Chapter 13 - Braving the storm

I stood up and walked a bit more to the center of the room and fiddled shortly with my dress. "Please come in." I said with a careful smile. The door was open gently an beautiful woman she was tall almost as tall as me, with black hair and she looked like a perfect painting. Strong, with well-defined shapes, a full bosom and a general behavior that you simple did no wanted to disappoint. And she looked disappointed right now with me and the world.

"Wel ... um ... Gre ... Hell..." I completely struggled with what to say because her mesmerizing demanding green eyes did hold me prisoner right away. Her voice however did scrub my mind. It was as beautiful as the rest of her but filled with barely hidden anger and frustration. "Stop that just tell me how long do we have till we have to leave this house?"

I blinked completely unable to get anything useful out. "Uhm what " She did a deep breath in and out but it seemed to only make her more focused and angry. "Did I stutter? I do think that the common curtesy would be at least tell us that much." Her eyes were deadly slits. My friends were no help either Marie did hide behind her hands while Johanna and Elaina just barely kept themselves from laughing like a bunch of schoolgirls. I took a deep collecting breath closing my eyes before trying again. "You ... no I mean Nobody ... I mean some might but none of you. Only some who helped the old duke keep me prisoner and no I mean "

I dont know why but this stranger did manage to make my mind race to try and find the right words to just make her stop looking so angry at me. Her expression changed a tiny bit from anger to confusion and anger. "What do you mean!" She almost shouted making me flinch and stop once more. "Ok, ok, ok yes um no ... I mean ... wait please." Johanna meanwhile had a bit smile of her face and almost laugh loudly about my peril but one angry side glance from the beauty infont of me did silence her within any trouble at all.

I tried to take another calming breath but she was way to frustrated to let me do that. "Explain yourself more clearly!" How can a voice be so demanding and be so beautiful at the same time? "Ok. Ok." I looked at her she balled her hands into fists. I closed my eyes focusing hard on what I wanted to say. "Nobody who hasnt caused me to be locked in or who is imprisoned by the crown will be thrown out."

"THEN WHY DID YOUR MESSANGER ORDER US TO LEAVE??" Her voice was carrying her frustration but at he same time relieve about what I just told her. "I.. I dont know I didnt told him to say that!" I found her piercing eyes looking directly into mine. "So we are not going to be throw out?" She said a bit calmer asking for confirmation. "Neither you and the other wifes and your children did do any harm to me. Nor do I carry any grudges. But umm " How was I going to explain the contract thing to her.

"What?" She said, her voice had lost its edge but you just knew that it was just lurking under the surface ready to get out and cut you again at any moment. "Let me try and explain please ... Well you know who I am right?" My breathing and body langue finally had returned to normal and I could gather my thoughts. "You are the one my husband did hold as a prisoner as eight years and who now inherited through some court trickery all of his possessions." She said in one breath matter of factly.

I shook my head. "No! I mean Yes but no! Yes I am Misra and yes I am the one who got without any trickery on my side assigned all legally binding contracts your former husband did hold." She cut me off. "What do you mean former husband?!" She was angry again. I had faced a few enemies in my life but I never was so genuine afraid to disappoint.

"Ehm ... as I said all legal contracts were transmitted to me. And since I did not wanted to see you all hold responsible for crimes he committed well umm ... I kinda reminded the Queen that well technically " Her eyes narrowed down even more. She left the realm of confusion and returned to he realm of deep seated anger and the words died in my throat. "So you thought you could get yourself some wifes on top of all the treasure?" She said with a half questioning half accusing voice.

"No, no, No! All I wanted is to prevent you from being tossed into the street or imprisoned for something you had no hand in." She crossed her arms and eyed me up and down. "Ok ... so now what?" She just looked skeptical. "We are your wifes just like that?" I shook my head. "No according to the king and queen we will try to life together for a year. After that you will get the choice of either renewing the wedding according to my traditions or live on your own. With financial aid from me of course."

"Until then you are part of this household with all your former positions and the rights of a wife infront of the law." I shrugged a bit. "If you want the details." I pointed towards Elaina who had calmed down a lot more. "The dear captain can explain them way better then I can. And well Lizbeth is to young to be married to me in any shape or form so she will be adopted as a child of this household instead."

