The Usurper's Queen | COMPLETED

23 | above them all

"Even the fiancée of your own nephew?" Edmund chuckled satirically. "You have attempted to court my fiancée in my absence, absent due to a war that you waged, and imprisoned her when she refuses to serve you in bed!"

The King's face became vividly red when he heard this, but at the moment, all the screaming and shouting had attracted a large amount of spectators, and the King was making a fool out of himself by behaving like an absolute clown. Soldiers who were loyal to Edmund surrounded us, and the fool we had as a king was too afraid to say a thing.

"Fine," he said cowardly. "Take her away from here. But please Edmund, do not let a mere woman like her ruin our relationship. We are of the same blood, and I am your uncle. Do remember that."

Edmund took me back to Rhyland by horseback, and when I saw his firm, stern lips and determined look in his steely eyes, I knew that the days Edward would spend as king were numbered.

"I am sorry," I whispered to him while we passed through the countryside of Rhyland, still miles away from Winterbourne Castle. "I should have been more careful, more tactful-"

"You mustn't apologise, Anne. Although, it is unfortunate that the king has an heir," Edmund answered me. Intrigued, I turned around to face him. Of course, it would be me who will give him an heir, but we were not supposed to get married for another full year.

"Then, do you want to hasten the marriage?" I asked warily. I was almost sixteen at the time, but the thought of being married was still foreign to me.

Edmund shook his head and said, "No, Annie. We shall proceed with the original plans. But there is something I must tell you."

"What is it, Edmund?" I questioned, and he leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear, "The deposed king of Lecarre is riding right behind you."

I gasped in shock and turned to look at the little boy who was sitting on horseback behind us. At first glance, I would have thought that he was a simple peasant boy, dressed in plain garbs and sporting unkempt, wild hair. However, his face was so beautiful that he could pass as a girl, and he had full red lips to match his round cheeks, a sign that he has been well-fed. The boy's eyes were incredibly dark and shone like black pearls, but his hair was pale blond and resembled corn silk.

"I thought that you were to kill him off?" I asked warily.

"I could not do it, Annie. Not to a child. So, I disguised him as a peasant and brought him back to Phoenicia," Edmund answered.

The boy's eyes were sullen and empty, and his lips were firmly shut. Although he was barely six years old, I am certain that he has seen enough horrors to last him for a lifetime.

"He can stay with me, at Winterbourne Castle, as my father's ward," I suggested. "He will receive the best education and training here, and I can assure you that he will be treated well."

And so, my father decided to adopt the deposed king as his own child. Obviously, he could not keep his original name, so we decided to name him Gabriel.

"From now on, you are no longer Hadrian of Lecarre, is that clear? You are Gabriel Winterbourne, member of the finest noble house in all of Phoenicia," my father said, and the boy enthusiastically nodded.

"Yes, Your Grace," Gabriel answered, but my father shook his head.

"Call me Father, Gabriel. And these are your siblings, Gilbert and Anne," he said warmly.

"Captain Gilbert," my brother interjected, and both my father and I looked at him with shock.

"Did you buy that title, Gibbs?" I asked in a ridiculing manner, and his face crumpled up like a sheet of paper.

"He earned it, Annie," Edmund chuckled. "It was him who defeated the head of the Lecarrian guards, ensuring a victory for us all."

"Well, the head of the Lecarrian guards must've been a weakling then!" I replied, and Gilbert indignantly puffed his chest and said, "He was seven feet tall, Annie! He carried a sword that was as tall as my body, and he chops of people's heads like a woodcutter cuts down trees! But I defeated him! Do you want to know how I did it?"

"To be honest with you, not really," I sighed, now noticing that both my father and Edmund were no longer inside the room.

"First, I lured him to the staircase, and I hid behind a tapestry. When he came near, I stuck out my foot and BANG! He was lying face down at the bottom of the stairs-"

I was disinterested by Gilbert's story, and I set out to find Edmund and my father. They were nowhere to be seen, but when I passed by my father's study, I heard people talking inside.

The door was closed, so I placed my ear against the wooden surface.

"The kingdom's coffers are now full, Your Grace, but this victory is detrimental to the king. Despite this campaign being successful, the people are angry at the king for needlessly waging war and ransacking the Lecarrians, but the people adore you, Your Grace. The news of your generosity in refusing to pillage the Lecarrian towns and treating your soldiers well is spreading throughout the realm. We must act fast, Your Grace, or the king will see you as too big of a threat," my father urged.

"I am aware of this. It seems that House Winterbourne is also being targeted by him. That greasy bastard dares to imprison my betrothed and force her into marrying him!" Edmund grunted, and I heard the sound of something being slammed harshly. "Allowing Anne to enter the palace was a mistake. I should've known that the queen would try to fault her with everything. I shouldn't have left her there alone."

"It is very fortunate that you returned just in time. Although, I am certain that he would not stop as long as you are at large. We must finish him off, once and for all," my father hissed.

"Are you saying that we should kill him?"

"If it benefits everyone, then it must be done."

Hi! If you liked this story, try checking out my other story, which is set in the early 1700s, Catarina and The Prince !