Strangers in a Strange Land--A Pawns & Queens era novella--Chapter Four

[Evie]

Previous chapter: https://www.rhemuthcastle.com/index.php/topic,3289.0.html


Strangers in a Strange Land

Chapter Four

August 8, 1457
Rhemuth Castle
The Royal Library
Morning

"Sweet Jesú, woman, how dare you be so cheerful this early in the morning!" Prince Camber grinned at his sister-by-marriage to reassure her that despite his scolding tone, he was very much joking. "Can't you see I have a very boring book to finish here?"

Alixa stopped humming to herself, although her smile assured him that she had not stopped due to fright, but just because she had remembered where they were and that others besides herself were also attempting to read in the quiet space of the library's sitting area.

He remembered when he'd first seen her, looking anxiously around her as she stood on the pier at Orsal with her frightful old chaperone, appearing thoroughly cowed. The old biddy was still flitting around the castle like a rabid bat, since even though Alixa clearly didn't want her here, for some reason she had not yet sent her packing. But a mere two months out from under her thumb and constant admonitions had done wonders for Alixa.

The nervous expression and fearful desire to please still returned on occasion, whenever the young princess was presented with some new task or unexpected situation she had never had to face before and didn't know how to tackle. But as the weeks had passed, she had grown in confidence, swiftly learning that no one in the Haldane Court would deride or beat her for those things she did not know. The night before, she had even managed to venture a slightly differing opinion from the King's in a brief conversation with him without passing out in a dead faint the moment she realized their viewpoints slightly diverged.

"What are you reading?" she asked him now, setting aside her own book for the moment.

"A Brief History of the Conflicts in Meara, by Michael of Cloome," he answered. "Which you would think might be more interesting, given the topic, but the way it's written makes it about as dry as licking a bowl of desert sand."

Alixa giggled. "I will trust your word for that. I have never tried licking a bowl of sand. Is that for your university studies?"

"Partly. It's more for my 'You're a Haldane Prince and ought to know this stuff' studies. Though I'm preparing for the new term also."

"When are you heading back to Grecotha?"

"Next week, I think, if the weather holds." He glanced at the small pile of books beside her. "Would you like me to bring back a book or two for you when I return for Christmas Court?"

Her features had lit up briefly, only to dim again. "That would be lovely, but my dowry money for the year just arrived, and there's even less of it than I thought there would be. Maybe once I see how much that's going to stretch...."

"Alixa, I don't think you need to worry. You're married to Cinhil, and I'm fairly sure he's not penniless. But in any case, I'd meant to give you some as a Twelfth Night present anyway. Just let me know if there are any particular titles or topics that you would be interested in, and I can see what the booksellers in Grecotha have to offer."

"Thank you! You're so kind."  The shy expression Camber was growing to know well flitted across Alixa's face. He had learned it usually meant "Someone is being nice to me, and I don't quite know how to react."

He stood, slipping his deadly dry tome back into his scholar's satchel. "I should head over to Father's study. His meeting should be over by now, and I think he wants to fuss about my profligate spending at university before sending me off with a freshly refilled coin pouch for the term." Camber gave his sister-by-marriage a wink and a cheeky grin, making her giggle and shake her head at him as he headed off to see the King.

#

Madame Dardenay sat in an alcove in the library's historical archives, watching her former charge engaging in a conversation with the impudent young princeling she was not married to. It was scandalous, the way she conducted herself now, brazenly smiling at young men indiscriminately and tempting them with her seductive wiles! And the young rogue was even planning on buying her gifts and presenting them to her right under her husband's nose! If her husband didn't swiftly nip this immoral behavior in the bud, it would serve him right to be cuckolded!

She had spent her free moments in the past week looking for the map that was rumored to be here, and was growing increasingly more certain that the rumor was based more on fabricated hearsay than on truth, for thus far it had not turned up in any of the old books or scrolls she had managed to peruse. If there was some top secret, restricted section of the archives she was unaware of, perhaps she might find the ancient document there instead, but her careful search along every section of shelving or the few exposed sections of library wall had so far revealed no hint of such an area, unless the map she was seeking was in the room containing the Transfer Portal she and la princesse had arrived from Coroth through. She had not yet managed to figure out how to gain access to that secret annex, since no one had seen fit to grant Alixa access to it yet, and the only others who seemed to be able to pass in and out of it at will were those of the Haldane blood and the young Earl of Lendour. If there were others who could do so, Madame had not managed to discover their identities yet.

