Hello! Here's the third chapter of the story. I hope you like it and I'm looking forward to reading your reviews. New ideas and suggestions on the continuity of the story are most welcome. Thanks again to the amazing Mistress Infinity. Enjoy!

Chapter III

Hide-and-Seek

A massive English ship sailed in the La Manche canal, revealing all its power as it slipped majestically through the water. Following her were hundreds, thousands of other ships, fully battle equipped, but yet they seemed small and plain, compared to this one, which was enormous and theatrical.

On its deck, a tall slender figure of a woman appeared. Not just any woman, a red haired woman with green fiery eyes, enlightened by her inner flame, torturing and consuming her. She was facing the horizon with a glassy expression, being lost in her thoughts, as deep and truculent as the ocean beneath her.

She broke her firm posture, and started walking up and down the deck, her movements being dandled together with the ship, tripping in the long skirt from time to time.

Everything around her was extremely exasperating, disorienting, but still she was entirely focused.

Not minding the midday sun, scorching her bare back, raising her blood pressure and making her weaker. Not paying attention to the tight corset, suffocating her, even though most part of the dress had been torn up, while the remaining one had whitened from the sea water.

She took a deep breath, trying to enjoy the thing she had missed the most during her imprisoning.

But the next second, she regretted doing such thing. She could almost chew salt and sand in her mouth, while tasting the nauseating smell. Salt, rotten fish, wet wood, and something that was supposed to be men cologne, revolved her stomach and made her dizzy.

She had fixed up her disobedient curls into 'a ridiculous looking braid', she thought.

She knew she wasn't the best spectacle, which was not convenient at this time. She was aware that her appearance was an important advantage (or disadvantage!) in her situation.

She was playing with a handkerchief through her fingers, tossing and turning it, as if she was searching for the answer she needed. She pressed hard the empty spot in her long slender finger, leaving a white mark there for a few seconds. The bastard had taken away all her jewels, including her dearest ring.

This wasn't much of a surprise. He would take away everything, your body, your soul and your dignity. And leave you with nothing. He had your life in the palm of his hand. And all the power, wealth and respect you had once had, was now gone. He had once given it to you, and now he was taking it back.

He was a very dangerous man, Buckingham. Inside of him laid an evil-minded vicious little boy who couldn't wait to reveal the greatness of his power.

She knew that now, that he was not to be tested, for that would lead to unfortunate events, due to his unstable character.

She was now waiting to be brought in front of him, as being brought in front of a judge, where she would have to use all her acting abilities, and if necessary, debase herself.

She could feel the tension rise in her throat, clashing on the walls of her stomach like the waves did with the head of the ship, as she was summoned in his presence.

Two guards were escorting her through a wooden door, which apparently led to his personal office.

And there he was.

He had sat behind a dusty wooden table, dressed in his "perfectly styled" outfit, digging into a pile of letters like a lady who can't decide her ball gown.

But she knew they weren't just letters.

She didn't need to study them, to know they were battle plans.

He shot a glance up at her, his expression turning cockish and arrogant as always when he would look at her. He started twisting his moustache with one finger while looking at her from head to toe.

And then he curved his mouth forming a malevolent smile.

"Madame Milady De Winter! Look at you. You don't look like half the woman I know,"- he was pointing towards a wall mirror.

Milady raised up her chin, turning to look at herself in the mirror.

She was truly a wreck. Her hair was worse than she had thought, her curls tangled in one another like a spider's web. She had become brightly red in the face from the scorching sun, and her eyes seemed deeply sunken in her skull.

She was boiling from the inside, but she restrained herself, instead softening her eyes and somehow looking as fragile as possible.

"It's true. I've changed."

"You? Change?"he looked caught by surprise, "And what is that supposed to mean?"

She came closer to him, held his hand and started saying in a dim voice, keeping her eyes fixed in one point somewhere in the room, looking lost in her thoughts.

"When you face death so close, you understand how foolish you've been. You realize what the most important thing in life is—"

"And what is that, my dearest?" – He had a curious tone, looking amused, with a half smirk in his face.

She moved her emerald green eyes to look at his black-obsidian ones, hoping she would enchant him. Her image was reflected back from his pupils, the words not having done the wanted effect, so it was then that she decided to use her ultimate weapon.

"Love—"

After a brief moment, he started laughing hysterically.

Her body vibrated, her mind going blank.

At that moment she thought she was lost, that everything was over, and she would be thrown at sea once more.

"You know you never stop amazing me?"

Raising her thick eyelashes, she threw a look full of mischief at the man in front of her.

"I'm glad I still do—"

"Ah, dear Countess! I used to think I couldn't kill you, because I would simply waste a beautiful work of nature."

She raised one eyebrow. Inside her, the nerve-breaking situation was making her chest pound rapidly.

"But on the other hand, I can't put my plan at risk, by keeping you alive. So what should we do—?"

"I could be useful to you somehow. You and I both know that."

"Continue—"

"I could go to Paris and—"

"Warn the Cardinal of my arrival, hoping for forgiveness? No."

She approached him even more, slowly, like a feline about to strangle its prey—

"My dear Duke— you act like you don't know me—"

She bended forward so she could support her body to his. She touched his mouth with her fingers, slowly descending to his neck.

But to her surprise, he gently pushed her back, rising up and almost letting her fall flat on the ground.

"Precisely, that's the problem. I know you too well. As well as you know me."

"The men I knew would never be able to—"

"—kill you. That's the least I can do. I can let you go, and then hunt you down to the end of the world if it is necessary. And then— kill you slowly, so I can enjoy it. But—why wait?"

He opened one drawer, and pulled out something shiny. She skipped a breath, watching it toss in his hand. The sharp blade shined malignly. And then he stopped his movements, all of a sudden adding:

"I will decide what to do with you in the next few days. All this wordplay is giving me a headache—

You can go now. Return to your—room."

She turned, walking towards the door, keeping herself from passing out, her head from exploding.

"Oh, darling! Before I forget, even now you look beautiful, in a certain way. Alas that—"

And he started laughing again.

She thought that the sound of laughter had never sounded so cynical.

And this said by a woman who knew these things.