The Kingdom of the Isles (Chapter 58/ Feb. 5)

[queenrebecca]

*****This story is supposed to be a sort of not-really-following-the-rules royal kingdom challenge. Actually, it will be a lot like a takes-place-in-medieval-times neighborhood legacy type o thing. Since it will span a lot of time, I am putting the date for each chapter at the top center of each entry.

Keep in mind that it is a big project and the first few posts are really there to introduce the characters. If you are bored with it, just keep in mind that after the introductions, things will pick up quite a bit. And if you like what you read, (or don't!) please feel free to comment and let me know! This is my first story, so I appreciate any feedback.

EDIT: This story is getting quite populated with characters and it may be a little difficult to remember who is who, so I have made a family tree sort of character page which you can view: here (http://imab13.livejournal.com/9731.html).

So on to the story and thanks for reading!*****


Chapter One: The King Awakes
August 27, 1314

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Kaiser was starting to realize that the drinking was doing little to ease his sorrow. He tried to continue to shirk his duties, looking for excuses to hide. It was not fair at all, he thought, that with a single message, everything that he had known could have been ripped away from him. He tightened his grip around his mug, as if to reassure himself that there were some things that he could indeed still grasp with his two hands.

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He sighed heavily. It had been almost a full month since he had heard the news of the death of his father and brothers. He had never expected this. He had never wanted this. He had been drinking to try to forget this. And yet his damned steward would not let him continue to hide. There were reports to verify, records to overlook, meetings to attend... It was all too much for him in his drunken stupor.

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The smarter part of his brain told him that he should therefore cease his drinking. He sighed again as he lowered his mug. Perhaps it was time for him to rise to his responsibilities. He was afraid, yes, but perhaps it was time for him to begin acting as he should: As a king should.

[queenrebecca]

Chapter Two: A Knock at the Door
September 1, 1314

Sister Margrite sat in the rapidly dimming light of her chamber at dusk, praying for the perseverance to not strangle Novice Myrna for letting all of the barrels of cream spoil from sitting out in the sun all day. She was weary and aggravated and only hoped that the Lord would see it fit to bless her with enough strength to make it through the rest of the novice's training.

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While sighing to herself during her fervent prayers, she suddenly heard an urgent knocking on the great front door of the convent. She ended her prayers with a quick "Amen," pushed herself up from her spindly wooden chair to hurry down the hall. She muttered under her breath at this new disturbance of her peace, and heard the sound of her footsteps slapping against the stone of the floor echoing with the growing urgency of the knocks on the door.

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Upon pulling the heavy wooden door open, she found herself staring at a flushed young woman, with shorn hair. The woman panted in the hall and looked around nervously. Sister Margrite quickly noticed the young woman’s protruding belly. It was not, however, an uncommon thing for disreputable young women to give birth at the convent for the protection of their children. Sister Magrite sighed to herself. It was going to be a long night indeed.

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The woman spoke. “I beg for your protection, Sister,” she chocked. Her voice was dry and it sounded as if it were painful for her to speak. “I am heavy with child. And I am also feared that I shall not have life much longer.” Her lip trembled. Sister Margrite could see that she was indeed in very poor condition.

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She was surprised that the girl could still walk, in fact. "Come on then," Sister Margrite told her. "You can rest here," she said, leading her to a small unused cell, "while I go fetch the priest." She helped the girl onto the small bed and then went quickly and dutifully about her way.

[queenrebecca]

Chapter Three: The Ravings of the Dying
September 1, 1314

"I would like to talk to you alone, please," Minerva said to the priest, when he arrived, her hoarse voice straining. He nodded kindly, and sent Sister Margrite off on another errand, this time to find Sister Hildegarde and anyone else who might be able to help the young woman once her baby decided to come.

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When she had found Hildegarde and towed her along back to the small chamber where the woman rested, she could still hear the slight mummer of voices from behind the closed door. Sister Hildegarde knocked softly.

The priest cracked open the door. "Ah, come in Sister," he said and opened the door wide enough for Sister Hildegarde slid in. Hildegarde took one look at the dying woman on the bed, and then threw a glance over her shoulder at Sister Margrite. Then she shut the door with a pointed look at Margrite, but not before the other woman had been able to sneak a glance at the dying girl upon the bed.

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She could tell that the girl was still awake and living, but other than that, she could not know.
She was burning with curiosity at the strange woman's appearance, and a bit huffy at being excluded, but still waited dutifully outside of the chamber. Eventually, Hildegarde came back out, though she was wearing a strange expression.

"What happened?" asked Margrite.

"She is in a bad condition," Hildegarde whispered. "She is raving, I think, and she has a fever..." She paused and looked worried. "But the things she is saying, Margrite.... I have never heard such things! I know it is only the fever, but... I'm frightened."

"Why? What does she say?" asked Margrite breathlessly.

"I cannot tell you, Sister, the priest forbade me from repeating her delusions..."

Sister Margrite was intrigued, but bit her tongue to prevent herself from trying to pry the woman's secrets from Hildegarde. "Will she survive?" was the only question that she could think to ask instead.

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Sister Hildegarde clutched at her heart. With a pained voice, she said "I do not think she is strong enough. I do not even know if her child will survive. She tells me that it is too early for the babe to come, but she thinks he shall soon arrive, nonetheless." She paused and sighed. "May the Lord watch over us this night," whispered Hildegarde as they heard an unearthly wail coming from the chamber.

[queenrebecca]

Chapter Four: A Babe is Born
September 2, 1314

Her fever burned on deep into the night. A storm had come with the burning in her skin, as if to taunt her with the coolness in the torrents of water that were out of her reach. She could hear the thunder as it boomed across the sky, and see the lightening through her closed lids. It left a shocking imprint of fiery light beneath the safety of her lids. Fire, fire, fire… She felt as if she were drowning in a lake of fire. For a moment, she thought that she had descended down into hell, but then she remembered that she did not believe that such a place existed. She cried out in pain.

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She then remembered where she was. She was safe. Her baby would be safe. That was all that mattered. Well, except for her husband. Maybe he was already dead, too. Maybe she would see him again after all. “Fauve…” she muttered, but then remembered herself.

The lightning cleaved through the darkness again. She felt the growl of thunder roll through her body. She had a vision of a child. Of a daughter, held before her, but it passed into the dark recesses of her mind before she could hold onto to the image. “Sibyl…” She felt the word rise unbidden to the tip of her lips with the image of her twin sister, seen only in her mind's eye. “Sibyl…” She spoke so softly that the nuns barely heard. “Protect my child…” She did not know if she was speaking to her sister or to the nuns around her, and she did not care, for it had ceased to matter. She suddenly felt herself at the edge of a great black pool of still water. She shivered as she fell down into the darkness which was cold and away from the pinprick of heat that was her body.

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Sister Margrite felt herself close to tears, but she held them back. Who was she to question the Lord’s will? She held the little baby that they had named Sibyl close to her heart and looked down at the tiny infant, vowing that she would keep the babe safe, even though she had not been able to help the child's poor mother.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter Five: Dinovynn has Dinner
September 15, 1314

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His merry little daughter laughed as Dinovynn spun her around in a dance. “That’s fun, Da!” she chirped, “But how did stinky old you ever learn how to dance so good?”

“Well, I had your fine mama to teach me,” he laughed as he tickled her. “But you don’t really think that your old Da is stinky now, do you?” he teased.

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“Nooooo,” she giggled, “but I bet Mama does!”

“You bet your Ma does what, little missy?” asked Aethelis, coming out the door.

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“Think that boys are stinky!” replied Ellynmere with her bright eyes mischievously squinted.

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“Oh no, not your da! He smells sweet as pie!” She laughed the two of them hopped up the steps to meet her. When he reached the top of the steps, she pulled Dinovynn into her arms and gave him and planted a tender kiss on his smiling lips. “I think that your da is also quite tasty, in fact,” she teased while flashing her daughter a bright smile.

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Ellynmere pretended to gag and choke, but Dinovynn knew that she was secretly pleased with the romance her parents shared. He, in turn, was secretly pleased with the sweet, romantic nature of his dear little daughter. All of the other men he knew seemed only to desire sons, but to Dinovynn, there was nothing sweeter than bright-eyed little girls, even if they did seek to constantly stream ribbons through his hair.

Aethelis brought him back from his thoughts with her gentle voice as she put her small hand on his shoulder and urged him inside. “But speaking of good smells and tasty things, you two need to come inside and get your supper!”

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After Ellyn had scarfed down all of the food on her plate and run off to go play with her dolls, Dinovynn took the opportunity to confront his wife. “I noticed that you barely touched your plate, my dear.”

“Oh, I’m just not hungry, is all,” Aethelis mumbled with an apologetic smile.

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“Now, darling,” he warned, “you know I love you well enough to notice how little you've been eating lately...And how tired you have been...” He waited for a reply to his prodding, but his wife only stared into her plate, so he continued. “And that can only mean two things, my dove. Either you are unwell, or you are expecting another little one.” He sucked in his breath, preparing for the worst, but still she did not respond. Gently, he coaxed her “Only tell me now, dear lamb, so that I may fill my head with worries of the right nature.” He smiled softly at her, surprised to see that she was suddenly sniffling.

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“It’s a baby,” she whispered.

He forced a smile to spread across his face. “I did hope so,” he sighed, “although I know that you are worried, my dove. But don’t worry, dear lamb!” he comforted as he took her silky little hand, “things will turn out alright.”

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She was not quite reassured, but she smiled bravely for his sake. He knew that she was terrified, but he also knew that she would be strong for him, and try to bear her little troubles with a smile.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 6: Catherine has dinner
September 30, 1314

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All through dinner, her husband’s eyes had seemed distant and evasive. Catherine did not understand why he would be avoiding her frank gaze, but obviously he had something on his mind. She could barely tune into the conversation Partrich was having with their young daughter, Perrigwen, but it must have been serious, suddenly she felt little Perri’s intense eyes upon her face.

“Is what Father says true, Mother?” she asked, quite seriously for a girl of her age.

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“I’m sorry, darling, what did he say? I wasn’t listening very well,” she admitted.

“That I shall be an important lady one day and I will marry a big strong knight and our children might rule the island?”

“Well one day, my darling, of course,” she replied, shooting a quizzical expression to her husband. “But you don’t have to think of such things now, my precious.

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“Actually, Catherine, there is something that I think we should talk about,” Partrich said to her, with a slightly apologetic smile. She could not help but notice how much Perri resembled her father and sighed, wondering what he had in store for their young daughter.

“Why don’t you go ahead to the nursery and go play with your sister,” Catherine said resignedly to her daughter, “while I talk to your father.”

Perrigwen sighed, but she was sent out of rooms while grownups talked often enough that she did not complain. As soon as her daughter had passed through the door, Catherine turned upon her husband. “What have you done?”

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“I simply think that it is time for us to find her a husband,” Partrich said simply. “I have been thinking on the matter, and I believe that I have found someone suitable.”

“Oh Partrich!” she sighed, “The girl is only six years old! There is plenty of time to be finding a husband for her!”

“She is already older than many a betrothed child on this island,” he replied. “Leaving me with few enough choices for her as it is.”

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“But it too soon!” Catherine wailed. “And there is no boy of equal of higher station on this island to be found who is the right age to wed her.”

“”Not yet,” he replied, “but I believe that the king has mind to make the eldest two boys of Cuthbert Rusylvan’s into squires. And if they be squires, then they may yet be knights.”

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“Oh but Partrich, how can you know that they will be squires? If you are chasing around some rumor, then you are going to look like a fine fool when Rusylvan has pocketed all of your precious little daughter’s dowry for a son who will never be more than a member of the gentle class!”

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“It is no mere rumor that the young lads are to be squires,” he sighed. “Already the king has taken the oldest into his household to serve as a page. In only a few more years, the lad will be old enough to make squire.”

“Why Ruslyvan’s boys?” inquired Catherine. “They are of scarce better blood than any other family of farmers.”

“How many times have we noticed the barren population of this island?” he prodded. “The king, he is no fool! He must strengthen his defenses. There simply are not enough families of noble blood to draw from, just as there are not enough noble families for us to search for a husband for Perrigwen in.”

“But she is of good enough blood to marry the king’s son!” Catherine protested.

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But she knew it was futile. The young king was not even married yet. It would be quite some time until he produced a son. And by then, Perrigwen would be far too old to wed him when there would be so many other, younger brides to choose from. “Very well, Partrich, I concede to your wisdom,” she sighed.

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 7: Kathrope Regrets
October 13, 1314

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The soapy water burned Kathrope’s hands as she scrubbed with a rough piece of cloth on the remnants of food clinging to the pot. Dutifully, she endured her daily chores, trying to ignore her husband’s raised voice in the background. What was he yelling at her for now? She had learned a long time ago that when Dulnstead was angry, it was best to remain as far away from him as possible. Thus, she tuned him out and continued her rigorous scrubbing.

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She glanced down as she worked, noticing the simple and plain wedding band that was her only adornment. How long ago had it been since they had been happy together? Had they ever been happy together? She ransacked her mind, ignoring the volume of his anger as he yelled at her, trying to recall even one single day together during which the both of them had been satisfied.

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But he had always resented her. He had never wanted to marry her at all! She had been nothing more to him than the dirt in which his seed had first taken root. How many times had she wished that she had never been the one of his many conquests unfortunate enough to bear his child! And even then, the idea of the child that had been growing in her sixteen year old belly had not been enough to make him love her. He would have left her to shame and condemnation if her father had not forced him to take her hand…

She sighed. How young and foolish she had been then! And how unhappy now!

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 8: The King Hears Some Advice
October 20, 1314

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The king sat quietly in his study, lost in his absent-minded and unfamiliarly sober thoughts when he head a sharp and quick rap on the door. Ah... That would be his advisor, Millstein. No one else could knock on a door so... dryly.

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“Enter,” he called, with a sigh. In truth, he did not much look forward to these meetings. His advisor was, politely, an old night bonnet with no taste for humor, drinking, or, in short, fun.

Millstein jerked his head in a polite, but hurried way as he came into the room, shedding the cloak of shadows that had masked his form. “Your majesty,” he intoned, “I am here in order to discuss more fully the matter which I mentioned to you over dinner last night.” His voice was dry and monotone. Kasier was already bored.

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“Ah, yes, Millstein, about that. I am not quite sure that I understood your full meaning last night. My head was a bit heavy with the drink,” he explained with a laugh. He watched the other man’s face, dearly hoping for a reaction.

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He was not disappointed when he saw the quick downturn and disapproving pucker of Millstein’s thin lips. “Yes, your majesty, I recall.” After an awkward pause, probably intended to serve as a reprimand for his sovereign’s heavy drinking, Millstein continued. “You will recall that I spoke of strengthening the kingdom, perhaps, your majesty.”

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He waited for the brief nod from the king before continuing. “I have many suggestions on the matter. For one, we must improve the state of the army. Your neighboring kingdoms are growing at a much greater rate, my lord, and I do think that we need to bring new commanders to rank. Also, we have much underdeveloped land on the continent that could be exploited, if we could put in place some new lords.”

Kaiser nodded. That much was true. He had been thinking of installing some new lords himself, in fact, if only for the entertainment of having some new companions to take out on hunts. He was rather tired of scheming Lord Iorvain...

“And also, your majesty, there is the ah... question of securing your line,” Millstein added.

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“That again?” Kaiser muttered.

“Your majesty will admit that he needs to provide an heir to maintain his line,” Millstein rationed. “And for that, his majesty must have a queen.”

Kaiser had also been thinking that particular matter over as well. As much fun as he had chasing maids, he did concede the wisdom of producing an heir. “Anyone in mind?” he queried, thinking that perhaps this meeting with Millstein was going to be as tedious as feared.

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“Last year's skirmishes with the Desert Dwellers left our kingdom much depleted,” Millstein said. “Our kingdom is weakening and it would do well to forge an alliance with some of our stronger neighbors. Many of the Lords of the Valley have daughters of marrying age. If we could strengthen our ties with the Kingdom of the Valley, we would be better protected from the Desert Dwellers, should they try to march against us.”

“It is an unlikely possibility,” Kaiser mused, “but it would be wise nonetheless to plan against such.”

Millstein agreed. “There is one lord in particular that we might do well to seek the aid of,” he said. “Lord Denhelm Germaine.”

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“He is indeed a powerful man,” Kaiser reckoned. “What would you say is his ranking in the kingdom?”

“He is probably the second most powerful man in the Valley, aside from the king himself,” Millstein replied. “He would seek to marry his daughters into the royal household, but his king has no offspring of marrying age. He could hope to do no better for a daughter than to marry her with the King of the Isles.”

“How many daughters does he have?” Kaiser questioned. “Are they attractive?”

“He has three, my Lord, but two are already betrothed. They are all said to be beautiful women, however.”

The old man's face had lit up ridiculously, probably with the hope that his sovereign might actually be heeding his counsel for once. And for at least this one time, Kaiser had no plans to disappoint him.

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“Good,” replied Kaiser. “Send word to Lord Denhelm that I request his daughter’s hand."

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 9: Matthew has a bad day
November 5, 1314

On most days, Matthew Wold felt as if he had it all. Everything in the world that a simple man such as he could desire was his to love and cherish. He had two beautiful young daughters, Clothide and Claudya, who doted on him with the unconditional love that only children could provide. He had a sturdy little house to keep his family safe from the cold, and he had fertile land which could provide plenty of food for his family as well was work for his clumsy hands. Matthew also had a wife, who was as pretty a woman as could exist.

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On most days, Matthew loved his wife. She was sharp and clever and good with words and people, skills that Matthew sorely lacked. She was bold and hard working, frequently helping him out in the fields with nary a complaint. Most days, Matthew could overlook the fact that her sharp tongue lashed out a little too frequently at him in his bumbling ways, and that sometimes that when he just wanted to sit quietly beside her, slightly resting against her warm body, she had to ruin the silence with gossipy words about her neighbors.

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Today was not most days. Today was an unfortunate exception. The sky was dark and overcast, slowly leaking moisture into the air in the same way that snot slowly leaked from the noses of his two sick and wailing daughters. While he had been absent from his fields, tending to his sick offspring, the garden had grown unruly and full of weeds. The hard work was tedious and tiring, and Matthew could not seem to reach the peaceful inner state he so often found himself in when he was working amongst his plants.

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He was angry at himself. He had not gotten enough sleep in recent nights, and as a result, his usual patient nerves were frayed. He had not been able to shrug off the sharp tongue of his wife as usual, and had fallen into snapping at her. He sorely regretted the lack of his usual gentleness, especially since the woman was pregnant. He knew nothing about carrying babies, but it was obviously a very difficult thing, and he deeply regretted losing his patience with the woman who was carrying his child.

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Emotional thing that she so recently was, he reckoned that she was probably inside, crying her poor blue eyes out just now. The thought melted his heart, but he was not yet ready to return in doors to redeem himself. He would have to go and check on her eventually, but for now the garden required all of his attention and he needed to rest his nerves.

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To cheer himself up, he thought that if she perhaps forgave him, then they might go over and visit the Etthledowns after dinner. Mathilde might appreciate the excuse to get out of the house and the children were well enough now that they might play with others again. And he would very much like to be able to talk to Ethelyn. She was perhaps the only who might understand what a rough time he had been having… It would be good for him to talk and get some things off his mind.

Yes, he decided, he would go make up with Mathilde and then they would go visit their friends, and then, perhaps, his day wouldn’t seem quite so bad after all. After he had finished plucking the weeds out of his poor, overgrown garden, he brushed the damp soil off his hands and went inside to console his well beloved wife. His time away from her had done him well and he was feeling back to his usual self.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 10: Father Friedrich finds himself in the Forest
November 27, 1314

Father Friedrich gradually gathered his consciousness. He tried to pull his thoughts together, but they were sticky and thick, stuck in the deep recesses of his mind where dreams were usually kept. As he slowly awoke, he realized that he was not in his bed. In fact, he realized that he was not even indoors.

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Above him shone a few stars, which he could see twinkling through the heavy canopy of the trees. Where was he? He was obviously somewhere in the forest, but the exact specifications of why or how he had come to be there were lost somewhere in his still groggy mind. He pushed his aching body off of the grass which was damp with the dew left by the evening's rainfall. As he painfully stood, he caught movement in the corner of his eye.

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It was then he realized that he was not alone. Before him stood two women, strangely pale and luminescent in the starlight. Although he could not say why, they sent shivers down his spine.

“Who are you?” he inelegantly demanded, forgetting his manners in his sudden fright at being caught at unawares in such a strange situation.

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The icy blonde woman spoke. “Two months ago there was a child born at the nunnery. You were called upon to deliver the sacraments to the dying mother. True?” Her voice was without emotion, as clear and cool as her porcelain skin.

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Father Friedrich’s uneasy feelings multiplied, taking a strong hold in the root of his quivering stomach. The church had not created much fanfare over the infant, believing her to be in danger from the predators that had been chasing her mother. What did these two eerie creatures have to do with the strange woman’s death? Anxiously, he tried to straighten his shoulders, which had hunched closer to his body in fright.

“I will not reveal that information to you,” he replied, trying to keep his normally smooth voice from shaking.

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“You have no choice,” replied the blonde. Her tone was unearthly, startling in its lack of emotion. “If you refuse to cooperate with us, then we shall slit your belly and read your entrails.”

Father Friedrich would have never before thought that someone could threaten death to another human in such a hauntingly detached voice.

“Now, tell us the prophecy the woman made while dying,” she demanded.

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Suddenly Father Friedrich’s brain caught onto the details of what she was saying. “You’re witches!” he hissed, feeling even more frightened at the realization.

The black haired woman smiled evilly at him. “How clever of you,” she drawled. “Now tell us what you know”

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“I know nothing!” he cried. “She spake no prophecy as she died! Only the normal ravings of nonsense that any other person dying in the grips of a fever might say!’ His heart was pounding with a heaviness and rhythm befitting the gallop of a herd of horses.

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“He knows nothing,” the black haired woman asserted. “Kill him, Nicci,” she coolly commanded. "We will find our answers in another manner."

Before he could even react, Father Friedrich felt a thousand sensations of pain ripping through his belly. He screamed, but could make no sound. Before he had even hit the ground, he could feel cold hands plunging into the gaping hole in his stomach, ripping at his innards. The hollow laughter of the black haired witch ringing through the silent forest was the only sound he heard as his soul was ripped from his body.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 11: Catherine Has Some Unexpected Guests
December 1, 1314

“Oh Partrich, did you see? It’s snowing!” Catherine squealed. She happily ran towards his waiting arms, grinning. “It’s been so warm this season, I never thought I would see the snow again!” she exclaimed. “But perhaps we shall have snow for Christmas after all!”

