Sharon green brat 02, p.30
Sharon Green - Brat 02, page 30
She’d asked the servant to arrange for breeches and tunics and short boots for those ladies still in gowns, and hadn’t specified a number. Luckily?
As the three women headed for one of the retiring rooms adjacent to the dining room, Elissia saw the way Vandrin glared in her direction. He’d made no attempt to keep Tomia from going with the others, but not because he liked the idea of seeing his wife in breeches. He’d obviously realized that Elissia had spoken as the High Queen, and on a subject that the High King had already supported her about.
Vandrin had probably had second thoughts about facing Derand in any way at all, and had wisely decided not to make an already bad situation worse.
It didn’t take very long before the three women emerged from the retiring room wearing their new outfits.
Derand’s mother Rildin began to applaud, and a moment later she was joined by her husband, the three women seated near Elissia, and a number of the men. Tomia laughed gently at the applause, Kaylea actually smiled, and Elissia’s mother wore a look of ? delighted revelation, was as close as Elissia could come to interpreting the expression. A good guess would be that Queen Liminia had expected to hate the new clothing, but instead had discovered a wonderful facet of life that she’d previously known nothing about.
All three women were slender enough to look attractive in the clothing, and Tomia all but strolled back to her seat at the table. As she walked past her husband she let her gaze ? slide across his, and Vandrin ended up the next thing to wide-eyed. Their marriage had probably been a political arrangement, and the very handsome Vandrin must have resented having a plain and mousy wife. Now it seemed that the mouse was turning into a cat, and possibly even into a kitten. Tomia’s gown had hidden her womanly curves, but the breeches didn’t do the same.
Monil watched Kaylea reclaim her seat beside him, and the stern, humorless man was actually smiling.
Elissia saw Monil take his wife’s hand and raise it to his lips, and Kaylea’s smile now looked more ?
enthusiastic, as if she really meant it. She looked incredibly good in the breeches, but the only man she paid any attention to was her husband.
Elissia saw her father Ostrin rise from his seat to “help” his wife back to her own chair, the most ridiculous look of concern on his face. From his expression you’d think that his wife had just done something really dangerous, and he couldn’t keep himself from making sure that she was all right.
Annoyance flared in Elissia over that ridiculous reaction, and oddly enough she wasn’t the only one to feel that way.
Her mother also seemed to be briefly annoyed, and she sat down without accepting the “help” that was being offered. Gardal, Elissia’s brother, sat not far away and seemed to be fighting to keep from laughing.
A good deal of chattering and commenting went on around the table, and Derand let it continue for a moment or two before he stood up.
“Our fighters are waiting to show us just how good they are, so let’s not make them wait any longer,” he said with a smile as he looked around. “And remember, we don’t have to do nothing but watch. If we like we can join in, so let’s go out and command the games to begin.”
Everyone seemed more than ready to go along with that suggestion, and the table was quickly abandoned as servants appeared to lead the way with bows of respect. Elissia saw that Derand seemed to be waiting for her, and when she walked up to him he took her hand.
“That last idea of yours was inspired,” he murmured as he urged her toward the door everyone was using. “Instead of having factions, disagreements, and unhappiness, we now have a happier, more unified group. I’ll admit I never expected Vandrin to give up his stance so easily, but Tomia does look like a different woman now. And speaking of different women? “
Elissia smiled wryly when his words simply petered out, knowing exactly what he wasn’t saying.
“If anyone had asked me, I would have said the world would end before my mother gave up her filmy gowns,” Elissia said with a shake of her head. “Talk about not expecting something? But it’s really odd.
My father tried to treat her like a martyr, and I don’t understand why she didn’t let him do it.”
“I think ? possibly your mother expected to feel like a martyr, accepting the clothing change as a response to what you said to her,” Derand mused as they walked. “She might have meant to shame you into apologizing when you saw how valiantly she was trying to change - and not managing to, of course -
but something happened when she put on the breeches. What that something would be I don’t quite know.”
“What that something would be is a sense of freedom,” Elissia said slowly, the revelation coming in the same way. “I think you’re right about what she intended, and then, for the first time in her life, she experienced what doing something ‘unacceptable’ felt like and it was a good feeling. My father knew what she was supposed to be doing and contributed his part, but she was too deeply into exploring the new sensations to appreciate his effort. If she does change her outlook and actions, he’ll probably go into permanent shock.”
“He’ll get over the feeling eventually,” Derand assured her with a gentle laugh. “When a man spends his life taking care of his ‘very delicate’ wife, seeing her in a different light can be upsetting. But that doesn’t mean he also stops loving her, so they shouldn’t have a problem if she does change her attitudes. Wait and see.”
Elissia nodded and let the subject drop, but she wasn’t counting on having a different mother to contend with. The habits of a lifetime are very hard to break, so any changes could well be temporary?
