The Forgotten Princess | Avery x Leofric x Uhtred | The Last Kingdom

The fateful day

Avery had been desperate for news all day. Her nose buried in the book she wasn't actually reading. Her heart was worried. For her brother and for Leofric. But she couldn't let anyone else see her worry. Alfred had been in the same room, reading to Aethelflaed when Father Beocca had interrupted them all. Maybe he had news. Avery was quick to her feet and the motion didn't go unnoticed by Beocca.

"Any news from the battlefield?" Alfred was thankfully the first one to ask. And Avery had hidden her true worry behind the façade of going to sit with her niece. But really it was just to listen to what he had to say.

"King Aethelred has fallen in battle." The priest was clearly nervous to deliver this news and Avery already grew tense. Her fears were coming true. Alfred would send her away. "A new King will be crowned before the end of the week."

"The Danes grow closer?" Avery asked curiously. The heathens seem to be winning every single battle lately. Nothing they could do seemed to drive them away. "We need a new strategy. Clearly this isn't working."

"And what do you suggest we do, dear sister?" The distaste in his tone was obvious. Alfred knew women shouldn't be involved in such things. They were only for breeding in his eyes. His wife already hiding her swollen belly, another heir on the way.

"May I offer a suggestion? I have heard of a Dane, his name is Uhtred, but he was born a Saxon. He should be the lord of Bebbanburg but was taken by the Danes as a child and raised as one of them. I know him. I think we can trust him." Beocca was nervously playing with his robes, but his words had definitely sparked Avery's curiosity.

"So, he is a Saxon and a Dane? Brother, he could help us. The Danes fight differently to us, he could help us to understand them. How they fight. How we can defeat them." Avery's eyes now glanced to the door, there stood a bloodied and battered Leofric, and she felt herself gripping the chair so she wouldn't run to him. Thankful he had survived such a battle.

"I will not have a heathen in these walls." Alfred said quickly, ending the conversation without another word as he left the room with Aethelflaed, but Avery gave Beocca a knowing look. They needed the man they called Uhtred. Little did they know he was already on his way to Wessex, with his own agenda and demands.

The room emptied and Avery finally rushed over to Leofric. Her hands cupping at his face and offering him a warm smile before she walked with him to one of the halls. Ordering the ladies to gather water to help tend to his various wounds.

"You live to fight another day." Avery smiled, cleaning the dried blood from his face. His left eye was badly bruised, and he had a split lip. But he seemed to be lost in his thoughts. There was blood covering his entire frame and she took a step back before nodding at the slaves. Giving them permission to undress him so they could clean his other wounds.

"I am sorry about your brother. I couldn't save him. Protect him." He finally whispered as the slaves bandaged his torso, there was several cuts to his flesh but here he was. Alive and well.

"You do not owe me any explanation." She placed her left hand gently on his shoulder and he reached for her hand, the small gesture not going missed by the women tended to his wounds. But to the outside world it was just a young girl showing affection to a man who had been around. Someone she had bonded with over the years.

The next few days were slow, various meetings with the lords as they decided on the next King. Usually, the first-born son would inherit the crown, but everyone knew Aethelwold would be a horrible King. Aethelred knew it himself and he had made various people promise to vote for Alfred to be King.

Avery had taken to strolling the gardens, attempting to forget about everything that was happening within the castle. But the sounds outside the gates caught her attention, two people asking to see the King. The news of the King's death clearly slow to travel but when Avery caught sight of the pair. A man and a woman, clearly Danes she felt her breath hitch again. She locked eyes with the man, there was something about him that intrigued her, and she rushed to stop Leofric from killing them where they stood.