Chapter VII #2
“I have unfucked privileges,” I explain with a quiet laugh. “It was actually Khay and Arvi’s turn, but Khay had you today, so that moved him to the end of the queue. Don’t worry your pretty head about this. We have a whole system worked out for this. Your men know how to share.”
Usually, I mean. Sometimes we forget. Sometimes someone gets jealous or insecure.
But Caliane is good at sniffing out those sticky situations and deals with them quickly, giving the needy party the attention and love they need.
Or sometimes a lecture. I’ve received two from her so far, and both were quite invigorating for my libido.
I can’t help it—haughty, patronizing Caliane makes me hard. Well, all versions of her do.
My cock tries to rise, and I press closer to my wife, breathing in the scent of her hair. I told her the truth: I can wait. After all, I waited a whole ten years for her.
Next morning dawns bright and golden. I hump my wife with my morning wood until I wake up properly, at which point I stop and disentangle myself from various limbs and locks of hair.
Khay ended up with his feet on the pillow somehow, and Caliane is curled into a tiny ball, her hands fisted in Arvi’s shirt.
Arvi drools, the pillow wet underneath his cheek.
Raduna’s eyes flash open when I get up. “Work?” he enquires in a whisper.
I nod. “I should be done by noon, though. I want the rest of today off, so that’s why it’s an early start.”
He nods and follows me up, stretching with a silent yawn. Raduna sleeps in loose trousers and nothing else, and his broad chest grows even wider when he spreads his arms wide, welcoming the day.
“I’ll exercise, then call for breakfast.”
I nod. We dress in silence, and my knight jogs out of the room on bare feet, heading for the garden. Morning dew glistens on the grass. It’s probably cold, but that doesn’t deter him. The only time Raduna doesn’t work out outside is when it’s winter, and his weights disappear under heaps of snow.
I reach my study just in time to see him start.
He has heavy weights he lifts, rolls, or pushes with his legs or arms. It’s a magnificent sight, I admit, and I’ve used it shamelessly for my own benefit.
Once Caliane saw Raduna from my study window and got visibly excited, so I railed her from behind while she watched our knight.
My cock twitches with interest, and I turn away from the window, grabbing that blasted grain yield report.
The drought last year caused me a lot of work that can’t be put off—because if I don’t act fast, my people will starve.
We’ve implemented a grain distribution roster, but our supplies are tight, and it has to be meticulous to work.
My ministers have made the necessary calculations, but I have to check everything over.
When I’m done, it’s just past noon. I call in my personal messenger to distribute my notes to the ministers and stretch. I seek out Caliane, who’s in the kitchen, going over a menu for an official visit from Queen Molly and her family.
“Honey cakes, honey liqueur, walnuts drizzled with honey, honey caramelized apples, and honey tea. Do I sense a theme?” She sighs, looking at the main cook, who’s a large, imposing Agnidari woman. “I believe we could do with more variety.”
The cook forces a smile onto her square face. “As you wish, Your Majesty. Chocolate and strawberries?”
“You’ve read my mind, Pomona. I look forward to tasting your new honey concoctions, that is certain.”
That seems to land well, and the cook’s smile becomes more genuine as she salutes.
The woman is taller than me, and when I first saw her, I genuinely thought she was a military official.
She has that air of discipline and strength.
But no, it turned out she’s an artisan chef who traveled here from the far lands in the east.
“She’s obsessed with honey,” Caliane relays in a whisper as we make our way upstairs from the cool underground corridor adjoining the kitchen.
“Summer honey this, forest honey that, honey wine, honey cake, honey chicken, and honey porridge. I can’t wait until she switches to something else.
As it turns out, one can have too much of a good thing.
Oh, Sarah! I’ve been meaning to talk with you. ”
Sarah looks harried, her eyes bright and shifty when she stops in front of my wife and curtsies. She holds a tray laden with food, but she’s not coming from the kitchen. The food seems untouched.
My mother’s nurse is an Agnidari woman in her thirties, and she studied medicine for two years at the university before she had to leave to care for her ailing mother until her death. Caliane hired her when she realized Idrina could no longer care for herself and refused to let servants bathe her.
“Yes, my queen?” Sarah asks, sounding nervous. “I apologize, the old queen didn’t have the best night’s sleep, and now she refuses to eat, and I really don’t know how to make her see reason. She’s quite adamant she’s going to starve. Um.”
Caliane clicks her tongue in sympathy and comes over to embrace Sarah. The nurse flinches, giving her a wide-eyed look. She hasn’t quite gotten used to the kind of queen my wife chooses to be.
“Have you been up all night tending to Idrina?”
The nurse nods mutely, then hastens to say, “But it’s my job. I’m not complaining. It’s just that I worry and the old queen is a bit more feisty than usual.”
“Has she harassed you?” I ask before my wife has a chance to speak.
Sarah shakes her head. “No, not at all! Well… She threatens to die quite a bit more often than usually. She’s asked me to put poison in her food, and throws tantrums when I tell her the food is safe. It’s the third tray she’s sent away today without touching a bite.”
Caliane sighs. “Let’s go back upstairs, and maybe I can get Idrina to eat this. Has she told you why she’s been so out of sorts?”
“No, my queen.”
Caliane explains about the missing brooch, and Sarah stops in front of my mother’s door, turning her wide, fearful eyes on my wife.
“My queen, I swear I have not stolen the brooch!”
“What? I never said you did.” Caliane frowns, taking the tray from Sarah’s hands. “I’m only asking if you saw it or have an idea where it might be.”
“Oh.” Sarah blushes, looking away. “I am sorry, my queen. I have heard many tales of you, and I thought—Ah, forgive me. No, I have not seen the brooch. The old queen hasn’t worn it in front of me.”
Caliane nods with a small smile. “I take pains to maintain a certain reputation, you see. I’m half your size.
If the Agnidari don’t fear me, they won’t respect me, so here we are.
But please trust that I’d never accuse you of stealing that old, sentimental piece of silver.
If you were to pinch anything, you’d choose something much more valuable, wouldn’t you? ”
She winks, and I open the door for her to let my wife into my mother’s den. To be fair, I don’t know which of the women in my life is more formidable at this point.