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Lovingly, he smiled at her, though she noticed that he did not seem to be quite his usual self. “What is it?” she asked, the smile suddenly gone from her face.

He chuckled. “There is nothing wrong, so don’t worry,” he reassured her. “I just have news that I know you will not like,” he said. “We have visitors.”

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“Why wouldn’t I like visitors?” she asked, her curiosity effectively piqued. “Unless it’s…” but before she could finish naming her fear, he walked through the door. Cuthbert Rusylvan: the man whose son would marry her daughter.

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“What’s that, Catherine?” he called, pretending to pick out his ears. “Who is it you don’t want to see? Not me and my lovely wife, I hope!” He laughed as he yanked his wife, Rosalyn, through the door.

Catherine plastered a fake smile on her face, hoping that her displeasure was not overly obviously. “How nice to see you both,” she lied. “I’m so pleased to be able to welcome you to our home.” She noted that Rosalyn’s face was covered with a wide grin. Inwardly, she seethed. Obviously, that bumpkin of a woman wasn’t used to such finery as could be found in the Iorvain home. In fact, Catherine thought that it was probable that the little-better-than-a-peasant had never set eyes on anything half as fine as the barest of Catherine’s furnishings.

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As she ushered her guests toward the sitting area, she tried to shoot her husband a “What are they doing here?” type of expression, but he seemed blithely unaware of her attempts to catch his eye.

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However, he did answer her question after they had all been seated. He inclined his head towards their visitors as he addressed her. “Cuthbert and I have to go out today,” he said to her. “There has been a murder out near Black Swamp. We have to go over and take care of things. I thought that it would be best if Rosalyn came here while we’re away. It wouldn’t be safe to leave her by herself.”

“All the way out to Black Swamp?” Catherine protested, “But that’s nowhere near our land! Shouldn’t anything occurring out that way be under the jurisdiction of Lord Baldwin?”

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“He is away for the time,” her husband explained. “The king sent him out to escort his cousins, the Olgdenns here.”

Catherine sighed. She couldn’t think of an excuse to keep her husband at home, but she was not looking forward to being stuck at the keep with only Rosalyn and her children for company. “How long will you be?” she asked.

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“Only a few days,” Cuthbert said. “Although the snow may hold us up a bit,” he speculated.

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Catherine silently cursed the snow and resigned herself to her fate, vowing that after a few days, she would definitely wipe that stupid smile off of Rosalyn’s face.

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[LilyBerg]

I really enjyed reading your story! I love the RKC and I'm planning on starting one myself really soon. :-D I wonder whom the King will marry? And where's the little baby?

[queenrebecca]

Oh my God! A comment! *does a dance*

Thanks for reading!

The baby is safe at the nunnery (for now!) *da da dummm*
And the king's future wife is coming up in the next chapter that I am currently scribbling away at.

But thanks again for dropping by. I'm glad you like it so far!

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 12: The King Makes Many Welcomes
December 2, 1314

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“Good morning, my dear cousins!” King Kaiser exclaimed, throwing his body through the chilly air towards the couch on which his two red-haired cousins sat.

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“Malsom!” he exclaimed, as the other man rose to his feet, “You’re as ugly as always! And Elissa, ever as fair!” he called, while gallantly pulling her to her feet.

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“And you just as stupid!” Elissa laughed, finishing up the old joke.

“’Tis your beauty that has struck me dumb,” he teased.

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“Ah, but ‘tis your own self who's made an ass!” she snorted.

“Oh my darling cousin, why ever didn’t you agree to marry me?” he laughed.

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“Because you were eight years old at the time, if I correctly recall!” she giggled.

He grabbed her pale white hand and kissed it as she continued laughing, her voice filling the chilly room like a small silver bell. “But what if I were to repeat the question to you now?” he teased.

“Well, I suppose I’d say that now you’re too old and stupid to marry me, as opposed to when you were eight and you were too young and too stupid.”

“I notice that you don’t think I’m too ugly!” he chuckled.

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"The beard has made you quite dashing."

“Yes, I thought it might.” He suddenly realized that he had forgotten his manners in his joy to see his cousins. “But I’m sorry!” he exclaimed. “I haven’t even introduced you to Albert here!” he said, jerking his head in the direction of his steward. “Although I see that he seems to have made the acquaintance with your troll of a twin brother.”

Albert apparently heard his name and looked over at him. "My most darling cousin, Elissa," he said, introducing his cousin to his steward. "And don't get any ideas man!" he teased. "Lay one dirty finger on this beautiful darling and it will be the last finger you ever lay on any woman, for I shall chop them all off! All of them, Albert!" he teased.

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His steward winked. "I would never dream of putting any of my dirty fingers anywhere near anything related to you, your majesty. Especially not the particular finger you have in mind."

“My Lord! In the presence of a lady!” he heard a withered old voice exclaim. King Kaiser groaned. “Ah, good morning, Millstein. What can I do for you?”

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His grumpy old advisor sniffed. “You have visitors, my liege.”

“Well bring them in old man! Who is it at this hour anyways?”

“Someone you’ve been longing to meet!” the old man huffed. “Or perhaps not, if I correctly understand the affection you’ve been pouring onto your lovely cousin,” he smirked.

King Kaiser felt a blush sting unbidden to his cheeks. “Not Lord Denhelm and his daughter!”

Millstein curtly jerked his head.

“But they are not due to be arriving for another week!” the king exclaimed. “How on earth did they make such good time in this weather? Lord Denhelm must be ruthless”

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Millstein snorted. “He has a work ethic if that is what you mean, sire. But shall I show your visitors in?”

“Yes, of course, old man! Bring them in!” Kaiser cried. His day was obviously going to be much more interesting than he had planned.

An awkward silence filled the air as soon as Millstein had left the room. Kaiser sighed as Elissa took it upon herself to revive the jesting mood.

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“Find another woman so soon?” she pretended to scoff. “And after only proposing to me five minutes ago!”

Kaiser smiled at her gladly. “Forgive me darling?”

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She did not have time to reply, for at that moment, three unknown figures swept imperiously into the room.

Millstein's dry voice boomed out with the introductions.

“May I present: Lord Denhelm, Duke of Hafring Valley.”

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“Lady Rose, daughter of Lord Camdenn, cousin and lady-in-waiting to your future bride..."

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"... the Lady Alverstine, daughter of Denhelm, soon to be Queen of the Isles”

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[jhd1189]

I'm really enjoying this story, QueenRebecca! I especially like all of the different storylines that you have unfolding at the same time. I can't wait to read more!

[queenrebecca]

Thanks so much jhd1189! I'm glad that you like it!

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 13: Alverstine Finds a Flower in Place of a Maid
December 2, 1314

Finally she could be alone. It had been a horrifyingly long day for one so weary, surrounded by the people who would one day be her only friends and acquaintances in this kingdom that was so far away from her own homeland and family.

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Soon she would be married to the man that she had spent most of the day with, and the prospect gave her heart a faint tingle. He was a handsome man, and very jolly, with light hair that reminded her of the hay that lay stacked and gleaming in green fields after a rain. He had a broad smile and friendly brown eyes that crinkled pleasantly when he smiled. She imagined that it would not be hard to fall in love with the man and hoped that he also thought favorably of her.

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Sighing, she let her shoulders drop. Soon a maid would come through the door to help her unlace her heavy dress, but for now, she could relax in her solitude. She had been waiting all day for this moment, and the moments after the maid had left when she would be allowed to fall against the soft sheets of the bed and drift to sleep and she sunk into the feather mattress.

After a few moments of her stolen peace, there was knock on the solid door. Reluctantly she rose and opened the door. But instead of seeing the random face of a strange maid that she had never met, she recognized the face of her own friend, cousin, and lady-in-waiting, Rose, who slipped through the door and walked over to the fireplace, absently patting her swollen stomach.

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“Rose! What are you doing here?”

Rose mischievously smiled and then winked at her. “I convinced your maid to bugger off so that I could come and chat without her in the way.”

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Alverstine ignored her cousin’s coarse language. There was often a sharp inconsistency of Rose’s angelic appearance and her vulgar words and daring actions.

“You should probably be in bed Rose,” Alverstine reprimanded. Her cousin was, after all, several months along in her pregnancy. It would have probably have been better for her to have stayed at home, instead of accompanying Alverstine to her new life, but things had been hard for Rose in their homeland since her husband had unexpectedly died.

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“In a few minutes,” Rose replied, scrunching up her pretty face and waving her hand as if to dissipate any corporeal form of Alverstine’s concern. “I wanted to see how you were doing first. But before we talk, let me help you out of that gown.” She walked behind Alverstine and let the laces of the tight dress loose. Alverstine immediately took a gulp of air, free of the constricting cloth.

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After she was more comfortably dressed in her soft, lacy nightgown, Rose helped her pull out all of the sharp pins that had been binding the long and silky cords of her thick dark hair.

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“So,” began Rose as she gently pried the pins from Alverstine's hair, “how are you holding up?”

Alverstine smiled warmly at her friend. “I’m tired, but probably not half as tired as you, pregnant as you are. I can’t imagine how weary you must feel, lugging all of that extra weight around.”

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“Soon you will know,” Rose sagely cautioned. “You will be married yourself in a matter of weeks, and then it won’t take long at all for you to have your own little one on the way.”

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Alverstine smiled at the thought, even though the idea of the children she might one day have was still too vague to take firm hold in her mind. Her children, who would be princes and princess of a kingdom! She, who would soon the queen... How strange the thoughts!

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 14: Rossi Slips
December 3, 1314

Rosalyn sat with Catherine on a stiff bench in one of the upper story sitting rooms near the nursery. The room was quiet, except for the giggling of the little girls on the floor. Catherine had scarcely said a word to Rosalyn, but that did not bother her very much at all. She knew that the other woman did not like her very much and only tolerated her presence out of courtesy, but if she were honest with herself, Rosalyn knew that she did not need friends.

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She had never really had very many girlfriends before she married Cuthbert, and she certainly didn’t have any after. Cuthbert did not like her to leave the house and guarded her social interactions very closely and very jealously.

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“Your children are certainly very beautiful, Rosalyn,” Catherine whispered, interrupting the silence. Rosalyn noticed the strange longing in Catherine’s voice. Probably the other woman was thinking of her own daughter, who was meant to marry Ioreck, the oldest of Rosalyn’s sons. Maybe, like Rosalyn, she was thinking of the grandchildren she would one day have: the grandchildren which would be a mixture of their own children, reflections of their mothers and grandmothers and so on.

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Rosalyn surprised herself. “You may call me Rossi,” she blurted in a strange moment of compassion. The formality with which Catherine usually handled their interactions did not bother her, so she was surprised at her own slip into warmth. “I would say it’s what my friends call me,” she clarified, “but I don’t really have very many friends...” Rosalyn felt a warm blush bloom into her cheeks. Somehow that had come out the wrong way.

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Catherine looked uncomfortable at the admission and shifted nervously in her seat. After clearing her throat nervously, Catherine once again broke the awkward silence. “Our husbands should return sometime today.”

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“Oh I hope not!” Rosalyn cried. Once again she had let slip an embarrassing admission. She retroactively slipped her hand over her mouth, but obviously, Catherine had still heard her outburst.

“Why ever not?” Catherine asked. It was obvious from the inflection of her tone that she was completely scandalized.

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Rosalyn rushed to explain. “It’s just that I don’t get out of the house much.” She sighed, hoping that Catherine would forget what she had let slip. She had never meant to reveal so much about her lonely life. She blamed it on the wine. She would have to avoid drinking so much in the future if she wanted to retain any handle on her secrets.

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[Cinamun]

Okay this is REALLY good. I love your lighting and the storylines!

[queenrebecca]

Thanks for the compliments Cinamun! I'm glad that you are enjoying it :)

[FurryPanda]

This is really good. I haven't seen a lot of good feudalism era stories... anywhere, especially in a medium as restrictive as the sims. Read: Your pictures are awesome. The story is so good too, I really enjoyedd reading it. Even though you don't write a lot of words you get your point across and make your characters come off the screen. *claps appreciatively*

[queenrebecca]

Hello FurryPanda! Thanks for reading. I really appreciate you taking the time to comment!

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 15: Nicci Learns the Words
December 10, 1314

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Nicolette sat. Patiently she waited, curled into her chair like a spider waiting in its web. Her back was stiff from sitting motionless for so long, but she ignored her discomfort and cleared her mind, to better concentrate on the sound that she heard coming from outside It had the sound of a piece of cloth, a skirt, furling in the biting wind.

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The door opened. Mathim walked inside, shaking the snow out of her raven dark hair. She was not alone. Behind her walked a chubby nun, clearly confused at being led so far into the woods.

She peered around. “I wasn’t aware that anyone lived so far out in these woods,” she babbled.

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“Now you know,” replied Nicolette, for Mathim looked in no mood for speech.

“The sick woman?” the nun prodded. “You said there was a woman dying in childbirth and you needed me to perform the rights?” She smiled nervously, looking back and forth from Nicolette to Mathim.

Nicolette gracefully rose from her uncomfortable seat. Mathim slid between the nun and the door, closing it without a sound.

“There is no sick woman here,” Nicolette replied smoothly. “We just wanted to talk to you.”

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The nun backed herself into a corner. “What do you want from me?”

“Only information,” Nicolette smiled. “You may remember that, several months ago, there was a woman who had a baby in your nunnery.” She waited for the nun to nod before she continued. “We simply need to know what that woman said as she was dying.”

“Mostly nonsense,” the nun replied. “I… didn’t think she said anything important.”

“There is nothing that stood out to you?” Nicolette probed, using her smoothest voice.

“Well, there was something she said that quite frightened me,” the nun admitted.

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“Just tell us what it is and we’ll let you go,” Nicolette promised, but the ice hard edge to her voice betrayed the lie.

“Something about the third king… and something,” the woman mumbled, frantically looking around the room.

“Word for word,” Mathim suddenly growled. "or you'll I will kill you right now!"

The woman’s trembling knees betrayed her as she sunk to the floor. “Alright, alright!” the nun pleaded. “I do remember because it quite frightened me! I’ll tell you,but please, don’t kill me!” she blubbered. “Among some… other things, which I really don’t think made any sense, she suddenly sat up and said ‘The third son of the third son made king shall bring down destruction upon the Kingdom of the Isles.’ And that is all I remember, I swear! I only remember that much because I didn’t understand what she was talking about!”

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“And where is the baby?” Nicolette inquired.

“At the nunnery!” the nun squeaked. “We intend to raise her there!”

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“Kill her, Nicci,” Mathim commanded.

“But!... You said…!” the nun squeaked.

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“If you told us, you may tell others,” Nicolette explained as she grabbed the woman by her elbow, bringing her body higher so that she could slice into the woman's torso with the knife she had suddenly flicked into her hand. Though she maintained a cool demeanor, she inwardly shuddered at the way the knife passed so easily through the woman’s loose flesh. She did not particularly enjoy the sensation of killing chubby nuns with knives.

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The woman fell to the floor with a thud, dead before she even touched the ground.

“And now I suppose you want me to rip her guts out, too?” Nicolette snarled.

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Mathim gave her a thin-lipped evil smile and nodded.

Nicolette bent resentfully down to her knees to inspect the corpse, ready to root around in the warm and wet flesh, searching for the answers that were written in the dead woman’s blood. But before she could put her hand into the woman’s sticky innards, she noticed a strange light emanating from the corpse. “Something’s wrong!” she hissed at Mathim. But even as she pronounced the words, Nicolette could see the woman’s body fading from sight, fading out of existence. It was obvious that a spell had been placed on her, specifically to prevent others from reading any message her remains might hold.

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Mathim slammed her fist on the table. “Who would do this?” she growled. “Who?”

“Let’s worry about that later,” Nicolette rationed. “First let’s go get the child.”

“No!” cried Mathim. “I want answers! We have a journey to make. The child will be protected in our absence.”

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Nicolette felt a low growl sound in her throat. “You promised her to me!” she hissed.

“And you shall have her!” Mathim snarled. “But this matter is more pressing. The baby shall be safe at the nunnery, Nicci! And you shall come with me!”

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Nicolette quavered under Mathim’s deadly gaze, and grabbed her cloak, preparing herself for an unpleasant journey with her angry mistress.

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 16: A Royal Wedding
January 1, 1315

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Perrigwen watched in awe as the bride walked down the isle. Lady Alverstine looked absolutely gorgeous in her bridal gown. Gorgeous was a word that she loved to think about. She had only learned it a few days ago and felt a little thrill to see that she could use it so correctly even in her thoughts.

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One day, she would be able to get dressed up all fancy and walk down an isle in a big pretty cathedral and get married, too. And she would be gorgeous! And her husband would be gorgeous! She didn't now how she could ever bear to wait so long....She was so excited!

And she would be excited when she finally met the man that she was going to marry. She knew that she was betrothed to someone, but she had never met him. Her mother kept telling her that they would be able to meet soon so that Perri could dream about her future husband. She did already dream about him, even though it was hard, since she didn’t know what he looked like. But if he looked anything like his mother, Rossi, then she would be ever so thrilled! Rossi was one of the most gorgeous women she had ever seen. Surely someone so gorgeous would have a gorgeous son as well.

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And she would be able to find out today what he was like, if only she could see over all of the heads in the pews behind her! She tried to peer around her should to look at the guests, but she could not see her betrothed, who she knew for a fact to be sitting on one side of Rossi, who was in the very vack. He was apparently too short to be glimpsed over everyone else.

She sighed, but didn’t know if seeing him or watching the royal wedding was more exciting. After weighing it in her mind, she decided the wedding was, since she’d be able to finally meet her betrothed after the wedding mass, but after the wedding mass, she would not be able to watch the wedding.

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As she turned her attention back to the ceremony, she sighed again, happily this time. They were in the middle of saying their vows. Perri thought that it was just the most romantic thing. The part about being together in love until death really sent a pleasant shiver down her spine. One day someone would love her like that!

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Soon they finished the vows and were to perform the most important part of the wedding. The kiss! Perrigwen wanted to giggle, the gorgeous romance of it almost overwhelming her.

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Finally their lips met and she wanted to cry with joy. They looked so very much in love, she thought. It was good sign to her, because they had been betrothed without knowing each other first just like she was now! Of course, King Kaiser was handsome. She didn’t know what to expect of her own husband. Perhaps he would be just as dashing and charming as the king! She smiled happily to herself. Now that was something to daydream about!

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 17: Perri Meets Her Match
January 1, 1315

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The second that she had arrived at the party, Perri had let her eyes flash out over the faces, searching like a beacon trying to locate Rossi. The wedding mass had finally ended, and it was time for the feast at Lord Baldwin’s castle in celebration of the newlyweds. Perri had tried to find Rossi and her betrothed the second mass had ended, but her mother had made her stay put while she had chatted with her friends.

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Finally Perri found Rossi in the crowd. And there, in the corner beside her was her future husband. Her heart fluttered. She ran forward, breaking away from her parents, in a rush to finally meet him. Before she had even reached him, she shouted from across the room.

“Hey! You’re my husband!” That got his attention.

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Immediately his brow crumpled and he wrinkled his nose. “I think you must be mistaken,” he huffed. “I am no one’s husband as I am quite too young to be married.”

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Perrigwen stopped in her tracks. “You’re Ioreck, right?”

He nodded. “But that does not make me your husband.”

“It was a joke, stupid! What I meant was that you will be my husband one day.”

He turned his nose up at her. “Well then say what you mean and don’t be an idiot.”

“Well maybe you’re the idiot for misunderstanding then!” Perri yelled.

“At least I’m not an idiot with red hair the color of tomatoes!” he taunted.

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Perri ran forward at him, thinking to grab him by the neck and choke him with her bare hands. “Take that back!” she cried. “My hair is not the color of tomatoes!”

“Well, fine then, it’s the color of carrots,” he said. “And carrots are quite disgusting.”

“Well I think you’re disgusting,” she countered.

“Well that’s damn fine with me. I’ll leave then.” He brushed by her shoulder as he did just that.

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Perrigwen suddenly found herself alone with a few problems, just as the baron announced that dinner was served. By some miracle, she managed to wedge herself in between two magnificent and gorgeous grown-up ladies. She had a lot on her mind and she wanted to discuss some things with women who were not her mother.

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She began with Queen Alverstine. “Your wedding was very gorgeous,” she said as the new queen beamed at her. “and so I need to ask for some advice about my wedding.”

The queen kept smiling, so Perri kept talking. “I need to know what I should do if my future husband is an idiot.”

Ioreck snorted at her from across the table. “Like I’ll ever marry you!” he rolled his eyes.

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Perri turned back to the queen. “See what I mean?”

Obviosuly, the queen was amused, but she only said, “I don’t know if I can help you with that, my dear! I do not have very much experience in the matter, myself.” She smiled at her new husband.

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It was then that Perri was struck with how unlike the other men Ioreck was. Sure they were older, and therefore many times more attractive and dashing and gallant, but he just couldn’t compare. She sighed.

Since the queen couldn’t answer her first question, she thought to seek a different source for the second. “Rose, what does ‘damn’ mean?”

Rose almost chocked on her food. “Where did you hear that?” she laughed.

Since Rose was laughing, Perri figured it must be a funny word… or a bad word she shouldn’t know. She didn’t want Ioreck to take the credit for some funny joke, but on the other hand, she did want him to get in trouble if he had said something he shouldn’t have.

“Ioreck said it when I told him he was disgusting,” she confessed.

“Ah then,” said Rose knowingly, “it is a word that little boys might say when they see a pretty girl they like.”

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Perrigwen snorted. “Come on, Rose, I’m not a child! What does it mean?” She was anxious to get to the bottom of the mystery, especially if she got a new vocabulary word out of the deal.

Rose laughed some more. “It’s just something people say when they get angry sometimes. But it’s not for little girls to say.” She winked, “At least not if their mothers are around!”

Perrigwen liked the sound of that. Damn. What a gorgeous word! She couldn’t wait to test it out on Ioreck. He’d probably make her angry again before the night was even out! The thought seemed like a bright spot in her night. At least that would be something she’d have to look forward to if she married that idiot. Lots of new and interesting words!

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 18: Matthew Returns to the Cold
February 18, 1315

The inside of the house was warm and cozy. The fire was burning low in the hearth, but the heat of it still filled the room. It rubbed and purred over Matthew’s skin like an affectionate cat, and settled deep into his bones, where it relaxed his body even further. He was incredibly drowsy, but he knew it was almost time that he should get up and go home. It was late. Very late. He didn’t even know what time it was at all, in fact.

