Author’s note: This story is set in a fantasy kingdom where STD’s and unwanted pregnancies do not exist.
To meet Literotica’s standards, the age of consent in the land of Orgiana is 18, but all other aspects of marriage and women’s place in society are the same as they were in the rest of Europe during medieval times. Neither the author nor the characters he has written approve of those antiquated rules, but if you still find them offensive, you may want to skip this story.
In order to maintain the atmosphere of this story, I have written it in an old-fashioned style of English, and I have the characters speak in British dialects according to their social class, including a working-class character with a thick cockney accent. If you get headaches from reading Shakespeare or Victorian literature, you should probably skip this one. But because I have kept the language modern enough to be easily understood by the casual reader, scholars and purists of British literature made prior to the First World War should either skip this one or forgive the author for being an American amateur.
Lastly, all sexual activity described in this story is between consenting adults. Enjoy.
Once upon a time, in the land of Orgiana, there was a crisis afoot. The King had recently turned the ripe old age of fifty, and no one was sure how much longer he would live. Twenty-one years earlier, his wife the Queen had died in childbirth and left behind a daughter, Virginia. Although–like most royal betrothals–neither the King nor Queen had a say in who they would marry, they were happily in love with each other by the time their wedding was arranged. And when the Queen died, the King swore he would never love or marry another, despite the pressure for him to sire a male heir.
Instead, the King decreed that whomsoever should win his daughter’s hand in marriage should be the next King of the realm. And for the past three years–ever since Princess Virginia’s eighteenth birthday–one nobleman after another had vied for her hand, only to have her spurn him. At least, that is what most people knew. The truth of the matter was so scandalous that if it were ever brought to light, the entire established order would have been overthrown and the kingdom would have been susceptible to invasion by a foreign army, and the land swiftly conquered.
With the elderly King in ill health and his daughter approaching the limit of marriageable age, there was one nobleman determined to end this crisis once and for all. Duke Richard of Wilcox had gathered an army to storm the Royal Castle, depose the old King and marry Princess Virginia by force. The King had gotten word of the insurrection and entrusted the protection of his castle and Princess Virginia to his most trusted knight, Sir Robert, who had been the King’s squire back when the King was a princely low-ranking officer in the cavalry. By the time Sir Robert had gained his knighthood, he and the King had become bosom companions.
Sir Robert, despite his advanced age of forty, was a fine figure of a man. Although he had a balding scalp and grey beard, his six-foot frame, handsome face, deep voice and well-muscled body made him the envy of many men and the romantic fantasy of women of all ages. In battle, none could match him. In his nearly two dozen years of knighthood, he had mastered deadly combat by ax, mace, sword, lance, bow as well as fists. And as he had a fine mind for military strategy, nobody was upset that the King had given him command of the Royal Army.
When it came to women, however, it was a different matter. Sir Robert, for all his accomplishments on the battlefield, was a painfully shy man, especially when it came to the fairer sex. He had trouble looking women in the eye and found it even more difficult talking to them. And he had a wretched habit of pining after women who did not return his affections or who were forbidden to him, such as one of the women in this story.
This is not to say Sir Robert was celibate. Like any soldier, he had known the bawdyhouses when he was younger. And as handsome and famous as he was, he had no shortage of attractive women who threw themselves at him, but they seldom meant anything to him. However, there were a few he had grown attached to, and this story also concerns one of them.
******************************
Sir Robert had just returned to the castle from dinner at the nearby tavern when a scout ran to him with an urgent message. “Sir! I’ve just alighted from Duke Richard’s camp! They have sent someone to kidnap the princess during tonight’s entertainment and they mean to attack the castle before daybreak!”
“Then we must go to sleep early so that we ourselves are ready for the attack. In the meantime, I shall secure the princess myself.”
Sir Robert ran to the Princess’s bedchamber and urgently knocked on the door. “Your Highness! ‘Tis I, Sir Robert!”
“Come in, good Sir Knight.”
Sir Robert opened the door and found Princess Virginia still in her nightgown having her curly red hair brushed by her lady’s maid, a dark-haired woman the same age as the Princess. Both women were strikingly beautiful, but Sir Robert’s heart ached for the Princess alone. However, there was an emerald pendant that lay on her alabaster skin that proclaimed her Crown Princess and reminded him that she was forbidden to him.
