Chapter 72: Differences and Similarities

Nadia found her friends changing their clothing for dinner when she returned from her riding lesson. Four pale backsides greeted her as she walked into the room.

“Joseph has decided that we must dress for dinner,” Catherine groused.

“To celebrate the arrival of Genrico’s parents?” Nadia wondered. She was unembarrassed to change in front of the others – something that had changed during her time at the castle.

“So it seems,” Elizabeth answered. “It seems that Gemma has made new clothing for her family and Joseph wishes to permit her to force Geordie and her husband to wear it.”

Nadia smiled in spite of herself.

“He seems to be going out of his way to make amends for his imagined transgressions,” she noted.

“Transgressions?” Catherine inquired.

“For stealing Genrico from beneath his father’s thumb,” Nadia answered. “Did you know he created a job that will permit them to remain in Tyrell?”

“No,” Bianca said, looking at the others. They all shook their heads while wearing troubled expressions. They had been so intent upon their own projects that they had lost track of Joseph.

“He has offered him the job of keeping track of the ships,” Nadia said as she dipped a sponge into a tub of water in the vain attempt at clearing the smell of the horses from her skin. “How is the younger son?”

“Quiet,” Bianca answered. “I admit that I was a bit overwhelmed when I got here but he seemed content to take in every single sight.”

“He was intent on staring holes in your trousers when he departed,” Nadia said with a laugh. “The fashions here are much different to those in our homeland. Even in the capital I have never seen a woman wearing trousers. They are quite comfortable.”

“And warmer in the winter,” Elizabeth said while she pulled the stings at the bodice of her dress.

“I can imagine,” Nadia agreed. “There is nothing quite as bad as a cold wind up your skirt.”

Julia, Octavia, Liala and Lucretia entered while Nadia was still wiping down her body.

“I recall the first night she stayed here,” Octavia said, gesturing to Nadia’s nude form. “We had to hold up a sheet before she would undress.”

“I have been thoroughly corrupted,” Nadia answered as she daubed at her pale skin. Her arms and shoulders had begun to freckle along with her nose and forehead. The temperature wasn’t noticeably warmer in Azkoval but the sun seemed to affect her more. Her hair had even lightened a bit. She decided that it was because she rarely spent time out of doors in Narcine. That was something else she would miss when she returned home.

“Quickly, too,” Lucretia added. “Imagine what we could have accomplished if we hadn’t taken it easy on you at the beginning.”

“Imagine,” Nadia said, shaking her head. “Have you determined the order in which you will visit Joseph’s bed?”

The others had been talking among themselves but the room became suddenly silent. Nadia was pulling a white linen blouse over her head but found every eye in the room on her when her head emerged.

“I have overheard the whispered conversations,” she said with a shrug.

“That has been one of the problems we’ve faced,” Octavia said after looking at the others.

“But not the biggest,” Liala added.

“Oh?” Nadia wondered while she ran an ivory comb through her tresses. She realized that everyone was looking at her again. “I hope that I haven’t interrupted your plans.”

“We can see that you are becoming closer to him,” Elizabeth said.

“It is ... nice,” Nadia said. She sat down on the bed to pull on her boots.

“But?” Catherine posed.

“But nothing,” Nadia said. “You have cast me for a role that I do not wish. I have told you this. I need not be a consideration. In fact, I think you should simply draw lots for your turn.”

“We have decided on another game of chance,” Julia said. She sat opposite Nadia and looked closely at her face.

“Do tell,” Nadia said.

“We’re going to go in the order we spoke to him,” Catherine said. “Bianca actually saw him first but she didn’t speak to him. Elizabeth and I also saw him from a distance but did not get close enough to speak. Julia was the first to talk to him. Lucretia was second and then Octavia. Liala was as standoffish as you when she first met him so she goes next. Elizabeth will be fifth; then me and then Bianca.”

“We hope he will be good at it by the time it is our time,” Bianca added with a laugh. “You truly are not upset at this.”

“Of course not,” Nadia said. “I told you...”

“You lie to us and to yourself,” Julia interrupted.

“Do not confuse what you desire with what I desire,” Nadia countered.

“I don’t,” Julia answered while looking directly in the other woman’s eye. “I see you when you are around him. You are pleasant around everyone but you glow when he is nearby. If you will only admit it to yourself, you will find he is everything you have ever dreamed about as a husband.”

“You can all say that,” Nadia answered dismissively.

“No, we can’t,” Octavia said. “For my part, I never dreamed that such a man would be possible for my future. I had always believed I would be married off to a fat, hateful man that required enticements to do business with Marindar. I will admit that I began to fantasize about a life as his queen but that changed. I have found a different life here ... a life I never considered before. I would marry him tomorrow if I could have that life with him but it is impossible. So I must choose and I chose my happiness.”

“You would be happy as queen,” Nadia protested.

“No,” Liala answered again. “If any of us had met Joseph during his campaigning days I have no doubt we would have stayed at his side for all time. But we have all found that we cannot be content with only half of our dreams fulfilled. He sees that. Just as he sees that your goals do not include exploration. You are happiest when you are in the middle of governing. It is a role that you have been training for your entire life.”

“To serve at my uncle’s side,” Nadia said.

“That’s not true,” Elizabeth answered. “You have told us that your uncle will wed soon. He will have a wife and a child that will take up the attention he once paid to you. In time, you will grow frustrated as your role in Denaya diminishes. Your role here will only grow. There are no boundaries here. You will find the life you have always desired within these walls beside one of the finest men you will ever know.”

“We didn’t wish to have this discussion yet,” Catherine said soothingly. “That is why we have delayed our ... visits with Joseph. But you need to stop looking for a reason to leave and focus on the multitude of reasons to stay.”