Derand maneuvered himself and her to the front of the crowd, so they were in the lead as they left the palace. The meadow where the games were to take place was crowded with people, but right now there weren’t any city residents included. Elissia had learned that the first day or two of the games would be just for the visiting royalty, and only later on would ordinary citizens be allowed to watch. But there were certainly a lot of fighters in black leather everywhere, and they seemed to be wearing colored scarves tied to their left arms?
“Those scarves are meant to identify real fighters from intruders,” Derand murmured, obviously having seen where her attention had gone. “The different colors mean something very specific, and anyone wearing a particular color will be arrested if he isn’t doing what his armband color says he should be doing. But the system isn’t guaranteed safety, so make sure you stay alert.”
Elissia nodded as she continued to look around, making no effort to find out what the various colors of the scarves were supposed to mean. If the wrong person happened to overhear the details, the entire effort would be ruined. Besides, there were plenty of other things to take a person’s attention, like the different areas that were roped off. And the first roped off area they were heading for held six men, all of them with what looked like wooden swords in their hands.
“The fighters from your various kingdoms will be paired off,” Derand said to the group at large once everyone stood around the roped-off area. “Each man will fight three times during the day - assuming he doesn’t lose two fights in a row. If he does then he’s disqualified, and won’t be asked to fight a third time.
Tomorrow, the winning fighters will be paired off with an equal, depending on whether they won two fights or all three. Again there will be three fights for each man who doesn’t lose the first two fights, and then we’ll have fewer winners to continue to the next round.”
“I don’t see any of your fighters ready to join in,” King Lovar commented as he looked around. “Are these ? games just for your ? loyal subjects?”
“My men have already gone through the process among themselves,” Derand answered with what looked to Elissia like deliberate amusement. “When the six best among your fighters prove themselves, that’s when they’ll face my men. The final contest will be held on the last day of the games, and there will only be a single event. The same holds true for hand to hand fighters, mounted fighters, archers, and axe men.
We’ll also hold races of different kinds, like men on foot or mounted, and then we’ll go to the handicapped races. A scout has to get back with the information he has even if he’s wounded, so we’ll arrange temporary ‘wounds’ that will hamper the men involved. The men who win those races will likely be your best.”
For the first time Lovar looked sincerely interested, and the commenting among everyone else said he wasn’t alone. Then the signal was given for the first of the contests, and everyone fell silent in order to watch. The men may have been using wooden weapons, but that didn’t mean there weren’t casualties.
The careless or untalented were quickly eliminated with broken arms or legs or ribs, but there were still some who would be able to go on to the next round.
They all watched the ‘sword’ work for a time, then the group was led to the other competitions. In every roped off area men contested with bare hands or wooden weapons, which was faintly annoying to Elissia. It was only men who contested, and that didn’t seem fair. Surely there were women somewhere who would have enjoyed joining in, but women weren’t usually given training with weapons. Maybe that rule could be changed like the one about gowns?
They were approaching the archery area when there was a small flurry of activity to one side. Elissia thought that no one but Derand noticed the flurry and he didn’t comment, so she also kept silent. While everyone was engaged in watching the first of the archers contend, a fighter in black leather with a green scarf around his arm came up to Derand and spoke very softly. Derand nodded acknowledgment of what he’d been told without changing expression, but when the fighter was gone Derand came over to her.
“A man pretending to be one of the archers started to aim at us when we first left the palace,” Derand murmured as he looked around. “My fighters arrested him and dragged him away, of course, but happily I’d told them about the false attack you pointed out on our way here. For that reason they were ready when two other archers suddenly turned in our direction when we were close enough to make much better targets. These last two didn’t let themselves be taken alive, which is really annoying. They knew something that first man doesn’t, but now we’ll never know.”
“Maybe we can find out,” Elissia murmured back. “It’s possible that first man was able to sneak in here, but what about the other two? If they were simply hired they would be as ignorant as the first, but if they came with the man behind the attacks? “
“Then that man might now be two fighters short,” Derand finished for her with a nod. “Yes, I realized that myself, but checking on the matter won’t be easy. The fighters who came here with their kings are scattered all over, so we won’t be able to get an accurate count until they return to their assigned quarters tonight. My men have already been told to keep a tally on the visiting fighters to make sure some of them don’t ‘wander off,’ but that leaves us nothing to do but wait.”
“Wait,” Elissia echoed, pronouncing the word like the curse that it was. “No wonder it’s spelled with four letters? “
Derand made a sound of near amusement, but Elissia hadn’t been joking. She hated to wait, especially since it wasn’t even close to lunchtime yet?
Rildin felt absolutely marvelous as she and her husband Almis entered their apartment to rest and refresh themselves before lunch. She’d dressed in breeches in an effort to support her son’s strangely unhappy wife, and Almis had only pretended to dislike the idea. It had come as a small shock that others of the women had done the same thing, but probably not for the same reason. But whatever the reason, the outcome had been just marvelous. Rildin had probably enjoyed herself more than any of the others?
“Woman, I want a word with you,” Almis growled from behind her, surprising Rildin. “Your behavior this morning was shameful, and if you don’t have a damned good reason for doing as you did you’re in a lot of trouble.”