“Your Highness! It is imperative that you leave this room immediately!”
“But good Sir Knight! As you see, Felicity has not finished with my hair. And then I am to entertain the Court with a harpsichord recital, where I shall also sing.”
“Alas, Milady, there’ll be none of that tonight. The Duke’s men mean to kidnap you during tonight’s entertainment and sack the castle in the morning. My men are retiring early tonight so we may not be taken by surprise, and you must do the same, only not in this room. Come with me please, for your own protection.”
He led the princess back to his own chambers. Outside the door, he told her, “Inside, there’s a bed that sleeps three men. Normally, I sleep there with two of my trusted lieutenants, but tonight, we shall sleep on the floor while you shall have the bed to yourself. Is that understood?”
“Will that not be most uncomfortable for you? Perhaps it would be better if I slept in a private room with a small bed and nobody knew I was there?”
“If ’twere Your Highness’s modesty I was sworn to protect, I would agree. But ’tis your life I am concerned about, and I’ll not leave you out of the presence of myself or my men ere this crisis has abated. Besides, we are soldiers and used to sleeping on hard ground. Now, please enter this room, and quickly! We have tarried too long outside the door and who knows but that the Duke’s spies may have seen you already.”
Sir Robert discreetly ushered the Princess into the room, followed and locked the door. To both their surprise, Sir Robert’s lieutenants were not in the room. Instead, there was a nude woman lying on the bed with honey-blonde hair in soft waves tied up in a loose knot and deep blue eyes that looked upon Sir Robert with undisguised lust.
“‘Allo, Bob! Fancy meetin’ you ‘ere.”
“Meg!” Sir Robert hissed. “What are you doing here? Where are my men?”
Meg ignored what Sir Robert said and turned to look at the Princess. “Oooh! An’ I see you brough’ a frien’! Come ‘ere…” Meg’s gaze drifted to the emerald around the Princess’s neck and her expression changed from lust to shock. She immediately covered herself up and averted her eyes. “Your ‘ighness! I’m so sorry!”
The Princess turned to Sir Robert and said, “Good Sir Knight, do you know this woman?”
“Indeed, Milady. This is Meg, a serving wench at the tavern nearby. We have a relationship that is… not proper to be discussing with an innocent young lady such as Your Highness. Meg! I repeat: Where are my men? Why are you here? Are you in league with the Duke?”
“The Duke? Me? I ain’t in league wif no one! I saw you an’ your men in the tavern this evenin’ an’ I thought you’d like a little surprise to welcome ya back t’ town. Your men know ‘oo I am an’ they know wha’ we do togever, so they let me in.”
“Meg, as you see, this is not a good time for this! We are on the eve of battle and must rest as the enemy is to attack us before dawn, and I’ve brought the princess here for her own protection. Please leave so that she may sleep on the bed!”
“She need not leave,” said the Princess. “In fact, I would rather she stayed with us. Tell me, good woman. Since Sir Robert will not answer me directly, may I ask what the nature of your relationship is with him?”
“Beggin’ your pardon, your ‘ighness, but Bob’s righ’. Wha’ me an’ Bob do togever ain’t fittin’ for a proper young lady such as y’self to ‘ear. ‘Specially wif you bein’ a princess an’ all.”
“I may be but a young lady, but I am still a royal, and unless I am overridden by my father, my word is your command. That goes for both of you. Besides, as heir to the throne, I cannot afford to be an innocent regarding any matter. I shall repeat myself, and if I do not receive a direct answer, I shall be quite cross and both of you shall pay a penalty. Now answer me, woman. Is Sir Robert your true love? Will you marry him once he leaves military service?”
“‘Eavens no, Your ‘ighness.” Meg stayed covered, but she did manage to look the Princess in the eye. “I’m two-and-thirty now and long past marriageable age. If I was gonna marry, it woulda been when I was a lass like y’self. But I promised meself I wouldn’t marry no one unless I was in love wif ’em an’ they was in love wif me back. Me an’ Bob, we ‘ave fun togever in bed an’ we’re great mates, but we ain’t in love. ‘E did offer to marry me once, but I tol’ ‘im no. Besides, ‘e’s tol’ me ‘e’s in love wif someone else. Only ‘e feels guilty abou’ it on account of she’s real ‘ighborn an’ she’s young enough to be ‘is own daughter an’… Oh!”
