The prompt is: 'Love makes you a liar' by Cassandra Clare.

Your husband, the King, had decided to give shelter to the heathens. It was strange to you, since you didn't understand his strange fascination with the wild folk, and especially not with the ones he had welcomed like old friends, Bjorn Ironside and Ubbe Lothbrok were both sons of the great late viking King Ragnar, the famous shieldmaiden Lagertha was his first wife and mother of Bjorn and also Torvi, wife of Ubbe, Alfred had told you as much.

You didn't care for the heathens very much, you kept away from them if possible, though your husband had strangely taken a liking in them. You didn't mind it, though in contrast to him you were wary of them. It had rather little to do with the fact that they indeed were heathens, but you didn't trust the two viking men. You had a good sense of how you perceived people, that was one of the traits your husband valued in you.

The bond between you and Alfred had always been special. You had known each other from early adulescent age and you had grown to respect, trust and love each other, forming a very special allience that even Princess Judith honored by suggestiong you to become Alfred's wife.

Though neither Alfred nor you had ever mentioned the word ‚love' in any of your conversations the both of you were counting on the fact that the other knew it to be true either way. Marrying Alfred had been one of the easiest and quite frankly the best decision you had made in your life, and you knew that. Alfred, too, knew that having you by his side was a blessing only his loving God had brought upon him. He valued you a great deal, you were always caring whenever he seemed troubled, always open to listen and your advice though sometimes a bit surprising always was very helpful.

You were so helpful to him in fact that he, although it was common to only sleep in the same bed as your spouse after performing certain ‚duties', preferred to talk to you every night about his and your day and ending up sleeping in your chambers every night. Or maybe it was his love and devotion to you rather than his need for advice, since he did have plenty of advisors to help him along.

Whenever you did have doubts though, he listened as attentively as he could. Except for this time.

„My darling", he began and you already knew this conversation was not going to be pleasant. You rarely fought, if ever, but it seemed like this evening was different.

„I understand your... distrust in Ubbe and the others due to the fact that they are heathens, but that doesn't make them untrustworthy. Ragnar trusted my father to his death and this was mutual, I am quite sure that Ubbe and the rest of the vikings will not betray us in any way", he said as he cradled your hand in both of his, sitting at the edge of the bed facing you. You hadn't said that the heithens would betray anyone, you had merely stated that you distrusted the men, but to know that your husband thought you merely thought so because they were heathens did sting.

Listening to Alfred you flinched once he had come to talk about his father, he meant the priest Aethelstan, not Princess Judith's husband Prince Aethelwulf, which was a taboo at the royal court. Nevertheless you loved your husband and came to understand him and his religious ways, though it pained you to hear him think so shallow of you.

„Not once have I given you the impression that I am shallow, Alfred, or at least so I thought.", you began, taking your hand out of his grasp and situating it on your own lap. „I never talked about any of them betraying you, I only voiced my concern towards the men. Though they might not betray you I have an uneasy feeling about them", you had added. „And that you think me so shallow to say my uneasiness is only due to the fact that they are heathens is not acceptable. I cannot let it stand that you think so lowly of me", you added as you got up to walk out of your chambers towards Alfred's because you knew he would be waiting for you to clear your mind and return to your chambers to return to a civil conversation. You didn't mean to snap at him but though his words had held no intention of hurting you they had.

Turning a corner you found one of the heathens, Bjorn Ironside if you were correct, leaning against the stone wall of the castle, arms crossed and shoulders hunched forward. He wasn't anywhere to where Alfred had granted him to have his chambers, which confused you. The giant, or at least to you thought he was, you were rather small compared to your husband, making you petite in every standing in front of Bjorn, did not say a word, though his head and his eyes raised to watch you.

Not knowing what to do or say and feeling very insecure due to the fact you were only wearing your nightdress and dressing robes you moved backwards to where you came from quickly, feeling his eyes on you with every move.

You didn't want to pass the viking, lonely in a dark secluded hallway so you turned around to move back to your chambers quickly.

Once you got there Alfred immediately looked up at you from his spot on the bed, the exact one he had been in when you had left the room.

