinked, like he had been expecting her to show some remorse for evading capture for so long. "Well, what was your sentence?" he asked curiously as the carriage began to turn to go back down the road it had rolled up from.
"If you hadn't ran off like a coward that night after informing me that I would never be enough for you, I was going to ask if we could be friends instead," Haru informed him coldly. "If you had treated me as an ally instead of a plague victim, we could have arranged a con to convince everyone not to worry about us or our 'marriage'. It would have been easy to say after a few years, 'Oh no, it looks like we can't have children, we'd best hope my brother has more than one son and he doesn't mind letting us raise one if we can't adopt on our own terms since this marriage has so much political importance'."
Baron gaped at her in silent horror.
Haru kept glaring at him, folding her arms to emphasize that she was still upset with him. "Since you're just like the marquis and don't think women can run a castle, that much would have at least spared me my dignity and a humiliating title, not to mention everyone in Alon and the surrounding kingdoms just assuming that I must be a special kind of ugly for you to be that disinterested in being in the same room as me for nearly a year."
That made him start angrily. "I never said your looks were the problem!" he protested.
"Tell that to anyone you want, your actions have been louder. You also know that you're wasting your breath convincing anyone else," she informed him coldly. "In a way, it was a blessing. You didn't hide that you were looking for me, and I heard plenty of people 'keeping an eye out for a troll-like woman'. They only stopped and paid attention to me if they liked whatever story I was telling."
Baron groaned and leaned back in his seat while tiredly covering his face with both hands. "I swear I gave out accurate descriptions of you. I corrected every person that didn't believe me, even if I had to resort to violence."
Haru sniffed dismissively while not breaking eye contact. "I'm surprised you remembered what I looked like. Oh, and I heard more than one person thinking you lost your mind at describing me as anything other than what they decided I must look like." She took in a deep breath and sighed tiredly. "Why didn't you just declare me dead when you had the chance after a courtesy search? I wouldn't have needed to come all the way here if you weren't on my trail like a bloodhound."
"Because I was worried about you!" he exploded, letting his tears be seen at last. "I made a promise in front of an entire kingdom that I would look after you and protect you, and then that happened!"
"I seem to remember, 'cleave unto no one else' in those vows," she snarled angrily. "You broke that one without intending to ever honor it, what do the other promises matter?!"
He gave her a despairing look. "That doesn't mean that I can't be worried about where you are, what you're up against, if you've even had a meal in a decent time frame!"
"This brings me back to the original argument; if you had spared me enough time to ask that one simple question, we could have resolved things a lot more quickly and without such an audience!" She slammed her back against the seat and stared at her red-silken lap while trying not to cry herself. "I'm not a pet to 'take care of'. Even if I were, what's the point of a pet you never look at? What's the point of pretending that I'm a real wife when you're probably planning to return to Yrael the moment the queen is widowed? I bet you didn't like it when you realized I abandoned you without so much as a goodbye."
Baron looked like he'd been stabbed, but not all that surprised. "It doesn't matter if Louise is widowed or not. I assure you my research on the matter was thorough; as my legal aunt, we can never wed, and my uncle made certain I knew that he paid many, many marksmen in advance for if I tried anyway after his death. I can't avoid every arrow for the rest of my life."
Haru turned her attention to the passing trees, rubbing her eyes and hoping he wouldn't notice her fingers were wet as a result. "It must be nice, to find out what love is like. I'm sure all the books I read don't measure up in the slightest. I never let myself believe that the marquis would take my preference in consideration, but I was willing to put in the work for a happy marriage if I couldn't have a loving one. You?" She gave a mocking little laugh that was nearly a sob. "What am I supposed to do with you? You ignore me when I don't want you to, and you pay attention when I don't want you to. I bet you'll even interfere if I try to march myself to the highest priest in the kingdom when we reach the capital to beg for a divorce without finding someone first like my original plan. You don't even want me, but you won't let me go."
The silence after that was long and uncomfortable. Haru kept staring at the passing scenery, trying to let every little bump on the road distract her from the very likely fate of returning to the East Wing, but with even less freedom than she had before the marquis became too aggressive about a marriage that wasn't even his to worry about.
"… One of the reasons I stayed away that long is because of how much it hurt you when I tried to break the news gently," Baron mentioned guiltily. "That look's been haunting me ever since. I didn't want to see you look at me like that again."
"Good," Haru stated without emotion. 'Too bad you never gave me a reason for a different way to look at you.'