Meg stopped as she saw Sir Robert blushing and glaring daggers at her while the Princess looked up at Sir Robert with pity and affection. At that moment, Meg realized she had said too much.
“Good Sir Knight, why did you never tell me of these feelings?”
Now it was Sir Robert’s turn to turn away from the Princess’s gaze. “Because what she says is true. You are my best friend’s daughter and far too young for me. And my best friend just happens to be the King and I cannot marry you as I am but a common soldier. And because the penalty for lying with a princess before her wedding day is death.”
“Good Sir Knight, I believe you are mistaken about the law.”
“How do you mean, Milady?”
Rather than answer Sir Robert, the Princess turned to Meg.
“Good woman: When you first saw me there was a look of recognition in your eye. Did you mistake me for someone else?”
Meg looked away from the Princess again. “Aye, Milady. There’s someone ‘oo comes to our tavern often. She’s nineteen, so jus’ a little younger than y’self, an’ she’s a… a…. Forgive me, milady. It ain’t proper for me to say the word in front of Your ‘ighness.”
“A whore?”
“Aye, an ‘ore. Me an’ ‘er ‘ave the same arrangement that me an’ Bob ‘ave. If she ain’t workin’ but she still wants to… um… you know…, then me an’ ‘er go to bed togever an’ we make love until we’re both spent.”
Sir Robert was shocked. As a student of military history, he knew of the ancient Greek ideal that male soldiers should find physical love with each other rather than mere females. And he knew that Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar had male lovers. And he had witnessed (and turned a blind eye to) his comrades and underlings fornicating with men. But he never knew such things happened between women.
“Any’ow, I’d ‘eard she looks jus’ like you, but I didn’ credit it ’til I saw you in the flesh jus’ now. When you came in, I thought Bob ‘ad ‘ired ‘er for the evenin’ an’ that the three of us was gonna do somefin’ togever.”
“Perchance is this woman’s name Scarlett?”
“‘Ow’d you know?”
“She is no stranger to this castle. Many is the time I have heard someone in the castle shout my name in ecstasy and then seen her leave their rooms a few minutes later in disarray. Tell me, Meg–if I may call you that–how much does she charge you?”
“She don’ charge me nuffin’! We do it ’cause we want to!”
“Then you are lucky. She charges me a hundred coins each time we share a bed, and I never even touch her.” Sir Robert and Meg both stared at the Princess gapemouthed. “I should explain. When we first met, we noticed our similarity and compared our respective family trees. As it turns out, we have no common ancestors save Adam and Eve.
“Not long after, I invented a little game to play with the servants called ‘Who Is The Princess And Who Is The Whore’. We both bed the same servant at once, I take off my royal pendant and the servant must guess which one of us is which. It works because I can imitate her voice quite well, and she can imitate mine. Of course, the servants rarely care who is who, they just like making love to the both of us at once. The way to tell us apart, by the way, is that my skin is naturally clear, but Scarlett must use powder to cover her freckles.
“You see, Sir Knight, you have a misunderstanding of the law regarding lying with a princess. I should know as I helped write it. My father insists that I learn to govern, and as it turns out, I take to it quite well. The law says if someone tries to take me *without my consent*, they are to be hanged. Indeed, when I am Queen, all rapists shall face the gallows. It is true that as a princess, I am obliged to marry a man of noble birth and bear his child. But as heir to the throne, it is my privilege to fuck whomsoever I please.”
Meg and Sir Robert were both shocked to hear Princess Virginia use that unladylike word. Eventually, Sir Robert was able to find his voice again. “But…, I mean…, I still can’t marry you. You are still a Princess and despite my military rank, I am still but a commoner. So it makes no sense to burden you with my feelings which must remain unrequited.”
“Sir Knight, when one is a princess, feelings have nothing to do with marriage. Do you know the real reason why I am not wed yet?”
“They say ’tis because you have spurned all your suitors.”
