Chapter 85: Pain and Love (18)
Severin kept his hand low.
The captive wagon rolled through the south throat and turned east. The pale hand behind its bars disappeared beneath the canvas. Alicia stayed crouched behind the broken stonework, shoulders tight, eyes fixed on the road instead of the people being carried away.
The replacement driver stared after the convoy. His team shifted in the traces.
"Don’t move," Severin said.
The man couldn’t hear him from the far side of the kiln wall. Alicia could.
"Yes, Master."
Saelith slid down from the firm rise above the ditch. She stopped at the west-northwest break, studied the crushed brush without stepping into it, then opened the route sketch against her knee.
"Old enough for the wheel cuts to settle and harden," she said. "Wagons used it after the last rain."
"Mark the mouth. Nothing beyond it."
She drew the branch in charcoal, folded the sketch, and crouched beside a fallen kiln stone. Her knife scratched a short line into the underside where no passing driver would see it.
Tressa came from behind the shed with her field note already open. She added the time beneath the last line.
"2 riders visible," she said. "1 spear, 1 crossbow. Covered barred wagon. Coughing from inside. Chain against wood. East turn after the throat."
"Don’t count what you couldn’t see."
"I didn’t." Her jaw tightened. "There was breathing under the cough."
"Write what you heard."
The replacement driver finally clicked his tongue. His wagon creaked forward, following the same stone throat the prisoners had crossed.
Alicia’s ears tracked every wheel. She didn’t rise until the wagon cleared her post and continued toward the lawful freight road.
"South throat clear, Master."
Severin watched the alder screen settle over the hidden branch. A pursuit now would tell the driver exactly where the trap had been. It would also send them into a road with no mapped turn, no known end, and armed men already ahead.
"Withdraw."
They left the cut as they had found it. Saelith looked back at the hidden cut beneath the kiln stone before she turned away. Tressa carried the note and packed the hooded lamp, water, bandages, and route pegs into the saddlebags. Severin kept the leather tube holding the route-book and carrier-sheet copies against his left side. Alicia took the last look south, then fell in beside him.
The 3 household horses waited behind the low wall. They walked the animals back through the thinning light. By the time Copperglass roofs rose beyond the road, the replacement wagon had already entered the receiving yard.
Marienne stood beneath the yard lamp while a clerk checked the ordinary delivery sheet. Her dark dress hid the shape of the bandage except when she lifted her right forearm away from the crate. The driver complained about the delay, the road, and the quality of Copperglass tea. She let him finish.
"Seal number?" she asked.
The clerk read it aloud.
"Matches," Marienne said. "North quarantine store. Unopened."
The driver looked at the crate. "You asked for replacement stock."
"And received a sealed crate. Copperglass will decide what it contains after controlled inspection."
"That isn’t how the east office described it."
"Then the east office may learn to write more carefully." She took the delivery slip with her left hand. "You’re finished here."
He muttered under his breath but signed the counterfoil. The yard workers moved the crate north without breaking wax or lifting the canvas until they were beneath the quarantine roof.
Severin waited until the wagon had gone before he crossed the yard.
Marienne’s gaze touched the leather tube. "Something happened."
"Records room."
She gave the quarantine key to no one. It disappeared into the left pocket at her waist.
Inside, Saelith spread her route sketch on the table. Severin tapped the charcoal branch.
"This road wasn’t on our map."
Tressa laid her field note beside his hand. "2 riders. A barred wagon. Someone coughing behind the canvas. It turned east near dusk."
Marienne wrote with her left hand. Her pen paused above the word east.
"Destination?" she asked.
"Unknown."
"You let the replacement through."
"Yes."
A faint line appeared between her brows. "Then whoever sent it still believes the delivery was ordinary."
"Keep it that way."
"I intended to."
Tressa tapped the edge of her note. "I’m going back to the patients. Wake me if that crate starts coughing too."
Marienne looked at her. "I’ll resist the temptation to open it with an axe."
"You don’t have the hand for it."
"My left remains perfectly capable."
"That wasn’t encouragement."
Saelith rolled the route sketch and tied it. "The branch doesn’t belong to the ditch. If it reaches the old lime ground, the soil will change before the road does."
"Tomorrow," Severin said.
Saelith nodded. "Tomorrow."
