Making Amends - Sex Stories

Making Amends

... whose ambassador she and her knights had attacked that very morning, killing two of the man's escorts and injuring him in the process. Never before had their vengeful imperial neighbour been gifted such a magnificent pretext to invade the Terracroix's lands. By all rights, the Empire would be perfectly justified in pillaging and conquering their homeland until there was nothing at all left to inherit.

“Father, I,” the young knight tried to cut in, biting her tongue the instant the words left her mouth as she caught her mistake. But it was too late.

“You will address me as your lord sovereign, girl!” the duke roared, his thunderous bellow reverberating throughout the hall. Sienna should have known better, did, in fact, know better. In private she could get away with such familiarity, but when acting as a knight of the realm, particularly as one who had earned her lord's ire, propriety dictated she demonstrate proper respect at all times. The fact that her misstep had come just as her lord father was running out of steam was... unfortunate.

“My apologies, sire.” Sienna almost stopped herself there, well aware that her freshly aggrieved father would be in no mood for any attempt at justification after she had demonstrated such disrespect, but having already spoken up she had little choice. Backing down and failing to defend herself after such a rebuke would only make her look as weak in the eyes of the court as she already seemed foolish. So she pushed on. “I only ...

... meant to ask what course you would have had me take. The ambassador's men comported themselves in a belligerent fashion befitting the bandits my company was tasked to hunt and the man had raised his staff against us. I and my knights adjudged him to be a mage, so I struck him down. Was I to wait and see whether he meant to call lightning down upon my knights? To tear the ground beneath our horses asunder?”

“I most assuredly would not have had you strike down an ambassador of the Empire!” the duke seethed, his eyes glinting with barely restrained fury.

“But he did not identify himself!” No sooner had Sienna said the words than she wished she could take them back. Such was an impossible task, though, so instead she was left to merely hope they sounded less like the whine of a spoiled little girl to the rest of her father's court than they did to her own ears. Already too many of the assembled lords and dignitaries, including her brothers, thought her little more than a jumped up brat who needed to be put in her place. A number which was already likely to grow now that her lapse in judgment had brought the executioner's axe to the neck of everyone present.

“And how exactly was he to do so when your company approached with blades drawn and struck before allowing the man to speak?” Her father bellowed back, holding his glare for several seconds before slumping back into his throne and lifting one hand to grip at his forehead.

“I... I understand.” As much as she might have ...