Tampered Beauty

Destruction

"Henry, please! Wait!" Mary called, raising her skirts to chase after her husband (?) as he walked through corridor after corridor of the French Court. Said Court now buzzed with the reality of the return of the very alive King of France, not forward thinking enough to think of the drama that now awaited their Queen and her temporary husband.

He said nothing. Just walked faster.

"Henry, stop!" she almost demanded as they reached one of the older parts of the castle, lit only by a few torches on the walls.

He did. He stood with his back facing her, looking at the black door ahead of him.

"Henry, I-" she trailed off, walking towards him. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea." she said, reaching a hand out towards him. "He'd been declared dead, we thought he was never coming back, my son was crowned King. I-I I'm so sorry, Henry." she apologised, hurt filling her heart.

Their relationship had started out passionate and fiery, something she had always craved in her spouses. And, although their relationship had taken a turn for the worst just before marriage, after they had wed, things had improved. Both coming from families of vipers, keeping each other away from blood relatives had shown each other that there was more to each other than what met the eye. There was more to her to Henry than the attractive, passionate English Lord. Keeping him away from the manipulative Lady Lennox had proved this to her, a bad trait about him showing just before marriage. He was easily manipulated, a little naive to the real world. But, that had changed when they left Scotland and England, spending a few weeks in Ireland before returning to France. He had been loyal and passionate, truthful and proved himself a good man.

The same was shown to him. At first, the Empress was playful and happily immature, before turning into a cold, heartbroken ruler who married him for nothing but political gain. But, after removing themselves from their families and lands of birth, she had shown to be passionate, wild, compassionate and kind. Never mind the fact, she was stunningly beautiful. A true Queen, a devoted mother to James-

James. The little Crown Prince who he had grown so fond of, a brilliant father-figure, step-son bond had formed between them over the last five months. They had grew closer over the duration of the marriage, caring for him and loving him just as much as he did her mother.

But, this? Could either of them survive this?

"I understand the politics, Empress Mary." he suddenly said, adding "But this is so much more than a simple magic trick, popping your true husband back into your life, James' life." he said evenly. "You know better than anybody the world we live in. What we shared is nothing but a lie. Your son may not be the King of France anymore, but he may be the King of Scotland and England soon enough." 

"What do you mean?"

"Our marriage is bigamy!" he suddenly cried. Mary jumped, stepping back a pace. "Our consummation -which the Pope and the Vatican know about- nothing but adultery! And if that wasn't bad enough, against a King! One of the leading powers of Europe! No, he's not just a King, he's an emperor now." he chuckled. "It's treason, Mary!" he turned to her. "We could both be -justifiably- executed for this!" his eyes were wide, taking large paces over to his former wife.

"No, we won't." Mary gasped as he gripped her wrists. "He was declared dead by the Pope and the Vatican, we were given permission to wed, they can't do anything to us. We didn't know he was still alive, thousands of people scaled every inch of France and her neighbouring countries, we wouldn't have wed if we knew he was alive." she said. He blinked at her, pain in his eyes, one that matched hers.

The duo had found something together. Spurned by lust, something more had blossomed between the two over the past two months. Although it couldn't be described directly as love, there was something more there.