The Art Of War (TV Series 'Reign') #4

It's You And Me

Sitting in the throne room, I paced around the room while holding Shakespeare's original copy of Macbeth when I hear the guards open the main doors.

"Prince James, your majesty." They announce.

Setting the book on a nearby table, I sat down on the cushioned bench just in front of the window when James walks up to me.

"Eliana." He whispered.

"James, is there something wrong?" I asked.

Looking at him, the was this glimmer of stress and anxiousness that he seemed to be hiding. 

"It's...about the grain." He said in a worried tone.

Following him down to the dungeons where we found Malcolm just a few weeks ago, James leads me down the stone hallways.

"Please tell me we received word from Lord Darnley. Otherwise, James, I might be alarmed by your urgent manner." I whispered.

"Something's are more important than Darnley's strange silence, or Mary's marriage plans."

"I know you are opposed to my decision with accepting Mary's request to wed Lord Darnley because he's a Catholic lord. But if I am to protect Mary from everything that Knox is throwing at the both of us-"

"Protect yourself and your country first." James blurted out.

"You are Queen, just like mother and father have always wanted for the both of us. You are back on the throne, why risk it by saving Mary."

"Why are we still-"

"Bring a basin of water." I hear a man scream.

"What's wrong James?"

Leading me further down the dungeon, a single guard opens the door open for me to find 4 men standing around a table while one of my guards are bleeding on the table.

"Oh, my God. Who did this to you?" I asked the handless guard.

"We were intercepted a mile outside Canonbie."

"You poor young man."

"Two of our soldiers were disguised as peasants, but their farm cart was ambushed nonetheless. English soldiers took the grain and the munition." Another man said.

"Canonbie is a Scottish town.The English had no right." I blurted out.

"It's a disputed border region," James added.

"One that swore to protect. If we don't get supplies to the town by the end of the week, the villagers will starve." I said.

"The soldiers said the siege would be lifted if Canonbie surrendered. I told him the villagers would rather die." The young guard blurted out in anger.

"This is the third time we've tried to supply arms and food to Canonbie. I was promised this would not happen again." I yelled.

"It should not have, Your Majesty. But somehow, the English were aware of our movements."

Biting my bottom lip, I glanced over at the men in charge.

"All three times. The question is, how?"

Seeing as the men in the room were also starting to question their people, I looked back at James before the young soldier was enduring the pain.

"Get him up to the physician upstairs, quickly," I ordered.

~

Heading back up to the throne room, Talia and Lydia casually bowed down and quietly walked away when they heard James and me down the hall.