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But loosing track of time was just a side effect of visiting with Ethelyn. They just got so wrapped up in talking that neither one of them could ever seem to figure out where all the time went. Ethelyn’s husband was a fisher, so he was often gone out to sea, and she was often lonely for adult ears to talk to. Matthew, too, was frequently lonely, even though he didn’t know why since his wife talked enough for both of them put together.

Maybe that was why after all. Sometimes Matthew just didn’t like to talk. He liked to sit quietly down and not talk at all. Talking always interrupted whatever it was he was always trying to find when he sat down to … not talk. When it was quiet like that, he felt like he was close to finding something special. Something that not too many people knew about. He’d be so close to finding it and then Mathilde would talk and ruin it. The whatever-it-was he was about to discover would just fly right away from his outstretched hand like a frightened bird flying for freedom.

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Things were different with Ethel, though. He could sit and not talk with her or, if he preferred, he could sit and talk with her. For some reason, he always seemed to prefer the talking with Ethel instead of the not talking. Maybe it was because he never talked to anybody but her and so he always had so much to tell her. He didn’t know, but it just felt nice to be around someone who understood him.

They were sitting together now, on her wooden bench before the fire, watching it dance in the hearth. She sighed. “Matthew, why do you think you ever did marry Mathilde? I’m sorry to ask,” she blushed. “It’s just with all what you’ve been saying tonight, sometimes I wonder why you got together at all.” She saw the expression on his face and apologized in her gentle, sweet voice. “I’m sorry Matthew. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

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He looked slowly over at her. “Well, she came right after Jesca died, you know.” He explained even as his heart broke internally. It still hurt thinking about his first wife, Jesca, who had died before he had even really got the chance to know her. He had just seen her and fell in love one day when they were both 17. A few months later they had been married. It hadn’t taken much to convince her pa to let her marry him. Now Matthew regretted it. If he never would have married her, she never would have died giving birth to his child, a daughter, he’d named Joan, who died only a few short weeks later.

His voice croaked, but he continued explaining to Ethel. “Everyone knew how bad I was hurting when Jesca died, and I needed help with the baby. Mathilde came over to help me out one day, and somehow, she just never left…” He sighed. He did love his wife. She was as dependable and strong a woman as he had ever known. If only she were a little bit less talkative…

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“Thank you for telling me, Matthew,” Ethel whispered. “I was just trying to understand some things.”

He pushed himself up. “I suppose it’s time for me to get going, anyways, Ethel.”

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“Yes, I suppose it is, Matthew. It was right nice having you come over tonight. I always do enjoy having our little talks. Bertram doesn’t like to hear much about my garden or my plants, it’s nice of you to always lend an ear.”

“Anytime, Ethel,” he sighed as he made it to the door. As he opened it, the freezing air rushed all around him, pulling off all of the warmth he’d accumulated in Ethel’s cottage. It was very regretfully that he shut the door and the little warm fire behind him as he trudged out into the icy night back to his own home.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 19: Mathilde is Not Herself
February 21, 1315

It was a very hesitant knock that Mathilde heard on her door as Kathrope Millhead gently tapped on the wooden frame. Sighing heavily at the intrusion that prevented her from sharing her gossip with Ethel, she lifted her heavy body off the ground and plodded towards the door.

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“But no! Let me!” cried Ethel in that saccharine voice she had. Mathilde hated how soft-spoken the other woman was. If it weren’t for the fact that Ethelyn’s cottage was so close down the road, she doubted that they would have ever been friends. She liked boldness in her acquaintances, not meekness, and boldness Ethelyn did not have. Of course, neither did her husband and she had chosen him, deliberately put him into her life. That didn’t make sense.

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She opened the door. “Come in, Kathrope,” she said politely, though her voice was a little strained, considering the squirming bundle that Kathrope held in her hands and supported on her hip.

“I see you’ve brought Gully,” Kathrope said through pursed lips. She did not like Kathrope's strange child.

“I know, Mathilde, I’m sorry!” she apologized. “I was just looking for Ethelyn and her boys said that she’d come over here. Cammina is in some sort of pain, Ethelyn, she thinks she might loose the baby, but it don’t hurt her too bad yet, so we’re not too worried. But could you come see about her?”

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Even though she said that she was not worried, it was easy to tell that the situation with her daughter had her quite flustered. There had been quite a lot of bad things said about the Millhead family lately, what with their oldest daughter getting pregnant and shaming the family. Mathilde ought to know all about what people were saying, especially since she was the one saying the most.

“Well you ought to have watched her more carefully, Kathrope!” she lectured.

Kathrope turned toward her, “What are you talking about, Mathilde?”

Mathilde laughed. “Probably everything. You should have watched your oldest daughter more closely and not let her become some slut. You should have watched her better when she got pregnant to make sure she didn’t hurt the baby, and then maybe she wouldn’t be miscarrying right now. Probably you did something stupid yourself though when you were pregnant with that thing! I don’t see why else she’d turn out like that.”

Mathilde watched as Kathrope clutched her child more tightly to her chest. “Mind your own business Mathilde,” Kathrope growled.

Mathilde laughed. “Now that’s why I do like you, Kathrope. You aren’t afraid to stand up for yourself. Well… except against your husband, I mean.”

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This time it was Ethelyn who glared at her. “What has gotten into you, Mathilde?” she cried. “Leave the poor woman alone, now! She has got enough worries without you making them worse.” She frowned and then sighed as her voice trembled. “This isn’t like you at all," she said as she followed Kathrope out the door.

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It truly wasn’t like her... But she kind of liked it… Asserting her opinions… Making things interesting. Life did tend to be incredibly dull when one was stuck at home all day with no one to talk to but children and a man who preferred to sit by himself and not talk! And anyways, the tone in Ethelyn's voice had been priceless! Such melodramatic heartbreak! She snorted as she lowered her heavy body onto the couch.

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[FurryPanda]

Awwww, I really like Perri! She's adorable! And is it just me or does Mathilde really resemble one of the witches? Wonderful to read this as always, and to you I say update again soon and happy simsing!

[queenrebecca]

HAH! Yeah she does resemble the witch! I didn't notice that but maybe that's why I keep making her so act mean...x_X I think I'll change her hair now... hmm.

I loooove Perri,too! She's just so cute! So she's gonna get lots and lots of screen time in this story ^_^

Anyways, thanks for reading/commenting/actually liking it and all that jazz ;)

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 20: Perrigwen Doesn’t Grow A Year In A Day
March 4, 1315

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“It’s mah birthday! It’s mah birthday!” Perrigwen hollered as she raced around the room with Ellynmere. “I’m finally ten years old!”

Ellyn stopped running to laugh at her. “It hardly makes a difference, you know!”

“What do you mean?” Perri glared.

“You’re only one day older than you were yesterday,” Ellyn rationed. “I know. I just had my tenth birthday a few weeks ago. And I didn’t feel any different at all, even though I had two numbers in my age. Do you?”

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Perrigwen concentrated on herself. She didn’t feel smarter. She didn’t feel taller. She was, indeed, unchanged. “Well damn! Ellyn! Ruin it for me!” she cried, although she was thrilled at the opportunity to be able to showoff her curse words in front of her friend.

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“You’re not sposed to say that, Perri,” Ellyn warned, although she didn’t look as impressed as Perri had hoped.

“Why not? It’s just a word!” Perri pouted. “Words aren’t bad!”

“It’s just not lady-like,” Ellyn persisted.

“Well Rose says it all the time!” Perri countered. “And she’s a real lady, too! So if me and Rose are both ladies, and we say damn… or worse! It must be lady-like! So there!”

“Oh pleeeeease Perri! Using grown-up words doesn’t make you a grown-up! You are so silly!” Ellen drawled.

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“Well, you know that I am engaged,” Perri said, drawing out the last word imperiously.

“What does that prove?” asked Ellyn. “All it means is that you have to marry some boy who told you that your hair looks like tomatoes. Doesn’t sound very pleasant at all to me…”

Perri huffed, but she had no argument.

“That’s what I thought,” she asserted. “I do like Ioreck, though,” she confided. “I don’t know why you don’t.”

“Because he is an evil stupid boy, that’s why!”

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“He’s not evil,” Ellynmere sighed with the wisdom of an old woman, “you’re just too sensitive. So what if he thinks your hair looks like someone ate carrots and tomatoes and puked them all out over your head? He’s just teasing.”

“Puked them out over my head!” Perri cried. “When did he say that!”

“It’s just an example, so stay with me here. What I’m saying is don’t be such a baby about it when he teases you. It’s just what boys do. They don’t mean nothing by it.”

“Of course you’d say that,” Perri whined. “Everybody likes you! I bet Ioreck never teases you!”

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“Of course he does, don’t be silly,” she said, exasperated. “I am just smart enough to know not to take him seriously.”

Perri rolled her eyes at her friend. “This being betrothed stuff isn’t as romantic as I thought.”

“Sure it is,” Ellyn soothed. “You can be like the princess who turns the wild knight good!”

Perri thought it over. “That could work. Ioreck does seem wild, don’t you think?” she said excitedly. “And I could be the one to bring out his good side! That’d be sooo romantic!” she swooned.

Ellyn tapped her finger to her lip, thinking. “I don’t know though, cause the princess has to be nice.”

“What!?” Perri roared. “I’m nice!”

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“Sure, sure, but you have such a temper!”

Perrigwen took a moment to assess herself. Ok… maybe she might have a slight temper problem. But it was easier to take it out on Ellyn than to try to fix the problem so she huffed “What do you care about romance for, anyways? You never cared nothing about it before!”

Ellyn sighed. “I don’t care now,” she said. “I was only mentioning it since you seem to care about it soooo soooo much. I think its silly to go chasing after boys!”

“Oh Ellyn, you are such a child,” Perri said exasperated. “You need to mature a lot.”

“Maybe you need to mature a lot, Perri,” Ellyn sagely cautioned. “You just seem even younger when you try to act like a grown up lady.”

Perrigwen glared at her friend, confident in the knowledge that she was utterly wrong about who was more mature than whom. “Whatever, let’s go get some cake for my birthday,” she said to end the conversation.

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[FurryPanda]

You're very welcome! And thank YOU for writing an excellent story! I imagine that its a lotmore work for you to write something this good than for me to enjoy it.

And there's no connection between Mathilde and the witches? i was so convinced that she and Aethelis (is that her name? the other peasant-seeming one, blonde, i don't think it was Aethelis actually but whoever's name it was escapes me) were actually the witches.

Congratulations on twenty chapters, update soon, and happy simsing!

[queenrebecca]

Yeah, Aethelis is her name but they are not witches.Mathilde is just a bitch, not a witch. (ha ha ha, I'm so corny I just crack myself up!) Good theory though. I should have thought of something like that! Oh well, there is some important stuff up with the witches and that kid though, but it will probably be a while before all is revealed... *cue mysterious music*

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 21: Matthew Hears A Scream
March 7, 1315

A scream ripped through the air. Matthew’s heart pounded as he followed the sound. He ran out of his daughters’ playroom at a gallop, but time seemed to be standing still. Mathilde was screaming and the sound was like nothing he had ever heard before. It ripped through the air, piercing through his flesh, piercing through his heart and soul, ripping his insides the way no blade ever could. He had never heard a more terrifying scream. It was like the shriek of an animal dying, not a human sound.

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“The baby!” Mathilde managed to wail. He needed no further explanation. He grabbed her off of her feet before she could collapse on the floor and hauled her as gently and as quickly as he could manage over to their bed.

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Her shift was wet and warm and he did not even need to look at his hands to see that they were dripping with her blood. He yelled for his oldest daughter.

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“Clothide go get Ethel now!” he yelled. He saw the panic in his daughter’s eyes, but she raced away anyways, tearing out of the cottage door without even bothering to grab her cloak.

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Mathilde wailed as she squirmed on the bed. She could not even force words to come out of her parted lips. He looked frantically around the room, wondering what he could do to help. It was so like the scene he had witnessed eight years ago, when his first wife had lain shrieking on the bed. But even her screams had not contained the piercing power that Mathilde’s now did. Something was terribly, terribly wrong, and all that he could do was wait.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 22: Matthew is Overcome
March 7, 1315

The sun was hanging low in the sky, letting blood red light spill in through the windows. Matthew sat, face buried in his calloused hands. He couldn’t think straight. It had been hours and hours since Ethelyn had arrived. As soon as she’d taken a look at Mathilde, she had sent him immediately off to fetch some more ladies to help. They wouldn’t let him into the room where she lie on the bed, drowning in pain and blood. He knew no more about what was happening in that room than her screams could tell him.

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She had been silent for a long time. What was happening? Had she already died, the same way the Jesca had? Silently and slowly, as her body just gave out from the strain? Or had she died in one violent instant, filled with all the accumulative pain of all of those hours she spent tossing and screaming on the bed?

The door creaked open. Ethel slid out. “Matthew,” she said quietly, holding up her hand to stop the flood of anxious questions that had risen to his mouth the moment he had risen to his feet. “She lives.”

“And the baby?”

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She smiled. “Babies,” she corrected. “Twin girls, both healthy and strong. But Matthew I have to tell you something…”

But he wasn’t listening. In a moment that passed as quickly as lightening, flashing through the sky, relief and happiness poured into the soul that Matthew thought had been drained empty of life. The world grew suddenly sharper and more beautiful. The light that he had only earlier named as blood colored, he now saw as rose. It fell upon Ethel’s face, curving over the blossom of her soft cheeks, illuminating the delicate skin that he imagined would feel as soft as a rose petal.

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He grabbed her and pressed his lips to hers, molding his to fit the soft mounds of her lips. Overflowing with happiness, his mouth searched hers, planting kiss after kiss onto her warm skin.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 23: Ethelyn is Overcome
March 7, 1315

It had ended before Ethelyn could even begin to think about what had happened. Matthew looked at her, obviously embarrassed. “I’m so sorry, Ethel,” he said, his voice soft and deep, sliding through the space between them. His voice felt like cool water on her skin, washing away the heat of the blush that had stolen over her features. “I’m just so happy!” he grinned, no longer looking apologetic. “May I see her now?”

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“Yes… go ahead in,” she finally replied. She sat down on the bench he had occupied just moments before. She was tormented. She had done nothing wrong, so why was she being punished? Until thirty seconds ago, she had thought herself to be happily married. And now, now she knew that she was not. Her husband was a good man, a solid man, who loved her and respected her. What had happened to so suddenly make her believe that she had wanted to be in Matthew’s arms and not her husband’s?

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She felt close to tears, confused and upset. And Matthew! He had just left, as if nothing had happened, leaving her to deal with the emotional rebuttal. She let the darkness of twilight wash over her. The warmth of the sunlight soon faded from the room, but she lit no candles. Instead she got up and walked out, just in time to hear Matthew call out her name.

She pretended not to hear as she left the warm house walked out into the chilly twilight.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 24: Alverstine is Overjoyed
April 1, 1315

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“I’m ready to retire, Kaiser,” Alverstine said quietly to her king. He only grunted at her and then turned back to his conversation.

She didn't know why she had expected more of a reply. Of course he didn’t pay any attention to her! He was busy talking to that ever-present redheaded vixen, Elissa. She was always, always present at the castle, and always flirting with Alverstine’s new husband. Kaiser said that she was “only his cousin,” but Alverstine was no fool. No one spent that much time with another person out of sheer family duty.

She glared at him, but he didn’t notice that, either. She turned to Rose. “I would like to retire now.”

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Rose tore her eyes away from Albert, who was amusing everyone with another one of his debaucheries: a tale of how he had met some peasant girl one night and this and this ensued and thus and thus happened. Alverstine did not find such stories particularly amusing. Rose did, however, so Alverstine was grateful that she looked over.

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"Is something wrong?" she asked.

“I’m not feeling well, Rose,” she explained, hoping that Rose would ask her why.

But Rose only nodded and they both rose from their seats and left the room, after giving their goodnights to everyone else.

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After they had left the crowded room, Rose snorted. “Does your not feeling well have anything to do with his majesty’s rather vivacious ‘only a cousin’?”

“Well she doesn’t help matters much,” Alverstine sulked. “But I haven’t felt well at all today, or yesterday either.” She waited but Rose still didn't catch on as to why.

“If it makes you feel better, the poor man is oblivious to her,” Rose said. “He honestly doesn’t realize what she’s trying to do.”

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“I don’t think I even know what she’s trying to do!” Alverstine huffed. “He is already married to me. What can she hope to get out of him?”

Rose cleared her throat and grinned. “Well there are plenty of other services a man might provide," she suggested.

Alverstine frowned. “Well as he’s my husband, those services should be exclusively provided for me.”

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“Be that as it may, my dearie, it won’t stop some women from looking.”

Alverstine snorted. “Some women! You’re one of those women!”

Rose grinned wolfishly. “But never would I be looking for it from your husband, dear!”

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“Let us hope not,” Alverstine said with a wry smile. “She is enough of a problem for me. I don’t need to have to watch you, too.”

“You already watch me,” Rose pointed. “You’re always trying to make sure I don’t get myself into trouble!”

“Well someone certainly has to do it,” Alverstine sighed. “Heaven knows what kind of trouble you’d be into by now if you hadn’t had me to watch over your whole life.”

“I know, dearie, I know. ‘Tis your own sweet self that has saved me from far too many predicaments as it is.” She stopped, hugging Alverstine warmly. “And I do thank you for it.”

“I only wish I could have saved you from this,” she said, patting Rose’s bulging belly.

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Rose laughed. “Think that was an accident, do you dearie?”

This time it was Alverstine who stopped in her tracks. “You didn’t!”

“I’m a big girl, love, and none too stupid. I knew what I was doing.”

Alverstine rubbed her forehead. “Apparently I should have been watching you a bit more closely.”

“Oh don’t worry. I got everything I wanted…”

Alverstine chocked. “I’m sorry! I can’t,” and with that she clapped a hand over her mouth and ran down the hall, towards the washroom.

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Rose ran after her. “Problems, dear?”

Alverstine couldn’t reply as she was busy vomiting over a basin.

After she felt better, Rose helped her wash off with a damp cloth and sent her off to bed. Even though her husband was downstairs, still laughing and joking and flirting with Elissa, Alverstine was ecstatic. Now she was sure she was pregnant! Pleasant thoughts wrapped around her like a blanket as she quickly fell asleep.

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[FurryPanda]

Oh good! Wasn't the king worried about getting an heir? Nice that she's preggers then.
And poor Ethylyn, that would be so awkward. Really curious to see where you go with that.
And babies! Awwwwww, pics plz?
So yep, update soon and happy simsing!

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 25: Aethelis Is Empty
April 15, 1315

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As she slowly woke, Aethelis instinctively knew that something horrible had happened. Her heart ached with a fierce intensity, each dull beat of it carving more of a hollow into her heavy chest. Her face was stiff with the feeling of tears that had dried without being wiped away. The salt of them still clung to the corners of her mouth. And though she couldn’t remember why, her eyes once again brimmed, burning with the saline liquid of tears that had already seared at her burning skin.

In a rush, she remembered and the weight of her sorrow crashed even more heavily onto her already crushed chest. The baby was dead. Stillborn. After so many miscarriages, she had dared to hope that this time would be different. For nine months, she had been carrying a child, praying for it to live, going on each day with a bit more hope and a bit more hope. For nine months she had carried a child, while her hope, like her stomach had grown everyday… grown and flourished until it became a mountain of dreams. And only then, when it had reached the pinnacle of faith, had it all come falling down on her, piece by ragged, stony piece.

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Aethelis had been married for twelve years. In that time, she had born 2 children. One who lived, one who died. She had lost another three to miscarriages and now one she had born one already dead.

She had known that something was wrong days before. She had been going all day about her normal business, washing and folding linens, sweeping the floor, preparing meals… And then suddenly, she had noticed that there had been no movement at all inside of her stomach. The usual sensation of her baby moving and kicking had suddenly disappeared without warning. She didn’t tell a soul that day, even though her heart was racing in a nervous unsteady gallop, sending blood to pound thick and heavy through her veins. She had still dared to hope that everything would turn out to be ok…

The next day, when the contractions had started, she had felt a surge of relief, even through the blinding razor sharp pain. The baby was coming, after all. She had gone through labor calmly, almost peacefully until she had seen the faces of the midwife after it was over. She knew. She knew by the faces of the women who crowded into the room. They had been overcome by sympathy, by grief. Many of them had experienced the same thing.

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She knew and in that instant, the grief had suffocated her. She had chocked out racking sobs until her weakened body had quaked uncontrollably. Now she was too tired to cry any longer. Her heart was broken.

In the next room, she could hear the sniffles of her only living child. Poor Ellyn, who cried whenever anyone else around her did! She was so sympathetic to those in need… So sweet and gentle and generous… Aethelis didn’t know why she had need anyone else when she had her darling little Ellyn. She was so silly to be crying in bed, wrapped up in her own pain when her wee little daughter was suffering too! And yet, somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to stop. Aethelis felt empty of anything but pain. She couldn't yet face the day, nor the cruel light of dawn, so she pulled the coverlet back over her head, alone with her sorrow.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 26: Ethelyn Can’t Say No
May 1, 1315

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“Ethel!” his voice rang out, clear across the grounds, washing into her ears like a silken wave of water. Clear and cool, it washed over her, enveloping her heart and soul. She could not help but to turn around as her heart hammered wildly. She had avoided him for so long! It had been almost two months since the birth of his daughters and the last time that she had seen him.

Not that he hadn’t tried to see her! He’d come hammering on her door many a day since the eve when she’d delivered his babies, and she’d always send her littlest son, Bertie, out to him to say “Ma has a headache, so she can’t see you today,” or some other such lies. Ethel hated lying, but what was she to do? She couldn’t trust herself around him anymore at all! Such thoughts she had of him late at night when she was curled up against her own husband’s side!

She felt traitorous and vile for thinking such things of the man who she had considered to be her only true friend. She felt an that she was an evil adulteress almost everyday, knowing how she longed to turn away from her own husband’s loving arms to be swept into Matthew’s!

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A furious blush had stolen into her cheeks as he hesitantly approached her. She bit her lip and looked up at him, distressed. What would she say? Sorry I’ve been avoiding you Matthew. I fear that you may tempt me to sin against my husband? Clearly that wasn’t the appropriate thing to say!

But thankfully he spoke first, alleviating her distress after a long moment of silence, in which they each looked at each while pretending not to look too hard.

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“I’ve missed you Ethel….”

“I’ve missed you, too, Matthew,” she said. And then she could not help herself. A shy smile stole across her face like a rainbow sliding out from behind grey clouds.

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“Before you say anything else, Ethel, I want to apologize to you,” he said. His voice was warm and sincere, shining like the sun on her face. “I know that you haven’t been ill all this time,” he continued, “and I know that it’s my own fault that you’ve been avoiding me.”

