“That’s right,” Rose goes on, leaning against Thandi. “He fucked me. And I bet he’ll do it again.”

“His cock is amazing,” Larissa says on her other side. “Ten inches at least.”

The two women nod sagely as Thandi hugs herself. Charlie really is a rake. All these people… all these people say that he’s been with them! She struggles to get a smile on her face. “That sure sounds nice.”

“It is. And now you’re his personal maid. So that makes you his personal fucktoy.” Larissa licks her lips, giving Thandi a smile with too much teeth. “Enjoy, newbie.”

Thandi is shoved out of the group and she plods back to work. She tidies. Neatens. Organizes. And… wonders. Is her master really at meetings right now? Or are they meetings of the other sort?

She had always heard of him being a rake, but it seems so incongruent with his personality. He doesn’t even like to touch people!

Maybe… maybe she should simply… ask him? 

Tonight. 

Yes.

Her master arrives during the dinner bell and she scrambles for food. Little things she knows he will eat. Nothing too greasy. Nothing too rich. He likes meat but he seems to have a disdain for the cooking that Roseview has…

He sits to start reading reports as she sets up her cart beside him, beginning to feed him dutifully. He leans to take a bite of pasta, brow crimping as he glances at her.

“You are making the face. I told you to ask me anything, Dandelion. You are so worried over your visions that you forget everything else. Like the fact that I abhor tomatoes.”

“Ah! You ate some, though!!!” 

“Mm. Disregard. What is it?”

“Do you know… Rose and Larissa? Maids…”

“I don’t know that I do. I don’t really interact with them.” 

Thandi studies his face. He looks so utterly bored, eyes sliding back to his papers. She takes a deep breath. “They say they’ve been with you.”

“And you believe them?”

“I don’t know!” Thandi pauses with the pasta, setting the fork down so she can fuss with the ring on her finger, a self-soothing motion. “I see you for so little of the day. I meet so many people who tell me things and then they give me details…”

Charlie sets down his papers, his expression growing stormy. “So you do believe them. What sorts of details have they given you, Dandelion? Enlighten me.” He turns his chair to face her, and Thandi suddenly recalls what she was told. You’re his personal fucktoy.

Her visions are filled with him, always him, and she had… had one. That she pushed away. She didn’t want to think about.

But now. Now the vision swims in the back of her mind. His face close to hers, sweaty and red and half-lidded, pupils blown wide. The sensation of heat. 

Thandi is trembling now.

Charlie’s brow twitches. “Well? Did you forget I am right in front of you?”

“N-no!”

“So tell me. What details did they give you?”

“Bedroom habits, sir!”

His eyes widen. “Sir? Sir? How many times have I asked you not to call me sir? Are we frightened again, Dandelion? You’re shaking.”

“I’m sorry!” Thandi nearly sobs, but she stifles it with a deep breath. “I’m sorry. They. They won’t stop talking about it. They. They all…”

“You absolutely believe them.”

“I…”

“You think I’ve been slutting it up. Sowing my wild oats. You think I’ve been fucking around. What else do you think of me? Hm?”

Shoot. A tear rolls down her cheek and he reaches out to brush it away. Thandi flinches from his hand and he pulls back, letting the tear drop.

“Why don’t I have the right to cry in this situation?” He mumbles, standing. Thandi tries not to look directly at him. The vision is taking up a lot of her mind. “Dandelion. Thandi. I am no rake. I don’t have the heart for it.” He pauses, and she finally looks up to see his dark expression directed elsewhere. “You don’t need to sleep on the palette if you don’t want to. If you’re so frightened of becoming one of my lovers. I’m sure there’s plenty of room in the servant’s wing. In the meanwhile, I’ll be going out.”

“Out?! But! Your food—”

“Well, how else am I going to get laid? By staying and getting cozy with you?” He spits it out, shaking his head. His fists are clenched. 

Thandi’s gaze drops. “…understood, master Vanderbee.”

