Scold's Passions

by Marie Hall

  His words caused a warm flush to rise and gave her a little more courage. "You swear?"

  "I swear. You will not become them." He tipped her chin higher, brushing her bottom lip with his thumb.

  "I wish I could do this as me," Io said, tugging at the barbette and then brushing her fingers over the heavy necklace she wore. The extremely rich fabric with all its intricate stitching and trims, Io could almost ignore. But the head covering and the jewels made her feel like she was trying too hard to be something she wasn't. She wasn't someone who needed to meet a king. "I cannot," she said, that brief moment of confidence fleeing. "Go in without me."

  "Io," Xavier said then sighed heavily. She watched him close his eyes then looked around to see the doors open and close, swallowing another lord and lady like a great beast.

  "I am sorry; you have wed a coward," Io said then leaned against him.

  "No, I have not," Xavier snapped, pushing her back and drawing his small knife from his hip. "I am wed to a goddess." The sharp steel warm from his body slid between her cheek and the fabric of the barbette. "I wed a goddess who is as much a warrior as I." With a smooth motion, the stranglehold was gone from her chin. "Perhaps more than I." Xavier put the blade away and pulled the entire headdress away. "I have a goddess for a wife, and she needs nothing more than her person to show everyone who and what she is." He tugged the netting from her hair and sent the tresses toppling down her back. "I married a goddess who is wild like the wind." He spun her around, brushing the now loose hair away to unlatch the necklace. "And who shines like the stars," he said as he lifted the jewels off.

  Io reached into her pocket as Xavier handed off the sapphire and gold piece to Roth and pulled out the light blue ribbon. "Xavier, please?" She handed the piece to him and held her hair out of the way. He tied the ribbon a little short, making the medallion sit up on her collarbone.

  "I wed a goddess. I have told everyone I wed you as you are. I will show everyone what I wed that they all see they will not change you." He took her hand and pulled her away from the wall, but she hardly noticed as she couldn't take her eyes from him. Her hand tucked under, then over, his arm; he stepped closer when the large doors opened.

  "Lord and Lady Brice," Io heard someone say loudly, and she was forced to take two steps before being stopped. "Xavier William David. "A paused that seemed longer than it should have been, then, "Io?"

  She heard gasps and a few whispers rise up, and Xavier jiggled his arm so Io stopped looking at him and looked forward. She swayed, but he held her. One more step and Xavier led her through the formalities of standing before the king.

  She rose from the last curtsey to see the man under the crown smiling at them. Yes, she'd known him so many years before, but he was no one then. Now, he was the only thing other than she whom Xavier cared about truly. She didn't want to be jealous, but she was. And maybe he saw that, for his smile fell away and he pushed up from the throne on which he sat.

  "Xavier Brice," he bellowed and stepped down from the dais.

  "My liege," Xavier said solemnly, before joining the other man in laughter and an embrace.

  "I have missed your sour disposition these last years."

  "You will continue to miss it, for I do not know I have it any longer," Xavier said, turning to Io. "You did give me such a prize God might strike me down were I not joyous every day."

  "Lady Io De san Mound," Io heard him say as he stepped toward her. Io stepped back, hearing the loud gasp from the crowd. "Oh, did you tell her terrible things about me?"

  Xavier took her elbow and drew her to his side. This, of course, put her closer to the man. "She believes you have some sorcery to turn her into a… lady," Xavier told him, and Io almost ran right then.

  "A lady?" His Majesty gasped and placed a hand on his heart. "Forbid I should turn your little scold into one."

  Io felt tears welling as the two men laughed. "I, too, should hope you have no such ability, or that sour disposition might return," Xavier said, turning Io into the king's embrace.

  Io felt the man's arms go around her and him lean in. "You know me, sister," he whispered. "I will do you no harm."

  "I know you not, and until Lord Brice, it was all you did me," Io whispered back and felt the man's hold loosen.

  Louder, he said, "It is well she is no lady that you are more pleasant. We will keep her as she is." He stepped back, and Io swayed on her feet.

  The next long while passed in a storm of people stepping up and greeting everyone else. Apparently, having the king embrace you was a remarkable occurrence and Io found herself the center of much attention. More than once, she put herself behind Roth, Luther, Samuel, or Liam, or behind Lucas, Jon, Gerald, and Ian in order to discourage the swarm that buzzed around her. She did eventually find her way to a window seat, and as other notable lords appeared, Io was left mostly alone.

  "Your lord husband watches, Io. You have nothing to be concerned about."

  Io was so startled to hear the king speak in her ear, she all but fell off the seat, which left her scrambling to get up and bow as she knew she was supposed to, though it was completely unnatural to her. "Your Highness," she managed then assessed her chance of running as he took a seat in the window. She was hoping a door somewhere would open that she could run, but none did and she was compelled to take the seat that was being pointed at.

  "I have rehearsed well what I would say to you, and now, words fail me," he said.

  "I have well practiced holding my tongue, did this day come," Io countered.

  "Do you truly only fear I will somehow change you? Or do you dislike me?"

  "I do not know you, Your Majesty," Io said.

  "This is fair enough reason I should think to hate me," he said, not defensively.

  "I do not hate you. I do not know you. But I bear no ill will toward you. I am sure you did as you needed."

  "It was not my want for you to suffer. I did not know the extent of the matter. And once I did, I remedied it."

  "Your remedy came almost not in time."

  "Sister," he said and set his hands over Io's.

  "I am not," she whispered, pulling her hand free. "I am not, and it should be left that way."

  "Very well, we will leave it for now," he agreed, leaning back and looking at her a bit sideways. "I did wonder if I made a wise choice, putting you in Xavier's care."