“Oh now, Matthew, I’ve just been…”

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“No, Ethel, don’t lie. I know what happened. I know how awkward I made you feel, and I am sorry. I never meant to hurt our friendship. You’re the last person in the world that I would want to hurt,” he said gently, quietly, “and you’re one of the most important people in the world to me…”

Her heart thudded in her chest at the words and a wave of warmth spread all through her body, radiating outward from her pounding heart.

He stepped closer to her, so close that she could breathe in the scent of him, warm, strong, and fresh: the smell of cedar and pine and earth. Involuntarily, she lowered her lids, drawing the smell of him deep into her breast.

“So I don’t want you to think that I meant anything at all by kissing you.”

Her heart skidded to a halt.

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“I was just so happy, Ethel, and you were there, and… my heart just overflowed, I guess… But I would never, ever think of you like that,” he stammered in his earnestness. “I just wanted you to know that, and that I am sorry for making you feel so uncomfortable.”

She sputtered out some sort of response to him while she inwardly yelled at herself, hating how her body seemed to be reacting without her input, ignoring the screaming of her mind. What was she doing? What was she hoping for? She had no idea…

“And anyways, Ethel, why don’t you come round to the house sometime now that we’ve made up?” he continued, innocently oblivious to all of her inner turmoil. “You haven’t seen the twins since they were born!” he smiled. “They’re getting so big! I’d really like you to come by sometime. And bring your family if you want. Mathilde and the girls are getting lonely for some company…”

She nodded at him, her movements brief and jerky. Why couldn’t she say no to this man?

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[FurryPanda]

Wow... That was rather jerk-y/oblivious making of him. Does he actually not love her, or did he just mean his words at face value- he didn't mean anything at the time? Interesting development either way. So yep, update soon and happy simsing!

[queenrebecca]

I think that he is just oblivious to it all. I think he does love her, though. He just doesn't realize it yet and he doesn't see how unhappy he is with his wife or that Ethelyn loves him, too! He's just a ditz...

Thanks as always for the comments! I always look forward to seeing what you have to say.

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 27: Brigita and Beatrix Melt a Heart
May, 1, 1315

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Matthew rose from his chair as his oldest daughter, Clothide, opened the door to let in Ethel and her family. He smiled shyly at Ethel and went over to meet her and her husband, Bertram, with whom he was also friends, while Clothide took Bertie and Effie, Ethel's youngest children, into the other room to play.

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“Ethel, Bertram, I’m so glad you could make it,” Mathilde smiled at them. For once, Matthew had the feeling that she was actually being sincere about wanting to see Ethelyn, who she thought was too meek to be interesting, and Bertram, who annoyed her with his loud sense of humor and booming voice. Ever since she had given birth, Mathilde had been trapped in their cottage, recovering in confinement, so it seemed natural to Matthew that she had wanted to see some friends.

In fact, if Mathilde had not wanted company so badly, Matthew would not ever have pressured Ethel at all to come visit. It was clear that she still felt very awkward around him, and the thought pained him more than anything else ever could. He had never wanted to hurt her so, and cursed himself for his foolish actions. He didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable, but Mathilde had been pestering him for the visit, so he had given in to his wife, at the expense of sweet Ethelyn.

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If it had been up to Matthew, he would have waited a bit and let Ethel come around when she was ready and recovered from the embarrassment that he had caused her. He still didn’t know what he had been thinking the day that he had kissed Ethel, but he understood her feelings well enough. Obviously, she felt that he had some sort of inappropriate feelings towards her that she couldn’t reciprocate. When he thought of her confusion and how it was his fault, it further shamed his spirit so that he felt like the world’s largest braying ass.

But there was nothing to be done about it, but to smile and bear it all. Maybe by the end of the night, she would have warmed back up to him and things would be back to normal, or maybe not. But either way, there was very little that he could do about it.

He tuned back into the conversation, realizing that he had not been listening to whatever Bertram had been saying, when Mathilde called his name. “Matthew, run and go get the babies,” she commanded. “I want Ethel and Bertram to meet our new little ladies!”

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“Here they are: Brigita and Beatrix,” she proudly announced as he obligingly fetched his children from their crib and brought them out to be cooed and awed over. Mathilde took one of their daughters into her arms to show to Bertram, and he gently handed one of them over to Ethel.

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As he handed a baby to Ethel a strange warm feeling rose in his heart when he noticed the way her face lit up like a prism as she gently caressed the tiny baby. All of her shyness seemed to have evaporated as she cuddled the infants and looked up at him beaming.

He felt his own shy and goofy smile sneak out in reply. Even without words, he instinctively knew that everything between them was right once more.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 28: Kaiser Learns One Secret and Ponders Another
May 23, 1315

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Kaiser knew that there was something on his wife’s mind and that it had been there for quite some time. For several weeks, she had been distracted and quiet. Sometimes, she drew in a hesitant breath, as if to tell him something, only to let it back out again, omitting the words she had in her mind. Granted, he had not known the woman for any great length of time, but he thought he knew enough about her to tell that something was going on. Moreover, he was no fool. He thought that he already knew her secret.

It was therefore no surprise to him when he encountered the familiar hesitancy in her breath as she nervously settled herself into a chair beside him. Since no explanation seemed to be forthcoming, he decided his patience had been thoroughly outworn, and it was time to get an answer out of her.

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“What is it?” he finally asked, weary of her timidity.

She looked startled, “Hmmm? I’m sorry,” she apologized. “What did you say?”

“I was asking why you are always lost in daydreams lately… Is there a reason that you look like you have been keeping something from me?”

“Oh…” she blushed. “It’s nothing…” She shrugged, obviously embarrassed to have been found out.

He waited patiently, looking at her straight in the eyes with frank and open curiosity. He knew that she would tell him now that he had her cornered. It took her a few moments to collect her thoughts, and he so he waited. Hesitantly, she finally spoke the words “I’m pregnant.” He noticed that as she spoke, she tried to hide her small, happy smile by quickly turning her face away.

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“That’s wonderful,” he said, though his mind was elsewhere. He had surmised that she was pregnant, from her loose dresses and bouts of mysterious sickness, but what he didn’t know was why she had been keeping it a secret from him. Was she afraid that he would be unhappy with her? With the thought of a child? Though it seemed cold and calculating to admit it, one of the only reasons that he had married her was to secure his line and to stabilize his kingdom, which was still recovering from the wars his father had initiated early in his reign as king.

She looked anxiously at him, as if waiting for him to say more. Clearing his throat, he asked, “When is it due?”

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She looked pleased at his attention. “Sometime in November,” she said, with that same little hint of a smile curling at the corners of her mouth.

He nodded. “This makes me very happy,” he added, hoping to allay her fears… whatever they were.

She nodded and looked like she wanted to say something else, but didn’t. It bothered him when she did that. He wished that she would just say what she was thinking and let it out. He didn’t like mysterious or hesitation, and she was full of both. He wished that she could be bolder, and not such a timid gentle creature, but really, he knew there was no hope for it. It would be best for him not to say anything at all, and to learn how to gracefully bear with what fate had chosen for him in a wife.

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[angelsavoir]

Awesome story! I love the clothes and scenery to!

[queenrebecca]

Thanks for taking the time to comment angelsavoir! I'm glad that you like it :)

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 29: Albert Meets a Stranger
June 24, 1315

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“Hullo, Rose,” Albert chirped as he scooted next to her on the couch. “You’re up early this morning,” he said, noticing that the light was still blue and pale, and Rose did not usually awaken until several hours later. “How are you feeling?”

Rose rubbed her huge stomach. “Ready to pop.”

“You say that every morning,” he pointed out.

“Well, it’s always true,” she said. “But I think today’s really the day.”

“What makes today different?” Albert laughed.

“The contractions,” Rose explained, very matter-of-factly.

Albert’s eyes went wide. “Are you being serious with me, Rose?” he asked, not knowing whether it was truly safe to believe her. She was known, after all, for her lighthearted nature and constant joking.

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“Of course I am,” she said very calmly. “I’ve been up all night with them. It doesn’t hurt very much yet, but the baby is definitely coming. I’m sure of that.”

“Why haven’t you told anyone, yet?” he demanded, jumping up from his seat. He was starting to panic. He was knew absolutely nothing at all about women and babies except that she should be off somewhere screaming, surrounded by other women. She should not be here, sitting calmly on a couch with him discussing her labor pains in such a placid voice…

“I didn’t want to wake anyone,” she said. “And anyways, half the maids are gone out to the field to prepare for the festival tonight. I didn’t want to walk that far out to find someone, knowing that I could pop a baby out at any
time.”

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“Ohhh Rose, what am I supposed to do about this?” he whined, despairingly.

“You don’t have to do anything,” she huffed, pulling herself up to her feet as well, “as it’s none of your concern.”

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He was trapped. Should he run to go find someone? A maid? A villager? Anyone? Or would that be exactly the opposite of what he was supposed to do? He wouldn’t feel right about himself if he ran off and left a lady in distress. “Rose!” he cried “Tell me what to do!”

“Calm down!” she growled. “You’re making me nervous!”

“Maybe you should go lie down,” he said in a voice that was strangely high-pitched to his ears.

“I don’t want to lie down,” she roared. “Now calm down and stop panicking before I have this baby here and now!”

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“Ohh Rose, don’t do that!” he wailed.

“How can I not?” she yelled. “Ever since you started keening in that hysteric wail, the contractions have gotten much worse!”

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice growing louder and more high pitched yet.

“Maybe you should just leave me alone!” she groaned. “I was doing just fine by myself before you came in!”

“No! I can’t leave you by yourself,” he cried. “What if something happened?”

“Well maybe you should just go fetch someone else!” she screamed, half in annoyance, half in pain. Her face was growing red from the exertion. Then she let out a piercing cry of pain. “The baby is coming now!” she groaned, pulling in pain at her hair, causing the pins to fall out as it fell into a mess around her shoulders.

He hovered uselessly around her. “What should I do? What should I do?” he moaned, throwing his head around from side to side, as if looking for someone else to walk in and save him.

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“Help me, you idiot!” she yelled at him. She immediately began to yank off her stockings and dress off.

“What are you doing!” he asked, stopping in his tracks to look down at her, as she now lie clad in nothing but her shift, lying on her back with her legs spread and feet propped up on the couch.

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“You think I’m going to give birth standing up and with my stockings on?” she snarled.

He blushed furiously and then ran around, following her every demand, trying to ignore how horribly uncomfortable the whole situation was., even though without a doubt, it made him feel more uncomfortably embarrassed than anything he had ever experienced in his Whole. Entire. Life.

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Throughout the entire process, which turned out to be a remarkably short ordeal, not a single person heard their screaming and came running in to help. Albert was forced to deal with the entire thing himself, from trying to wrangle the violent, screaming woman to a bed (which she absolutely would not allow), cutting off the newborn baby’s slimy umbilical cord, and washing off the blood coated infant. The whole procedure became a moment that he later thought of as one of the proudest of his life.

When the madness had ended a few hours later, and the sun had climbed higher in the sky, he gently laid Rose’s baby daughter beside her. He almost felt like the father himself, sitting exhausted beside Rose, while they happily beamed at each other, ignoring the bloody mess on the floor where Rose had given birth.

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[FurryPanda]

Sorry I'ven't commented lately, been busy.
Love Matthew and Ethylyn, its such a sweet storyline.
And is it just me or are all the sims having daughters?
Update soon and happy simsing!

[queenrebecca]

It's ok. I do love your comments though ;0

*groans* They definitely all are having daughters! So in a few years when all those daughters grow up... Urg! I was hoping Rose would have a son, but noooooo! Had to be another daughter! So there may be a lot of husbandless girlies in a years unless I add in a lot of male simmies sometime... :(

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 30: Aethelis Meets an Old Acquaintance
July 15, 1315

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Tiny droplets of water prickled Aethelis’s forehead as a light summer shower fell down upon her. Even through the clouds, the hot summer sun managed to blazed through the sky, causing the air to cling like sweat to her skin in the heat. She absolutely hated going to the market in the summer, when the fierce sunlight could so easily piece her delicate and pale skin even through her clothes and a storm might roll through at any moment. She trudged up the hill towards the commons, the wet and tickling grass clinging her ankles as she walked.

She was meaning to go to the apothecary to find something that might help Ellyn’s sore throat, but as she approached, she saw someone that she absolutely did not want to run into. Dulnstead Millhead stood watching her, casually propped against the apothecary stairs.

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“Well I haven’t seen you in a long time Mistress Aethelis,” he drawled. His low voice rubbed across her skin like velvet, leaving a strange prickling sensation on her arms. She did not know if the trail of goose bumps was caused from nervousness or excitement.

“I really can’t stay to chat, Dulnstead,” she said. “I’m really very busy.”

He looked straight into her eyes in a way that made her rather uncomfortable. “Don’t want to just catch up on some things?” he asked. “We can go into the inn and get out of this damned rain,” he suggested. Without really waiting for an answer, he trotted off towards the building, not caring to turn around to look and see if she was following him or not.

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She decided to follow him into the dry shade of the inn. She did not know exactly why she had felt compelled to follow when she could have so easily slipped away. She sat down with him at the roughly hewn table that he had selected and looked around.

Being one of the lower class inns in the village, it wasn’t a place that she normally frequented. It was full at the moment of people escaping the rain, but usually, it was crowded only with those looking for a more bawdy type of entertainment than she preferred. The inn’s tavern reminded her in many ways of him, in fact. Much like the man himself, it was a coarse and dim place. A bit shady, perhaps, but not dangerous…

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He ordered a round of ale from the barmaid and then turned to her. “You look well, Aethelis, but how have you really been?” he asked. His voice was surprisingly tender. “I heard about your baby.”

Even months removed from the tragedy, her heart still cried at the mention of it. “It’s been a rough few months,” she replied.

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He reached over the table and comfortingly took her hand in his. “I’ve always wondered what would have happened if things would have turned out differently,” he said, referring back to her youth, when he had been her lover. He had cheated on her with another woman, she remembered, and then married the other girl instead…

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She withdrew her hand as the sting of the wounds he had inflicted on her all those years ago came rushing back once more. “I don’t think I should be here,” she said, but not unkindly. She got up and walked quickly away, somehow wanting him to follow her, even though she knew he never would.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 31: Perri Learns to Play Nice
August 22, 1315

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“Give me back my toy!” Perrigwen yelled at Ioreck, who had yanked her toy pony out of her hands.

He grinned at her. “Ohhh does the little girl want her toy back?” he teased.
She glared at him. Why in the world had her mother decided to let this awful boy come over to play with her? She had thrown her best tantrum when it was suggested to her that they make nice. She had tried to do what Ellyn said, and imagine him like a brave, but slightly mislead knight that she could redeem, but it was no use. Ioreck was completely, unredeemably evil.

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She considered her options. Half of her wanted to cry and the other half wanted to slap him and the third half (good math be damned) wanted to just go tell her mother. She took a moment, trying to decide her course of action.

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Meanwhile, he leered at her, dangling her favorite wooden toy above the reach of her little hands. The site of his ugly face dangling her precious Monsieur le Cheval, as she called him, above her head was enough to send her into a fury. She lunged at him, kicking and screaming the whole way.

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Unfortunately, her mother and Rossi chose that moment to come into her little nursery.

“Perri!” her mother gasped. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

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Perri ran to the comfort of her mother’s skirts. “Oh Mother! He’s been bullying me!” she whined.

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Lady Catherine raised her eyebrows and looked to Rossi. “Do you want to handle your unruly child?” she said in the condescending voice that she usually reserved for the woman.

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Rossi took an appraising glance at her son’s guilty and defiant face. “Give Perri back her toy and apologize” she commanded her son. He tossed the wooden horse down and gave Perri a scornful look as his exasperated mother led him from the room.

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Perri still clung helplessly to her mother’s skirts, trying to decide if it were indeed all right to cry after all. Lady Catherine gazed silently back down at her daughter. “I know you don’t like this Periwinkle, but I think you need to learn to play nicely with Ioreck from now on.”

Perri frowned. “But he’s evil! I’ve already explicated very thoroughly on the matter, ” she said in her most grown up voice.

“Well, darling,” she sighed, “it would be best for us all if you should learn to like him. I know you don’t like this, but your father has promised you to be his wife. You know that there’s nothing you or I can say to him now to change him mind.”

“Nothing at all?” Perri asked, already knowing the answer since she had been trying for months to change her father’s mind. She started to feel despair welling up as her lip began to tremble.

“I’m afraid not,” her mother said. “Heaven knows how much I’ve tried.”

Perri knew that she needn’t way her options for this realization. She began to wail as her mother gently scoped her into her arms.

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[Avara]

I love this story! :D Medieval is one of my favorite eras to write about and roleplay in, so can't wait to read more of this. ;)

[queenrebecca]

Glad to see that you are enjoying the story, Avara! You won't have to wait very long to read more as it will be updated very soon. I haven't had much time lately since school started back :S but things have settled down now, so I have some chapters planned for... tomorrow! :D

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 32: Nicci Sees the Child
September 2, 1315

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Limbs stuck uncomfortably into Nicci’s back as she snuck towards the building. The night sky hung heavy overhead, thick and blue, stretching like a piece of deep blue velvet held taught between each horizon, with little tears letting in the light that was the stars. She was neither warm nor cold as the September night was still clinging to the last shreds of warmth left over from the day.

She crept forward slowly, keeping her eyes before her. She saw that the lights of the building were ablaze, lit from the fires the still blazed in all of its burning hearths. The tall stained glass windows glimmering in the night made Nicci think of the multifaceted eyes of insects and the iridescent shimmer of their wings. Nicci did not like insects and nor did she like cathedrals and the religion that came with them. She hated the curse of Christianity, which had persecuted her mother and her mother’s mother and so on into a steadily disintegrating line deep into the dim recesses of the darkness that had occurred for them since the Christians had blighted the Isles back in those early years.

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She was one of the few left of those still observing the old ways, who were now reduced to hiding in secret covens, fearing that any day the multitudes of the Church would find them and burn and torture them for still observing the pagan rituals of the old religion that was their birthright. She glared at the towering monolith in front of her, wishing to send it collapsing block by block into the Earth from whence its stone had came.

She tried to calm the surge of her anger, to concentrate on her mission, but it was like trying to fight the angry tide of a great ocean. She was powerless here and so despised herself for her weakness. Why had she come? Was her curiosity really so great that she must creep unprotected in the night, risking all, for the chance only to see this child?

Mathim would be furious if she found out. The two of them had sought out the answers, traveled deep into the Continent, through the highlands, over the mountains, and deep into the Desert Empire to find the rest of the pieces to the puzzle. Mathim had learned enough to know that it was prudent to send Nicci back to the Isle, to wait in case their fears were realized. Nicci was supposed to lurk patiently, still and calm like a spider in it web and never venturing further, bidding her time until the child came to her.

But Nicci had not the patience to follow these orders. Mathim had stayed behind, trying to pluck out any information she could from Vassago. It might be many years before she returned. She intended to find out all of the old gods and to glean their secrets from them in the same way that hungry men ripped away meat from a bone. With Mathim away, Nicci had decided to satisfy her own curiosity. She had to see the girl that would one day be hers to teach in the old ways, hers to shape and to mold into the warrior that would help them all throw off the shackles of oppression.

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A light rain began to fall as the mass ended with a peal of bells and the door of the chapel creaked open. The nuns carefully filed out, while Nicci waited, pushing herself even deeper into the shrubbery of the cloister. They floated like dark angels in their black habits back into the living quarters of the nunnery. They came out of the church in a slower and slower tide, until, at last, Nicci saw her. There was the child, Sibyl, held tightly in the matronly arms of her guardian, a woman Nicci knew to be called Margrite.

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The small girl, only a year old today, instinctively felt Nicci presence. She immediately sought her ought in the shrubbery, meeting Nicci’s cold and inquisitive gaze from the protective arms of the nun who held her. She met Nicci’s dark eyes full on with her own startling eyes that blazed a brilliant violet: the mark of her birthright- the power that would lay dormant within her until Nicci could teach her how to awaken it.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 33: Aethelis Is Caught
November 25, 1315

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“The Queen has given birth,” Aethelis said to Dulnstead, who lounged casually beside her in the grass. “But I supposed that you’ve already heard.”

“Aye,” he muttered. “The King has announced that he will be hosting a very large celebration. Everyone is invited to the palace for the festivities. That’s how I know, love. I’d never ignore talk of free ale!”

Aethelis shrugged. She had been seeing a lot of Dulnstead since their first run in at the market a few months ago. Now, whenever they met in town, they took the time to go have a meal or a drink together. Today, they sat simply having a conversation in the warm grass of the commons.

She had done nothing wrong, but she still hadn’t mentioned to her husband that she had been seeing her old lover. She knew that though Dinovynn was not a possessive or angry man, the idea of his wife cavorting around town with someone of Dulnstead’s reputation would not please him.

“I was thinking,” she said, “of how everyone but me seems to be having another baby.”

He looked up at her. “What do you mean,” he asked gently, knowing that this was a sore subject for her.

“Lady Catherine is expecting very soon,” she sighed. “And the queen just had a child.”

“That’s only two women in the whole village, love,” he said, getting up and pulling himself down onto the log on which she sat so that he could look her in the eyes.

“Well there are plenty more,” she huffed. “Just look around. Everyone is happy but me!”

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He laughed bitterly. “Well I’m not!” he said. “Locked away in that rat infested hovel with my cow of a wife!”

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Need I remind you that you choose her,” she hissed, “over me?”

“I did not!” he cried, “her father chose me for her, need I remind you!”

“Only because you got her pregnant, Dulnstead!” she cried. “When you were supposed to be true to me and not sleeping around with that whore!” She could not help it. She felt tears well in her eyes and the memory of the betrayal.

“There were some things that you couldn’t give me, Aethelis,” he growled.

“Yes,” she cried, “I know! That’s why you ran off with that whore! Why was the reward of my virtue to be betrayed?” She glared at him and then collapsed into a feeling of shame and guilt. “What am I even doing with you here?” she sobbed. “I must be so stupid!” She hastily pulled herself up off of the grass to run away. “I have to go,” she said. “My husband is waiting for me.” She made to move away from him, but he stood up beside her and put his arm around her thin shoulder.

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“Don’t go,” he said, his voice low and husky. “All those things happened years and years ago. I know that I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but please Aethelis… I’m begging you…”

She looked up at him, eyes watery through her tears… “Why?” she said. “Why do you have to do this to me now?”

