Gianna nodded. It was complete bullshit. This hotel was built three years ago and she didn’t think anyone had died here yet, not that she believed in ghosts anyway. “It’s up to you. I mean you can sit there and hope that some ghost doesn’t try to cop a feel,” she explained, “Or you can come and sit by me where it’s ghost free.” She shrugged then took a sip from her drink.
Originally posted by i-am-222
Josh lifted an arm up and rested his head in his hand, whilst he moved his left hand out of view. “What if I want a ghost to cop a feel?” He challenged. He knew his wife wasn’t here, but he felt something odd, like he was being set up.
Gianna sat down at the hotel bar and ordered a dry Martini. She preferred hotel bars to the bars near her home because none of her friends ever came this far into the city and there was less of a chance of one of her husband’s colleagues seeing her. Some nights she went home alone and some nights she went up to a room. It helped occupy her time when her husband was away which was most of the time. She took a sip from her drink and watched the various patrons around the bar until a man near her caught her attention. “I hate to be the one to break it to you but this place is haunted and,” she started with a friendly smile, “that bar stool you’re sitting in is ground zero for ghosts.” @writingofrasputin
Josh looked up from his drink and looked at the lady speaking to him, and remained silent for a good few seconds with his mouth slightly open. He hadn’t expected anyone to talk to him tonight, so this lady caught him off guard. Eventually he closed his mouth and spoke up. He didn’t buy the ghost story, but it sure as hell was a different way to start up a conversation
“Ghosts huh? Does that mean I need a new seat? You’re not just trying to steal the best seat are you?” He asked. @gloomydaysstormynights
The President’s daily routine had now become so standard that he barely even registered that he was doing it. He usually woke up around half past five. On a good day he might sleep until six, and on a bad day he might find himself stirring well before five. But today, as was usually customary, he awoke at half past. As he climbed out of bed he turned his head and looked back at his sleeping wife. Her head was resting over one of her hands, and the other hand was tucked underneath the cover somewhere. Her long blonde hair had fallen and covered the First Lady’s face, so the President reached over and gently brushed it aside, and tentatively pressed a small kiss to her forehead. She stirred a little at the touch, but did not wake up.
“Mr. President.” Silva nodded as the politician walked past him.
The President passed him with a smile, and then stepped inside the kitchen. It was decorated according to the First Lady’s tastes, but organised according to his. All of the different foods had their place, and the pots and pans were always stored where they needed to be.
Toast, eggs and a small side of beans were the order of the day, and the President quickly busied himself with preparing the meal. As six o’clock rolled by, his Chief of Staff entered the kitchen carrying a small stack of newspapers: The Wall Street Daily, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post.
“Morning Charlie,” The President greeted him as soon as he could hear the soft clicking of his shoes against the tiled floor. “Can I at least have some time to finish my breakfast before you expect me to read?”
“Of course sir.” Charlie nodded, as he unfolded the papers on the small island in the centre of the room. “I’ve already had a look through them and I read through the top articles online and on Twitter on my way over.”
“What do we need to concern ourselves with the most?” The President enquired as he turned around to place his food onto a plate.
“China’s really hurting you.” Charlie nodded. “Washington Post and the New York Times are leading on it. Saying it’s a failure of the administration to support American interests.”
“What about Wall Street?” The President asked, nodding his head in the direction of the paper.
“They’re not discussing it as much as the others but they not being kind about it. They’re talking about a good set of figures for the market and speculating on the Budget.”
“What about crime?” The President demanded next, with a mouth full of egg.
“Mixed. Washington and New York both think that there’s a lot of positives that could come out of solid reform.” Charlie recited, “USA Today is running on key opposition arguments to the bill. They’re talking about the House Democrat’s gathering support for an amendment that would prevent longer sentences.”
“So I need to talk to Linda then and get her to start making changes on the Hill, get some key players involved and bring them in onto our side.”
“Yes sir.”
“Alright Charlie well I’ll let you get down to the office. If you can collect Peter and Samantha as soon as they arrive, get them to start redrafting that speech that I’m making about the crime reform bill.” The President instructed, taking a break from shovelling the food into his mouth. “Let them know that we need to specifically attack the Democrat leadership for their self-serving measures that are only going to cost us more in the long run.”
“Yes sir.” Charlie repeated. He turned around and left the kitchen, leaving the papers on the island for the President to read before he would head down to the Oval Office later.
The President would make a very brief appearance in the West Wing immediately after his breakfast, but he would always be back in the Residence for seven. The First Lady would be awake and preparing their children’s breakfasts whilst chaos ruled on the floor above as their children were rushing around to collect their things so that their mother could take them to school.
Sometimes, the President would have to run up the stairs and calm the children down. It was definitely a problem of having so many children that sometimes they would pull pranks on each other or would have quickly tried to play a video game instead of getting ready for school, but thankfully today was not one of the days when he needed to tame them.
When he entered the lounge, he made a beeline for his wife who was sitting tentatively on the side of one of the large couches with a large purse sitting beside her. His hand would touch the side of her face gently as he turned around and sat next to her. As he rested his head on her shoulder, he moved his hand down and worked his fingers through hers.
“How were the kids with breakfast this morning?” He asked.
“Daniel said that he wanted pancakes with lots of butter on them.” His wife explained, rolling her eyes. “And he also said that he wanted them upstairs in his bedroom.”
“You know what?” The President said, sounding aggravated, “I really don’t know where he’s getting this attitude from but it sucks.”
“He gets it from you babe.” The First Lady laughed, nudging her head to the side to knock him away a little, though he rolled back and rested even harder on her shoulder. “You’re just so stubborn and he picks up on that. He wants to be like his daddy.”
“Yeah well,” he sighed, “I wish he wouldn’t.”
The President frowned, then suddenly moved away from his wife’s shoulder. “How long until you need to leave?”
His wife quickly looked at the watch on her wrist, a present from one of their past anniversaries, and muttered, “Only a few more minutes. The car needs to leave before a quarter after otherwise we get all that traffic on the bridge.”
“I wish I could come with you more often to take them to school.” He sighed, rolling his thumb over the palm of his wife’s hand.
“You could organise a motorcade. That way we’d get more time to ourselves in the morning. Daniel has a play coming up so you’re going to need to come and watch.”
“When is it?” He asked, “The school’s gonna need sweeping and that takes organisation.”
“Three weeks-“ his wife started, but was cut off by a loud cry from across the room.
“Daddy!” Grace shouted, her face had lit up with glee when she realised her father was in the room.
“Princess!” The President shouted back at her, opening his arms up when she started to run at full speed across the room towards him.
She jumped up onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him as tightly as she could.
“How’s my little girl?” He asked her, turning his head to the side a little so that he could properly see her. “Did you get all your homework done?”
She nodded her head enthusiastically. “I did. And look, I’ve brushed my teeth already.” She gave him a big grin, showing off all of her teeth. He smiled, glad that he didn’t have to ask first anymore.
“Sweetie, are the others coming down? We need to go soon.” The First Lady asked.
“Yeah,” Grace nodded as the smile faded from her face, “Danny was just finishing washing his hands again.”
It was another few minutes before their three other children had arrived downstairs. But their mother had quickly made them collect their bags for the day and was well on her way of sending them downstairs, where a group of Secret Service agents were waiting to escort them.
“I’ll be in the wing all day today.” The President said to his wife before she left. “I’ve got some big meetings this afternoon so I think I’ll be back in here after six.”
“What’re you doing for lunch?” His wife asked, before the corners of her mouth extended into a hopeful smile.
The look on her husband’s face was enough to let her know that he wasn’t going to be able to eat with her today.
“It’s alright.” She muttered, reaching out and touching his upper arm. “I can go to day care and get Natalie early.”
“If you’re sure.” The President replied, offering her a weak smile. “I’ll keep my phone with me though. Text me if you want to talk?”
Texan English varies greatly. There is no single Texas accent. The East has a drawling tone, the west has more of a twang. All Texas dialects are rhotic - the r is pronounced.
The hw sound is emphasised. As such, whine and wine are not identical as they are in most other cases. Ie, hwine vs wine.
The sound ai is often shortened to a. As such, buy becomes ba:, guy as ga:, time as ta:m, side as sa:d, mite becomes ma:t, type becomes ta:p.
cot-caught sounds are merged completely.
The r sound can be intrusive. As such, words like Washington become Warshington.
pin-pen sounds are merged. Ie, ten-tin, wendy-windy, ken-kin, send-sinned.
The term y'all is common, most usually used as a second person plural pronoun.
The term fixin' to is used as a synonym of "preparing to" or "intending to".
Here is a simple guide for understanding the California accent, phonetics and lexicon.
Like the Pacific Northwest accent, Californian English is a rhotic accent whereby the ‘r’ sound is pronounced in almost all situations.
The vowels before the ‘ng’ sound are raised, whereby they sound similar to longer sounds. Ie, king and keen sound similar, rang and rain have the same vowel sound. Rain would not sound like ran as it would in other typical American accents.
Like the PNA, speakers tend to pronounce cot and caught the same way.
The sounds in pin and pen are merged. They sound identical around the Los Angeles area, whereas in Sacramento they sounds very similar but not identical.
Many phrases are common in Californian English. Awesome, totally, fer sure, harsh, gnarly and dude are common words. The word like is used as a conversational filler in place of sounds like uh and um. Hella is a popular word for many, much, so, or very.
Here is a simple guide to understanding the accent, phonetics and lexicon of characters of Carmel Falls who are native to Carmel Falls, Morton, Seattle, etc.
The accent is a rhotic accent - meaning that the sound 'r' is pronounced in nearly all positions of a word - regardless of whether or not the r is followed by a vowel or consonant.
The vowels in words like "Mary, marry, and merry" are pronounced the same, ie, mairry.
E can sometimes become short like i, meaning words like elk may sound like ilk. This also applies to en and in, which results in words like pen and pin sounding very similar if not identical.
ae becomes ei before a g. Eg, egg and leg sound more like ayg and layg. This can be applied to other words, like bag become bayg.
The au sound can be similar to o, meaning words like caught and cot sound identical
“I don’t care what they want me to do today, all I want to do is sleep.” Tom said to himself as he walked into his hotel room.
“I heard that you know.” A voice behind him said.
“Did you fly out early just so that you could hit the beach?” Tom asked with narrowed eyes, though he quickly laughed.
Emily put on a mock shocked face as she walked into the room carrying a large bag. “’Course not. Tony sent me out specially to help get things ready.” She explained as she carried the bag over towards a table across the room from Tom and busied herself with unzipping it and pulling items out.
“You’re not staying here are you?” Tom asked. He couldn’t see what she was pulling out of the bag and he grew slightly paranoid that the team were going to be roomsharing to save money.
“What?” She replied quickly, turning around to face him. “No! This stuff is just some stuff for your photoshoot later.”
“I have a photoshoot later?” Tom asked in disbelief, as he walked over towards the table dreading what he was about to see. He was a Formula 1 driver, not a model.
“Of course you do. You and Vitaly are both new so we’re going to show off our shiny new toys.” She giggled as she set down a replica of one of the steering wheels that Tom had spent about a week studying. There was so much on there and he needed to remember where everything was.
He breathed a sigh of relief. Everything that she was pulling out of the bag was car-related, so it was at least stuff that he probably wasn’t going to look stupid holding.
“Your helmet’s down in the paddock waiting for you there, so you don’t need to worry about that.” Emily stated, once she had finished unpacking the bag.
Tom had considered making some witty observation about Emily bringing the bag all the way up here only for him to have to carry it back to the paddock, but he figured that Emily would have some superior come back ready for him so he held his tongue. Being witty wasn’t exactly his strong point either.
“So just go to this photoshoot and then what am I supposed to do after that?” He asked instead. He was sure he’d been sent an email from Siobhan at one point but he couldn’t remember what it said. Things were a lot easier in his karting days, though less so when he raced in GP2. “Do I get time off?”
“Nope.” Emily smiled sweetly. “After that you’re wanted at a GE sponsor event. Remember to smile and talk a lot. If they like you a lot it means more sponsorship money for you and you’re more likely to stay in your seat for next season.”
*
Tom spent little time out on track in Friday’s practice sessions. The track was far too wet during FP1 and the majority of drivers actually decided to stay in the garages for most of the time. The few laps that Tom managed to get out of the car in the slick tyres. He was content that the team had managed to get some good data on the car’s current performance in the wet conditions which would no doubt be useful for the European leg in a few months’ time. During Saturday’s qualifying session, he managed to secure nineteenth place just ahead of his teammate Vitaly, which put him ahead of both of the Marussia’s.
Quite a few people had wanted him to go out and celebrate the result, but Emily had served as a voice of reason and warned him that he needed to be ready for a long day tomorrow. Tom had never struggled to sleep before a race before. Not when he was a teenager and took part in kart races, and even when he’d worked his way to GP2 at the age of nineteen. But tonight, he could not sleep.
He somehow managed to sleep for about five hours. He got most of his shit together and threw it in a bag to take to the paddock with him, and grabbed himself a can of Red Bull from the bar to keep himself awake. What would the press make of that?, he wondered.
The weather was a lot better come race day, a lot more sunshine and Tom expected the track to be hot, meaning more grip for his tyres. By the time he reached the garage, he quickly got dressed in his undersuit and pulled on his fireproof suit. He could wait for the helmet, he needed to go and get briefed for the race by the strategy guys.
“We want you to do a standard three stop race.” He was told, as he sat down with the director. “We’re gonna start you on options so you can go and get a good first stint, replace them with the primes and then you should be fine to only pit once more after that.”
“As long as I can manage them.” He observed. Softer tyres meant more grip but quicker degradation..
“We can monitor the tyres as you race and we’ll call you in at the right times. Just don’t get into too much trouble out there and you’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” Tom nodded. The small meeting carried on for a few more minutes and he tried his best to listen carefully despite the loud roar of the people outside and the people out on the pit lane. He noticed a camera peeking inside so he quickly flashed a smile and waved at whoever it was that was bored enough to want to watch the new kid on the grid.
“Hey you.” A happy voice shouted from behind him. Obviously Emily. He turned around to see her carrying his balaclava. “You know you left this in the paddock right?”
