CABALLERO DEL NORTE - Sex Stories

CABALLERO DEL NORTE

... are not completely uncivilized. You are as a princess among your people, and we pride ourselves on our treatment of high-born ladies. I only regret we do not possess the spare manpower to escort you, alas."

She visibly recovered herself. How dare this infidel speak to her thus? And then it struck her that he was leading her somewhere. Her eyes narrowed. "Such an escort would be the least of courtesy, if you truly believed in such."

"Unfortunately, we as always remain bound by our limitations. You could see if one of your own lords would be willing to do you the courtesy." Unthinkable. A woman sent off to where she wanted? "Or perhaps you could strike some other sort of bargain. As a widow, you have options."

That made her frown. A part of her sensed this was part of where the northerner...Iago, she suddenly recalled...had been going. Her options. But essentially they boiled down to a secondary wife of a noble made just as secondary by the fact that the Christians had come south to conquer. Zuleika had never thought of herself as grasping, but she realized part of how she had salved herself for being shackled to a fat frontier prince was that she was the primary wife of such, the lady of his domain. A loss in status would chafe.

"Yes," she finally said. "I suppose that I do."

"Of course, the tides of time have changed. Unthinkable things might now be possible, even inevitable."

She looked at him sidelong, her eyes still narrowed. "An uncivilized northerner ...

... speaking riddles. Next a donkey will recite me poetry."

He came to attention and extended one arm in front of him.

"When the Lion at his pleasure comes

To the watering place to drink, ah see!

See the lesser beasts of Al-Andalus

scatter, like blown leaves in autumn,

Like air-borne seedlings in the spring,

Like grey clouds that part to let the first star

Of God shine down upon the earth."

He laughed at her expression. "More than once have I been termed an ass. Such a thing is hardly enough for me to deny a princess her request."

"I'm not, as you well know."

"Not what?"

"A princess. Anymore, anyway."

"You would be by our standards."

She huffed. "Infidel standards. And what are those worth?"

"They might be worth a lot, to you. To your future, and your options."

An odd sensation prickled at her skin, tingled up the back of her neck. Here it was. Whatever this Iago had been leading her towards. She could sense the momentousness bearing down on them like a coming sandstorm. "Another riddle? And...what does that mean?"

"It means you have the option to remain the lady of this place, this town and its stronghold. To continue to be treated the princess you, by my standards, are."

"What are you talking about?"

Iago smiled. "I am the lord of this place now. I mean to hold it. Marrying a princess of Al-Andalus...it would help, in many ways. Help me, help the people. Those born for privilege have duties to go with those privileges. And ...