morrow.”
She glanced around the room, and the workers who had stopped in midstitch for some reason immediately returned to their work in earnest.
“Oh, Gwen, thank you!” Isabel said, lunging forward and hugging her. “And I am so sorry for being snippy with you.”
Gwen was taken aback, as she had ne’er seen such joy from another woman so blatantly displayed. But truth be told, she felt so very happy inside.
“So what will our first playtime involve?”
“Wow, you have caught me off guard, Gwen. I never thought you’d pull this off so fast.” Isabel peered across the room, then clapped. “My apologies for disrupting you ladies, but I’d like to have a vote.”
“A vote, mum?” Mary asked behind Isabel’s back, as a certainty still afraid to come forward and face her queen. ’Twas a sad thought that Gwen had not treated the servants better. They had alas been tools to forward her desires and needs. She could not even begin to name many of them. Not even the young lady who fled from the room. ’Twas sad and humiliating. She was a failure as a queen. In many more ways than one.
“How many of you want to participate tomorrow morning?” Isabel asked. “Please don’t raise your hand if you don’t mean it. Please only raise your hand if you are truly interested. And there is no punishment should you decline, yes, Queen Guinevere? It is not demanded of them.”
“They are free to choose, Isabel.”
“The queen has said so. You may choose yes or not, with no repercussions whatever you decide. Should you choose not to play, then that hour will be yours, free to do whatever. As long as you do it making yourself happy. Hell, you can get naked for your men.”
Many giggled.
“What play will this be?” a lady, who did not even look up from her stitching, asked.
Gwen looked at Isabel, as she had no idea. “Countess Isabel, I am certain, must needs answer this one.”
Isabel glanced around and finally said, “It all depends on the weather tomorrow.”
At that very moment, the clouds opened up and a rumble of thunder shook overhead.
“Should it be inside the castle, then so be it. Have any of you heard of Duck, Duck, Goose?”
“As in the menu?” one asked.
“As in the game.”
ISABEL and Gwen strolled down the stairs. “Duck, Duck, Goose?” Gwen asked, with a smile.
“You have to start small with women who have never known real play.”
Gwen took a few steps before turning to her. “My deepest apologies for my surly mood back there.”
Isabel nodded. “What was that all about, Gwen? I haven’t known you long, but long enough to feel it was so unlike you.”
“You two, you and . . .”
“Mary. Her name is Mary. And she is about to marry Arthur’s first man.”
Gwen blushed. “Yes, yes, Mary. You were making a mockery of the curtsy to the queen.”
Isabel’s head dropped back so that she had a great view of the ceiling “Oh, please, get over yourself. We were having fun. It was no slight to you. We were in a contest.”
“It felt to me as a slight to my stature.”
“Give me a freaking break, Gwen. Since when did you really care about that? To this date, I have seen you only as gracious to one and all. Yet today your claws came out. For no good reason.”
Gwen looked down, then her knees seemed to give out. She sat down on the steps, and Isabel sat with her. “What is it, Gwen?”
“I’m jealous, Isabel.”
“Of what exactly? If you mean this morning,
Not exactly true, but
“This morning?”
Isabel wanted to shake herself. “What I mean is that we talked. As we always do, we talked.”
There, that was true enough. They’d talked. Kissed and came close to naked and hot, sweaty sex, but those points didn’t need to be included.
“’Tis not what is between you and Arthur that upsets me.”
Oh, excellent! Was that a green light?
“Then what?”
“I saw the funning between you and . . .”
“Mary. Her name is Mary!”
“Yes, I am so sorry, Mary. I witnessed how happy she appeared in your company, and I felt the envy claw at me.”
“Why?”
“Because I ne’er had such a friendly exchange betwixt any of my servants and me.”
“Hey, they’re still loyal to you.”
“’Tis not the same. As castle servants, loyalty is to be expected.”
“I believe true loyalty ought to be earned not just expected or required.”
“What have I done wrong?”
“Nothing much different than what royalty has been doing forever. Princess Di, was an exce—” Her necklace thumped. She sighed. “You view them as tools, not as people. Should you actually learn their names and anything about their loves and lives, you could do something like—gasp!—befriend them individually.”
“You have been here naught but two nights, and yet you have already managed to accomplish that.”
Isabel took Gwen’s hand. “The men and women who serve you are loyal, Gwen. And trust me, you could be much worse. You could, for example, be Hitler.”
“But you are not. From what I’ve heard, all who work in the castle have much respect for you. If not for that respect, you and Lance would have been outed a long time ago.”
Gwen’s head snapped up. “My pardon?”
“Oh, please, Gwen, about the only ones in this castle unaware are the dogs and the chickens. And I wouldn’t put half the dogs on the stand.”
“What you speak is befuddling. I . . . have always taken my vows to Camelot seriously.”
“To Arthur, not so much. You broke that one when you strayed on your husband. It’s a credit to him that he is forbidding those who know—and trust me, everyone knows—to speak of how you’ve broken your vows.”
Gwen stood. “That is not true.”
Isabel looked up at her. “Which, that you’ve broken vows or that everyone knows about it?”
Gwen glared down at her. “You have, Countess, overstepped your bounds and my hospitality. I request that you and your retinue prepare to leave Camelot.”
Isabel, studied her nails, which truly needed a manicure. She vaguely wondered if Mary was good at that, too. Or if Mary had a friend with the skill. “Are you having your period, Gwen? Or getting close? Because you’ve been acting PMS-y all day. Up-down, up-down. You can barely keep your emotions under control.”
“Get out.”
“Go get Arthur to tell me this, and I will most definitely grant your wish.” Isabel stood up and was at least six inches taller than that ethereal queen who had turned into a dragon in a nanosecond. PMS for sure. “Until he also agrees that I should leave your kingdom, I’m not going anywhere. Mary asked me to stand beside her at her wedding, and I plan to be there, standing with her. If you and Arthur both object, I will give her my apologies.”
Gwen collapsed onto the steps again, breaking into sobs. “What is wrong with me?”
Isabel’s heart broke, and she sat down and cradled Gwen. “About to have that time of month?”
“Time of month?”
“I honestly do not know what you call it. In my time—”