“That is the official story fabricated to preserve my honor and my prospective suitors’ vanities. The truth is that I have never spurned anyone. If Duke Richard had not decided to take me by force, I would not have spurned him either, provided that he could stomach my conditions for marriage.” She turned to the nude tavern wench. “Meg, I so envy you that you have sworn to not marry except for love. If I were to do so, it would be to my lady’s maid Felicity. We have been In love with each other since we were both old enough to know what love is. But the law states a woman may not marry another woman and custom dictates that a princess may not marry her servant, so we have an arrangement where we are both allowed to make love to any man or woman we please so long as we do not hide it from each other. Therefore, I always consent to marriage, but only if I shall rule by my husband’s side instead of being a decorative woman; that my heart will remain with Felicity; and that I may have any other lover I please, male or female. Thus far, none of my suitors have agreed to these terms as they feel it would un-man them.
“Now, as I have said before, as heir to the throne, I may not marry anyone in this room, but I may fuck whomsoever I please, and it pleases me to fuck the both of you.”
Sir Robert objected. “Your Highness, forgive me, but the purpose of bringing you here was so that we could retire early and be rested for tomorrow’s battle. We need to sleep, not f… f… fornicate.” He could not quite bring himself to use the same word that the Princess had used.
“Good Sir Knight, please do not think me blind or naive. I can see the bulge in your trousers quite well. Meg, please uncover yourself.”
Meg did so.
“As you can see, her nipples are hard, and her quim is wet. And underneath this nightgown, I am in the same state as she. We are all quite aroused, and we shall none of us get any sleep unless we sate our lusts. This is a practical matter regarding the upcoming battle, not just the whim of a randy young noblewoman.”
Now it was Meg’s turn to be shy again. “But what if we was to get caught? You’re a princess, an’ everyone outside the castle thinks you’re sweet an’ innocent. There would be a scandal!”
The Princess changed her voice and said, “Princess? Me? I ain’t no princess. But if you like, go to the Blue Lion tavern an’ ask for Scarlett the ‘arlot. For twenty coins, I’ll suck you off. For fifty, I’ll let you stick your dick in me bum. An’ for an ‘undred, you gets t’ do wha’ever you please wif me like this ‘andsome couple is doin’!”
It was Sir Robert’s turn to speak again. “Your Highness, that may fool the stray wanderer who may stumble upon us, but Meg and I still know who you are. And as much as I have ached for you since you came of age, I fear I am not worthy of this honor. Very soon, you shall be a young and beautiful Queen, but my military career shall be coming to an end after tonight’s battle. Do you really wish to do this with an old man of humble circumstances?”
“Bob’s righ’. You’re the mos’ powerful an’ beautiful woman I’ve ever met an’ I’m jus’ a lowly tavern wench. Even your servants can’t be seen wif me in public. Bein’ wif you would be like lookin’ into the sun.”
The Princess just smiled at them both, then removed her emerald pendant. “Then let us forget–just for the moment–that I am Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Virginia. Tonight, I am just Ginny, a young lady who craves the touch of a handsome older man and a beautiful woman, both at the same time.”
She made her way to Sir Robert and kissed him fully on the lips. Sir Robert–still in shock–was completely rigid during the kiss. Ginny then turned to Meg and kissed her on the lips as she did to Sir Robert. Meg was not so tense and returned Ginny’s kiss. After a few seconds, Meg stuck her tongue in Ginny’s mouth while the two women wrapped their arms around each other.
“Come on Bob! No need t’ be shy.” Meg grabbed Sir Robert’s hand and led drew him into the embrace. As Sir Robert and Meg had been together several times before, there was no hesitation on Sir Robert’s part when Meg kissed him and placed his hand on her bare breast.
“Sir Robert, can you please help me with my nightgown? I wish to feel your hands on my breasts as well.”
Hesitantly, Sir Robert untied the knot at the neck of Ginny’s nightgown. Ginny held up her arms and Sir Robert lifted the hem of the nightgown over Ginny’s head, leaving her as nude as Meg. She had not lied earlier. The large nipples on her small breasts were the width of Sir Robert’s thumb and were quite hard to the touch when Sir Robert tweaked them. And the ginger curls between her legs were soaked with the juices from her quim.
