Chapter 6: Two Ladies and a Fight

“So, how is my favourite rear end?” Henry asked and gave Theresa a gentle slap on her buttock when he came out of the bedroom the next morning. As was now the new normal, Theresa was stark naked and she was preparing the morning meal.

“Still sore,” she admitted with a giggle. “But you better be prepared to do that again soon.”

“Agnes told us not to do it too often,” he reminded her.

“I’m not talking about today or tomorrow, silly, but my time of the month is sometime next week, and in between Stephanie visiting and then Hans, I want my hunky bailiff to myself for a day or two, got me?”

“I’m more than happy to indulge you, oh gloriously naked woman of mine,” the proclaimed theatrically, earning him a gentle swat on the shoulder.

“I have to admit though,” he continued as Theresa served him a bowl of gruel and a tankard of the thin ale that people drank during the day. “I quite like that shaven look of yours.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” she said, sitting down across the table from him. “Because I intend to keep it that way. It always irked me that I’m so woolly down there. Katarina will drop by once a week to clean me up.”

“I guess the next days you’ll be wearing clothes though?” he asked as he started to eat.

“No, why?” Theresa asked with a chuckle. “Stephanie will have to get used to it, and Hans Capon too for that matter. Summer will be over in three or four weeks. I want to make the most of the warm weather.”

Henry dropped his spoon into the bowl. “Are you nuts, love? Considering his more than modest success with the females, you’ll drive Hans insane if you prance around naked in front of him.”

“That just means we’ll have to set him up,” she shot back with a smile. “I know for a fact that Jolanda finds him quite handsome.”

“You would put him into the same bind that Radzig was in. He can’t marry a commoner, not until the church finally drops that stupid idea of putting people into different classes.”

Theresa shrugged, making her breasts wiggle, which got his immediate attention, much to her amusement.

“Why don’t we apply the same solution we chose? Sir Radzig owes you a favour for having denied his fatherhood for so long, and he has no other children. What would stop him from adopting Jolanda? Like my parents, hers died at Skalitz too.”

“Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself here, love?” he replied with a grin. “Even if she thinks Hans is handsome. We don’t know what he will think of her.”

Theresa started giggling. “Can you drop by at 12 in the noon? I’ll show you something that will make you understand.”

Henry went about his usual business. Ruch and Lumir had been at each other’s throats about a cow and he had to speak a verdict. Then he stopped by at the garrison for some training. Theresa’s naked escapades had taken his mind off his training for a few days and he had certainly become somewhat rusty. It wasn’t every day that one of his soldiers landed several clean hits in a training fight. Frustrated by his own slacking off, he decided to spend the afternoon getting back into proper shape. After all he was about to be responsible that Lady Stephanie wouldn’t see any harm come to her during her travel to Pribyslavitz.

As instructed by the love of his life, he returned to the Rathaus at noon. Like always, when the workers were present, Theresa had chosen to actually wear clothing. That dress wouldn’t come off until Jolanda and the other hands at the Rathaus had gone home.

When he entered, Theresa put her finger over her mouth to signal him to be quiet. Following her directions, he looked out of the window, and gasped. In the backyard, on an old blanket, lay Jolanda, stark naked, sleeping during working hours.

“I can see where you think that Hans will like her,” Henry whispered to Theresa and chuckled. “She isn’t exactly ugly, is she?”

“She started doing that after we spooked her when we had a bath,” Theresa whispered back. “Looks like she became curious.”

“Well, I better get out of here before she wakes up. Not sure how she would take it that I’ve seen her. And you talk to her and tell her that it is okay, even though she technically sleeps on the job.”

“You’re the best,” Theresa whispered and planted a kiss on his nose.

The rest of the afternoon was more routine business. He dropped by to check on Adam. His tavern provided by a large margin the most income of the village. With lots of thirsty soldiers and even more thirsty labourers, business was running well. Heck, even Fritz and Matthew had finally learned to work for a living, although that didn’t stop them from being at Adam’s place every night. But at least Fritz had stopped beating up people all the time.

