“I like this proposal,” Duke Alban said quietly. “It makes sense. It is hundreds and hundreds of years since Napier IX caused this problem for all of us. Let us end what has been a great mistake. I stand with the king.”
“And what of you, Tullio?” Duke Dreng demanded to know. “Will you betray our land at the behest of this
Duke Tullio was silent for several long moments. His eyes met Dillon’s, and then he said simply, “I, too, stand with the king, for he is right, Dreng, whether you like it or not. Times have changed while we have remained static.”
“Traitors! You are all traitors,” Dreng yelled at them. “Take the law from the books if you will, but in Beltran the law will stand! No woman taken from my dukedom, even my granddaughter, will be allowed to return to my lands.”
“While I do not need your permission to remove this law from our legal books,” Dillon said, “I am grateful to you, Alban, and you, Tullio, for your support. As for you, my lord duke-” and Dillon fixed Dreng with a hard look “-do not think because I deal lightly with you now that I will continue to do so. The law of the land will be enforced throughout Belmair even if you do not like it. Do you understand me?”
In response, Duke Dreng angrily threw over his chair, and stalked from the small counsel chamber where they had all been meeting.
“I can see he will take some winning over,” Nidhug murmured drily.
“I will tell Sapphira,” Duke Tullio said to the king with a small smile.
“Our agreement will stand if she wishes it,” Dillon replied. “If she does not I shall pay you damages for your trouble.”
Duke Tullio nodded, and then standing, he quietly left the room.
“What agreement?” Duke Alban said. “If I may be so bold as to ask,” he amended his query politely.
“I need a mistress, for I have not taken a woman in almost a year now. As a man both Shadow and faerie, this has been difficult for me. Sapphira of Beldane pleases me, for she is so much like Cinnia, and she had indicated her desire to come to my bed. Of course I would not just use her without a proper agreement with her family,” Dillon said.
Duke Alban nodded. “My nieces did not please you?”
“Your nieces are hardly the sorts of girls I would ask to be my mistress,” Dillon replied. “They are charming, and amusing, but very respectable. Sapphira, on the other hand, is a bold girl. She thinks she can convince me to desert my wife in favor of her. I have been most candid with her. I have said she will not, but she was willing to come into my bed nonetheless. Tullio has not been happy with her decision, and I cannot blame him. Still, now that I have reversed the law concerning captive women, we will see how Sapphira feels.”
“If she is as ambitious as you believe her to be then she will come,” Alban noted.
Told by her uncle of this new turn of events, Sapphira was furious, even more so than Dreng, but of course for an entirely different reason. But then she said, “It matters not. He will not find her. No one has ever found the Yafir. The king will be mine.”
“You speak confidently for a virgin,” her uncle remarked. He cast her a sharp look. “You do still retain your virginity, Niece, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” Sapphira said, irritated that he would doubt her.
“But I have been schooled carefully by my mother in what pleases a man. We used one of her handsome young male servants for me to practice upon. His cock was restrained, and bound with leather so he could not harm me. And Mama was with us at all times. My virtue is as tightly lodged as a cork in a bottle of new wine, Uncle. I shall scream when he first pierces me, and the blood of my innocence will stain the sheets beneath us, as well as his mighty cock. The king will not be cheated. He will have my virginity.
“But I know how to love a man well, Uncle. I know the places on his body where my kisses and my touches will be irresistible. I know how to suck a reluctant cock to an upright stance, and how to caress a man’s seed sac until he is on fire. My kisses are said to be like burning honey. Fflergant’s daughter surely never made the king feel the way I will make him feel,” Sapphira concluded with a self-satisfied smile.
Tullio shook his head, surprised. Then he looked to his sister. “You are certain, Margisia, that she is still intact? The king will not like being cheated.”
“She is as pure physically as the day she came from my womb,” the lady replied.
“I am somewhat shocked that you would have imparted so much carnal knowledge to a virgin, even your daughter,” the duke told his sister. “Would it not have been best to wait until she was wed? You did not do these things but recently.”
“Nay, I did not,” Margisia said to him. “When Sapphira turned sixteen two years ago I saw how men were looking at her. I felt she should have all the knowledge I was denied. My wedding night was a horror because of my ignorance. I did not want Sapphira to suffer as I did. And now it seems fortuitous that she is knowing. She will please the king more, and perhaps she will win his heart.”
“Send me to him tonight!” Sapphira said eagerly.
“Nay, tomorrow night,” the duke told her. “You must appear to have considered carefully once again after the news which I brought you.”
“If you think it best, Uncle,” Sapphira agreed docilely, and she smiled her little cat’s smile. “Have my apartments been prepared?”
“I did not think to ask,” Duke Tullio said honestly.
“Then you and Mama must go tomorrow early to be certain all is in readiness for my arrival tomorrow.” Since the end of the Summer Court, the duke and his family had remained discreetly in a guest house on the castle grounds while the matter of Sapphira and the king was being arranged.
“I really think we must, Brother,” Margisia said earnestly.
“Very well,” Duke Tullio said. The whole thing was becoming very distasteful to him. That his sister had tutored her own daughter in proper sexual behavior shocked him. A woman should be taught this conduct by her husband. He was eager to have the matter settled, and return to Beldane with his sibling. There was a very wealthy merchant in his dukedom who had expressed his interest in Margisia, and had been shyly courting her for several years. It was time, Duke Tullio decided, to make a marriage agreement for his sister. He did not know if he could tolerate her in his household any longer. If he needed a hostess for any event he would call upon one of his five daughters. The truth was he would welcome the privacy of his solitude.
The following morning, he took his sister and went to the castle, where a disapproving Britto ushered them into a beautiful apartment in the south wing of the castle. There was a gracious entry chamber, a comfortable dayroom, a large bedchamber and a private bath. A small, tiled terrace was set off of the bedchamber. It was furnished with a double couch with a rolled arm at one end, and open at the other. There were pots of rose trees and other flora. The bed was hung with rose velvet. The furniture was white and gold. There were colorful wool carpets upon the wood floor, and tapestries hanging upon the walls. There were hearths in each of the rooms.
“Be silent, Sister,” the duke growled at her. “Your daughter is not marrying. She is becoming a king’s mistress.”
“She will be his queen one day, Brother,” Margisia said indiscreetly.
The duke saw the castle steward stiffen with his outrage at his sister’s words, and was embarrassed for them both. “You have a serving woman for my niece?” he asked in an attempt to avoid future shame.
“I have chosen my own kinswoman, Tamary,” Britto replied. “She is a bit older than the lady Sapphira, and eminently sensible, my lord. She will take good care of your niece, and knows the castle well.”
“Thank you,” the duke said. Then he turned to his sister. “Are you satisfied now, Margisia?” he asked her.
“Only one servant?” his sister said in an unhappy voice. “How many did the queen have?” she wanted to know.
“One, my lady. Anke, by name,” Britto answered her in a tight voice.
“Oh,” Margisia responded. One servant seemed so mean, but she would tell her daughter, and there would be time to make changes once Sapphira was safely ensconced.
They returned to the guest house, and the duke was relieved that his sister and her daughter spent the entire afternoon together chattering, leaving him in peace. His niece bathed and prepared herself for two hours. Then at