Marienne locked the records inside with her left hand. The quarantine key remained in her pocket. Tressa left for the lower ward. Saelith took the outer stairs toward the rooms assigned to her. Stable hands rubbed down the 3 horses. A yard clerk counted the lamps, workers barred the gates, and 2 workers pushed the last work cart under cover.
No one followed Severin into the residential wing except Alicia.
At the outer landing, she saw the brass key in his hand. Her ears dipped before she could stop them.
"Hold this landing," he said. "Open the heavy door only if Copperglass is in immediate danger or Tressa calls for me."
Her tail tightened around the back of her boot.
"Yes, Master."
He waited.
Alicia raised her ears again and faced the stair. "I’ll hold the landing, Master."
"You will."
Severin passed through the heavy inner door and closed it behind him. The thick wood swallowed the sound from the landing. 2 corridor turns carried him farther in, where Copperglass’s night work had faded to a few distant knocks under the floor.
Marienne’s room waited at the end of the corridor.
The key turned.
She had bolted nothing against him.
Severin entered, closed the door, and slid the inner bolt into place.
Marienne lay on the center of the broad bed with her head on the north pillow. Her thin night robe had been opened and pushed beneath her back. A folded towel rested under her hips. Her bare knees were apart, and the candlelight showed the wet shine already gathered between her thighs.
Her bandaged right hand lay on a second pillow beside her shoulder.
She looked at his face, not the key.
Her thighs opened farther when he crossed the rug.
Severin set the key on the west desk. His coat went over the foot bench, and his boots settled beside it.
He stopped at the foot of the bed and looked over what she had prepared for him. Marienne’s composure held for a breath.
Then his hand closed around her left ankle and pulled her lower on the towel.
"Mmh..."
Her back slid over the linen. The bandaged hand stayed on its pillow.
"Keep that hand there."
"Yes." Her eyes dropped to the hard shape beneath his trousers. "Severin... ngh..."
He stripped off his trousers and left them beside the foot bench. The candle caught along his cock as it sprang free.
Marienne’s breath left through parted lips.
She watched him without looking away.
Severin climbed onto the bed and knelt between her thighs, facing the headboard. He put his right hand on her left hip and drew her closer until the head of his cock rested against her wet entrance.
Even that shallow pressure found her tight. A trace of tenderness remained from their recent first night, and the resistance changed when he aligned himself.
"Look at me."
Her steel-gray eyes lifted.
Severin pushed through her tight entrance and buried himself to the base.
CLAP!
Marienne’s mouth opened. "Ah—!"
Her pussy stretched around his full length, slick heat clamping hard. He held only long enough to feel the resistance yield around him.
Then he started fucking her.
Hard from the first withdrawal. Harder on the return. His hips struck between her spread thighs.
CLAP!
"Ahn... Severin!"
The frame knocked softly beneath his knees. Marienne’s breasts jolted with each stroke. Her left hand caught his wrist and held him close while she kept herself beneath him.
Severin caught her face between his hands.
His palms cupped her cheeks. His thumbs rested below her ears. He held her head straight while his hips drove between her thighs without mercy for the careful woman who had been writing delivery times less than an hour ago.
"Ngh... ahh..."
Her eyes widened, then lost their clean focus.
"That’s what you waited for?"
"Yes... harder."
He bent and took her mouth.
The kiss swallowed her answer. His tongue pushed past her lips while his cock kept hammering into her. A moan broke against his mouth and went nowhere else.
"Nnh..."
Severin released the kiss. Marienne chased him before the next thrust knocked her back into the pillow.
His left hand tightened on her jaw. His right palm came down across her right breast.
SLAP!
The heavy flesh jumped sideways.
"Ahhn!"
He struck the left breast next.
SLAP!
Marienne jerked beneath him. "Ngh—yes..."
Her left fist twisted the sheet. Her bandaged hand stayed where he had ordered it, fingers curling against the pillow without bearing weight.
Severin gripped her jaw and turned her face just enough to expose the right side. His open palm snapped across her cheek.
SLAP!
Her head moved with the blow and stopped in his grip.
A red warmth rose under her pale skin.
"Ah...!"
She looked back at him at once.
"Again," she said.
He didn’t give it to her yet.
His right hand closed around her breast, thumb grinding over the nipple before he bent and sucked it into his mouth. Marienne’s back bowed. He bit just hard enough to make her hips jump against the stroke already driving into her.
