Her Grace

41.

He didn't even wait to listen to what was about to be said, if it was what he thought then he couldn't stand to hear it said allowed before he was sure

He couldn't believe she was gone unless he saw with his own two eyes, unless he felt the warmth of her touch drain away, until he watched the smile she would wear upon her face fade away

Only then could he believe his wife was gone and only then could he carry out her wishes, not a moment sooner could he tell anyone to do what she'd asked of them, he had to be sure

He ran straight to their room and burst through the door, but what met his eyes surprised him so much so that he fell to the floor almost instantly after seeing it

She was sat up in bed, awake, wide awake, pale as a ghost still, but alive, she had Mary sat on her bed with her, cuddled up to her, almost as scared to lose her as her husband

Almost

"Chloe?" He asked rhetorically, almost in disbelief, as though he didn't trust his eyes to not be deceiving him

"Right here" she spoke with a still raspy voice, but it sounded much more reminiscent of her usual voice than before and there was so much more life in it

"You're alive!" He exclaimed, possibly the most happy any man had ever been since the dawn of time, in his mind at the very least

"You didn't think I'd given up just yet did you?" She asked him as a joke but the guilty look on his face removed some of the joy from her face, he had thought she'd given up, he'd been so angry at her because he'd been convinced of that fact

"I don't know what I thought, I just know I couldn't live without you, I wouldn't want to" He told her, still with slight disbelief as he stood up and moved to sit on the side of her bed, taking her hand in his

"I'm not leaving you without a fight, not now, not ever, you should know that" she told him, mostly with affection although a slight tinge of still being offended by his lack of faith in her present

As Chloe yawned Ryan decided it was time for everyone to go back to bed, it was still much too early for anyone to be awake

"Mary, I think it's time you go back to bed, we all need some rest" Ryan told the young girl, who was still snuggled up against her aunt, gently

"I think you'll find she's asleep" Chloe told him in a slightly abrupt manner, sort of mocking him for being quite so oblivious to what seemed rather obvious

"Oh, of course she is" he replied, feeling slightly silly now, the look across his face only causing Chloe to produce a weak smirk, she'd probably have laughed at him had she have had the energy to

"She's been asleep the entire time you've been in here, she was here, asleep, when I woke up" Chloe told him as she looked down at her niece, she hated to think about what this girl faced

Mary was the king's only living child, she'd be declared illegitimate and removed from the line of succession but a large portion of the country didn't even acknowledge these changes anyway, she was the king's only living heir, should anything happen to him, Mary would be thrust upon the throne with someone she didn't know particularly well as her regent, she was only young, it would be many years before she'd have any control, it was the most dangerous position she could possibly be in

Chloe feared for the girl, she feared for her brother, but more than that she sincerely feared for her niece

"If Harry dies, you know what'll happen, it'll be a bloodbath between the people trying to put her on the throne at all costs and the people who want to avoid that no matter what it takes, and she'll be caught in the middle" Chloe spoke cautiously, she knew even imagining the death of the king was treason, but how could she not?

"It won't come to that, Harry isn't going to die, he'll live on, he'll remarry, he'll have another child, Mary will remain the fallen princess, it's not the perfect fairytale for her, but it's better than sitting on the throne could ever be" Ryan tried to convince her but they both knew it wasn't so simple, being the displaced child of a monarch could never be that simple

"I hate to think what the world has in store for us when this is all over, if we all make it out alive" Chloe found herself wondering, much to her own dismay due to where her mind wandered to

"Don't think of it, whatever will happen, will happen, just leave that in God's hands and let's go to bed" he moved her on from the subject in the hope of avoiding her spirits waning any further, not that it had much effect

"Alright, are you going to get into bed then or am I supposed to wait for it to please you to do so?" She smirked a little once again, although this time it was clearly forced, as she made her joke

Soon after he was asleep beside the two girls, but Chloe on the other hand remained awake for a rather prolonged period, wondering what the future would hold

Praying they'd all survive

———————————————————

But of course they won't because IM NOT THAT NICE, so she's ALIVEEEE....for now, but that's no fun is it? Someone's gotta dieeeee and I'm the next chapter we shall find out WHO, the whole world is about to be tipped upside down, are you ready for it? Xoxo