There was another rumor she had been tasked with investigating, if she could, but with her still sketchy understanding of Gwyneddan (although both her comprehension and her ability to speak it had improved from daily exposure to the language in the past two months), she was less certain if she could find the other information le roi de Joux was interested in. It would be far easier for her to decipher a diagram or sketch than to go through thousands of books filled with text in a foreign language she still had only the most basic comprehension of to find the specific information Renier was hoping she might find. It would be easier if she could simply Mind-Read someone for that information, yet who at the Haldane Court would be in possession of the requisite knowledge and yet unshielded enough for her to Mind-Read without being detected?

While she was still pondering the second dilemma, she stumbled upon the solution to the first. Unrolling a slip of parchment that had been neatly tucked away inside another scroll, she found the map she sought. Or at least she thought it might be the correct one, although it did not seem to line up completely with the current floor plan of the Castle. Still, enough of the most prominent features of the layout remained the same that she felt fairly sure she had found the objective of her search. With a quick glance around to ensure no one was watching, she slid the rolled parchment into the cuff of her sleeve, sliding the edge of it up her arm until it was fully concealed under the snugly-laced fabric.

#

August 8, 1457
Rhemuth Castle
The Lower Bailey
Evening

Madame Dardenay stood at the foot of the curtain wall near the grounds of Saint Hilary's Basilica, staring at the spot where the entrance to the secret passages ought to be. She had determined this entrance would be the easiest one for her to access, and from the very faint tingle she could sense from this section of the wall, she was fairly certain she had found the correct spot, but the map was of little help in determining how to actually open the doorway into the secret passage. She knew in these older castles, some form of magical glyph traced in the air before the entrance was generally used, but figuring out which particular glyph had been set as the key to this locked entrance was the trick.

She tried tracing a couple of figures that she had seen King Renier use at Trebaçeaux, but neither of them worked here. After a moment's thought, she tried a few other arcane symbols at random, hoping one of those might work, but to no avail. She began to wonder if anyone ever used the hidden passages anymore or if they had long since been forgotten or filled in; after all, judging from the map she held, the castle's floor plan had been redesigned and added onto at least once, if not more, since the time this map had been drawn some three centuries earlier, assuming this was the original map and not just a copy.

That thought gave her a new idea. If the map was just a copy, it might not work unless the copy had also seen frequent use previously. But if it was the original, then perhaps the map had not simply been drawn up from memory. Perhaps the person who created it had sketched in the outlines of the castle walls first, then added the red lines indicating the hidden passages as each one was discovered. If so, maybe she could still pick up some impression, however faint, of that original map-maker traversing the passages and what magical glyph he had used to access them. At least there would be nothing lost in attempting to read any such lingering impressions from the map. That seemed far more likely to yield the results she needed than simply camping out here near the lower bailey entrance in hopes of eventually spying someone else wandering down here to enter the passage, and seeing what symbol they traced in the air in front of the wall. If the passages had gone unused in years, she could die of old age waiting for that to happen!

She could not attempt such a reading here, however. Her Deryni powers were not that strong, so she would need to try this somewhere more private where she could lower her shields fully, go into a deep trance, and then hopefully be able to focus well enough to succeed at the task at hand. And that was assuming there was any lingering impression to be discovered from the map at all, and that whatever impression of the original artist that might remain on it would yield the answers that she needed. But the attempt seemed worth the effort nonetheless.

#

August 8, 1457
Rhemuth Castle
Madame Dardenay's bedchamber
Night

When she was a younger woman, she would have done this work by sitting cross-legged on the carpet while staring into a candle flame, but Madame knew if she attempted to do so now, she might never make it back onto her feet again. So instead, she lay on her bed with her hands crossed over the map, which lay upon her ample bosom, and stared at a fixed point on the ceiling beams overhead. Fortunately it was a painted beam, and there was a sunburst design in the precise spot where her gaze was fixed, making it easier for her to use that design as a staring pattern.

She fell into a trance so deep, she nearly fell straight into a slumbering state, which would not necessarily have been a failure since with the map the focus of her thoughts and held so closely to her body, and with her shields fully lowered, she might have still managed to gain the information that she sought through a dream. But she did not wish to sleep yet, because if she did discover what she needed, it would be easier to use these late night hours when everyone else was asleep to explore the hidden corridors and see which ones still existed and where they all led.

