Tu Es Ma Lumière

100 - Betrayal

AN - Woo! We've made it to 100 parts, guys! Thanks for the feedback and requests and prompts over the last hundred pieces! It really means a ton that people like my work enough to keep coming back for more. We've had a couple wobbles every now and then, but we've arrived at the big triple figures. So, to celebrate, here's a rewrite of the whole monde disaster of series 2! Here's to another hundred!

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When Lola suggested this plan over a year ago, Mary honestly did not expect it to have gone as far as it had. Maybe a few months of subtle manipulation to gain the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde's secrets untoward the King of France's ear under the illusion of love and healing, or a couple weeks of seduction and manipulation. But not this, not over a year and a half of a constant game that grew more and more exhausting by the day.

"This is perfect," Louis pants with the pleasure of what the latest note from Elizabeth stated, gripping the Queen of France's hands in his own. Mary blinks owlishly at him, cocking her head to the side in both genuine and portrayed confusion. Louis smiles widely at her, drunk or mad with power. Probably both. "Do you know what this means for us, Mary? It-it means that we can finally be together, with no questions asked or no accusations pointed at us. We can be a family-" he steps closer to the Queen of France and Scots -Francis' wife- and placed a hand on the dark head of her heir. Young Dauphin James barely batted an eyelash at this, for he slept soundlessly upon his mothers' chest, held tightly, securely, by a piece of decorated cloth that was wrapped around Mary's torso. "and not be in the shadows anymore. Isn't that phenomenal?" he asks her, his smile as concerning as it was mad. "Elizabeth grants us her support for this plan. Think of it, England, Scotland, Wales and Navarre all pointed towards France. We'll depose your husband, and he'll soon be gone, but that is no matter. And the three of us can rule all of it together. Of course, James won't inherit France as his birthright, but he'll be the future King of Scotland and England, all together. Isn't that marvellous?" Louis smiles widely, pressing a kiss to Mary's lips, before turning and practically skipping away.

Mary waited until he was out of earshot, before backing up towards her desk, placing a hand onto her sleeping son's back.

She ended up at her writing desk, observing the door, should the madman return. Yes, it is, Louis. she thought, beginning to write upon the parchment. Marvellous, indeed.

She closed her eyes after finishing her letter, leaning back into the uncomfortable chair, the baby strapped to her chest beginning to mutter as he began to wake. "I can't let you do this, Mary." his voice echoed in her mind. "I can't. This-this plan is madness, and you know it. God, I thought the Count Vincent scheme was horrid. But this? Mary, this plan could go terribly wrong in so, so many ways. What if you're caught? What if he realises what you're doing? You-you could be caught, tortured, executed. There would be little I could do to stop it. Don't you realise this?" he had been so honest, so earnest, so frightened that night that it brought a tear to her eye and a smile to her face. It'd been so long since that had happened.

"I know all the risks, Francis. Believe me, I do." she had stated, placing a hand upon the back of his own. "But you know as well as I do that Louis, nor his brother, are friends of the relm, of France and Scotland. He'll want your country, your head, and I cannot allow it to happen. Louis, he thinks he has be in his back pocket already. Because of what happened to me, thanks to the protestants, that night. If-if I can protect you from this threat that becomes more potent by the day, than I must. Francis, you know I must." she declared, staring into his blue eyes that were clouded with things both seen and unseen.