She hears an offended grunt from him before he storms out of his rooms, slamming the door, making her flinch. She… she really messed this up.

What if the vision is wrong? What if she’s wrong?

She sniffles and lets herself cry at last, feeling helpless. He’s run off again. She should have trusted him. 

But trust… is so hard.

Charlie slaps down another book in front of Thandi. She grimaces as she looks up at him. “Is this how you were taught when you were being tutored?”

“Yes. Memorize it and then we will discuss the finer points of Sippari trade routes and the current trading companies.” He taps the cover of the book. “We only have three months until the next edition comes out and we need to review new routes. There are usually only a few small changes each year, so if you memorize this, then we don’t need to worry about memorizing a large amount afterwards.”

Thandi nods, stretching her fingers and readying her notepad as she opens the book. It starts with a complex diagram spread that unfolds from the book, hundreds of lines criss-crossing the map. “This is all Sippari routes…?”

“Only the Sippari routes having to do with Istres. They go everywhere and it truly does make a difference when you need to say, get a message somewhere fast, or send something somewhere, or import something at a moment’s notice.”

“Charlie… most of these don’t affect Roseview… I understand knowing some of these, but… only three end here.”

“Yes, start with those three and radiate out. We manage the territory all along the Green Coast, so we have to know these thirty-seven specifically. But if you look here, see how there are twenty in this region of Boyoma alone? The Delta trades with them, so we’ll have to pay apt attention to what comes and goes.”

Thandi nods and gets to work. She does have a knack for memorizing from books, as much as she has a knack for forgetting things. The patches in her memory are slowly lessening, though, and she feels… useful. She’s happy to help. And Charlie seems to appreciate having someone willing to try to get to his level of understanding of the duchy. It makes her smile.

Thandi pours herself into it with a fervor she once stoked with her magic studies. Now, though, she has company, and a comrade. A rival, even, when a lively debate sparks between them.

“We need a road.” Thandi leans back in her seat, sighing.

“We have roads.”

“Real roads. These dirt and barely cobbled paths are a relic!”

“Certainly we can use more patrols…”

“Oh, come now, Charlie, you’ve walked them as well as I. They’re unkind. Look at these roads in Sippar.” 

“Sippar! Well, if I too had workers that would trade labor for schooling then we wouldn’t be having this conversation!” 

And so on. She enjoys it immensely, and she enjoys further that there’s something else she hadn’t… really gotten when she was with Vitani. Vutani praised her in one breath and then broke her down the next. Charlie… he at first was quite rough, and quite rude, but always constructive. Now it seems like he’s been doing little else but praising her. 

It’s refreshing. Very refreshing.

And… outside.

She can go outside whenever she wants. It doesn’t matter when. If the spirit moves her, she rises and stands out in the sun. She would even stand out in a light drizzle, eyes closed, taking in the sounds and the feeling of warm summer rain misting her skin. Charlie often goes with her, a silent partner there to keep her company.Yes… she does like this new life of hers. It’s truly hers now.

Thandi is surprised. She had never thought that the Lord Vanderbee cared for her in one way or another. The way he spoke, she had assumed he was just using her. A mutual exchange: her, for whatever she wanted in this world; him, to be able to do as he pleased without the pressure of marriage from his advisors.

But tonight…

He steers her backwards, toward her bed, and forces her to sit. “I said, where did he touch you?”

“Nowhere of consequence, my Lord.”

He growls, now speaking through grit teeth. “All of you is of consequence. Or did you forget your vows? Did you forget who you belong to?”

You will be the only one I have eyes for. My beloved spouse, I vow to give my heart to only you, to give every bit of my being to you, to be yours til the day I die.

She hadn’t forgotten. It’s the standard East Istrian wedding vow. She did not think it particularly important, as theirs is a marriage of symbiotic parasitism. His own vows were shorter.

You are mine, and I am yours. For as long as you’ll have me, this will remain true.

Did he… mean those words? 

