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Winter had arrived again. Her cell had always been cold and damp, but winter brought an extra iciness. She could already feel her toes and fingers going numb as she huddled into a corner of the cell, pulling her knees to her chest to preserve as much warmth as possible. It was a miracle she hadn’t lost any digits to frostbite over the last two winters she’d spent locked away. If it weren’t for Anne- sweet, wonderful Anne- coming to visit almost every day, spending time massaging some warmth into her freezing hands and feet, Mia surely would have ended up a few toes and fingers short by now.
Her captors, either by caution or cruelty, had spent a great deal of time dragging out her sentencing. Part of her wondered if they really were delaying things so much to intentionally punish her further. Three years on, and she still wasn’t sure what exactly it was she’d done to deserve such hatred from them. Mia knew she had been unkind to Tiona Rudolvan, but she had never gone farther than childish schoolyard bullying. And to Prince Sion, she had surely done nothing any worse than be a minor annoyance- trying to gain a crumb of affection when he clearly had none to give her. Yet they both looked at her with so much disdain when they had come to list her crimes, many of which she truly had no involvement in doing (not that they bothered to listen to her), and her final fate once it was decided.
It wouldn’t be long now, she knew. They had sentenced her to die at the end of the second week of winter. Just after her twentieth birthday. Mia had spent two birthdays already within the confines of the dungeon. Anne, of course, brought her something sweet for the two of them to share together. She’d made the mistake of not eating all of her portion on her eighteenth birthday, intending to save some to last for a few meager days- only for one of the guards to smash it under their boot. They laughed while she sobbed over the remains of the precious gift Anne had given her. She didn’t make the same mistake the next year.
Anne, as she always had done, tried her best to be a ray of positivity for Mia when she came to visit. However, even despite her usually cheerful demeanor- which she’d managed to maintain through even the worst of times the last few years- it was impossible for the two of them to fully escape the looming dread of Mia’s approaching execution. Anne made a point to visit every day for those last two weeks. Sometimes she would read to Mia; sometimes she would just talk about whatever came to mind; sometimes they would just sit in companionable silence until Anne was forced to leave. Regardless of how they spent their time for those last days, it was always side-by-side, with Mia resting against Anne’s shoulder with an arm around her waist, warming herself against her beloved and loyal maid.
For her final birthday, Anne brought homemade cookies. Mia didn’t let a single crumb go to waste, and even when Anne had laughed and brushed some from her lady’s mouth Mia had grabbed her hand and gently licked the remains from her fingers. She of course apologized profusely afterwards, blushing like crazy from embarrassment, but Anne just laughed it off- although Mia could tell she was blushing too.
When the fated day arrived, far sooner than she would have liked, Anne brushed Mia’s hair one last time and the two of them shared a tearful goodbye. As Anne hugged Mia tightly, Mia was happy to have had one final act of kindness, one final moment of warmth, to hold on to. Anne had been the only one to treat her with both during her imprisonment. Possibly even for some even before that, she realized sadly. Mia clutched her diary close to her chest, trying to hold the memory of Anne’s warmth in her mind as she walked along the freezing stones of the castle. She was led out onto a parapet overlooking the courtyard, where a crowd had gathered. Shouts and jeers filled the air alongside the falling of the first snow, but it was the cheers that really hurt her heart.
As she was kicked to her knees and placed in the guillotine, she still tried with all her might to remember Anne’s warmth and love in their final embrace. However, the last thing she felt was the icy coldness of steel as it bit into the back of her neck the moment before everything went black.
Princess Mia awoke screaming. Only a few days had passed since she had been returned to the body of her younger self, and the memories- the nightmares- of her past life were still at the forefront of her mind. She would fall asleep, happy to be in the comfort of the bed she had once taken for granted, only for her dreams to be plagued by the terrible recollections of sleeping on the cold, wet stone of her cell.
Her guards may not have been allowed to harm her too much physically (not that it had really stopped them), but instead made do with torture through other means- such as randomly removing her bedding. It had been under the pretense of ‘inspecting’ it to make sure Anne hadn’t given her anything she might use to escape, but they certainly took their time returning it to her, and she would often spend several days having to use her diary as a pillow while she slept with her knees pulled to her chest.
