The True Tale of Thousandfurs

Thirty-Seven

Katerina was not a very loud girl. She did not kick and scream to get her way. She obeyed and did her best to appease all the requirements that fell upon her shoulders.

She did not complain and she did not argue.

But she was a queen now and she had a duty as well as a right to share her thoughts, especially with her husband.

It had been barely two months since the attack on their wedding night. Endless sleepless nights where she lay in bed beside him, too terrified to close her eyes in case something were to happen to him.

Her curse latched onto him and he was just as much a victim of her father's brutality as she was. Even in death, King Paul sought out the couple and dark magic carried his severed limbs into their chambers.

The limbs had been burned but would that stop him?

When the couple made love in the evenings, Katerina struggled to feel connected to her new husband. This wall between them even when they were joined as one was preventing that once pure intimacy. She felt her heart breaking from the divide but she couldn't help pushing him away.

She cursed him with her family's sin.

And now she would curse their child too.

She tried to ask God for guidance just as the Queen told her to, but no answers were found. Every prayer she sent only left her feeling more wounded and broken. No reassurance befell these prayers, unlike her many others.

This was one even God could not answer.

"I am a good person." She repeated to herself, the words clicking along with her heels on the marble floor, "I am a good person."

It had been a week since she had last seen Alexander. He had gone away to stay at the Lenningston castle to help aid in the rehabilitation of trades. Luckily, Claridon and many of its trade partners were known for their farmlands. Lenningston's roads were quickly reopened and exports flooded outward in prospective profit.

It was a lot to look after and he was away for longer than he had hoped. In fact, his return visit would be just that.

A visit.

King Alexander knew he would be unable to stay when Lenningstons people were just beginning to find their footing once more. He also knew he couldn't live without his wife by his side after he had tasted her.

As soon as his fleet of men arrived through the palace gates and into the courtyard, he was off his horse and running for the doors, desperate to have his woman in his arms again. He could imagine her standing in wait, her golden locks bouncing with curls and perhaps even a roundness in her belly.

Wishful thinking on his part as it had only been two months since their official union, but his hopes were high.

"Ready the handmaidens and another set of guards. Prepare your Lady's horse for travel." He instructed a butler who greeted him at the door with a deep bow.

"Of course, your highness." Was his curt reply but Alexander did not stick around to hear it. He rushed through the halls bursting through doors before guards could open them for him, desperately searching for his wife.

Katerina was halfway down the long corridor to the entrance when she saw him and froze. All the confidence she had before, the assurance that she could share whatever she needed with him was washed away. Part of her turned to retreat back into her chambers, all while her feet forced her forward.

"Darling!" Alexander greeted her, embracing her tightly. His hands clutched her small shoulders, holding her steady and firm against his chest, "I have missed you."

"I missed you too." It was not untrue. While the hours of moonlight were empty and torturous, leaving her sleepless and afraid without him beside her, she feared the reality of being too close even more. 

"Come. The handmaidens are collecting your things." He took her hand and guided her down the hall where he had come from.

Katerina's eyes bulged out of her head and she stopped suddenly, "Wait, for what?" She shook her head, "I am not going back. I cannot go back to Lenningston."

"Darling, I have business to attend to there." He reasoned, "There is nothing there to be afraid of."

"I cannot be in that house." She whimpered, "There are ghosts all around us and a curse that is waiting to strike again."

"Katerina... you are not cursed." He squeezed her hands in his, his riding gloves cold against her skin, "There was dark magic and evil within your father. It fights and continues to haunt, even when it is dead. The devil lived in your father but he is gone now."

"Still you invited uncertainty and mischief into our home with a-" She looked around for any unwanted ears before whispering, "a witch doctor?"

Alexander understood her fear and her frustration but he had faith in the mysterious woman that came from the woods. She was cast out by normal society, and claims of witchcraft and sorcery hung over her. But he had felt nothing within her that did not intend to heal. She was a God-fearing woman, that only wished to help, "And she has done well to cure him! Her methods of herbal medicine are strange and the incense she burns smells of sprig sap but she helps."

"Your father is in better health but at what price? What more will we endure to pay for his recovery?" His wife continued to push, "We- I do not receive good in this world. Not without a cost."

"There is magic in this world that helps and there is magic that hurts." His words were slow and purposeful, "I cannot be sure what the future holds, but I promise I would never and will never place you in the face of danger on purpose."

"You believe she is the magic that helps?"

"I have to believe that God will protect us."  He lifted her hands to his lips, "and I will protect you. Always."

Katerina could not suppress her smile, "I believe you." She whispered with a tiny nod.

"Then come with me! I will have a new home built for you! A vineyard outside the castle walls where you can roam freely. Safely." Alexander's brilliant eyes shined with hope and promise, "Just come with me. Your people need you."

"All I want is for everything to be alright again. I cannot take much more of this torment." A single tear stop fell from both her eyes, streaking down her flushed cheeks.

"I know," He brushed away the wet spots upon her skin, holding her close, "I promise, as long as I live and even after, I will protect you. Even from myself."

Alexander regretted his behavior before he knew of his mutt's true identity. His arrogance and strange attraction to the woman under the furs made him act out in ways he should not have. For a servant to not obey his every breath was more than enough to send him over the edge. It didn't help that whenever she looked at him with those diamond-blue eyes, he felt a storm of emotions stir in his gut.

He knew Thousandfurs was more from the second he laid eyes on her.

"Let us go. If only for a short while, but I must return and I cannot be without you." His hand rested just above her hip, his fingers gliding over her corseted waist. How he missed the feeling of her within his grasp, holding onto her with the certainty of forever.

Katerina closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder, breathing in the deep scent of his musk. He was home. He was the eye of a storm. No matter where she went, he would be constant and unchanging even with the world around them crashing down, "And I without you."

No matter her fear, it was not him she was afraid of.

It was herself and the curse she carried.

~•~•~
A/N
So sorry this update took so long my loves
Next chapter will be the epilogue and we will finally be at the end of this journey that took WAYYY too long.
If you're interested in purchases any crochet items though let me know I make clothes in all sizes