At the same time Sir Robert was disrobing Ginny, Meg had untied Sir Robert’s trousers to reveal a mighty seven-inch cock that was as hard and throbbing as could normally only be found on a man half his age. After Sir Robert had finished playing with Ginny’s nipples, he pulled his tunic over his head, so now all three of them were completely nude.
Ginny was eager to continue, but her two older companions were shy and hesitant once more. “Why have we stopped? I thought we were enjoying ourselves?”
“Your High… er… Ginny, prior to tonight, I have only ever been with one woman at a time. I know not what to do.”
“Same for me. I’ve been wif men an’ I’ve been wif women, but I’ve never been wif bofe at the same time.”
Ginny laughed. “Here am I, nineteen years Sir Robert’s junior and eleven years younger than Meg, yet I am the one with the most experience in these matters. Sir Robert, are you familiar with the French method of love-making?”
“You mean where a person puts their mouth to…? Aye, Your High… Ginny.”
“Good. Sir Robert, you shall lie on the bed. Meg, climb on top of Sir Robert and place his cock in your quim, bur remain upright.”
Meg and Sir Robert did as Ginny instructed. Ginny then climbed onto the bed so that her quim was directly above Sir Robert’s face. “Now, Sir Robert, I wish you to lick me to the best of your ability to make me come. If you do not feel confident in your tongue alone, you may also insert your fingers. In the meantime, Meg, you and I shall kiss and play with each other’s breasts while you ride Sir Robert, and he pleasures me.”
Meg didn’t need any more encouragement and started grinding on Sir Robert’s cock. At the same time, she reached over to Ginny and gave her a deep kiss with her tongue. Ginny reciprocated with her own tongue in Meg’s mouth. Meg then lowered her mouth to play with Ginny’s nipples. Meanwhile, Sir Robert used his tongue to trace the most ornate calligraphy onto Ginny’s quim, making sure that her clitoris was getting proper attention by using his fingers to guide him.
Although he tried his best to keep himself steady, this unique new situation had Sir Robert even more excited than he usually was during the act of love and after just over two minutes, he exploded into Meg. Meg, in turn came soon after from Sir Robert’s thrusts. Lastly, thanks to Meg’s attention to her breasts and Sir Robert’s oral and manual stimulation, Ginny cried out and drenched Sir Robert’s face with her juices.
After they had all come down, Ginny said, “We are not done yet, I trust? I am still quite aroused.”
“Me too. Bob? Are you up for more?”
Sir Robert said nothing, but instead nodded his head in assent. And so, Ginny started giving instructions again.
“We shall all lie on the bed with our faces between each other’s legs. Sir Robert, you shall please Miss Meg orally, the same way you pleased me just now. Meg, I shall have the pleasure of your mouth on my quim. And I shall have Sir Robert’s cock in my mouth. And Sir Robert, please try not to come before Meg or I.”
Ginny gave Meg and Sir Robert each a lustful kiss, then lay down on the bed. Meg joined her almost immediately. Sir Robert, being the tallest, had to do some maneuvering before he was able to lie comfortably with Ginny sucking his cock and his own mouth latched to Meg’s quim. This time, because he had just come a few minutes ago, he was able to hold onto himself and wait for the women’s pleasure before his own. Eventually, his oral ministrations caused Meg to turn rigid and her womanhood to tighten, and she hummed a loud scream into Ginny’s quim. This caused much vibration on Ginny’s clitoris, and she came soon after. As she came, she sucked Sir Robert’s cock much harder and faster, and at last he could not control himself and expelled his juices into Ginny’s mouth.
They took a half-minute to catch their breaths. Then Ginny said, “I see that Sir Robert’s manhood is still erect. And I am not tired yet either. Are you, Meg?”
“No, mum… I mean, Ginny.”
“Good. Meg, lie on your back, if you please.” Meg did so and Ginny kissed her deeply, then moved lower down Meg’s body to her ample breasts. “I do so love a woman with large bosoms, it makes a wonderful contrast to my small ones.” Ginny licked each breast, making sure to pay proper attention to each nipple. Once she was done, she spoke up again. “Sir Robert, please stand up and take me from behind, and Miss Meg shall judge if my oral skills are as good as yours.”
