The Raven (closed)

[KieranSoares]

"T'tha' Prince, I was stealin'," Boar chuckled and offered her one more kiss before they continued their meal. They were left undisturbed for several more days, but Brogan warned Emma that the Prince was quietly turning over the entire town looking for her. Brogan assured her he would do his best to get rid of the man without any violence.

Then there came one morning when Emma was outside and the Prince finally caught sight of her as he came by. "Emma!" He called with a smile, slipping down from his horse. Her boys were still sleeping inside, and Boar had gone to take his horse to have new shoes put on.

 

[heartofcourage]

Emma glanced up at the smooth English accent that greeted her ears. She frowned as she saw the prince striding towards her with a happy look on his face. Dusting her hands off on her skirt, she left the vegetables she had picked on the ground and regarded him silently.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him bluntly. "My husband will be home soon. He won't like the idea that you're snooping around."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Come now, my love, is that any way to greet your Prince? I've come to bring you home! I sent the Princess packing when I realized I'd rather have you any day." He approached as if expecting her to leap into his arms in joy. "No more of this dirty place for you, my love. We'll be happy, heir or no."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I am very happy here." Emma said as he came towards her, his arms expecting her to come and give into him the way that she always had. "This is my life now. I have a good husband who loves me without hesitation and two sons that adore me. I don't need you in my life any longer."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Sons?" He paused. "You... you have children? That's quite a joke, love." He nearly chuckled, until he realized her expression was dead serious. "You told me you couldn't have children. You... you could've become a Queen beside me."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Yes. Sons." Emma said as she continued to stare at him, feeling disgusted as he talked about how she could have been a queen. "Where were you when I was carrying your child? Where were you when I lost that child? You only want me to be a brood mare. If I wasn't good enough to be your queen when I was barren, then I'm not good enough to be your queen now."

"I warn you that my husband will not be happy if he sees you here. I would suggest that you go before he comes home." Emma said again, readying to grab her vegetables and go back inside to the boys.

 

[KieranSoares]

The Prince growled darkly, grabbing her by the wrist. "I already gave up a perfectly good future Queen for you. I'm going to ruin my own image back home with this. Is that not enough for you?"

As if history were repeating itself as when she was in Tavish's grasp at the misty loch, Boar appeared from nowhere with a vicious growl, "Let go my lass." The Prince turned, shocked to see the giant who'd taken Emma from his palace before. But he didn't relent until Boar took another menacing step toward him. He stepped back and Boar's arm was quickly and possessively about Emma's waist. "I warn ya, rat. This 'ere's my territory now, an' more'n tha', it's th'territory o' the Ghis. You walk away now an' I won' send my brother's axemen after ya."

The Prince shot a dark glare at Emma, warning her that he was not finished, and he headed back to his horse.

 

[heartofcourage]

Emma leaned into Boar as his arm wrapped around her waist, telling the other man to back off. He was saving her again, just as he had that day on the loch. She glared at the Prince until he was back in the saddle and leaving. When he was a distance away, she turned and looked at Boar, pressing a kiss against his cheek in thanks.

"You seem to have a knack for saving me, Lynndon." She said softly, nuzzling against his cheek gently as she thanked him.

 

[KieranSoares]

"I do m'best, love," Boar murmured, hugging her tight before drawing her inside along with the vegetables she'd picked.

 

[heartofcourage]

The house was full of laughter as the boys woke up ready to play. Emma loved them deeply, chasing them around as they toddled around and squealed with laughter. Boar cooked on the stove, his deep laughter rumbling after them, making Emma smile wider as she caught Leon and peppered him with kisses.

 

[KieranSoares]

Leon, usually the quieter and moodier of the two, squealed with joy and his brother returned to try to save him. That only got Eli caught too, but their fun was interrupted by a heavy, loud pounding on the door. A man's shout caused the boys to go quiet. "Emma Campbell! Open up, in the name of the Church!"

Boar put aside his cooking and stepped out, taking his axe from above the fireplace. "Em, take th'boys an' hide." Church officials didn't come knocking like that for anything good, and with the Prince around, Boar wasn't taking chances.

 

[heartofcourage]

Emma was about to snatch up Eli when the pounding at the door began. She paused, looking at the heavy portal as Boar told her to take the boys and hide. She didn't hesitate as she took Eli's hand and pulled him beside her. In her bedroom she hid in the cupboard, Eli and Leon cuddled against her lap as they both sat silently with her.

 

[KieranSoares]

Muffled slightly through the walls, Emma heard the entire conversation that followed after Boar half-opened the door, blocking the small gap with his body and holding the door firmly in place with a planted boot. "Mornin', Father."

"Sir Ghis, I presume. We of the Catholic Church have come to question your wife. May we come in?"

"Maybe. Depends what y'want 'er for."

"Emma Campbell stands accused of witchcraft by no less than five local individuals. She may be a danger to Inverness and Scotland."

"Witchcraft? Y'can't be serious. What's more, I ain' ever seen you lot round 'ere before."