Thandi stares into the severe eyes of her husband. He kneels on the floor in front of her, glare hard. Determined. She sees… something unexpected. No, it can’t be. She takes a deep breath. “I’ve not forgotten, my Lord.”

Another growl.

“He kissed my hand.” 

The Duke nods, removing his cravat pin and slipping it into a pocket. He carefully undoes his cravat, white muslin as clean and bright as the coils on her head. He takes her hand delicately, wiping her skin with the soft cloth, massaging her. The intense concentration on his face only makes Thandi blush.

What could be going through his mind? As he finishes, he lightly brings her fingers to his lips and lays gentle kisses upon the knuckles. He glances up at her. “Where else did he dare to touch my wife?”

Don’t tell her that this is his way of…! Claiming her! She’s nervous as she says next, “My shoulder…” She gestures to her right, and he nods. Lord Vanderbee pauses to undo his boots and toss them aside, climbing into her bed to kneel behind her. Thandi finds herself tilting her head, letting him get at her shoulder and neck.

His cravat suffices as a way to wipe her clean, as if refreshing the sensations of her skin to make his own leave an impression. Or maybe she’s overthinking it?

Lord Vanderbee massages both shoulders, and she hadn’t realized how tense she was until he’s in the midst of relaxing her. “My Lord… you are certainly… intent on helping me to forget.”

He leans forward, hands not stopping as his breath hits her ear. “Enough my Lords for the night, my wife. Thandi. Call me by my name.”

“Charles?”

“Don’t be insufferable. You know how much I dislike it.”

At this, she giggles. She leans back to lay against his chest. He no longer massages— there is simply no room to do so! “Charlie.”

“There we go, my moon. Much better.” He lays kisses along the curve of her neck. The sensation of his lips on anything but her hands is new and fresh and exhilarating. And yet he moves so gently.

“Any other requests, my… Charlie?”

“Quite a few. Keep on with my Charlie and tell me where else he touched you.”

“My… my waist.”

“That bastard.” Charlie’s hands move to her sides, carefully wiping… and then his hand sits there and rubs. “Never let anyone else come near you again. You are mine. My wife. I haven’t got faith above or below and certainly not enough for those who step away and linger unseen for the next opportunity to avail a man of his partner.” 

He buries his face into the crook of Thandi’s neck as she turns her face to kiss the top of his head. His hair is silky soft, smelling only vaguely minty. There’s a masculine scent about him right now and it makes her all the more aware of the way he is pressing to her. 

He only shifts to sit properly, hoisting her to sit neatly between his legs, his arms wrapped around her. 

“You are mine. Not a single soul may touch you without my permission. Not even the gods. You are my wife. Mine. Never for anyone else. I refuse them the privilege.” His lips meet her neck again, and then he nips. It’s so light. Kiss after kiss. It makes her squeeze her legs together. His voice is low and sultry, rumbling through his chest and into her. She feels something else now. Pressed hard into her back. His arousal. 

It makes her tense, and yet… she’s not against the idea. They’re married. It was bound to come up eventually.

She’s making puns to comfort herself. 

And yet. That flicker inside of her. Fanning the flame. His hips rock slightly, grinding his cock against her as his hands rise to cup her breasts. He lays yet another kiss upon her neck. “My wife. My moon, my stars, my wife…” His fingers find the tips of her nipples through the silk of her dress, teasing them. Thandi’s breathing becomes shaky and one of his hands come up to turn her face toward him, the kiss he presses to her lips strong. 

And yet. His lips are soft. It leaves her tingling. His eyes meet hers, the shocks of honey in them making her ache. Whyever did she marry a man who couldn’t love her? Another kiss. His eyes flutter closed as his tongue seeks permission to enter. Thandi parts her lips and the taste of him is exhilarating. His tongue is smooth, and it feels like he wants to taste her thoroughly. 

A purr runs through him and shocks them both. He pulls back, hand rising to his chest. And then he jerks himself up to stalk away, though she manages an eyeful of his straining erection against his trousers.

Oh, no.

The curiosity is killing her… not to mention her own arousal…