His eyes were big and full of guilt, Alfred had realized his mistake and wanted to make up for it. Getting up from his position on the bed he moved towards you, taking your hands in his and letting his thumbs caress over yours.

„I am sincerely sorry my darling, I did not mean to hurt you, my love. I only meant that both of us are used to the way the people around us behave, but the heathens are entirely different with how they handle things. That is all I wanted to say and I am sorry if I gave you the impression that I misjudged your abilities.", he said and lifted your hands up so he could set a kiss on them, barely letting his lips brush over your knuckles while looking into your eyes.

The reasoning Alfred held was strong enough to accept his apology, and the way he kissed you like that made up for any and everything. So you merely smiled and shook your head, kissing his cheek and settling into bed.

That had been a few days ago and though you still didn't trust the vikings completely and you never would you felt a bit more comfortable around them, though mostly for your husband's sake.

The looks the giant viking gave you though still made you shiver to your core. He kept staring at you whenever you entered the room and didn't stop watching until you left. It was scary and intense for you, neither did you want this sort of attention nor did you like it, never would a Saxon man ever look at you in this way, or Alfred would make sure to have his head. And though he couldn't have the viking's head Alfred had noticed the way Bjorn Ironside was watching you, and you could tell it was eating him up.

The King was very subtle though, you were sure none of the other people, or at least not the ones that weren't his family, realized it. The relationship between the two of you was a very proper and clean one in public. Alfred made sure not to give you too much attention or affection, it would have been deemed improper and against religious beliefs, and if Alfred cared for anything it was his religion. As affectionate you were in private you were as cold did he seem in public. Or at least so you had thought.

You had waited as every evening in your chambers for Alfred to arrive, but he was running late. It was strange for him since he usually ran like clockwork, so you made your way towards his chambers, in which you were sure to find him.

Once you had reached the doors to his chambers you indeed heard him speaking, but there were others in the room and by the voices and accents it had to be the vikings.

You weren't one to listen in on people's conversations, though you had done so when you were younger you had realized it wasn't something to keep up as a hobby so you stopped. Now you were curious though, your mistrust in the vikings and your knowledge of the fact that Alfred seemed to trust them nevertheless making you too curious to keep from listening.

„What about your wife then, huh?", you unmistakeably heard the giant speak, „If you don't love and fuck any other women, what about her?", he asked and your breath caught in your throat. It wasn't because you were in any way afraid of Alfred's answer but because of the fact that that topic was just improper.

You could hear the sharp intake of breath on Alfred's part and the legs of a stool scraping over the floor. „Who do you love, Saxon?", the same viking asked and soon you heard your husband speak. „If I loved someone it would certainly not be my wife", he said and the breath was knocked out of your lungs, your knees becoming weak and your brain couldn't grasp what Alfred had just said. It couldn't be, you were certain Alfred loved you, you knew it! But he had ever told you? „I never consented to our marriage, but my mother felt like it was the right move to make, and I agreed so I married her. That is all, and that will forever be all. I do not hate her, I could never but to say I loved her would be too far from the truth", you heard the words come out of your husband's mouth. It was his voice saying those gruesome things, but you couldn't believe it.

You covered your mouth as to not let the sob escape that you held and moved away from the door, running back to your chambers in tears. How could Alfred say such things? How could you have misjudged him so? You knew and loved him for years, how could something as obvious as him not loving you back have slipped your attention? It wasn't possible and yet you had just heard it. You tried to stop the sobs escaping you, tried to gather yourself for when Alfred walked through the doors to your chambers any moment now, but you couldn't do so for obvious reasons. Though you tried to slow your breaths and keep the tears from falling and your hands from shaking you weren't entirely successful in stopping the thoughts racing through your mind. Everything Alfred had said and done that showed affection... it couldn't have all been a lie! Why would he lie to you all that time? It didn't make any sense but yet it had to. You just needed to know what his motivation to everything was. You needed to know why.

Wiping your cheeks with the back of your hand to exterminate the tears still sitting there you heard the doors to your chambers being pushed open. You weren't ready, but would you ever be?

