-Karen-I took the pails and went back out to the table where Joanne and I continued feasting. “These are so good Karen! You have such great taste in snacks!” She exclaimed as we ate through more than half of the blackberries and only a quarter of the raspberries. Blackberries are way tastier than raspberries. I felt like I was going to pop I had eaten so much. I sat down just stared at the table feeling very depressed with myself. I ate like a pig again. But I was so hungry! I’m going to gain even more weight. What if Conor thinks I’m getting fat? What if he doesn’t want me anymore? What am I going to do?! I looked down at the ring on my right finger and felt a small bit of reassurance but not much. He did promise he wouldn’t leave me.A hand waiving in front of my face brought me back to reality. Conor was sitting next to me. He took my left hand and kissed it sweetly. “Am I fat?!” I asked him seriously. I just wanted to cry, and I couldn’t figure out why. What is wrong with me? Why
-Karen-I took the pails and went back out to the table where Joanne and I continued feasting. “These are so good Karen! You have such great taste in snacks!” She exclaimed as we ate through more than half of the blackberries and only a quarter of the raspberries. Blackberries are way tastier than raspberries. I felt like I was going to pop I had eaten so much. I sat down just stared at the table feeling very depressed with myself. I ate like a pig again. But I was so hungry! I’m going to gain even more weight. What if Conor thinks I’m getting fat? What if he doesn’t want me anymore? What am I going to do?! I looked down at the ring on my right finger and felt a small bit of reassurance but not much. He did promise he wouldn’t leave me.A hand waiving in front of my face brought me back to reality. Conor was sitting next to me. He took my left hand and kissed it sweetly. “Am I fat?!” I asked him seriously. I just wanted to cry, and I couldn’t figure out why. What is wrong with me? Why
-Karen-The next two days passed by uneventfully which I was happy about. Conor had drills with the soldiers each morning, so Joanne and Bart kept me company. Bart was educating both of us on what to expect with babies. This is going to be a ton of work! Who knew babies needed so much looking after? Well, I guess it makes sense since they can’t do anything ‘cept sleep and cry… And get diaper changes… Bart gave me a cube each day around lunch and it was not the best tasting thing I had eaten but I ate it without causing a scene. Every time I ate one Joanne would laugh at the look on my face. Conor and I spent each night talking about what we wanted to teach this child of ours. This baby was now the focus of most of our conversations. We knew that once our little pumpkin arrived we wouldn’t be sleeping much. Conor said if I wanted, he would hire a wet nurse to help me with the baby so that I could rest as much as possible. I told him I would have to think about it since I did want a fu
-Karen-“I had Roger sedate him for a little bit. I wondered why his food bill went down a fair bit for the last few weeks. Everything adds up now that we have questioned the doctor that Bart has been consulting.” A cruel smile crept on to his face. This just gets worse by the second. “We can’t leave any bruises on her, Michael. Your brother will lose his mind if she gets hurt. Especially since she is carrying his child.” Zachary instructed as he walked over to us. They are going to use me… There’s no mistake about it.“Unfortunately, we don’t have any good mistresses here right now; but we have needs that need to be accommodated. So, if you value your life and that of the baby in your belly, you will submit without a qualm or I will stomp that life out of you with no more effort than it took to execute your former Queen.” He paused a moment and then continued. “However, I’m so pissed off at Conor; I just might have that done anyway.” What?! “He’s been crossing several lines with his
-Bart-“Do you think she and the baby will be alright Bart?” The woman asked casting a glance back to Conor who was asleep on his stomach. She was dressed like a soldier and a short sword hung at her side. She was fairly tall and muscular for a woman. She looked almost identical to Conor and Michael, but her eyes were green, and her dark brown hair was long and wavy down to the middle of her back. “I would hate to see Conor lose his mind over this girl.”“I haven’t been able to examine her yet, Elsie. They just let her go about five minutes ago.” Bart replied as he pressed his stethoscope to Karen’s chest for about a minute. He then moved it down to her belly for another minute. “Well, I can hear the baby’s heartbeat… She doesn’t appear to have any physical injuries that I can see. But I’m fairly certain that she was forced into pleasing your father and his lusty generals…” Bart started doing a limited pelvic exam on Karen to make sure there were no obvious injuries. “She has to have
-Conor-Conor slowly stirred, rubbing his face and shaking his head. Ugh! My head is throbbing… My back is sore too but that was a lot of lashings I got dealt. “Brother! Are you out of your fucking mind?!” Elsie snapped angrily. Shut up. You’re going to make my migraine worse!“I guess I am… You here to beat me too Elsie?” Conor asked looking over at Elsie rather annoyed. I’m starting to hate every single person in my family. “You might as well jump on that train since Michael already got to me today. At least if you do, Bart is here to fix me up again.” Ugh… My head!“No. I came because I wanted to make sure you were okay. Bart did a great job fixing you up. You can barely tell that you were flogged…” Elsie paused as Conor shook his head. Thank you Bart… But what about Karen? “What? What’s wrong?” Elsie asked as Conor set his head back down. Kay, where is my sweet flower? I hope she and the baby are okay! Conor looked really depressed and nervous. “What have you heard about Karen? I
-Conor-“Are you serious? How do you know she wasn’t lying?” Conor asked narrowing his eyes at his father. She’s… A noble? My flower is a noble?! I mean, I love her no matter what but that’s so unexpected!Zachary handed him a small folded up paper scroll. “I am. I put it on the Empire. The woman even brought me this birth certificate showing her noble lineage is on her father’s side. I had the doctor Bart consults validate it. As it turns out, the father of Karen is the woman’s father-in-law. And I thought half of our noblewomen were whores…” Zachary explained with an amused laugh. So… What does this mean? “I told you, you could keep her as a servant, Conor. And I will admit I’ve been extremely furious with you for the last few months when I found out you started having feelings for her and then heard a few days ago that you got her pregnant.” Conor opened the scroll and it showed that ‘Lady Karen Anne Elizabeth of Mazifik was born on the third day of Marama at the Bashten House in t
-Karen-I woke immediately as I felt a jolt of lightning surge through me. I screamed from the pain. “Why did you do that?!” Ouch! That really hurt! I looked over and saw a black-haired woman with violet eyes, about my height, weight and body build, wearing a black dress and cloak. “Who are you?!” I snapped angrily as I pulled my hand away from her. What the hell?! The resemblance was uncanny. She could have been my twin easily.The woman scoffed. “Really? You have no idea?” She asked with a mean grin, looking down her nose at me. “You can’t be that stupid.” Is she my mother? “I know they gave you a basic education but I never thought anyone would be that dumb.”“No, I don’t! And I certainly don’t like how you chose to wake me up! You’re quite rude, you know!” I snapped angrily. I rubbed my belly and decided to stand up and face this woman. “Get out right now! You aren’t welcome here.” Is it really her?She stepped up to me without a bit of fear in eyes. Is she about to challenge me?