Married to the Prince of Darkness (COMPLETED)

Chapter 45

To me, Henrietta's plan, was as bomb proof as a house of cards. There was so much they could potentially go wrong. It'd only take one person to realise that the nurse was missing, or another to accidentally stumble across the bloody room then we'd be discovered ... or at least I would. And I hadn't even began to ponder the possibilities of what might happen, if we were caught. There was way too much risk involved, but neither of us had a better plan. Hopefully Henrietta's plan to exploit her power as Queen, would buy us the time we needed to find a way of getting rid of the body.

Making our final preparations to leave the room, I changed into a fresh pair of clothes Henrietta had brought me, while she dumped the soiled sheets we'd used to mop up the blood, in to the bathtub along with the body. Glancing me over, she wiped a small fleck of blood from my skin and straighten up the hem of the simple black dress she'd brought for me to wear. She smiled to herself, obviously pleased with her handy work and said, "I think we're ready now."

My stomach rolled with anxiety and I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Henrietta grabbed my hand and gave it squeeze, "Just let me do the talking, and you'll be fine," she said calmly.

I opened my eyes and weakly nodded in reply and then with tentative steps, I followed her lead.

She opened the door and ushered me into the hallway where several guards stood waiting for us. They all studied us, as if they suspected something was a wrong. They looked to Henrietta for an answer and she coolly smiled back at them, "We're ready to leave now."

The tense look on their faces eased momentarily before their military training kicked in and they gathered around us, in formation to escort us to the apartment. Henrietta held my hand firmly and quickly announced, "However before we leave, I want one of you to remain behind and guard the room. I've left some valuables in that room and will send someone to collect them later. But until then I want one of you posted at that door, and you must make sure that no one goes in to that room."

What must have been the lead guard quickly acknowledged her order with a curt nod and yelled at one of the guards to stand duty by the door. The guard next to me immediately broke away from formation and marched towards the door. He passed by my shoulder and as he did so, I noticed him leaning in slightly and breathing in.

A cold unease rippled down my back, and I wondered - did he just smell me?

I awkwardly cringed away from him, remember remembering that we'd only washed off the blood on my body that had been visible on my arms, legs and face. Underneath the plain black dress Henrietta had chosen for me, I was coated in blood.

Oh shit, the guards could smell the nurse's blood under my clothes.

Trying to hold my nerve I gave Henrietta's hand a tight squeeze in an attempt to silently communicate my concern. Henrietta spared me a quick glance, and she said warmly, "Don't worry Mia, we'll have you settled into your new apartment in no time."

I couldn't tell whether she was being genuinely sincere, or trying to over compensate for my own acting inability, but whatever the case, the rest of the guards did not seem to pay attention to my odd behaviour, or notice the smell of blood emanating from my dress.

Once the guard was in place, in front of the bedroom door, we walked forward travelling along the dark stone corridor. Two guards walked ahead of us, and two guards followed behind at the rear, while the other three guards flanked either side of us. I conscientiously tried to walk precisely in the middle of them, so that I'd avoid accidentally brushing past one of them and giving them waft of leftover nurse. I kept close to Henrietta and hoped that we wouldn't be travelling far.

We moved quickly through the dark stone corridor and into another corridor, then up a tight winding spiral staircase. The passages ways were surprisingly claustrophobic, and for most of the part we'd travelled single file with guards walking both ahead of us and behind us. The fort reminded me of a medieval castle, with thick impenetrable stone walls. I'd imagine that any invading enemy would quickly become disorientated in the labyrinth of passage ways that this fort possessed. In fact, if you asked me to try and retrace my steps back to my room I'd be pretty sure that I couldn't simply because of all the twists and turns we'd taken.

Sticking close to Henrietta, I wondered if we were taking a back route or a secret route. The reason for this was the noticeable absence of soldiers around us - I mean, we'd been walking close to ten minutes through this network of tunnels, corridors and stairs, and during that time we'd not encountered a single soldier. It seemed so odd that a supposedly active fortress would appear so barren.

Eventually we came to a small wooden door, which at first glance didn't appear particularly exceptional. However on closer inspection there was a small inscription carved into the stone above the door. Reading it out loud, I said, "A deo rex, a rege lex," then I turned to Henrietta and asked, "What does that mean?"

"It's an old Latin saying meaning: From God, the king; from the king, the law. It's a reminder to anyone who might challenge the King's authority, that his power is divinely ordained and therefore absolute," she explained.

"So it's there to deter revolutionaries?" I asked curiously.

"Perhaps, I imagine when it was written, people were much more God fearing back then, then they are now. But for people in the know, it's a marker that indicates the entrance to the royal family's secret apartment," she said turning the door handle and opening the door.