"… The other reason was because of how strongly Lune supported the match. I swear I tried to talk him out of marrying me to a local noblewoman, but for understandable reasons, he couldn't give a title and lands to a foreigner with no ties to his kingdom."
"I understood that part when I was informed of the match," Haru agreed, wishing that Lune had thought through marrying a lovesick idiot to someone that was clearly dying for affection.
Not that she had spent a lot of time around the king after her cousin made her a lady in waiting, but he should have at least guessed that much if Yuki had mentioned anything at all about her. Perhaps all of this would have been easier if Lune hadn't released her from those duties 'to focus on her new husband' at her 'new home'. It would have been nice to at least had Yuki's support through that terrible year.
"I tried to say I didn't need lands or a title at all, but you know how King Lune is when he gets his mind wrapped around an idea, especially if you prove to be useful. … He… told me…" Baron struggled to say, as if he'd rather amputate his own legs than confess anything more. But the look on his face plainly said he felt it was necessary. "… well… he thought… you could make me forget about Louise. He never stopped talking about what a good girl you were, or that you could make anyone happy if you got the chance, even after the wedding."
Haru turned her head to fully look at him with renewed rage. "So you knew," she snarled angrily enough to make him jump. "You knew from the beginning I would have treated you right. You coward. You filthy coward!" She stood up and braced herself against the side of the window while readying one fist to break through the glass since she didn't have anything else for it.
Before she knew it, his hand was on her raised fist and yanking her onto his lap before changing his grip to around her upper body in an improvised hug to hold her still.
"You let go! You don't have the right to hold me, you renounced it, let go, you filthy coward!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, no longer caring that the soldiers surrounding the carriage for a likely large radius could hear her. Despite knowing how unlikely she was to escape him now that he had gotten a hold on her, she still tried thanks to a now natural revulsion to his touch.
They could have been happy if he had given her a chance.
He knew that all along.
Because the carriage was too small to get any meaningful kicks in without her first seat getting in the way, she threw her head back against his to at least scramble his senses, but because he was hardly new to fighting, he knew how to turn and brace his head so that it didn't do as much damage as she hoped. She even tried tilting her head forward to bite at his arms, but he leaned with her to keep them away from her mouth.
Haru had been proud of herself for learning how to fight back against assailants. She'd had to stab more than one man before Gaston was able to wrestle her knife away from her, and she'd learned early on that there was no such thing as honor in a brawl.
But it didn't matter how she struggled. Despite her best efforts and insults, she ran out of energy to fight before he came close to losing his grip on her.
Her teeth clenched in fury as tears continued to blind her in small bursts. 'Endurance. I wish that had been more of a lie.' "I'm not even trying to escape the company, you spoiled brat! I just don't want to be anywhere near you right now!"
"Hmm, it's been a while since I was called that one," he noted almost absently, the first thing he'd said since forcing her into more or less an unwanted embrace. "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist. Our problem happened because I didn't take our marriage seriously. That changes now."
"It's too late, you rotten piece of garbage! It's three years too late! The first thing I'm going to do when we get to the capital is-"
"Name your terms."
"Divorce," she snapped at him, but due to how tightly he was still holding her, she could feel him shake his head even though she couldn't see it since she didn't so much as want to look at him right now.
"Terms to try again. Two years of being constantly reminded that it was completely my fault that you would rather rough it as a peasant than have anything to do with me has had me in a penitent state for a while. What will it take to restore your trust in me?"
"R-Restore?!" Haru laughed in near hysterics. "You never had it! You'll have grey hair before you're done making this up to me!"
"If needed."
Although she still didn't want to look at him, she managed to turn just enough to glare at him.
It made her feel a bit better that he had some swelling, and what she could tell were going to become beautiful bruises over one cheek and part of his forehead from her multiple attempts to break his skull with her own.
"Why?" she asked a little hoarsely while giving him an unfriendly look since she'd done a lot of screaming. "You made it plain from the beginning that you'd trade me for another woman if it was possible."
"I did, and it was the cruelest thing I've ever done to a lady," he agreed, looking guilty but determined. "I don't enjoy giving people that should respect me a reason to be disappointed. Least of all my wife. I was raised to know it would be arranged, same as you."
Haru couldn't resist glaring at him again. "You don't deserve a second chance."
"I know."
"You make a convent look like a nice place to retire."