“You know we have spies everywhere,” Octavia said. “That almost certainly includes in your country and in your capital. We have known for more than a year that you were to be sent here. The information we received told us that it was because your uncle wished not only to learn more about Azkoval but he wanted you to get to know its king. If you were to write your uncle today and inform him that you wish to marry King Joseph and remain in Azkoval forever, I would wager that he would hand-deliver his blessings in order to ensure the wedding comes as soon as possible. What uncle wouldn’t be proud to have his niece’s child govern Azkoval?”

Nadia frowned.

“As much as we desire to ... spend nights with Joseph, we will not if it interferes in what is destined,” Bianca said.

“Nothing is destined!” Nadia said, getting to her feet. “I know what you want but I am not that person.”

“Not the person to rule with Joseph or not the person that is willing to share him with us?” Lucretia asked.

“Either!” Nadia said angrily as she sat heavily again.

The young women offered sympathetic looks.

“Our capital is different,” Nadia said with a hard sigh. “We are not ... perverted but we are not as repressed as some here. I know about relations. They are not conducted openly but they are not hidden, either. I know my uncle has courtesans.”

“We would not be mistresses,” Bianca cut in.

“No, of course not,” Nadia agreed. “I explained this to him today, in fact. You will all be his wives in deed if not in word. You will take roles in the government and in his life. You will bear him children and love each other as you love him. You will be his family.”

The others exchanged glances before Liala spoke.

“Yes,” she said with a nod. “When we return from Marindar, Octavia, Bianca, Lucretia and I will ask to be landed. That will give us the ability to maintain our relationship with Joseph and with each other.”

“Then one of you should be queen,” Nadia replied.

“None of us wish to be queen,” Julia pointed out. “You are the one who has always aspired to be a great man’s right hand.”

“Joseph sees this,” Bianca said.

“No, he doesn’t,” Nadia said with certainty. “I asked him this very question. I asked if he was permitting me access in order to groom me for the part. He said he was not. He said he simply liked to have someone with different ideas near to him while he considered important matters. Since everyone else has other duties, I have been conscripted.”

“It is still a preview of the life you can expect if you marry him,” Lucretia pointed out. “Will he seek your counsel on every matter? Perhaps not. But there will not be an important decision made in the most important country in the known world without your input.”

“It’s more than ambition,” Julia stated. “I’ve seen how your eyes follow him when he’s in the same room. I’ve seen the little secret smiles when he notices you or agrees with a point you’ve made.”

Nadia was about to protest but Octavia cut her off.

“From a practical standpoint,” she began in a softer voice than her usual gleeful tones, “what are your true options for wedlock once you return to Denaya? You will marry into a family there. If you are fortunate, it might even be to a man you do not hate. If nothing else, I want you to consider the opportunity Azkoval presents ... not to you but to the land your uncle rules. A marriage will tie Azkoval and Denaya more firmly for generations. Have you wondered why Azkoval sought out relations with a country as obscure as Pretonia? It offers nothing and needs nothing from us but we made it a point to send an emissary there and to offer to house a representative here. Why?”

Nadia frowned.

“It is because Joseph’s great-great-grandfather married a woman that came from that land,” Octavia answered without waiting for a reply. “The woman was dead for a hundred years before Joseph was born. She died without producing an heir so there are no blood ties. But she was once married to his great-great-grandfather so the king made certain to tell the Pretonians that they would always be considered our friends. That is what you can offer to Denaya. A child of your uncle’s line will one day rule Azkoval and bind our two countries together for eternity.”

Nadia exhaled noisily.

“What if I decide I do not wish to share my husband with ... women ... that I know?” she asked.

“Then we will desist our pursuit immediately,” Julia answered after a quick glance around the room.

“When we first knew of your arrival, we looked at you as ... someone malleable,” Elizabeth said. “Our immediate plan was to further your relationship with Joseph only if it met our standards.”

“That being a willingness to understand our relationship with him,” Bianca clarified.

“Now, we have come to view things differently,” Catherine continued. “We have seen the benefit of having you ... not someone like you but you ... at his side. We are wise enough to know that we do not understand many of the intricacies of ruling a large group of people.”

“You must understand that, in many ways, we are all alchemists,” Bianca added. “Everything we do here is a simple experiment. We have no idea of how things will turn out. We simply do things that seem practical at the moment. Even King Joseph has no experience in many matters that he must decide every day.”

“But you do,” Lucretia said. “You have spent your life watching and studying your uncle as he governed.”

“More importantly,” Julia cut in, “you are interested in the process. That is perhaps the largest disqualification for each of us. We are interested in some facets of how things work but we are disinterested in far more.”

“So, if you do not wish to share him, we will do as he would do,” Liala concluded. “We would put the needs of Azkoval ahead of our own desires. The future of this country is better served with you as his queen than with us in his bed.”

Geordie had begun to wonder if his life could get any better.

He was in a different country and was dining with a man feared and respected by all that had heard his name.

Best of all, the young man was surrounded on all sides by lovely women that would have turned the heads of any man in his village. He fought a smile as the image of one of the village women came to his mind. She was one of the more attractive young women in the area – and she knew it.

He glanced to his left where his brother’s fiancée sat and then to his right where an identical copy resided in her sister. Both wore dresses that were far less flattering than the trousers had been but each was prettier than the prettiest girl he’d ever seen.

Across from him, Octavia and Elizabeth had barely concealed their upper charms and creamy white skin pushed outward above their tight bodices. Beside them sat five more visions of exotic beauty in Nadia, Liala, Lucretia, Bianca and Catherine.