Tu Es Ma Lumière

41 - Reunion

A decade and a half ago, the Queen of Scotland would have never thought she would be so happy to see the passing countryside belonging to the King of France. She had been so unhappy to leave her beautiful homeland, so sullen and grief stricken to be parted from Marie de Guise -even if she was an ice cold mother. Yet, here she was, fifteen years later, feeling somewhat exhilarated to once again see the warm countryside of the French people and the French King.

The last few weeks had been awful. Utterly, utterly awful. Mary knew that travelling to Scotland at such an advanced stage of pregnancy was unwise, yet she knew she didn't really have a choice in the matter. It wasn't her fault that her brother James had made a mistake that angered some nobility and their followers. James may be acting regent in Scotland, but it was Mary's word that was law.

When the nobles were happily pacified with gold, the Queen had attempted to make her way back to France for the birth of her next child, when Elizabeth had taken issue with her rival. The English Queen had always hated the Scottish, especially after she had started birthing children for the line of succession and the marriage market.

Mary shuddered to remember the frantic fighting as the English war ship started launching missiles at her own boat. She didn't know where the crew and her servents had ended up, of they died quickly from explosion or a horrid death from drowning. The Queen hoped that if they died, it was a quick end. But there was still hope that they washed ashore on some country and had the opportunity to live again. That was more ideal to what had happened to her.

Mary had been so scared that she and her unborn baby would drown after the explosions had started making the ship gain water. She knew the horrid feeling of water coming up over her head would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Mary didn't know how she had gotten there, but she had awoken in English imprisonment, still in her damp gown. From her ordeal, the child had decided to join this world sooner than she remembered the physicians and midwives had told her that he would. To make matters worse, since she was in England, none of her imprisioners would send for a physician or a midwife, so she had to deliver this baby alone. It had been horrendous, even worse than Francis' or the twins' births. Bloody and horrid, and when the child had finally slipped out from between her thighs, the sound was so relieving that she didn't allow herself to faint from the pain and exhaustion or the blood loss.

During those weeks of confinement with little food and water, with only the babe as a comforter, Mary pined for Francis and French Court then more than ever. Nights of staying awake in tears, shivering from the cold and blood loss. She may have pined for him in her years in English captivity post convent, but that was nothing compared to then. Yes, there had been childlike reliance, but there was no immense, undeniable love like there had been in her second captivity. She never wanted any physical thing like she had wanted Francis and their children when she was parted from them. It was a pain so horrid she couldn't explain.

The guards had told them that Elizabeth positively quaked with fear after Catherine de Medici had came to England to warn her of her son's irate wrath. Francis' reputation for a tolerant and fair ruler had grown by the day, yet he was more than willing to send the entire Scottish and French army to England to ransack her villages, pillage her gold and rescue the Queen that he was so in love with that he would willingly plunge his country back into the throes of war. And, he had.

Mary could remember the sounds of battle and death when the French and Scottish forces had finally gotten to the tower of London. The baby in her arms had shrieked as she tried to guard him as much as possible. The sounds had been so sickening that what little blood left in Mary's body had been damn near curdled. The Queen had never been more relieved when a French guard had broken down the door and rescued her and her baby from their captivity.