Swan's Neck Ch. 03: Shelter

'The King will name me as his heir,' Harold declared, when we, and others, had settled. 'It is inevitable, and the right thing. No one else has the support I do.'

Edwin, the earl of Mercia looked at Harold:

'And so the arrangement of which we have spoken will happen?'

'I shall formally marry your sister, Edith, on St Stephen's day, two days hence,' Harold replied, resolutely not looking at Ealdgyth and me.

I dared not look at her, but out of the corner of my eye I could see her looking stony-faced.

'In which case, my Lord, the whole of Mercia welcomes your accession and will defend your rights.'

Harold smiled, and looked at us as though to say: 'Told you so.'

The Council was brief, and to the point, and as the earls dispersed, they congratulated Harold.

My Lady stalked off, speechless. It was as well. I lingered.

Harold called me to him.

'Danegyth, you are a wise little thing, can you not reason with Ealdgyth?"

'And what reasons should I adduce my Lord?' I asked, with a neutral answer that might yet give me something to help me with my Lady.

'Look, I cannot let William be King, our lives and liberties and lands would not be worth a month's purchase, she must be made to realise that either I am King or the Godwinsons come to naught.'

He had a point, and indeed this was his strongest suite. The status quo was ending, irretrievably, and either there was a Saxon King, or a Norman one. However much Ealdgyth wished it was not so, it was.

'My Lord, of that, I can indeed persuade her, but you know that is not where her objection lies.'

Harold went red in the face. He was an honourable man, and he loved Ealdgyth and his children.

'Danegyth, can you not bring her to see I need the support of Mercia, and its price is that I marry Edith the fair.'

'My Lord, I understand, but what woman would not feel as my Lady does?'

'I suspect you would not, Danegyth. I have seen how much you love my wife, and yet you do all you can for our marriage.'

'My Lord, forgive me, but can I speak frankly?'

'You may, little one, for I know your heart is good.'

'Thank you my Lord.'

I explained to him that Ealdgyth's passion for him was everything, as was her love for her children. In marrying Edith, he was challenging both of those absolutes. She would replace Ealdgyth in his bed, and her sons, if sons there were, would replace her sons as his heirs.

He was not comfortable. He knew what I said was true, and he had no answer, for in truth there was none.

'She will have the Wessex manors, and our sons the earldom and much wealth, can you not persuade her this is better than naught?'

I explained that I would try but doubted my chances.

'Might I speak to you not as your Lord, but as someone who loves Ealdgyth?'

I felt uneasy, but, of course agreed.

'From Taya, I have some sense of you and my wife, and I am glad she has you. Can you keep her satisfied? I could not bear it if she sought the bed of another. We have shared her these many years, so do for her what needs doing.'

This cost him a great deal, I could tell from the effort it took. My heart went out to him. He truly loved her. He was a proud man, and he could, indeed, not have borne seeing her love another man. It touched me that he had reached out to me, for her needs; few men would have had that courage and sense.

I reached up, on the tips of my toes and kissed his cheek.

'Oh my Lord, you two are the most wonderful lovers, and I simply supplement some needs women have. I shall do what I can, but know this my Lord, she would have no other man; that is not her way.'

He seemed relieved.

He patted my head.

'You are a good girl. It was a fortunate day we took you in, and you have amply repaid us. You will be rewarded ... richly.'

'My Lord, do not think me ungrateful, but what I do I do for love.'

He looked at me with great kindness.

'I know, and that is what we both value most about you. Be assured, by night or by day, you have access to me, and if you want to see me, my bodyguard have the order to let you. I shall have to rely on you while Ealdgyth is angry with me.'

Bless him. I smiled and reassured him that I would so all that was in my powers, little though I expected that to be.

We parted warmly. But my task would not be easy, indeed, it was, I suspected, impossible.

We had just passed the winter solstice, and the air was heavy with hoar frost. But if I shivered as I walked back to her Chamber, that was but a small part of the reason.

Danish women of her house were notoriously stubborn, and well-sexed, and Ealdgyth had both qualities in abundance.

Although there was a roaring fire back in our room, the atmosphere was cold as ice.

'What did he want, to fuck you too, well you are welcome to him, bastard, bastard.'

For her to make such an absurd suggestion was a sign of her rage. He would never have made such a proposition to me, and he would have known I would not have accepted it. This was her anger talking.

'Well?' She almost shouted at me.

My heart was breaking with hers.

I realised, of a sudden, how heavy was the responsibility which Harold bore.

That he wanted to be King as plain, and I could not take too seriously his protestations of being moved by public duty. But in achieving that aim, he would have to change so much that made him happy.

But for Ealdgyth, it was all pure loss.

I said naught in response, and simply went to her, as she sat, and placed myself next to her.

I hugged her.

She began to cry, great sobs escaped her lips, she hugged me closely. I held her.

As her tears ebbed, she began to feel my small breasts. Sliding my kirtle and under gown from my shoulders, she began to play with my small, stiff nipples, which made me moan, softly.

It was not often that our love making took this form. More often than not, my task was to serve, even service her. I adored that, as I did her, and was happy in my self-appointed role. But the occasions upon which she made me the centre of her lustful attentions, were always very special.

As she sucked on my nipples, her soft lips sucking hard, making them ache with every flick of her tongue, I melted into her, being her plaything. I just wanted to be hers and for her to take me.

Not forgetting my own part, my fingers snaked down, and pulling up her kirtle, found their way to her cunt, which was already wet, as the state of her pubic hair bore witness to. My fingers pressed their way along her slit, parting her petals and began to explore her warm, sopping wetness. In response, her sharp teeth grazed my nipples, just enough to send shocks down to my own cunt, which was wet, and lacked the hair to absorb the excess juice, thus soaking my skirts.

The more she licked my nipples and sucked on my tiny breasts, the wetter I got, and the more aroused I became, the faster I pushed into her cunt, my thumb strumming on her bud. I could feel my own climax building. She knew that nipple-play alone could take me to orgasm, and she seemed determined to prove it, yet again. My breasts were tiny, but my nipples were extremely sensitive, and the message they were sending to my cunt was unmistakable - the pleasure was overwhelming, and I should surrender to it.

But I was not built simply to take pleasure, I had to give some back to her, and did so, with my fingers fucking her, and my thumb carefully pressing her bud, massaging it until she moaned loudly.

I felt her thighs close around my questing hand, the warmth and the wetness presaging what was to come, her hair matted with juice. The more I fucked her, the harder she sucked my nipples and, all of a sudden, she bit my right nipple. I lost all sense of restraint and, moaning loudly, came for her. At which signal, she came for me.

For a brief, precious moment in time, pleasure was all, and we lost ourselves in it. It swept us up like a fierce sea wind, with the waves breaking over both of us; oh but we were wet women, our cunts gushing forth the juice of our satisfaction. And, as is the way with us, we shuddered and shook and hugged and cuddled as we came down from the heights on which our joint orgasm had landed us.

We were spent, utterly spent.

We knew we should have taken our dresses off, but we could not summon the energy. We slept in each other's arms that night, and Harold, Edith and the fate of the Kingdom were nothing to us. We were just two lovers taking shelter from the storm to come.