“Should I be worried that you were in my room?” He asked, grinning as he accepted the small white fabric. He also noted how she looked a lot different with her hair up in a ponytail sticking out from the back of her Caterham cap.
“Of course not. I only went in because Tony Fernandes thought you might be late.” She explained, casually name-dropping the boss again.
Tom thought it was weird that the boss thought he might be late. He’d never been late to any of his GP2 races before so why start now? “Hey, you wanna come on the driver’s parade with me?” He asked. “Figure I’ve got nobody else better to invite with me.”
She smiled, but shook her head slowly. “Sorry kiddo, have you not seen the cars?” He mirrored her and shook his head too. “They’re these little tiny Sprite cars. Look like happy little bug to me, but they’re ‘vintage’ so I’m not allowed to complain. So yeah, only you can fit with the driver. Don’t be too sad kiddo.” She chuckled, as she patted him on the shoulder and walked on by.
*
Everything was ready now. The parade had gone by smoothly and Tom spent ages waving at all of the fans who had been gathered out on the grandstands. He knew that almost nobody there would be able to name him and only a handful probably supported him, meaning that the pressure was on for him to have a good race. He needed to impress people today. After the formation lap, where all of the cars realign themselves on the grid and get the tyres up to a better temperature, he was buzzing with energy. The cars surrounding him, including his own, were roaring as the drivers hit the revs just waiting for those red lights above them to go out. The roar of the fans was almost deafening even through his helmet and earphones. Though it was nothing compared to the sudden roar that was lights out.
The entire grid rushed forward. Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus just ahead of him had a good start, but Tom managed to weave into the middle of the track, overtaking Raikkonen, he quickly passed Perez and even the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. When the cars slowed down for the first sharp corner, his steering wheel was lit up with ‘P15’. The second turn came immediately afterwards and he slammed his foot down onto the pedal to speed his way past the Force India of who he assumed was Paul di Resta. A small shiver went down his spine. How could he be in fourteenth so quickly? Surely that was too good a position for a Caterham?
But things got better, there was a sharp corner coming up ahead, and he overtook a Williams and another Force India as he broke late. The G-force from the braking pulled his head both downwards and then to the side as the car veered around the tight corner, briefly passing over the chicane. As he shifted up a gear he realised he was in tenth place.
“Vitaly’s in eighteenth,” his engineer on the pit wall spoke through his earpiece. “Push to maintain position.”
Tom knew that was a tough challenge. The Caterham was a good car but he’d more than likely never be able to bring the car home to a tenth place finish. It couldn’t compete that much. As he predicted, he lost a place to Kimi Raikkonen at the apex of turn thirteen. He had to veer to the side to stop himself from getting some wing damage at the next turn when the Lotus braked suddenly. It threw Tom off balance and he couldn’t recover from that. Raikonnen sped on ahead leaving Tom unable to ever dream of catching him up.
As he began the second lap, he dropped another two places due to some sloppy cornering, and he then spent the rest of the lap fighting with Paul di Resta’s Force India. Every so often he would see the green and white of the car in the edge of his visor, but he somehow managed to stay ahead. At least until the pit straight when he realised that the other car had better line-speed. He soon found himself down into fifteenth place with both no cars immediately in front on him and no sight of any cars behind him in his mirrors.
He assumed that that meant that he probably hold position now. If he could keep his current pace then hopefully things would be alright. Again, he was wrong. Formula 1 cars were a lot different to race than they were to test drive. And by lap seven he had a collision with a Williams. He didn’t notice who, but he could feel a huge loss of control in the car almost immediately.
It took a few seconds for a crackle in his ear and then his engineer spoke in a worried tone. “Tom you’ve lost your front wing, box, box.”
Motherfucker, he thought. He’d probably drop right to the back of the grid now that he had to pit so early. “Give me new tyres.” He shouted back through the little speaker, knowing that the pit strategy might change now and he’d need to drive more carefully.
The car practically limped around the rest of the track. Without the front wing the down force was awful. He ran off the track at a tight corner in the second sector and skidded across the still damp grass until he somehow bounced back onto the track. Unlike previous laps, he took the final two corners a lot slower to stay on track and he moved the car down the pit lane for his repairs.
As he sat waiting in the pit lane for his tyres and wing to get changed, Tom became aware of the noise of the other cars around the track, the screaming and yelling of the fans in the grandstand just to his left, and he had to shake his head to not get distracted by the odd thought that this was real, because he’d already had those thoughts enough this weekend and he didn’t need to lose focus now.
After he left the pit lane, Tom found himself in last position (although Nico Hulkenberg had retired in lap one) and he was forced to remind himself to not give up. He had somehow climbed to fifteenth earlier and he could eat least push to overtake a few more cars.
The race quickly became boring for him since he was now so far behind, but his engineer informed him a few laps later that the Lotus of Romain Grosjean had crashed and he was nearby and had to look out for debris on the track.
Tom did manage to overtake a few cars, but by lap forty nine his luck ran out, and he span off the track on the first corner of the track and banked himself in a gravel trap. Cursing as he hit his hands against the steering wheel, he was told by his crew that his race was over and he needed to retire. So much for his dream of finishing his first Grand Prix.
Things in Lancaster were quiet now that the Prince had left home. Harry always felt very strange when his father left him with his grandmother. He missed him when he was gone, even though he usually never saw him outside of meal times. The castle was so large and his father so busy that he never had time to see him, though Harry sometimes thought that it was on purpose and he would never dare ask his scary father why.
As he pulled on a small pair of brand new shoes onto his tiny feet, Harry thought to himself that things would have been so much nicer if he had a mother. Sometimes women came to the castle with his father but none of them ever stayed to look after him. He only had his nannies and now his grandmother to look after him and raise him.
“Why don’t I have a mummy?” He muttered to himself, even though he knew his shoes couldn’t answer him back.
When he was fully dressed, he left his large bedroom and walked through the tall corridors towards his grandmother’s room for their usual breakfast. The plush scarlet carpets that lined the floors cushioned his feet and made no sound of his approach, his feet were silent as he turned a corner into a wider corridor. There was a large window at the opposite end, through which the morning sunshine flooded inside, adding to the light given off by the flame torches. There was nobody about for him to tell to put them out – he could tell his grandmother and she could shout at someone to do it.
The doors to his grandmother’s room were bigger and heavier than his, and the oak was decorated with large and detailed lions standing on their back legs, showing off their claws in their front paws. The centre lion wore a large crown. Harry’s hands brushed against the bottom lion, and he scratched a small spot on their front legs before he knocked softly three times and pushed the door open.
“Come in Harry.” His grandmother said softly.
She was sitting at a large table that had already been filled with plates and bowls of filled with far too much food for just the two of them. She was wearing a deep blue dress with huge sleeves that hung at least a foot below her wrists and a giant green gem hung around her neck from a golden chain.
“I was beginning to think that you weren’t coming, little duck.” She laughed, as he began putting small portions of food onto a silver plate that sat in the vacant space to her left.
“I’m sorry grandmother.” He whispered, as he crossed the room and climbed into his seat. He made sure to keep his back straight so that she wouldn’t tell him about sitting properly at the table.
The Dowager Queen busied herself with putting small pieces of fruit and slices of ham onto Harry’s plate, topping it off with a sliced boiled egg.
“Do you want some water, Harry?”
He nodded.
“How is your reading coming along little duck?” She asked softly, as she finally leant back to her own seat and picked up a fork and brushed aside some of her dark hair.
Harry shuffled his chair closer so that he could reach his plate, and then looked sideways at his grandmother. “I think I’m getting faster. I can read more words in a sitting too!”
Mary briefly smiled. “Your father wants me to make sure you practice holding a sword whilst he’s in London,” she informed him, to which Harry almost groaned out loud, “but I thought that perhaps today we could go outside and visit the horses. Would you like that?”
*
“I still don’t understand why you prefer being out here to being inside,” Christine Carson commented, picking up the train of her dark red dress as she walked along a cleared path through the woods.
“I am going to be locked inside a castle most of my life, the last thing I want to do with my spare time is spend it trapped behind four walls,” Brooke replied, letting her hands touch the various vegetation as she walked along side her mother.
“You will be in the Royal family my dear, you can do what you wish with your spare time in Lancaster or hopefully London,” Christine countered, flinching a little at a squirrel in a nearby tree. Brooke took a deep breath; she did not wish to talk about her upcoming engagement anymore. She was tired of that being the only topic of conversation at Oxburgh. She was to be married; it wasn’t as if it was something that didn’t happen every day in some part of the country.
“Yes mother,” Brooke mumbled knowing her mother hated that. She was always told to speak clearly and speak loudly; no one respected anyone who couldn’t muster enough strength to speak.
“What was that my dear?” Christine snapped, her eyes narrowing at the path that lay before them.
“I merely agreed with you mother,” Brooke replied flatly, her tone laced with sarcasm.
“Now let’s go over again how you will act when you meet the king and queen,” Christine ordered. Brooke withheld a long, adolescent groan. She knew backwards and forwards how she was supposed to act. Ever since it had been decided she would be married off to a member of the Royal family, it had been drilled into her almost on a daily basis how she was to act. Brooke had always wanted to meet the king so she didn’t mind the lessons that much. She had this deep respect for him, God chose him after all and he was her king so she was not planning on soon forgetting how to act around him and his queen.
Brooke however had been dealing with her mother for a long time now, at least in her eyes, and knew how to shift the conversation away from that stale topic. “I had a few questions actually, if you don’t mind,” Brooke asked pleasantly. She wasn’t lying, she did have questions. Questions and fears about things pertaining to marriage. Mostly questions and fears about the act of producing heirs for her future husband.
“Of course dear, inquire whatever you wish,” Christine replied with a smile.
“I’m not sure…” Brooke paused, chewing on her bottom lip, a habit that her mother loathed, “I remember when Rosalie was born. I remember your stomach growing big and then that awful night of you screaming. Then the next morning I met Rosalie. I’m not sure however how she came to be inside you.”
Christine’s cheeks turned a deep shade of red. She stopped on the path and glanced behind them. Then once reassured they were alone led Brooke to a small bench slightly off the path. Brooke took a seat and crossed her legs at the ankle like she was always taught and waited for her mother’s response.
“I am only indulging that inappropriate question because you are going to be a wife soon and you need to know what will happen on your wedding night,” Christine explained, looking down at her lap instead of at Brooke which Brooke found quite odd.
“Do you remember when you were younger and we caught Gregory playing unclothed in the pond?” Christine inquired. Brooke frowned, but nodded.
“Do you remember what he looked like?” Brooke nodded again.
“Yes. He has a cock mother, is that what you mean?” Brooke questioned. Christine’s cheeks turned redder yet again and she clenched her jaw.
“Yes, please don’t use that word outside of your quarters with your husband Brooke, I beg of you,” Christine requested quietly. Brooke didn’t understand her mother’s reaction to this conversation. Her mother had five children; clearly she had been through this process numerous times.
“I won’t,” Brooke assured her mother.
“Now when your husband beds you on your wedding night he will stick his…” Christine paused, seemingly having trouble continuing.
“Cock,” Brooke chimed in.
“Yes that. He will stick it in your hole and move in and out of you until he finishes inside of you,” Christine stammered. Brooke had never witnessed her mother unable to speak; this heir business was more than she had originally assumed.
“What do you mean he finishes? How do you know he’s finished?” Brooke asked curiously.
“He will make some sort of sound and then fall against you. Sometimes, this act does not produce an heir and he will have to repeat the act until it does,” Christine explained. Brooke felt like she was missing some piece of information to the act of producing an heir.
“Does it hurt?”
“The first time yes, but then…” Christine stopped, color rushing to her pale cheeks again. Brooke’s eyebrows furrowed with curiosity and confusion.
“But then what mother?”
“Then…it can feel good. You could even start to enjoy it,” Christine smirked. Brooke’s eyes grew wide as she bit down on her lip again. Her mother rarely spoke of activities that made her happy, she was not sure her mother was ever happy, but this act seemed to cause her mother to feel something and that excited Brooke.
“How do you know if the act was successful?” Brooke asked, thinking that maybe marriage would not be as bad as she had thought especially if this act was meant to happen quite often.
“Within a month or two, you will stop bleeding and you’ll feel differently. Your breasts will ache and swell, when that happens you must call on a midwife to come and examine you,” Christine instructed. Brooke nodded eagerly, trying to remember everything her mother was saying knowing that it would not be uttered again.
“Does the act stop when you are with heir?” Brooke wondered, hoping that it would not even though a previous act had been successful. She didn’t want to lose the enjoyment that could happen.
“No. Brooke you will do that with your husband whenever he wishes, it is a duty of being a wife. You could be a week away from giving birth and if he wants to perform the act, you perform the act without question. Remember your first and sole responsibility is being a wife,” Christine reminded, putting her hand over her daughter’s and looking up at Brooke, “I know you will make a splendid wife dear, I have no doubt about that.”
*
“Have you heard from Lady Gwen lately?” Philippe Cooper asked his wife who was nursing their youngest child on their bed. He finished hooking on his cape and looked at his reflection in the large tray they used as a mirror.
Marigold nodded, not looking up from little Leah. “Yes, she’s well. Lord Jeremy is keeping busy at the castle,” she explained, “she said they might be able to visit in a month for a holiday.” Philippe smiled, smoothing over his hair.
“You’re a horrible liar love,” Marigold commented, still not looking up. Philippe’s smile disappeared and turned to look at his wife.
“Am I?” he questioned. Marigold had known since the first time Jeremy stayed at Beaulieu that something was happening between her husband and the Lord. It was not her place to judge him or his actions and most of the time was simply that he was still able to give her children.
“You need to mask your happiness better. I am your wife and the mother of your children so I will not say anything, but the walls have ears Philippe, even outside of London,” Marigold advised, finally looking up at Philippe and arching an eyebrow. Leah finished and Marigold gently picked her up and placed her on her chest to burp the young infant.
“Marigold, you know I do not enjoy childish games. If you have something to say, better to say it now than test my thinning patience,” Philippe advised, his voice growing darker. Marigold pulled her dress back over her left breast and stood up. She walked over to Philippe knowing that he would not strike her with a child upon her chest.
