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

A new life

(Authors note - Sorry for making you guys wait so long for an update. A lot of stuff is happening in my personal life in the moment. I'll try and be more consistent from now on.)

Avery had grown to hate herself the longer she let people believe she was dead or the longer she remained apart from her son. But she needed to find meaning in her life. Live without the life of luxury she was born into. Make something of herself. She used the last of her gold coins to purchase a small home in a small settlement close to Mercia. Of course, Avery heard rumours. Rumours of how the Lady of Mercia was with child and it killed her to keep away. The child clearly conceived when Aethelflaed was a prisoner. Avery knew what happened to people who crossed Aethelred and her heart sank, would he truly do something to her niece? Avery was no longer around for him to obsess over, and she heard rumours he had sank into his cups and whores to deal with his own grief of losing her.

But Avery kept herself busy, working for the local inn in the kitchens and bar. She would often be sent hunting to gather food too. Her hair had been cut to her shoulders, the raven locks often tied in small braids and her cleavage usually on show to earn extra gold from the drunks who had grown fond of her in the few short months that she had been working there. Of course, there was a grand funeral for the Princess of Wessex but almost as soon as she was buried everyone seemed to forget about Princess Avery.

Waking up with no responsibility or expectations was exactly what she needed. She thought of her son daily, but she knew he would grow to be an amazing Lord under James' instruction and she convinced herself that it was for the better. Little did she know the impact she truly had on people's lives. History may have forgot about her, but her friends and family would never forget. She would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

The days blurred together, time passing far too quickly but she enjoyed her daily routine. She was free. Free to do what she wanted. Free to hunt, help the town fight against the Danes who were trying to claim their lands as their own. No one saw her as a frail woman. She was a warrior. She fought, she bled, she cried. It was everything she could have wanted in her life. She had even managed to collect a small fortune and make a name for herself. She was Amelia, a bastard farm girl who was also a warrior.

Three years had passed. Avery's raven locks had grown to the middle of her back, but her hair was covered in braids. She looked more Dane than Saxon, but people had grown to love and fear her, it was all she ever wanted and more. But she had grown lonely, she had often sought comfort from some of the men in the town she had grown to trust but she still felt nothing. She found herself thinking of the men who had accepted her for who she was. None of them had tried to change her or make her pretend to be someone she wasn't. And she found herself longing for that comfort again.

"Amelia. There is a man upstairs who claims to know you and has an important message for you." The blonde woman shouted from behind the bar as Avery finished clearing up one of the tables. A lot of her acquaintances would meet her at the inn, so she did not think too much about it. Wiping the wooden table clean with a rag and then nodded over at Daria who owned the inn and was essentially Avery's boss.

"I will work back any time I am gone." She smiled once more before leaving Daria to fill any empty jugs of the customers as Avery headed up the stairs to find out who had come to see her. The upstairs was empty, apart from someone stood in one of the empty rooms wearing a hooded cloak. For some reason she found herself growing nervous the closer to got to the hidden person. As soon as she entered the room, the door was closed behind her, and she felt the presence of another person behind her. Her hand quickly moving to the dagger she had concealed in the skirts of her dress. Ready to defend herself if needed but just as she was about to strike at the hooded man stood by the window, she felt her body freeze when the person turned around to see her and she saw those beautiful, mismatched eyes staring back at her which haunted her dreams. "Sihtric.."