Your husband entered the room and you knew he could immediately sense something was off though your back was facing him.

„Is everything alright, love?", he asked as soon as the doors closed and you heard him move towards you, the sound of his feet on the floor growing louder the nearer he got.

You shook your head and Alfred stopped, standing right behind you but not near enough to touch you yet. „What is it? What's wrong?", he asked and you were finally able to turn around due to the anger you suddenly felt coursing through you.

„Do you love me, Alfred?", you asked as you gathered the courage to look into his eyes though you weren't sure if you wanted to look at him. You did so nonetheless though.

„I... what are you getting at, darling?", he asked back, taking a step towards you and raising his arms as if he meant to embrace you but you moved away, holding your hands up in defense.

„Do you love me, Alfred?", you repeated but before he could speak you snapped at him again. „Or no, maybe you shouldn't answer that, I wouldn't want you to lie to me", you said angrily. „To lie to me as you did all those years, but as soon as those heathens come into your life you're honest with them?", you asked, the tears falling now freely down your cheeks. „I've worked for years, I've loved you for years and you don't even have the decency to show me that you don't care about me? But you're more honest with those vikings, those heathens, than with me? What have I done to deserve being lied to, and in such an extent?", you ranted, catching your breath afterwards and again wiping your cheeks from the tears that kept falling.

You were too weak now to say anything more, too exhausted to even get a word out of your mouth. Like an old woman you moved towards the desk with Alfred's work on it that was standing near you, putting your arm out to lean on it, too afraid that your knees would give in with his answer.

Alfred simply stood there, not even a strand of his hair moving, he just stared at you as if you were a madwoman. You could see his thoughts racing, but maybe you were once again misjudging him by thinking so.

„You are right, I am a liar, and for that I am truly and utterly sorry", you heard the words leave his lips but you couldn't register it. A very small part of you had hoped, had so desperately hoped that all of this was just a nightmare or a hallucination, but with this answer you knew it wasn't. You grasped the edge of the desk tighter, your knuckles turning white and a new gush of tears escaping your eyes. You knew after everything you had heard you should feel like he wasn't worth the tears, but it was Alfred. He was worth every bit of it.

Alfred moved towards you, but he knew to keep himself from touching you, though he desperately wanted to. His usually tall and upright figure was slouched forward to meet you at eyelevel. „I... I am sorry for what you heard when I was talking to Bjorn", he said and alone the fact that he called the viking by his first name, though not important at the moment had you angry again. „Though I had every intention to lie, I never lied to you", he said as he stretched his hand out as if to caress your cheek, but he pulled it back again. „Lying is a sin and this is my punishment for doing so, I see", he whispered and you could see his eyes becoming watery. You didn't understand what Alfred was saying. Every emotion you had felt filled you again, making it impossible to concentrate on what Alfred was saying. „Don't you see, love makes you a liar", you heard your husband say. „I love you, I love you so much so that I lied", he added and those words sent a new wave of tears through you though you didn't even know there were any more tears left.

„I lied to Bjorn because I knew how he was looking at you, I saw it. It made me sick. You know me not to be a violent man, darling, and that is the truth, but the things I thought of doing to that viking were entirely unholy. That is why", he said as he finally let his hand touch your cheek and you realized you craved it like a fish craved water. He wiped some of the tears off your face though he would have prefered kissing them away.

„I was afraid that he would use you to his advantage, I was afraid the he would use you against me by hurting you or forcing himself onto you. That is the reason why I lied to him, and I am so utterly sorry you had to hear it. I didn't mean any of it, it is as far from the truth as could be. I love you, more than anything, I love you more than life, and I will continue doing so until my last breath", he said and that's when you finally looked up into his eyes. He had tears falling down his cheeks as well, and though he didn't look as beat up as you you saw how horrid Alfred was feeling at this moment.

And that was when you realized your mistake, when you prooved your trust in Alfred by pulling him into a hug and holding him close.

He loved you and you loved him, he loved you enough to sin for you.

And you realized that there was not a single person you would have rather sinning for you.