The Apprehension (Unexpected Circumstances 6)

“Branford will be mine just as soon as you deliver that child to me. Then Branford will see reason and make me his queen.”

She spoke of a future with Branford, I realized, and it seemed my heart began to beat in my chest again. If she speaks of him in the future tense, he must still live. I closed my eyes in a silent, thankful prayer before I turned back to the hateful woman before me.

“You cannot believe you will get away with this,” I said. “When Branford realizes what you have done, he will—”

“He will,” Whitney said, “do what he should have done from the beginning! If he does not, I will kill that half-bred commoner child in your belly right before his eyes! And you will learn your place in life before this is over! Commoners are commoners, and royalty is royalty! You do not belong with us, you insolent creature! You will eventually understand this though it will be far too late to benefit you.”

There was snickering from the guards behind me as well as shuffling of their booted feet. Moving a few inches closer to my side, the dark, bearded man continued to look me over with narrowed eyes.

“Greysen!” Whitney yelped, and the large, barrel-chested man turned his gaze to her. “Take her down to the cells and introduce her to her new home.”

Whitney stood and walked over to me. She was several inches taller and leaned over to stare down into my eyes. I squared my shoulders and met her hateful look with my own glare.

“It will be your last home, you know,” she said before she began to laugh. She took a step back and smiled gleefully up at Greysen. “She is your responsibility now.”

“Of course, Princess Whitney,” he replied.

“Make sure she does not harm herself,” Whitney said. “Keep her healthy so she delivers the child soon.”

“Of course, Princess Whitney,” he replied again with a bow of his head.

“As soon as we have the child, she is no longer of any use to us,” Whitney said simply as she waved her hand toward me dismissively. She even shrugged her shoulders a little. “Branford will do anything to make sure nothing happens to the baby, including taking me as his wife since she will no longer be in the way.”

My mouth dropped open as I finally understood her plan. With the failure of her original scheme to keep Branford childless, she now planned to steal the child as it was born from my body. She would then present it to Branford under the condition that he would take her as his queen. How she believed such an insane idea would succeed was beyond my thinking.

“You are mad,” I whispered. “Branford would never—”

My words were cut off by the sting on my cheek as Whitney pulled her arm back and slapped me.

“Branford will be mine,” she shouted, “and I will be Queen of Silverhelm as it was meant to be. The only difference now is finding some other common trash to be my slave!”

My eyes widened, and Whitney smirked at me again as she watched me become aware of the meaning of her words. She had no intention of just taking the child and letting me be. No, that would be against her very nature.

She was going to kill me as soon as the baby was born.

Greysen stepped up until he was right against my side and grasped me by the arm.

“I will be heading back to Hadebrand,” Whitney said to Greysen. She gathered her skirts around her waist and began to head down the hallway to a large set of doors. “I will return when the child is born.”

“You cannot do this!” I screamed as I finally found my voice. “Branford will never wed you! Never!”

“Silence!” Greysen screamed down at me. He leaned close to my face, and I could hear Whitney’s taunts from behind him as he started to lead me to a doorway on the opposite side of the room.

“Feel free to use her!” she called out with a laugh. “If you do your job well, you can all have her for a short while after the child is born!”

Greysen tightened his grip on my arm, and two other guards followed as he dragged me down a dark, stone staircase. It was dank, and the scent of mold and mustiness burned at my nose as I was shoved further down the stairs. My legs and arms ached, but I forced myself to remain upright so I could wrap my free arm around my belly.

The stairway opened up into a long hallway with many doors on either side. I knew by the small, barred windows in each door that we had entered the dungeons of some castle though I knew not where. If Whitney was about to return to Hadebrand, that was obviously not where I was though it had been my original assumption.

Near the middle of the hallway, Greysen stopped and pulled open one of the doors. Without any preamble, he shoved me inside. There was little there. A bare dirt floor, a pile of old straw, a rusted chamber pot, and some shackles against the wall made up the entire small, windowless room.

As soon as I looked inside, I knew I was going to die here.

I was very much aware of the large man behind me as he forcefully ushered me inside. The other two guards who had followed us down into the recesses of this castle were close behind him. As I looked back over my shoulder, I was reminded of how I had found Janet in the horse stall. Even though I now knew that exact image was a false one, it did not stop dread from freezing my body. The guard in the back looked down at me with a lustful glare as he smirked and poked at his companion.

“Shall we have a little fun before we go?”

The second guard laughed and rubbed his hands together.