Reign

A Mother's Love

3 years later

"The wells water contained wisdom. Odin wanted to drink this water to gain the wisdom, but to get it, he was demanded to give his eye. So Odin than-"

"Enough with the fables," Narcisse said inturrupting Cecily as he leaned in the doorway.

Cecily let out a sigh as she got up out of her chair and walked past him.

"My mother and father used to tell me those stories all the time," she told Narcisse.

"And look where it got you," he said sarcastically as he shut the door behind him.

Cecily ignored him as she walked over to the table and poured a glass of wine.

"They are camped outside the castle this time Cecily," Narcisse said.

Cecily paused for a moment, but didn't turn to face him.

"It's time for you to go," he told her softly.

Cecily turned to face him.

"I can't leave him," she said sternly.

"This was the deal we made. The deal you made," Narcisse reminded her.

She set her glass down on the table and walked over to Narcisse.

"I made that deal before I had my son. Before I held him and realized what it was to be a mother," she argued.

"Our son," he corrected her. "Katherine can no longer bribe these men with gold and treasures. She needs something worth trading to make them leave. They are draining our resources," Narcisse tried to reason.

He could admit he felt slightly bad, but he knew it had to be done.

"Narcisse I cannot do this," she said in a low voice.

"The longer you wait the more you will hurt James. He is almost three. If you go now he won't remember you. He can grow up free from the stigma of everything that goes along with you," he told her.

His words stung Cecily, but she knew there was some truth to them.

3 years ago when Cecily found out she was pregnant, she asked Narcisse for help, leaving Condé behind.

This still haunted her. She had wrote to him, but never received any word back. Other than her son, she had never loved anyone that much. The heart ache from Condé never went away, and she wondered if it ever would. She tried to put it aside, but once James was sound asleep at night and all was silent, her mind wondered to what if's with Condé.

The deal she had made was that Narcisse would keep her and their child safe. Once she had the baby and the Vikings got out of control she would follow through with Katherine's original plan. She would leave her entire estate and holdings to James, her son, and leave him with Narcisse.

The Vikings had left after only a few months without a word about Cecily. But now about 200 hundred of them were back and although they hadn't said what they wanted, they turned down everything the castle had offered. Katherine was sure that Cecily would do the trick. She was sure that she was what could make them leave France and never come back.

"Katherine will be here tomorrow early afternoon to retrieve you. You have until than to say your goodbyes," he said softly before he walked away.

Cecily walked over to a chair and sat down. She burst into tears. Tomorrow would be the last day she would ever see her son. She had been through a lot the past 5 years, but this by far was the hardest.

But deep down she knew her pain was a small price to pay for her son's happiness.

She had been born a bastard, been a mistress, accused of paganism. She had been known as 'the most beautiful bastard in France' for a time, but that definition had been replaced by 'the ruiner of men'. Although Cecily saw it as Blasphemy, people had started to accociate men's misfortune with her. Bash's fall from the throne when he has the choice, King Henry's madness, Narcisse's obsession with her, and destroying Condé's heart.