Sabriel leans against the doorframe, watching the meeting. Luckily no one can see her as she is standing in a long shadow cast by the Charter marks conjured to light the hall at night. She had been informed upon her return an hour earlier that Touchstone was meeting with three nobles from Navis and its surrounding lands who had been charged with crimes against the farmers that worked in their domain. She had heard about some of this in Touchstone's last letter. Apparently they had taken much of the farmers' harvest, set a tax on game caught in the nearby woods and punished those who did not meet their demands. They now held a fair amount of people in their dungeons.
She had left Touchstone to the drama, deeming herself to be much too mentally exhausted to be of any help. After taking a nice long bath and tucking Ellie in for the night, she had gone back to check the progress of the meeting, which was apparently still dragging on.
"We have lived there and ruled as we wished long before you returned," exclaimed one of the nobles threateningly.
"We have gone over this many times," Touchstone answered, jaw clenched and eyes closed, his fingers massaging his forehead.
He is frowning deeply and she can tell he is fighting his temper, as so often he must.
"The way in which things operated during the interregnum caused strife all over the kingdom. Things have changed and it is no longer permissible to exploit those who live in your domain." His voice had an edge to it, but he remained civil.
"However, if you are dissatisfied with the living conditions outlined the terms I have put to you repeatedly over the past few hours, I can arrange for you and your families to instead move to Edge."
Sabriel smiles at this move. Navis is the northmost town in their kingdom and the idea of moving to the southmost town with its unfamiliar heat and proximity to Ancelstierre would seem worse to the nobles than becoming farmers themselves.
The northerners reacted as she had predicted. They all protested simultaneously but Touchstone shut them down.
"Those are my only propositions. I am not open to bargaining. You will restore the farmers to their families and pay them back their taxes along with the additional sum for detaining and maltreating them. You shall move to a holdfast owned by your family, however you shall no longer be lords of Navis and shall cede the three great manors to worthy individuals of my choosing. I shall keep a close eye on your progress. Good night." He stood and everyone stood with him. The nobles looked sullen but seemed resigned to their punishment.
Standing at the front, Touchstone looked every inch a king, miles away from the man from Holehallow who refused to speak more than an apology. When he had first been restored, no more than a year ago, his manor had seemed so different that she had wondered whether she knew this new man, The King. Such worries, that their duties to their country would change them, make them strangers to each other, always twisted at the back of her mind, like a foul serpent. However she reminded herself, as she did every time the worries stirred, that they would change together. They had already had a year to settle into their new roles, which had only strengthened their bond as it was tested by the many challenges they faced. They were rebuilding a kingdom together, and for all the time they have spent apart, they are never truly apart. They wrote to each other every day, and spent as much time together as possible.
He may seem a different person, King Touchstone, but she reminded herself that the face he wore in his political dealings was just his King's Face. It was part of him, but did not capture all that was Touchstone.
Lost in her thoughts, she did not notice him notice her. She did not see how the crease between his eyebrows smoothed out, his shoulders relaxed a bit and a small smile brightened his face.
The people filed out of the room quickly. It was late an all were eager to find their beds. She threaded between them and walked up to the throne where Touchstone still stood.
"Were you waiting long for me in the shadows milady?" he said when they were alone, his deep voice soft and teasing.
She wrapped her arms around his neck "Not nearly as long as you've been waiting for me." She answered.
He pressed his lips to hers as he brought his arms to circle her body. They stayed like that a while, long kisses becoming light, brushing pecks.
He smiled and rubbed his forehead against hers. "Everything seems brighter when you are here. I think you shall have to re-explain why you ever have to leave."
"Because I love you showing me how much you have missed me" Sabriel whispered against Touchstone's lips.
At this he pulled her closer and kissed her more passionately. They fell back onto the throne, her straddling his hips.
She opened his mouth with her tongue and he moaned at the taste that he'd been missing for a month.
He kissed her jaw urgently, moved down her neck and sucked the soft skin just above her collarbone, leaving a dark bruise that stood out against her pale skin.
"Ooh Touchstone," she breathed.
She blindly untied the laces of his breeches and pushed them and his smallclothes down his thighs as he divested her of her undergarments, breaking their kiss.
"I want you," he growled, recapturing her mouth with his.
"Well I am sitting on your lap, naked – oh!" she started to tease, but cried out as he grasped her hips and lifted her onto him.
She kissed him harshly, fingers twisting into his curls as she rose up and slid back down along his length.
He raised his hand to cup her breasts, playing with the hard buds as she rode him. As her pace increased Touchstone braced one hand against her back, the other on her hips, encouraging her to keep going and raising his hips to meet her. He kissed his way up her chest, occasionally nipping at her skin. When he nipped at her neck she gasped, her climax hitting her hard. He groaned and threw his head back against the throne as he thrust up one last time and was consumed by his own finish.
…
They rested, sated and dazed. He ran his hands over Sabriel's arms absentmindedly, his mind soaked in pleasure and yet unable to form words.
After a moment he began to gently heal the bruises on her breasts, neck and chest, looking guilty.
She lifted his chin so that he looked at her. She kissed him softly and said
"You need not look so guilty."
Touchstone stroked her jaw; "I lose control when I'm with you. I let myself lose control. It worries me that in that fire I sometimes hurt you." He explained.
Her dark eyes are tender "I assure you, nothing you did harmed me. Far from it." She blushes slightly but holds his eyes "I like it when you're rough as much as when you're gentle."
Touchstone's eyes go smoky again.
"Perhaps we can try both tonight," he suggests, "though I think we shall have to find a more suitable location for the latter option."
She smiles at him, "lead on."