She was not certain exactly when the switch occurred, but suddenly it seemed she was not in her own body anymore. Instead, she was standing at one of the paneled walls of her bedchamber, bringing up a slender hand to chest level. Glancing down, she saw she was in a young maiden's form, but not one that had ever been her own, for this girl was slender, her hair hanging in two waist-long brunette braids on either side of her face, both wound in green ribbons.

The girl traced a glyph in the air with her raised hand, the shiral ring on it catching a gleam of candlelight, and Madame swiftly committed the glyph's pattern to memory. She heard a voice behind her say "Sophie!"

The voice startled Madame out of her trance, sounding so much like it was right in the room with her, only a few feet behind her, but as soon as she came back to herself, she realized that had simply been part of the vision. This Sophie who had once used the map had evidently been discovered in the act, or perhaps she was with a companion who was merely surprised to see the spell had actually worked. Whichever was the case, it hardly mattered; the chit was long dead, and had likely been up to no good anyhow. Why would a girl her age have wanted to go sneaking around the secret passages of a castle anyway, unless it had been to join some lover for an illicit tryst? Young ladies that age were nearly all licentious, eager to throw themselves at a man, or sometimes more than one, though they might try to hide their lustfulness with false protestations. She had been one of the few exceptions to the rule, completely untouched until she had been given to Monsieur Dardenay quite against her will, and he had swiftly cured her of any wayward tendencies she might have once harbored.

Madame hoisted herself off the bed and lumbered over to the exact place where the girl in her vision had once stood. Focusing on opening the passage entrance, she traced the glyph in the air in front of the wooden paneling and watched it silently slide open.

#

August 8, 1457
Rhemuth Castle
Inside one of the secret passages
Night

"Are we meant to be in here?" asked the girl as the wall slid shut behind her.

Her companion lit a globe of blue-violet handfire, sending it slowly rising above their heads. "Of course not!" He grinned. "But what sort of intelligencers would we be if we didn't do a bit of sneaking around?"

The girl laughed. "We're not intelligencers yet, you numpty!"

"No," agreed the boy. "But we will be someday, so we might as well start practicing."

The girl could hardly disagree with that logic. "So, which way should we go first?" she asked. "Left or right?"

The boy took a moment to get his bearings. "Left," he said. "That way goes down towards the Basilica. The other way leads to some other chambers, but I don't know for sure which ones are occupied and which ones aren't at the moment."

"All right, you lead," said the girl. "I don't suppose we can get lost in here, can we?"

"Not really," her companion reassured her. "Maybe if you go down some of the side passages and then get turned around, but not in this main passage. We're in the curtain wall, you know. The one that faces the Molling River."

"Ohhhh! All right, that makes sense." They continued down the passage for a few feet. "How long are we going to be here in Rhemuth?" the girl asked after a few moments. "And do you think I'll have a chance to visit my sister?"

"Your sis–Oh! You mean your brother?" The boy grinned. "No one knows her as your sister here. But you might get to see Aidan, if the King has no need of him. I'm sure you'll get a chance to. I think King Uthyr will be pretty busy this week, given the potential setting and all."

"We're not meant to be talking about that," the girl warned. "Someone might hear us."

"Then plug your ears!" the boy said, laughing. "We're inside the wall! Who is going to be around to overhear?"

"You never know," said the girl. "We got in here where we shouldn't be, didn't we? Maybe others know how to get into here too."

"I doubt it," said the boy. "Father is one of the few people who knows these passages even exist anymore. I only know about them because I found a copy of my great-great-something-grandmother's map in his study last month and he told me about them. But I don't think even he knows that I know how to get in."

"Then how do you know how to get in, if he didn't teach you?" she asked.

He grinned. "I hid and watched him do it. As I said, we're intelligencers."

The girl grabbed the boy's sleeve. "Seb, I think at least one other person besides us knows about these passages." She pointed out a footprint in the dust up ahead. "That looks too short to be your father's, and we've not been that way yet, unless you went through this passage earlier. But I think your foot is narrower than that one." She drew slightly closer. "I think this person was also wearing floor-length skirts. See how there are some marks there and there that look like the dust was swept? But when she reached the top of the stair, I think she lifted her hem out of the way, so that's why we see that footprint so clearly."

"Hm." The boy drew even closer, nudging the handfire over to take a look at the marks in the dust more clearly. "You could be right. Well spotted, you!"