  "As did I," Io quipped, and he laughed.

  "The way you looked at him, when you walked in, the way he speaks of you… I am sure now."

  "You and he make the sum of two."

  "Are you yet uncertain?"

  "That I want to be with him, no. That I am the best he might be given. He is a man of power and influence. You gave him a wife who wants neither. I will not push him to grab for more."

  "And you grab for nothing, yourself?"

  "Only for him," Io said and wondered at the man's grin.

  "You are satisfied with only what you have?" he asked, and Io's eyes followed his upward, but she didn't understand his meaning. "Do you not want anything else which I might hold?"

  "What do you hold I cannot have without you? From another source or from my own deeds?"

  "I am king, I—"

  "You are king, but a king has nothing I should want."

  "Nothing?"

  "Nothing, what have you that I do not. What have you that no other anywhere lacks? Not but this heavy burden you wear on your head and carry with your shoulders. But you find it an insult, I might pity you."

  "Pity?"

  "For all you have, what have you that you enjoy? That you can breathe in deep and free and find joyful? No, there is not that a king has that I should ever envy."

  "No? You see no benefit in all that I have?"

  "What have you? A house? Many have such; some do not even want them. But I think it not the house which is so wonderful, but that which fills it."

  "Well, you see mine is filled with fine things."

  "Yes, fine things to you. But to
o many cups and tables mean little. In some houses, there is warmth and welcoming and…" she looked back to find Xavier standing with several men, "…security, without the necessity of arms."

  "Hmm," he muttered, rubbing his chin. "Well, I have riches, fine jewels, furs."

  "Yes, "Io said, reaching out to brush the trim on the robes he wore. I have admired these spots. They are grand," she said, lifting her left hand so it lay next to the necklace she wore. "But I might boast to say I think my jewels are better."

  She held still while he lifted the medallion and examined both sides. "He made this for you."

  "Yes, then he called me a wild animal and declared I shame and humiliate him," Io said and watched the man go red faced. Before he could call out, she set her hand on his arm. "We have reconciled this. As we have always honesty between us. We do not wish to be declared by the other perfect and without faults, like so many surrounding you."

  "Are you truly well satisfied with him?"

  "I am today; we will see what morning brings," Io said with a shrug.

  "And there is nothing you might want only the crown could give?" She shook her head. "You do not perhaps want the crown, itself? Wish to rally your husband to take it for you as I think he would do if you asked."

  Io lifted her eyes to the jeweled headpiece. "Does it come with something unique? I should want it if it might come with…" she had to really think, "a unicorn? Perhaps? Do kings have such beasts? And I do not mean pretend ones. Xavier tried to make my poor mare into a unicorn once. It did not end well."

  "I fear, my lady, the crown cannot summon such creatures." And before she could ask, "No dragons, either."

  Io sighed dramatically. "Only for a unicorn, would I take that pretentious thing off your head."

  He threw his head back and laughed. "Your wife is as amusing as you are sour, Brice," he said, causing Io to spin around to find Xavier stepping up to them.

  "Amusing is not always the word I use, Sire. But if you choose to…" Xavier griped.

  "Go… Take her, before she amuses me to death," the king said as another man of some importance stepped up.

  Xavier moved them away as the other man took the seat Io had occupied. "You seem… unchanged," he commented.

  "Read nothing into it, Xavier. I do not want to be here or be in his company," Io said, unwilling to apologize for the coolness she'd shown to the crown. If Xavier hoped she'd warm to him as he did, he would have his first disappointment handed over.

  "I would know why," Xavier said, directing her toward the table where refreshments were laid out.

  "What reason should I give?" Io's eye caught someone slipping into the room, and as she tracked him moving around the edge of the crowd, she felt her gut twist and a sudden throbbing ache in her shoulder. "Is it not enough that he left me to… be…" She needed to turn to follow where he went. "…abandoned, time after… time, and each time… worse than the last." Her final word barely came of her lips when a second man stepped from the shadows and said something briefly to the man then looked right at her. The darkness that fell over her gave her no comfort.

  The End

  Marie Hall

  Marie Hall is a romantic with an imagination and she uses those skills to both entertain and inform.

  Because of her love for the written word, she spends her days (and a lot of nights too) creating characters in setting and situations the reader will hopefully love and believe in.

  Writing erotica, historical and contemporary, allows her to reach a broader audience. Focusing on the complex dynamics of a dominate/submissive relationship, with love and respect as a main theme.

  Marie uses her degree in history to add facts about the time periods she writes and blogs about those facts from time to time. When she is not writing or blogging she spends time with her family, her husband of more than twenty years and her adult daughter. Mostly, though, with her little four legged fur-child, Tuck. They spend time enjoying the contrasting landscape of Western Colorado. With his high reaching, jagged and rough peaks and its soft sloping valleys it is the perfect setting to sit back and think up stories to tell.

  Please take the time to enjoy a book. Books open doors in life, takes you to places or times you may never have known and lift your spirit.

  Be Safe,

  And as always, READ ON!

  Don't miss these exciting titles by Marie Hall and Blushing Books!

  Worship Series

  Warrior's Scold - Book 1

  Royal Scold - Book 2

  Scold's House - Book 3

  Runaway Scold - Book 4

  Scold's Conquest - Book 5

  Scold's Claim - Book 6

  Scold’s Desire - Book 7

  Scold’s Passions

  A Warrior’s Arms, Books 1-5

  Master and Command Her Series

  The Pirate’s Daughter - Book 1

  His Pirate Wife - Book 2

  Contemporary Titles

  No Sugar Added

  Anthologies

  Lords & Ladies

  Connect with Marie Hall:

  www.cynsitywriting.org

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