The Key ♕

Prologue

"Get her away from here! They're coming!" the Queen shouted, shoving her beloved newborn daughter into the maid's trembling hands.

"Y...your Majesty," Amelia stuttered, trying her best to soothe the shrieking infant, "where do I take her?"

"To England!" she pushed the maid in the direction of the castle's side gate.

"England?" the maid exclaimed, "but..."

A man's husky and hostile roar interrupted her, "over here! Find the Queen and princess and kill them both!"

"You must go! Now!" the Queen hissed, anxiety brimming her ice blue eyes.

With a quick nod, Amelia clutched the baby tighter into her chest and whispered in the Queen's ears, "be safe, your Majesty. I promise I will protect the princess with my life."

"Thank you," she replied, sounding surprisingly calm. She removed the golden key pendant, a symbol of French royalty from her neck and placed it in the princess's hands. The princess stopped screaming and stared at the pendant curiously with her beady blue eyes. "I love you, Sophie."

Amelia ran as fast as she could and never stopped, not when she heard the Queen's blood-gurgling scream, not when her tears soaked baby Sophie's silk white dress.

----------------------1 Month Later ---------------------

"Please!" Amelia begged, dropping to her knees. "Please take care of my baby! I'm sick!"

The couple looked down at her with sympathetic eyes, shaking their heads, "we're sorry, but we don't even have the capability to keep ourselves alive, let alone a child."

"Please, anyone!" Amelia screamed into the crowd of gathering bystanders, "take care of my child!" She suddenly erupted into a coughing fit, spitting out blood.

Numerous gasps escaped the crowd. However, nobody dared to step up and adopt the child. Everyone languished in poverty. As much as they pitied the innocent child, they simply couldn't afford to take care of her.

"Please!" Amelia crawled over to a middle-aged woman and her husband and grabbed her legs, marring her beige trousers with crimson blood. "Will you please help her?"

The woman said nothing, but instead gave her piteous and slightly disgusted look.

"We will," her husband spoke, barely audible.

"Darling!" The woman exclaimed, disbelief and anger surging in her tone.

"Caroline, honey," the husband said, "nobody here is going to help the poor girl. We can't just let the baby die."

"Thank you so much!" Amelia's face lit up with genuine happiness.

"Bryan! What are you talking about?" Caroline snapped, "we can't take care of a child!"

"It's okay, honey," Bryan reassured her, "we can do it. Plus, just look at that darling girl. She's adorable."

Caroline's face softened when she averted her gaze to the beautiful blonde girl with her face nuzzled into Amelia's pale neck. Despite that, she still detested the idea of a stranger's child burdening her already substantially unfortunate life. Caroline did not reply. The grim look remained on her face as she stared daggers at her husband.

"Here," Bryan took Sophie from Amelia's arms and cradled her gently, "hi there, little princess. How are you?"

If only he knew how accurate that was.

"Thank you so much," Amelia smiled gratefully, wiping a tear from her cheek, "please take care of my sweet daughter. Don't worry, she never cries."

"We will," Bryan said kindly as he lifted his rough and blistered hands to tickle Sophie's neck. He grinned when Sophie giggled and wrapped her tiny fingers around one of his fingers. "What's her name?"

"Her name is Sophie." Princess Sophie. "Please tell her to never take off the pendant around her neck. It's very important to our family."

"Welcome to the family, Sophie," Bryan whispered. Caroline just rolled her eyes.