Ever since going home, I was pampered and spoiled rotten by my father and Gilbert, but my mother was distant from me. She would keep writing to Lisbeth and say to me that my sister’s marriage is an unhappy one, and she would shame me for not sacrificing my own betrothed for my sister to marry, as that would have made her very happy.                                                                      
    She was also terribly unfond of Gabriel, which is probably due to the fact that we hid his original identity from her. So to my mother, he is simply Gabriel, an orphan boy that Edmund found in the streets, not Hadrian II of Lecarre. If she had known that Gabriel was in fact the deposed king, my incredibly prejudiced and biased mother would undoubtedly give him her heart and soul. However, she also did not know how to keep her mouth shut, so the truth had to be hidden from her.

Now that Hadrian II of Lecarre is presumed dead by the Royal Council, the two kingdoms went on to distribute the regions that they have wrongfully taken. Terrawyn received the western  Dolore, while Phoenicia took over the eastern Kelle. Not many days later, my father returned with the news that Kelle has been turned into a principality, and the young Prince Gregory is now crowned Prince of Kelle. 

Edmund has voiced his discontent over the distribution of the regions, as Terrawyn merely sent an army of seventy thousand men, and now they want the same amount of land as the Phoenicians, who sent almost three hundred thousand men. However, he had no say in this, and Dolore was soon given to the Terrawinians. This was disheartening to hear, but something much worse followed after.  

Princess Cecily has been stripped off of her royal titles, and now she is simply Lady Cecily of Almswood, a small piece of land in the eastern regions, where the Ainsworth family’s influence is strong. She was declared as a bastard and illegitimate, and undeserving of a position at court. Her sister Margaret was now safely crowned Crown Princess Consort of Terrawyn, while Cecily herself had no power whatsoever, and now she was impoverished too. However, I found it odd that the King would wait for so long until he eventually bastardized her, and I realised that he must have discovered that Cecily was the one who tried to save me by stealing the keys and leading Edmund to the dungeons, thus causing his plans to fail.

There was also another possibility. Since Gilbert has accepted Cecily’s proposal, the marriage must proceed. The King wants an alliance with House Winterbourne, which they are trying to get by marrying Cecily to Gilbert, but they did not want our already powerful and influential family to become even more mighty. So, instead of marrying a princess, Gilbert was marrying the king’s bastard child.

He still had to treat her well, but strategy wise, she brought him no advantage. I was worried for Cecily, and I was afraid that my brother would throw a fit and refuse to marry her. Indeed, she was very kind to me, but Gilbert has yet to see that side of her. My father too wasn’t very fond of her either, as she was the daughter of dead Queen Helene, the woman that my family demonized.

I sent multiple letters to the palace, but I received no reply from her. My father also said that he never sees her in the palace, and I began to fear for the worst.

Two weeks after my escape, I finally received a letter from Princess Cecily.

My Lady Anne, 

I am no longer a princess now, and I am to be regarded as nothing more than the King’s bastard child. The lands and estates in my name have been revoked and passed to my brother, and all that remains in my possession is Almswood Castle, and I am to live there until I am of age to be married. Forgive me for being unable to reply to your previous letters, for I have been locked in my room for the past few days. I am writing this in my carriage, and by the time you read this, I am probably already in Almswood. 

I do not wish for my title back, Lady Anne, but I do wish for Cousin Edmund to rise up the throne. My father is no longer the pious and powerful young king that he was. All that is left is a tyrant, and he will raze Phoenicia to the ground, Lady Anne. For the sake of us all, please aid Cousin Edmund to take the throne. I beg you, Lady Anne.

Yours truly,

Lady Cecily de Chauvelot

I set Cecily’s letter on my desk, unsure of what to do. It was far too early to act, but she was right. If we allow King Edward to remain on the throne, he would indeed bring us to destruction. Lecarre was not enough to satisfy his demonic greed, and now he sets his sight upon Ravier. 

Edmund told me that he was scolded for not bringing back the deposed king’s head, that King Edward wanted to put Hadrian’s head on a spike and display it on the palace walls as a trophy of Phoenicia’s greatness. Little Gabriel was indeed young, but he was not a fool. When he heard Edmund mentioning about Gregory being crowned Prince of Kelle, I saw Gabriel’s face turn into a deep shade of red.