The boy took a wary glance up the passage and back down it, and the watcher in the shadows felt a feather-light psychic touch brush across her mind before it hastily withdrew. The boy and girl glanced at each other and then on mutual accord scurried back up the corridor in the direction from which they had entered it, the boy stopping to hastily trace a glyph in front of one section of the wall. That part of the wall slid to one side, and the children both quickly stepped through.

#

The watcher waited for several more minutes to make sure no one else passed through the hidden corridor before making her way swiftly back to her own chamber. As she waited, she pondered what she had overheard.

The two children were clearly familiar with the concept of what an 'intelligencer' was, which made her think at least one of them must belong to an intelligencer's household. It wasn't the sort of work that would be openly discussed anywhere besides the privacy of the intelligencer's personal chambers or those of his King, after all, so the only alternative she could imagine would be if this child was one of the royal pages, but she couldn't recall seeing him wearing the King's livery. They were obviously Deryni, or at least the boy was, or he couldn't have entered the passage or created handfire to begin with. The girl likely was also, if she had a sister capable of disguising herself convincingly as a boy or man. But most importantly, they appeared to know something about the Haldane potential setting, and that the ritual would be happening soon.

That was the second piece of information that King Renier had hoped she could learn more about. Joux had no such ritual anymore. The Kingdom had once had similar practices, but the knowledge had been lost several generations earlier with the untimely death of a previous Jouvian King as well as other key members of his Court who had been entrusted with the secret, and Renier was eager to recover such knowledge for himself and for Rémy's sake and future heirs. The lack of such ritual empowerment was what had led to Joux's fall from glory when King Gaspard of blessed memory had died in a Duel Arcane against the present Hort's grandfather. Renier was determined that such an ignoble end would never happen again to any present or future ruler of Joux.

She needed to learn more about when this potential setting ritual would take place. She guessed it must be Prince Cinhil who was meant to be the focus of the ritual. King Uthyr wore the Eye of Rom, and in previous generations the Haldane heirs were known to receive some sort of earring as well during their young adult years, which was when King Renier believed their potentials were set, but she had seen no signs of such ear piercings in any of the three princes thus far. It only made sense to her that Prince Cinhil, as the Heir to Gwynedd, would be the most likely of the princes to have his Haldane potential set and receive the outward sign of it once he did.

Would the children know where and when the ritual was scheduled to take place? She could perhaps Mind-Rip one and find out, if she happened to come across them in the secret passages again, but the little brats were likely to be missed if she tried that, and being Deryni and probably from an intelligencer's household it would take measures that extreme to secure the information, for those little minds would be well shielded despite their tender age. The boy's would be, anyway. She was less certain the girl was from the same household. From the tone of their conversation, they were friends, not siblings. The girl seemed slightly older, teetering on the verge of young womanhood. It was not seemly that she should be keeping company with an unrelated boy at her age, but this was decadent Gwynedd, so such goings-on hardly surprised her anymore. Might the girl be easier to reap the needed information from? But no, she had mentioned a sister in King Uthyr's service. The watcher scoffed at the thought. Did Uthyr's Queen know the King had a young woman in his 'service' disguised as a man? Likely not, though she was from Fianna, which was an even more decadent court than Gwynedd, so who knew for sure? In any case, it would likely not be a good idea to tamper with a child whose sister was a King's mignon.

But if it was Cinhil who was meant to have his potential set, then surely Alixa would know. Perhaps there was some secret entrance into Alixa's bedchamber? Alixa had shields now, but they were merely applied shields, not innate ones. Hopefully they would be more vulnerable. Hopefully if she could access la princesse while she was asleep, the shields would be rolled back completely. Madame could access the information that she needed and do any remaining clean-up that needed to be done to ensure that no one else would be able to see any other previous tampering that had been done in the girl's mind. She had never felt a need to cover her tracks in the past, but now that the girl was no longer under Renier's direct control, it would be wise to be more circumspect about what the Haldanes could detect if they went diving into her mind. Yes, that was the answer! She would attempt at the earliest opportunity to gain entry into the princess's personal apartment and Mind-Read the information from her directly.

#

August 9, 1457
Rhemuth Castle
Inside one of the secret passages
After midnight

After an hour of tentative psychic probes as she approached various sections of the secret passage wall where the map indicated there might be a hidden entrance, Madame Dardenay's mind finally brushed against Princess Alixa's sleeping mind. She felt a sense of elation at the contact, swiftly dampened lest any of the emotion drift through the tenuous link between them.