He flinched but nodded. "Understandable. Haru… I truly am sorry for allowing things between us to escalate this far. I really think Lune's words are going to haunt me if I don't find out for myself if we have a chance at being happy together. He never did stop encouraging me to spend time with you."
"Well, no wonder you never sent for me!" Haru fumed angrily. "I had plenty of people other than 'my father and brother' ordering me to force myself on you, is that what you were dealing with as well?!"
"Oh, yes," he groaned in a way that she instinctually felt was not an act.
"Those idiots," she grumbled, since if there had been any lesson she took from her parents' marriage, it was that trying to force something to happen before it could naturally, would make everything else come out wrong.
Haru desperately tried to think of another third option… even though she knew it was a waste of time at this point. Too many soldiers got a good look at her, and the ruler of this kingdom was siding with her husband, who was certainly not going to let her divorce him, no matter how much he deserved it.
That was something that really hurt. That his wishes concerning their marriage held more weight, despite how little he valued it, or her. Perhaps if she had been caught in a kingdom where women were allowed more rights, she could get away with divorcing him, having legal protection and being done with being chased from kingdom to kingdom to avoid going back to a marriage that both of them had been miserable in.
She chewed her lower lip thoughtfully as she struggled to think. 'I don't want this. I don't want him. But… if my only choice is whether to return to Alon as a prisoner and be even more locked up than before, or to take advantage of his 'apology'…'
She took a few seconds to do cleansing breaths while collecting her thoughts. "My terms?" she asked pointedly.
"Name them," Baron urged her.
"I keep Muta, end of discussion."
"That was always the plan."
She nodded with satisfaction. "Good. Second is that every time someone asks questions or tries to offer unwanted advice or ask questions about our marriage, you tell them to mind their own business even if it starts going well. I'm starting to suspect that things would have been different if people had allowed us to handle it without 'helping'."
"Oh, I'll take pleasure in that one," Baron growled in a way that wasn't threatening towards her personally. "I take it you will do the same? I'll happily offer support on the matter."
"Yes and thank you." Haru frowned, since that wasn't exactly a phrase she thought would ever be for her reluctant husband. "Third is that when we get back to Alon, I want some responsibility. If you don't think I can handle managing the castle, that's your business, but a solid year of nothing to do but sew and read between daily horseback rides was a unique form of torture, no matter how much I like all of those things."
"You know, I wanted to ask from before. Can you manage a castle?" Baron asked curiously.
"Yes, Mother taught me. She never got to do it herself since the marquis has opinions of women that 'gain too much power', but she made sure I knew how to manage a household if I got a more open-minded husband than she did."
Baron groaned and shook his head tiredly. "I suppose managing all that myself along with the baronetcy for a year was its own punishment for taking your father at his word. I will happily let you prove yourself in that regard."
That admission made her feel a little bit better, though she'd have still been happier if he would loosen his grip on her. "I don't really want the fourth one, but if you want to actually be married, we need it. You have to spend at least a few minutes with me every day barring times we aren't at the same place, naturally. We don't have to talk about anything important, but we do have to start getting to know each other if we're going to have a relationship of any kind."
He seemed surprised and pleased at her last term. "I agree completely, and have made plans for it already."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked suspiciously.
"You remember how we had separate wings in Alon. That will never be the case again." He saw her blush and her immediate indignation, so he hurriedly explained himself. "No, we don't have to 'do anything' right away, but it will keep tongues from wagging than if I had you move into the suite with me when we're ready for that step."
Haru thought about everyone being able to mark on their calendars the exact date she becomes a real wife after all this and immediately pestering her for details on a pregnancy afterward. "All right, I'd rather avoid that," she conceded while giving a tiny experimental tug against his grip. "Can I sit by myself now?"
It must have been how long he was holding her, but his arms still seemed reluctant to loosen enough for her to take back her seat, since it would have been embarrassing to keep sitting on his lap.
Though, she was strangely cold without his warmth, but decided not to mention it, since it was the middle of fall. A few awkward moments passed with her staring at her lap again before she could think of something to say. "Lord LeBeau fights like Sota when he's trying to combat a hangover. Because everyone else in his district is worse, he's got an inflated notion of how well he'd do in a real fight."
"What a pity," Baron sighed like he was truly disappointed. "I suppose I'll have to play with him for a bit to make the wait worth it."
