This doesn’t surprise me, given what just happened.
Joppe won’t be here any longer. Until someone else can come and take over, you’re in charge of the inn here,” she laughs. “I told him not to eat that pheasant since Duke Jellema sent it, for you, expressly. He had a courier deliver it with instructions on how to cook it. The note said it was one of your favorites. I’m Ieske Kroes, and if it’s acceptable to you, Your Royal Highness, I’d like to get my husband to come. He’ll see that they get fed, but I need a man here to handle some of the rougher trade that comes in off the road.”
This seems more than reasonable to me, so I agree. “I’m surprised that you don’t have some big sturdy lads in the stable just for that purpose.”
Ieske looks sad. “We did for a while, but Joppe ran them off. They said they were getting paid too much and eating too much. It’s been a bit dicey here a time or two since they’ve been gone. I’ll have to find a few to come. These little waifs are good company but not much of a deterrent for troublemakers.”
I smile at her description of them. “Get them cleaned up and fed. I’m sure that they can be helpful around here with serving, cleaning, repairs, and other things.”
Ieske laughs. “I was delighted when you told me to clean the kitchen. Joppe always yelled at me for wasting time cleaning things that were going to get dirty again.”
I gesture vaguely toward the barn. “If more of those supposedly too violent to handle horses show up here, send them to Lord Kenric, and we’ll send someone to fetch them.”
Ieske looks puzzled by this. “I guess you bought those nags.”
I shake my head. “They’re actually not nags. If you see them again, you likely won’t recognize them as the same beasts.”
Ieske nods and promises to send word if more show up. I shrug and gesture at the taproom and upstairs. “I don’t think that asking for clean sheets or a bug-free bed or just some freshly made food is unreasonable.”
Ieske grins. “Nothing you complained about was unreasonable. That’s why your Sergeant sent a rider ahead. We should have been ready to receive you. He wouldn’t even let us get the nicer furniture out of the basement. I suspect that we’ll be a lot more profitable with Joppe gone.”
Now I laugh and agree with her. “If he’s brazen enough to steal my food, who knows what else he was helping himself to?”
Ieske nods knowingly. “Quite a lot, I think. I’ll send someone out with the food just as soon as your new dinner is ready.”
Ieske quickly sent some of the waifs, as she calls them, to remove the old keg of ale. They roll it out to the barn. A new keg is brought up from the cellar and tapped. Fresh, clean mugs of ale are handed out, and everyone, even Duke Jellema’s men, looks happier. I tell Duke Jellema’s captain to thank him and Duchess Ina for sending the pheasant, even if I didn’t get to eat it. I know they were trying to make me feel welcome in this place far from home. I appreciate the gesture, even if it was stolen from me by Joppe, the innkeeper. The captain’s face flushes with anger, and he asks where the innkeeper is. I sent him to the Sergeant. He stomps off to find the Sergeant. I notice the duke’s men murmuring and ask what it’s about. I’m having trouble understanding because I still struggle with some of the language.
One of them finally says, “Oh… um… It’s well… Really not fit to discuss with you…”
I continue to stare, gesturing for him to tell me. He stammers a bit but finally tells me. “We’re placing bets on what Skelte is going to do with Joppe, the former innkeeper,”
I smirk. “What’s the most likely outcome?”
Another man answers me. “Skelte makes him walk at the end of the caravan all the way to the capital, sit through a trial, and end up at a public execution.”
A third man shakes his head. “Skelte won’t do that. Not with her here. Not with the orders Duke Jellema gave to make sure she gets to the capital safely. He won’t want that fool to slow us down any more than we are already. He’ll bleed him here.”
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I am not upset or disturbed, or fainting. This seems to surprise these men when I nod. “Fair enough, either way. He’s been starving and abusing the staff here. If your rooms aren’t clean or you find any bugs, please let Ieske, the cook, know. I don’t want to send you back to Duke Jellema with bugs for them to deal with. If I need to have another princess tantrum to fix it, I will.”
All the men chuckle at this. The first man speaks up again. “I am called Boede. If Skelte isn’t available, I would be more than happy to assist you. It was a fine show, Lady Kenric, and much appreciated by all of us. We have another bet that you might be able to help us settle. Are you really a princess?”
I nod. “Among my own people, I am.”
Grinning, he bows and clicks his boot heels. “You have our thanks, Your Royal Highness.”
He turns back to the other men to collect his winnings. I laugh as I sit next to Kenric. Kenric gives me a nudge and asks what that was about.