He pulled her body close to his. She could feel the warmth of his skin and the coarse cloth of his tunic was rough against her skin. “Because I realized, Aethelis, that after all of these years, I love you. I always have, and I think I probably always will…”

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 34: Dulnstead Is Merry
November 26, 1315

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After she had finished crying, Dulnstead pulled his arms off of her. “Sometimes I wonder,” he whispered, “why you are not able to have all of the children you want. You always say that your body is too weak to give life, Aethelis, but sometimes… I think that perhaps there is nothing at all wrong with you, Aethelis, but with him…” he whispered.

He heard her gasp at the suggestion and a thrill ran through his body. “Haven’t you ever wondered?” he continued cruelly. “Why your children can’t survive long enough? Maybe he is too weak to provide you with what you want more than anything.”

She backed away from him, her face contorted with shock at his audacity. “How dare you?” she gasped. “How dare you insult my husband, my loyal, faithful husband after all that you have put me through!”

He was pleased at her reaction, but he did not let his pleasure show. “I only want you to be happy, Aethelis,” he said. “And I don’t think that he can provide you with what you need.”

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“Just what are you suggesting to me?” she whispered, her voice soft and harsh with the thickness of her recent tears. “I am no common whore like most of the women with whom you associate!”

He inclined his head in a slight bow. “I am suggesting nothing, Aethelis,” he said. “I just want you to think about everything I have said.”

“I am leaving now,” she said, her voice tapping in a cold staccato rhythm.

“Then good day to you,” he said. This time as she left, he did not try to stop her. He knew how to bide his time. He knew exactly what to say to bring her begging on her knees to him. She should have been his to start with, and it was time that he corrected the matter that had gone so far astray in the years since their youth. She would be back to him, he knew, now that he had planted those seeds of suggestion into her pretty little head.

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Smiling faintly, he cheerily made his way back to his home. A high-pitched female voice broke his concentration. “Dulnstead!” she chirped. “I haven’t seen you in a long while!”

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He looked over to see a pretty, blonde girl whose name he had long since forgotten. “Well why don’t we take the time to get reacquainted,” he smiled, pulling at her arm to lead her off of the path and into the shrubbery where they would be unnoticed by any passersby.

She giggled but shook her blonde head. “Oh I can’t right now, Dulny,” she laughed. “I’m on my way to the market for mother. But maybe later tonight?” she hinted, batting her lashes at him seductively.

“For you, I’m available anytime,” he winked at her, watching appreciatively as she sashayed down the road, calling out to him that she would meet him at his favorite tavern later that night.

He whistled the rest of the way home.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 35: Kaiser Realizes
November 30, 1315

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King Kaiser walked into the bedroom where his wife stood, cuddling their newborn son. She was still weak from giving birth earlier in the week so he wished that she would lie down on the bed and rest with the little fellow that had caused her so much trouble. Kaiser smiled broadly at her “How are you feeling, my dear?” he asked her softly.

She smiled at him, her pretty face full of a tender emotion as he came to stand next to her. “Tired,” she said, “but well. How could I not be with this little angel beside me?” She cooed at their son, whom they had named Edmund.

She graciously handed the infant over to Kaiser so that he could caress the child's soft skin . “He looks like you,” he smiled to his wife. “Only he has my dark eyes.”

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“Well, I think he looks like you,” she smiled. “I hope that he grows up to act like you as well,” she said. She was looking down at the baby when she spoke, trying to hide the emotion in her voice.

Kaiser was suddenly overcome with emotion. He tilted his wife’s chin up at his face so that he could look at her. “I love you,” he breathed. He had never before said the words to her. He had never before realized that he did, indeed love this woman whom he had married as a stranger.

He heard a sniffle and saw that she had turned her face away from him again. “I love you, too,” she whispered and then looked up, her face shining like a beacon of light with the joy that she was feeling. She was radiant.

There was a sharp knock on the door and the nursemaid entered. “Time for this wee one to take a nap,” the dark haired maid explained to the king and queen.

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Kaiser smiled at his child as the nurse took him off to the nursery. There was an awkward pause while neither the king nor queen looked at one another after the woman had left. Kaiser felt embarrassed by his earlier heartfelt confession, but gathered his courage to look at his wife’s radiant face.

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He cupped her cheeks in his hands and kissed her, and her lips warmed to his. It was a moment of rapture, and ecstasy realizing that he had such a beautiful wife whom he loved and a newborn son and heir to the throne. All of his worries had been momentarily put to rest.

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Then a cry cut through the air. Shrill words pierced the air and into his heart like arrows. “The baby!” someone screamed in terror. “The baby!”

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[FurryPanda]

Eeek, cliffhanger!

Update soon?

(Also, for completeness sake, Dulnstead amuses me, he seems like the sort that has something coming to him... but Aethelis seems to nice to provide it.... circles in circles in parabolas in text! And I had nearly forgotten about little Sibyl and the nuns... so many witches/magic in this story, was someone salivating over Apartment Life? Lol)

So yep, update soon and happy simsing!

[queenrebecca]

Yeah, I noticed that it had been a while since I had shown what was going on with the witches and Sibyl so I needed to bump the storyline. I totally forgot about Apartment Life coming out. Now that would give some extra dimension to those nasty witches. Buuuuttt I probably won't have that for quite some time so they get no realz magikz...T_T

And thanks as always for the commenting. I'm working on that update right now. ;)

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 36: Death in the Castle
November 30, 1315

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Blood pumped through Kaiser’s heart in a terrifying rhythm. He shared one startled look with his wife before tearing out of the room. His footsteps pounded on the stone floors in a deep and heavy rhythm, echoing out into the corridors like the beating of a demon drum. He flew down the hall with all the speed that his athletic body could produce, and then pushed for more.

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He slammed open the nursery door and skidded to a halt in front of the nursemaid, who was keening in horrible and unearthly wails. “The baby!” she cried, “The baby!”

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” he wanted to yell. But his voice came out in a strange and deadly whisper, his terror compacting his usual booming bass voice into an even deeper and more potent whisper.

“The baby is dead,” the maid whimpered.

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Alverstine flew into the room halting at his back. Instinctively, he wanted to usher her gently back- to protect her from the horrors that the nursery held. His head could not wrap around the words. He could not turn to face his wife. He heard on the stifled gurgle of sorrow bubble up in her throat. She sounded as if she was choking on sorrow.

The maid rushed to his side. “The baby is dead, Sire!” she wailed. “She’s dead!”

She. The word struck him with the force of an entire granite mountain slamming into his chest. She. His child was a son. Edmund. Edmund was not dead. It was another baby who lie still and unmoving in the crib before him, the crib that he had not yet dared to peek into.

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Rose and Albert skidded into the room. “What’s wrong?” Albert demanded, not bothering to catch his breath.

The nursemaid ran forward and threw her arms around Rose. “Your daughter is dead!” she wailed. “Little Lilly is dead!”

A bloodcurdling sound rose from Rose as she crumpled to the ground. “My baby,” she muttered, half screaming, half whispering. “My poor little baby!”

Albert threw his arms around her, supporting her sinking weight, trying to comfort her.

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Kaiser stood in shock. He was torn between two absolutely conflicting emotions. His heart felt as though it had been brutally ripped into two absolutely equal portions. One half felt lighter than a cloud, floating on the wild and joyous knowledge that his poor son was safe and sound. The other half dully throbbed with excruciating empathy for Rose.

He gathered his sobbing wife into his arms and tried to calm her. He didn’t know what to do. He was nowhere near to calm himself. He yelled at the maid to go get some help and let Alverstine scoop up Edmund, who had begun to wail, into her arms. The room was a mess of chaos: the cries, screams, and wails filled the room, countered by the army of comforting words that Albert and Kaiser were trying to send charging into the gloom. But it was to no avail, as death had snuck its way deep into the castle.

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[Bat_kol_SC]

Wow, this is brilliant :) well done! :)

[queenrebecca]

*blushes* Brilliant, you say? I don't know about that, but thank you!!! :D

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 37: Matthew Stays Inside
December 30, 1315

“Well hullo Ethel!” Matthew called warmly as he entered her snug cottage. “Where is everyone?” he asked, looking around him at the empty house.

“Well the older boys are staying the weekend with their friends in the village so that they can go to the Winter Festival, Bertie and Effie are staying with their cousins for the week, and Bertram has gone off to the harbor tonight to see some of his friends who have come into town. And me? Well I’m here alone,” she explained with a smile.

“I just came by to get a pattern from you for Mathilde,” he said. “She would have come herself, but she’s feeling all out of sorts these days…”

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“What’s wrong?” Ethel inquired with worry.

“Oh she thinks that she is just expecting again,” he smiled. “I hope that’s the case. I really do want a son to even the odds at home with all of those girls!”

Ethelyn smiled in acknowledgment. “Now what pattern was she wanting?” she asked.

“Uh, something about a petticoat...” He blushed, uncomfortable with the idea of Ethelyn’s underthings.

“Oh,” she said, opening up her sewing trunk awkwardly to fish around for the pattern. She quickly dug it out and handed it over to Matthew. “Is this what she wanted?”

He didn’t dare look at the pattern in his hands. “Yes, I’m sure that’s the right one,” he said uneasily.

He moved towards the door. “Well, I suppose I should get back…”

She looked up. “You don’t want to stay and talk for a bit?” she asked. He could hear the soft disappointment in her voice. He realized that she was, after all, all alone during this time of festivals and holidays.

“Sure,” he smiled. “I could rest here for a bit. The weather is getting a little violent, anyways.” As if to mark his point, a gust of wind blew all about the house in a horrible wail.

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They smiled uneasily at each other and then went to sit down on their favorite bench in front of the fire. They talked for hours and Ethelyn found some warm wine for them to sip. They were quite comfortable and toasty inside the cottage, but as the night grew deeper, the storm outside began to crescendo in ferocity. Eventually they found themselves in the midst of a raging blizzard.

By midnight, the snow was swirling so thickly that it was impossible for Matthew to see more than a few inches in front of his face. He habitually checked the outside weather to let Ethelyn know the state of things. Finally, Ethel said, “I don’t think that you should return home tonight, Matthew.”

He squinted his dark eyes, thinking. “I know, Ethel, but what about Mathilde? She might need more wood for the fire or something like that… And I don’t want her thinking that I got lost out in the woods in this howling blizzard…”

“I just don’t think it’s safe, Matthew,” Ethel said, her lower lip trembling slightly as she spoke.

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He looked up at her thoughtfully. “But then, of course, your husband won’t be back tonight either, and you’ll be stuck out here completely alone with no one to fetch wood for you, either. And you don’t even any little children to keep you company and cuddle up beside you to keep you warm,” he said, thinking of how, some nights, when it was very cold, he and Mathilde would pile all four of the girls up on the bed with them to tell silly stories and eat pieces of candy until they all fell asleep together.

“Well I just don’t know what to do, Ethel,” he finally said with a sigh.

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“It’s not for me that I want you to stay, Matthew,” she said quickly. “I was just thinking about how easy it is sometimes to get lost during a storm like this and freeze to death out wandering in the woods… The path will be filled with snow by now so you won’t be able to see the way and you’d have to navigate through the trees. It’d be so easy to go off course and wander out there in the cold for hours,” she said, looking up at him with her big, worried brown eyes.

Matthew knew that she was right. He had grown up hearing stories about how you could never wonder out on nights like this without risking death. He shivered. “Well, you’re right, Ethel. I’m sure Mathilde will know that I would have to wits to stay put during this storm. I’m sure that she and the girls will be alright…” His voice trailed off near the end of his sentence. He really was worried, but what could he do?

A chill was beginning to permeate the walls of the cottage. He poked at the fire to rouse it, trying to keep the cottage warm. “I don’t know why, Matthew,” Ethel suddenly fretted, “but I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I feel like something bad is going to happen” She looked worriedly up at him.

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“You’re just worrying too much, Ethel,” he said, comfortingly as he sat back down beside her. “I feel the same way, worrying about everything that could be happening. But you just have to relax… Everything will be ok.” He leaned in closer to her to look into her frightened eyes, to reassure her that everything was really fine. It was just a storm that would pass like every other storm before it.

Looking into her eyes, a familiar feeling welled up inside of him. Strange and overpowering, it tickled its way through his body, before coming to a fluttering settle in his stomach. He didn’t know what had overcome him, but he was suddenly wrestling with his beating heart. He stared forward, directly into the fire before him, hoping that she did not notice his thundering heart. The desire to touch her skin overwhelmed his mind so thoroughly that he actually gasped.

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As the sharp, cold air cut through his lungs, Ethel leaned forward, eyes wide with worry. “Matthew? Matthew what’s wrong?” she whispered.

He took another deep, jagged breath of the cold air. “Nothing, Ethel,” he said, scooting closer to her on the bench. He put his arm around her to pull her closer to him. He didn’t know if he did it to comfort her, to warm her, or to please his own helpless desire.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 38: Ethel is Once More a Young Bride
December 31, 1315

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When Ethelyn awoke, she did not want to open her eyes. If she opened her eyes, she feared that the pleasant feelings she had would all disappear. It was as if one of her dreams had come true, as if the imaginations of her mind had been manifested into the physical world. She was lying in her own home, but Matthew was somehow there, stroking her thick hair as she lie with her head in his lap.

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Finally, she made herself awake. “What time is it?” she cautiously asked, rubbing at her drowsy eyelids as she struggled to sit up. She didn’t really care what time it was. Time had no meaning to her anymore- not when she was this close to him…But practical words were the only ones she could trust herself with. If she did anything but focus on the most mundane of subjects, some horrifying confession might fly out of her mouth and once released, she would never be able to remove anything she might say from Matthew’s memory. She would never be able to live down the shame of her unholy secret…

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She barely heard Matthew’s reply of “Almost dawn.”

“How is the storm?” she asked.

“Still howling,” he said. “But I think that it has lightened a bit. I can go check now, if you want me to,” he said. “I haven’t looked out in a while since I didn’t want to wake you. I’ve just been listening to the wind.”

“No, don’t get up!” she said a little too quickly. She didn’t want him to leave… His body was warm beside her. It felt too good to sit here beside him while she was still drowsy, living in a moment that felt half like a dream, and half like reality. She wished that the storm would go on forever so that she could just rest here beside Matthew for all of that alternate eternity. She sighed dreamily.

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“What is it?” he asked.

She smiled happily at him. “Nothing,” she said. “I just slept well. Did you sleep at all?” she asked, suddenly anxious that spending a whole night sitting up on her hard, wooden bench was not actually an ideal situation for Matthew.

But he smiled warmly at her. “A bit,” he replied.

They smiled stupidly at one another for a few moments, until she averted her eyes. “Can I make you some breakfast?” she asked shyly.

“Sure,” he said. “I’m a little hungry.” His stomach rumbled just then and Ethelyn giggled.

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“A little hungry,” she laughed. “You thought I’d never wake up and feed you!” She was surprised at her own boldness in joking with him. As she rustled through the cabinets, looking for pots, she smiled happily to herself.

He offered to help her, so she sent him to the door to gather some snow to melt for water. He cried out when he reached the door. “What is it?” she called.

He laughed. “The snow is piled up to my knees!” he cried merrily.

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Their laughter mingled together all through the morning as they cooked and ate together. As the morning progressed, a single thought kept recurring in her mind. “Is this how life would be it I was married to Matthew?” The question burned into her mind, and she was unable to shake it out, even by reminding herself that she was not married to Matthew and could never be married to Matthew at all. The realization would have made her cry, but she could not submit to sorrow- not when he was here beside her.

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Eventually their laughter had lapsed into the silence that they both loved so well. The pale light of morning shone in through the windows. They both knew by the sunlight that the blizzard had ended, but Matthew made no move to leave. They simply sat, enjoying each other’s presence in the silence. When they didn’t talk, it was almost easy for Ethel to believe that Matthew was her husband…. That she had never married Bertram…That she was a young bride, newly married to a man that she loved more than anyone else, and that she was alone with him, her husband, for the first time… She wished that- but she dare not complete the thought.

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“Matthew,” she whispered. Her voice sounded small and far away- like the tinkling of a bell sounded in some far-away fairy land, whose sound was ripped away from its native home and transported into the here and now.

His eyes were round and sad as he looked at her. Full of emotion and concern, he said, “I know.” He took her hand in his and held it tight. They dared not to move any closer to one another, for if they did, they would surely be overcome.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 39: Ethelyn is Destroyed
December 31, 1315

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“We can’t do this, Ethel.” His voice was soft with sorrow and sensuality, but he meant the words. She knew him well enough to know how seriously he took his marriage vows. And she felt the same way. She would never betray her husband, as long as she lived. A sickening pit exploded in her stomach, almost crippling her in misery.

She began to cry. “Matthew,” she sniffled. “Matthew…”

He pulled her close to his chest, close enough that she could feel the beating of his heart. Its rhythm matched the pace of her own. Everything in her own body was aligned to everything in his. They were a perfect match, she thought, in body and in spirit. How had they not seen this before? How many years would they have to bear now going on through their lives as only friends when they longed to be so much more?

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“Matthew…” his name was caught in her throat, and it was such a sweet word that she wanted to go on repeating it forever. She said it again. “Matthew…”

He pressed her closer and closer to his body. She felt that her love for him was being living out in this physical expression. As he hugged her tighter and tighter, it felt to her as if the physical weight of her love for him was crashing down upon her chest in a beautiful and painful wave. “I love you, Ethelyn. I love you,” he whispered.

As he spoke, she felt as if her soul had leapt from her body, flying from its cage like a newly freed bird. Her emotions completely overcame her and she sobbed into his shoulder. “What are we going to do, Matthew?” she asked.

She was surprised to feel the slight warmth of moisture fall upon her own head. Matthew was crying, too. He pressed her even closer to him and whispered “There is nothing we can do, my love.”

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She knew that, but it hurt to hear him say it aloud. Somehow, she had almost thought that they would find a way to be together. In the back of her mind, she knew that they could have an affair, but the idea felt cold and foreign to her. She could not imagine such a horrible thing, and she knew that Matthew could not fathom such treachery either. She pressed her face closer to his shoulder, breathing in the scent of his clothes and body. She knew that after this moment, she might never again be this close to him.

They regretfully pulled their bodies apart and spent a moment looking into each other’s eyes. “I love you, Ethel,” he said to her softly. “I never knew that I would feel this way… If I could change things, I want you to know that I would have married you to start with… But I never knew…” He closed his eyes tightly, holding back tears. “I never knew…”

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She sobbed. “I love you, Matthew,” she said. “I have never loved anyone the way that I love you. I wish that there was a way that we could be together…” She choked on the words. “But since we can’t… always know that I love you… And I always will…”

His eyes were shining, but she knew that his heart was breaking in the same way that hers was. She felt as if they had just said their vows at an altar, and the only thing to do was to kiss each other to seal their union before God. Though she may never touch Matthew again she felt that he was, in a way, her husband now.

Body trembling, she leaned over to him and kissed him with a fire that she had never felt before.

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Just after their lips parted, she heard a sound coming from outside. Someone was trudging through the snow up the path to her house. She immediately thought that it was her husband, come home. She and Matthew flew to put some distance in between their bodies. Her heart pounded as the person outside made it to the door.

Then, there was a loud knock. She nervously opened the door. It was not her husband. It was a man from the village whose name she could not remember in her fright. He looked at her with a heart wrenching expression. “Ethelyn,” he said in an unfamiliar voice, “your husband is dead. He got caught in the storm last night,” he said. “We found his body this morning…”

The shock was too much for her and she felt her knees crumple as she fell to the ground.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 40: Aethelis is at a Border
January 27, 1316

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Aethelis ran into the kitchen, her blue skirt flying out behind her. She had forgotten all about Ellyn’s cake, which was baking in the oven, and hoped that it had not yet burned. She would never forgive herself if she ruined her daughter’s birthday.

Or would Ellyn even notice? She was very busy chatting in her bed chamber with her friends. She spent more time at Iorvain Keep, playing with Perrigwen than she did at her own home. Aethelis blew a sprig of hair out of her face as she bent over to check the baking cake.

It wasn’t that she minded Ellyn having friends. Her daughter was 11 years old now, and it was good to see her growing up with the other little girls. She had watched her learning to crawl, helped her lisp out those first few words, and now there she was, gossiping away about boys and dress patterns like an old maid. No, if she was honest with herself, Aethelis could admit that she was simply lonely when Ellyn was away.

Dinovynn was so frequently gone on his long trade ventures that she rarely saw him. And ever since the last baby had been stillborn, their relationship had deteriorated. She remembered years ago when he would serenade her with silly songs of his own invention, and slip little love letters and poems under her pillow when she slept. That way, even if he was gone the next morning when she awoke, she would have his sweet words to ponder all day long.

The little letters had slowly dwindled in number through the years, though she would occasionally find one on very special occasions, like her birthday. But now, Dinovynn didn’t even bother. She knew that it wasn’t his fault. She was pushing him away.

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The real question was why was she doing it? Several answers struggled for dominance in her mind. In some way, she was afraid of him. Not because he was ever rough or even mean with her. He was too generous, in fact. Sometimes, she wished that he would just yell at her when she shoved his arm off of her at night and responded to his passionate kisses with chaste and uninterested pecks. But he never did. He only sighed and looked helplessly at her, as if to ask why? In truth, she was afraid of becoming pregnant again. She could not handle to loss of another child.

And also, in truth, she was afraid of hurting him. She was dangerously close to a border of some sorts. Maybe it was more than a border. Maybe it was a cliff. A decision loomed before her, and if she made that leap, she didn’t want her husband to fall down with her…

The sound of the heavy wooden front door opening startled her in her thoughts. A booming voice echoed through the halls. “Where is my birthday girl?”

Aethelis’s heart skipped as she ran out into the hall. “Dinovynn! You’re home!” she squeaked.

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She rushed toward him, but could not before Ellyn had thrown herself at her father in an enormous hug.

“Da! Da! Daaaaaaaa! You’re home,” their daughter squealed. “I thought that you wouldn’t be able to make it on time!”

“Nor did I, my angel,” he smiled at her.

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After Ellyn had her fill of hugs and kisses, she fled back to her room to continue talking with her friends. Aethelis finally had her husband to herself. “How were you able to make it home in time?” she asked. Her husband had been gone away into a nearby village carrying a shipment for a fortnight and hadn’t been expected to make it back home for a week yet. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed him until now that she saw him again.

“I sold out early,” he said, “so I was able to leave sooner and make it back here on time.”

She smiled at him, glad that he was able to make it home for their daughter’s birthday, after all. “You won’t like this, though, my dove.” he continued. “I have to leave first thing in the morning to make my next shipment on time.”

“But why?” she pouted. “You just made it home!”

“Well, it is out in the same way of that last village that I was in. I was planning on going straight from one to the other, but since I sold out early, I decided to try to run here for Ellyn’s birthday. Now I have to go all the way back and then some.” He looked at her apologetically, silently begging for her forgiveness.

