"Lady Anne!" I heard Princess Cecily cry, and I saw her fumbling with a bunch of keys while attempting to open the door. "Cousin Edmund has arrived home!"
I was overjoyed by this news, but the young girl's face was pale and taut. "Is something not right, Your Highness?" I asked her groggily, as I had just awakened from sleep.
"The king told him that you have ran away from the palace with another man! He lied to Cousin Edmund, and I know that whatever he means to do, it can't be good. So, I stole these keys from the guard, but I don't know which is the key for this cell!" she said urgently. Her hands were now shaking as she helplessly tested out each key but to no avail. There were at least a hundred keys in that bunch, and it would take forever to test them all.
"My father intends to take you as his mistress, Lady Anne! I can't let that happen, not to you!" she cried.
Suddenly, we both heard heavy footsteps echoing from the dungeon entrance, and from the sound of it, I could tell that there were multiple people. Princess Cecily breathed sharply and desperately tested out the keys, and I saw tears run down her cheeks. I could not understand why she cried, for at that moment I only felt empty. I didn't feel like crying, and I was resigning to whatever fate that would befall me.
The footsteps grew nearer and nearer, and the keys fell down onto the floor due to Princess Cecily's shaky hands. The large metal ring that kept the keys together broke from the impact, and the keys were scattered all over the dungeon floor. She let out a whimper and stared at the scene in horror, and with shaky hands she reached for the keys.
"That is enough, Sissie," I heard a familiar voice say, and I quickly turned around to see Edmund standing in the hallway, still wearing his battle armor. Princess Cecily stared at him in shock before covering her mouth with her hands and breaking down into sobs of relief. It wasn't until I felt something dripping off my chin did I realise that I too was crying.
Edmund lifted his battle axe and hacked off the lock that keep me captive, and he forcefully pried open the bars with his bare hands. He smelled strongly of blood, and I could see that his armour was splattered with the red liquid.
He dropped the axe on the ground and quickly rushed towards me, and I felt myself being surrounded by his strong, warm embrace. "I knew the king was lying, Anne. You wouldn't leave me-no, you can't leave me," he whispered in my ear as he affectionately ruffled my hair.
My hair was still sore from when Queen Jane had pulled on them, so I winced when Edmund touched it.
"What's the matter, Annie?" he asked, but then he saw the dried blood on my scalp. His eyes trailed down to my wrists, which were severely bruised, and a long, thin scratch on my jaw.
"Did she do this to you, Annie?" he urged, and I knew that by 'she', he meant Queen Jane. I nodded, almost tearfully, and Edmund held me even tighter, while simultaneously caressing the bruises on my wrists gently. "Let's bring you home, Annie," he spoke softly as he led me out of the dungeons.
Outside, I saw both the King and Queen rushing towards us, their attendants loyally following them like mindless sheep.
"You cannot take her away from here!" the King shouted loudly, and I felt Edmund's hand on my shoulder tighten as he stood forward to shield me from their view.
"Why can't I?" Edmund challenged.
"She is to become my mistress!" the King bellowed.
Edmund's eyebrows furrowed at the King's words. "Your mistress? You want to take my betrothed as your mistress?"
King Edward let out an indignant huff and puffed out his chest proudly. "I am the King. I can marry anyone I want!"
"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 !