I sat in the carriage, mortified. Along with Lady Agatha, there were also Lady Gwendolyn and Lady Adelheid. Lady Gwendolyn was trying to help me study the High Tongue, since she had grown up with it in the royal courts of her homend, Edelin. I could not focus at all, and kept shooting terrified looks at Lady Agatha. She knew.

  When we stopped to cook and eat lunch, Lady Agatha went away from the rest of the group. I wondered where she was, but I didn’t dare ask. I ate in silence. Sir Alvar walked by, he looked deadly handsome in his shining armour, the sun glinting off his hay-coloured hair. His eyes met mine and my stomach fluttered. I wished I could confide in him, but I really didn’t want to draw attention to us by talking with him. I smiled slightly but looked away as quickly as I could.

  In the evening Lady Agatha pulled me into the tent. Everyone was eating outside and we were alone. It was dark, and I couldn’t really see her face inside the tent.

  “Drink this!” she whispered intently, and handed me a small bottle.

  “What?”

  “Drink it or I’ll tell everyone what you did.”

  I had no choice, I drank it. The liquid inside was viscous and went down slowly. It tasted horrible, earthy and bitter. I retched.

  “Keep it down,” her voice was commanding.

  I barely held the drink down.

  “What did you give me?” I whined.

  “It’s so you don’t get pregnant. Stupid girl!”

  A light dawned on me. I hadn’t even thought about pregnancy. I hadn’t really thought about anything. I vaguely knew that this sort of thing was connected to pregnancy and children, but had mostly been taught to avoid it because I was supposed to stay pure for my future husband.

  “You’re putting us all in danger,” she whispered, “the king of Medora is said to be ruthless. How will he react if he finds out that you’ve been cheating on his son?”

  His son, my betrothed. How could I be cheating on a man I had never even met? The entrance to the tent opened. It was Alvar.

  “Your Highness, is everything all right?”

  “Yes, thank you, Sir Alvar.”

  The fire from outside lit up Lady Agatha’s wrinkled face. From her voice I had thought that she was furious, but on her face I could read only concern. We walked out together. After drinking that disgusting drink I had very little appetite for dinner.

  ***

  The next days went by without much happening. As we neared Medora, castles and inns to stay in became more and more common, but Lady Agatha would not let me sleep alone in a room any more. Wherever I slept, she slept too. She had servants drag in a second bed, or would sleep on a bench in any room I occupied. Sir Alvar was quick to catch on to what had happened. I could not expin anything to him, because I was no longer able to find any moment alone with him. I was confined to looking at him wistfully, and only interacting with him when I would take his leather gloved hand to descend from the carriage.

  Our surroundings became warmer and warmer. Wheat farms subsided to vineyards, and my wool dresses started to feel uncomfortably warm in the heat. Fall was starting, but we moved quicker than the seasons, and every day was slightly warmer than the one before. We were no longer just going through countryside. The roads became wider and less bumpy to ride on. My High Tongue improved, but most of the people we came across were common people that only spoke the local nguages.

  I tried so many new foods. Especially fruits! I had fresh grapes and persimmon for the first time, and tried olives, but didn’t like them. We drove through towns, and through the windows I could see such elegant people, wearing silk clothes and jewels in their hair and all over their bodies. Most of them had even made holes in their ears, just to hang more jewellery from! I had brought some jewellery as well from Havermark, but it was rge and clunky. The women in the south were so graceful, I wondered if I would be able to fit in.

  ***

  It was two days before we were supposed to cross the border over to Medora, ten days before I was supposed to meet my husband-to-be and his family. We were staying in the castle of a nice young marquess and his new wife. Lady Agatha had been a little less careful than usually, and she had indulged too much in the delicious Medoran wine. I could hear her loud snoring. All the other evenings she had forced herself to stay awake until she was sure I was asleep. As luck would have it, Sir Alvar was on guard duty that night. I tiptoed past Lady Agatha, my bare feet tapping on the cold castle floor. I opened the door as quietly as I could.

  Alvar sat outside under the light of two candles. His helmet sitting beside him. As I walked out he perked up.

  “Hi,” he whispered.

  “Hi,” I smiled and closed the door behind me.