His pleading eyes were too much for her to take. "It doesn't matter," she said. "I'm just glad that you're finally home!"

She took him into her arms and warmly embraced him, covered him with kisses, and then pulled him roughly upstairs, forgetting entirely about the cake she had baking in the oven.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 41: Aethelis Denies
January 28, 1316

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The pre-dawn light was cold and pale. It bathed Aethelis in its chilly glow, making her want to snuggle further back under the covers with her husband, and to escape into the warm and peaceful world that awaited under the thick wool blankets. She noticed that he was stirring, sitting up and swinging his feet off the edge of the bed.

“Don’t go,” she mumbled, struggling to throw the thick blanket off and sit up.

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He sighed, getting up off of the bed. “You know that I must, my dear…”

“Why?” she demanded. “Why must you leave now? I need you here with me, Dinovynn!” she whined.

“You know that I must go,” he repeated. “I have to keep my family feed, do I not?”

“We have enough!” she protested. “Look… I have not felt right at all these past few months,” she said. “Ever since the… ever since the baby something has been wrong with me. I don’t know what to do!” she cried. “I need you here, to help me…”

He looked over at her with concern. “When I am here, you push my away, my lamb,” he said. His voice was soft. She could not even imagine how much she had hurt him, rejecting him time and time again.

“Things are different now,” she said. She was close to tears. “If you’re not here with me, I don’t know what I might do…”

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“What do you mean?” he asked.

She sighed. “I just mean that lately, I do things that surprise myself. I just don’t know what is going on…”

He shrugged his tunic on and pulled up his leggings. “I don’t know how you want me to help you with that, dear.”

“I just want you to stay around,” she said. “And make sure that I don’t do anything that isn’t like me…”

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He looked over to her and his eyes were sad. “I don’t even know you anymore,” he said. “You haven’t let me. When I’m home, you ignore me. You only want me when I’m not here…”

“Not this time,” she said. “This time, I swear that I’ll not push you away,” she cried.

Tears began flooding down her cheeks. He came over to put his arm around her. “If it means so much to you, darling, then I will stay…”

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She suddenly realized that she was lying. He was too good for her and she didn’t want to hurt him. The only way to protect him was to not let him close to her. “Forget it,” she mumbled, wiping the tears away. “I’m just being silly. You can go. You’ll be back soon, and then we’ll work all of this out,” she said.

He pulled his arm off of her. “Are you sure?” he asked. He sounded disappointed. Maybe he just wanted her to need to him. She was just hurting him once again.

“Yes,” she said firmly. “I’ll be ok. I’ll see you when you return.”

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 42: Aethelis Falls
January 29, 1316

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“Why did you want to meet me?” Dulnstead asked. “I thought you never wanted to see me again.

“I was lonely,” Aethelis said.

“Look, to be honest,” Dulnstead said, “I shouldn’t even be here right now. I’ve got a wife at home and all my children waiting for me to get there. Why did you really want to see me?”

“I thought you hated your wife?”

“I do,” he said. “But that’s not the point, Aethelis. What’s going on?”

Her heart fluttered. She knew that he knew as well as she did why she had wanted him to meet her here, at the inn where they had first reunited over the summer. But now that she was here, could she go through with it? “My husband is out of town,” she said. “He left yesterday morning on business. My daughter is staying a fortnight with her friends. I’m lonely.”

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He looked over at her. “Why should I stay?” he asked. A smile was beginning to play around the corners of his lips. “Tell me why.”

“I’ll give you what you want,” she said. She couldn’t look at him in the eyes as she spoke to him. “What you’ve always wanted from me…” She didn’t know why she was doing this. Some sick and twisted form of revenge against her husband for being too kind to her? Or some sort of revenge against her own self, for not deserving his love? Maybe she was doing this because she could never ever hope to live well enough to deserve the love of that man. Maybe she was tired to trying…

“And what do you want in return?” he asked. “You think that I can give you a child?”

“Maybe,” she said. “It doesn’t matter… I’ve just been thinking that maybe I have deserved you all along. We should have been together all along…”

“That’s right,” he agreed. He smiled at her and she almost shuddered. “I love you, Aethelis…”

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She knew that he didn't mean it. She wondered how had she ever been entranced by him... How had she never seen right through him? But it didn’t matter now. She deserved this. She needed to punish herself and he was the best way to do it…

She led him up the stairs to the bedroom she had rented for the night. It was funny. She had always imagined that she would be falling down into a pit when she finally did this. But here she was, climbing up instead of falling down...

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 43: Perri is Caught
March 30, 1316

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Ioreck pulled at Perri’s hair and laughed. “It looks even redder in the daylight, Carrots!” he teased.

She turned around to slap him, but he had already danced off, out of reach of her hands. “Don’t make fun of my hair!” she yelled.

“I wouldn’t normally make fun of it since you’re a girl, but it is just too funny!” he called out, hopping just out of reach of her arms.

“Well your whole face is funny!” She glared at him, wishing that she was bigger than him so she could catch him and punch him in the face.

“Not as funny as your hair!” he laughed.

Her lip quavered and she felt tears spring up in her eyes. “Don’t make fun of my hair!”

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He instantly noticed her quivering bottom lip and leaped towards her. “Now, Perri, don’t cry!” he said, suddenly apologetic. “You know I didn’t mean it at all!”

She shoved him away. “I’m not crying!” she pouted.

“What’s this, then,” he said, wiping at a tear that had rolled down her face.

Well, if I am crying, it is because I am so mad at you and not because you hurt my feelings!” she yelled.

“Oh come now, Perri, you don’t have to lie to me,” he said.

His voice was gentle and soft and she didn’t like it. She didn’t know how to act with this soft, nice Ioreck and not the stupid, loud Ioreck that she so loved to hate. “Don’t be stupid!” she yelled. “You’re just a stupid, ugly boy! What do you know about anything?”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Don’t be a baby, Pears,” he said, “You’re eleven years old now, almost a grown-lady, so act like it, or I won’t come to see you anymore…”

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“I wish you wouldn’t come to see me,” she whined. “I wish that you would just disappear and leave me alone!”

“Now, Perri, you don’t really want that, do you?” he asked, taking a step towards her.

“Yes. Go away!”

He laughed at her, which only made her angrier. “I don’t want to go away, Pears! I like seeing you!”

“Well I don’t like seeing you,” she sniffed.

“Too bad!” he grinned. “You’re stuck with me for the rest of your life. We’re going to get married, you know!”

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She howled at him. “I will not marry you ever! You stupid, insolent boy! I hate you!” she screamed.

He laughed at her and then did something neither one of them expected. He threw his arms around her and kissed her full on the lips. “Well I suppose you better learn to like me!” he laughed, “Cause I do like you! Or at least I would if you were acting your age and not like some baby…”

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She started howling and he starting running as she chased after him clenching her fists

[FurryPanda]

Awwwww! I just wanna huggle both of the kiddies!

Aethelis... I don't agree with what she did, but I really do get where she's coming from. Also Dulnstead is better looking than her hubby. Hope she doesnt go psycho guilt trippy about it.

I feel really bad for Rose and Matthew and Ethylyn... Dead baby= sad (durr), and ya jsut know that Ethylyn is going to be super guilt trippy about not wanting to keep her hands to herself...

Update soon and happy simsing!

[queenrebecca]

Ya, I just love those two! They are mah favorite people in the whole kingdom, I think. Well, I like Lord Baldwin too cause he is sexy stuff, but he hasn't been in the story yet, soooo....

I have something nice planned for Rose to make up for her recent tragedy... Matthew and Ethel, on the other hand... *winces* I am going to be very cruel to for the sake of plot :( And as for Aethelis... well, she is going to have some problems pretty soon, too...

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 44: Rose Accepts
April 1, 1316

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The sky was darkening. As the light leaked from the sky, so did the warmth from the air. Rose was shivering, sitting, as she was, uncovered on a fallen log in her favorite garden.

The garden was a place that had been forgotten by many. Sitting away from the beaten and dusty pathways that surrounded the castle, her garden had fallen out of the normal world. Somehow, its presence had long faded from the memory of the castle groundskeeper and it now lay in a wild disarray and mockery of what it once had been.

But Rose loved the wildness that she found there. It was so unlike the prim and proper gardens that Queen Alverstine loved. It was not a place of careful manners and restrained decorum. It was a place where she could escape and be alone. Here in her garden, she could take off the mask of gaiety that she so desperately tried to don in public places.

Since the death of her child, Rose had slipped in and out of restless states. She could not seem to recapture a firm hold on the merry life that she had once possessed. Everyone she knew could not understand this new, sad Rose. They allowed her a time of grief for the passing of her child, but once it had ended, it seemed to her as if everyone had expected her to leap straightaway back into the Rose of jokes and parties and merriment.

That Rose, the Rose of laughter and mischievous strings of profanity was now only a shell into which she stepped each morning until night when she could be alone. If she did not protect her fragile self in this carefully constructed shell, she was not able to survive…

The sound of quiet footfalls on the dewy grass broke the spell of her reverie. “Albert,” she said without turning around. “What are you doing here?”

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He paused somewhere behind her. “Only trying to find your hiding place, my lady dear,” he said.

She slowly turned her head to him. “Why are you looking for me?” she asked. “Is something wrong?” She already knew that nothing was. Lately, Albert frequently sought out her company. She didn’t mind his constant presence, and in fact, she quite liked having him around. He leant a sense of security to her. Having him beside her made her feel quite safe, and protected. When he was around, it was easier for her to fall into her older, happier ways.

“No,” he said. “I simply wanted to talk to you…” She didn’t miss the strange pitch of his voice. It was caught, trapped in a tightly wound knot in his throat. If the quiet spell of the garden had been broken for her, the sound of his voice wove a new one around her.

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“About what?”

“Rose,” he began, and she already knew the words that were to follow. Instead of the nervous, halting rhythm that she would have expected, his voice was calm and smooth. “We have gotten to know each other very well since you came here. So well, in fact, that I feel I know most things about you. I know how hard it has been for you since Lilly died. I know how sad you are, every day, struggling to go on with your life when everyone around you seems to have forgotten. I want you to know, Rose, that I would do anything to make you happy again. If I knew that I could help you to find peace and joy again… I…” he paused, stopping to judge her thoughts by the look on her face.

She didn’t torture him any longer. “You do make me happy, Albert,” she said slowly. “I feel more myself with you than I do with anyone else…” She paused, sucking in a deep breath of air, and then smiled. “Albert, why don’t you marry me?” she asked.

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He sighed, in an imitation of exasperation. “Rose, you know that was supposed to be my line!”

The intense quiet of the mood had been broken. Rose felt something held tense with in her relax and suddenly she giggled. “Albert? Is that an acceptance? Will you take me to be your lawfully wedded husband before all men and before God?”

He sank gracefully to his knees as he said, “Wife, Rose, wife. I shall be the husband, and you shall be my wife.” He smiled fondly at her as she giggled, and then took her hand. “And I swear to you, that I shall love you for always until the day that I die.”

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She didn’t like his return to seriousness, but was nonetheless touched. “Then let us get married at once, sir,” she said.

“What?” he asked, hopping back up off the ground. “Right now?”

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“Why not?” she laughed. “We want to be married, so married let us be. Hie thee to the chapel, my soon-to-be-husband! We must find a priest!” She yanked at his hand, intending, perhaps, to yank him all the way to the nearest priest before he changed his mind. She felt merrier than she had in months and fully intended to enjoy the moment as much as possible before her depression returned. In a moment of inspiration, she suddenly dropped his hand and turned to him.

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“Albert,” she said, biting back a smile. “I love you, too.” Here, she kissed him quite sincerely, before quickly returning to her past-paced trot towards the nearest chapel. “Hurry up!” she yelled behind her at the man she had left happily speechless behind her back.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 45: Rosalyn Is Entreated
May 7, 1316

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At the sound of a timid knocking, Rosalyn rose heavily from her rickety chair. It was one of her favorite places to sit and rest, that chair. It was neither comfortable nor uncomfortable, which she loved. It supported her weight easily, but not so comfortably that she might accidentally nod off and waste the hours that she could be spending working.

She pulled open the door with some amount of detached curiosity. “Aethelis Weldhelm?” she exclaimed with surprise. She scampered to cover her slip. “What can I do for you?” she asked, hoping to cover the confusion that her voice betrayed.

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“May I come in?” Aethelis asked. She looked wearily around her, as if she did not wish for anyone to see her conversing with the other woman.

“Of course,” Rosalyn replied, moving away from the door to let her enter. She led Aethelis to the sitting room and gave her a moment to settle herself and arrange her skirts neatly. When she did not speak, however, Rosalyn hesitantly broke the silence once more. “What can I do for you, Aethelis?” she repeated.

Aethelis slowly took in a breath of air. “I need to speak to you about something very important,” she reluctantly began. “Something that I would not want to be repeated to anyone…”

Rosalyn nodded, though she was still confused. “I can promise you that much, Aethelis,” she said. “You know that I am no gossip.”

Aethelis bobbed her head in agreement. “That’s why I came to you,” she said. “I know that you ... keep to yourself a lot.” She bit her lip. “And also that you have some knowledge of how to use certain herbs and plants…”

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Rosalyn nodded. Most of her social interactions were carried out because of this knowledge. She frequently sold special plants for seasonings to the other villagers and sometimes helped at the apothecary, mixing herbs for remedies. “So what do you need?” she prodded, ready to hop to her feet to search her well-stocked cupboards.

“I’m pregnant,” Aethelis said. She spat the words out as if they were poison.

“I don’t understand,” Rosalyn said. She saw many pregnant women in her work. They often came to her to request simple medicines to help them hold down their food, to give them more energy, to help with swelling, and so on. However, Aethelis’s tone told her that she was searching for something different.

“I don’t… want the baby,” Aethelis whispered. Her face flushed into a flaming red as she uttered her confession.

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“Forgive me for prying,” Rosalyn slowly said, “but I thought it was common knowledge that you loved children and wanted some more of your own…”

Aethelis looked up at her sadly. “I don’t know who the father is,” she muttered, clearly ashamed. “I don’t know who else I can turn to for help…

Rosalyn took a deep breath to steady herself. “If you want to carry it to term, there is still a chance that it could be your husband’s.” she said. “Then you would have wasted all this time worrying about it.”

“I don’t think it is,” Aethelis said. “And if it isn’t, I know that I won’t be able to live with myself. He’ll know that I have betrayed him the moment he sets eyes upon this cursed child… I won’t be able to take it…” she said. “I can’t think of anything that could be worse than having him know what a horrible person I am. I don’t want to hurt him like that!”

“How far along are you?” Rosalyn asked with a sigh.

“About three months… I’ve waited and waited, hoping that I was wrong, but now enough time has passed that I’m sure,” she said. She looked up at Rosalyn. “I was hoping that I might have another miscarriage,” she said. Her voice cracked with guilt. She sounded to Rosalyn as if she were making a confession to a priest. “Please help me,” she entreated. “I don’t know what else to do…”

Rosalyn’s heart ached for the other woman. “I'm really no expert, Aethelis, and I don’t know that I can help you,” she said. “I’ve never tried to find something for a woman to help her shed a baby, only things to help her conceive one… And I don’t know that if I did have something, that I would feel right about it…”

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“Please,” Aethelis begged. “Please think about it… If this baby turns out to be his, I don’t know how I’ll live…” She wiped at the few tears that were falling from her eyes.

Rosalyn sighed. “Come and see me in about a week,” she said. “I’ll see if I can find out if there’s anything that I can learn to help you. But I have to be honest with you, Aethelis, I don’t think there is.”

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[FurryPanda]

There's no nightshade in the isles? Tansy is one of the most common woodland plants there is... is sorta hard to find, but everyone who knows what to look for knows what it looks like... unless her problem is giving a nightshade to a friend? *confused*

And before you ask, I have random knowledge of abortificents from botany classes, not practical knowledge.

And for usual comments.... Wowzers, Dulnstead's been busy, no? And squee, weddingz! Update soon and happy simsing!

[queenrebecca]

Thanks for pointing out to me that it wasn't very clear. I'll try to fix that in text...

Rosalyn really doesn't know all that much about that sort of thing. She's no expert and isn't even the village apothecary. Aethelis came to her instead of a professional because they sort of know each other and Rosalyn is extremely trust worthy. Plus Rosalyn probably wouldn't just hand over some stuff and be like "yay! let's abort a baby!" anyways.

God, it looks bad that I reply 30 secs. after you post. I haaaaaave noooo life!

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 46: Rosalyn is Less Lonely
May 14, 1316

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As Rosalyn expected, Aethelis returned in exactly one week. “I have nothing to give you,” she said simply as soon as the other woman was in the room.

Aethelis nodded as she took a seat on the couch. Before she could say anything, Rosalyn continued. “I tried to research the matter, but it was rather difficult. I couldn’t just go around the village and ask everyone I saw. And anyways, Aethelis, to be quite honest; I don’t know if I could feel right about this even if I did know of something…”

Aethelis nodded. “I understand. I wasn’t sure in the first place if you could help or not…”

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“Are you going to be ok?” Rosalyn asked suddenly, out of concern. To her, Aethelis seemed bent to the point of snapping. Her eyes were bleary and red, a sign that she spent most of her time crying. Rosalyn could remember back into the years when they had been young maids. Aethelis had been the merriest of them all, popular with the boys and girls alike for her quick laughter and prism like smiles. She had never been close friends with Aethelis when they were younger, but then, she had never been close friends with anyone.

As she reflected on the days gone by, she suddenly came to a realization. “Dulnstead!” she cried as she remembered the only time she had ever seen Aethelis so prone to tears. It had been when Dulnstead Millhead was courting her.

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Aethelis gasped. “How did you know?”

Rosalyn looked over at her warily. “The only time I ever saw you this weepy was when the two of you were betrothed all those years ago.”

Aethelis twiddled with her fingers. “I suppose it’s so,” she said. “But please, Rosalyn, don’t tell anyone.”

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“Don’t worry,” she assured Aethelis. “Even if I wanted to, there is no one that I could tell. I’m a bit out outside of most social circles, you know,” she shrugged.

“May I ask why that is?” Aethelis said. “You’re not a disagreeable woman. I don’t understand why you don’t have any friends.” She immediately winced. “I’m sorry, Rosalyn, I didn’t mean for it come out like that,” she stammered.

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“Oh, it’s alright,” Rosalyn said. “It’s the truth, plain and simple, so I don’t mind it being spoken aloud. And anyways, I suppose that it’s mostly my fault. I’ve never been very sociable, at all,” she sighed. “And anyways, Cuthbert likes to keep me around the house.”

“Well maybe I could come over sometimes and keep you company,” Aethelis said. “I haven’t been myself lately. It might do me some good to keep out of that big lonely house.”

“I would honestly like that very much,” Rosalyn replied. “I only ever talk to Lady Catherine,” she sighed. “And it is really not very pleasant to talk to that condescending woman. She is not fond of me at all.”

“Well, I’ll do that then,” Aethelis said as she rose from the cushions. “I’ll be by next Monday. Is that ok?”

“That would be wonderful,” Rosalyn replied. “I’ll see you then.”

[FurryPanda]

I don't know why, but I totally think that that last update deserves an "Awwwww"

Is good I suppose that Aethelis has a freind, but wasn't Albert Rosalyn's true love "awww, heart heart heart everyone's happily hitched" fellow? Or is he less nice than things would seem? And if that wasn't a typo and 'twas actually Cuthbert, could you refresh my memory on who that is? Tyanks. Update soon and Happy Simsing!

P.S. There is nothing wrong with rapid answering of comments. Or commenting after 30 seconds either. I am not lurking here, nosirreebob. *nodnod*

[queenrebecca]

Ah! You are getting Rosalyn confused with Rose... Rosalyn is married to Cuthbert and they are the parents of Ioreck, Perri's jr. fiancee.

Rose is Queen Alverstine's cousin and lives at the palace as a lady-in-waiting. Gaaah but they do look alike, both being blondes with their hair pulled back! Rosalyn has a pointer face and green eyes though. Rose's are blue. And of course, the Rosie names.

Looks like I need to change somebody's hair or make a character sheet. I was thinking of doing that anyways since this kingdom is just going to get more and more populated...

Hah! I lurk. I sit with word up and type my little updates and refresh the story page when my mind goes blank and then I get totally off track reading other stories until I remember that I'm actually supposed to be writing a story and then I get back on that... *headdesk*

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 47: Elissa Is Not Satisfied
June 24, 1316

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“I’m so devastatingly bored,” Elissa drawled to her twin brother, who sat quietly, scribbling away at something hopelessly dull and official.

“Well go do something!” he muttered, burying his face deep into a dusty tome. “And leave me alone!”

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“Don’t snap at me!” she pouted. “I would leave if there was any place interesting to go! This island is so boring. Why did we ever come here?”

“Because the king offered me a title and a nice plot of land,” he said practically. “But what are you complaining for anyways? I thought you were thrilled to be so near your ‘dear cousin.’”

“Well I was,” Elissa huffed. “At least I was until he started spending all of his time with his precious wifey!”

“Well what did you expect?” Malsom sighed, shuffling his papers and laying them neatly onto his desk. “She is his wife, after all, and a rather nice one, if I do so say.”

Elissa glared at him. “How dare you insinuate that that horrid woman is better than your own sister?”

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He snorted. “’Horrid woman?’” he quoted. “How in the world, dear sister, can you call that dear woman anything close to horrid?”

She angrily flicked a strand of her copper hair out of her face. “It’s horribly dull, she is! There’s not a hair of interesting on her ugly head.”

“And now you insult her beauty,” Malsom sighed. “Need I remind you that she is widely considered to be a very attractive woman. I can see why the king would prefer her creamy skin to your own spotted, pointy face!”

“Oh hush, Malsom!” she snapped. “Just because you are enamored of her does not make her some sort of angel on earth!”

“And just because you are so enamored of the king does not make you worth his notice!”

She hopped up off of the couch, ready to throw her fist into his face. “Watch what you say, my brother, or you will shortly regret it!”

“Oh calm down, Elissa!” he huffed. “Look at the way you’re behaving and tell me if you can’t see why you’re not married!”

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“Well what is your excuse for not having a wife?” she glared. “Is it because you are too ugly or too dull witted?”

“For your information, Sister, I’m glad that you brought the matter up because, as it happens, I am engaged.”

“What?” she exclaimed, taken extremely off guard. “How did that come about?”

“I met with our cousin, the king, yesterday,” Malsom explained, “and he suggested a little proposal to me, for the benefit of the kingdom. To gain favor with nearby lands, he has found the both of us suitable mates.”

