Tampered Beauty

Consolidation

Some days had passed. The Empress sat in the King of France's nursery, the young child on her lap silently suckling against her breast. James had been labelled 'the sweetest, most perfect child in court' over his eighteen months of life, a moniker that Mary herself once held when she was a child. He reached for his mothers' hand, looking up at her, dark eyes big. Mary had a lot to think about, absentmindedly brushing her fingers against the silky raven strands of her son's hair as she stared into nothing, trying to figure out where to go from here.

Her marriage to Henry was well on it's way to being annulled, for annulment was no easy feat to attain, even with Emperors and Empresses doing the asking. The Vatican representatives were doing everything they could, the Medici Pope granting her his protection from the worst possible punishment due to the fact her son held Medici blood. Mary knew that would be enough to protect her from death, and as long as they did it quietly, their names wouldn't be slandered in the public eye. But, the Empress was well aware that it wouldn't be enough to salvage her legal marriage.

Where did she and Francis stand? It had been a fortnight since his return, their loud points then were clear, but what would happen now? Would they always fight about the abandonment and betrayal she suffered? Would they always argue because of Lola and her bastard? How could they move on from this? Could they even move on from this? Or, would they simply physically separate to lead separate lives? Could she simply leave France and go to England or Scotland? Would he stay here and raise his bastard, only seeing his wife and legitimate heir until Mary got pregnant again?

As much as she hated to admit it, Mary didn't want to live like that. The Empress could clearly remember what Henry and Catherine's marriage was, and loathed to repeat it with her own Valois blooded husband. She knew all too well the effect it had on Catherine and Henry's children, their oldest, specifically. As children and adults, the duo spent many nights huddled together as they bonded over the lack of parentage they had both received, and swore to each other to be different when their time came. But now it had, she didn't know what to do about it.

She didn't want to live how Catherine had lived. With a husband who has mistresses and bastard children littered all over the country. She didn't want to feel court's neglect and scorn when she wasn't with child and a mistress was. Most of all, she didn't want to see the personification of betrayal every time she stepped into her court. Mary would never admit it aloud, but she was afraid. She didn't want to do this anymore, simply wishing for things to go back to how they were. It sounded harsh, but she wished for Francis to actually be gone forever.

It would so so much simpler. Although James would never know the father who sired him, he'd have a father figure to raise him, a country at his fingertips and an empire in his future. James would be raised right, with plenty of legitimate half brothers and sisters who he could protect and love, and he'd turn out to be a good man. Mary and Henry would raise him to be loyal to his betrothed, never to stray from her, to be a good King and put his people first, always. 

Now, she didn't know how his life would turn out.

Would he grow to resent his father for siring a bastard son? Even at the tender age of almost nineteen months, James was incredibly perceptive and protective of his mother. He wouldn't let Henry near her until he'd figured out Darnley's character, and clearly wouldn't trust some courtiers who could do his mother wrong. Even as a newborn, he refused to take to the wet nurse and refused to sleep wherever his mother wasn't at. He somehow could sense those who his mother didn't like or trust, never fully trusting them in return. What would he do when Francis was finally introduced?

Would he cry the first time his father held him? Would he sense his mothers' distress at seeing her still lawful husband, not letting him in? Whilst he trusted Bash and James completely, what would he do when in the presence of Francis' bastard son? Would he scream and cry? Would he grow to resent and hate him? Would he train any -god forbid- brothers and sisters he had to do the same? Simply because his mother didn't want him at court? For every bodies sakes, he and his half brother could never meet, it was simply too risky.