“I told them to thank Duke Jellema for sending a pheasant here for our dinner. They’re wagering on what their captain will do with the former innkeeper for stealing that pheasant. They had a wager on whether I was really a princess or not.”
Kenric laughs and whispers in my ear. “You aren’t just a princess. I will sneak into your room tonight and worship you like the goddess you are. It’s been a few nights, and I find I’m quite ready for you.”
I blush and elbow him. “I don’t know that I can be quiet enough here. The walls are quite thin.”
Kenric flashes me a wolfish grin and a heated look. “Figure something out, then.”
He turns back to his ale and his conversation with the Sergeant. I run through my spells as I sip the fresh ale. I have one that I might be able to modify, but I’ll have to test it. I learned it when I was working with pixie dust. Pixie dust is essentially powered magic, and this keeps it from drifting onto unwanted objects if the wind should blow. If it can contain dust, I think I can modify it to include sound. If this works, it will be handy.
I lean against Kenric. Between the fresh ale and his warmth, I’m half dozing when a bowl of stew, with fresh bread and butter, is set in front of me. Kenric nudges me again. “Eat up, my treasure, and we’ll get you off to bed. We’ll likely arrive late at the capital, so we’ll stay at an inn overnight there too, before we have our official arrival at the palace in the morning.”
I eat pretty quickly, and this is much better than old leftovers.
One of the waifs shows me to my room, and I lock the door. I tinker with my spell a bit, and when I can’t hear my shoe hit the floor, I think I’m onto something. I drop it and unlock the door, waiting for Kenric. I need someone outside to tell me if I have the effect right. Since I can’t be inside and outside the bubble I can now create, I’m unsure if this will work. I hear someone sneaking down the hall, so I pull my dagger in case it isn’t Kenric. My door opens quietly, and relief floods through me. It is Kenric.
I am thoroughly kissed before I can shush him. “I have a new spell to test out, but I need someone on the outside to tell me if it works or not. Let me know if you can hear anything.”
Kenric nods, so I cast my bubble and step inside it. I speak, and Kenric shakes his head, letting me know that he can’t hear anything. I raise my voice, and Kenric shakes his head.
I yell, and this time Kenric nods. I drop the bubble and make a tweak to the spell before I cast it again. It takes some experimentation, but soon enough, Kenric says that he can’t hear me even when I’m screaming, which is good. Kenric tends to have that effect on me. He steps through the bubble, removing his shirt and pants. My nightdress is yanked off over my head. I am picked up and tossed onto my back on the bed. Before I can even say a word, Kenric has my knees over his shoulders as his tongue starts working on that sensitive bud.
His fingers join his tongue in their assault on my senses. The smell of his arousal alone is enough to make my core clench and moisture pool between my legs. Right now, that’s the only thing I can smell. It is a heady combination and one that I give in to all too easily as my fingers thread through his hair. A minute adjustment to his position and I’m screaming his name. He seats himself quickly, making my body arch into him as he growls his satisfaction at my response.
I imagine that this feels a bit like being struck by lightning. The surge that rolls through me when he enters me swiftly is challenging to explain. It’s as powerful as the scent of his arousal, and the two things combined are intoxicating. Since I’ve known Kenric, that sensation is something that I associate closely with having orgasms. This time is no different, and the climax peaks again. I hear his throaty baritone growl, thick with his own need. “Gods above! I do love that, Víl?—the feel of you having a climax around me. I want to see how many different ways I can get you to do that. How many times can I get you to do that?”
He moans and whispers in my ear. “That’s three hundred and forty-seven, in case you were wondering.”
Oh. My. Gods. He counts them. That might be one of the most lusciously wicked things I think I’ve ever heard. He moans again as my core clenches in reaction to this. He’s moving now and glorying in my response to him, wringing every moan, sigh, and whimper out of me that he can. His voice is a low, naughty growl in my ear. “Yes, Víl?. I count them. Each and every one of them. Ever since I discovered that I enjoy them so. I told you that I plan to ruin you for any other male. As soon as we get this next wedding out of the way, I’m going to bed you again for another week, maybe longer. I want to see how much I can increase the count before I have you let you out of our rooms.”
Insatiable and irresistible are a potent combination. He’s practically purring in my ear as I climax again. “Three hundred and forty-eight. I swear it’s better and more intense every time. I can’t wait to see what this feels like when it hits four digits, Víl?.”
The thought of doing this enough for his count to hit a thousand is mind-blowing at this particular moment, and I’m almost ready to climax again. “What’s it like?”
Question for you:
- Which alliance feels the most fragile right now?
- If you were the queen, who would you cut loose first?