"Lady Aurora, please, don't drink that." The man's voice halted her action of lifting the drink to her lips. She had thought that no one was watching her place the poison in her cup or would care.

She turns to face the man, "Who are you?" She had been there almost twenty-one years, during that time she learned the names of very few of the Lords. Very few and he wasn't one of those few. She could however, name each and every one of the servants of the palace.

"My name is Marcus, please, don't drink that. Trust me to take care of the problem. There will be no reason for you to kill yourself."

The female, Aurora gives a bitter smile to the man talking to her. "You want me to trust you, Lord Marcus? Why should I? I've lived here nearly twenty one years now and not once have I seen you or met you. I have no reason to trust any one of your race." Her words hide the bitterness that she feels here, but the man gives her a sympathetic smile any way.

"I know that you have little reason to trust me or my people, but please, trust me for a short time and let me prove that I am worthy of said trust. Give me an hour, my lady, and if within that hour I am unable to take care of the problem then I will not stop you from drinking your wine and I will take your daughter to safety."

The female glares at him, "My daughter is safe..." Aurora trails off as Margaret joins her at her side. She turns white.

The man is quick to speak, not wanting her to faint on him. "The men you sent Lady Margaret to safety with, they weren't as loyal to the queen as she believed. They had actually taken her to a location that Garrett likes to take his female companions to. He would have raped her as soon as he heard that you were dead."

With those words Aurora nearly loses what little of the evening meal she had managed to eat.

"I will have her taken to a place that Garrett won't be able to touch her. But that is only if I fail in protecting you both. Please, just give me one hour?" The man is near begging and Aurora is still too sick to be able to think of an alternative to getting them out of the situation. She nods with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Margaret, I failed you." She manages to whisper to her daughter before the man leaves them and heads to his target. Marcus grinds his teeth in anger at her words. She hadn't deserved any of the treatment she's received since she came here, none of the females had.

He still remembers the day his father had pulled her from the other females that were on the ship and brought her to the officiant. She was so young, so scared. She hadn't known what was going on and his father hadn't bothered to tell her. He will never forget her face when he had followed his father with the others to watch him force the young girl to have sex with him afterwards.

The others had left with his father laughing and congratulating him, leaving the poor girl naked and alone and bleeding far more than she should have been. It was him that called in the doctor. The doctor stitched her up and gave her medicine that would knock her out.

That night he was angrier with his father than he had ever been. It was bad enough how he had treated Marcus's mother all those years ago, but to do this to a young innocent and scared, no terrified girl, that was unconscionable.

Marcus had lost all respect for his father with those actions. The only redeeming thing his father did was place her in Marcus's protection. 

And protect her he did. For the last twenty years he made sure that the other males didn't touch her. They didn't talk to her either, but that was an unfortunate side effect of the warnings he'd given. The only one that dares to defy his orders, Garrett.

Marcus takes himself to a location that Garrett can't fail to see him. "Garrett, your time is up. I have given you twenty years to prove your little experiment that you are indeed the rightful heir to the throne. I gave you an extra ten years when the first ten weren't enough. You've had twenty years to get your wife, two mistresses and two favored servants pregnant, as well as the others that you've taken and yet, you still have to provide a child. You are unfit for the throne even the throne rejects you."

"How dare you, Marcus? I am the king here." Garrett if furious, he had forgotten that he had to provide an heir in order to maintain the throne.

"I am the true king, Garrett, have you forgotten? I have allowed you to prove your worth for ten years, even gave you an extra ten when that wasn't enough. But twenty is all you are going to get."

Garrett turns red then white as he signals for the guards to take his brother, and they don't move. Then he understands that he really wasn't the one in control any longer. "Doctor, when was the last time you examined the queen and the whores?" Marcus says conversationally as another man steps forward.

"Just this morning. Not one of them was pregnant or have shown signs of having been pregnant during the last twenty years. King Garrett hasn't been able to get them with child." The doctor keeps his feelings to himself, but he is more than happy about bringing down his brother. Garrett is an abusive ass and he's waited years to take him out.

"Right, guards take him to the cells, he'll be executed just as soon as I finish up here." The guards move and take the now ex king from the throne and carry him kicking and screaming threats and epithets from the room.

Marcus moves to the throne, "I will be taking over as King until such a time as either myself or one of my brothers is able to bring forth an heir. The first one able to get a female pregnant, and prove that it is of their DNA will be the permanent ruler."

Marcus moves down from the throne with his words. He talks to the now, displaced queen before moving on. The queen has a smile on her face and laughter in her eyes as she talks to Marcus.

Others stop him and talk to him but he's short with them trying to make his way to where he left Lady Aurora and Lady Margaret.

He had hoped that his intervention would make her happy, but when he gets to her he finds her even more blank faced than before.

"I would have introduced myself to you long ago, but Garrett wouldn't allow any of us to introduce ourselves to you. As long as I allowed him to be king I had to follow his orders as well." Marcus tells her this in order to help her understand why he hasn't approached her before.

"For the last ten years you allowed him to terrify and harm the serving class females. For ten years you've allowed him to blackmail and force the wives of the elite. So why have you stepped in now?" With that Aurora turns her back on Marcus and leaves. Margaret going with her. 

Neither of them were especially impressed. Marcus could have stepped in and saved many of the females from being taken against their will by that bastard, but instead he had stood by and allowed it. He was no better than the king he took down.

"Now what mother?" Margaret asks her as they enter Aurora's chambers.

"He said his father was king and he was to take over the throne. Yet, I have a vague memory of him being there when you were conceived. Your father..." The things coming together in her mind can't be true. She feels even more ill than she had before.

"Your husband and Lady Margaret's father were my father. Margaret and you both were denied your proper places not only by my father but by my brother. Margaret you are indeed a princess and not just a lady. Lady Aurora, you were never given the title of queen, but you were queen consort and have been denied your rightful place."

"Why are you here prince, or should I say King?" Margaret says for her mother. Aurora is too busy fighting the nausea down to say anything.

"I wanted to apologize."

Aurora manages to turn around and glare at him, "Apologize for what, King?" She's very angry. Many of the servants are her friends and had been badly abused by the previous king.

"I had to allow him sufficient time to hang himself. Twenty years was more than enough time for him to get a woman with child. I needed time to get the others behind me. They needed to see that my brother wasn't accepted by the throne.

"After all my father had many children, the last of which is Princess Margaret. He was able to get you to conceive her with just one coupling.

"I had reason to believe that my brother was behind my father's death and not the insurgents. I just had no proof. I had no desire to end up dead and so allowed him the chance to prove himself worthy of the throne. I had no idea that he would be so horrible to the females. I just needed time."

Aurora sniffs, "Time, so what made it so that you were willing to end things now?"

"You. I managed to keep him from you and Margaret for the last twenty years. Keeping you out of sight and redirecting his attention to others. It has kept you safe, but now he was intent on having you both and then he might, might have succeeded in getting at least one of you with child. It was a slim chance at best, but..."

"Get out." Aurora orders, his words making her sicker than before. "Get out, your majesty."

Marcus didn't realize it until then that he had messed up. Silently cussing to himself he bows to them both and leaves. He has no desire to make the woman that he wants to be his queen even more angry with him. Now he wonders if he will be allowed near her in the future. If this night is any indication, he has serious doubts that he will.