"I am very serious, sir. We come from Aberdeen, but we were in the area when a group of townspeople alerted us to thia possible danger. We have questions for your wife to determine your people's safety. I'm sure it's all a big misunderstanding, but one cannot be too careful."

"By questions, y'mean an unfair trial tha' ends with 'er burnin'. Get th'hell off my land, preacher, b'fore I chase yer sorry ass off it." Boar slammed the door in their faces. They tried to knock twice more before a sudden crash told Emma that they'd broken the door down. Men began yelling and a couple screamed innpain when they met Boar's axe, making Eli whimper in fear as tears gathered in his eyes in the dark while he curled closer to Emma.

Boar's pained roar was the loudest, followed by a dull thud before the sound of walking boots filled the house. "Shackle him, and find the woman," the priest told them. "Rip the place apart if you have to."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Shhh..." Emma murmured as Eli whimpered and curled closer to her at the frightening noises. "It's alright. It's all going to be alright."

She nuzzled against both boys to keep them calm. The sounds outside the little door were loud and she prayed that the boys kept quiet.

 

[KieranSoares]

As the footsteps drew nearer, Leon began to grow upset too, but it was ultimately Eli who cried out audibly for his father, knowing he wasn't safe without Boar at that moment. But he was too young to understand he'd just doomed his mother and possibly himself and his brother. The cupboard door opened, and a man in black grabbed Emma by the arm and dragged her out. "Father, I found her! She's got the children!"

"Get them away from her! Quickly!" The priest yelled and Emma was suddenly swarmed by black-clad men who pried her babies from her arms and shackled her hands behind her back. Eli cried out for her while Leon was too scared to make a sound until he was separated from his twin, at which point he began to struggle and cry.

 

[heartofcourage]

Emma rocked the twins, gasping as she was ripped from the cupboard and the twins were torn from her arms. She screamed, threatening the men as the twins shrieked and cried for her. She was cuffed, her babies calling for her and their father.

"Let them go! I swear that I will kill every one of you if you hurt my children." She was like a mother bear trying to protect her cubs.

 

[KieranSoares]

"You have no reason to fear for them if you are innocent, madame," the priest told her firmly, and she was promptly hauled out of the house. As she passed her husband in the front room, she would see that they'd well and truly knocked him out with a club blow to the head.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Lynndon!" Emma called to her husband as he lay there on the ground. "I demand you take me to the king. Brogan will tell you how wrong you are in all of this!"

 

[KieranSoares]

"Go, keep her subdued by whatever means necessary," the priest ordered his men, ignoring Emma. She and her children were hauled from the house, but Boar was left unconscious and in shackles on the floor.

They took her all the way to Aberdeen. By the time Boar would've woken and managed to get out of the house and to the Keep, she was miles away. She was placed in a prison cell whose bars were inscribed with Latin phrases and crosses, apparently to 'combat her magicks.' Her boys were taken away, and no one would tell her where. They were under suspicion too and if Emma was judged a witch, the boys would be under the boot of the Church for the rest of their lives, expecting them to turn out as witches or worse too.

Emma was left to her confinement that night, receiving only one visitor. The Prince. He entered with a smug smirk, stepping up to the bars. "My palace must seem like Heaven now compared to this place."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Your palace is and always has been hell." Emma spat at the man that she had once thought she loved. "When my husband comes for me, I won't hold him back from what he wants to do with you. I hope that he does not make your death an easy one."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Well, I'm sorry to say he's also been arrested," her Prince informed her. "Just as we left, in fact. A charge of murder all the way from London." He smirked. "The evidence is all mounted against him. Even if you do leave this place, your brute is facing life in prison. He killed one of my men, you see, when he came to get you "

 

[heartofcourage]

"He didn't kill anyone." Emma said as she narrowed her eyes at him. "All of this because you wanted me back and I had moved on? I wouldn't have thought that you would be that petty. Perhaps I was wrong. You were horrible to me back then and you will be horrible to be now."

 

[KieranSoares]

The Prince's hand suddenly shot between the bars, grabbing her by the neck of her dress and tugging her forward. "Listen now, you whore. If you don't give in and give up this barbarian family of yours, I'll make you give them up in a bloody fire. You're mine. You were always mine, long before that brute ever knew you."

 

[heartofcourage]

Emma let out a startled gasp as he reached between the bars and jerked her forward by the front of her dress. She was horrified at the ugly way that his face twisted into a mask of hatred as he told her to give up her family and go with him or else she would give up her life.

"I have children, you monster. You would tell me to simply leave them behind because you can't let me go?" Emma murmured, her heart racing. "You didn't want me! You pushed me aside when I was pregnant with your child and you never replied when you learned that I had washed it. You sent me back to hell by forcing me to go to Scotland."

 

[KieranSoares]

"You think I care about those brats? They're the stock of barbarian blood. The only Scot I wouldn't mind living is you, but I could still certainly live without you if you continue to resist. You're mine. Do you understand? No other man lays his hands on what's mine." If there was any love there, it was far overshadowed by his sense of ownership and vanity.