“You know what I’m talking about and I cannot control what the heart wants, but you need to start controlling your outward appearance about such matters,” Marigold whispered. The last thing she wanted to lose was her family, her children were the love of her life and she was not going to diminish their existence because her husband preferred a man over her.
“I will house the Lord and his Lady and I will ignore and set a blind eye upon the things I need to, but you will not act like a fool when it comes to our family’s name,” Marigold continued, her own anger rising.
“How dare you accuse me of such a foul act? I want you out of my sight until you learn your place in this home which is to be my wife and raise my children, nothing more,” Philippe snapped, pointing his finger at the door, “if I wanted your insane hallucinations Marigold, I would have asked.” Marigold glared at her husband, truly hating him in that moment for not owning up to what he clearly felt. She never asked for anything close to his heart, their marriage was not about that, but she had assumed he had respected her enough to be honest with her.
She didn’t utter a word as she made her way through the room and out the door leaving Philippe to contemplate his wife’s wise advice.
*
Screams echoed out of the bedroom, and for once Francis Rogers was glad that this section of the house was empty so that none of his brother’s servants could hear him fucking their master’s wife. His tongue flicked over Syndey’s clitoris whilst he quickly rubbed two fingers inside her pussy, each time causing her to yell louder. His other hand stroked his cock slowly, determined to not reach climax until after she did. The legs that she had wrapped around his shoulders were starting to twitch and he grinned into her pussy. Francis looked up from between her thighs and saw that she eyes were tight shut and between moans of his name she was nibbling on her bottom lip, her teeth left tiny marks of where they had almost broke through the skin.
“Frank, Frank!” She yelled out twice, thrusting a hand down and grabbing the top of his head. Her fingers dug through his thick curly hair and her nails caught in his skin, causing him to gasp at the small pain. He wrapped his lips over her lips and sucked hard, letting his tongue move in all direction until he could finally feel her reach her orgasm, the juice flowed along his fingers and down his chin. First he licked some up and moaned at the taste, but then he shot up back on top of her and kissed her hard as he quickly pushed his dick back inside her.
“Franks, fuck!” She moaned, as he broke the kiss and move her hands down his spine and grabbed his ass, pushing him all the way inside her. He responded and pumped a few times until he finally came himself, plastering her neck with hot kisses until he slowed his hips down.
Their bodies were sweaty and the sheets were already stained as he pulled his dick from her. He toppled to the side of her and sprawled on his back. Sydney turned to face him, her deep brown hair was a sweaty mess and her lips were puffed up and raw, but she was still beautiful. Francis glanced sideways at her and then brought his fingers to his lips, licking the remnants of her come from his fingers. It tasted almost sweet and wasn’t unpleasant, and as soon as he was done, Sydney moved a hand to his chest and rested it over his heart.
“It’s so fast.” She murmured, running her thumb in a small pattern over his skin.
“What do you expect after I fucked you for thirty minutes?” He replied gruffly, as he pushed his head back onto a pillow to relief his neck.
She giggled and shuffled closer to him, resting her head on the side of his chest to listen to his heartbeat. She kept quiet for a moment or two but then finally spoke up. “I always prefer you to Harry.”
“Can we please not talk about my brother when I’m naked?”
“Alright.” Sydney muttered. She must have been lonely, Francis thought, when she moved a hand from his chest and held onto his hips, but he had no interest in her beyond the occasional round of sex when he was forced to stay at his family home. “I just prefer you a lot more, that’s all.”
Francis groaned, and he decided that enough was enough with her already. He climbed off the bed and crossed the room to collect the clothes that he’d removed earlier, when they had been attacking each other’s mouths against the back of the door. “Probably because my brother prefers sucking cocks to eating you.” He spat.
Sydney didn’t speak, instead she licked her bottom lip and looked down at her breasts, where a small bruise was already forming where Francis had bitten her.
“I’m going out for a ride.” Francis announced as soon as he was fully clothed. He was out of the door and threw Sydney from his mind as soon as he left the room.
*
After his attempt at seducing his old lover was interrupted by the shock arrival of Prince Matthew, Harry Rogers had taken himself back to his house in the city quite downbeat and disappointed. He didn’t understand why his wife had chosen to stay in Yorkshire, but he desperately needed to fuck somebody. Two days had passed since the night in the stables, and Harry was getting frustrated. He’d been hearing rumours about the imminent arrival of Brooke Carson and that almost all of court was discussing who she was going to be betrothed to. Of course, Harry had come down to London with the intention of winning her for his eldest son, though he dismissed that idea when he found out that the King wanted her for his own son.
He found himself and his party of guards arriving at the house of Trev Porter, one of the sons of a minor house that were sworn to him as the Duke of York. Whilst he might be incredibly jealous that Trev held a seat on the Council and Harry himself did not, he knew that any questions he ever had would be answered.
“Take yourselves off to the nearest stable and look after the horses.” Harry commanded his men as he jumped off his horse and held his heavy cloak off the ground. They obeyed him instantly and turned around, the trotting of the horses hooves grew quieter as the distance between them grew.
Harry approached the gates of Trev’s house and the guards let him pass without question. The small patch of grass between the heavy fence and the walls of the house was a bright green, the leaves brushed against his cloak when it fanned out as he paced the path.
He knocked loudly against the door, and held his gloved hands together whilst he waited.
Trev was spending a quiet afternoon at home. It wasn’t often he was at home during the day, but his load was lighter after he sent the decree off and decided to spend the afternoon reading at home. Jeremy was busy with his family so Trev was free to do exactly how he pleased.
Right now he was indulging his pleasure for reading. He was catching up on a book he’d long since ignored when he heard the sound of horses approaching. Instead of getting up, he merely stayed where he was assuming that whoever was coming to call would eventually find him.
The knock at his door caused him to get to his feet, gently leaving the book behind. He hoped it wasn’t someone from the palace, the last thing he wanted to do was go back and do more work. He swung open the door and frowned at his visitor.
“Lord Harry…” Trev began having no idea why the Lord would come to his door having only met the man once or twice.
“Yes, Sir, that’s my name.” Harry smiled as he walked uninvited inside the house, briefly patting Treves on his shoulder when he passed him. The house was nothing too grand which of course Harry expected for a member of a smaller House, though he also assumed that the King’s Diplomat would live in a house with a grander appearance.
Trev clenched his jaw not enjoying the intrusion. He shut the door behind Harry and followed him into the parlour. “Any particular reason you’ve paid me a visit my lord?” Trev inquired passing by Harry so he could face him.
“Do I need a reason to visit you now?” Harry asked, thinking that surely a Lord was entitled to visit his men if he wanted to, especially if they were good looking and held a position of power.
“No, of course not,” Trev replied, confused by the Lord’s actions. He ran a hand through his hair feeling a little self-conscious because of the way Harry was looking at him. He cleared his throat trying to ease the feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Can I offer you some wine?”
“Wine would be fantastic.” Harry nodded, a small smile appeared at the thought.
He reached up and unbuttoned his cloak and tossed it aside. It landed over the back of a chair but Harry trusted it would not be too creased. “The kitchen?”
Trev nodded. “What brings you to London my lord if not’s too forward?” Trev asked, mainly trying to make conversation as he led Harry down the short hallway towards the kitchen.
Harry’s eyes wandered around the hallway as he walked. He wasn’t quiet used to a house this small and he couldn’t help but feel somewhat contained in here. At the interest in why he was here, Harry smirked. He didn’t mind the intrusion in the slightest.
“I was here for Brooke.” He explained bluntly. “I wanted to win her for Peter, my eldest son. However I heard that the King wanted her for Prince Joseph so I decided that the fight was lost. But now it seems that she’s been won over by Prince Matthew.”
“The Prince hopes he has won her over, but who can say no to the king?” Trev questioned rhetorically, then shook his head, “let’s leave gossip to the ladies in waiting.” He sat down and took a sip from his wine, eying Harry curiously.
“I am honoured you chose me to gossip with my lord,” Trev smirked.
Harry matched the smirk, and he reached out and grabbed his own freshly poured cup of wine. He couldn’t quite believe that Trev’s house wasn’t manned by at least one or two servants to do the simple things like pour wine, cook and clean, but if Trev wanted to do things like that himself, then Harry assumed that he had that right.
“Well, I am your Lord and I did think that wouldn’t be able to deny me, but clearly you’re well versed enough to avoid those questions.”
“I am an open book for you within reason of course because you are my lord, but I work under the king and some matters should not leave his council,” Trev replied, taking a sip of his wine. He rested his arms on the table and leaned forward, closer to Harry. “Anything you would like to know in particular?”
The thought tugged at Harry’s mind. If this was a discussion with an equal then he wouldn’t dare ask information about the Council, but Trev did come from a family sworn to serve him. “Does that mean that if I were to ask about this Ireland problem you wouldn’t answer me? One does hear rumours.”
“There was an incident west, yes, but I can assure you it’s nothing of concern my lord. It’s been taken care of and the matter has been resolved,” Trev answered hoping that he was at least a little correct. He didn’t think the decree was going to scare whatever was killing the king’s men west.
“So there was an incident then?” Harry smiled, happy that at least he could take that information away from this. He leant forwards slightly, hoping to somehow press for more details. “Tell me, what was this incident?”
Trev smiled, leaning in closer again. “That I cannot disclose, the king would have my head. Are you worried my lord?” Trev asked quietly, then leaned back in his chair adjusting his legs to a more comfortable position under the table.
“Well we can’t have you losing your head, can we?” Harry mocked. He brought the cup to his lips and took a small drink. The wine wasn’t the best, it was neither sweet nor had it soured, but the flavour was not pleasant.
Trev licked his lips, enjoying the taste of wine on his lips. His mind drifted to Jeremy wondering if he was going to pay him a visit tonight, he was feeling a little antsy. “Did the fair lady come with you to London?” Trev inquired.
“Who, my wife?” Harry snorted. “Of course not. She claims that she can’t travel but she somehow manages to visit her family when the occasion rises.”
He moved backwards, the back of the chair pressed against his spine and it was only now that he realised that he was still wearing his leather gloves. He began pulling at the ends of one to remove it, and looked back up at Trev. “And to answer the earlier question, no, I am not worried.”
Trev laughed heartily, feeling immensely glad he had never married. Sure it would have made his life a little easier in some respects, but mostly more difficult. He had no one to carry on his name, but he wasn’t a lord, he didn’t mind the lack of an heir that much.
“Good because there is nothing to worry about. I would die protecting my king and my lord so you should be safe,” Trev stated honestly. He didn’t know Harry that well, but he took his bloodline very seriously.
“I for one hope your death isn’t necessary.” Harry said simply. “It would be… such a shame.”
Trev hadn’t been with many men in his life. There was one boy when he was younger then Jeremy now. He didn’t have experience in reading actions, but he was sure his lord wanted something he was more than willing to give. “You flatter me my lord,” Trev replied.
Harry beamed. Of course it was what he was trying to do. Rumours about who people liked to share their beds with did circulate at court and he had heard several interesting things about Sir Treves Porter, though he was disappointed that he’d only just found out now. “Well, flattery does tend to get one information that one wants. But I see that this Ireland business isn’t up for sharing.”
“In this case it doesn’t, but you sound pleased all the same. Was it something I said?” Trev questioned curiously. He took a long sip from his wine, studying the young Lord. He was attractive, with fair hair and an angular face that made him look strong. He didn’t look like Jeremy which was oddly comforting to Trev in this moment of indecision.
“It could have been.” Harry smiled. He preferred to keep his cards closer to his chest with situations like this. He leant forwards on the table between them, having finally removed his gloves they were sitting in a small clump next to his elbow. “At least I know that something did happen, though obviously I won’t be telling anyone.”
“Happy to serve my lord in any way he deems fit,” Trev said, his voice laced with undertones. He took another sip of wine wondering if this would come back on him. If it did, he would deny it and claim Lord Harry’s jealousy was making him tell vicious lies to get closer to his majesty.
“I think you must have at least some limits to serving me.” Harry pointed out, sounding slightly amused at the prospect. Trev was extremely good looking, and as much as Harry would love to have his head between Trev’s legs, he still wasn’t sure if the rumours about Trev’s preferences were true. “Like something… demeaning or humiliating for example.”
Trev arched an eyebrow at Harry’s description of his limits. “I don’t consider much demeaning my lord. Life is meant to be enjoyed not something to feel bad about,” Trev explained. He finished off his wine and licked his lips.
“Alright then Sir,” Harry smirked, staring at Trev straight in his bright blue eyes, “tell me, what would you not do so that I know to make you do it one day?”
Trev wanted to say a woman, but held his tongue. That would be something that would get him hung. He could live the way he wanted behind his own doors, but out in the world he had to be like every other man. “Why would I disclose that knowing that you’re going to make me do it one day?”
Harry shrugged his shoulders. The back and forwards between them was quickly becoming tiresome and he wished he could be straightforward with the man, tell him what he wanted and when he wanted it but he was also much aware that it was never as simple as that. “Who knows, it could have been amusing. You could have always lied and made the game work in your favour, you know.”
“I could’ve,” Trev agreed, getting to his feet, “but we both know that the game is for younger men.” He glanced towards where Harry came in wondering about his guards. “Are your guards occupied?” he asked, ready to either be rid of his company or have a little more fun than they were having.
Harry was suddenly feeling nervous. Why would Trev want to know about the location of his guards? His fingers slowly moved towards his hip, where he kept a small knife attached to his belt in case he needed to defend himself.
“Why?” He asked suspiciously, as he rose to his feet and kept his eyes focussed on Trev. “Thinking of cutting my throat?”
Trev chuckled and shook his head. “No my lord, I thought we could try some of those demeaning activities you mentioned and I didn’t want to be interrupted,” Trev explained, walking closer to Harry’s chair.
“Oh really?” Harry grinned, already pleased with the direction that this little visit seemed to have gone in. Whilst he was still slightly suspicious and aware of the fact that he was unguarded, he felt like he could trust the young Sir. “I wouldn’t want any nasty intrusion either.”
“We’re agreed then,” Trev smirked. He took a step back and held out his hand for Harry to take or not to take, he didn’t’ really care which. “Ready to serve you my lord,” he said quietly, his smirk growing to a grin.
Harry looked at the hand being offered to him for a moment, and then his eyes moved back up Trev’s body to his eyes. His left hand moved away from the small blade at his hip and he finally tool hold of Trev’s hand.
