Chapter 11: Country Home

“Home is wherever you leave everything you love and never question that it will be there when you return.” – Leo Christopher.

July 1071. York, Great Britain

Luke was glad to be back in Britain. After spending the past six months in the frozen hell of Iceland, he was tired of seeing ice and snow. He looked forward to the sun’s warmth and being able to sleep at a more normal time since Iceland received 20 hours of daylight through the summer. Luke also missed simple things like hot showers and meat that wasn’t fish. What he looked forward to the most was the company of his women, especially Marion; it had been too long since he felt the pleasure of a female body. Luke could have sampled the Icelandic beauties if he wanted to, especially since there were so many widows, but he was absolutely loyal to Marion and could never cheat on her. She had sent him a letter about her adventures with Philip and Bertha, which gave Luke a chuckle. He trusted Marion, and she knew it, so she wasn’t nervous.

When Luke arrived in York, instead of heading to the palace, he decided to tour the city, which caused concern with his guards. After listening to them complain, Luke finally had enough and told them he would take full responsibility for his actions. Walking the city streets, Luke looked at the industry driving the wave of progress sweeping Great Britain. While Luke may have set the wave off, his wife, the queen, was riding high on it. The next trick would be to keep the economy advancing when the businesses moved to areas with lower labor costs.

One of the curious things Luke saw was that many new factories were not his but belonged to companies he had never heard of before. It was something to talk over with Bard. While Luke welcomed the competition, he didn’t want to be caught with his pants down by the competition.

After the tour, he headed to the palace, knowing Marion would want his final action report. Also, since Marion was his senior wife, she got dibs on being tangled up with Luke. Looking around town, Luke couldn’t help but feel pride in what he had helped Marion create. Everyone was healthy, and there were high levels of commerce generating tax revenue.

Walking into the offices, Luke noticed everything become quiet. ‘Great, what is she pissed about now?’ thought Luke. Arriving in the outer office, Marion’s secretary signaled for Luke to enter. Inside, he was immediately put in an awkward position since an obviously pregnant Pollyanna was sitting on the corner of Marion’s desk. All Luke could do was remain as professional as possible.

“General MacDougall reporting, ma’am.” He said as he snapped to attention. Marion looked up at him and smiled.

“Relax, general. I’ve read your reports, heard Pollyanna’s story, and agree. She was out of line and put my troops at risk. What’s more, she recognizes this. The reason she’s here is there is something she wanted to tell you, but you can’t say anything until she’s done. Polly?”

“Luke,” Luke gave her a sharp look, and Pollyanna paused. “General, when you first sent me home, I was furious. It felt like you had betrayed me, and I was willing to do almost anything to get revenge. However, the day before we came into port, I found myself in sickbay after slipping on the deck and rolling my ankle. While there, I was able to talk with a young soldier who had been severely wounded. What hit me was he had been wounded in my counterattack. I finally looked at the casualties and realized most were from my counterattack. I caused most of our casualties because my emotions overrode me when I thought you had been killed.”

“Okay. You realize I won’t allow you close to a combat zone again since you let your emotions rule you and put an entire battalion at risk. One other thing, when in uniform, I am not your lover but your commanding officer, and I expect the respect due.”

Marion looked like she was going to say something, but Luke silenced her with a sharp glance.

“I accept that, General,” Pollyanna replied with a sigh. Marion had explained to Pollyanna what Luke would likely do to her, so she expected the ruling to keep her far from the front.

Marion would have loved to get tangled up with Luke, but she was so buried in paperwork that she couldn’t get away. Luke understood, knowing the pile waiting for him at his army office. Still, he wanted to relax, so he went to find Alice, who was very happy to see him.

Over the next week, Luke worked between 18 and 20 hours a day to catch up on paperwork that had been piling up. At the end of the week, Marion pulled Luke to the side and ordered him to stay home for a few days since he was falling asleep on his feet.

The first day, while Luke was still sleeping, Marion was pulling her hair out at the office. It was one of those days when nothing would go correctly. None of the single problems was a national emergency, but put together, they could cause serious problems. The remaining nobles in the country figured out another way to fight Marion. They started using her laws against her, especially the tax code. The nobility had figured out that by exploiting loopholes and stretching the tax code to the limit, they could drastically reduce their tax bill.

Even though the nobles had just figured out how to exploit loopholes, it was already denting Marion’s tax revenue. Worse, if the commoners figured out the tax loopholes the nobility used, they would want loopholes for themselves, which could crush tax revenue. If Marion didn’t extend the loopholes, the commoners could revolt.