“What do you mean, for doing as I did?” Rildin asked as she turned to him, knowing better than to show guilt of any kind. “What is it that you think I did?”
“You know very well what you did,” Almis growled, glaring at her with his fists on his hips. “You showed yourself off to every man you passed, swinging your bottom half around like a weapon - or like something for sale. In case you’ve forgotten, whatever goods you show belong to me.”
“And don’t you feel even a tiny bit happier owning those goods when other men show they’d like the goods for themselves?” Rildin asked with a small laugh as she patted his face. “Whatever was done was for your benefit, my love. My husband deserves to be envied.”
“You’re lying, my love, and thinking I don’t know it is even more of an insult,” Almis countered at once.
“You flaunted yourself to prove that you’re not too old to attract men even with younger women around, and if you’d told the truth I would have had to let you get away with acting like a naughty child. But you didn’t tell the truth, so now you get what all naughty children deserve.”
“What do you mean, now?” Rildin asked with sudden worry as he took her arm and began to pull her toward a chair. “Almis, it’s in the middle of the day! We’ll be expected to join everyone for lunch in a little while, and then we have to go back to the games!”
“And we’ll certain do both of those things, you and I together,” he answered as he sat before pulling her across his knees. “You, however, won’t enjoy the time quite as much as you did this morning, whereas I’ll be enjoying it considerably more.”
Feeling appalled, Rildin seriously fought to keep him from taking down her breeches and underdrawers but the effort was as useless as pretending to struggle would have been. With her clothing pushed down to her knees she was held in a place she usually didn’t mind being, but she’d never been spanked in the middle of the day before. And she’d never had to leave her apartment and socialize after a spanking! The time would be horribly embarrassing, but maybe she could talk Almis into taking it easy -
“Oh, no, please, not that!” Rildin found herself blurting as her nether cheeks were separated and that -
that - thing was put in her bottom again. After that first time Almis hadn’t used it again, but now -! She’d discovered that the feelings caused by the thing in her bottom didn’t entirely disappear even after she’d been eased and the thing had been removed?
“For the first time in years you’ve really earned a good spanking, so I want it to be memorable,” Almis said as he kept her from reaching the string that would have pulled the thing out of her. “You’re lucky I don’t have my wooden ruler with me, or you’d be feeling that right now. If I have cause to do this again, though, I’ll find a wooden ruler.”
Rildin had many things she wanted to say, but the first smack on her bottom changed all the words to a wail and gurgle. The second smack came much too fast after the first and much too hard as well, as did the third and fourth smacks and then more and more. Almis was really serious about punishing her rather than playing, and as the ache grew higher in her seat Rildin wailed even louder. She couldn’t keep from squirming at the same time, just as though she were being spanked for the very first time.
The flames in Rildin’s seat rose so high that she managed to force out words of begging. Tears were running down her cheeks as Almis’s hand kept hitting her bottom harder than ever before, also causing that thing inside her to make her feel as though she were about to melt. She swore to be good from now on, swore to never do the same again, swore to turn inside out if that was what he wanted. Nothing came in response but the feel of his big hand swatting her bottom, so the wailing came back and this time stayed.
The spanking didn’t really go on all that long, but when Almis stood, put her over a padded foot stool, then entered her from behind, Rildin felt as though the spanking was continuing. His belly slapped her bottom as he stroked hard in and out of her, and the combination of sensations nearly drove her insane.
But even as she lost herself to everything she was being made to feel, she wailed on the inside at the thought of having to sit down to lunch?
Chapter 20
Almost everyone ended up being late to lunch, something Derand found extremely amusing. His male guests seemed to have been aroused by the games they’d watched, and the women by the games they’d played. Little Tomia had drawn so many stares from the way she ? strolled along that under other circumstances Vandrin might have been crowded out of the way. Instead Vandrin had been right behind her, getting the full benefit of the show she put on. When someone suggested they go back to their apartments for a while before lunch, Vandrin had almost hurt himself with the speed of his agreement.
But someone else hadn’t been at all pleased with a game that was played, and Derand had to deliberately keep himself from staring at his parents. The fact that his father was pleased rather than furious said that his mother would not enjoy sitting down to lunch, a fact underscored by the careful way she walked.
Queen Rildin was trying to pretend that she hadn’t been given a really hard spanking, but the situation was obvious if you knew what to look for?
“I’ve finally figured out where you learned your more unpleasant habits,” Seea murmured from his left, where she stood sipping tea. “You take after your father quite a lot, don’t you?”
“Not as much as I would like,” Derand murmured back, refraining from pointing out that his father had certainly made love to his mother after he’d heated up her bottom. He himself had spent the time before lunch taking reports from his people rather than enjoying his wife, which reminded him? “I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier: My men arrested what was left of that outlaw band after the fight, and we also have the men who were sent into the city to keep tabs on what was being done. And I sent thanks to the men who reported the outlaws, telling them to keep up the good work.”