The elation deflated even more as she continued to attempt the probe, only to discover that while Alixa's newly established outer shields had slightly rolled back as she slept, allowing her former chaperone some access to her mind, the inner shields now had some additional reinforcement which prevented Madame from being able to tamper with even the memories she had shielded within the princess's mind in the first place. She dared not try to probe this Haldane-reinforced inner shielding for fear her tampering might be detected the next time Prince Cinhil–who had presumably set this added layer–went poking around in his wife's mind. The mere attempt to probe them might also cause Alixa's lax outer shields to snap shut, which would certainly cause Alixa to awaken abruptly and detect her presence even as she recoiled from the pain. But there was nothing to prevent her from sifting through Alixa's more surface thoughts and memories to see what she might glean there, since surely she had to have some useful knowledge in there that her husband had not yet had a chance to safely tuck away under some deeper level of security than Alixa would know how to manage on her own.

There was very little of interest at first, just ordinary sorts of thoughts and memories such as what the chit had eaten for dinner and which gown she planned to wear the following morning. Madame glossed past the details of the latest book passage Alixa had read and the new embroidery stitch Queen Soraya was teaching her. There was a moment in the Queen's solar that piqued Madame's interest at first, as the ladies-in-waiting were discussing some sort of upcoming ceremony in whispered tones, but then she had realized it had nothing to do with the Haldane potential setting that she was seeking information about, just some ordinary gossip about the eldest Haldane princess's upcoming nuptials and her reluctance to wed the Hort, despite him being one of the most eligible bachelors in the Eleven Kingdoms. Hopefully the girl's reluctance stemmed from proper maidenly modesty, unlike the next memory that caused Madame to nearly withdraw from Alixa's mind with horror as she encountered a brief glimpse of her former charge's shy yet increasingly eager response to her bridegroom's caresses. Had the girl not learned anything from her careful tutelage?! She was merely meant to submit to her husband's advances, not enjoy them! Clearly this was due to all of the red meat she had been permitted to eat of late. For shame!

Madame was so unnerved and distracted by Alixa's debauchery, she nearly missed the clue she was searching for. There was a passing comment between a Deryni who Madame had seen on occasion, mostly in the company of King Uthyr, and Prince Cinhil about meeting at midnight two nights hence in the Royal Chapel. Cinhil had replied that he and James would be there, and the other man had joked that they could hardly proceed without him. Madame might not have given it much thought aside from the unusual time of the proposed meeting, but then the man with the green gryphon insignia had mentioned something about the Queen bringing the regalia. A midnight meeting in a sacred place with multiple Deryni and the Haldane regalia? Madame was confident she had found the information she was looking for, aside from one final puzzle piece that was lacking. Two nights hence from when? When had this remembered conversation taken place in Alixa's hearing? Had the ritual already taken place, or was it scheduled for two nights from now? One night? Or right now, even as she stood inside the passage wasting time trying to puzzle it out?

She couldn't take the risk of missing what she was sent here to discover! The ritual might be starting right this minute.  Withdrawing hastily from Alixa's mind, Madame Dardenay checked the map, trying to see if there was any passage that might lead her to the Royal Chapel or as close as possible to some location where she might spy on anyone within it unseen.


Next chapter: https://www.rhemuthcastle.com/index.php/topic,3293.0.html

[DerynifanK]

I had hoped she would be detected, punished as a spy and either executed or deported but no such luck. Still have to wait longer. Sigh

[Evie]

Well, I did say this from the beginning that this is a six chapter story, right? You keep wanting me to write end-of-story content before we even get close to the end of the story! Patience! 😂

[revanne]

Horrible though she is I do feel a degree of sympathy for Madame, she has clearly had an awful life. One of those who is abused and takes revenge on those even more vulnerable, which doesn't make her sympathetic but she is pitiful. From a distance of course!

[JudithR]

Well, I did say this from the beginning that this is a six chapter story, right? You keep wanting me to write end-of-story content before we even get close to the end of the story! Patience! 😂

And I had it fixed in my head that it was five chapters!  Something to look forward to in al the busyness of next week.

[Evie]

I think when I first mentioned I was going to be posting the spin-off, I had misremembered and said it was a five chapter story, but once I started setting it up in my drafts to get it ready for posting, I realized it's actually six chapters. So we won't reach the end until next Thursday, which is (quite coincidentally) also around the time I will be turning off my early morning alarm to wake me for the work day, since my holiday leave begins next weekend.  If I had a story ready to post during Christmas break, you'd all be getting it several hours later in the day!