Suha took deep heavy breaths and seemed to think about it all. "So all we have to do is live together with you for one year and after that you will set us free? And give us enough money to ... life from?" I sighed. "In the worst case yes enough money to keep a decent comfort of living but thats only if we dont get along at all. I would feel quite guilty to cause you to leave your home."

She eyed me sternly for a moment then shook her head. "What are the plans with my two ... now three daughters?" You could hear that she was still not satisfied with the situation but was not completely hostile to it either. "I would love to care for them and give them a good education so they will be secure no matter what they want to do in life. But if we separate they will stay with you since they are more of your family only that no matter what they will have me as their other parent." This made her eyebrow raise. "I never would have guessed that someone from the tribes would know the value of education and shared parenthood." I sighed again. "Yes I know in which light they view us here. After all I was an long-term guest here in this very city. They honest truth is that we know the value of it. Its just a lot harder to give formal education when you are a small community. Not many are willing to life that isolated and even fewer who are willing are able to teach. The bigger communities have of course some kind of schools but many smaller ones dont."

She keept staring at me. Her whole stance and eyes were unmoving and focusing on me. Then she did a small nod. "I will go and explain to the others that we dont have to leave. You missed lunch for today and the evening meal is not a good point for introduction so I suggest you join us tomorrow for lunch. I rule in that part of the house. And since you arent throwing us out that wont change." The last part was a clear challenge but I just smiled to her happy to be still in one piece.

"It is your home after all. I really wish to um ... I mean to really life together peacefully and well give you all a good home." She raised an eyebrow and I looked down at my feet for a moment. I could feel my hair standing up a bit from being so nervous around her. "We .. will see." Was all she said. "For now excuse me I have three daugthers to calm and my family to explain that we are now wed to a woman." For a brief moment I struggled if I should stay silent about that but then decided that if I wanted their trust I should be open from the beginning. "Umm ... about that "

She turned back to me her eyebrow raised and wordlessly asking me. 'What now?' "I umm I am a woman for the most part but um " She crossed her arms. "For the most part?" I gulped I hated explaining this especially to her but hiding it would be even worse. "Well my people ... we do have three instead of the typical two genders. And I am part of the third gender."

She was still looking confused and skeptical. "What do you mean?" I took a deep breath. "I can fulfill both roles the one of a men as well as the one of a woman. With my body I mean." My checks were burning from my blush. It wasnt something that I was proud of but there were some who utterly disliked the idea and well no secrets between your wife's and you. She looked me into the eyes straight and unmoving and I could see her mind racing behind her eyes before she just nodded. As if this was just one more thing to consider and not the most serious one.

She then shook her head a bit. "We will talk about that later. I have now more pressing things to take care off or is there anything else we should know now?" I hesitated then nodded. "I plan to release all the slaves the old duke did own and set them free or rehire them with their service paid." This made her raise her eyebrow for a moment then she nodded once more. "I will pass that along too."

With that she turned around and just walked out leaving me and my friends stunned behind. It was Marie who found her voice back first. "Well that was interesting ... at least she didnt attack you." I chuckled and sat down. Only now I noticed how shaky I was on my legs. "I havent felt as nervous as this since I had to tell my mother that I broke her mirror by accident."

Johanna gently laid an hand on my shoulder. "Well you have a year now to get to know this beauty. And we have the pleasure of watching it from the front row." I shock my head at the amusement of my friends. Johanna suddenly stopped and locked at me. "I just noticed we never knew who she was." I just chuckled. "I am ferly confident that she was the head of household Suha, Especially since she is the only one who has any children." Johanna looked a bit confused and seemed to want to ask something when someone knocked softly at the door. "Yes please?"

The Head maid steeped in her posture calm as ever. "I can now assamble everybody if you wish to do so." I shook my head. "Soon but first do you know by chance how many slave currently are living in this palace? And how many in the city? That are owned by this house?" She didnt hesitate one second before answering. "I am sorry milady I cant say that for certain. I know that there are forty three who have direct access to the inner palace. I know those quite well because I work with them every day. But it was the buttlers task and the head of staff to keep track of the household. Both are sadly in the custody of the royal guards." I nodded.

"There must be records of them correct?" She nodded. "One in this office and one in the buttlers office yes milady but I dont know where they are. If you wish I can send someone trustworthy to look for them there?" I pondered for a moment. "No we will look for them after the talk with the head of house. Something important. We will be releasing the slaves of this estate at he earliest possible time and rehire those willing. How do you feel about that?" I kept my eyes focused on her expression. But she kept her unmoving face the whole time.