“I hope your service is better than that wine.”
*
When Matthew Bradshaw had been the Prince of Wales, before his brother became King and his wife pumped out that insufferable boy that stole his title, he’d spent a lot of time at one of the Royal Palaces in Wales. Whilst it might have been at the opposite end of the country to the Keoaloha residence, he did find himself becoming close to the family, particularly a certain son, Ryker, and later a daughter named Gwen.
This Ryker was Matthew’s biggest ally in the Kingdom, and he was certain that if he ever wanted to overthrow his brother as monarch, Ryker would be the one that would let it happen. He had managed to avoid his brother since his return to Whitehall two days ago, even if he was certain that the King knew he was here.
His personal guards who followed him everywhere were silent as ever as he walked through the lower levels of the palace towards the Guard’s quarters, to the dark corner of the castle they called home.
“Go inside, fetch Ryker Keoaloha for me and then stay in there until we return.” Mattew commanded, the second that the door became visible.
Ryker sat on the edge of his bed flexing his hand. He threw a punch earlier at a page that looked at the queen the wrong way and his knuckles felt stiff. The only man allowed to look at her that way was her husband and especially not some lowly page.
His door opening broke his thoughts and he recognized the guard immediately as one of Prince Matthew’s. Confusion spread across his face not expecting his friend to be back in London so soon, something was wrong.
“I’m coming,” he muttered before the guard could speak up. He kept flexing his hand as he left his quarters and found the Prince waiting outside.
“Your Majesty,” Ryker greeted, bowing a little.
Matthew smiled at the incorrect address, and he glanced around them to make sure that they were truly alone.
“Maybe one day I’ll actually be King and you’ll be correct with your address of me.” Matthew chuckled, as he reached up and pressed his hand against the top of Ryker’s back to indicate that they were to walk off.
“Come, walk with me. I feel like we have much to discuss.”
“I didn’t expect you back so soon,” Ryker said under his breath, taking note of their surroundings. He trusted the Prince, probably more than anyone in the castle. He wouldn’t admit it but he trusted him more than Lucy simply because Lucy was queen and had children to look out for first.
“I’m relieved you are though,” he continued offering a small smile to his friend.
Whitehall was a bustling palace, and even the quiet courtyard that they were walking past had a few people sitting on stone benches in the afternoon sunshine. “We should hold our tongues for a short while, until we’re more isolated.” Matthew pointed out, though obviously a few things could be spoken in the open.
“I left the boy at home with his grandmother. I felt that I was needed in London. I trust you’ve heard about this Carson girl coming to court?”
“Lady Brooke yes. She’s arriving to be engaged to Prince Joseph,” Ryker informed quietly. He nodded at a fellow guard they passed by. His second in command was watching the queen while he was on his off hours. He trusted the man, but couldn’t help worrying about her all the same.
“Yes, very true.” Matthew said loudly, with a smile on his face. Had a guard not just passed them then he would never have sounded more pleased by that. In reality, he knew that the Carson bitch marrying his nephew would scupper his plans for ruling the Kingdom. “Tell me Ryker, what else have I missed in the palace? How is… the Queen?”
Ryker cleared his throat loudly trying to cover Matthew’s words of the Queen. Matthew was the only person who knew about his illegal affair and Ryker was determined to keep it that way. Once they were out of earshot of anyone and heading away from the courtyard, Ryker finally answered Matthew’s question. “She is well, anxious for Brooke’s arrival. Your brother has had more pressing issues on his plate than just his son’s engagement,” Ryker said, keeping his voice low even though there was no one in sight.
Like driving the Kingdom into ruin, debt and chaos, Matthew thought to himself. They were close to an exit that led out into the huge gardens, so the Prince led the way towards the nearest escape. “I trust they’re making all of the ‘necessary’ preparations for her.” He said, rolling his eyes at the prospect of some unnecessary ball in her honour.
“Yes, the Queen is doing her job quite nicely,” Ryker replied, with a somewhat lovesick smile on his face. He couldn’t help letting his own guard down when he was around Matthew. He knew Matthew wanted to rule the kingdom one day, but that had nothing to do with Ryker so he didn’t worry about it.
“The court says Brooke is the fairest maiden since the queen herself joined the court. Some say even more so.” Ryker described.
Matthew remained silent for several minutes. He could feel his frustrations growing larger but he knew that they needed to be secluded before he could speak his mind. He led the way through a large glass door and into the fresh air of the palace gardens. He caught sight of an open space with no servants or nobles nearby and immediately set off in the direction.
“Brooke Carson is just another walking pussy, a pawn in the games that men play in their scheme for power.” Matthew finally said. “Whoever wins her hand wins the support of the Carsons. Your sister might have the eldest son but she belongs to them now. Whoever gets their daughter gets their true allegiance.”
If he was ever able to launch a rebellion, Matthew could not afford to have the Carsons supporting his brother. If she married Joseph then they would never betray Joshua because she would be Queen. “We cannot allow Brooke to marry Joseph.” He concluded. “She must marry me.”
Ryker followed Matthew silently. He wondered what his friend had in stored for Lady Brooke and her father if he didn’t agree to Matthew’s ideas. Once Matthew finished talking, Ryker couldn’t say he was surprised. He hadn’t expected less from the prince. “We? I’m not sure how I can be of any help to you Matthew,” Ryker objected quietly.
“Are you honestly telling me that you fuck the Queen for no reward?” Matthew asked bluntly. Perhaps he had overestimated Ryker’s value in this game, in which case he had made a seriously error in telling him his intentions. “She gives you no grace, no favours?”
“This is her son we’re speaking about. Her bloodline, her legacy, you think she’s going to trade that because we fuck? Nobody except your brother can persuade her. Name the favour you want from me and I’ll grant it, happily, but I doubt any favour Lucy would give to me would equal what you need to follow through on your plan,” Ryker said confidently.
Matthew scoffed. “She’s a woman. She has no legacy. Her children do not carry her name and the only legacy that will continue is that idiot brother of mine’s.” He continued walking over the grass. The air here smelt freshly cut.
“We need to re-evaluate Ryker.” He sighed, turning around to look at the Welsh man and the palace behind him. The palace that he knew should be his. “Things are starting to spiral out of control. Joshua already has three heirs and the last thing we need is for one of those heirs to create another.”
Ryker bit his tongue again. Lucy considered her children her bloodline, whether Matthew considered them that or not didn’t make any difference. He wanted to help Matthew, but he knew the only way he could do that was by hurting Lucy and that he wasn’t sure he could ever follow through on.
“What about your cousin, the one who’s rumored to be dabbling in magics?” Ryker asked.
“I told you that in confidence Keoaloha!” Matthew hissed, knowing full well the implications it could have for his cousin if people started gossiping. “I trust you haven’t been telling people.”
Ryker flinched at Matthew’s tone, but nodded quickly. “Of course. I haven’t told a soul, nothing you tell me leaves our conversations,” Ryker assured Matthew nervously.
“Good.” Matthew said slowly. He could tell by the response that he wasn’t being lied to. He had known Ryker for long enough to know when he being dishonest. “But yes, that’s something that we might have to resort to, magic.”
“You promised…you promised no matter what, Lucy would not be harmed,” Ryker spoke up, still feeling nervous about this whole situation. As long as she was okay, then he would feel okay. Let the royals work out their problems, he could take her away from all of this nonsense.
“I know I did.” Matthew replied, allowing a frown to form across his hardened face. “I will honour that; no hand will touch her.” He hadn’t yet decided how to fulfil that promise – if he would fulfil it at all – but if the Queen presented herself as an issue then Matt would have her killed without a second thought. His rule came over Ryker’s happiness.
*
Sharp blue eyes peeled across the empty Irish countryside. A blonde braid lay neatly in the center of her back. Her hands grasped her horse’s reigns and her heels sat ready and waiting at the horse’s belly. Her head turned back at the twenty or so people on horseback behind her. A cruel smile formed on her face before she turned back around.
This will be easy she thought.
With a nod of her head causing her braid to shift slightly and a slight cry from her mouth, the crowd moved east. East towards her future and the future of those she considered hers.
Sir Charles Rogers. A man of 36. Captain of the Royal Guard to King Joshua I Bradshaw. He is unmarried and is the eldest child of Samuel and Eva. He gave up his family seat in order to become a guard. He has very few lovers and is wholly devoted to his duty.
Lord Harry Rogers. A man of 31. He became the Duke of York after the death of his father and his brother's lack of inheritance. He is married to Sydney Murdoch, a member of one of the lesser Houses. He has several lovers.
Francis Rogers. A man of 25. He is unmarried and is not betrothed to anybody. He is usually wild and out of control and has very little concern for the long term future. He has an uncountable number of lovers and numerous bastard children.
Emilia Rogers. Was a woman of 19 at the time of her death. She was the wife of Prince Matthew the Prince of Wales but died during childbirth. Her son survives and was named after her older brother Harry. She was the twin of Francis.
Victoria Rogers. A girl of 21. She is unmarried and unbetrothed.
Sir William Aline was performing his usual late night routine of patrolling the outer walls of the castle that he commanded. As the leader of his King’s expansion into Ireland, he had a duty to ensure that the most inland of the castles was safe as it usually came under attack from angry peasants, though never in his leadership had the walls been breached. In his gloved hand, he carried a small fiery torch to guide his way along the parapets, but also because the warmth of the fires provided some small comfort against the bitter cold of the night.
“Any troubles?” He called over to a nearby watchman, who was stood with a thick cloak wrapped around his shoulders as he looked attentively towards the surrounding fields.
“None m’lord.” He called over.
There was nothing unexpected about that reply, William thought. It had been several weeks since the last ‘attack’, where he’d lost only three men against the four dozen peasants, and whilst some assumed that another attack was like to happen soon, William had a belief that they had seen the last of their troubles for some time. But still, he continued his patrol as though the castle was on high alert. Within an hour, he had retired to his quarters and was settling to sleep on his uncomfortable straw mattress.
He had probably been asleep for almost an hour when he was roused awake by one of his stewards.
“M’lord, one of the farms is ablaze.” The annoyingly squeaky boy exclaimed, as he tried to rouse Sir William with only his voice instead of the usual method of nudging him.
“What in God’s name are you telling me for, boy?” William growled. “Send out a patrol and piss off.”
“We, we already did m’lord.” The useless boy replied nervously. “Only one returned and he said it was an attack.”
That was enough in itself to open William’s eyes. The last time the castle had been attacked, the raiders had butchered local cattle and set some farms alight, so naturally this news startled him. “Pass me my furs.” He ordered, as he rolled over in bed and clicked his fingers in what he thought was the direction of his clothes.
“Furs, m’lord?”
“Furs, furs boy!” He shouted, as he decided that this imbecile wasn’t fit for purpose and that if there was an attack, he would be glad to see him be killed. “Are you retarded or just stupid? Pass me my cloak!”
The fool almost tripped over his feet as he half ran across the room to grab William’s cloak, and in his nervous state he almost threw it on top of him. “I’ll be outside m’lord.”
In his hurry to get out of bed and get dressed, William didn’t even bother to correct the idiot. He was no lord but he’d probably have enough money to buy his own lordship if he had a gold coin for every time he’d told the boy he was no lord. Within a few minutes he was fully dressed and had his sword hanging from his hip as he marched quickly out of his chamber, grabbing another lit torch as he stepped outside. As he hopped down some stairs, he looked in the direction of the nearest wall and could clearly see a bright orange glow in the distance. He took in a deep breath and noticed a distinctive smell of burning flesh.
“Get up you sons of whores!” He shouted at the absolute top of his lungs, intending to wake up every man in the castle. He might have been paranoid that this was a serious attack, but he would rather rouse the whole castle for the sake of a small farm fire than have all the men sleep through a siege.
It was just as he reached the gates of the main barracks off the courtyard that the first body fell from the walls above him with a scream, until a sickening crack silenced him. By now a small group of half-awake soldiers were working their way into the sodden courtyard, all with looks of confusion on their face at the bloody and broken body sprawled in front of William, with two arrows protruding from his chest and another through his neck.
Their confusion turned into panic when another body fell from the walls, followed quickly by another. Just as William bellowed an order to draw swords and run for the gate, a blinding orange glow blinded them all, as a large boulder covered in searing flames landed in the middle of the yard and exploded.
Part One
“Tighter,” Lucy ordered, her hands placed firmly on her flat stomach. Elida, who was always chosen to tie the Queen’s corsets because of her small hands, looked over at Gwen who stood a few feet away watching. Gwen nodded. Elida took a deep breath and tied the left side of the corset tighter as per the Queen’s request.
Lucy’s breath sharpened drastically causing her to grip her bedpost harder. The wood felt smooth against her hands, the spiral design allowing her fingers to grasp on firmly as the corset constricted her ribs.
“It has been said, Your Majesty, that the Lady Brooke does not wear a corset,” Gwen spoke aloud, her eyes moving back to the Queen having been distracted by the sunlight pouring in through the large windows.
“I doubt that, she is a Carson. Her father could store food for a whole village in that gut of his and the only reason your husband is small is because he is a soldier,” Lucy explained, “She’s fresh meat that is all this is.” Elida finished and stepped back awaiting to see if she’d done her job correctly.
Lucy let go of the bed post and stepped back, staring at her small reflection in the large, oval metal disk that served as her mirror.
“You may go Elida,” Lucy said blankly, satisfied with the young girl’s work. Elida nodded then the room quickly, causing a loud slamming sound to come from the door of Lucy’s room.
“Will she be fresh royal meat Your Majesty?” Gwen pondered, taking the Queen’s dark teal dress off its hook. She hung it gently over her left arm and walked towards Lucy.
“Yes. I have faith that my husband will secure her for Joseph; when he wants something, he acquires it,” Lucy explained as Gwen helped her into the dress.
“And what about Prince Matthew? He wants her as well,” Gwen inquired her tone quieter than before. Lucy smirked faintly and only for a moment. In the next moment, it was gone and replaced by her usual slight scowl.
“Matthew will try and Matthew will fail as he always has,” Lucy replied. Gwen put the finishing touches on Lucy’s dress silently, then stepped back to allow the Queen to look at herself.