Marion had enacted the tax reforms while Luke had been in Iceland, and if he had been home, he would have warned her against passing them. Now they were biting Marion in the arse. The tax reforms were a product of a faction in Marion’s government that supported a return to the old ways, and their reforms were the first step.

If her tax misstep wasn’t enough, Ireland had a simmering war that was slowly heating up. The Irish nobles were gradually unifying, but their fractious nature stood in their way.

By the end of the day, Marion was blaming Luke for her problems. He had pushed her into being queen and encouraged her to link her rule to the lower classes. Another mark against Luke was he hadn’t been home to warn her.

When Marion entered her quarters that evening, her temper was beyond its breaking point, with even Gabriella walking softly around her. The guards told her they hadn’t seen Luke for their entire shift, so they didn’t know where he was. While Marion ran around her quarters, looking for Luke so she could chew him out. Gabriella looked in on the children. There, she found Luke.

Luke had been bored after reading the book he had started before leaving for Iceland. After wandering around the chambers, he decided to read with Mackenzie since she loved reading, especially with her daddy. Together, Luke and Mackenzie read several books before they started getting tired.

Gabrielle leaned against the door frame and looked at Luke and Mackenzie. Luke was sleeping while sitting in a chair with his head back, mouth open, and snoring softly. Mackenzie sat on his lap with her head leaning against her daddy’s chest and a book on her lap.

“Marion,” Gabriella whispered.

“What!” Marion snapped.

“Come here,” Gabriella replied while holding her finger to her mouth, signaling Marion to be quiet. Marion stomped over and looked in the room. When she saw what Gabriella was looking at, her heart melted, and tears ran down her cheeks. Any anger Marion felt toward Luke dissipated instantly.

Marion slipped into the room and grabbed a cover to place over her daughter and husband. As she covered them up, Marion kissed the top of her daughter’s head and her husband’s cheek.

“Why can’t that be me?” sobbed Marion after she closed the door where Luke and Mackenzie were sleeping.

“I don’t know, darling. You have never liked children.”

“But why, Gabby?”

“Look at how you were raised compared to Luke or even me. Your father ignored you, and your mother died in childbirth, so for all real purposes, you didn’t have parents. Luke had both parents while he was growing up, and they always showed him their love. My parents showed me their love for me as much as the conditions allowed until they were murdered.”

“What are you saying? I don’t love my children!”

“No, Marion. I’m saying you don’t know how to show your love. Children know much more than adults think and know you love them; you just have to learn how to show your love.”

“Oh.”

“Come on, Marion. The children are not the only people who need your love.”

Gabby led Marion to their bed, where she carefully stripped the queen’s clothing from her body and quickly stripped to match. Marion turned to face Gabriella and held Gabby’s hands down.

“Gabriella, I do love you. I love you almost as much as I love Luke, but I can’t do this now. Before I go further, I must apologize to all the people I dearly love, starting with the man who made all this possible. He could do so much better than me. I mean, look at how I have abused and used him over the past six years. Is that really how you should treat someone you love.”

“You know Luke loves you, deary. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have put up with all the shit you gave him.”

“Still, before we do anything, I must apologize and show him I love him above all others.” Gabriella sighed.

“Okay. May I at least have a kiss?”

The kiss Marion laid on Gabby took her breath away, and the fire in Marion’s eyes told Gabby she was desired but was still second to Luke. Surprisingly, Gabriella was good with that. She loved Luke, too, just not in the same way she loved Marion. If it hadn’t been for Luke, both of them would have been dead.

It took Luke and Mackenzie almost half an hour before they woke up. When Luke saw the cover over them, he sent Mackenzie to play with her siblings and went to find Marion. He found her naked with her legs spread wide on their bed.

“Waiting for Gabby?” Luke asked, confused.

“No, darling husband. I’m waiting for you. When I found Mackenzie sleeping on your lap, Gabriella helped me realize I don’t show you I love you nearly as much as I should. I am going to start remedying that right now. Take me, Luke. Pound me into the mattress and keep going until you can’t get it up anymore. If there is ANYTHING you want to do to me, you can do it without asking.”

Luke slowly stripped and moved to the bed. He didn’t want to pound her into the mattress; he only wished to love his wife. So started a prolonged dance for the couple as Luke tried to inhabit the same skin as Marion. By the time Luke couldn’t get wood, they were exhausted and soaked in sweat, while the covers under them were soaked with other bodily fluids. They smiled at each other while they put new covers on the bed and went to shower.

When Alice got home that evening, she looked at Marion and smiled,

“It’s about time you and Luke did some horizontal dancing. You two haven’t been tangled up since before he left for Iceland.”

“What about you?”

“We were tangled up the day he returned, and you were busy.”

“Of course, you two were tangled up as soon as possible.”

