When a King misreads what a Queen is reading...

[Defiance]

(This is in response to Heather and Gwen placing a book into the Queen's bed)

 

There was something about the merriment of balls that generally had His Majesty, well, merry, but there seemed something quite sedate about this last one and Charles was not sure what precisely to make of that. Was it his leg which influenced his ability to take part or was it something else? Could it be the rocks of serious politics hanging over him? The events in the Lords with that blond villain exposing his secret treaty? The threat of having to cut Danby loose to the wolves like he had been forced to with so many others? Necessity was a harsh mistress, but she was a mistress who had taught this King a thing or two. He had too many worries as of late, and they were tiring him.

 

He needed a reprieve.

 

In days past he might have stayed with his friends until the wee hours of the morning with drink in hand, laughing until his face hurt or swiving away lady after lady until he passed out on a pillow of breasts or buttocks.

 

A heavy sigh escaped him. If only the duty he needed to most attend to these days were so pleasurable instead of reminding him of his age and pining for past days of youth which had seemed to blur by in a whirlwind. If that were so, he could have an heir growing inside his queen already. As he got older, imagining others in his mind was not quite enough to excite his cock. There required a bit more finesse to the activity and a formerly virginal queen did not seem capable of providing it. And he was not one who precisely enjoyed those who could not take initiative into their own hands, or mouths, as it were.

 

With those thoughts plaguing his mind, the king made his way to his queen with a glass of brandy in his hand. Everything proceeded as it always did until he slipped into the bed, his long arm slipping slightly under a pillow as he did so.

 

Hm? His hand closed around a book and as he laid down next to Karoline, he pulled it out. Bah, German. As if this is supposed to help do a thing but put her to sleep! He opened it anyway, not noticing the perplexed look on his wife's face.

 

"Charles," she began, ready to say she had no clue what that was, but was cut off when he suddenly smiled and chuckled. Then her face really, truly turned perplexed, and he leaned over to give her a soft kiss on the temple. What book is that, she thought with some aggravation, trying to read the spine, not fully melted by her husband's apparent pleasure at whatever it was. Who has been in my bed!

 

"Oh my dear what lengths you will go through in order to please your husband! And how clever, changing the spine in order to keep your Queenly propriety," he said, gaily, turning his attention to thumb through familiar pages. Does she have something special in store for me tonight? "Did you think I would be upset?"

 

Her eyes were wide, and she knew not what to say. She had no idea what he was talking about.

 

He took it for being demure and rather reserved. "Oh but I am not," he assured her. "There is no duty more important what with all this business in Lords and with my blasted cousins, and things are not entirely what they used to be what with my leg," he conceded, although in truth he did not like to think much about his age or his injury and how it impacted his sex life. He had thought to please her by giving in to some of her demands, hoping to keep her pliable in the thoughts that it would make her body more receptive to an heir. It pleased him that she might have thoughts about what might make him more receptive to seeding her with one. She was a shrewd young woman and surely would know that her position depended upon it far more than his did; in the end, he would be dead and what happened would happen so long as he did his best to keep the crown and pass it on properly, that was his part. Apparently she would go through great lengths to secure her own future. Brava!

 

"Now tell me, have you gotten to page twenty-two?" And up went his dark eyebrows almost with a boyish eagerness.

 

"Not yet?" she replied with uncertainty, leaning over to spy the page and giving a loud gasp, putting her hand to her mouth. Suddenly she did not know whether to hang the person who had done this or thank them. Only time would tell. In the meantime, she could not help but look at him wide-eyed.

 

The King, for his part, already found himself somewhat aroused by this new development. If the illustrious page 22 had yet to be read, it would not matter for tonight.