  He bent down and kissed me softly. I pushed my body against his cold breastpte.

  “Where can we go?” I whispered.

  He thought for a minute.

  “The sewing room is just across from here.”

  He led me down the hallway, and slowly opened the door to a room.

  “Who’s there?” it was a young woman’s voice.

  “Oh, sorry, I was just, uh, looking for some sheets for the princess.”

  “The linen closet is two doors down,” she paused for a bit, “you’re very handsome you know, if you want you could come talk to me after you’ve served the princess.”

  My stomach knotted with jealousy. I hadn’t thought about it, but of course I wasn’t the only woman who had noticed Alvar.

  He led me to the linen closet, holding the single candle in his hand. The room was small, and windowless, there was a candle holder on the wall where he could pce it. He gently took off his leather gloves and pced it on one of the many shelves for linen. In the small room we were almost forced to press against each other.

  He grabbed my waist and pulled me close to him, my body pressed against the cold steel. He kissed me intensely, and started to pull up my chemise. It bundled in one of his hands as he moved the other one across my butt cheeks, grabbing them, and stroking the tender underside in a way that tingled. He moved his hand to the front where he softly moved one finger between my bia, starting at the vagina and moving to the clitoris in front. I was so wet, his finger glided smoothly across. He started rubbing my clit slowly, I moaned into the kiss.

  I desperately wanted to touch him. My hands stroked over the cold metal as if it was his actual body. He was rubbing faster now, my vagina clenched in pleasure, I moaned quietly into his kisses. It was getting more intense, I grabbed his pted arms. He kept going steadily, without speeding up or slowing down, but with every moment I was coming closer to an orgasm. I bit my lips together as the intense waves of pleasure flowed through me.

  Alvar paused. I looked up at him, flustered, sweating, I could feel my long bck hair falling into my face. His gaze was intense, he was flushed with desire.

  “Help me take my armour off.”

  He showed me how to unscrew the breastpte from the top and the sides. As I was taking it off from his left side, his shirt moved off the shoulder, showing a huge scar on his chest, right above his heart.

  “What’s that?” I asked

  “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

  On his back there was a simir scar, as if something had gone right through him. I didn’t say anything else. It must have happened in the war. I felt like such a baby, not having experienced any of it.

  He was wearing thick leather trousers, I wondered how he could bear to wear such pants in the heat. He opened the front and rubbed himself slowly.

  With his hands he guided me to turn around. I held onto the shelves for the linens with my hands. Then he lifted up my chemise from the back, his hands moving slowly up my thighs and butt, settling on my hips. He entered me slowly, it felt different from behind than it had felt lying down. When he hit the end of my vagina it hurt in a weird way and I yelped.

  “Sorry,” he said, and repositioned himself.

  Now it felt better, he moved slowly at first I was so wet from having already come that it was almost frictionless. His movement inside me felt good, almost like an extension of the orgasm I’d just had. It didn’t carry the same urgency for me as the first time did, it felt good in a satisfying, almost comforting way.

  When he started moving faster my desire grew as well. His right hand grabbed my hip tightly, while his left hand moved up my body. His fingertips pyed over my nipples and then he grabbed my breast. He moved closer towards me, panting on my neck. I moaned and he moved the hand that had been on my breast over my mouth. My squeal was muffled by his big rough hand. He moved quickly and intensionally and with every stroke the tension in me grew.

  I almost screamed as he pushed me to a second finish, much more intense than the first. We came simultaneously. I felt his hot come filling me from the inside. We both slumped over together against the linen shelves.

  I was the first to straighten up.

  “We have to go back now.”

  I was dripping, and I was not wearing anything under my chemise. We took one of the smaller linen rags and I wiped myself between the legs. We would have to steal this. We couldn’t leave it anywhere. Alvar took it to dispose of, it would look less suspicious if anyone found it with him rather than with me. I helped him put everything back on, and then slowly we exited the closet.

  We walked back to my room together, and I was almost certain I had gotten away with it. Once I was lying in my bed I saw Lady Agatha standing over me. She said nothing, only stood there like a ghost and handed me that horrible drink. She watched me down it all before going back to her own bed.