And finally he found the time to visit the woodcutters camp to watch the miracle that Agnes had worked on Kunesh and he had to agree that the bath house woman had not exaggerated. Kunesh had clearly lost some weight, wore much better clothes than is usual tatty outfit, and he certainly ran a tight ship.

Skalitz’s erstwhile resident drunkard had even learned to read and do the calculations for the woodcutters yard. With most of the construction work in Pribyslavitz finished, the majority of the harvested wood was now sold to the surrounding villages and towns. Especially Sasau needed a lot of timber, which was a nice little earner for their village as a lot of trees had to make way for agricultural land. Farms were pretty much the only thing Pribyslavitz still lacked.

But if Kuneshes tight reign over the woodcutters was anything to go by, it was only a matter of time until enough space had been cleared to build the first farms. Who would have thought that the soak who had beaten him into a pulp a year ago would one day be a very reliable foreman.

After a rather refreshingly civil talk with Kunesh, Henry looked up into the sky. Not a single cloud spoiled the view and judging by how low the sun had already gone, the working day was now over for most labourers and that meant the Rathaus was now housing just one, very naked inhabitant. He quickly made his way home.

True to his expectations, Theresa was alone and she had disposed of any clothing. He certainly wasn’t going to complain. Right now the gloriously unclothed love of his life was taking a bath in the backyard. He grabbed a stool and sat down next to the bath tub.

“I take it a talk was had?” he asked.

“Boy, that girl can blush,” Theresa said, giggling. “I had to put down my foot a bit about sleeping on the job, but we agreed that she can use the backyard during her lunch break. She will work an hour longer everyday and get a one hour break at noon, so she can roast herself in the backyard.”

“That probably means I’m expected to stay away for that one hour,” he said, chuckling.

“We talked about it,” Theresa confirmed. “For the time being it’s probably wise, but if she really wants to charm Hans Capon, she’ll eventually have to become used to be seen. But for the moment she’s probably still too insecure. She likes being naked, but at the same time she’s mortally afraid what people would think if they knew what she was doing.”

“I wonder how many more people are like her,” Henry mused. “One of the books I bought from the Uzhitz scribe was about a group of people called Adamites, who wore no clothing. Surely you and Jolanda can’t be the only people who secretly like to go without clothes.”

“That sounds like you have a plan of sorts,” she said and climbed out of the tub, with an unspoken request for him to towel her naked body dry.

“Well, I was thinking,” he said, while copping a feel of her wet breasts. “If we built such a fence around a larger area, where people could go naked without being seen or bothered. And the great bit is, that if everyone is naked, it doesn’t matter if you’re a lord or a serf, you can’t tell the difference if nobody wears anything.”

“Does that mean you would join in?” Theresa teased him as he dutifully towelled her dry.

“I’m not a compulsive nudist like you, but seeing you naked all day, yeah, count me in,” Henry replied dryly.

“Good answer,” she said and kissed the tip of his nose. “Now let’s go inside, I feel like having a good wine tonight.”

“It’s not really a project for today or tomorrow,” Henry admitted as they sipped their drinks in the evening. “For now I can watch you go naked at home, so all’s fine with me, but once I got my sword back, I’ll think about that space.”

Theresa sighed. “Love, it’s only a sword. Can’t you let it go?”

“Only a sword?” Henry said, clearly offended by her words. “It’s the last sword he ever made, and I helped forging it, and I was nearly killed with it. This is personal. I wouldn’t be who I am if I let that go just like that!”

“I know,” she admitted meekly. “But I’m afraid you’ll get yourself killed one day. I’ve been in love with you since I was little. I don’t want to be a widow at age twenty.”

Henry gaped at her. “Since you were...”

“Yes, way before you hooked up with Bianca. That was painful to watch,” she admitted with tears in her eyes.