The Crown's Obsession (WN)

While both Calhoun and Theodore were readying their plans on what to do, they hadn't expected the other external factors that would come to interrupt their game plan. The next day the two young men made their way to Madame Frances house. Reaching the place, Theodore knocked on the front door to receive no response.

"She must not be home and maybe is outside," said Calhoun, noticing no sound coming from the inside of the house. The windows and the doors were closed. He stood against the wall with his arms crossed.

Theodore moved the iron ring that was affixed to the door once more. "She didn't give a specific day and just told to come over. I doubt she was planning to go out somewhere," he said, waiting for several seconds before stepping away from the door.

Calhoun took a walk near the windows, and when he was going to turn back, he smelt the familiar scent of blood and death that came from the inside of the house. His eyes immediately narrowed, and he said,

"Something is wrong."

At first, Theodore didn't notice it even though he had stood in front of the door for several minutes, but after Calhoun pointed it out, he stepped back towards the door and took a deep breath and smelled the faint smell of death. His eyes widened, and without waiting for another second more, he broke the door open to step inside.

The air inside the house was filled with the stench of death, and Theodore rummaged through the rooms one by one until he finally found Madame Fraunces, who laid motionless on the ground. On seeing this, Theodore's jaw clenched together. The blood that was on the wooden floor near her body had dried, turning it dark in colour, and the woman's eyes were left open while her complexion turned pale and she looked like a ghost.

Theodore was in shock, and Calhoun walked forward to check the woman, placing his hand on her neck and then looking into her eyes.

"She's been dead for quite some time now," informed Calhoun.

Theodore clenched his hands into fists before freeing them. Walking to where Calhoun was, he asked, "She dealt with women and girls who belonged to wealthy families, but I don't think they had anything to do with it."

"Morganna," Calhoun's eyes narrowed.

He should have known something like this would happen. Calhoun had been pushing the Queen, testing and taunting her time after time. He should have known that she would strike back by playing dirty. When Theodore had decided to help Calhoun, he had taken things like these into consideration, but the impact that he felt right now...it was something hard to fathom.

Theodore knelt next to Madame Fraunces body. "Do you know how many days have passed?" he asked Calhoun while his eyes were on the woman.

"Possibly more than three days," replied Calhoun.

"Someone must have followed me that night...when I came here," he hadn't expected the Queen to kill Madame Fraunces as she was nowhere related to the matters that were going on. "How could she kill her," Theodore gritted his teeth.

She must have been murdered the next day after he had visited her at night. Anger filled his mind, and he brought his hand up towards her face to close her eyes. For more than three days, her body had been lying here cold on the floor, and no one even knew about it.

"You should go back to the castle," informed Theodore, "I will stay here and have her buried." He doubted people would look at them kindly if they were to bring out a dead body from the house.

Queen Morganna was eagerly waiting to frame them. She couldn't shake Calhoun's will therefore, she tried to separate Theodore from Calhoun to weaken Calhoun.

"We are in this together," said Calhoun, looking up to see Theodore. "She helped me, even if it was for a short period. Get a carriage to the back of the house, it wouldn't be right to keep her body out in the open. It is only some time before someone finds out that she is dead."

Madame Fraunces body had started to decay, and the rotten body's stench had filled up the entire house. Standing up, he started to make his way out to bring a carriage. On his way, Theodore couldn't help but remember the time he had spent with Madame Fraunces, who was always kind to him, who had taught him everything he needed to know, providing him food and shelter.

After getting the carriage to the back of the house, he noticed Calhoun had wrapped and covered Madame Fraunces' body in a thick blanket so that the coachman wouldn't be surprised on whose body they were carrying. Getting inside the carriage, the coachman asked,

"Where would you like me to take you?"

Theodore was going to say the forest, but before that, Calhoun said, "To the royal castle of Devon."

The coachman raised his eyebrows, wondering if the two young men were going to sell the blanket to the royal family. When they were still riding on the way in the forest, and away from the castle, Calhoun knocked on the window to have the coachman stop the carriage.

"The castle is far from here," said the man, confused as they had asked him to stop in the middle of the forest.

"I realized we are short of coins. Here they are," said Calhoun, passing the nickels to the man while Theodore got down, carrying the body on his shoulder. "Thanks for the ride," he said to the coachman.

The coachman was more than happy to receive an extra coin, and he rode away from there. The two young men headed towards the royal cemetery to have Madame Fraunces's body buried there.

After placing Madame Fraunces's body in one of the graves that was cleared a minute ago as another Hawthrone relatives body had been removed from their resting place. Theodore's face stayed calm.

The Queen had crossed her limits, and she had to die, thought Theodore to himself. And this meant he couldn't have any distractions.