The Lady Knight

Bonus Chapter: To My Love

27 October, Year 31 of King Frederick V of Monrique's reign

Derelia Graveyard, Anchorvale

Monrique

The silence of the dead is broken by the crunching and rustling of the fallen leaves.

A young woman, dressed from head to toe in black, strolls through the graveyard, her velvet skirts brushing about her ankles. She clutches tightly onto a stalk of fresh, red rose and a neatly folded piece of parchment, and holds a sleeping toddler with the other.

She leaves a trail of blood behind her, from the thorns of the rose that are piercing tightly into her palm.

Although her eyes stare ahead, unfocused and lost in the past, her feet make the turns around the graves by habit. The gale, strong, cold and dry, blows against her from time to time, sending her hair and the leaves flying, but she continues to trudge on towards her destination, unflinching.

When she reaches a familiar grave, strewn with leaves, parchment and dried roses, she comes to a stop, and her hold over her young son instinctively tightens. Her eyes, already red and brimming with tears, move to the tombstone with some apprehension. They take in each of the words carved onto it, once, twice, and again.

It has been a year, and she still cannot believe that he is gone from their lives. He has not even seen their own son.

The force of the grief that rises up her throat, as blistering hot and raw as ever, forces her to her knees. She gently places the rose and the parchment on the grave, and bows over it to place her lips against the cool marble for a few moments.

When she raises her head again, her cheeks are gleaming with tear tracks. Choking back a sob, she quickly wipes her tears away before her son wakes, stands up, and walks away from the grave.

Even as she leaves, the wind gently blows the parchment open.

My love,

Firstly, I am sorry. I know I usually write to you on the 16th day of every month, but I could not make it this month - and for good reason too. If you have been paying attention from wherever you are in the skies at this present moment, you would know that Nick and Jules got married earlier this month.

They invited us to their wedding, and we left for Bordeux Castle a month in advance to help them with the arrangements. It was a rather hectic affair, you understand, theirs being a royal wedding. Almost the whole country was in attendance, and many others sailed in from all over the world, especially the acquaintances Nick made in Osterlund while the both of you studied there. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful ceremony, and it was clear to anyone with eyes how deeply they love each other.

Now, now, there is no need to rub it in. You have always believed that they belonged to none but to each other, and would eventually mend the rift between them. The very idea seemed implausible to me at first, but you were right, as you mostly are. Thank the Lord I at least had the sense not to make any bets with you on this.

Nick requested our son to be the ring-bearer for their wedding. As you know, Gabriel had only begun to take his first steps early last month, and yet, he managed to walk down the entire length of the aisle on his own that day, without faltering once, straight into Nick's arms, who was waiting for him on bended knee at the altar. I doubt the child understood why he was made to carry such a heavy pillow and balance a ring on top of it, but he obliged for Nick's sake. He loves him so.

All the guests present applauded for him, and you should have seen his face in that moment. He was smiling so widely, with those six new teeth that he has, and looked so proud of himself. Frannie managed to do a quick sketch of him in that moment, which I have attached to the bottom of this letter with wax.

It is a good likeness, and he truly is a small copy of you. Indeed, he reminds me of you in everything that he does.

My God, I wish you were still here with us, Lucien. I wish you had been here to experience Gabriel's first smile, his first words, his first steps. I wish you could have seen Frannie fall in love again, remarry, and move on with her life. I wish you could have watched all our friends pursue happiness like we did, right by my side.

Hmm, well, almost all our friends, that is. Ned is still at loggerheads with Tess, and leaves no opportunity to yell at her. I hope he can realise one day that she is not worth it, and move on from the past.

I hope I can one day move on from the past too. My love, I miss you so much. I thought it would become easier with time, but even to this day, I cannot look at your grave without bursting into tears. Every time I come to visit you, all I can remember is how I refused to believe in your innocence the day you were found next to your dead brother's body. All I can remember is how I had all but disowned you before Jules and her Captains carted you off to the dungeons.

I am sorry. I know I write the same thing in every letter, and I know no number of apologies are going to bring you back from the dead, but I am so, so sorry. I cannot imagine how much I must have hurt you. I, of all people, should have believed in you, and I did not. The guilt continues to prick me to this day, as it should.

I would do anything to see you again now, just one last time, if only to tell you how much our son and I love you and miss you. I tell him stories of our childhood, and show him sketches of you everyday. He recognises you as his Papa, and squeals with joy every time we walk by the portrait of you in the receiving chamber in our home. He will always know you through my memories of you, of us, I swear it.

One day, when he asks me why you are never around, I will tell him the truth. I will tell him the truth about how you staunchly stood by your innocence when no one else was not prepared to, not even me, and how you were killed for your brother's mistakes. I promise, I will spend the rest of my life raising him to be a good man who will learn from our mistakes, whom the both of us will be proud of.

When I meet you again on the other side, I hope the only tears I will shed are those of joy. For now, these tears will have to do.

Yours, forever and always,

Victoria Havelock 

***

A/N: Yup, this is a new chapter that I have added to this version, and I hope it wraps up The Lady Knight nicely :) Please do check out its sequel, The Lady Justice, if you loved this book! I hope you enjoy it just as much :)