"Mmh—ah..."
He released the nipple with a wet pull and moved to the left. His teeth caught there while his right hand braced at her left hip.
"Nghh... Severin..."
The name frayed at the end.
He straightened and fucked her deeper. His left hand slid from her jaw to the side and back of her neck. Fingers spread beneath her hair. His palm held her against the pillow while her next breath broke hot over his wrist.
"Ahh... Severin..."
He kept the hold through several hard thrusts. Her hips rose to meet him, wetness spreading around his cock.
"Ahn... ahn..."
He released her neck when he chose, returned his left hand to her jaw, and slapped her right breast with his right.
SLAP!
He crossed to her left breast.
SLAP!
"Ah! Ngh—!"
Her pussy clenched around him.
Severin’s breath roughened. The force of that grip reached up his abdomen. He drove through it, keeping the same brutal line until Marienne’s heels dragged over the bed.
"Don’t loosen."
"I’m trying—"
His right palm cracked across her left cheek.
SLAP!
"Ahhn!"
"Try harder."
Her thighs locked tighter around his hips.
He struck her right breast again.
SLAP!
"Ngh... yes, like that..."
The last of her polished voice broke under the next series of thrusts. Wet sound thickened beneath them. The towel crept north beneath her rocking hips.
Marienne’s eyes squeezed shut.
"Open them."
She obeyed.
Severin’s left hand returned to the side of her neck. His right stayed planted at her left hip. He held her down. Her breath came ragged and full against the heel of his palm.
"Severin... ahh..."
His hips drove flush between her thighs.
CLAP!
"Don’t stop..."
He didn’t.
A hard thrust struck the depth that stole the rest of her sentence. Marienne’s hips bucked. Clear fluid burst around his cock and soaked the towel beneath her.
"Aah—!"
Severin released her neck and locked his hand around her jaw again. His other palm returned to the mattress beside her left hip. He drove faster, using his knees and core to keep the brutal pace on the same deep line.
Marienne tried to lift her head. The next thrust flattened her.
"Nghh... I can’t take it..."
Her left hand pulled at his forearm, drawing him closer. Her pussy squeezed him so hard his jaw set.
"Then take it," Severin said. "Keep sucking my cock with your pussy."
Her face twisted with effort.
She obeyed.
The tightening came in deliberate pulses around every withdrawal. Severin felt each one. Pleasure dragged a rough breath out of him, and Marienne heard it. Her hips lifted toward him as though the sound had become another command.
His right hand left the mattress, slapped her left breast, and closed over it.
SLAP!
Another gush broke around his cock before she reached the edge, running over his thighs and widening the dark wet patch beneath her.
Marienne arched into the beginning of her release. "Ahhn—Severin!"
Severin drove through the sudden slickness.
"Hold it."
"I’m— ngh... trying..."
"Hold."
Her contractions sharpened. Her left hand clawed at his wrist. Her bandaged fingers trembled uselessly on the pillow but never left it.
Severin’s own climax rose hard behind his abdomen.
He bent over her, caught her jaw with his left hand, and forced her gaze back to him.
"Now."
Marienne’s first orgasm hit in a violent shudder.
"SEVERIN—ah!"
Her pussy locked around him in hard, uneven waves. Fluid sprayed hot between their bodies, soaking the towel and the inside of her thighs.
The grip tore Severin over with her.
He buried himself and came inside.
Semen pulsed deep into her while her body kept seizing around his cock. Marienne’s eyes went wide, then unfocused.
"Ahh... my womb... it’s trembling..."
Her words broke under another contraction around him. Severin held himself deep through every pulse, giving her no room to escape the fullness.
Her orgasm weakened into aftershocks.
"Mmh... ngh..."
Severin stayed over her until his cock stopped pulsing.
Marienne’s chest rose in broken breaths. Her legs had loosened around his hips. Relief touched her face too early.
"This isn’t finished."
Her eyes opened.
Severin caught her jaw with his left hand and kissed her before she could gather an answer. A weak breath broke against his mouth. When he lifted his head, his right palm snapped across her right cheek.
SLAP!
"Ah...!"
Her thighs tightened around his hips despite the tremor.
He withdrew. Semen stayed inside her for the moment, held by her swollen entrance and the way her body closed after him.
