To Love, Once Again

"Husband! Husband! Where are you!!"

A woman's high pitched voice echoed all throughout the dungeons, the tone rough and jagged like a torn piece of paper. She'd been crying out all night, the thick golden rings on her hand clanging against the cold iron bars. All night, groups of men, familiar men had been brought in chains and jailed here. Frantic eyes roved over the dimly lit faces of each man that passed their cell, unable to find what they sought.

"Stop fretting and making a fool of yourself, Mother. Father shall come for us soon!" Another voice snaps from the back of the cell. There, a disheveled Lady Amelia sat on a cot, arms wrapped around herself.

"Now Amelia, you must not address me in that tone!" Whirling around, her mother admonished. ..But Amelia only laughed scornfully at her response.

She'd thought that King Lucien's heart had already been hers.

"It's your fault that we're in this place, Mother."

"Well, I never!" Dame Gertrude harrumphed in indignation. Turning to admonish her, her mouth opens, then closes again, like a fish. Her sweet lovely daughter, the perfect child, obedient child, was staring back at her with angry green eyes, lips knit tightly together.

Her baby girl just needed some time. Reconsidering her angry retort, Dame Gertrude relaxes her upturned brows "His Majesty truly was going to make you his Queen. Sweet child, your father promised me..." she trails off as her daughter's blazing eyes grew brighter.

If only her Mother hadn't deceived her. She'd grown too confident with the excuses her Mother whispered in her ears.

When King Lucien refused to meet her fluttering eyes, "he was just being shy." At the balls, when he completely ignored her quite obvious signals to invite her to dance, he was "preoccupied with diplomatic affairs." When Lady Amelia accompanied her father on his work trips to the castle, but was unable to catch even a glimpse of red hair, "he was having a man's talk with her father".

Mother had an excuse for everything.

And she'd accepted it, because in the 5 years after that filthy extra's departure, he hadn't gone near any of the other girls. All were met with a cold silence.

That included the bold widows, mature and gorgeous women who adorned themselves to perfection, using their late husband's funds. They wanted a taste of the Red King, see what kind of fiery passion the monster could bring to their bed. When the most beautiful woman of the group bravely knocked at the King's bedroom door, she'd quickly found herself escorted out and then married off to a country noble. With the King's blessings. Of course, no woman bothered him after that.

Lady Amelia had laughed then, at the widows for thinking they could steal a man that was obviously smitten with her, young, beautiful, noble Amelia Norwood..

If only she'd known King Lucien didn't care for her. Biting her thumb, she glares at the withered flowers atop her mother's hat. The once-vibrant flowers shook as Dame Gertrude continued to swivel her head, peering out into the halls of the dungeon.

Then Amelia could have used other methods to make the King hers. Amelia always got what she want. And she wasn't afraid of doing the work necessary to obtain him. If she'd known, she could have played the gentle maiden, created more opportunities for them to meet, and seduced him, even. No man could withstand her willful beauty. Except for that one youth that had been stolen by that fake whore at the ball, every man Amelia desired became hers.

Footsteps resound in the underground corridor. Click. Clack. Lady Amelia's looks behind her mother, her face expectant. There was no sound of the jangling chains heralding the arrival of a new prisoner. Only the tapping sound of footsteps descending the hewn stone stairs.

Was it her father, perhaps, come to free her? One of the King's knights? Or maybe even the King himself?

Because the cell Lady Amelia and her mother, Dame Gertrude were imprisoned in were one of the closest to the entrance, it doesn't take long for them to see who the visitor was.

"Y-You!!" Dame Gertrude totters backward in fear, her silver cane no longer there to support her. Her teeth clacked together as the dark shadow approaching their cell was illuminated by the torchlight.

Dame Gertrude's face pales to an unearthly grey as Lucien stares back at her through the iron bars of their cell. She couldn't forget that terrifying aura that had exploded out of him, the cold sharpness of the daggers that had pinned them to the door.

Even now, that empty, cold gaze at which he glared at her.. Just like that snow cat her husband had secretly brought home. The one she'd begged her husband to put down after it had killed it's trainer right before her very eyes. Wrapping her arms around herself, the older woman retreated to the back corner of the cell.

This monster!!

