October 27, 1157
It was well past midnight when Roderick finally pulled himself off the couch in the nursery and ventured into the bedroom. With any luck, Geneva was already asleep--the last thing he wanted to do was talk to her.
But, as his ill fortune would have it, she was still awake.
"Geneva," he addressed her curtly as she daintily slipped off the bed."Roderick," she replied.
Roderick frowned. "Why aren't you asleep? If I recall correctly, you gave birth only about twelve hours ago."
"I was waiting for you," answered Geneva bluntly.
"All right," Roderick stiffly obliged. "Was there something you wanted to speak with me about?"
She shook her head and smiled. Roderick knew that smile only too well; it had often annoyed him, but it was only now that he saw that grin for what it truly was.
It was an insult.
"Oh for the love of God, woman, can you stop thinking about your cunt for a moment?" he bellowed, unable to contain himself anymore. He was a king! What sort of woman committed adultery against a king? In fact, what sort of woman committed adultery at all? "Do you honestly think that I'm about to sleep with you ever again? Why would you want me to if I never even satisfied you in the first place? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Me?" Geneva demanded. "You are asking what's wrong with me? You? The prince who drunkenly libeled against against his father and brother? The king who's the laughingstock of his own kingdom? A self-important prick who cares more about wealth and status and possessions than friendships and family and love? Who the hell are you to ask what's wrong with me?"Did she honestly think she could shift the blame onto him? Was she positively out of her mind?
"How dare you!" he screamed at her. "No doubt you have some grievances against me, but I am both your husband and your king! What right had you to sleep with my steward? Who else have you slept with? The guards, the grooms? Dalston, Octavius, Severin? Daughter of an earl or not, you are nothing more than common whore!"Geneva shifted uncomfortably. "Nothing more? If being an earl's daughter is so much better than being a common whore, then how is it that common whores have so much more freedom? What common whore is forced into a marriage because it will solidify an alliance for her father? It seems as though it is infinitely preferable to be such a woman--allowed to be one's own, and do as one pleases. That freedom was all I ever wanted in my life, and I never got any of it; and you've already taken it away from my babies!"
"Most women don't seem to mind," Roderick snarled under his breath.
"That's because most people don't think, Roderick," sighed Geneva. "Most people are perfectly content to do as their forefathers, never questioning such things--most people are nothing but sheep."Had she been any woman but his own wife, he might have pitied her; a king, however, did not take his queen's infidelity lightly.
"If you are trying to redeem yourself as some champion of liberalism, you are speaking to the wrong man," he spat. "I've been nothing but good to you. I thought that at the very least, I could call you my friend.""You can," she tried to assure him--however, he was beyond the point where he would take anything she said as assurance.
Roderick shook his head. "Not anymore. Now, let me lay down the rules--I don't want to see you any more than I absolutely have to. Unless I need another child, I refuse to bed you. Starting tonight, I shall be sleeping in the larger bedroom; I always did like it better, but I've put up with this one since we've been here because you preferred it."
"That room isn't furnished, though," she informed him.
He shrugged. "What does that matter? I shall have it furnished for me before I go to bed."
"But you couldn't possibly have it furnished at this hour!" insisted Geneva.
"I'm a king, Geneva!" hiss Roderick through gritted teeth as he began to storm away, placing a distinctly spiteful emphasis on her name. "I can do whatever I want!"NEXT CHAPTER:
11 comments:
Yes, I know I said somewhere that THIV was next on the menu, but I'm a little stuck with that. I'm not particularly excited about the next THIV prompt, which is annoying because I'm totally stoked for the one after. So yeah, sorry.
Ohhh...she had this coming to here! I would pity her too if I liked her but since I don't I won't. Wow, this really opened Roderick's eyes huh?
The person I really feel for is the baby. Poor thing.
Yeah, I feel for the baby too. We'll see her and her dad about four posts from now. The three posts in between now and then will all be a part of this particular storyline too.
I don't feel bad for her. :P It's an old sob story. "Booo hooo, it's SO HARD to be the queen!" It's a lot harder to toil in the fields and have little to show for it, lady.
What's Roderick going to do about this kid? Have her sent away? Raise her as though she were his?
I liked his sarcastic list of people that Geneva has slept with. Especially since she's actually slept with a few of them.
She wasn't really waiting up for him for sex was she? She just gave birth a few hours ago! I'm surprised she can even stand up!
Maybe this will serve as a wake-up call for Roderick that he needs to keep a closer eye on his affairs. Frankly, I'm shocked that no shifty characters have started taking advantage of his child-like stupidity. Normally, when someone like Roderick is in power, it's because someone much smarter, much more ambitious and much more underhanded is using him as a puppet. Of course, the circumstances surrounding Roderick's reign were different. But it's still not too late for someone to step in.
I don't think Geneva would envy the lower classes so much if she actually spent any time among them. Then again, maybe her need for lots of sex with lots of different men trumps her desire for a certain quality of life.
I can't see Roderick raising the baby as if she were his own. He's too proud. We'll see what happens with the baby about four posts from now.
Eh, who knows? Does seem like the only reason she'd wait for him, though, unless she felt the need to explain herself.
We don't really see much of the political side of Naroni, unless you count nobles marrying off their kids for the sake of alliances, but I would imagine that Roderick leaves his trio of nobles (and his steward, who will likely be out of a job soon) to pick up a ton of his slack. He barely pays any attention to any of the shires other than his own--he does have power over Dalston and them in the event of something really serious, but for the most part, he leaves every man to his own shire. As for the management of his own, he probably has to get prodded in various directions by guys like Severin and Dalston.
But yeah, it would be ridiculously easy for some evil mastermind to take over Naroni without Roderick even noticing.
Maybe to Geneva, quality of life is dependent on her ability to have a smorgasbord of menfolk.
Girl's gotta have her priorities!
Heheheh, that could very well be true.
Poor Roderick. I actually feel quite sorry for him even though I haven't liked his character that much. That one line "I thought at the very least I could call you a friend" was particularly heart rending.
Geneva is lucky he doesn't simply cast her off and send her to a nunnery. I don't imagine she would do that well there.
Yeah, I felt bad for Roderick when I was writing this post :(
If anyone could turn a nunnery into a brothel, it would be Geneva.
I feel sorry for them all. Roderick, because he thought he could trust Geneva and feels so betrayed by her now; Geneva, because she's unhappy and can't do what she wants with her own life; and the baby, because what's going to happen to the poor girl? :(
I felt sorry for all of them too at this point, especially the baby. Fortunately, it won't be long before you find out :)
Post a Comment