"At least his other victim will be able to watch this way. I can't imagine Queen Belle was happy if she's found out about my predicament yet," she noted, remembering that King Adam mentioned one reason the disgusting lord was alive was because the queen hoped he'd learn his lesson from his humiliation pursuing her when she didn't want him, either.
Baron was tenderly feeling his face while wincing from the pain. "She knows. The entire court was present when I made my request for help to my cousin." But then his face split into a surprisingly evil grin even though it clearly hurt. "It was rather satisfying to tell the naysayers that you do, in fact, bear a strong resemblance to the queen more than anything else to explain the situation. My apologies in advance for how people are going to go out of their way for even a glimpse of you when we get there."
"Not twins?" Haru asked, though she couldn't put a name as to why that worried her.
He gave a very soft laugh that was almost a breath. "No. Just like there's a resemblance between me and King Adam, people will wonder if you're cousins with the queen as well."
Haru sighed, returning to staring at the passing scenery. "If she's pleasant, I won't mind."
"She called Lord LeBeau an ungrateful swine when she found out his plans for you," Baron offered with a grin, which she had no control but to grin back and laugh a bit wickedly.
"That more than explains why King Adam wants to present me to her. I have to ask, was there any validity to that rumor about Yuki kicking her husband out of the marital chambers until I come back?" she couldn't resist, now that there was someone around that might know.
"Oh, it's valid. She also promised me that I'd be a head shorter if I even thought of returning without you," Baron assured her with a tired smile. "It wasn't an option, but it made her feel better to say it. She'll want a letter, you know."
Haru's grin was nearly wolfish. "Oh, now that I'll have access to a reliable messenger, you'll have trouble keeping me from sending a letter. Finding out what that first year was like for me was likely good for the king, anyway. Especially if he's going to keep arranging matches. I wonder if their son looks like her," she added a bit wistfully, since it was likely that already being pregnant when her cousin left was how Yuki got away with kicking the king out of his own chambers.
It would have been nice to give her favorite cousin support through her first childbirth, but if anyone would understand why Haru left without saying goodbye, it was the queen.
"I imagine we'll be finding out next year," Baron informed her, smiling softly. Then he took a careful look at what she was wearing. "Your dress for me was better," he added almost thoughtfully.
Haru automatically opened her mouth to counter 'so you did notice I was wearing a wedding dress for you,' but managed to shut her mouth in time. 'If he's going to start making an effort now, there's no point in constantly reminding him.' "... Red's never been my favorite, but at least Gaston having it made bought you and the king enough time to get here. Was he really waiting for the objections part?" she asked suspiciously.
"I would have. Did things happen before then?" he asked curiously, since he'd been preoccupied with retrieving Muta at the time. Though he did look relieved that she had restrained another biting remark.
"You could say that. I was honestly surprised that it wasn't you that interrupted that sham of a wedding," she admitted almost cheerfully.
He smiled wryly. "Believe me, I wanted to, but Adam desperately wanted to do it again since he had so much fun the first time. He had to bribe me with deciding what to ultimately do with the rogue to make me agree to retrieving Muta with Toto instead. Incidentally, I'm alarmed at the quality of the anti-magic chains LeBeau had access to, to keep that boy from escaping without our help."
Haru sighed tiredly. "If I had paid less attention to how weary we were, we'd have seen the signs and left before Gaston started coming up with all those convenient reasons to keep us from leaving."
"Mind telling me how the wedding didn't happen?" Baron nearly begged, his own eyes sparkling with mischief. "Especially the part where Gaston was shot in the leg?"
Since there wasn't anything better to do, Haru told him the story.
xxXxx
A/N: I know some people won't be too happy with me that they stay together, but I'm considering the time period of the story, and just how unlikely a divorce would go through when only the wife wants it. Plus Tristan and his wife never got a divorce, but boy, could they have benefited from therapy, too. But I still think that things are a bit more fair that the former prince had to actually WORK to get his wife back, for longer than he's ever worked at just one thing at any time in his life, while constantly having it shoved down his throat that all this really is his own fault, plus having him basically give Haru anything she wants the rest of her life. Not to mention the additional punishment he'd be getting that it really doesn't take much to make her happy. Believe me, he makes up for things later, and there wasn't really a good point to add that he threw the chain away during the chase to symbolize that although he does love Louise, he's ready to move on and make things right with the woman he married.
But to make up for all the angst, I actually got hit with more or less this same premise, but if the people involved actually used their heads instead of deciding everything would be fine. So that's coming up in the next update!