His eyes were just like that cat. Ice-blue in its fury, so wild and cold. Oh, how that cat had grinned at her, with bits of flesh in its teeth, white fur stained red with the trainer's blood.

How had they thought anyone could control him?

"My King! You've come to free me from this hell hole, haven't you!?" Lady Amelia, on the other hand, seemed to have completely forgotten the terrifying experience.

The beautiful emerald green color of her skirt was filthy now, marred by stains, but still, she gathered them together. As she rushed to the door, she put on her most appealing smile, a hand reaching out towards him.

She could still make this man hers. Although somewhat mussed, she was still beautiful!

"No." Lucien's cold voice makes Dame Gertrude retreat even further.

And Lady Amelia didn't give up. Tucking her mussed golden hair behind her ears, she glanced up at the King from under her lashes. Slowly, she trailed her fingers down her ear, her neck, to the open neckline and the collarbone that was bared.

Lucien stepped away from the bars, making it even harder to detect his expression. Lady Amelia smiled under her hair. It must be working! The men always said they loved her swan-like neck, the delicateness of her collarbones. Which may be true. But she knew really, when they said that, they were glancing lower, to her well-endowed bosom.

Biting her lip, she sends another amorous glance towards the King, whose face was hidden in the shadows. He must be hiding his discomfort, she thought.

In a breathy tone, she continued "My King, the Norwood house has served the Crown for generations..and I too, was born to serve....the Crown" Another soft stroke over her own collarbone, a flirty smile on her pale lips.

Men were simple creatures. And in every way, she was better than that foreign other-worlder. More beautiful and polished, living a life every girl would dream of.

But how come she couldn't feel his gaze on her? Even in the dark, she could feel his gaze not looking at her, but through her. Like he couldn't even see her body.

"Filthy" The blistering cold rebuke make Lady Amelia blink. Maybe she'd misheard. He'd probably meant to say 'Lovely". But there'd been no sweetness in his tone of voice...

"S-Sire?"

"I pity you."

Lady Amelia was growing frantic. Clutching at her clothes, she loosened the front of her dress even more to reveal more pale skin.

"I'll do anything! Even the things tha-that woman doesn't want to do! I'll do it all if you make me your Queen!"

Disgusted, King Lucien turns his face away from her. The outline of his face was faintly defined in the dim light, highlighting the deep scowl on his face.

Lady Amelia felt a bolt of angry jealousy thunder through her. How come he looked at her like that!? Why wouldn't he look at her, the same way he looked at the other woman!!!?

She'd fancied herself in love with him, ever since she was a young girl seeing him in the Victory Parade that heralded the end of the Great War. So devilishly handsome, with his flaming red hair and blue eyes, outfitting in a suit of fine armor. But it wasn't his handsomeness that drew her in. It was the deep pure love blooming in his gaze. All of it focused on the young woman before him, a strange woman, wearing men's trousers. To see them riding in together on the great big warhorse, at the center of the parade, had made the young Lady Amelia's heart pound in her chest.

Angrily, she flipped her hair back and shook her hair, posing to emphasize her thin waist before the King.

Why didn't anyone look at her like that!? Her father only looked at her when she was beautifully adorned, with the same affection in his gaze as he would for his prized racehorses. And her mother, well, was her mother. She could do no wrong in her mother's eyes.

A look of lust, well, she'd received many. But love? There was nothing similar in the gazes of the men compared to what she'd seen in King Lucien's that fateful day.

But there was nothing in his deadened eyes.

"I can serve you well, My King!"

As if he was seeing some hag undress before him, instead of the beautiful her.

The handsome King doesn't turn to her, speaking the the empty air outside their cell in a low voice. "I've decided to grant your wish."

Hope blooms in Lady Amelia's breast again. Though it was a huge blow to her ego that King Lucien seemed disgusted by her, he was reconsidering! That meant she held some attraction to this terrifying being!

She was right! All men were the same! It was fine as long as she could be his Queen. In time, she could win him over.

"Thank you, Your Majesty! I will serve you well!"

Lucien chuckles, a cold bemused laugh. "Who said you were going to marry me?" His face wasn't smiling when he stepped forward, dropping a rolled up script of paper into the cell through the bars.

Lady Amelia recoils back as if she'd been struck.

"W-What do you mean???"