'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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15th August 1565
France was a country that Tulia had not seen for three years, she expected many things to have changed, many things including her husband. One thing that had remained the same, however, was the presence of Nicole. She still resided in court and apparently she still had her claws into Charles. Tulia intended to change that.
She wouldn't sit there and allow herself to be humiliated by someone beneath her. She would not only win back her place in France, but she would win back her place in her marriage.
The journey to the castle had been long and tiresome, they braved stormy seas and the threat of Elizabeth's warships, but they had finally made it from Edinburgh to Fontainebleau.
Tulia's ships had returned to Ireland with 'her' on them. Elizabeth had miraculously granted hers safe passage back to Ireland, obviously upon hearing of the tensions between the Irish Queen and Mary. Tulia did not know her aunt well, but she knew she would use this tension to her advantage, whether it was to join forces with Mary or to side with Tulia, that side of things were unknown.
It was important that Tulia did not return home. Her court seer, Amahle, had warned her that she would lose the war if she did not have the support of France, it was vital for her now to gain back their trust. She needed to show herself as a loyal and obedient wife of the French King, Charles IX, but this was something she was not.
It became apparent to Tulia, as they neared the castle, that Charles was unaware of the return of his wife. Not because of the lack of banners and entourage, because they were all there, but because Catherine had not told him. Stating something along the lines of, 'hitting him with the element of surprise will make him more inclined to leave his beast of a mistress.'
The carriage came to a halt outside the castle, Catherine had urged her to delay her departure from said carriage if she wanted to make a scene. Tulia didn't particularly have any interest in making a scene but upon mention of how the peasant girl would react to seeing her, she decided to make a spectacle of the event.
She could see through the part in the curtains adorning the window that Charles had a large but restrained smile when greeting his mother, obviously missing her in the time that he had been away.
Looking at him from this distance, Tulia couldn't see much, but she could tell that he had grown his hair out and his posture resembled that of a King, not the Prince he had looked like when they had seem each other last.
Nicole was there. Stood next to the King in a place that she thought she deserved, she looked at the man with a strange eye, uninterested yet familiar. Tulia wondered if John was right about what he had seen, had Nicole lost interest in Charles in favour of Narcisse? Interesting.
Upon Catherine prying Nicole's hands off of Charles and pulling him over to the carriage, Tulia knew that this was her que to leave. Making her way out of the confined space, she accepted the arm of the footman, or Aidan as he was known usually.
