Chapter 25 ~ Lukas Von Bayern

 

My wife was upset with me, so upset that she couldn’t even look at me. She turned away from me when I tried to meet her eye. She cried when she thought that I was asleep.

The people at court were being nice to her. They felt sorry for her. They didn’t know that it was time for me to put an heir in her again.

People often stopped me to ask about Sofie. They saw her go to the chapel every day to pray for our child. They saw her as a saint.

The priest celebrated mass after mass for Anna-Rosa’s soul. He expected to be rewarded for doing such things. When I brought him the tokens of my appreciation, he told me that it wouldn’t help. A soulless child could never go to heaven.

I threatened his life once again, telling him that I would kill him if he ever said anything of the sort to Sofie. I knew that she was just barely holding onto her faith in life. I feared that she might do something to hurt herself so she could be with our Anna.

It was imperative that I put a babe in her belly, but she wanted me to be rough with her. I doubted that I could do that. I needed to touch her gently and kiss her. In the meantime, I was certain that she had nothing to do with her father’s attacks.

It had been wrong of me to harm her as I had in the beginning. Now, she believed that she could only enjoy my body when it was coupled with pain.

I decided to shower her with tenderness. With time, she would forget that I had been such a monster to her.

~

I stormed into the hall. Every eye was on me. There were problems in Tirol again. I hated that realm in the meantime. The Tirolers were calling for me to name one of them as proxy to rule the lands for me. My distrust for them grew.

Could Sofie be right? The best thing for me to do would be to have a set of heirs as soon as possible, but my wife turned away from me when I tried to make love to her. She wasn’t interested in my tender touches.

I had been furious with her when I wed her. I had also been furious with myself for wanting her as badly as I did. Her face called to me, her body called to mine. I had needed to fuck her, and I had wanted to stare at her face and have such a beautiful wife to vainly call my own. Enemy or not, it hadn’t taken me long to fall in love with her.

She had a good soul, and she knew how to make me smile without trying to do it. It was an honor to spend my time with her.

She had been so brave, asking for punishment when she had done nothing to earn it but obey her father. If her father had been innocent, and the war had been brought on by the lesser lords of Tirol to gain their cousins lands, then I was a murderer for killing Sofie’s family. I may not have killed them personally, but it was because of me that her husband, father, and brother had lost their heads. It had been me who forced her to look at them.

I was certain that my wife loved me. I was certain that she had forgiven me my crimes against her and her family. Now she was asking me to hurt her because she no longer craved a gentle touch.

She had told me that Frederick had been gentle with her. She still visited his grave daily and laid flowers on his grave. I fought not to be jealous when she did that. I would want her to do the same for me if I passed before she did. Her loyalty was one of her strongest traits. I admired that about her.

It was my traits that brought us problems. I had a need in me to hurt women, to bring them pleasure through pain. It had started when I was an older boy. I was out in the woods alone. I found Marie with her family. They were having a picnic. Her mother was telling her how proud she was of her because she had caught my eye. They wanted her to marry me.

That was when she told them that she wanted to be a nun. Her father had told her no. He yelled at her and demanded that she marry me. I wanted to step forward and defend her because I had already known about her plans. She spoke of them often.

Before I could say anything, her father broke a young thin branch off of a tree. He demanded that Marie’s mother hold her arms so he could whip Marie for disobeying him.

I froze where I stood. The words alone had sent blood rushing to my penis, filling it and making it hard.

Marie’s mother held onto her wrists, and her father lifted her skirts out of the way. He whipped her horribly as she cried for him to stop. Red marks crisscross her arse and thighs all the way down to her heels.

Her cries of pain had only made me harder. I came watching them. I was too ashamed of myself to step forward to help her. I returned to the castle and told my father what I’d seen. Naturally, I left out how it made me feel.

He called Marie to his scholar and spoke with her. He had her brought to the abbey that very day, saving her from her father’s wrath. Her family had disowned her, but she was happy among the sisters. She told me that she couldn’t bear to have a man tell her what to do and have power over her ever again.

Sofie was her opposite. My precious Sofie wanted me to punish her. She wanted me to get hard and come, and she wanted to come through pain. She was my soulmate.

I looked around the hall. Sofie was sitting with her ladies by the fire. Lady Adelheid and Lady Klara were with her, trying to convince her that she should go for a walk outside in nature, saying that it would make her feel better.

I knew what would help my wife. She needed what I needed: pain combined with pleasure. “Sofie, I need to speak to you in private, please.” I held my hand out to her.

Sofie stood and took my hand. I could see that she wasn’t thrilled. She feared that I would try to make love to her again.

I brought her to our chamber and told my squire that no one was allowed into our chamber no matter what they heard.

Sofie gave me a confused look.

“Go get the strap out of that trunk and lay it in my hands,” I told her when we were alone.

She didn’t move. She didn’t even seem to be breathing as she thought about my words. “Really? Are you going to punish me?” A spark of excitement alighted in her eyes.

“Yes.” I took a deep breath, and then I spoke with more determination. “Yes, I am.”

“You promise? This isn’t a game? You aren’t teasing me?” she asked me.

I turned to her and let my hand glide into her hair, balling my hand into a fist, clenching her hair in my grasp as I tilted her head back. “No, it will be no game.”

She smiled at me, filling my heart with so much warmth. This was what she wanted and needed. And bless her precious soul, she was thankful that I was giving it to her.