“Shall I call for Princess Amelia to finish your hair, Your Majesty?” Gwen volunteered, motioning towards the door.
“Yes, but tell her to come back in an hour’s time,” Lucy instructed. Gwen looked at Lucy for a long moment then nodded and walked towards the door. She did not slam it as Elida had, but closed it as gently as possible.
Lucy walked over to the window and saw her youngest, Brittanie, playing outside with one of their many dogs. Lucy couldn’t tell which dog it was but her daughter was laughing which made Lucy smile. A gentle knock, barely above a whisper, could be heard caused Lucy to walk briskly towards the door. She smiled again and opened the door slightly. She stepped back anxiously allowing the owner of the knock to enter.
A man with stunning blonde hair, standing just taller than her husband and wearing full guard’s attire stepped in. He closed the door behind him and stood facing the Queen. His eyes scanned her as if he’d known her all his life; they stopped over her curves lingering on her breasts for longer than socially acceptable for a man in his position.
“Are we clear?” Lucy asked quietly. The man nodded, unable to hold back his smile any longer.
“Cedric is outside and he knows his orders,” the man answered. After hearing his response, Lucy rushed towards him and pressed her body against his, cupping his face with her hands.
“I’ve missed you terribly,” she whispered. His hands found their way to her waist, pulling her closer still.
“Haven’t left your side,” the man pointed out with a smirk. She smiled in response before leaning up and kissing him gently, mostly resting her lips on his. She let go of his face and began taking off the armor he wore every day.
“We have an hour before Amelia shows up,” Lucy informed him quickly, her fingers stumbling over the complicated armor. He nodded, smiling at her inability to remove his clothing.
“Your Majesty, with all due respect …” he started then simply grabbed her hands and brought them up to his lips. He kissed each finger gingerly.
“Allow me,” he interjected and let go of her hands. He took a step away from her and began removing his armor. Lucy walked back over to the window to watch Brittanie again. Her mind shut down when she watched her children. At times, they were the only calm aspect of her life.
The man walked over once he was down to his underclothing and wrapped his arms around her middle. He kissed her shoulder then rested his chin on it.
“She’s perfect,” the man whispered. Lucy smiled, bringing a hand up to the man’s head and brushing his hair softly.
“She’ll grow up to be a queen they’ll talk about for centuries,” Lucy replied then turned around in his arms. She didn’t like to discuss her children with anyone who was not their father. It felt more like a violation of her marriage than sex with other men did.
“Are you a man they’ll talk about for centuries Ryker?” Lucy asked, arching an eyebrow at him “Is that glowing cock you have something they’ll tell little girls to watch out for?” Ryker grinned and picked Lucy up without warning. She wrapped her legs around his waist, sliding her hips against his crotch.
“Sounds like a challenge Your Majesty,” Ryker chuckled, walking her back towards her bed. Lucy bit her lip and moved her hand up into his hair, grabbing onto it firmly.
“Consider it your royal duty to prove it to me,” Lucy taunted before Ryker threw her back onto the bed. She crawled backwards a bit so her back rested against the pillows. Ryker pulled off his pants and then his shirt, tossing them on the floor. He watched, mouth open, as Lucy pulled her dress slowly up her legs revealing what he had been thinking about since waking up this morning.
“Anything for the Queen,” Ryker grunted, crawling onto the bed himself. He covered Lucy’s small frame with his larger one and looked down at the woman he’d loved since she became his Queen. He touched her brown hair softly then moved his hand down to her chest, undoing her dress enough to gain access to her breasts.
“Not everything,” Lucy whispered, shifting on the bed. Ryker paused and took a deep breath. He looked up and nodded. He gripped Lucy’s right breast tighter before kissing down the front of her dress towards her thighs and burying his head between them with a passion he reserved only for her.
*
His lungs burned as young Darien ran through the trees at top speed. Twigs snapped beneath him and small critters darted out of his way. He was huffing and puffing glad that the sun was hidden behind a cloud and wasn’t beating down on him. Part of him was worried he was going to mess this important job up. Sometimes he stuttered over his words, one too many lashings he thought, but now was not the time to not be able to speak clearly.
Darien picked up his face weaving in and out through the trees. He hadn’t been out in the forest for a few months at least. It had been only to follow the Prince as he took a young lady of the court out to do things Darien dare not repeat. He pushed that memory out of his mind as he finally heard voices. He recognized the king’s loud voice and tensed up. This was it, now or never. With a deep breath, he sprinted the rest of the way down a slight hill towards a small clearing where the hunting party was.
Once he reached the group, he opened his mouth to shout then thought better of it when he saw that they were in the middle of something. He took the moment to catch his breath and waited for the right time.
King Joshua was sitting straight backed on top of his large black horse, glaring down at the peasant kneeling before him. “Did the fact that these lands are a Royal Forest escape your stupid mind?” He yelled down at the man, who looked close to tears. He let out an exasperated sigh and turned around to face his son.
“Joseph, why don’t you explain to him the illegality of his actions?”
Jeremy had been sitting on his horse; feeling very relaxed and enjoying the verbal lashing the King was giving the unfortunate peasant. Equally unfortunate was the young page had run towards them who wore a look similar to the peasants’ of pure fear. He sensed something bad had happened but knew how his majesty liked to punish those who disobeyed him.
He turned his head to look at the young prince who had an unreadable look on his face. He wore his mother’s infamous scowl but his eyes always told a different story. “No peasant nor slave nor common man may hunt in the royal forests. Any criminal caught breaking said law will be punished by losing either his hands or his eyes,” Joseph recited loudly. His heart had jumped into his throat hoping he’d pleased his father. He felt pity for the poor man, but laws were laws for a reason.
“Your Majesty,” Jeremy interjected after the Prince spoke up, “it appears we have an uninvited guest with news so when you’re finished handing out justice, we should find out what the young page has to say.”
The King looked at his heir with pride, pleased that his recent studies of laws seemed to have paid off. He gave him a small nod of gratitude for the display and then turned to face Jeremy, whose own father had recently pencilled and amendment to that law. “Alright.” He muttered, before he finally turned back to face the peasant.
He gave the reigns of his horse a small tug and led the horse in a slow trot around the man. “Tell me, what would you rather lose?”
“My, my King, I never meant…” The peasant tried to plead, though his words were choked behind a small sob as tears finally started to roll, just in time for the King to fully circle him, who let out a loud laugh at the sight of the man crying.
“Tell me Lord Jeremy, is this man crying?”
“He is your Majesty, almost resembling my young daughter. Actually sounds a bit like her as well,” Jeremy chuckled, “I think you’ve found a toddler masquerading as a grown man your Majesty.” Jeremy glanced back at the page who was looking anywhere but up at the action. Lad needed to grow a stomach for this sort of thing if he wanted to work in the palace. He cleared his throat causing the lad to look up.
“Might want to pay attention page,” Jeremy advised loud enough so only the lad would hear.
Josh’s laugh bellowed through the trees again, and this time he trotted his over to another of his chief guard, Sir Charles Rogers, and took the small torch from his hands as he felt a sickening thought creeping through his mind. “Jeremy, put your knife in this, I think we should be nice to the chap and stop his tears, don’t you?”
“Good idea your Majesty,” Jeremy agreed, pulling out his favorite dagger. He clicked his heels against his horse and trotted over to Joshua. Joseph watched, gulping every few minutes and glancing at the man who was about to lose his eyes. He looked back towards the page who he thought was named Daniel or Tristan or something and felt pity for him as well. His mother’s voice told him that he shouldn’t feel sorry those he would rule over one day; they were going to be lucky to have him looking out for him.
Once the blade was nice and hot, Jeremy offered the dagger to the King. “Would you like to do the honors your Majesty?”
“Why?” Josh asked, sounding offended. “Are you too coward to do it yourself?”
Jeremy had to take a deep breath not to snap at his king. He liked Joshua as a man and as a king, but he had his downfalls just like everyone else. “You know I love taking a good eye, I’d take his manhood right now if you asked me to. I was merely being polite Your Majesty,” Jeremy reasoned then took the dagger back fully and hopped off his horse with ease.
A deadly smirk formed on his lips as he walked towards the trembling man. “Take one last look at the world peasant,” Jeremy advised before stabbing the man bluntly in the eye. He’d blinded enough men to know how to do it without killing them. The man’s screams ripped through the forest tearing the young prince up inside.
The smirk grew and Jeremy stabbed the other eye as the warm blood gushed onto Jeremy’s hand. He pushed the screaming peasant down onto the grass and walked back towards the group. “Think I was a bit rusty Your Majesty. Should’ve stretched,” Jeremy joked, walking over to the page. He wiped his knife on the lad’s back then pushed him towards the king.
Josh watched the punishment with a grotesque grin on his face. He wasn’t sure what he liked better than blood other than fucking his Queen, but the sight of Jeremy slicing into the man’s skull was intensely satisfying. He extended his arm towards Sir Charles so that the knight could take back the torch from him, and finally hopped off his horse to inspect the writhing mess on the ground.
“Would you care to stop the screaming?” Josh growled as he kicked the man in the leg when he approached him, wishing the screams would stop. “You’re going to scare away the game we’re hunting.” Even so, he knelt down beside him to inspect the damage.
“Fascinating.” He muttered, as he reached out and pressed a finger to the man’s blood-soaked cheek. “You’re too good at that Jeremy.”
“I’m flattered Your Majesty,” Jeremy remarked with a grin. He crossed his arms across his chest and rocked back on his heels. He looked toward the page then up to Joseph who looked a bit paler than before.
“Father, there’s still the page…Daniel?” Joseph announced, looking at the page.
“Darien, Your Majesty, thank you,” Darien corrected quietly, bowing a little. He stood limply, waiting to be told to say his news. He didn’t want to lose his tongue for speaking out of turn.
“Oh, right, yes.” The King muttered, as he returned to his feet and made his way back to his horse. “Tell me boy, what news brought you here?”
“Your Majesty…Clonony Castle has been attacked. They’re believed to be dead Your Majesty, all of them,” Darien stated, particularly proud he didn’t stutter although the news wasn’t good. He stepped back as he knew was his place and waited for further instruction.
Joseph gripped the reins of his horse tighter and looked to his father. He wanted to say something knowing how hard he’d worked on getting that colony established but knew that it would only hurt him.
The grin disappeared from Jeremy’s face and he ran for his horse. He got on and prepared to race back to the palace, just awaiting orders from his king.
The King groaned loudly, and suddenly unsheathed his longsword and plunged it through the chest of the peasant who had still been fumbling on the ground. A loud snapping sound broke the silence, followed only by Joshua’s angry breathing. If he remembered correctly, that was one of the most advanced castles in Ireland and was to have been key in his conquest.
“We’re going back to Whitehall.” He eventually said, as he looked between the small party, daring any of them to question him.
Joseph tried not to wince when his father stabbed the man. He took a deep breath and waited for someone to move first. He looked over to Lord Jeremy who looked just as angry. Jeremy let out a loud grunt and started his horse moving, quickly at a fast pace.
The page moved out of the way sensing the whole group would charge back. He glanced towards the dead body and said a silent prayer for the man who was most likely just trying to eat.
No sooner than Jeremy had set off on his horse, the King was back on his and ushered the Prince off in front of him. “Summon the Council!” He bellowed, hoping that Carson would hear him. At the pace that Jeremy’s horse galloped, King Joshua knew he’d be back at the Palace first.
*
“Do you think Lady Brooke will like me?” Melanie asked, not looking up from the stitch work she was threading carefully. It was raining outside which caused a pleasant sound inside the palace walls. Lucy enjoyed days like this; days when the world seemed to stop just for her family.
“Melanie, you are a princess. She will pretend to worship the ground you walk on,” Lucy stated bluntly. She couldn’t understand why her eldest daughter still had that need to have people lower than her admire her. It was trait that worried Lucy more than anything else about her daughter. It didn’t matter what the common people thought of her, she wasn’t going to be a queen. She was going to be someone’s wife and then someone’s mother, what mattered was living up to those obligations more than having other, less important people like you.
“I don’t want pretend admiration Mother,” Melanie objected quietly. Lucy let out a frustrated breath and got to her feet. Brittanie was her joy. Brittanie had her mother’s wits and her father’s charisma. She knew how to use herself to get exactly what she wanted. Melanie however used her heart and Lucy wished she would ignore it.
“If you want Lady Brooke to like you, then you must act like a princess. No more of this befriending servants or kissing stable boys…no I did not tell your father about that indiscretion. You want her to like you? Make her respect you first Melanie. Respect cannot be earned with your recent actions,” Lucy advised, walking over to the window. She watched the water hit the river and smiled to herself, knowing she’d struck a nerve with her daughter.
“Yes Mother,” Melanie answered obediently. The large doors to the Vane Room opened and Ryker stepped in. He bowed for a moment then looked up at the Queen.
“Your Majesty, Princess Brittanie and Prince Joseph are here for tea,” Ryker announced. Lucy nodded, not looking at Ryker for a moment longer than needed.
“Send them Sir Ryker,” Lucy ordered then made her way over to a small table where she would enjoy her tea. Melanie looked over at Ryker who gave her a quick wink then walked back through the doors. Melanie smiled and set her stitch work down. She got to her feet as her twin brother and younger sister entered the room. The doors shut as Brittanie made her way over to her mother. Lucy beamed and hugged her daughter close.
Joseph walked straight for the table and sat down, staying abnormally quiet. Melanie took her seat next to her brother and waited patiently for her mother. “How were your lessons little love?” Lucy asked, smoothing over Brittanie’s dark curls.
“Tiresome,” Brittanie answered honestly causing Lucy to laugh a little.
“And how was the hunt Joseph?” Lucy asked, walking Brittanie over to her seat. Once her daughter was settled, Lucy took her seat at the slight head of the table. She placed her napkin in her lap and waited for the tea to arrive.
“We didn’t kill any animals. A page came and told us the castle had been taken in Ireland,” Joseph admitted, meeting his mother’s gaze. Lucy’s expression didn’t change, but she fought the urge to get up and find Josh. He would be upset and he needed someone calm around him to make sure he didn’t kill too many innocent people.
“That’s awful. Was anyone hurt?” Melanie asked.
“No dear sister, an army took the castle and let every person live,” Brittanie replied sarcastically.