She stared at him in shock. “Kaiser found a husband for me?” she shrieked. “How could he? I thought… I thought!” She screamed. She knew that the king was not serious in his flirtations with her, but still she thought that he had cared for her more than that… That he had more pity for her than to throw her to the fangs of some beast she had never met…

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“Who?” she whined. “Who?”

“Well, I am engaged to Lady Juliana Wiltshire. The whole family has been given land here, so they will all be moving to the island. And you, dear sister, are engaged to none other than the very brother of the queen, Sir Edwin Germaine. We will both meet our future spouses in a few short months,” he said. He grinned wickedly at her. “Isn’t it charming? We can have a double wedding.”

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“How dare you give my consent for me!” she cried. “What gives you the right?”

He sighed, the smirk vanishing from his face. “I am your guardian, sister, and I do this for the good of the family. Now would you please leave my study? I have important work to do…”

[FurryPanda]

I sorta like Elissa...
So she's getting married off? Sigh, you gotta love dem patriarchal societies.

And yeah you were right, too many people with similar names and unequal face time. Problem's on my end not remebering Rose/Rosalyn/Chrysanthemum/Chrysanthelyn/Thicket/Thelyn (last 4 were made up, in case you thought they were someone youd totally forgotten mentioning or something ;p) Update soon and happy simsing and to all a good night!

[queenrebecca]

Actually, I love Elissa. She's very pretty to me and she is pretty cute and funny. And if she is a little mean, it's only because she's jealous. She's not a bad person, really, just a little spicy...

For the record, I have made a very sketchy character guide. I'll put the link on the first page and in my signature so that you can look at it if you need a refresh on who is who in the kingdom.

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 48: Aethelis is Confronted
July 1, 1316

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Rosalyn and Aethelis walked slowly down the broad wagon rut road. It was an excruciatingly hot day and the sun was burning with a fierce intensity in the overhead sky. Puffs of dust clouded up as their feet tapped the ground and dry weeds brushed against their skirts.

They weren’t really talking to each other; both were lost in their own thoughts as they marched up the hill towards the market. Aethelis was therefore quite surprised when an unfamiliar voice broke into her thoughts.

“You’re the woman who’s sleeping with my husband,” and angry voice called out. Aethelis looked up, too surprised to do anything more than flinch at the sound.

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“I beg your pardon?” she said, looking at the plump, unhappy woman standing before her.

“You don’t know who I am?” the woman asked. She spoke with a strange mixture of hostility and regret.

It took Aethelis a moment, but suddenly she was able to match the woman’s face with a name. She was plumper, and had frown lines where she used to have none, but the face was one she still knew. “Kathrope Millhead…” she said. Immediately she blushed. The hot flow of blood to her face suddenly made the atrocious weather seem even more potent. She felt a sweat break out on her forehead.

“Yes, that’s right,” the woman snapped. “And you’re Aethelis Weldhelm.” She glared strangely at her for a moment and then continued. “I just wanted to tell you that you should have kept him the first time around,” she spat. “Because it would have done me a whole lot of good if you would have just married the man to start with!” She glared. “So if you want him now, why don’t you just keep him and maybe then he’ll let me alone!”

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Aethelis felt stung with her fury. A mix of emotions swirled over her, her regret and shame from the past uniting with her resentment and guilt of the present. The old memories of the past burned foremost into her mind and she snapped, “You should have thought of that when you took him from me all those years ago!”

“You think you’re so good!” Kathrope sneered. “Well let me tell you this, if you stick with him now, it’s none of my concern! And maybe if you give him what he wants all the time, he’ll leave me alone at night, but think you first well on this,” she said, suddenly yanking up the sleeve of her dress. “But for me, this would be your life right now,” she said, pointing furiously at the finger shaped bruises that blemished her arms. “So maybe you ought to be thanking me after all!”

Aethelis glared at her. “If he would have married me, things would have been different,” she said. “He would never treat me that way!”

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Kathrope laughed, a bitter symphony of biting despair and cruel disappointment. “Think what you will, bitch!” she said. “Think what you will, because it’s no concern of mine!” She turned furiously on her heel. Then on a second thought, she whirled back around and slapped Aethelis wrathfully on the cheek.

The popping sound of her hand on Aethelis’s skin cracked through the air. Aethelis stood stunned for a moment as Kathrope yelled, “Appreciate the life you have, Aethelis! Stop whoring around with my husband and ruining the life you have been blessed with!”

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Aethelis felt her knees crumple in sudden weakness as she sunk to the ground. Rossi stood silent over her. Her face wore a look of disappointment. “You’re still sleeping with Dulnstead, Aethelis?” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought we were friends…” She gave her one last crestfallen look and then headed back down the road towards her house. “I’m going home,” she said. “Come and talk to me when you can feel you can be honest…”

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[Montridge]

OMGosh! I just read this story all the way through. I COULD NOT break away.
I really love your writing style. (Not to mention the situations, originality, characters, and pictures.)
I was disappointed when I tried to click on the next chapter when Aethelis is confronted by Dulnstead's wife and realised that was all for now.
(My hubby's probably wondering where his breakfast is. LOL!)
There is so many really awesome stories on here right now and this is one of the best. Can't wait for the next update. :)

[queenrebecca]

Wow Montridge, thanks for the rave review! :D I'm so glad that you like my story. I've been a fan of your stories for quite some time.

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 49: Kathrope Strikes a Nerve
July 1, 1316

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She heard the door slam heavily as she sat quietly on the floor, trying with all of her might to teach Gully how to speak. The child was slow thinking and ponderous, not nearly as quick witted and sharp and her older brothers and sister. Dulnstead frequently insinuated that there was something not quite right about the child, and even though Kathrope wanted with all of her heart for him to be wrong, she knew that there was.

“What are you doing?” Dulnstead growled.

“Trying to help Gully learn some words,” Kathrope muttered, internally bracing herself for the anger that she knew was about to be unleashed.

“Why do you even bother wasting your time working with that little twit?” he snarled. “You know that she is never going to be able to learn anything!”

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“It doesn’t hurt to try, Dulnstead,” she timidly replied. She would let him insult her, but not her children. For her children, she would fight him to the death.

He turned his vicious glare to Gully. “Put her down in the other room. I want to talk to you.”

Normally, Dulnstead did not mind if the children heard or saw him when he was mad at her. She didn’t know what she had done to warrant a fury so intense that he felt the need to hide it from the eyes of his offspring.

After she had returned from laying the child down for a nap, Kathrope hesitantly returned. “What did you want to talk about?” She could tell from the glower on his face that he was going to make her pay something severe. She had a vague idea what had incited his wrath, but didn’t know how he could have ever found out.

“Do you know what I heard today when I went into the village?” he asked. His voice was soft… quiet… dangerous.

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“Noooo,” she squeaked.

“Don’t lie to me!” he yelled, leaning in close to her face. “What did you do to Aethelis?” he screamed. “In the village square this very day?”

She squared off her shoulders and almost wanted to sigh. This was not what she had been expecting. “You heard that I tried to knock some good sense into her dim-witted little head,” she bravely replied. She was floating suddenly on the confidence of realizing that he did not know her true secret.

His fist smacked her squarely across her face, but it did not knock her smile away. “How dare you lay a single finger on her, you disgusting cow!” he spat.

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She couldn’t help herself. She laughed. “I’ve never seen you get so worked up about one of your whores, Dulnstead,” she cackled. “What is it this time? Fancy yourself in love with her or something?”

He backed off so suddenly that she halted. “Don’t call her that,” he hissed, but his voice had lost its hard and terrifying edge.

“What’s this?” she giggled. “Have I finally hit a nerve? I’m surprised at you, Dulnstead! Emotional attachments have never really been big with you… Why start now?”

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His muscles tensed as if he were ready to strike. “Watch your words carefully, woman,” he said, “if you don’t want them to be your last.”

She was used to his empty threats, but something about his demeanor left her uneasy. She had never seen her husband get so upset over a woman… As far as she knew, all women were little more than playthings to him. It would take her some time to understand the mystery of his new behavior. She almost laughed again to herself, but checked it just in time. Maybe she would finally have the upper hand in things with him if she could only understand!

She cast her eyes humbly downward. “Forgive me, husband,” she said softly as the wheels of her mind began to carefully turn.


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[Lilla Myy_SC]

Hi,

I started to read this story just now and I haven't read it all yet but I love it already :) The story is interesting and I really like all the characters. Not to mention your writing skills - I wish I could write as well as you do!

I know I'm probably weird but I love English and especially this was so cutely said I couldn't help but write it down to my notebook:

"-- so that I may fill my head with worries of the right nature.”

I love it I love it I love it :D

Thank you so much for writing this! I guess I'm compelled to go and read the rest of it right away.

[queenrebecca]

Well I'm certainly glad that you have enjoyed it thus far!

I think it is funny that you should mention your love of English. I feel much the same way about other languages. In fact, I was delighted that you had included some Finnish terminology at the end of your last post on your story. I am majoring in foreign languages at university, in fact, and it is a love of English and words in general that leads me to write anything at all.

So I think that it is very cool that you feel the same way! And thanks again for taking the time to read and comment. I really appreciate it! :D

[Lilla Myy_SC]

It seems we have something in common! I absolutely love languages, words, sentences, even grammar. Unfortunately I have only studied English, German and Swedish but I'd love to study Spanish too.

I still haven't read your whole story but to be honest, that's only because of huge amounts of will power ;) I love the story so far and I really don't want it to end so I enjoy it in little pieces.

Your writing is so excellent and unique that I'm not surprised when you told that you're majoring in foreign languages because you naturally can't be good in foreign languages if your mother language is poor. But I'm truly surprised this is your first story! It just can't be. This is so good.

I especially loved these:

"Ah... That would be his advisor, Millstein. No one else could knock on a door so... dryly."

"His advisor was, politely, an old night bonnet with no taste for humor, drinking, or, in short, fun."

"After an awkward pause, probably intended to serve as a reprimand for his sovereign’s heavy drinking, Millstein continued."

Your pictures and settings are also amazing. (These were the best in my opinion: http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e71/imab13/Chapter%208/12.jpg, http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e71/imab13/chapter%2010/3.jpg)

(Matthew’s wife is very pretty by the way.)

Oh and that prophecy thing! I can't wait to find out what that's all about :D

Maria

EDIT: I gave this story five stars by the way - it would have deserved at least six of them but unfortunately five was the highest rating I was able to give ;)

[queenrebecca]

You flatter me so much with all of these compliments! I am glad that you enjoy those particular lines. So far, you are picking up on several of the lines into which I put the most thought into, which flatters me to no end, of course!

I am very grateful for your comments. You, being a writer yourself, understand as well as I do how nice it is to see that people actually read and like the things that we write :)

[FurryPanda]

Ohai, hadn't noticed you updated! *braindead*

And is Kathrope supposed to bee very sympathetic? She doesn't seem to be... I mean, I totally understand why Dulnstead is considered bad (although I can't deny that I like him, he amuses me a bit), but Kathrope seems pure b*tchiness, pardon my language. I don't know why.

As always, update soon, happy simsing, and that prominently labeled "Do Not Push" button makes pretty lights!

[queenrebecca]

Well, no, she's not particularly sympathetic. She is jealous. She still loves her husband even though he's a jerk but he loves Aethelis. She is mad that he abuses her and thinks that Aethelis is stupid trying to throw away what she has by having an affair with Dulnstead. So she is kinda torn between jealousy and hating Aethelis and letting her know that Dulnstead is no good...

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 50: Matthew is Concerned
July 29, 1316

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The last few days had been quite tense in Matthew’s house. The languor of the season’s heat had stilled the air so thoroughly in his small cottage that breathing seemed impossible. The stifling atmosphere had not been helped by the tension that also hung as heavy in the air as the late summer humidity. Mathilde had been having mild contractions for days, and the family anxiously awaited the hour when she would finally go into labor.

The tension around the house was not helped at all by the dutiful appearance of Ethelyn, who had arrived that morning to perform her usual duties as midwife. Matthew was worried enough as it was for Mathilde, who he knew would soon have to go through all of the pain of childbirth in the sweltering heat. He was also concerned for Ethelyn now, who would be attending his wife, even though she was noticeably pregnant herself.

Mathilde knew nothing of the tenderness and affection with which Matthew and Ethel truly held one another, but the situation was awkward, nonetheless. Though they had not physically touched one another since the day of the death of Ethel’s husband, Matthew’s feelings had not changed. He did not know how Ethelyn felt, as they had never since spoken of that horrible night, but by the way her soft glance lingered on his face, he acutely felt that her feelings were as unchanging as his.

As she returned from settling Mathilde down on the bed, their eyes met once again, and Matthew smiled broadly at her, trying to mask his concern. She ventured a smile in return and walked slowly towards him to sit down beside him on the bench. “Is she well?” Matthew finally asked. The heat was so intense that even the simple act of speaking was wearying.

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“Well enough,” Ethel sighed, patting her own stomach absently. Matthew loved the unconscious tenderness of the gesture, even though it sharply reminded him of his worry for her health.

“Perhaps you should lie down too,” he said gently. He could see the toll the heat was exacting on her. The rosy glow of her supple skin served only to make her eyes look too bright, too feverish…

“Oh don’t worry for me, Matthew,” she said. “I’m not tired at all. I’ll just sit here for a bit and rest until Mathilde needs me again.” She gave him the little smile that he knew so well. It lifted the smooth corners of her lips up into the soft slope of her cheeks.

“Are you really alright, Ethel?” he asked suddenly. “I don’t mean just now, I mean in general. Has everything been alright since… Bertram died?”

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He saw her flinch backwards as if he had stabbed her. He knew that she did not like to speak of it, but his concern for her outweighed his desire to pretend for her sake, that everything was fine.

“Yes,” she finally said, “everything is going well at the farm. We’re doing just fine, Matthew, so don’t worry,” she sighed.

He did not miss the slight, delicate tremor of her voice as she spoke. It told him everything that her words had left unsaid. He knew all that she must be feeling: the pain of loosing her husband, the guilt of being with him so soon before, the desire to pretend that nothing had ever happened and to continue looking for a way to survive, even though her heart had been broken. He knew all this, for his feelings were so much like hers.

Had he not reflected on that night every night since? How many times had he lain in bed, feeling almost wounded at the knowledge that he had unintentionally caused her harm? He knew that her sensitive disposition had probably led her to feel at fault for the death of Bertram, even though she had had no hand at all in the horrible business. So often, his empathy for her had encouraged him to try to put his own mind into a frame the like of hers.

If it had been Mathilde who had died, would he not have felt some twinge of joy, of hope that there would be only one less person to stand between him and Ethelyn, who he so fervently loved? Only then, with the realization of that joy, he knew would come an even greater force of regret to fall upon his chest with the force of a mountain! It would be the shame of being capable of such vile and sinful thoughts. He knew that Ethel must have grappled with feelings, thoughts, and desires as unholy and hurtful as this, and yet he had never, until now, said anything to her on the matter!

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“Ethel,” he whispered to her, “come live here, with us. We can take care of you and the children. You need a man around to help you, Ethel! I don’t want you to be all by yourself.”

She smiled faintly at him. “Matthew, did you actually think about anything you just said?”

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He leaned closer to her, making his voice plain and earnest. “Yes,” he said. “I have thought about it all. For months, I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t like to see you struggle so with the farm and the children… It’s too much work for you, Ethel. And it’s not safe!”

She sighed. “I have the older boys to help look after me, Matthew,” she reminded him. “They do most of the work on the farm now. And Effie and Bertie aren’t so young as they used to be. They don’t need so much looking after now…”

“But you’re going to have another baby in just a few months,” he said. “Who’ll help you with that?”

“It’ll be more work, Matthew,” she said, fiddling with her fingers shyly, “but the other kids will be able to help me take care of the baby…”

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“But I want somebody to take care of you, Ethel,” he said softly.

She patted his hand. “Don’t worry about me, Matthew,” she said. “You’ve got your own family to look after. You can’t be looking after mine at the same time.” She laughed a little. “And you know it’s not a practical thing to ask me to move in here. Why, where you put us all?”

“We’d make room,” he stubbornly said.

“And how do you think Mathilde would feel about having me around all the time?” Ethel smiled, attempting to laugh. “I, for one, do not think that she would take too kindly to the idea.” Her gentle features were suddenly overcome with tenderness. “And I think that it would be too hard for me, to have you so close all the time… and still so out of reach,” she said. He did not miss the emotion in her voice, especially as it stirred the same sentiments of his own desire.

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She was so sweet, so unassuming, and so adorable that he wanted to kiss her again, to feel the silk of her lips pressed close against his own, to feel the softness of her body molded into the shape of his, but he knew better than to touch her. It would only cause them more pain. At any rate, Mathilde, unconsciously or not, prevented him from any action he might have taken with the arousal of those feelings, for with a ferocious cry, she announced that her labor had finally begun in earnest. Ethel gave him one last affectionate look and rose to go to Mathilde, closing the door behind her.

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 51: Elissa Thinks about a Man
August 31, 1316

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Elissa sat determinedly. She had arranged the features of her face into her best impression of apathy and imagined herself to look quite cold and haughty. She impatiently jabbed her sharp fingernails into the cushion of the couch, tapping out a displeasing rhythm. She hoped mightily that Malsom would notice her displeasure and take offense to it, but he ignored her with more than his usual amount of disdain.

To add to her frustration, the meeting was taking place in the king’s castle. Several relatives of the soon expected guests crowded around her, waiting to see their family. She supposed that their presence could hardly be avoided given the circumstances, but it irked her nonetheless that so many would be privy to her moment of horror.

The atmosphere was a bubble of excitement and good cheer, which, naturally, irritated her as well. She seemed to be the only person in the room who was dreading the arrival of the visitors. Though she normally liked Rose, the other lady was chatting too excitedly with Alverstine to notice her. They spoke excitedly, in grand waving gestures of the pleasure of seeing the family members who were so soon expected.

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Her brother, Albert, and Kaiser were all wrapped up in a separate discussion. She could not hear what they were saying, but they all appeared to be happily joking, too involved in conversation to notice her displeasure. She watched the handsome face of Kaiser as he laughed with the other men. It almost made her heart hurt to see him so happy.

She sighed and looked over at Alverstine. Watching the graceful gestures of the queen only filled her with more sadness and resentment when she realized that soon, she was to be married to the very brother of the man who was her rival for the heart of the only person that she had ever loved! Since childhood, she had shared a strong bond with King Kaiser, that had grown from a childish friendship and rivalry to into an adolescent flirtation and eventually, at least on her part, into love.

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When he had offered Malsom a grand estate on the isle, she had at once rejoiced. She had at immediately and unconsciously been aware upon the death of Kaiser’s father and Kaiser’s subsequent ascension to the throne that he would soon be in need of a wife. A part of her, indeed a very large part of her, had thought that perhaps his offer to Malsom had been based on more than an attempt to replenish the populations of the castles that had grown empty throughout the long war. Perhaps, she had thought, it meant that Kaiser had thought of her as a possibility for his wife. Perhaps he had called her there for that sole reason…

And of course she had been mistaken! Their very reunion, which had lifted her spirits higher than anything in years, had been tainted by the immediate arrival of another woman! She had still retained some of her hope, however, throughout the early months of his marriage to Alverstine. Even though he had his beautiful wife, in those early days, he had still sought out her company more than any other's.

But even that distinction had fallen away from her with the months that followed. By the time his son had been born, Kaiser had paid her little more than a passing attention. It was clear that he loved her as a cousin, and only a cousin. She knew this, but she didn’t know why it still hurt that he had allowed for her engagement to another. She blew a puff of air out in disappointment.

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She had not the slightest curiosity for about her soon to be husband. As far as she was concerned, he was only one more obstacle between her and the man that she loved. She would marry him. She would not complain. She would go about her days as always and fulfill her duties to her husband, but no more than that. She would not love him. She never could.

It was then that she heard the footsteps in the corridor. Her heart tightened as she tried to realign her face into its former disdain, even while knowing that she was about to meet her future husband.

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 52: Edwin is at the Mercy of a Lady
August 31, 1316

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The dining hall was filled with the merry sound of conversation. Laughter frequently fluttered from table to table, dancing into Edwin’s ears like a butterfly landing upon a flower. Although the other guests were quite jovial, Edwin himself was struggling to keep his even temper.

To dissipate his frustration, he smiled winsomely at his future bride, who sat listlessly before him. She was quite plainly displeased with him, but he knew not how to remedy the situation.

Truly, he was at a loss! He knew himself to be not an ugly man. Indeed, many women had flattered his vanity with reports of his handsome face and athletic body. And besides the qualities which she could not help but to observe with her eyes, he knew himself to also be charming, merry, and unfailingly polite! And yet she would not notice him! She would not even pay him enough mind to notice his amiable nature. No matter what joke or clever witticism crossed his lips, she would not laugh. To the altar of his ego, she offered only the barest smile that her pretty lips could manage.

Normally, he would not have cared for her opinion at all. There were only two reasons that gave him any desire at all to care what thoughts crossed through her mind. The first was that she was to be his wife, and he therefore wished to start the relationship as pleasantly as possible. The second was that since she would pay no attention to him, he naturally burned to have her approval.

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She was not at all the type of woman that he usually found attractive. Her hair was a shiny copper. It was admittedly attractive in its own way, but it was not the glossy chestnut shade that he usually preferred. Her face, he would have usually found to be too common and lacking in refinement, but tonight, he thought her lovely. The freckles that he would have usually thought of as blemishes to her pale skin, he now thought to be charming. The general disposition of her face, which he might have another night found to be too forward, he now thought quite handsome, for though she did not smile readily at him, he could tell by the tilt of her eyes that she was a lady quite fond of laughter.

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He knew that without her rejection, he would have never noticed her, but the fact did not much perturb his mind. Since she had caught his eye, for one reason or another, he was smitten with affection (and frustration) within the hour. Although it might have offended her, the manner of how he had come to favor her did not bother him half so much as the question of how to make her favor him!

“The roast is quite good tonight,” he said rather stupidly.

She looked at him and blinked. “Yes,” she said, “it is.”

Well that didn’t afford much conversation! He randomly groped for another subject with which to engage her conversation. “The windows in this room are quite charming, I think. See how they catch the light? The windows in my own castle are much larger, however, and play more with the light…”

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She made no response.

“You look very lovely this evening.”

“I reciprocate the sentiment,” she said with a slight smile playing mischievously at the corners of her mouth.

He leaned forward excitedly, surprised at her boldness in complimenting him so. “You mean that you find me handsome?” he pressed, seeking to stroke his ego, which she had been bullying all night.

