Surprisingly the topic of the weather didn't go as in depth as my mother hoped so we were back to a resigned silence. Honestly though, I had preferred the weather talk. My mother seemed nervous to bring up whatever it was her and the king had spoken of, Catherine seemed to be absolutely fuming at the king, though she did a good job of being silent about it, King Henry had smug grin about him, Bash just seemed confused and went on eating his breakfast cautiously, and I was taking very small bites as the silence made me a bit self conscious of my eating, how come no one has ever told me I'm the loudest chewer in the world?

Well might as well mention the big elephant in the room I decided.

"May I ask what the final decision is for my father's legacy?" I asked the King.
"Ana not while we are eating" My mother put in.
"No it's perfectly alright to let them know" King Henry gave her a nod.

Them? my eyes immediately focused in on Bash and he must have had the same idea as our eyes connected. I quickly looked away.
"I'll tell her then my liege, if I may do so?" my mother asked of the King. He gave her a nod and suddenly all eyes were on me. Any chill I felt from the rain this morning was long gone by now as I began to blush.

"Ana you know as well as I do that your father's legacy cannot be passed onto a female heir. If it was I would be proud to see you take up your father's hold, but we live in a different world. As it so happens though the king has an illegitimate son with nothing to his name that he would love to give something too for when he dies, and we have a legacy to pass on to no one. As of now the King and I have decided that you and Sebastian are betrothed and one day the two of you will run our household and Sebastian will take your father's place as master of coin in Florence" my mother explained in the calmest voice she could muster.

It was almost as if all of the air had left the room. No one dared make eye contact with another. Deciding to hold in my emotions, I placed my napkin down on the table, got up, and left the room. I had to go outside, even if it was still raining it was better than being stuck in there. Off to the back of my mind I could swear I heard my mother calling after me.

"Miss you need a coat" another distant voice warned me as I wedged the huge front doors open and squeezed outside. The rain felt nice and cool and cleared my mind for just a mere second of this madness. I then began taking the minuscule braids and tight half up do my hair was in, it was causing me a headache. I let the cold flow into my bones and enjoyed it's freezing feeling as I kept on walking and paid no attention to the slight splashes of mud forming on the end of my dress. Finally after awhile I just gave up and sat by a nearby tree in the garden.

I felt terrible for my childish behavior by leaving the scene but it was something I couldn't handle at the present moment. Being forced into this alliance, basically, made me realize that I was never going to really experience love only a significant other could give you. Sure I thought I had felt it once before but now there wasn't even a chance. Even if Bash and I got along the most it would be is us tolerating each other, like this was just a job to fulfill. I don't want that.

I shivered now as I realized the stupidity of my decision to clear my head outside in the rain.

"Need a ride m'lady" Giancarlo managed to shout through the rain as he had somehow brought our carriage off course to my little hiding spot. I felt a bit of warmth in my chest at our best manservant, coming out in this weather to make sure I was ok and even not caring about the state of the King's lovely gardens.
"You'll catch your death in this rain if you sit out there any longer, get in and I'll see if I can take us somewhere quiet for a bit" he offered kindly.
"Not the castle right?" I asked the man who had practically helped run our household since I was a child.
"I can take you to Scotland if you want" he smiled at me. I get up on his little seat and hugged him before climbing in. However, to my bad luck I found my mother sitting in there. Before I had the chance to hop out we were already off.
"You tricked me" I pointed out the obvious.

"I needed to talk to you. For one, what made you think that what you did was perfectly alright?" she asked of me. Before I could even answer she had already cut me off.
"I don't have much time to talk Ana, Giancarlo and I have a boat ready for us to leave at nightfall"

"Your certainly giving my future husband a quick time to pack" I told her using my best snarky voice. She gave me a sad look instead of reprimanding me as she waited for me to process what she said.
"I'm not coming back home?" I asked her, feeling tears now.

"You can't for now"

"Why?"
"It wasn't an illness that killed your father it was death by slow poisoning. Somebody had been lacing his drink with arsenic for the past few nights before he died" she whispered to me.
"What? But you're going back though, why can't I?" I asked her.

"Whoever killed your father clearly wanted access to our money, you're the key to the legacy" she explained.

"So I'm meant to stay here, and take part in an alliance I don't even agree with?" I asked of her.
"Ana, after you were left from your last engagement I doubt that you were going to find anyone to wed anyways on your own" she said bluntly and then regretted it as she tried to apologize. She knew so little about the truth behind what really happened.

"What of Guliana?" I asked her pretending I hadn't heard her.
"She's spending time with my family in Naples. The King is offering me a member of his council to take the seat as Master of Coin for Florence for now. You can return once the culprit has been found and marry Sebastian once the King is dead or if you enjoy your stay here you can see where that takes you" she offered.
"I will tolerate my time here and once things are settled I will return to Florence and wish for the king to live a very long life"

"I heard you two talking beforehand, it sounded like you two got along well"
"That doesn't mean we will have a happy lifetime together. Guliana get's along great with our little footmen in training back home are you going to marry her off to him then?" I snapped.
"It's not like you're the first girl to ever go through this"

"Knowing since you are young is different then having it thrown at you within a second"

"Ana I don't want my farewell to you to be like this" she told me as our carriage slowly came to a halt. I straightened myself up and took a breath to calm myself down for a moment. I didn't want a harsh farewell either especially now that I knew my father's murderer was still out there. What if it was my mother that was next.

"I will try my best, and I love you" was all I could say as I hugged her and stepped back out onto the front steps of the castle. The rain had stopped and now the sun was coming out.

How bloody symbolic I smirked at the idea and watched as my mother drove off. Not exactly caring about formalities at the moment I sat down on the steps and fanned my dress out for it to dry for a bit. How could it have been just a few hours ago and my life had already changed and I was ready for a nap. There was a small pain in my fingers as someone stepped on my hand.
"Ouch, get off you idiot" I couldn't help but squeal out and punched the person in the leg. I let out a gasp as I realized the owner to them was the last person I expected to see, Bash.
"Oh god I'm so sorry" he quickly apologized as he stepped off my hand, clearly my punch to his leg had, had no effect on him. For some reason I let out a giggle at his quickness and could sense that he was sitting down next to me, now.

He must think I'm insane I thought as I seemed to be having major mood swings at the moment.
"No, I'm sorry. First of all I'm not at all decent, I just punched you in the leg, and I'm now apparently going to be your wife" I apologized through my giggles at how bonkers this was.

And it's only the morning I realized.
"You might need this more than I do" he sighed with a small smile on his face as he handed a bottle to me. I glanced at him.
"I thought, Italians drank wine at any moment during the day?" he joked.
"Not at every moment just with every meal" I corrected him and took the bottle.
"This is a dessert wine, that's actually my favorite. You have got quite the good taste" I informed him, handing it back to him.
"What brought you out here?" I asked as he took a swig.
"Well, it would be nice to make sure you're not a complete stranger to me. Also outside seemed a lot better than dining with Catherine, and I happened to step on your hand" he laughed. We were both a bit giddy now with the wine and I felt my nervousness around him begin to dissolve perhaps this wasn't going to be as terrible as I thought.
"So where do we start with this?" I asked him with a smile. He leaned back on his hands.
"What's your favorite color?" he asked.

I know that's a random spot but I hope you enjoyed please review if you do. Also i'm terrible with giving character descriptions so I'm just going to give you my face cast for Ana which is Lily James who is going to be the new Cinderella. Anyways have a lovely day!