“Brittanie, I will not have that low humor in this household, do you understand?” Lucy snapped, her head calmly turning to look at her youngest. Brittanie nodded delicately as she folded her napkin in her lap.
A servant from the kitchen came through the servant’s entrance carrying a tray which held their tea.
“Joseph thank you for the news, but it is not appropriate tea conversation. We should discuss Lady Brooke’s visit and how you will entertain our guest while she’s here,” Lucy informed. Melanie looked to her twin brother who had lost a shade of his color.
“I don’t quite know what you mean Mother,” Joseph admitted as the servant started setting up the tea.
“Darling, even though you are going to be married, you still must be a gentleman to her. I don’t wish you two to only meet on your wedding. Marriage bonds are tighter when the man and his wife can relate on something,” Lucy explained, “she is going to be your queen someday and you cannot let your enemies break up that bond that will form between you two.”
Joseph stayed quiet as the servant poured tea for the Queen first, then the Prince, then his two sisters. He finally spoke up when she finished, nodding his gratitude for her. “Lord Oliver mentioned wanting to introduce Lady Brooke to the court correct?” Joseph inquired. Lucy took a sip of her tea and didn’t answer Joseph.
“We…I should throw her ball to formerly introduce her to the court,” Joseph explained, a smile lighting up his face. Lucy set her tea down and looked at her son for a long moment.
“That’s a bit more public than I was thinking, but it is a good start my love. Melanie will help you plan it and then upon Lady Brooke’s arrival, Melanie and I will have a dress made just for that occasion. I doubt she owns anything royal enough for a ball at court anyway,” Lucy replied. She took another sip of her tea, wondering if her son was going to be able woo a young lady or if he was only able to woo whores.
“He should take her on a walk through the garden,” Brittanie suggested, putting a biscuit on her plate. Lucy smiled and nodded.
“Yes that would be lovely. You could learn something from your sisters Joseph,” Lucy advised, “I know it is not your father’s most pressing issue, but if you feel helpless with your Lady you can ask him.” Lucy hoped Joseph would not enlist his father’s help with Brooke. This was something that was in his blood and he needed to address it himself. Her mind wandered back to the King and she knew she should go and check on him.
“Melanie, help your sister with her Latin and Joseph I expect you to be down in the garden for archery despite the rain,” Lucy ordered. She got to her feet and within seconds all three children did as well. She nodded at them then walked briskly to the door. She knocked once and it opened revealing Ryker awaiting her orders.
“I need to see the King. Send a page to tell him I’ll be to our room shortly,” Lucy ordered then left the room heading to her private quarters.
*
The council meeting had gone on for most of the afternoon, and Joshua eventually got so bored with the petty arguments over what needed to be done with Ireland that he sent everyone away with the instruction to not return until they could agree on what to do. As he marched his way through the grand corridors of Whitehall Palace, he kept thinking how curious it was that this castle seemed to have fallen so suddenly. It was one of his best castles in Ireland and had one of the largest barracks with supposedly top soldiers. It sounded to him like something was amiss but he wasn’t sure how he needed to pursue it.
As was his usual hunting custom, he had a whore waiting for him in is private chambers. Not that the Queen wasn’t great in the bed, there was something more raw about a whore that made a perfect end for a hunt for the King. As he pushed open the heavy oaken doors to his room, he turned to face his squire, a young lad from some minor house to the east somewhere. “You know what to do boy.” He said quickly, before he walked inside and closed the doors silently.
He didn’t even look at the whore who was perched on the end of his large bed, instead he walked across the room and unbuttoned his heavy scarlet cloak, tossing it loosely against the back of a chair.
“Which one are you?” He asked half-curiously, squinting across the room at the brunette.
“Anna, Your Majesty,” the young brunette spoke up quietly. She arched her back a little more, trying to emphasize her smaller chest. Biting her lip, she watched her king undress and ignored the butterflies in her stomach.
“Anna.” Josh repeated, as he began to fiddle with the clasps that held his shirt together to expose part of his chest.
He finally crossed the room and reached out to brush away her hair from her shoulders. Her skin was pale and Joshua almost wondered if she was frightened of him. “This isn’t gonna happen to you ever again.” He whispered, as he crouched down and kissed the skin above her collarbones. “So if I were you, I’d enjoy it.”
Anna licked her lips and closed her eyes as the king kissed her skin. It felt like a dream and hearing the king’s order, she would attempt to enjoy it. “Yes your majesty,” she whispered, leaning back on her hands so he could remove her clothing at his leisure.
Joshua leant forwards and moved a hand around to her back, tugging at the seams of her short dress to yank it past her shoulders. When he’s exposed her breasts he took hold of one in his other hand and slowly massaged and squeezed at the small flesh. He could feel his dick twitching in his trousers, so he quickly pushed the whore back onto the soft sheets.
“Take off your dress.” He ordered, as he shook off his shirt and then knelt down to quickly remove his shoes.
Anna let out a soft moan when he touched her chest. She almost lost herself in the moment until he ordered her dress off. She propped herself up enough to do as he ordered. Her eyes looked around the room once more knowing it was the last time she’d be in this royal of a room and it would be over within a few minutes. She tossed her dress further down the bed and lay back, spreading her legs apart.
Joshua watched her keenly and he even licked his lips in anticipation when she spread her legs, even though the Queen’s cunt looked better he knew that he would enjoy this whore.
“Unbutton my trousers.” He muttered slowly, as he reached out and grabbed the whore’s hand and pulled it towards his stomach.
Reaching up enough to unbutton his trousers, her fingers grasped the button and pulled it loose with a playful smile. Her hand moved down to his dick and she opened her mouth further wondering what exactly the king wanted from her. “It’s the biggest I’ve seen Your Majesty,” she admitted dishonestly, arching her back a little.
They were the words that the King wanted to hear, and no sooner than she had released his dick he shook his trousers down to his ankles and stepped out of them so that he could climb onto the bed besides her. Not wanting to see her face, he quickly rolled her over and trailed a hand down the length of her back, before he forced his hand between her legs and pushed two fingers inside her, teasing her in an attempt to make her wet.
Anna closed her eyes after the king flipped her over. She moaned louder when he touched her, turning her head to the left and picking a spot on the sheets to look at. She always did this when she was working; she thought it helped when times became unpleasant. She moaned again, lifting her ass up a little hoping he wouldn’t bruise her too badly.
The King’s dick started to throb painfully, and Joshua knew that he needed to just fuck her quickly and get it over with. His more animalistic nature was starting to take hold, so he quickly lifted her leg to reveal her cunt again. He didn’t say a word nor give her any warning; he just shuffled a little closer and guided his dick to her entrance before he slid it inside in a smooth movement.
He started to develop a steady rhythm and already he could feel the stress of the hunt and the meeting leave him as he took up pace. She was tighter around him than some of the whores he’d fucked, but as he wrapped an arm around her stomach and reached up to cup her breasts, he remembered why.
Anna let out a pleasure filled scream when he entered her and immediately began following his lead and moving her hips as he wanted. She moaned and held onto the head-board as best she could, still looking at that spot on the sheets. Sometimes she faked that intense moment of pleasure with her customers because they needed her to, but she didn’t get the feeling the king cared so she didn’t bother.
“Harder,” she moaned, wondering whether she’d get hit for ordering the king around even if it was during sex.
For once Joshua didn’t mind being told what to do, but he punished the whore a little by grabbing the back of her hair and leaning over her slightly, forcing his weight onto her hips. He let out a gruff groan at the sudden depth it gave him inside her.
Anna bit down her lip to hold back yelping a little. She was used to pain, but it was hard to not initially react to it. She swallowed hard, and then let out a pleasure filled moan hoping the king was enjoying himself inside her.
The King pulled his dick out of her, as an idea formed in his head to really take out his hunt stress. Grabbing her by the hips, he flipped her over so that she was lying completely on her front and he knelt over her ass. He slowly pushed his dick back in her pussy slowly and then gripped her hair tightly and pulled back her head, matching the aggression with a deeper and more vigorous pace.
Closing her eyes, Anna forced herself to moan. She gasped for air as he pounded into her seemingly harder than before. Her head was forced back causing her neck to ache a little, but she moaned louder as if she were enjoying the aggression.
Putting his weight onto his knees beside her thighs, Joshua quickly spanked her hard on the ass. “You like that you little bitch?” He muttered under his breath.
“Yes Your Majesty,” she moaned, her hands moving to the sheets. She grasped hard, biting down her on her lip again.
He kept his hand resting on her ass and gave it a tight squeeze since he couldn’t reach underneath for her tiny breasts anymore. The new pace he was working into her with was starting to make the end of his dick tingle with pleasure.
“Fuck!” He cried, as he quickly pulled his dick out and wrapped a hand around it. Suddenly, Joshua almost sorry for the whore as he stroked his cock at speed, so he brushed two fingers against her clit quickly even though he didn’t care at all for her pleasure here.
Anna wasn’t surprised when the King pulled himself out of her. Most noblemen never finished inside of her. What did surprise her was him touching her while he touched himself. Her breathing quickened and she let out the first genuine moan, rocking her hips against his fingers.
Joshua smirked at her obvious reaction. He knew when a whore was faking it but he also knew when a whore was actually being serious. “You like that, don’t you?” He repeated between breaths, feeling his knees grow weak as his dick gave a heavy twitch.
“Yes,” she moaned breathlessly. She moved her hips faster hoping that he wouldn’t stop. She was getting closer and wanted to finish. She arched her back trying to angle herself better wishing she could roll over.
Josh let out a loud groan and his fingers grew limp over her clitoris as the satisfaction of his orgasm hit him like a wave. He kept pumping his dick quickly, though he slowed down as it shot streams over her back. Soon his breathing became hot and heavy and he let himself fall sideways onto the sheets with a drawn out moan, confident that he’d filled his urges for now.
Anna didn’t move as she felt him finish on her back. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. A moment later, she got to her feet and grabbed her dress. “Thank you Your Majesty,” she replied quietly then pulled on her dress as quick as possible.
“Remember today, Anna.” Josh muttered, as he rested his head against his soft pillow with a smug grin on his face.
“Yes Your Majesty,” she replied. She curtsied awkwardly then made her way to the door. Once outside, the page from earlier walked in with his head downward. “Sir Treves would like an audience with Your Majesty,” he announced, keeping his eyes on the floor.
Joshua groaned in a slightly different way from mere moments ago. This meant he had to get dressed now, so he hoped his advisor had something good to say. “Alright, let him through.”
He quickly got up to his feet and walked over to the foot of the bed where his trousers lay in a mess on the floor.
The page nodded and disappeared from the room. A minute later, Trev walked through the door, smirking at the King’s dishevelled appearance. “Hmm…odd I didn’t see the Queen leave your suite Your Majesty, yet it appears as though you’ve been fucking,” Trev pointed out with an amused tone. He seemed to have impeccable timing. Normally he wouldn’t mind seeing a man naked, but not his friend and certainly not his king.
“What are you suggesting Sir?” The King smirked as he crouched down and picked up his trousers. He quickly pulled them on and buttoned them back up, then turned around to face his Diplomat. “Besides, a good fuck after a hunt is always a necessity, and who would you fuck after a hunt?”
Trev returned the smirk, leaning back on his heels. He shrugged his shoulders knowing exactly who he would go to after a hunt. The very same man Josh had been hunting with earlier, but that wasn’t an answer Trev could give. “Lady Gwen. She’s the fairest woman in the palace besides your Queen, Your Majesty,” Trev explained.
The King chuckled, it was a good answer and he had to agree with that statement. The Welsh girl was definitely one of the better looking women at court – but married. Treves was unmarried and the King had no clue as to who he was really courting, but that wasn’t something of major concern of his.
“You might have to fight my brother for her then.” Joshua grinned. “From what I hear he’s taken a fancy to her since his wife died. Oh and don’t forget Jeremy, I’m sure he’d love to skin you if he found out that you’d just confided that.”
“It’s a good thing I trust Your Majesty then isn’t it? Shouldn’t your kin be focusing his attentions on wooing sweet Lady Brooke?” Trev asked hoping to steer the subject away from where he wanted to stick his dick. He made his way across the room and away from the bed as to get away from the stench of sex that engulfed the room.
“Honestly I don’t particularly care what Matthew chooses to do with his life.” Joshua admitted. “At the moment I’ve got bigger things to worry about, and besides this Carson girl will be engaged to Joseph.” Of that, the King was absolutely certain. In a single move he could secure his lineage and broker a long-term peace between House Bradshaw and House Carson, not that his partnership with Lord Oliver’s son wasn’t enough already.
“Which brings us to why I interrupted your tryst with the local color,” Trev continued. He paused, mostly for dramatic effect before walking towards the King.
“Jeremy wants to take a thousand men and destroy whoever is occupying the castle. Being your diplomat, I would advise you differently,” Trev started. Jeremy and Trev rarely agreed on politics or how to run a kingdom. Jeremy wanted blood and Trev would rather most of the population survive. They were like fire and ice sometimes which is why Trev guessed they were crazy about each other.
Joshua crossed his arms across his bare chest. Of course these two would have disagreed on this. Josh wanted revenge on whoever had slaughtered all of those men but he was also conscious of the fact that he couldn’t start a war against a group of underground rebels. “So what would you advise me?”
“Have a small group of soldiers go up and find out what happened. Gather information before you make a big move like that. Don’t send a thousand men to get slaughtered, Your Majesty,” Trev advised, hoping the King would follow his advice. He thought the King needed to make an informed decision before starting a possible war.
Josh frowned. Sometimes the choices he was given seemed sensible and easy, but there could always be a pressing issue at the back of his mind that told him to forget it.
“And what if this small group is captured and no word comes back to us on the condition of the castle?”
“Then you have your answer. Send Jeremy in and take back what’s rightfully yours. You’ll have my full support Your Majesty,” Trev promised. He started walking around the king, pacing slowly. “It is the smartest course of action, I can keep Jeremy on a leash until you need him,” Trev added, holding back a full smile at the thought of keeping Jeremy tied up.
Joshua frowned. This was the same suggestion that Trev had brought up at council although he never mentioned what Joshua took as veiled criticism of Jeremy before. He wasn’t sure why, but the fact that his advisor was starting to pace around him made the King uneasy, not that he thought that Sir Trev would attack him but he thought it best to move away.
