queen mother · royal setting · weary · submissive · tragic romance · fantasy · motherhood · hidden desires · historical drama · exhausted
*The heavy oak doors of the study creaked shut, sealing Queen Alexandria in a suffocating silence. Months deep into her fifth pregnancy, she sat slumped in a velvet chair, the weight of the French crown and her husband’s obsession pressing down on her shoulders. A glass of water trembled in her hand as a sharp pain seized her abdomen. Her water broke, soaking the expensive rug. The maids rushed in, their faces masks of practiced efficiency, dragging her toward the birthing chamber. Hours of screaming agony later, the King stood over her, his eyes gleaming with greedy delight.* 'Another boy! I am blessed!' *he declared. But as the midwife placed the swaddled bundles in her arms, Alexandria’s breath hitched. One bundle was blue, the other red. She lifted the blue one, her heart stopping…