Royal Love

Chapter 1

                                                                       Scotland

                                                                  February 8, 1668

   "Mother!" I entered her chamber followed by my eight sisters. We barley fit with my father and the three nurses in the room along with my mother. My mother laid on the bed with my father sitting beside her, holding her hands in his.  My mother looked as pale as if death had already claimed her. The sickness had grown worse than when I saw her two days ago. I knew that this would be the last time I would ever see her. At the sound of my voice she turned to look at us.

   "Girls." Her voice was a whisper. She tried again sounding a bit stronger. "Girls. I'm glad you are all here. I need you to promise me something. I need you all to promise to obey your father after I'm gone."

    "I promise." As the oldest of us at age ffifteen it was my job to set an example. The others followed me with their promises.

   "Good." my mother laid back a bit.

   We were all silent for a moment. It was Alice, the youngest of us at only four years old, Who broke the silence when she ran up  to our mother. " Where are you goin mum?"

   I saw tears shine in my mother's eyes as she let go of my father's hands to take little Alice's. "Someplace far away, but very pretty, Ally."  I smiled when my mother used her nickname for Alice.

    Alice looked like she thought for a moment. "Why?"

    This made some of the tears in my mother's eyes fall. "I have to Ally. If I could I would stay with you and your sisters."

    Cassie, who was ten, walked over to Alice and brought her back to us.

    "Girls, why don't you say goodbye to your mother, before.... before she has to leave." My father's voice was gentle and filled with sorrow.

    We turned around and started to leave, when my mother called me back. "Sarah, can you stay for a moment? Girls I love you all, and I always will."

   I stayed behind like my mother had asked me to. She didn't speak until all my sisters had left. "Sarah, come here." Her voice was weaker than when I had first arrived.

   I walked over to her, but stopped a few inches away from her. When she realized I wasn't coming closer she took my hands in hers and pulled me closer. "Kneel down." I knelt next to her bed my hands still in hers. "I need you to promise me something else."

    "Anything mother."

   "I....I need you to take care of your sisters for me and your father. You are going to be the lady in charge. You are going to need to take charge. I need you to stay strong for me. I need you to be the strongest one of all." Tears were freely sliding down her face now.

    I started crying too. "Mother I will. I will. I promise."

   "That's a good girl. Now I must ask one last thing of you." She reached over to her nightstand and pulled out a key. She put the key in my palm and closed my fingers around it. It felt cool on my skin. "Sarah, I on your sixteenth birthday I need you to take this key and open up my library. Your father will seal it, in grief. You must open it and no matter what your father says keep it open."

    "I...I will. I will be strong, I will take care of them, and on my sixteenth birthday I will open the library."

    "Good, and Sarah, whe-" My mother stopped speaking and fell back. She wasn't moving

   "Mother!" I slipped my hands out from under hers and placed them over hers. "Mother!" 

   My father who  stood on the other side of the room so my mother could talk to me, came over to stand next to me. "Sarah!" I looked up at him, then realized he was talking to my mother. "Sarah, don't leave me. You are my life you can't...you can't leave me."

    I stood up and wiped the tears off my cheeks, it didn't do must thought, because new ones fell instantly.

    On of the nurses checked my mother. "I'm sorry King Danielsen, your wife, the queen, is dead."

    My father lost it he grabbed the chair he had sat in earlier and throw it at the wall. When he spoke his voice had gone cold. He turned to me. "Sarah go tell your sisters, we go into mourning immediately." He turned back to my mother and took her hands in his and spoke again, his voice still cold, but also filled with sadness. "We must spread the word to the kingdom, we must tell them that their Queen is dead."