Prologue
January 17th, 1850.
“Father, please don’t do this!” Elizabeth pleaded while watching the executionist set up the human guillotine. To his right, two Royal Guards stood with her secret lover, Luka Wills, between them, arms held in the guard’s grasps. Luka was not only her secret lover, but also the Stable boy of the castle.
“Don’t make things worse than they already are, Elizabeth.” King Arthur scolded, not even bothering to look in her direction as disgust and disgrace bubbled within him.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to see his life spared!” Elizabeth walked closer to Arthur and placed her hands over his, but he shook himself free of her grasp, and slapped her hard across the face, causing her to yelp out in pain and collapse to the ground. She sat up and looked at her father, one hand placed against her red, throbbing cheek as tears welled up in her eyes.
“Enough of this, you insolent child! You’re the reason he’s being executed in the first place!” Arthur glared at her with fire in his eyes. Elizabeth stood from where she had fallen, glaring at him with the same amount of fire in her own eyes.
“But father-!”
“Elizabeth...” Hearing her name fall from Luka’s lips, the fire quickly died out as her heart skipped a beat. “It’s okay. We both knew of the consequences when we started this.”
“But Luka, my love! It isn’t fair for you to die...Not like this!” Elizabeth spun on her heel to face him. A second later, a hand placed itself against her shoulder. Craning her neck to see, she saw it was her father, Arthur.
“You’re right, actually.” Hearing his words with so much sincerity laced within them, a smile broke across her face. At last. He has seen reason. She thought.
Metal rubbed against metal. Metal scraped against stone and, in that moment, the smile on Elizabeth’s face quickly vanished as she looked and saw the executionist dragging a sword over to her. Her heart dropped and all hope she had felt quickly faded to nothing.
With a small bow of his head, he thrust the sword into her hands. Elizabeth had no choice but to accept the metal weapon with dread and fear settling deep within the pits of her stomach. The executionist took a few steps back, leaving her a shaking, fearful mess.
Instantly, she knew what her father wanted her to do...
“Father...Please, no. Don’t make me do this.” Hot tears rolled down her cheeks.
“You’re the one who started this mess. Now you can finish it.” Arthur shoved her forwards, making Elizabeth stumble slightly. She clung to the sword, holding it close to her bosom.
The two guards released their hold on Luka and pushed him forwards. He fell to the ground by Elizabeth’s feet. He looked up at her and she looked down at him, tears still rolling down her cheeks.
“Luka...I’m so sorry. I tried, but I...I...” She choked on her own words, unable to speak as desperate coughs escaped from her.
“Elizabeth, its fine. No matter what, I still love you and I always will.” He smiled which only broke Elizabeth further. She cried harder, begged God to spare his life. But her silent prayers went unanswered.
“Please forgive me, my love.” Arthurs hands locked themselves around his daughters, guiding her hands into the air to raise the sword.
“There’s nothing to forgive. I love you, my dear Elizabeth.”
“I love you too, my sweet Luka.” She closed her eyes as the sword was swung downwards, metal connecting with skin and bone, slicing through his neck like it was butter. Luka’s head detached itself from his shoulders, rolling to the ground with a heavy thud.
With a grunt of satisfaction, Arthur removed his hands from Elizabeth’s before walking away with the two guards and executionist following behind.
Elizabeth let go of the bloodied sword she was still holding onto, allowing it to fall to the ground with a loud clang. Her body followed. She fell to her knees and clutched at her heart; head bowed forwards as loud cries escaped from her.
Luka was dead and with him, a piece of Elizabeth’s heart had died along with him.