Ginny kissed farther down Meg’s body until she reached Meg’s quim. As she licked Meg, she threw her backside up in the air. Sir Robert needed no further instruction and placed his cock inside Ginny’s womanhood. Ginny licked Meg’s quim in rhythm to Sir Robert’s thrusts, which excited all three participants. Eventually, Ginny came, and her orgasm squeezed Sir Robert’s manhood in such a way that it caused him to come as well. However, as they had been at this so long, Sir Robert could only produce a small squirt and his cock shrank and softened almost immediately. “I… I… I am truly sorry. I am spent.” Sir Robert went to the opposite side of the bed from where the women were, and quickly fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Meg had not been sated, so Ginny redoubled her efforts with her tongue and fingers until Meg came. “Oh! Oh, Ginny! You’re so marvelous at tha’! Your Felicity is a lucky woman!” Meg drew herself up and kissed Ginny deeply. “Ginny, I know that you wanted to be wif bofe of us. ‘Owever, as you can see, Bob’s out like a light. But I’m still ‘orny. Are you?”
“Very much so, Meg. Although I must admit that although I have wanted to fuck Sir Robert for years and I am impressed by his skills with his cock and his tongue, it was you that stirred my loins as soon as I walked in this room.”
“Really?”
Ginny kissed Meg lustfully. “Yes. If you would like, we can continue together if you can promise Sir Robert shall not be disturbed. After all, he must be ready for battle ere dawn.”
“‘E shan’t wake. The third time’s always too much for ‘im. ‘E’ll be up in a few hours to use the loo, but until then Armageddon itself couldn’t wake ‘im. So is there… anyfing special you like t’ do when it’s jus’ you an’ Felicity alone?”
“We tell each other how much we love each other. Neither one of us does that with any other lover.”
“No, I mean… you know… physical.”
“Well, there is one thing that can only be shared between two women that I thoroughly enjoy. Would you like to try it?”
“Oh, yes!”
Ginny kissed Meg passionately and spread her legs wide with her hands. She then straddled one of Meg’s legs with her own until their quims were touching.
“Oh! I like this. Me an’ Scarlett do this all the time.”
They started rubbing against each other, slowly at first. As they went on, they became more aroused and gradually sped up. Eventually, the two women were rubbing together so hard and fast that they both came simultaneously, with Meg squirting all over Ginny. As this was her most intense orgasm of the evening, Meg could not help but cry out, “YES!!!! YES!!! YES!!! OH, SCARLETT, I LOVE YOU!!!”
Ginny removed herself from Meg’s crotch, lay down beside her and said, “Meg, I am glad that I could give you such pleasure, but I am Ginny, not Scarlett. Remember? Or, now that I am too tired to keep going further, perhaps it is just as well that I return to being Princess Virginia.”
“Oh, dear! I’m so sorry! I didn’ mean…”
“Relax, Miss Meg. I am not insulted. After all, we do look alike. But I am curious. Do you love Scarlett as you just said?”
“I… I think I do.”
“And have you told her this?”
Meg lay down on the bed to face the Princess.
“What would be the point? With ‘er job, she can’t afford to be in love. An’ besides, I’m thirteen years older than ‘er.”
“There are many nineteen-year-old brides in this kingdom who marry thirty-two-year-old men. Aside from the fact that you are both women, there is nothing unusual about this. After all, most of my royal suitors are Sir Robert’s age or older. Plus, I think I would be very much mistaken if I did not believe Scarlett returns your affections. You said yourself, she does not charge you. She lies with you because she wants you.”
“But she’s still an…”
“I know. Despite us being on opposing ends of the social hierarchy, Scarlett and I have much in common. Not only do we look alike, but we are prevented from being faithful to the women we love due to our respective professions. But I believe you and she are a good match. You should tell her your feelings.” The Princess reached over to Meg and moved a stray lock of hair from her face, then slid her hand down to Meg’s shoulder. “I wish nothing but the best for the both of you. But if you should ever desire a woman’s touch in bed and Scarlett is otherwise occupied, please think of me.”
The Princess gave Meg a long, lingering kiss that was tenderly returned, then both women fell asleep in each other’s arms.
*********************
EPILOGUE:
Thanks to the information from his scout, Sir Robert and his men were ready an hour before dawn and were easily able to repel the Duke’s attack. Duke Richard and his surviving men were hanged as traitors.
