'Sometimes we have to sacrifice our youths in order to let people live.'
Tulia Byrne has been a Queen for longer than she could remember. Her story begins so carefree and so full of love and yet by the end of it you'll be wondering if you even know...
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July 1561
It had been two months since Tulia and Charles had found out that they were expecting their first child, they were yet to tell anyone, but it was beginning to be difficult to hide. The physician had predicted that she was in her fourth month of pregnancy and that the baby would arrive at the beginning of December.
Tulia had spent her time trying to escape the beady eyes of Catherine who watched her with suspicious glares, the Queen mother was angry that her daughter-in-law was not sharing her secrets with her and so she went on a witch hunt.
Firstly she went to the castle physician in hopes of an answer. But when she got nothing from him she decided to bribe the chambermaid, it took months of begging before the maid got so annoyed she finally told her. All feelings of anger dispersed from the Queen mother as she found out the news that she was expecting a grandchild, she was beyond elated.
Catherine was currently on her way to the King and Queens chambers with a gleeful smile on her face. When she finally barged into their chambers they were already dressed and getting ready to leave.
"Tulia," Catherine grinned, walking over to the Queen with open arms. "you're practically glowing my dear!"
"Am I?" Tulia asked, looking to Charles with a confused expression to which he shrugged at.
"Oh you are!" Catherine grinned, clasping her hands together in excitement. "It's a boy! I can see it now, the Dauphin of France, oh he's going to look exactly like his father, but his eyes will be like his mothers."
"Who told you?" Tulia questioned, narrowing her eyes at the woman.
"I harassed your chamber maid." Catherine grinned gleefully. "Oh, she was reluctant to tell me but I'm glad she did, it's not like my own son was going to tell me that he was to be a father."
"We didn't want to tell you until we were sure." Charles groans, pulling his boots onto his feet. "We were going to announce it today."
"You would announce it to the public before you told me?" Catherine gaped in slight hurt.
"No," Tulia shook her head, "We were on our way to tell you now, and then we were going to meet Mary, she's back from Rome today."
"Mary can wait." Catherine dismissed. "Do you have any names in mind? What about Henry? To honour his grandfather and great-grandfather."
"We don't even know if it's a boy yet." Charles reminded, rolling his eyes at his mother.
"A girl?" Catherine mulled over. "Ah, Catherine. To honour her grandmother and great-grandmother."
"Only one of those people has honour," Tulia muttered to herself, smoothing out the skirts of her yellow dress as she stood up. If you really looked you could tell that she was expecting, but at first glance she didn't look any different.