“No,” she smiled. “I meant to say that I quite agree with you on matter. That is to say, we both are accorded on the fact that I am indeed an especially lovely woman.”

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He did not know if he should frown at her lack of modesty, or smile at her boldness. He compromised, laughing heartily, he scolded her, “If this is the grace with which you usually accept compliments, then you shall have no more compliments from me, my lady!”

She inclined her head wickedly at him. “That’s quite alright,” she assured, “for I can tell that you are much more in the habit of complimenting yourself than others. I wouldn’t want to deprive you the pleasure of that fine pastime!”

He laughed again. His self-confidence was healthy enough that he could laugh at himself and see the humor in her words. “Are you determined to make me miserable?” he teased. “You really should be more agreeable to me. I am to be your husband, you know.”

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She scowled at him, but her eyes were shining. “Is that not reason enough for me to make myself less pleasant? Is it not the duty of any good wife’s duty to torment her husband?”

“If that is the duty of a good wife, then I should like a bad one!”

“Then a good one you shall have, for I would not for any reason make myself more commendable to your insensible desires!”

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“Meaning that you will make a good wife in the normal fashion or a good wife in your own fashion, which is to say, a bad one?”

“If you are too slow to keep up, then I shall not explain myself to you,” she said. The coldness had suddenly returned to her voice, and throughout the rest of the evening, no matter how hard he tried, he could not rekindle the brief spark of that one animated conversation.

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[NicoleDSK]

This story is amazing. I love it. Your pictures are so beautiful!

[queenrebecca]

Thanks, Nicole, I am glad that you like it :) I just went to check out your story, too. I see that we both share a penchant for historical dramas :D

[Lilla Myy_SC]

The more I read, the more I love it. :lovestruc

My favourite character so far is Perri - she's so cute and I love the way you've described her thoughts. I find describing children really difficult and I have to say that you’ve done amazing job. Keep up the good work!

Now I have to go to read more ;)

EDIT: After reading a little more:

I love Perri. I know I said it already but now I love her even more. She's so adorable! I really hope she's going to have a lot of screen time in this story.

Matthew is damn gorgeous (and Perri is so cute when she's learning new words) :valentine I absolutely loved the paragraph where Matthew's thoughts were described (for example this: "When it was quiet like that, he felt like he was close to finding something special. Something that not too many people knew about. He’d be so close to finding it and then Mathilde would talk and ruin it. The whatever-it-was he was about to discover would just fly right away from his outstretched hand like a frightened bird flying for freedom." That was just really good!)

--> back to reading :D

[queenrebecca]

Thank you, thank you! You make me blush pointing out things like that ;) And really let me say thanks for taking the time to say those little things... They really make my day:D

Also, a note to anyone who is still reading: I am working on some updates right now. I know it has been a little while since the last chapter, but there are new ones on their way!

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 53: Aethelis Does Not Know
September 4, 1316

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When the contractions had started deep in the heart of the night, Aethelis had remained silent. She did not cry out. She did not scream. She bunched the cool linen of her sheets deep into her palm until the fabric grew damp with the sweat of her palms. Inside of her, a battle had raged. The truth was on its way. Very soon, she would bear it to the world as proof of her infidelity, or as proof of her foolishness.

She did not wake up her husband on purpose. She had let him sleep quietly beside her. Asleep, he was safe in the world of his dreams. Until he awoke, he would know nothing of her sins, of her treacherous behavior. Maybe, if she was quiet enough, he would never know.

The child would be born. She would know immediately who it belonged to. If she saw those golden eyes peeping out at her from under newborn lashes, she would simply destroy the child. Rosalyn would not help her get rid of the babe while it was still innocent in the womb and would therefore be the only one to blame, if she, Aethelis had to kill it for bearing the crimes of its father.

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But then again, the baby might belong to her husband. She would never willingly injure any part of him. But what if she couldn’t tell? What if the child simply resembled her? Maybe then, not all would be lost! She would be able to raise it safely in her nest. Dinovynn might never have to know!

Even as the thought occurred to her, she knew that it was too much to hope for. She had seen Dulnstead’s children. They all carried his distinctive mark, golden eyed or not.

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Eventually, though she was as quiet as she knew how to be, Dinovynn awoke to the sounds of her muffled struggle. After exclaiming over her quiet bravery, he quickly dressed to go call for the midwife. He sent Ellyn upstairs to keep her company, while he rode into town.

“You might as well stay in the room the whole time, Ellyn,” she eventually muttered to her daughter. “You’re almost a woman now. In a few years, you’ll be in my place…”

Ellyn looked shyly at her mother. “I’m not even twelve yet!” she softly protested.

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“But you will be soon,” Aethelis corrected. “And by the time you’re fifteen or sixteen, it might be you lying on a bed like this, about to be a mother yourself.”

Ellyn wrinkled her nose in childish protest. “I hope not!”

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“You might change your mind when you meet a man as good as your father…” Aethelis mused, clutching ever more tightly at the sheets beneath her hands. “And if you do ever find such a man… never hurt him, Ellyn,” she groaned. She did not know if her voice was cracking from pain or from emotion, but she repeated her small bit of wisdom again to her daughter. “Never do anything to hurt a man like that…”

Ellyn looked at her confused. “Are you ok, mama?” she asked. Her voice was suddenly childish again, and her bright, worried eyes reminded Aethelis that she was speaking only to a young girl, not to a grown woman.

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She turned her face to hide her tears from her daughter. “I love you, Ellie,” she whispered. “Remember that, if anything should happen to me, I will always love and I always have…” She quietly let her tears fall into the pillow, hoping that her daughter would not notice the gravity of her words...

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[queenrebecca]

Chapter 54: Aethelis Knows
September 5, 1316

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She vaguely awoke, her body reeling with a strange sensation of motion. She felt as if she were floating, rolling on waves that passed beneath her body in a haze of endless motion. Everything was dark, dark, dark and the inside of her body felt as dim and endless as a deep underground tavern. She was a hollow cave, echoing quietly with the sound of never-ending shadows and she could feel the darkness prickling on her skin. She longed to open her eyes, to reach out and to seize the flame of the few small candles that persistently burned on her nightstand. All the other candles had already burned out- sputtering, they had fallen into the magma of wax below them until they had suffocated.

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Her lungs burned like a dying fire. Heavy and thick, the air that filled them was like heated smoke. She choked to breathe and then realized that her face was wet. Wet with tears, or wet with the dampened clothes of the specters who hung like tenacious shadows just outside of her vision, she did not know. She did not care.

“Where is he?” she croaked, urging her parched tongue into speech. The words were slurred and cracked with the breaking of her strained voice. She struggled to sit, to worm her body out of the heavy blankets in which wrapped it.

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Bodies pressed close into her, swarming over her like a flock of flies. They murmured and she could not discern the words. “Bring him to me!” she shouted. At least, she thought she was shouting. Perhaps she was not speaking at all. The shadows dipped in closer, moving their ears closer to her mouth… listening for what? Had she not spoken clearly? Or had she passed beyond their world already, moved into the world of the dying where her words could not pass beyond the film that separated her from them. She tried again. “Bring him to me!” she croaked.

At last they understood. A bundle arrived in her arms, swaddled tightly in white cloth. Her trembling hands yanked at the cloth, exposing the child beneath. Her eyes focused blearily in on the face.

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He was staring at her, his yellow eyes gleaming in the dark. She dropped the child from her limp arms, and as the ladies shrieked around her, she freed herself from her confinement on the bed and wobbled quickly out of the room. Her body slammed against the walls as she tripped on the hem of her nightgown down the stairs.

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She barely heard the screams coming from above her from the landing. She had fallen. It was a fitting end...

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[Angelbeam19]

I loveeee youre settings and scenes I especially love the plot and that its played in a different era nice job!Keep it up :)

[queenrebecca]

Thank you Angelbeam! If you are still reading, then I hope you will be pleased to learn that there is (finally!) a new chapter on the way. :D

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 55: Ethel’s Confession
November 7, 1316

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All she could discern through the wetness in her eyes were the shadows on the table. Flickering images danced across the wood, warping the light into shifting shapes. She felt that there was a pattern to their rhythmic dance, if only she could comprehend it. Maybe, she thought, life was the same way. Somewhere hidden in the grain of it, there was a larger picture. Somewhere hidden in it was meaning... She hoped so, but how could she ever know? She blinked away a tear, before it could slide down her face and guiltily plop down onto the table.

She didn’t want Matthew to see her cry. She lifted her eyes, peering through the wet lashes, bravely meeting his gaze.

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The expression on his face tore at her heart. His eyes were glazed over- impenetrable. She could read nothing in his face. She felt a tremor of despair trill through her body, covering her skin in a thousand needle pricks of ice. She waited for him to reply, but his silence filled the air with a heaviness that no words could.

She cleared her throat, which felt thick and heavy with the tears she was trying to restrain. “I’m sorry,” she finally muttered.
Still, he was silent. Slowly the seconds passed, and he cast his eyes downward, away from her face, to look solemnly down at the table between them. “You have nothing to apologize for,” he eventually replied.

The voice that he spoke with was not his own. She heard nothing of the Matthew that she knew and loved in his tone. When he spoke to her, she did not hear the strong sound of his voice, which was usually so calm and reassuring. Usually when he spoke, she imagined that she could hear the strength and earthiness of the land and soil and trees that he loved. It radiated from him at those times, and it was then that she could almost, almost see the meaning of something grand and important, like finding a hidden picture in the grain of a wooden beam.

Now there was nothing. She was afraid that she had broken his heart.

“I know that this is the most practical choice for you,” he intoned. “I understand.”

She felt the tears well up in her eyes. “Matthew,” she pleaded, “please don’t think less of me for this…”

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He finally looked back up at her, with eyes that were no longer dead, but now full of emotion. “Why Dinovynn?” he whispered. “Why him?”

She felt the first of her tears finally slip down her face. “He needs help, Matthew,” she muttered. “You know what it feels like to loose a spouse,” she added. “He is going through not only that pain right now but is also struggling with the baby… He needs someone there to help him…”

“Why does it have to be you,” he glared.

“Because I need help, too!” she cried.

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“I told you that you could come live here!” he replied. His accusing voice stung her, and felt almost like a sudden slap on her face. “You refused me!”

“You’re married, Matthew! How could I do that to you? To Mathilde?”

His anger finally broke, and she could see the hopelessness that was welling up within him. She recognized it because she felt it too. “You don’t have to marry him,” he said softly. “There are other ways… He could simply hire you as a nurse…”

“It is the most practical thing for me,” she murmured. “Things are falling behind on the farm. My boys can’t keep up. It’s just a small plot of land, Matthew… We always survived on Bertram’s income as a fisherman, not off of our land. I never knew how much I needed him to keep our family afloat… When I told you that I didn’t need your help, I really thought we’d be ok...” She brushed away a tear. “But we’re not.”

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His face softened and he reached across the table, as if to touch her hand, but at the last minute, he pulled it hesitantly away. “I’m sorry Ethel,” he said, his voice quiet and soft. “If things were different, I’d-“

“Please don’t say it, Matthew,” she interrupted. “It won’t help.”

He looked straight into her eyes, his expression aflame with something she had never seen in him before. “I love you, Ethelyn,” he simply said, ignoring her plea. “I love you now, and I will always love you.”

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The heavy explosion of it hit her full in the chest and she struggled for breath. She had never known how much it would make her feel to hear him say the words that she had not heard in months, but it was too late for anything to change. She had already given Dinovynn her answer and her fate was sealed.

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[Mollypog]

This is just superb. I always get equal parts hopeful and concerned when I see that someone is setting out to write historical type fiction. It either turns out amazing or atrocious. You fall well into the amazing end of the spectrum, juggling a large cast without making it confusing. Beautiful sets, well designed characters, clever turns of phrase. I'm looking forward to the next update!

Edit: I totally empathize with distracting yourself reading other stories instead of writing. I ought to be working on an update right this moment, but I ran across your story and sat here reading the whole thing through. *gurk!*

[queenrebecca]

Read the whole thing? Egads! That must have taken a bit, because I just happily noticed that it is getting quite long.

Ha ha, I just saw that you commented my comment from your story, which is funny because it is what I was reading when I was supposed to be typing up the next chapter for my story. Funny how these things work out. :)

Anyways, thank you for reading, and I am glad that you liked it!!! ^_^

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 56: Dinovynn Speaks Plainly
November 8, 1316

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As he heard the timid knocking on the door, Dinovynn rose softly to his feet. “Come in,” he called, for he already knew who had arrived, and as she entered, he gestured for her to take a seat in one of the chairs before the fire.

“Why did you want to see me?” she asked, gently brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face.

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He slowly took a seat beside her. “I don’t want you to do this if you have any doubts,” he answered. He noticed that he was nervously playing with the fabric of his clothes and stilled his hands. Drawing in a deep breath, he added “And I wanted to make sure that you fully understand the situation.”

She looked up at him, her soft eyes sad and mysterious. “What do you mean?”

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Absently, he waved his hand towards the crib that lay on the other side of the room. “The baby,” he murmured. “You know that the child is not mine.”

He noticed that her breath caught in her throat as she stifled a gasp. “I beg your pardon?”

“You’ve seen him, haven’t you Ethelyn? Looked at those eyes?” He leaned forward in his candor, pressing her for answers.

She turned her face slowly away from him. “Yes, Dinovynn, I’ve seen him.”

“Then you know who his father is,” he whispered. He finally saw her head neatly dip into a nod. For some reason the gesture relaxed him and he leaned backwards into the cushions of his chair. “I loved my wife,” he stated simply. “I loved her almost more than anything in this world.” He paused again, waiting to see her nod before he continued. “You must know,” he began, “that I never expect to have those same feelings about anyone again. Especially this soon after her… death.”

Ethelyn tilted her slight head up at him sadly. “I understand,” she replied. “I would not expect you… to love me,” she whispered.

He nodded absently. “She betrayed me in so many ways,” he murmured, once again noticing that he was fidgeting with the fabric. Ethelyn didn’t say anything, so he continued.

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“She wasn’t herself in those last few months,” he sighed. He didn’t know if he was even speaking to Ethelyn anymore, or if he was saying the words only to himself. He reluctantly pulled himself out of the reverie.

“So you see why it is hard for me to care for the child right now,” he finally said. “It is difficult to look into that tiny thing’s eyes, realizing that he is the embodiment of my wife’s betrayal.”

“You can’t blame the baby,” Ethelyn gently interjected.

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“Blame the baby?” Dinovynn shook his head. “I don’t blame the child for the sins of his father and mother… But still, Ethelyn, it is hard to see those eyes, mocking me from the innocent face of that infant.” He sighed heavily again. “I need you to help me with him… And also, my daughter... My Ellyn... She is still so young. She needs a mother…

So, what I am saying is that if you are still sure that you want to go through with this, I would greatly appreciate it. I just didn’t want you to have any misguided expectations. I can give you and your family security,” he said slowly, “but that is all…”

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Ethelyn nodded. “I understand.”

Dinovynn pulled himself to his feet, feeling that the meeting was at its close. “Then I suppose we have a wedding to plan.”

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[renegadewolfe]

Beautifully written, and with such detail! Quite inspiring.

[Mollypog]

Read the whole thing? Egads! That must have taken a bit, because I just happily noticed that it is getting quite long.



Yes, read the whole thing! And loved it! Great update, too, but so sad. They're both such nice people. They deserve better than a loveless marriage of convenience.

[queenrebecca]

Hallo Renegadewolfe! Thank you for reading :D

And to Mollypog: They do deserve better, but alas, I fear I must torture them, for the story must have drama! X_X

[FaerieDust]

I thought you had given up on this story! I was so excited to see these updates...they are excellent as always and I can't wait to read more!


Colleen

[queenrebecca]

Thanks Colleen :)

Yesh, I know that I have been negligent. I started dating a guy and got distracted from writing for awhile, but now I am single and have lots of free time again :( haha!

But no fears, there will be plenty of updates as soon as I can write them because I spent several hours yesterday creating chapter outlines for the next 20!!! updates :D I am very proud of myself for finally sitting down and getting it done, and I hope to have a new update or two within the next few days!

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 57: Matthew is Broken
November 30, 1316

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******

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Matthew quietly shut the heavy door behind him. In the small anteroom, there were no eyes or ears to observe his misery. He wanted to wail, to scream, or to yell at the heavens in some profane gesture of release, but he could not. He held it all inside, in the quiet center of his chest where the pain seemed to weigh like lead against his soul.

He sank to the cold stone floor and offered his quiet prayers to a God whom he was not sure listened.

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He had just watched Ethelyn marry Dinovynn Weldhelm and something inside of him had broken. He had watched her walk up the small chapel aisle in her simple white dress, her thick and wavy hair falling over her slight shoulders and covering her delicate neck. As he had watched her slow and graceful movements, she had reminded him of nothing so much as a small frightened bird, and his arms had ached to hold her.

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During the ceremony, she had met his eyes only once, and so fleetingly that he almost believed he had imagined it. He was painfully aware of all that was missing in his life. He now knew that he had never been truly happy, could never be truly happy, without her beside him.

As he slowly rose, his eyes found the massive glass window that adorned the bare walls of the small room. It depicted Adam, in the act of his first sin.

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[Montridge]

I still hope Matthew and Ethelyn can eventually be together.
(I don't care much for Mathilde.)
I also have to comment on how impressed I am with your pics.

[queenrebecca]

Thanks Montridge! I went through a lot of trouble to get those pics.

[Yowler09]

I love this story! I have been lurking since the begaining but im tottally hooked

[Mollypog]

Yay! Update goodness. I have to second Montridge. The pics were beautiful, and so was the church. I just have the feeling this can't end well for them. :( You're doing such a beautiful job of depicting someone who is torn. Keep it up!

[queenrebecca]

Yay! A new reader comes out from the shadows! Thank you for commenting Yowler! It is nice to see one's work appreciated :)

And to Mollypog: Thank you for your nice comments, as always. I had quite a time getting the chapel built for this scene. As for Matthew and Ethel's fate... well, I can't say just yet what I have in store for them, of course... :D

[queenrebecca]

Chapter 58: Ellyn Discovers the Surprise
January 27, 1317

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She awoke to the dull sound of copper pots clanging in the kitchen. She had heard the activity in her sleep, and it had dimly pervaded the recesses of her dreams. A memory of that dream clung with hesitant gossamer claws to her conscious mind as she awoke.

It had been something about a woman with fine golden hair that fell in curls around her heart shaped face… blue skirts, and an apron that was whitened with flour… Her groggy mind took some time naming the face of the woman in her dreams, but her heart always knew.

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It seemed so long ago, but an uncomfortable lump still rose in her throat. She blinked back her tears and slowly pulled her quilt off of her body as she sat up. Now was not the time for crying. A few months had passed since her mother’s death and she was learning to swallow the feelings that still sometimes haunted her in those odd moments between waking and dreaming- the moments in which she forgot the awful truth.

Goosebumps immediately rose on her skin as she slowly left the warm comfort of her blankets and threw her small feet towards the floor.

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A fire still smoldered in its ashes in the hearth, but it provided little warmth in the frigid January air. Color had not yet melded into the dawn sky, and the light in Ellyn’s room was still blue. It made her feel somehow colder, to be standing in its pale light. She had never liked the winter.

A dull thudding sound caught her attention. She knew that Ethelyn must be the source of all the noise. Her stepmother was probably making breakfast, early as it was. Ethelyn always did seem to get up early in the morning, and Ellyn liked that about her because it was a trait they shared. Mornings, Ellyn thought, even when they were cold like this one, were friendly creatures.

She tiptoed cautiously out of her room and into the hall to see what Ellyn was working so busily at in the kitchen. Carefully, she peeped around the wooden doorframe. The sight of another woman in her mother’s favorite room still saddened her a little bit, but she bit back the feelings. It was certainly better having Ethelyn as a mother than no mother at all.

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She watched her new stepmother struggle for a moment, trying to pull a pot off of one of the higher shelves. Ethelyn was a petite woman and even on her tippytoes, she could barely reach the shelf. Ellyn shyly entered the room. “Do you need some help?” she asked with a slight smile.

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Ethelyn turned with a self-conscious half grin. “I didn’t except you to be up so early.”

Ellyn shrugged. “I heard you banging around in the kitchen. What are you doing in here, anyways?”

At the question, her stepmother’s delicate face flushed ever so slightly. “I wanted it to be a surprise,” Ethelyn hesitantly began, “but since you’ve already caught me at it, I might as well admit that I was trying to make you a birthday cake…” She paused delicately, as if to see how Ellyn would respond to the news.

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Ellyn herself was overcome with a strange flush of emotions, and felt flustered with a sudden shyness. She hadn’t expected Ethel to remember that it was her birthday, and was touched that she had even woken up early to bake her a cake. “Thank you,” she said quietly, her eyes fixated on the floor. She did not want Ethel to see the tears in the corners of her eyes. “My mother always used to do this,” she ventured, finally lifting her eyes carefully to Ethel’s face.

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The woman’s gentle smile comforted her, but neither had time to say anything else before they were interrupted by two small bodies racing towards them with thudding feet.

“Ma! Ma! Ma!” the two small voices competed for attention. Ethel met Ellyn’s eyes above her younger children’s heads, as if begging for her indulgence.

“When are Alferic and Cullstun coming, mama?” asked Effie, the younger child, inquiring about her two older brothers who ran Ethelyn's old farm now that she had remarried.

“Later today, for lunch,” Ethelyn responded, beaming down at her children, who began cheering gleefully. Ellyn also smiled. She liked the two older boys and was happy to know that she would be spending her birthday with all of her new family members.

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[Mollypog]

Aww, the kids are adorable. Ethelyn is one of my favorite characters in this story. She has a quiet strength and decency. I'm glad Ellyn is getting along with her.

"A memory of that dream clung with hesitant gossamer claws to her conscious mind as she awoke." I loved that turn of phrase and the whole sequence of her remembering the dream. I've had dreams like that when I've lost loved ones, the mind trying to come to terms with it and acceptance seeping deeper and deeper over time.

Great chapter!

[Montridge]

I also thought it was nice that Ellyn liked her new step family. :)
I can't wait to see how this situation plays out.

[TheBoyFromMars.]

i loved the costumes you gave them and goood work

[queenrebecca]

Thanks for the comments, everybody, and a special thanks to TheBoyFromMars for dropping by :) Sorry things are slow lately... :( I've got some updates written, but no pictures yet, cause my free time has been severely limited by a dreadful thing called physics class! ;{ But I'm dropping it! :D So updates soon!!!!

[yoaiamica]

omg this is such a great story! i love ellyn and i hope you'll marry her off to some gorge sim :D

[Requiem19]

Just started reading, but I like it so far. :)