       “Anne,” he called out, tugging on my skirt gently. “Who is this Gregory, and why is my hometown being given away to him?”

I glanced at Edmund with concern, but he gave the young boy an amused smile.

        “Not for long, Gabriel. One day, I will make you Prince of Kelle, and you can go back to your hometown,” he reassured, but the young boy shook his head swiftly.

        “I do not want to go back,” he murmured. “Those people at the palace are terrible. They would lock me in my room and not let me go out. And if I do go out, I have to wear many layers of clothes and paint my face. I would rather stay here with Anne and Father.  Gilbert treats me very nicely too.”

I was not surprised to hear about the way he was treated before the invasion. He was merely a puppet king who was given no voice, and his ministers made the choices on his behalf. 

      “Edmund, we must do something to help Princess Cecily,” I said shortly after Gabriel left the room.

       “Lady Cecily, Anne,” he corrected. “Her titles had been stripped away, and I don't want the king to accuse you of defying him by referring her as princess."

       “Well, Lady Cecily is rotting away in the slums of Almswood, while her lands and titles are being given to Jane Ainsworth’s little hobgoblin!” I snapped angrily. “Her sister is busy rolling around in silks and gold in Terrawyn, while her father is idly spending time with his new Lecarrian pleasure slaves! There is no one to save her now.”

      “I cannot save her, Anne. And neither can you. We are being heavily monitored by the King’s spies, and a single wrong move will give him a reason to accuse us of treason. Think of your Father, Anne. Every day he walks on eggshells. He is torn between his position and his family, Annie,” Edmund explained, and I begrudgingly agreed. 

      “But Gilbert can,” he suddenly added. 

      “How so?” I murmured.

      “If he hastens the wedding, then he can bring Cecily out from that place. With his current position, he is more than capable to do so. However, is he willing to?”

Indeed, Edmund was correct in assuming that Gilbert was unwilling to hasten the marriage. 

      “I’m going to have to spend my entire life with her in four years or so. Why would I hasten it? I don’t even like her!” he protested, and my mother was quick to butt in.

      “She is nothing more than a bastard now!” she interjected. “You are can marry someone of better standing than her, like your cousin Corinne!”

My twin’s face morphed into that of pure horror in an instant. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to marry her. I just wanted to have some freedom before I get wed. And I’d rather marry anyone other than Corinne!”

Mother looked at him with shock and discontent, unable to believe that Gilbert had insulted someone from her maiden family. “What is wrong with Corinne? She is the daughter of a great general, she is noble blooded and beautiful too!”

      “She is ghastly!” Gilbert cried. “She once tried to shove me down a well and made me eat rotten eggs!”

My mother smiled coyly at him and said, “It means that you two are childhood sweethearts that are made for each other! And if you marry her, the Moreau blood in your veins will remain pure, not tainted by that witch’s daughter!”

        “I will not marry my own blood cousin, Mother!” Gilbert shouted. He abruptly stood up from his seat and walked out of the sitting room, and my mother turned her gaze upon me.

        “You must have poisoned his thoughts, didn’t you?” she shouted while marching up to me. I had inherited my father’s towering height, so my mother barely reached my shoulders when she was standing.

       “Why would I?” I challenged, firmly standing my ground.

She crossed her arms and sourly looked at me. “You never liked my family, weren’t you? You think my brother is a lowly soldier, and my nephew a philanderer! And now you are manipulating Gilbert into thinking that Corinne is a monster!”

I scoffed, amused by her delusional thoughts. Amused, but not surprised. “I never said that. You were the one who said it with your own mouth, Mother dearest.”

My mother let out a small sob as she collapsed onto the floor, and tears began to fall from her cold grey eyes. “What did I do to get a daughter like you? You hate my family, and you hate me! You treat your sister as if she were rubbish, and you allowed her to get into an unhappy marriage! Why are you like this, Anne Winterbourne? Lisbeth would never treat me like this...”

       “I am not Lisbeth, Mother. I will never be like her. Perhaps it is time that you accept that,” I sneered and turned away from her and faced the door.

I already had my hand on the door when my mother shouted, “I shall not bless the breastmilk that you drank when you were little! Every single drop that you drank was stolen and unholy!”

Sighing heavily, I spoke, “I thank you for everything you've given to me, Mother, whether it is blessed or not. Just, thank you,” before pushing the door open and walking out.

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