He crossed the room towards a large oaken table littered with several rolls of papers and tiny little candles. Pressing his knuckles down on the surface, the King was trying to figure out a solution. Sometimes he would delegate his decisions to people like Trev, or even occasionally his brother if the situation called for something more… intense, but now Joshua knew he needed to be decisive.
“I’m not abandoning Ireland.” He eventually spoke aloud, spinning around on his feet again. “I’m the Lord of Ireland and one day I will rule the entire island. But you’re right, I’m not sending a thousand men to die when I don’t know the truth.”
Trev nodded as the king spoke his mind. Jeremy wouldn’t be pleased he couldn’t go straight into battle, but Trev thought between him and Lady Gwen, someone could calm him down. “Would you like me to summon the council again Your Majesty for your final decision?” Trev asked, stopping his pacing and turning to face the king properly.
Joshua looked at Trev straight in the eye. “No, there’s no need.” The King said, dismissing the idea with a casual wave of his hand. “Issue a declaration that I want the nearby castles fortified and I want double patrols at all times.”
The King moved away from the table towards a large solid cabinet that stood between two large windows. “I have a thirst, you like wine don’t you Sir?” He asked, though he never got a reply due to a quick knock on the door, followed by his squire slowly emerging through the crack.
Brody stood nearby Sir Charles hoping he wouldn’t have to fetch another lady of the night. He loathed doing that; he knew he was serving his king, but it made him feel like he needed a bath after he returned.
His attention was grabbed by a young page he couldn’t remember the name of, but knew he worked for the Queen Consort. He stood straighter and walked to meet the page. “The Queen Consort has requested His Majesty’s company in their quarters,” the page uttered, slightly out of breath.
Brody nodded quickly and walked to the door. He knocked on the door alerting the king of his presence before squeezing himself inside. “Sorry to disturb you Your Majesty, but the Queen Consort would like to see you in your shared quarters,” Brody repeated, standing tall. Trev turned to look at the King wondering briefly if he would waste this important time on his wife.
“I can handle the declaration Your Majesty if you need to attend to other matters,” Trev quickly asserted.
Joshua frowned. Obviously the Queen had heard something since their son had gone back to her during the Council meeting, and thought that he needed counsel or comfort. For sure he was annoyed, angry, and feeling murderous over the affair, but he wasn’t sure what the Queen could say.
“Fine, go and tell the Queen that I’ll visit her soon.” The King replied, before turning back to Trev as a sigh passed over his lips. “I already said that you can issue the declaration Trev.”
The tunic that Joshua had taken off for the whore was now too creased to wear again for the Queen. She seemed to spend a great deal of her time criticising the appearance of the King’s clothes when they were dishevelled and worn. Knowing that it was best to avoid that, he walked to a dresser and quickly pulled out a light, soft red tunic embroidered with faint gold roses. “She’ll prefer this.” He muttered under his breath as he redressed himself.
Brody nodded, then took a slight bow and headed out of the room. Trev watched the squire leave, his eyes remaining on the young man’s ass. He turned back to the king and nodded. “Yes Your Majesty. I will prepare it right away and…” Trev paused as he headed towards the door, “give my best to the Queen.” He smirked to himself and left the room quietly.
Joshua frowned, not liking Trev’s tone when he made his final comment, though if he was worried about something occurring between Trev and his wife, he’d have taken action before now. As it was, the King was certain that his wife wasn’t sleeping with any men at court.
When he was finished getting redressed, the King looked at his plush red cloak with longing eyes. He adored wearing his cloaks, but the Palace was warm and he didn’t particularly need to wear it. Instead he played with the tight scarlet jewelled ring around his finger as he walked out of the room, with the intention of walking directly to his and the Queen’s quarters.
*
Ryker held the door open for Lucy as she walked into her shared quarters. She smiled at the sight of the clean room. The door shut behind her and she pushed Ryker as far out of her mind as possible. Now was not his time. His time occurred when she said it did and now she would not think about him. She walked over to the large bed and smoothed over the already straight blankets.
Once satisfied with the bedding, she walked over to a large, plush chair and took a seat. She had to see to the Carsons arrival and make sure their quarters were exactly the way she wanted them.
When the King finally arrived at the room that he shared with his Queen, he ignored the sight of Ryker Keoaloha and walked straight in. His brother might have a lot of time for the son of the Welsh Lord, but Joshua did not.
“Radiant.” Joshua grinned, as he closed the door behind him. Lucy Cooper was fond of wearing the tightest corsets that always made her waist tiny and her breasts so much rounder, something which always drove him wild.
Lucy immediately got to her feet when Joshua entered the room. She smiled slightly at his complement. “Fifteen years and you’re still a flatterer,” Lucy teased, walking towards him slowly. She smoothed out her dress over her flat stomach hoping that the incident in Ireland wasn’t weighing too heavy on his mind.
“Sometimes I wonder if it’s actually been fifteen years.” The King muttered. He’d been with Lucy for more than half of his life already, and whilst they might sometimes have disagreements he knew that he still loved her just as much as ever. “But then I remember how old the twins are.”
“Joseph will be married soon and then you’ll have to deal with little grandchildren running around the palace,” Lucy said reaching Josh, she placed her hands on his chest, smiling a little up at him, “You can put as many heirs in me as you like though, it might not make us feel quite so old then.”
“Only as long as we don’t have to accommodate the Carsons in one of the palaces.” Josh muttered, leaning down to kiss the top of Lucy’s head. He chuckled about having more babies, even though he didn’t feel old himself. “I think I’d like a son.” He mused.
“We can have another son, but maybe this time just one son and not a daughter at the same time,” Lucy suggested with a genuine smile, “as for the Carsons, the only one I will allow in our home is Brooke. This palace is for Bradshaws not drooling families who want a peek at real power.”
“Well that’s all up to you and those…” he paused, running his hands down Lucy’s sides towards her waist, “wonderful hips of yours.”
“I was an over-achieving queen when we were first married, I wanted to impress you,” Lucy admitted knowing that she had no control over what she actually had despite her want to. Her eyes went down to his hands wondering if he was in the mood, usually she could tell with him but for some reason his intent was foggy to her.
For some odd reason, Joshua remembered why he was even here in the first place, Lucy herself had actually requested him which meant that she wanted something specifically. If she did actually want to make a son then he was certain that it would be easier to wait a while since he’d just spent himself in his hand over that cheap whore, not that he would ever say no to fucking her right now.
“What did you want to see me for?” He whispered, moving his hands towards her exposed arms where he could run his fingers over her hot skin.
“Joseph told me about Ireland,” she started, suddenly feeling worried that she was overstepping her own boundaries, “Whatever is going on in the west, you are going to take care of it and kill whoever destroyed your castle. You are the king of England and someday you will rule over anywhere you wish to. I wanted to remind you of that in case you were seeing red.”
“I know sweetheart. Don’t forget I’m also supposed to be the King of France too.” He joked. Lucy’s family from her father’s line were a noble family in Normandie, a region of France that some distant King of England had once ruled and used as a claim to the French throne, though Joshua didn’t believe himself the King of France, he liked to use it to tease his bride.
Lucy rolled her eyes, gripping onto the cloth covering his chest. “Si vous êtes le roi de France, alors vous devriez parler français,” Lucy spoke, raising an eyebrow teasingly at him.
The King sighed, as he knew that his wife knew that he was perfectly fluent in French due to the lessons that his nanny had forced him to endure as a child. “One day I might rule the French in my own right.” He mused aloud.
“Good and you’ll have your Queen at your side. Did you decide what you are going to do about the problems in the west?” Lucy inquired, smoothing over the cloth she’d wrinkled with her touch. She then let go of him and walked over to the window.
Whilst Joshua didn’t like to think of the castle as a ‘problem’, he had to admit that it likely was a big problem, though that wasn’t going to put him off having the issue resolved. “I told Trev Porter to issue a decree to the other castles.” He replied, as he stayed rooted to the spot and watched as Lucy walked away from him. “A wait and see approach.”
Lucy never claimed to be well versed in politics or war nor did she ever speak her own, ill-informed opinion on those matters. She assumed Josh knew what was best for the country because he was the chosen king.
“Sounds best. Hopefully this dreadful news won’t detract from Lady Brooke’s visit,” Lucy commented, looking out the window. She enjoyed looking out at the world more than she enjoyed looking at the castle. She already knew everything about the castle, but the rest of the world remained a mystery.
The King rolled his eyes. “Other than getting Joseph a Queen, I couldn’t give a fuck about Brooke Carson coming to Court.” He growled, wanting to steer the conversation well away from a family he often had little time for despite a select few members.
“And that is all I meant by it,” Lucy snapped back quietly, turning back to look at the King, “That is the way these things works. You have to build interest for the next Queen otherwise she will fail. Now despite your disinterest in the Carsons, she is the key. Your subjects have to fall in love with her.”
“The public can hate or they can love Brooke, she isn’t the one who will rule. As long as the Lords accept Joseph as King once I’m dead then that’s all that matters. Kings rule because we’re chosen by God at birth, not because the commoners like us.” Josh replied swiftly, the idea of Kings ruling due to the divine right instilled by God was something be passionately believed in.
Lucy’s jaw tightened before she took a deep breath. “What would you rather have Your Majesty, an army who accepts you as their king or an army who passionately believes and loves you? You’re right, Brooke will not rule as I do not rule, but you cannot downplay public opinion that easily. They may be common, but they will always outnumber us. It is better to have them love us during the good times than have them just accept us because once the bad times come they will rise to your side because they want to not just because they have to,” Lucy knew she was overstepping her bounds, but if she was already in the mud, might as well speak her mind while she was stuck.
Joshua knew and fully understood everything that Lucy was telling him. He even had to pause for a moment because it was in the moments like these that his wife came out with words of wisdom and truths that one wouldn’t normally expect from a woman.
“What I would rather have is Joseph as a strong and wise King who can rule without any Carsons pulling his strings.”
A small smile graced Lucy’s lips. “You needn’t worry about that my love. By the time Brooke marries Joseph she will be exactly who she needs to be. Why do you think I invited her? She needs to be groomed and transformed into a queen and who better to do that than your Queen. Have a little faith,” Lucy replied. She walked calmly over to their bed and sat down on the edge wondering if Joshua was in the mood for another kind of venting.
Joshua turned his head quickly towards Lucy, as he realised this was something that they’d never actually discussed. “Wait a moment, how quickly are they going to be married?”
“I don’t know. They are not engaged yet,” Lucy replied honestly.
“Give it time then.” Joshua stated, sounding as confident as he felt about this. “We’ll just have to fight off the competition.”
Lucy frowned slightly, confused by her husband’s words. “Do you want me to hold off on making Brooke into what she will inevitably be and focus on persuading her father?”
The King shook his head quickly. “No, if you teach her the value of becoming Queen then she will do half of our work for us and convince that fat bastard that she was ‘meant’ to marry Joseph and bring up Princes and Princesses.” He said, putting on a faux girl voice in a bad imitation of Brooke at the end, something which caused him to cough into a small fit of laughter at how terrible he sounded.
Getting to her feet, Lucy walked over to Josh realizing that sex was not on his mind. She smiled at his impression of the future queen and shook her head lightly. “Like I said my love, you needn’t worry. She will be infatuated with her role and your son by the time she leaves this palace. Say the word and she will be in love with him as well,” Lucy claimed quietly, her hands resting on Josh’s chest again.
“She arrives in a few days,” Joshua muttered, as wrapped his hands around the Queen’s slim waist, “let’s make sure we’re ready.”
*
Having finished her royal duties for the day, Lady Gwen had retired to her estate to tend to her three children. The two eldest spent most of the day with their tutor so Gwen did not worry about them, it was her baby Eva who she still needed to dedicate most of the day to.
Gwen was feeding Eva her lunch when the door opened to their kitchen. Her husband walked in looking flushed and angry which wasn’t highly unusual for him. “I’m sorry about Ireland,” she said simply having heard about the attack on the royal castle. She offered him a small smile before spoon feeding Eva another bite of her lunch.
“I don’t care about some dumb castle that the King just has to have Gwendolyn, I care about the fact that every time something goes wrong he makes the worst decision. He is my King and I will support him and follow him into whatever death mission he wants, but I-“ Jeremy roared until he was stopped suddenly by Eva saying the word ‘dada.’
Gwen smiled, smoothing over her daughter’s hair. She reached her small arms out towards him as Jeremy stood in awestruck of what had just occurred. “When did this start?” he asked, his voice much softer and more gentle than it had been. He took off his cloak, hanging it on a chair before walking over and kneeling by his daughter. Eva reached out and grabbed his shirt, holding it tight.
“Yesterday…now don’t be mad love but she called the gardener dada first,” Gwen teased, leaning over and kissing Jeremy’s head.
“To be fair, he does look quite a bit like me,” Jeremy laughed. He rested his chin on her small high chair, staring at her bright blue eyes.
“Say it again love,” he whispered trying to get his daughter to speak up. Gwen continued to feed Eva knowing she would only say it again when he came through a door and into her sight.
“I found out something today Jeremy,” Gwen spoke up, her voice shaking a little.
“If it’s about my sister, I already know. There’s going to be a cock fight over her virgin pussy, the air reeks of it in the castle,” Jeremy responded absently, still cooing over Eva.
“No not that. I haven’t bled for two months now…the midwife confirmed what I thought. We’re going to have another baby love,” Gwen announced quietly, biting her lip nervously. Jeremy turned on his knees so he could fully face Gwen. His eyes grew wide and moved to her stomach.
He reached out and put a hand over her flat stomach, resting it there. He looked back up at Gwen and leaned in and kissed her gently. “Thank you,” he whispered against her lips. He grinned before kissing her again, more deeply this time.
*
Tom Harris was standing in the Royal Stables towards the edge of the palace complex. Even though he employed hundreds of stable hands to breed and train the horses, he always liked to be involved in his duty as Master of Horses. As a child he had always been brought up with the advice that he needed to learn a skill that would make him attractive to others beyond the lands he was set to inherit. His mother had always told him that if there was ever a female heir to the throne then this skill could make him a potential King – even if his aunt would be related to that heir since she had been married to the current heir.
