Reign (with a new queen)

Goodbye Mohammed

Faridah is drinking tea in the living room while watching her guard out the window. They were play wrestling with each other. Mohammed enters the room and joins her for a cup of tea,

"Are the sky here always so gloomy?" she asks him

"Sadly, yes." He sighs and she smiles at him.

"I'm leaving soon." She puts her cup down on the table, "Mohammed," her tone is a lot more serious than usual causing him to choke on his drink. After a few coughs, he cleared his throat. He felt his blood pressure rising and his leg started to move, he slowly makes eye contact with her. He knows what she going to say and it breaks his heart,

"Faridah. I know what you are going to say and I just want you to know that I love you and I will always love you even if you love someone else."

"Mohammed... why are you so kind to me?"

He chuckles and gives her one of his killer smiles that made Faridah feel weak.

"Ever since I met you in your family's garden I have been in love with you. I have eyes only for you and I will forever wait for you."

Faridah's eyes start to fill with tears the guilt she feels is weighing her heart down. She looks down at her hands that are placed in her lap. 

"Mohammed, why can I not just love you instead of hurting you?"

Mohammed gets up from his seat and walks over to her, lifts her chin up making her look up at him. He kisses her on the lips and pulls away,

"I don't know." He wipes her tears with his thumbs he stares at her to remember her face not knowing when he could see her again. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning the sky is clear and the birds are chirping.

"A letter for Princess Faridah!" One of the guards announced

"Hand it over to me, she's asleep." Mohammed extended his arm from his armchair while reading a book.

"It is a letter for Princess Faridah and she shall be the only one to read it." the guard states

"I get it, I get it, I am not interested in the princess' business. I will hand it over to her once she is awake." He wiggles his fingers waiting for the letter to be placed in his hands. The guard sighs and gives Mohammed the letter.

"It is from Francis." the guard leaves the room

"Francis... one of the French boys... he was not as annoying as the other Frenchy."

Mohammed placed the letter on the end table and continued his reading. Time to time he would shift his eyes over to the letter.

It is not my business.

He constantly told himself but after a while, he couldn't help himself. He closes his book and puts it down on the end table and grabs the letter. He looks around the room to make sure he was alone. He grabs a letter opener that was nearby and slowly began to unstick the seal. He did not want to break the seal, if he did then she would have known that he read her letter. After 5 minutes of intense concentration, he was able to unseal the letter.

Dear Amice,

I am writing this letter to you to inform you that my mother is going to be executed very soon and it is best for you to return. I know my mother was like a mother to you and I believe you should be at attending. I also believe that she would like it if you would show up at her execution party. We both know she will make sure her party would go smoothly and the only way for that to happen is to have you there. You are like a younger version of my mother and it is a bit awkward to say after out encounter. I have a lot to tell you and I would appreciate it if you can join me and pled to my father to spare my mother's life.  We both need each other with Mary and Sebastion still together and my mother being executed. You must be feeling miserable and so am I, but we can make it through this event with each others' help.

                                                                      From your dearest friend,

                                                                                         Francis

"Mary and Sebastion are together? Then why does she not accept my engagement? The Medici will be executed? What is going on in France?" He rereads the letter to make sure what he read was true. 

"Encounter? what encounter?" he reads that sentence over and over again. He folds the letter and lights a candle and uses the wax from the candle to stick the seal back on the letter.

"Maybe I should pay more attention to France and with their men."

An hour later Faridah gets up and meets up with Mohammed who was still reading his book.

"I see that you are busy." She points at the book, he puts the book down and looks at her.

"I see that you are not." they laugh and he hands her the letter, "But it seems like you are now." He gets up from his seat, "I'll go get you a cup of coffee."

"Oh, you have coffee?"

"I asked the chief to get some from the market just for you."

"Thank you!" Mohammed leaves the room and she opens the letter but doesn't read it. A minute later he enters the room with a tray, he puts it down on the table and sat down on his chair again. He picks up his book and she gets her cup of coffee and starts reading the letter. He steals a few glances over at her to see her reaction. After reading the letter Mohammed has been rereading the same sentence over and over again. He could not get over the encounter Francis and Faridah shared. What did Francis mean by encounter, what did they do together? He hears a crumpling sound and looks over at her. She grabs on tighter on the letter with one hand and the other is holding the coffee she is drinking. She pushes her lips tightly together,

"Just when I was forgetting that...*sighs* I must leave soon." she looks over at Mohammed causes him to flinch.

"Now?"

"Yes, now Catherine is going to be executed and I should be there maybe I could stop it from happening." She gets up, "Can you tell my guards to prepare for the departure?"