"Turn."
Marienne rolled through her left side. Severin guided her shoulder and hip through the turn, keeping the bandaged right hand on its pillow. She came onto her knees and left forearm with her chest angled down, head on the north pillow, and hips raised toward him.
Her legs shook.
"Higher."
She obeyed, lifting her ass despite the tremor.
"Ngh... Severin..."
He knelt behind her at the center-south of the bed. His left fist closed in Marienne’s hair close to the scalp. His right hand settled on her right hip.
Marienne pushed back before he moved.
Severin drove into her until his hips struck her ass.
CLAP!
Her body convulsed. A hot stream spilled immediately around his cock and splashed the towel and his thighs.
"Aahhn!"
He pulled her head back by the hair until her neck formed a clean line, then began fucking her from behind.
The pace never returned to gentle.
He pulled her back into the next stroke. Her ass struck his hips wet and hard.
CLAP!
Her left forearm slid across the sheet. The bandaged hand remained beside her face, dry and free.
Severin’s palm cracked across her right ass cheek.
SLAP!
"Ah!"
He struck the left.
SLAP!
Then the right again before her body settled.
SLAP!
"Ngh—ahh..."
Red handprints began to rise over the soft flesh.
Marienne pushed back harder.
Severin released her hair and pressed the back of her head into the pillow with his left hand. Her face turned sideways across the linen. His right hand anchored her hip while his cock hammered into her swollen pussy.
"Mmh... mmh..."
"Lift your face."
She did. He gathered her hair again.
His right palm landed on the same cheek.
SLAP!
After the next full thrust, he struck the reddened flesh harder.
SLAP!
"Ahhn! Yes..."
She arched into the pull on her hair. The angle changed. Severin drove deeper, and another gush ran down her thighs.
CLAP!
"Aah... there..."
He kept that angle.
His palm cracked across the right cheek.
SLAP!
He crossed to the left after a full thrust.
SLAP!
The next blow landed on the right.
SLAP!
Marienne’s cries lost any businesswoman’s restraint.
"Ngh! Ah—Severin..."
Her knees began to drift apart.
Severin gripped her hips and pulled them square beneath her. Once she held herself, his left hand returned to her hair and his right to the reddened curve of her ass.
"Stay up."
"I’m trying..."
"Obey."
She dragged her knees back under her.
He rewarded the effort by cracking his palm across the left cheek of her ass.
SLAP!
"Ahhn..."
Then he drove into her until her head fell forward again. Their bodies met in a wet impact.
CLAP!
Marienne’s left hand clenched in the pillow. "I love you."
Severin kept fucking her.
"I love you... I can’t live without you anymore."
The words tore through her breath and the slap of their bodies.
"Then serve me well," he said.
Her pussy contracted around him.
"Ngh... yes..."
"Say it."
"I’ll serve you... well."
His palm struck her right ass cheek.
SLAP!
He crossed to the left.
SLAP!
His palm came back to the right.
SLAP!
"Ah! Ahhn—!"
The last blow made her squirt again, a strong stream splashing across his lower abdomen.
Severin’s grip tightened in her hair.
"Keep squeezing."
Marienne bore down around his cock. The contractions were clumsy now, but eager. Each one dragged another pulse of pleasure through him.
"Mmh... like this?"
"Harder."
She clenched until his breath caught.
Severin pressed her head to the pillow again, her mouth open against the linen. His right palm struck her left ass cheek.
SLAP!
He returned to her hip and pulled her into a full thrust.
CLAP!
Then struck the same reddened flesh again.
SLAP!
"Ahn... nghh..."
Her wet pussy squeezed and released around him. The bed creaked under the changing force. Candlelight shook on the east wall.
Another jet of fluid spilled from her before the next thrust had fully seated.
"Severin—ahh...!"
Her legs trembled so badly that Severin had to hold her hips level.
"You’re staying there."
"I can’t... my legs..."
"Your legs don’t decide."
He pulled her back onto him and slapped the right cheek of her ass.
SLAP!
His palm crossed to the left.
SLAP!
"Ngh—yes... keep me..."
The last words dissolved beneath the pace.
Severin’s climax built again. He could feel the tightness of her around every inch, made harsher by swelling, friction, and the contractions she was forcing for him. His abdomen locked. His breath turned rough against her back.