As the Duke’s closer male relatives had all either died in the battle or were hanged along with him, the Duchy of Wilcox fell into the hands of his youngest nephew Peter, a lad who was the same age as the Princess. Out of custom and family expectation, rather than desire for power or for the love of the most desired woman in the kingdom, the new Duke went through the motions of asking the Princess for her hand, hoping she would spurn him as he had no taste for marriage. She gave him her conditions, and he ecstatically agreed to them. As he was the youngest son of a younger son, he had been trained for a life of leisure, not governance, so he was happy to let her rule. And like the Princess, he too liked both men and women in his bed. And he was also secretly in love with one of his servants (a scullery maid) and they had the same understanding that they could both be with any man or woman they choose so long as they were honest about it with each other. He was grateful that he had finally found a wife who not only didn’t mind his amorous proclivities, but who also shared and encouraged them. A week after the battle, they were wed. The old king died on their wedding night, and Duke Peter and Princess Virginia were proclaimed King and Queen the next morning. In the annals of Orgiana, they are best remembered for reviving the old practice of prima nocte–where the king or queen or both could lie with either the bride or groom or both on their wedding night–but only for willing couples. The lower classes mostly declined this honor, but the middle and upper classes–whose marriages had mostly been arranged–were inclined to accept as both the king and queen were quite beautiful.
A few months after the royal wedding, the owner of The Blue Lion Inn died in his sleep at the nearly unheard-of age of sixty-eight. As he had outlived his wife and progeny, he had no family to bequeath the property to, so in his will, he left it to his favorite serving-wench Meg, making her the first woman in the kingdom to own a business outright. At the same time, Scarlett (doubtless with much encouragement from the new Queen) confessed her love for Meg. When this happened, the Queen–who by this time was close friends with both women (as well as being Meg’s occasional lover)–tried to change the laws so that two women could marry each other, but the Court’s resistance was too great and the law was not changed until the twenty-first century, by which time Orgiana had become a democracy, and the only remnants of her feudal past were a few old castles that had been turned into museums. Despite the Queen’s failure to change the law, she performed an unofficial ceremony that bound Scarlett and Meg as lifelong partners. The evening of the ceremony, the King and Queen performed the rite of prima nocte with the newly committed couple. They made love in every possible combination except the Queen and Scarlett, who–as always–did not touch each other. They even played the game of “who is the queen and who is the innkeeper’s bride.” Meg–having made love to both women several times–was able to tell the difference, but the King–who had never lain with Scarlett before and had only been with the Queen a few times–remained clueless as to who was whom, even after Scarlett pointed out her freckles. From that day forward, Meg and Scarlett lived as if they were married, except–following the King and Queen’s example–they were both free to have other lovers, both male and female.
Two years prior to the battle, one of Sir Robert’s men confided in him that he was worried for his family. Sir Patrick had a wife and two-year-old daughter who would become destitute if anything should happen to him as they had no other living male relatives. He made Sir Robert swear an oath that if Sir Patrick ever fell in battle, then Sir Robert would care for them and prevent them from being forced from their home and made to live as beggars. Sir Patrick–as fate would have it–was felled by Duke Richard’s blade during the battle. Thus, once the battle was over, Sir Robert took leave of military life for good, made his way to the village where Sir Patrick’s wife and child had a small farm and told them of their father’s tragic fate and of his oath. For a time, he slept in the barn and helped with the farm work and warded off those who would deprive a poor widow of her land, but he soon grew close to Sir Patrick’s family. Sir Robert was taken by the little girl Daisy, who was now four. But what he was quite surprised to find that he was falling in love with Sir Patrick’s widow Mary, a hardened but still pretty woman of nine-and-twenty years. Even more surprising was learning that she loved him back. After the compulsory year of mourning, Sir Robert proposed marriage to Mary, and she consented. The Queen offered prima nocte to Sir Robert. But even though he had no regrets about the night he spent with her and Meg prior to the battle, he had no desire to repeat the experience. Besides, he had realized during their night together, that he had never truly been in love with the Princess, but only with an idea of her that was much different from the real person. He never saw Ginny or Meg again, and never laid with any woman except Mary for the rest of his life.
And they all lived happily ever after.
THE END