"If milady wish to do so it will fill me with joy to see them being free. However the choice is yours. And please consider that it takes a large amount of people to keep this estate up and well kept. We are currently massively understaffed especially in the higher rank because many of the free servants decided to leave one the arrest became known. Some will return once the learn about your generous heart but many will already have found new employment." I was surprised by her openness while her whole posture was that of a perfect servant, she clearly did not hate my current plans.

"How many of the heads were responsible for the treatment of the slaves and how was the care for them here anyway?" You could finally see a moment of hesitation before she answerd. "The slaves of the inner circle have access to the same quarters as the servants as well as their own dining room and access to the wash houses. The slaves of the outer circle are living in ... less pleasant accommodations. Usually group housings, separated by gender."

"The inner circle slaves were allowed to wed other slaves or in two cases free servants. The lord in theory had the final say over that but he never interfered with that so it was mostly governed by the butler. They were usually freed after a certain amount of time but I always had the feeling that there might have been some errors in the time keeping of the years they have worked." You clearly could see the displeasure about the hint of incorrect timekeeping. If it was because of the slaves were not released or because she disliked the idea of disorder was hard to tell.

"Those of the inner circle were under my direct control. So all the punishment was directed by me. But there was never the need for such since everybody under me will go through a rigorous training that does not allow any mistakes. And since I trained free servants as well as slaves I never bothered to separate between the two." She took another short moment of thinking about something.

"In the outer circle meanwhile things are a lot rougher. Unless it is the kitchen and house personal were I still have some influence. The stick is used often and senselessly and I never heard about one of them being released. In the last days however they royal guard took over the care of them and all the handlers have decided to relocate. I assume it might have something to do with one of the royal guard almost beheading one of the slavers when he tried to punish a kitchen girl. Against standing order mind you. They formally apologized for the damage done to the punishing equipment that day."

I couldnt hide my smile. So the royal guard or at least some of them shared the royal couples dislike of slavery. I nodded to her. "So at the moment there is nobody of the old slave overseers left? She nodded. The last one did run this morning because of the judgment of the old duke. If they waited to long they would have a hard time finding a new job. However they still left some of the out circle slaves in a bad shape from the last days of being unsupervised." I pondered for a moment. "Are they needing any medical treatment?"

She nodded. "According to he report that the royal guardsmen did give yes. I gave them permission to do their best and take those in need to better environments to heal like the guests baths." She bowed down towards me. "I am sorry if my initiative did offend you but I simple couldnt stand the thought of doing nothing." I shook my head. "I am gratefully. Please send out for urgent medical aid where needed and move them all to better housing were possible. They are free to use the baths and please ask the cooks to not hold back in providing healthy meals for them. Please take care of that first before summoning the head of household." She did show only a small smile and bowed again. "As you wish milady. Shall I take care of it now?" She kept her head low waiting for me reply.

"Yes please." I smiled while she nodded then turned and speed walked out. She did not run but her steps were worthy of the word urgent. "I like her." Marie mumbled next to me. I nodded. "If she is like she presents herself she will be a big asset. Now my friends I need to get a better overview of how much the duke owns and how many are here in the palace so please help me to find and understand these books she mentioned." Marie nodded and went straight to the large desk looking at the bound hard books behind it. She started to pull out a few piling them on the desk. "This should be the current records as far as I understand the filing system."

I took the first heavy book. It was heavy and way bigger then the books Marie had managed to smuggle into my cell. It had a neat handwritten cover that simple said. "Slave register of the Year XXDMC. There were three more of them. I opened the first page and sighed the night was going to be long.

We all had started to look trough the books. Only Johanna got bored really quickly and instead had opted to explore the room. Drawing out the different ornament weapons and shakeing her head about most of them being just for decorative purposes and not really something to use in daily combat. Suddenly there was jet another knock at the door

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I had finish writing this already half a week ago but simple did not have the time to put it up here. I hope you all enjoy the first glimps of Maries new family life xD Writing Suha was chalangeing. I did wanted to show her anger but she is not an unresonable woman she just had one of her worst days. The harmen itself will be quite intresting and we will meet the next wife really soon