A Stern Lord for My Lady by R.R. Vane
Chapter 7
Last night her husband had returned from Court quite late, after she’d fallen asleep, and Alicia had not had the chance to glance upon him. She did so in the morning, noting he liked to sleep naked, and he’d not woken her up to claim any kind of husbandly rights. He had behaved graciously by letting her have her sleep, and Alicia thought with a smile that she could, after all, behave graciously in her turn. She caressed the hardness of his smooth chest, and she saw him smile in his sleep, yet he did not wake up. She understood he must be tired from his prolonged duties last night, yet she knew she would have to wake him up because he should head to Court this morning. She decided to behave like a truly gracious wife and let him sleep for a while longer, as she took care of laying out and readying the garments he would wear today.
When she saw at last that her husband was still sleeping, giving no sign he would wake, she rejoined him on the bed, as a wicked thought came into her head. There were several ways of making a man alert and ready, weren’t there? She pulled back the covers, and gently laid her lips upon his cock, which was lying at half-mast. And soon the scrumptious taste of his cock made her fully take him into her mouth. She smiled against his shaft when she felt him jolt wide awake, but continued her ministrations, until she made him spill his salty seed inside her mouth with a deep moan. She did not dislike the taste of it, and felt quite wicked as she swallowed his salty essence. She wiped her mouth, then looked upon him with a smile. She was still new to this kind of lovemaking, and she feared she’d been too artless.
“How do you feel, my lord?” she asked tentatively.
“I dreamt I’d died and gone to Heaven,” he told her with that smile which made him look even comelier than he already was.
“Don’t blaspheme,” she chided with a smile of her own, further wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
He caressed the seam of her lips, which were still red and slightly swollen from her earlier ministrations.
“You’ve behaved like a dutiful wife,” he told her approvingly.
She laughed, still tasting his essence upon her tongue, and revelling in the salty taste of it.
“Dutiful wives get rewards,” he told her, now stroking the side of her neck. “So, what does your heart desire, wife?”
She sighed, knowing it was already late, and also knowing he had his business at Court to attend to. Soon, she’d be similarly tethered to the court, since she knew Queen Eleanor expected her to come to attendance next week.
“The sun has long been up, and the bell has tolled eight. Do you have time to dispense rewards, husband?” she asked him pointedly, cocking en eyebrow.
He groaned, then chided her.
“You should have woken me sooner!”
She gestured to the garments that had already been laid out for him, readied.
“You have time enough for dressing and for breaking your fast.”
Still, he chided her.
“You should have woken me sooner!” he muttered with a frown. “If you’d woken me sooner, there’d have been time for more than dressing and breaking fast!”
At first she had indeed thought of waking him sooner, but he’d seemed to be sleeping so peacefully and she hadn’t had the heart to do it. He didn’t look like a fiend in his sleep, and, for that matter, nor did he look like an angel. He just looked, well, as her husband should, a comely man sleeping where he truly belonged – in her bed.
He sighed, straightening a tendril of her hair that had come loose, and gently brushing her cheek as he did so.
“No use crying over spilt milk now, I guess. There will be plenty of time for rewards when I get back,” he said with that comely smile of his.
She frowned upon him, suddenly perceiving she’d miss him today. She hadn’t thought she’d ever miss a man’s presence. She’d always thought of men as rather useless. This one seemed to have his uses though. But she chastised herself for the silly way she’d already begun to moon over him. What had he said earlier?
“You said dutiful wives get rewards,” she told him with a frown. “Does that mean undutiful wives get punishments?”
The next move he made stunned her. He swiftly sat up, taking hold of her and placing her over his lap, without giving her time to struggle or protest.
“Naughty wives certainly get punishments,” he said cheerfully, laying a couple of spanks on her upturned rump.
Alicia braced herself for the searing caress of his hand upon her bottom, her heart thumping in strange anticipation. They were light, playful spanks though, just teasing, and holding only the faint promise of a fiery sting. He soon released her, and she saw he was grinning broadly. She keenly felt that stab of pleasure in her sheath, recalling the peculiar stirring she’d experienced right after he’d spanked her. Pleasure mingling with pain. Shameful, yet excruciatingly delicious.
Naughty wives get punishments– he’d said in jest. But what did naughty mean? And did she truly want to be naughty?
She watched him rise, with a look of deep regret on his face.
“Alas, I cannot linger and play, wife. The dreary Court awaits…”
She nodded, knowing they both had pressing chores today.
It was perhaps two hours later that Alicia received a visit from Master Reed’s wife, to talk upon the price that the master smith required for his services. Alicia soon came to see, with a suppressed smile, that Mistress Reed was an astute woman and liked to drive a hard bargain. So they haggled over the price for a good while, taking each other’s measure, until it was time for the two of them to burst out laughing. They’d reached a figure that was acceptable to both of them, but it had taken a long while for them to be able to do so.