Marienne heard it and pushed herself onto him with the little strength left in her hips.
"Inside me," she said. "Please... inside when I come."
"When I allow it."
"Yes."
Severin released her head, gathered her hair again, and drove to the deepest point the angle allowed.
CLAP!
Her second orgasm broke before she could form his whole name.
"Sev—AHH!"
Her pussy seized around him. A final hard squirt burst between their bodies and soaked the already ruined towel.
Severin came with her.
He locked her hips to his and filled her again, semen pulsing into the heat already holding his earlier release. Marienne’s contractions gripped his cock with brutal strength.
"That’s it," he said through a rough breath. "Keep sucking. Don’t let go."
"Nghh... yes..."
She squeezed through the aftershocks.
"Again."
Her body obeyed even while her knees shook beneath her.
"Ah... ahn..."
Severin held himself deep until the last pulse passed.
Marienne sagged forward, still trying to clamp around him.
"Mmh..."
Only then did he loosen his grip on her hair.
He supported her hip with his right hand and guided her down onto her left side. The bandaged hand remained clear. Severin withdrew slowly.
Semen spilled from her pussy in a thick stream, heavy with their mingled releases. It ran over the towel and mixed with the clear fluid already soaking the linen. A very small pink-red smear marked the swollen opening.
Marienne watched his face, exhausted enough that she couldn’t hide the question.
Severin touched the skin beside the smear, not the sore center. The pink mark didn’t spread. Marienne’s thighs stayed loose beneath his hand.
The entrance was still tender from their first night. The rough pace had rubbed the surface raw.
"The skin’s raw," he said. "It’s stopped."
Her eyes closed. "I assumed you’d tell me if I was dying."
"You’d know."
"That isn’t comforting."
"It wasn’t meant to be."
A hoarse laugh escaped her.
Severin moved to the east washstand. Warm water waited in the jug. He poured it into the basin, took a clean cloth, and returned to the bed.
Marienne flinched when the cloth touched the tender skin between her thighs, then relaxed as he cleaned away semen, clear fluid, and the small smear of blood. He rolled the soaked linen into itself, slid a dry towel beneath her hips, and carried the used cloths to the basin.
The bolt never moved.
He checked the bandage next. The wrapping was dry. Her right hand had taken no weight, and the fingers moved without new pain when he told her to flex them.
"Good," he said.
"My hand or my obedience?"
"Both."
He brought her water. Marienne drank with her left hand, paused, then finished the cup because his gaze remained on it. He set the empty cup on the east bedside surface.
Severin stripped the wet towel away, pulled the robe free from beneath her, and left it folded at the foot of the bed. Then he drew a clean sheet over her legs. He lay on his back at the center of the bed, head on the north pillow.
Marienne turned onto her left side against his right. Her legs barely moved beneath the sheet. The bandaged hand rested on the other pillow, dry and untrapped.
For a while, neither spoke.
The candle guttered.
Marienne put her left palm on his chest. "Stay tonight."
Severin looked down at her.
"Ask properly."
Her mouth tightened with tired annoyance, then softened.
"Sleep here with me tonight."
"Yes."
The relief she tried to conceal reached her eyes first.
Severin bent and kissed her slowly. Another kiss touched the corner of her mouth when she followed him. The last landed against her forehead after her head settled beneath his chin.
Copperglass’s night bell rolled through the wall.
Marienne went still.
Severin felt the change beneath her palm.
"What?"
"The convoy." Her voice had lost its erotic haze. "You said it passed the old kiln near dusk."
"Yes."
"And turned east."
"Yes."
She looked toward the dark west desk, though no ledger lay open there.
"The east receiving depot closes before a loaded wagon leaving that cut could reach it."
"Where does late freight stop?"
Marienne’s brows drew together. She counted distance and bell time in silence.
"The old lime weighhouse north of Guild road. Carriers use it when they miss the east cutoff." She looked back at him. "They must stop there before going farther. Unless the hidden road changes the schedule again."
"Bring every schedule that touches that weighhouse to the records room at first bell," Severin said.
"My right hand—"
"Bring a clerk."
Marienne gave a tired nod. "Yes."
Severin drew her back beneath the sheet. The night bell’s echo faded through Copperglass while her breathing slowed against his side.