Mia shivered, and began to realize she had accidentally kicked the sheets off herself in her sleep. A chill wind blew gently through a window that had been left open- no doubt a contributor to the vivid nightmare she’d had of being back in that freezing cold dungeon. She pulled the covers back over herself, but found that no matter how much she tried she couldn’t shake the feeling of being chilled through by the shadows of the past. “Need something warmer…” she began to think.
A small knock at the door snapped her back to reality, as Anne let herself in. “Are you alright, Miss Mia?” the maid asked worriedly, “I heard you shouting again.” Now that Mia had seemingly been sent back in time, she had decided to make Anne her personal maid as part of the promise she’d made to reward Anne for all she had done for her in her past life. She still made a lot of mistakes, as a fresh-faced and inexperienced servant, but Mia found that she had a boundless amount of patience for the redheaded girl- far more than she would ever have had before her time in prison, and indeed far more than she still had for almost anyone else.
Mia began to wave Anne off, about to make up a lie about seeing a bug in the room or something, when the memory of the embrace they’d shared sprung to the front of her mind. ‘Anne is warm,’ she thought.
“A-actually, Anne,” Mia started, tentatively, “I had a pretty scary dream.”
Anne rapidly began saying she’d run and fetch Mia something to help her sleep, but Mia caught her by the elbow of her sleeve. “I…” she felt her face flush, and she looked away from Anne’s gaze in embarrassment, “I think I’d sleep a lot better…if you stayed with me.”
“O-of course, Miss Mia! Anything for you!” Anne rose and started towards a chair at the other end of the room, intending to sit and keep her lady company.
Mia, frustrated, lost a little bit of her patience. “N-no you dummy!” she pouted and pulled the covers of the bed back to pat the spot beside herself, “Here!”
Her maid’s eyes went wide as dinner plates, and her face began to match the color of her hair. “M-m-m-miss Mia, a-are you sure!?”
“Of course I’m sure! Now hurry up, it’s freezing!” Mia shouted.
Anne rushed to strip off the robe she’d put on over her pajamas, apologizing the whole time (as well as tripping, twice), and slid into the bed next to Mia. She had been right- it felt so much warmer already. Sighing contentedly, Mia rolled to her side while scooting back so her body was against Anne’s. Her maid certainly made for a good bed-warmer; perhaps she’d make this a regular thing now that winter had come. The idea filled her stomach with butterflies for some reason, but it wasn’t an unpleasant thought or feeling at all.
The comfortable silence was broken, as Anne asked, “Miss Mia, you said you had a bad dream.” Mia grunted in confirmation. There was a pause before Anne spoke again, “You’ve been waking up a lot the last few nights. Are bad dreams common for you?”
Mia sighed, and murmured in a soft, sad voice, “Yes. I can’t remember the last pleasant dream I had.” Part of her wondered if her nights would forever be etched with the horrors of the last three years of her previous life. As much as she wanted to fight to prevent that awful future from happening again, she knew that she could never be rid of the memories of living through it.
“What happens in your dreams? The way you scream when waking, it must be awful.”
She closed her eyes, and it was like she was in the cell again. “I’m in a cold, horrible place, locked in a room with only a half-stuffed straw pillow and a thin, tattered blanket to sleep on. The smell is almost worse than the cold, though, and I’m given only rotten food to eat. Nearly everyone I love and care about is gone, and the only people who come to see me all want me dead.” It felt weird to talk about out loud, but it was also oddly relieving to be able to for once. She couldn’t tell Anne the whole truth, but it was nice to be able to vent just a bit.
Mia felt Anne shudder behind her, and after a moment she realized the maid was crying. “T-that’s awful, Miss Mia. To think anyone would ever treat someone as kind and selfless as you that way is terrible.”
‘I’m not really all that selfless,’ thought Mia (most of what she did stemmed from her desire to not end up being killed again anyway, and it just so happens that it tends to help others without her really caring about that).
“I just don’t understand why your dreams would even think something like that could happen to you,” Anne continued. Mia felt Anne’s arms wrap around her, pulling her into an embrace from behind. “And even if it did, I’d come visit you every day. I could never let you feel cold and alone, Miss Mia.”
Rather than trying to break out of Anne’s protective hug, Mia happily nuzzled in further. Anne was so warm, and it felt truly wonderful to be held by her again. She soon fell back to sleep, and managed to even have a blissfully dreamless night in the loving embrace of her beloved maid.