[Demercia]

I love the references to Sophie.

[DerynifanK]

I find it hard to have any sympathy for Dardenay but maybe what was done to her by the husband forced on her contributed to her twisted view of life and relationships. However she is still a spy and a nasty one at that. Wonder how Uthyr will respond when he finds that Alixa's chaperone is a spy set by Renier.

[Evie]

I love the references to Sophie.

It was nice to see Maidens of Mayhem era Sophie again, if only in an ancient psychic impression. And of course poor Mme. Dardenay was completely unable to imagine Sophie as she actually once was, having had the sort of life herself that leads her to think the worst of everyone else because she has seen very little of true goodness or innocence to gauge Sophie's far more innocent motivations by.

[Evie]

I find it hard to have any sympathy for Defarge but maybe what was done to her by the husband forced on her contributed to her twisted view of life and relationships. However she is still a spy and a nasty one at that. Wonder how Uthyr will respond when he finds that Alixa's chaperone is a spy set by Renier.

I'm sure he won't be best pleased, though at the moment no one is aware that she has done anything but have an unpleasant personality (not a crime) and snoop around the library stacks (which, since it is open to any Castle resident, is also perfectly legal).

Cinhil is aware she used to peek into Alixa's thoughts to monitor her behavior, but that was with the knowledge and permission of her King, a permission which Cinhil has now revoked since Alixa is now a Gwyneddan as far as he's concerned. He may or may not have discovered yet that the chaperone used to alter Alixa's thoughts, but again, he has taken some additional steps to protect Alixa now. He can't send her chaperone back to Joux because Alixa is terrified of how Madame's ultra-strict discipline would affect Cecile, and while he's not too happy about having her stay on, he can see why his wife wouldn't want Madame sent back so Renier could inflict the ghastly old bat on her 8-year-old sister. Depending on how well hidden or not Madame's previous abuses of Alixa were, even if Cinhil has discovered them, there is a limit to what he can do about what a King of another kingdom considers to be just and rightful discipline of his own child and is willing to allow his chaperone the freedom to inflict on her. Child protection laws? What are those? But again, she is under his protection now and much better shielded, so unless he happens to catch her actively abusing Alixa again in future, there have still been no laws broken that would give him cause to arrest her, much less execute her.

Now, if Madame does something really stupid and gets caught spying, breaching Alixa's (or anyone else's) mental privacy in future, or actively harming her now that she is a Princess of Gwynedd, though, that's another matter entirely!

[Evie]

Horrible though she is I do feel a degree of sympathy for Madame, she has clearly had an awful life. One of those who is abused and takes revenge on those even more vulnerable, which doesn't make her sympathetic but she is pitiful. From a distance of course!

Yes, she hasn't had much happiness or even much of anything good in her life, which makes it harder for her to recognize true goodness or innocence and also makes her envious of anyone else's happiness. One of the only sources of satisfaction she's ever had in life is coming to the attention and at least marginal approval of her King, so the very last thing she intends to do is ruin this chance of making a better life for herself by being too soft on his daughter who isnt living up to his exacting standards. Or if that is now a lost cause entirely due to Alixa's marriage into the decadent court of Gwynedd, then at the very least she can hope to retain her King's good graces by competently managing the other tasks he has given her.

[DerynifanK]

I think when I first mentioned I was going to be posting the spin-off, I had misremembered and said it was a five chapter story, but once I started setting it up in my drafts to get it ready for posting, I realized it's actually six chapters. So we won't reach the end until next Thursday, which is (quite coincidentally) also around the time I will be turning off my early morning alarm to wake me for the work day, since my holiday leave begins next weekend.  If I had a story ready to post during Christmas break, you'd all be getting it several hours later in the day!

Wishing you a wonderful holiday leave with lots of family, friends, good food, great times and especially rest and relaxation.

[DerynifanK]

Well, I did say this from the beginning that this is a six chapter story, right? You keep wanting me to write end-of-story content before we even get close to the end of the story! Patience! 😂

And I had it fixed in my head that it was five chapters!  Something to look forward to in al the busyness of next week.

I guess I thought we were closer than we are.

[Nezz]

Eating meat and enjoying her husband's advances? For shame, Alixa, for shame!!!! I, for one, am shocked and appalled.

[Evie]

Eating meat and enjoying her husband's advances? For shame, Alixa, for shame!!!! I, for one, am shocked and appalled.

Quite! What is the world coming to? 😂