Chapter 14 | The Queen Who Ruled by Herself

Clever

Twenna sprawled comfortably naked atop the coverlet on Harsin's bed at the Lodge. It was a beautiful, warm day, and the windows were open. At first, she'd objected: "We might be heard." But the king reassured her that while they were indeed attended, the guards were stationed at a distance and the servants were both indoors and discreet. Now she was glad of it, as the soft breeze dried the sweat from her body and she dreamily stroked her lover's dark hair as he lay with his head pillowed on her shoulder.

"Does he like the little house I've given you?" murmured Harsin into her breast.

She looked down into his handsome face; his deep brown eyes were hooded, and a lazy smile curled his delectable lips. "Who?" she said, dragging her eyes away from his mouth.

"Your husband, darling. Does he like the little country house?"

"Little?! Harsin, Middlemont is enormous! We'd never be able to afford to staff it! I haven't even told him of it. We can't accept it."

"Oh, my simpleton!" said Harsin "You get the income from its property, too. That should pay for staff and more. It's the least I could do--doesn't even come with a title. I'll send some of my people out there directly after Neya's Day until you can hire your own, in fact I'll task one of them to hire the staff for you. It's really a pity we won't be able to be there ourselves for Neya's Day," he continued, smoothing the glossy brown hair between her legs. "Little mink of mine. I should like to take you out to the fields and fuck you like the rustics." He dipped his finger just inside, and she wiggled obligingly for him.

"We just finished, sweetheart!" she giggled.

"When you are in my bed, Twenna my love, we are never finished."

She sighed as he stroked her. His hands were so strong, and they always knew what to do. "The house has its own income?"

"Mmhm." He kissed the swell of her breast and pushed up on his free arm, still keeping his other hand between her legs.

"How much?" she asked lightly as she studied the panels of the ceiling. The Lodge must be frightfully old, she thought; they were covered in glaze so ancient she could make out patterns in the craquelure, just like seeing pictures in the clouds or fortunes in one's tea leaves. She thought she could just make out Elbig's smiling face. Nearby was a bloody sword--no, she told herself, it was a needle and thread.

"Oh," he replied, planting kisses between her breasts to her throat, "about 5,000 a year."

"5,000--?!"

"I know it's not much."

"Harsin, that's more than Shelstone and Company has profited in two years!"

"Really? I had no idea you were in such dire straits, darling, you certainly never look it. There's that little money in tailoring?" he said, sitting up.

Twenna stared. "We're one of the most successful tailoring concerns in the capital."

"Must be terribly hard to be a tailor, then," said Harsin idly. "I know I'd never do it."

Twenna began to laugh. "I'm sorry, I'm just trying to imagine you sitting cross-legged on a table with a pair of glasses on the end of your nose and a thimble on your finger!"

"Is the picture coming?"

"No!"

"See? I told you I'd never do it." He sank his fingers in further, and her laughter ended in a breathy gasp. "I'm thinking perhaps we should celebrate Neya's Day early, hey? Shall I just turn you over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, carry you out to the garden and fuck you for the benefit of the buttercups? D'you think it'd make the roses bloom more this summer if we drew down that blessing on them?" Twenna's breathing was coming faster. "Would you like that?"

"No, not where everyone should see us!"

"Why not?" He put his thumb on the little hard nub at the top of her vulva; her eyes widened and she clutched at his leg. "Are you ashamed of me?"

"No, of course not!"

He kissed her neck. "You do know that when you take Middlemont you will be tacitly acknowledging your place in my bed?"

"I--I already have!"

Harsin stopped. "Oh?" Twenna blushed thoroughly, realizing too late she'd said too much. "What do you mean, Twenna? How have you acknowledged me?"

"I--well, my ladies maid knows."

"And I would assume she's quite discreet or she wouldn't be your maid."

"Oh, oh yes."

"What else, darling?" he said, pinching her nipple just a bit too hard. "I know there's more. You are an abysmal liar. You will tell me."

"My driver wouldn't listen today--he would take the direct route to the Lodge no matter how much I begged."

"Sack him."

"Oh, that's Elbig's to decide, not mine."

"Ah, now we're getting somewhere," said Harsin, renewing his caress between her legs. "Your driver was acting on your husband's orders, eh?"

"Ah!" His fingers twisted inside her. "I wouldn't put it quite like that!"

"Really?" he said in a falsely casual tone. "How would you put it? If not you, and not your husband, who gave the order? Your coachman? I don't think so."

Twenna looked up at him in aroused confusion. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean!