“I must say, Mistress,” Alicia said shaking her head with a smile. “Your husband erred when he told me you’d be easy to bargain with today. You haggle something fierce.”
“Well, so do you for that matter, my lady,” Mistress Reed retorted with a smile of her own.
Alicia had already come to like the master smith’s wife, because she’d always been fond of plainspoken, decisive women. Yet she could not reconcile the image of this woman with that of the chastened, subdued wife who’d received a harsh punishment with a switch from her husband. Mistress Reed must have seen Alicia’s curious glance, because she smiled self-consciously.
“I will be off now, my lady…” she said with a slight bow of her head.
Yet Alicia could no longer contain her curiosity. Besides, she had to make sure Mistress Reed was fine and did not have a husband who treated her ill.
“Your husband… Master Reed. He seems a harsh man,” she said cautiously.
Mistress Reed burst out laughing with a shake of her head.
“Nay, milady. He is usually mild as a lamb, and a hard worker. He spends all his time at his forge and dreams only of smithing and clever contraptions all day long.”
Alicia could not reconcile what Mistress Reed had spoken about with the image of the stern man whipping his wife’s bare bottom with the switch.
“But…”
Mistress Reed sighed.
“You saw what you saw and, aye, he chastened me well yesterday, but it’s upon a rare occasion that he does so, and, truth be told, I did everything in my power to drive him out of his mind…”
Alicia widened her eyes, and Mistress Reed went on with a broad grin.
“As I said, my husband is a hard worker. Sometimes he works too hard, as if work was his mistress… He sees to his craft, and I see to the running and the numbers of the business. But sometimes wicked thoughts come into my head and I think my man should pay more mind to love play with me than to his hard work. You see, this man of mine is not easily riled by my temper, which is something fierce. There’s one thing he hates though – when I exchange playful words or hot glances with other men.”
Alicia’s eyes got even wider.
“So what you’re saying is you like to make him jealous?! In order to get him to punish you?”
Mistress Reed nodded with a smile and a shrug.
“But why?” Alicia asked, although she recalled only too well the image of the punishment had stirred strange, shameful sensations inside her.
Mistress Reed coloured slightly, but then heaved a sigh and decided to speak.
“My lady, the switch he wields at times stings something fierce, and there is pain in the punishment, yet, for me, there is also strange pleasure. There is no lasting harm from my husband’s chastisement, as he would rather cut off his right arm than hurt me in earnest. He would not ever say so, but I know he also enjoys the punishments I goad him to deliver at times, understanding within himself that I behave the way I do just to taunt him. You see, there is a closeness we both enjoy that this punishment brings. A strange bond which makes our love burn even fiercer. Besides, our loving between the sheets afterwards is simply wondrous... more wondrous than anything in this world.”
Mistress Reed suddenly paused as if at last aware that she’d shared too much with a stranger, yet she cast Alicia a measuring glance. Then added with a wicked smile, “My lady, I see by the look in your eyes you know what I’m talking about. I saw your husband at times walking around the market. He is a handsome man, is he not? Has he already proven a stern husband?”
It was Alicia’s turn to look flustered. She cleared her throat, not wanting to lie to a woman who’d already shared intimate things with her.
“He… well… he did chastise me soundly in front of the entire Court. The punishment…”
She was however unable to continue and glanced helplessly at Mistress Reed who gave her a mischievous wink.
“I understand you’re newly married. So you’ll both have time to sort out how the married discipline takes place…” Mistress Reed then added with a laugh, “Though I confess my bottom does smart something fierce this morning, after Tom took good care of it yesterday. He does not want to let it show, but he’s already feeling somewhat guilty and fretting upon me today, to let me know how caring and sweet-tempered he can be.”
Alicia laughed in her turn.
“Why, Master Reed swore to me the spanking would make you sweet-tempered.”
Mistress Reed gave a mock frown.
“He wishes!” she proclaimed, and soon after that took her leave, promising she would visit again to oversee how things were going when her husband’s apprentices came to take measurements for the ironwork that was needed.
Alicia told Mistress Reed she was looking forward to new visits from her, and hoped they would form a friendship. By the way Mistress Reed responded she was pleased that a noble lady was taking interest in her, but Alicia had never thought herself truly above hard-working people like Master and Mistress Reed. She’d always thought such people were often cleverer than her own peers.
The rest of her day kept her busy, yet she could not help but recall the strange, stirring conversation she’d had with Mistress Reed. She found herself blushing upon thinking of the way the blacksmith had wielded the switch upon his wife’s bottom, and strived hard to put the image away from her mind. The image lingered with her though, and she found herself wondering what it would feel like to have a merciless switch striping her skin, while she was lying defenceless and her husband was brandishing it with vigour. She shook her head in wonder realizing she both dreaded the switch and felt strangely stirred by the prospect of it.