So that was why he had been brought up with expertise knowledge on the rearing, breeding and training of horses. Whilst it didn’t make him King, it did get him married to a beautiful woman from a northern family and made him a member of the King’s Court.
Since dusk was approaching, the stables were deserted apart from Tom. He had initially come down to visit his own horse, an enormous stallion that put the King’s horse to shame in its stature. To his delight, the stable he was kept in had already been mucked out, though the food was running low.
“You hungry, boy?” Tom asked the horse as he picked up a bucket from the floor and filled it with feed.
Once filled, he walked across the room and unbolted the door and opened it just enough so that he could slip through the crack and then locked it again. His horse made a move for the bucket and tried to bite at the contents, which Tom had a feeling he would have done. He moved the bucket out of reach and then tipped it into the open container that the horse was supposed to feed from. “Go on boy, have some of that.”
As the horse hungrily ate from his container, Tom pulled out a small brush from a shelf on the wall and decided to groom the animal, until he heard footsteps coming from outside. He quickly reached for the sword that hung from his hip and drew it. Nobody was supposed to be here at this hour, and even though he believed the palace was secure he wasn’t putting that to chance.
His heart was pumping quickly as he glanced through the stable door into the main hall to check for the unknown intruder, the energy flowed through his veins in case he needed to lunge out and attack.
“What are you doing here?” He hissed when he realised who the footsteps belonged to and finally replaced his sword.
“Can I not come and see you, then?” Harry Rogers replied, grinning at Tom as he walked closer.
Tom shrugged his shoulders which caused Harry to frown slightly, and then he turned his attention back to the horse.
“What are you doing here?” Tom asked quietly as he ran the brush through the dark brown mane of his stallion.
“One of the servants said you were here.” Harry replied, leaning against the stable door as his eyes moved up and down with the movements of the brush. “Thought it was a quiet place where we wouldn’t be disturbed after that boring Council meeting.”
Tom rolled his eyes in a pained manner, not in the mood at the moment to deal with Harry. “If you want to fuck someone Harry, go home and fuck your wife.” He grunted, focusing even more on grooming the horse.
“Don’t even pretend you’re not interested today Tom.” Harry said angrily, unbolting the door with one hand to get inside the room.
Tom really did not want this discussion now or ever, so he turned around to flat out tell Harry that he needed to leave because this was not the time or place, but before he could even speak Harry had kissed him. He pushed Harry away from him and glanced around, wanting to be sure that they were alone even though he already knew that they were.
“Are you fucking crazy?” He hissed, glaring at Harry in shock. “What if we got caught? The King would have our heads on spikes.”
“Relax, nobody comes here at night time.” Harry replied cockily, though he didn’t move towards Tom again.
“Doesn’t matter!” Tom countered. “I love my wife more than I like you and this stuff needs to stop Harry. We’re not fifteen anymore.”
Harry opened his mouth to reply, but the sudden sound of hooves cut him off as they both turned quickly to the doors and they both stood a little straighter as the King’s brother came into view, sitting atop a jet black horse.
“My prince,” Tom said quickly, bowing his head slightly at his cousin. His aunt was Prince Matthew’s mother after all. “We were not expecting you.”
“I had to leave Lancaster.” Matthew replied, as he busied himself with hopping off his horse and removing the saddle. “My mother has taken up residence in my castle and she was causing me too much grief. Besides, I’ve things in London that need my attention.”
“If I may, Your Highness,” Harry spoke up, “What brings you to the capital?”
Josh pulled up outside Ryker’s house. At least he thought this was Ryker’s house. Matt had said that it was easy to find. He killed the engine to his McLaren and opened the door upwards before he climbed outside. A part of him had thought that he should stay at home when Matt called him and said that he was with Gwen and couldn’t come over. He didn’t really know Ryker too well and the idea of the two of them on their own building a shed seemed a little uncomfortable, but he’d thought that it was sunny and it got him out of the house for a while.
Ryker was sitting at Mia’s play table while his 18-month old daughter stood at her play kitchen and made him food. A knock at the door made him turn his head then get to his feet.
“Finish cooking babe, I’ll be back,” Ryker said, then kissed Mia’s head. Mia replied with a few undecipherable words. He jogged to the front door and opened it. His face turned to a frown at who he saw.
“Uh hey man, where’s Matt?” he asked with Mia’s tiara still sitting on top of his head.
Josh’s eyes moved up to the small plastic tiara sitting on top of Ryker’s head and he tried not to laugh. Matt said Ryker had kids so he assumed it was one of their handiworks. “Matt called and said he was still with G… what’s her name? That girl he’s with.” He explained, mentally kicking himself for almost saying Gwen’s name.
“Anyway, he said he couldn’t make it but that you really needed his help so he said I should still come over anyway… if that’s cool.”
Ryker’s frown deepened at the mention of that woman. He crossed his arms then shrugged. “Yeah sure if you don’t mind. I wanted to get at least most of it done before the twins got home from school. Shit come in, sorry I’m being rude,” Ryker explained then moved as he opened the door wider.
“How much work needs doing on it?” Josh asked curiously whilst he crossed the threshold. If they got as far as the roof then he wasn’t sure how much help he’d be. Ryker and Matt were tall and would have been the best ones to get the roof on.
“I’ve got the foundation built, but the rest of it has to go up,” Ryker explained further walking back into the living where Mia was. He grinned instantly.
“Food!” she said loudly, pointing at the table.
“Hold on, come here baby girl. This is Josh,” Ryker said to the toddler who walked over to her daddy. She held onto his leg and stared up at Josh.
“Stop being shy, say hello,” he instructed.
Josh crouched over a little to get to a better eye level with her. “Hey sweetie. Are you Mia?” He asked, more asking for his benefit since he wasn’t actually sure which of Ryker’s kids was which.
Mia nodded then looked up at Ryker. “Sorry, normally she never shuts up,” Ryker laughed. He then lifted her up and she turned to look at Josh again. “We’ll finish lunch later babes. Right now we’re gonna go outside and you get to watch daddy make an ass of himself,” Ryker continued leading Josh outside with Mia watching him over Ryker’s shoulder.
“You want anything to drink?” he asked Josh, sliding open the door to the backyard.
“You got any sodas?” Josh asked eagerly. It was hot out and he didn’t wanna overheat out there.
“Yeah sure. You can go out there and I’ll grab us some Cokes,” Ryker said, walking Mia over into the kitchen. He grabbed her sippy cup out of the fridge along with two cans of Coke.
Josh did as he was told and stepped through the sliding door out into the garden. He wished he’d brought some sunglasses with him when the light dazzled him and he had to squint to block out the glare. The garden was smaller than what he was used to and he easily saw the foundations that Ryker had been talking about so he walked over to inspect them whilst he waited.
Ryker walked outside with Mia in hand. She held her sippy cup and Ryker struggled with the two cans of Coke. “How’s it look?” Ryker inquired then set Mia down in her small, fenced-in play area.
Josh spun around on his heel as he heard Ryker come outside. “Looks… foundational.” He replied, with a shrug of his shoulders.
Ryker laughed, walking towards Josh. “Don’t worry man, I don’t know shit about sheds either,” Ryker reassured him. He walked towards the wood and took off his shirt tossing it aside. “So you likin’ it here so far?” Ryker asked, picking up the blueprint that was on the pile of wood and looking at it.
Taking off his shirt seemed like a good idea with the sun out like this, but Josh felt like he should just wait until they actually got into doing the work.
“The town?” Josh clarified, as he walked over towards Ryker so that he could get a look at the shed specification. “It’s alright, kinda quiet but that’s what we wanted I guess. The plan looks good, by the way.”
“Thanks, took me about ten minutes on Google to find it,” Ryker laughed. He turned his attention towards the shed and set down the blueprint again.
“Alright, let’s get to it,” he announced, clapping his hands together. He picked up a couple pieces of ply wood and walked it over to the foundation.
Josh crouched down by a small clear plastic box stuffed with large silver nails and picked up a handful and a heavy hammer, figuring that Ryker was going to put it together and he could just knock it all together.
“So what’s this all for then?” He asked, as he got back to his feet and walked over towards Ryker. “Just spare storage?”
“Yeah. I wanted a place for the lawn mower and then the kids’ bikes. Plus all of Mia’s fucking outdoor shit,” Ryker explained then turned to Josh with a stern expression, “don’t have kids man.”
“Don’t worry I’m not planning on it.” Josh chuckled, even though Ryker seemed good with kids they just weren’t something that Josh wanted right now. “What about barbeque stuff?” He asked, as he glanced to the side and saw a pretty large barbeque set.
Ryker looked over where Josh was looking and shrugged. “Yeah sure. I’ll probably just throw everything in there. Doesn’t have to look good, no wife to nag me about it,” he laughed. He finished arrange the ply wood planks into support beams and glanced back at Mia who was contently playing with a few toy cars.
Josh chuckled, he knew he was the same when it came to storage. It was always quicker to just throw things in and spend a little extra time later looking for them than constantly keeping everything totally organised.
“So those are gonna support the floor, right?” He asked, pointing to the beams that Ryker was working with.
“I think yeah,” Ryker answered. He licked his lips and looked over to Josh. “So uh you’re good with the ladies right?” he asked, squinting one eye because of the sunlight.
“Yeah, why?” Josh replied in question.
“See I think I need advice from a pro. Dave’s great but he’s been off the market for a while and your brother’s knee deep in random pussy I don’t think he remembers what an actual date is. Simon’s with a pro and Jeremy wouldn’t know how to date a woman…so you mind helping me out?” Ryker inquired hopefully. He stepped back a little to see if the support beam he’d just nailed in would hold by itself
Gwen’s not exactly random pussy, Josh thought to himself, but he was more than happy to not think about Matt and Ryker’s little sister so he quickly dropped that thought. “What’s the problem?” He asked. He thought that he could probably give a little advice on girl trouble, especially since he currently had huge girl troubles at the moment that he’d been working on overcoming.
“I went on a date with this woman… Sarah, and I think it was a good date you know? Good conversation, little kissing goodnight then I don’t know man I fucking froze. I was right there, outside her door, ten feet away from the end zone and I freeze. I made up some lame excuse and bailed,” Ryker explained, his cheeks turning red. He shook his head and turned his attention back to the next support beam.
Whilst Josh knew that he shouldn’t laugh, he really couldn’t help himself and a small one escaped before he managed to cover his mouth with his hand. He kept his lips tight to calm himself down and stop any more laughs from coming out and he was quickly able to breathe properly without the urge to laugh.
“Maybe you were just nervous?” He suggested, as he held out a couple of nails for Ryker to grab hold of for the next beam. Matt had mentioned off-hand that Ryker had trouble scoring lately but Josh didn’t want to mention that in case he wasn’t supposed to know, but Josh thought that maybe Ryker had just gone too long and was worried he’d forgotten how to fuck.
“Shit I know I was. The last time I got laid was a before Mia was born and that was with my ex, not exactly new territory you know?” Ryker revealed taking the nails from Josh.
“I like this girl and I wanna get to know her right. Sure I wanna hook up, but shit man I’d just like eating pizza and watching a movie with her too,” Ryker continued.
“Then why don’t you invite her over for pizza and a movie?” Josh suggested, remembering times he’d done that himself. “That way you get your night in and most likely it’ll end in you two fucking.”
“Is that too personal for a second date?” Ryker asked honestly. He didn’t look at Josh but stared at the support beam preparing to hammer a nail in.
“Dates don’t always have to be this big expensive thing like in the movies Ryker.” Josh sighed, even though he knew he wasn’t taking his own advice there and always treated Jenny to dates like that. “Just invite her over, ask her what her favourite type of movie is, order takeaway and don’t even pay attention to the movie.”
Ryker smiled a little, staying quiet. He finished hammering the nail and stood up. “You’re right man. I’m over thinking this,” Ryker agreed then turned to look at Josh, “thanks.”
“She hot?” Josh asked through a wide grin.
“Yeah. She’s got the cute yet sexy thing going on, these crazy blue eyes, and I don’t know I’m just drawn to her. You ever meet a chick like that? Someone you can’t get out of your head?” he asked.
“Yeah man.” Josh nodded. It was pretty much how he was with Jenny at the moment. “How long’ve you known her?”
Ryker swallowed hard. “Not that long. Just kinda met her randomly and kept bumping into her. Actually more like kept embarrassing myself bumping into her, but I guess it worked,” Ryker mused.
“Wait is this the girl you threw change at?” Josh asked quickly, suddenly remembering something. “Matt told me.”
Ryker’s cheeks turned red again as he walked over to where his Coke was sitting. “I’m gonna kill that asshole,” Ryker muttered as he opened the can. He took a sip then nodded. “Yeah that’s the one.”
“Did you think she was a sexy bum or something?” Josh smirked, as he got to his feet and walked over to the shed so that he could nail in a piece of wood whilst Ryker took a drink.
“No I was trying to get her attention. I had game, I remember having game. I mean shit look at Grace, but I think you lose a little bit of your game with every kid you have so mine’s probably empty by now,” Ryker explained walking over with his Coke to Mia.
“If I wasn’t with Jenny right now,” Josh replied slowly, pausing as he concentrated on lining up the piece of wood perfectly, “I’d take that advice and go be a playboy again.”
“So why don’t you do it? I never took you or your brother for serious relationship type guys,” Ryker asked curiously, picking up Mia.
“I can’t speak for Matt cause to be honest, I don’t know what goes on in his head half of the time.” Josh started to explain, taking another pause so that he could hammer in a nail.
“I just know that I give off that image intentionally. It works better for me.”
Ryker walked Mia over who was resting her head on his shoulder and reaching across his chest with her arm to hold his other shoulder. “Guess I’m wondering why you’re with Jen then?”
“Because I like her.” Josh replied simply. “I make the public think I’m a playboy because it makes me seem sexier and more available which then gets me more jobs. Doesn’t mean that’s how I actually am, cause dude relationships kick ass sometimes.”
Ryker laughed, kissing Mia’s head. “That they do. And earlier what I said about kids,” Ryker paused, shifting Mia, “I lied. Have kids ‘cause they come with a lot of stuff but they’re like relationships; most of the time they kick ass.”