"Gods, you're an idiot, Twenna--no, your husband is an idiot. D'you think I am some teenager to be led about by his prick?" he said, thinking of his son trotting up the steps of the Lovers' Temple. "I am the king. I have survived wars, assassination attempts and more. I know what Shelstone's doing. He's a loathsome little social climber who will give me his wife in exchange for money and position. He's not a tailor, he's a pimp."

Twenna gasped and her eyes filled. She tried to pull away from him, but Harsin pinned her down, gripping her mound painfully. "You're hurting me!"

"Then stop struggling."

Twenna lay still, her gaze a mixture of terror and indignation and her face a blaze of scarlet. "If my husband is a pimp, does that make me a whore, then?"

"Most certainly, my dear," he answered, lessening his grip on her and resuming his more pleasurable touches. She closed her eyes and fought a losing war against panic. "But I find I don't care. Because, and correct me if I'm wrong--" He brushed her hair away from her ear with his nose and whispered, "You're my whore, and my whore only, isn't that so?"

"I've barely slept with my husband!" she said, finally breaking down in sobs. "And no one else, just you! Only you! There's no one else but you!"

"And there won't be anyone else, darling. Some day there won't even be Shelstone. But there will always be me, until I'm tired of you."

Twenna took in big gulps of air as she tried to stop crying. Elbig had said Harsin wouldn't like a crying woman, and she had publicly ruined her reputation this afternoon on the way to the Lodge. Harsin's protection was all she had left, for if Elbig decided she'd wrecked his plans, he would be within his rights to divorce her. "What's going to happen to me?" she whispered.

"What's going to happen to you?" repeated Harsin, genuinely surprised. "I told you. You will remain in my bed until such time as I am tired of you. In return I will give your toad of a husband honors and grants commensurate with how much you please me until I am tired of him. And you will keep a lower profile, d'you understand? Everyone already knew you were my mistress. But you will not flaunt it in the streets. I will not have Ansella publicly shamed. She is the queen, the mother of the Heir, and my wife. D'you understand?" He punctuated the question with a gentle flick to her clit.

Twenna jumped. "Yes! I do! Elbig doesn't but I'll make him--I'll make him understand! I'm sorry, your majesty, I'm so sorry!"

Harsin smiled and kissed her tenderly. "There's nothing to be sorry about, darling." He slid between her legs and pushed into her. "I would never have had you if your husband hadn't made sure I'd meet you. And I would have been very sorry indeed to have missed all this." Twenna let out a long moan as he began to thrust, and she pulled her legs up as high as she could. He stopped his movements and looked down on her with a twisted smile. "And in truth, you really do enjoy your place in my bed, don't you?"

"Yes!" she groaned, moving her hips in frustration. "I love it! Please believe me!"

Harsin kissed her. "I do believe you." He began to move again and she let out an agonized sob of pleasure. "I can feel how wet you are, how you clutch at me." He pulled one of her legs fully up over his shoulder and got up on his knees, forcing her back on her shoulders with her hips in the air. He wrenched another groan from her as he pulled her to him over and over, sinking deep inside her. "I can see how close you are. Touch yourself, let me see you come, I love that."

Twenna quickly put her hand down where they were joined. From this angle, he could plunge himself all the way into her, as far as he could go. She thrust her hips up to urge him on. He filled her, possessed her, holding her legs so firmly in place she couldn't have escaped him if she'd wanted to.

She watched them move together as long as she could. His balls smacked against her bottom, his hips fused to hers, and she felt herself begin to unravel. She was helpless, she was powerless, she was his. He was in her so deeply he would always be there inside her, his strong hands were molding her to his liking, he was fucking her so hard now he was knocking the wind out of her with each thrust and she cried out and it was too late, she couldn't hold on, she fell and fell until the world dropped away.

When she came to, he was lying next to her, studying her face. His eyes beneath their heavy lids were hard, but she no longer felt afraid. "You belong to me, Twenna," he said quietly. "Not your husband, not his sponsor. Do you know who his sponsor is?"

"I swear I don't," she said, not meeting his eyes.

"I believe you. You will find out, and you will tell me." He turned her face to his. "You will leave Elbig's bed permanently, and you will both move to Middlemont as soon as the season is ended. I expect you to be there within the first week of Spring's End. Your butler and housekeeper will be assigned from my own staff." He pulled her close. "Find out what I want to know, and I will keep you under my protection as long as you keep me interested."

"And how do I do that?" she asked, suspended in his deep brown eyes.

"Stop playing dumb. It's true, I don't care for intellectual women in my bed. But I dislike dissemblers even more. Can you do that?"

Twenna opened her mouth, closed it, and nodded her head. If being more clever would keep her safe, she would work on being more clever.