Forced To Love: Pierced By A Thorne

Chapter 4- An Ally on the Other Side

Beams of early morning light weaved their way through the curtains of Arthur and Elizabeth's temporary room. Elizabeth, still wrapped in the soft bedsheets, began to stir and feel for Arthur's sleeping form next to her; only to find a cold, empty space where he should have been. "Arthur?" Elizabeth called quietly. She hated when he left without at least telling her first.

Elizabeth rose from the bed, clothed by the bedsheets, and walked over to the dusty desk in the corner of the room. On the table lay a letter addressed to her. Taking the parchment in her hand, Elizabeth began to read:
My Liz,
I cannot thank you for the amount of joy you have brought me over the past few years. You have brought me great happiness no one has ever brought me before and I am forever grateful for having known you and loving you. This choice I have made is the hardest I have possibly ever had to do and it brings me masses of sorrow.

Whilst you were sleeping, I found your letter intended for me. After reading it, I decided it was for the greater good that I left England, and set course for France to be with my family in this great turmoil.

Please, do not hate me for leaving so forthwith, it is easier this way. Know that when your time comes, and the throne belongs to Princess Elizabeth of Windsor of House Thorne, I will come to you my love. Even if it all ends in anguish and fire and blood, and neither of us make out to accomplish what we set out to achieve; we will meet each other in God's arms in the next life in Heaven.

My love is unconditional and I will be thinking of you always.
Goodbye, for now, my dearest,
Duke Arthur Vale of Westminster

Tears dropped onto the letter as Elizabeth wailed in heartache. He was gone. She knew that he had to eventually, but Elizabeth thought that she would at least get to say goodbye properly, kiss him, tell him she loved him from her own mouth and not words on paper. She read his words over and over, trying to accept that he had gone. No matter how many times she read them, they still carved scars of pain into her heart.

Wiping away the tears from her eyes, Elizabeth composed herself. The harsh reality hit her that this was the beginning of her fight. Neatly folding the letter, Elizabeth re-dressed in her clothes from the night before that Arthur had brought upstairs. Dawn was breaking and Elizabeth's mother would not yet be awake. She had to get home quickly before she was caught.

Elizabeth entered the stables and straddled Bessie, swiftly leaving Arthur's home behind her in the distance. She didn't dare look back. She couldn't, it would only pain her more. There was no looking back now. This was it. The battle had begun.
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Thewlis sat nursing a cup of wine alongside his cousin in the small tavern in Temes. They had worked all night and the early morning drink soothed the men's fatigue and foul moods. Thewlis' conflicted feelings about his cousin and their current conquest were beginning to spill over outside of his mind.
"What is wrong my cousin? You look troubled" Adam asked. Thewlis quickly tried to change his expression.
"Nothing cuz, I'm just thinking about defeating the Thorne's and rising up as the most powerful family in England" Thewlis lied. Adam laughed a hearty laugh.
"Indeed, and it shall be the greatest moment the House of Earle has ever known"

"My cousin, I hate to demean your confidence, but the Thorne heiress; Princess Elizabeth, has quite a brazen reputation. She is like no other woman you have encountered before" Thewlis informed his cousin. He had heard a great deal about the claimant Queen of House Thorne, and despite what he should think of her, he admired what word he had caught wind of. The people told stories of her kindness to the people of her county, yet the ruthlessness that she also possessed. She had her brother locked away for treachery, for sending word to the House of Earle about plots and schemes within House Thorne.