Marion didn’t have any heat in her voice. After all, Marion was busy the day Luke returned, and Alice was his second wife. Luke tried to share his affections as evenly as possible between his two wives, although Alice didn’t have another lover like Marion. Alice would make love to one of the other women if necessary but greatly preferred Luke.

Luke still hadn’t recovered when the five of them went to bed. After the addition of Pollyanna to their family, Marion had a larger bed made so they could still be comfortable. Marion usually slept on Luke’s right side, Gabriella snuggled behind her, and Pollyanna slept on Luke’s left. Alice, being the smallest of the group, decided her place would be on top of Luke.

Alice found she slept exceptionally well, lying on Luke. While she fell asleep, she would listen to Luke’s heartbeat and breathing, which would help her relax. Luke barely noticed Alice’s weight on top of him unless he had to pee badly. Her weight acted like a weighted blanket for Luke, which helped him sleep. While Alice slept, one of her hands would lay on Marion’s hip, and the other would lay on Pollyanna’s hip. The most erotic part for Alice was Luke’s cock would slot into her slit, and his pubic hair tickled her clit every time one of them would move in any way.

When the next Sunday arrived, Marion decided to take the day off and spend it with her family. She left orders that she wouldn’t be disturbed unless someone invaded Britain or a serious revolt broke out. What Marion intended to be a quiet day was interrupted when Luke told her he had a surprise for her and the rest of the family.

He packed the family into their carriages and headed north out of the city. Even with all the women bugging him about where they were going, Luke stayed quiet. After twenty kilometers, the carriages pulled up in front of a large, beautiful country home, and Luke jumped out.

“Welcome to our country home!” Luke exclaimed.

Marion looked over the building and couldn’t help the smile that graced her face. Looking at her lovers and wife, they wore the same expression. If the children went to bed at a decent time, they would be thanking Luke until none could keep their eyes open.

“When did you find this place?” asked Alice.

“Actually, Ruth found it. She knew I had been looking for a country home where we could go and spend time as a family. I wanted something with plenty of land so the children could play. I also wanted land I could go hunting and fishing on without worrying about seeing anyone I didn’t want to see. She bought this place for me two days after Polly and I left for Iceland. The house that used to be here was too small, so I drew up plans and sent them to Ruth in March. Since it doesn’t take months to get permits, house building doesn’t take twice as long as it should. I’m told the contractors still have some small things to finish, but for the most part, it’s ready for us to live in.”

“This place is beautiful, Luke!” exclaimed Marion.

Luke produced a key and led the family inside, where the women followed Luke as he showed them all the features of the building. The children were placed two per room, with two rooms sharing a bathroom. The master bedroom was large enough for all five of them and had its own bathroom. The house boasted hot and cold running water, a central heating and cooling system, and electric lighting. The heart of the climate control system was a heat pump in the basement that heated or cooled outside air before fans forced the air into the house. Like in Luke’s time, the air was carried by a series of insulated sheet steel ducts. The electricity for the home came from a dam on a nearby stream that flowed year-round. Upstream of the dam was a small lake where the family would hunt, fish, and swim.

The family and the children’s governess spent the rest of the day exploring the property. Alice found her favorite part was the gardens, which were just starting. She felt completely at peace while she walked the lanes and watched nature. Marion and Gabriella loved the greenhouses where exotic plants could be grown. The greenhouses would also allow herbs, fruits, and vegetables to be grown year-round. Only Marion noticed that many areas of the house closely resembled pictures of Luke’s old home in Alaska with warm wood trims and granite countertops.

That evening, Marion found Luke sitting on a west-facing balcony sipping some amber-colored drink with a content look on his face. On closer inspection, Marion saw Luke’s eyes were closed, and the only muscles that moved were the ones required to sip his drink. Finally, when he put his glass down, Marion stepped up and gently sat on his lap. With her head against his chest, Luke gently rubbed her back.

“Thinking about your old life?” Marion asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“Not so much thinking about it but comparing the old to the new. I am pleased to be here and have you in my life. If I were still back in my old life, I likely still would be single and headed toward an early grave from overstress. There were many times when I was working 70 – 80 hours a week and not getting anywhere. It’s rare to work that long here, and even when I do, I have you and the rest of our family to help me relax.”

Marion’s face lit up with a smile hearing Luke. As she smiled, a breeze blew her hair, spreading golden rays of light as the evening sun reflected off her hair. This effect was part of the reason Marion gained the informal title “The Golden Queen.” The other reason was Britain’s wealth; everything she touched seemed to turn to gold. Very few realized the real reason for Britain’s wealth accumulation was the man Marion was sitting on. Marion noticed Luke taking a drink;