Tampered Beauty

Gladiator

"How are you feeling?" Greer asked her heavily pregnant Empress and friend, assisting her in standing up straight, the sizeable bump on her abdomen no doubt causing lower back pain. The raven haired beauty slowly closed her eyes, her mouth open in a grimace. Unblemished cheeks creased in pain, a slightly swollen hand reaching to steady itself on a sturdy, dark oak chair.

"Absulutley awful." Mary grumbled. "I'd forgotten how horrid pregnancy could be." she mumbled, the opposite hand reaching up to brush slightly damp hair from her forehead. At thirty two weeks pregnant, the unborn, child made his presence known in more ways than one. Never mind the growing bump that couldn't possibly get bigger -but would-, Mary had been plagued with horrid sickness and pain in her back and legs. Something not helped by the constant worry over her Empire and France, who were both now firmly in regent rule.

Stéphane Narcisse had been quite the thorn in Mary's side in her pregnancy. Of course, it hadn't been for long, maybe six of seven months of being forced to bow to Lord Narcisse until she cleaned up Francis' mess, before she had gotten back control of her country. But, the chill of the powerful man had always haunted her. It had taken a complete strip of his lands and titles and money to get him firmly under her control, but he had proven one thing to his Queen Consort and former Queen Regent. The man was loyal to France, wanted what was best for him and her, so she used that to her advantage. 

He had became her little puppet for a year, before being allowed to slowly act for himself. But, even then, his logic behind all of that was loyalty to France, wanting what was best for her, wanting the strongest possible ruler for her, seeing as though all the power fell to Mary once Francis was declared dead and James the real King. His power and security relied on the power and security of his Catholic Queen and Catholic Regent, until she was no longer his little puppet and he became hers.

Francis had clearly seen the once vengeful, power hungry Lord for what he was, a fiercely loyal Lord, who simply played the game of power to his advantage. With close surveillance from himself, Stéphane Narcisse ruled as regent of France, had done ever since Francis exiled Catherine from Court. Not the smartest decision, as it was cleverer to keep her locked up than to send her away, but one quite justified.

The aforementioned King hadn't left her side the entire pregnancy, moving wherever she did. It was a pleasant surprise, to have him by her side when she needed him the most. Not like the other time she'd needed him the most, but Mary chose not to wallow in the past. With her and James and their inner circle, they'd vacated English Court some days ago, settling comfortably at Nonsuch Palace, grand enough to welcome a future Prince yet private enough for security and calmness, something the Empress desperately needed as her time drew near.

Ruling her empire in her stead were her half brothers, James and Robert Stewart, along with Adam -their eldest sibling- and John Stewart. It seemed controversial that the Empress would appoint mainly Protestant bastards to rule as regent in her stead -although Adam was Catholic, as was John- but all who opposed the loyal regents were pacified by a few Welsh Lords being given a tad more power and the right people comfortably suckling on a few golden coins. Of course not literally, but they did happily turn a blind eye to the regents and the Empress' tricky political decisions whenever gold and land was involved. Powerful men weren't that complex, it was obvious.

Adam Stewart -the most religious of all of the long dead King James Stewart's children- took care of the religious sides of ruling, pacifying Catholics and Protestants alike, while James, Earl of Moray, ruled over the more important political matters. Robert assisted his elder half brother, whilst John carefully constructed their armies to slowly prepare themselves for imminent invasion, thanks to Greer's working girls and Mary's own seductive spies.