One morning, when Rafael Walt woke up from a mildly uncomfortable sleep because he had no pillow, he found that in his sleep he had not been buried alive, but instead had his fiancée sleeping with her head on his chest. His confused but generally warm and fuzzy feelings about this was suddenly backstabbed by someone hiding to one side of the room he just entered when he looked over her back to find a nightmarish figured staring at him as they held on to her possessively, face a dark void that stared at him in loathing and hate and–
He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and saw that Sadako was still asleep, one arm curled possessively over Maria's stomach, her legs curled up as if trying to make herself as small as possible. Her hair had gotten tangled up over her face again, leaving her bare slit over one eye. Said eye was closed, and she was taking deep, even breathing.
Some men would have probably enjoyed waking up in bed with two scantily clad women (with Maria's current preferred sleepwear, the modest covering Sadako wore averaged out to scanty, probably). He knew that Sora at the Ministry would have smirked and… well, not bragged, but would certainly have a spring in his step about it.
Sighing, he bent one leg at the knee so it wasn't obvious he was… well, Sophia probably had a metaphor for it, but he couldn't be bothered to think of one, and thought of paperwork to make it go away. Then had to switch to thinking of climbing stairs because paperwork conjured too many thoughts of Maria.
He supposed the fact that Sadako was still asleep was… a positive of some sort? Judging from the light coming in through the window, the woman was usually up and looming over the bed at this point.
Sighing, he grabbed his now-free pillow and tucked it under his head. He didn't have to go back to the Ministry today, so he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
Then Maria woke up to find her maid in bed with her and her fiancé, she almost kicked the woman out of bed before realizing two things: Sadako wasn't dead, and the bed wasn't covered with blood.
The guilt and self-loathing at her instinctive reactions arrived at about the same time her memories of the night before did, causing Maria to be a confusing vortex of emotions before everything finally settled down. When she did, she sighed in relief as she lay her head back on Rafael's chest. She hadn't killed her maid, hadn't drunk her blood, hadn't used her. She hadn't lost control and become a monster again. She didn't have to train a new maid to know her preferences!
… oh, and she hadn't killed someone under her protection who trusted her, that was important too.
Was she a horrible person for thinking the first one first? Probably, but not as bad as if she'd actually killed her maid.
She looked out the window and winced. She was already late to do her morning sword drills… and then the lessons for her wards… then breakfast, and then teaching Katarina… Maybe Rafael had a point.
…
Well, no time to think about it now, she had to get up.
…
All right, how was she to do that? normally, she only had to be careful about waking Rafael, but with Sadako sleeping next to her– she absently stroked the woman's hair– and one arm around her stomach, this could be problematic…
Maria sat there, and seriously considered trying to use Quickening to get out of bed.
"I'm already awake, if it helps?" Rafael said from above her head.
Maria blinked, then slowly raised her head, turning it to look her fiancé in the face. His left hand rose up and wiggled fingers at her.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Maria said.
"Probably the same reason Sadako didn't," Rafael said. "I was enjoying not waking up all the way, but then you started squirming."
Against her back, she felt Sadako twitch.
"Don't look at me like that," Rafael said over Maria's shoulder. "Maria has stuff to do in the morning, remember? Actually, so do you. Don't you have a sword lesson?"
The warmth at her back disappeared as Sadako slid off the bed with alacrity, and soft steps padded towards the adjoining servant's room.
Rafael sighed. "Ugh, I didn't mean to sound like that. I better apologize…"
"No, I'll go see to her," Maria said. "She's my maid, I need to be the one to tend to her well-being."
"Most nobles in your position wouldn't, you know," Rafael said. "I'm pretty sure it's not in 'The Noble's Proper Etiquette Reference and Manual of Propriety and Action', at any edition. No offense to Katarina's mother–"
"The author is unknown," Maria pointed out.
"– but being nice to servants isn't something anyone bothered to codify," Rafael said.
"Then I must see to her well-being as the one who swore to protect her," Maria said.
"You're not really going to sleep with everyone to settle their nightmares, are you?" Rafael said. "Because that's how rumors get started, and that woman's long shadow over this town or not, everyone still remembers how the Marquess liked to stick his metaphor into any woman he saw."
Maria blinked at that. "His metaphor?"
"I talked to Sophia recently and don't really want to think of any more ways to possibly phrase it," Rafael said tiredly.
"Hmm… and will I be able to use this metaphor myself soon?" Maria said.
In response, Rafael kissed her on the forehead. Most people would have called it a chaste gesture. Most people would be wrong, especially since Maria could feel the metaphor tugging on the blankets. "Go tend to your maid before you get distracted," Rafael breathed.
Maria nodded. Yes, that was probably good advice. "Very well. But know that I would very much enjoy a good metaphor at any time… even unexpectedly." Kissing Rafael's chest, she slid off the bed, picking up Sadako's discarded blanked and following after her maid.
She knocked on the door to Sadako's discreet room before entering, to find her maid hastily laying out her blue summer clothes, her apron, her sword, her knife, her socks and her shoes with some haste, made all the worst as she had apparently been in the middle of taking off her sleepwear when Maria's entrance necessitated her folding her hands and bowing low. "Lady Maria-dono," she said, sounding more flustered than Maria had ever head her, and that included the time she'd inadvisably cut her own stomach open to kill herself, before changing her mind.
Maria held up the blanket. "You left this," she said.
Sadako jerked up, her robe-like sleepwear starting to hang open before she hastily took the blanket, holding it to her front.
"Did you sleep well?" Maria inquired.
Sadako's visible eye blinked. It was clearer than Maria had ever seen it, though still a little bloodshot and shadowed. "Ha– ah, Yes, Lady Maria-dono. Sadako… slept." The last word was said in a curious, disbelieving tone. "Sadako slept good good."
Maria nodded. She looked at Sadako's eye and impulsively raised one hand. "Hold still," she said.
Sadako held very still as eldritch light glowed around Maria's hand, and she touched her maid's face, gently sweeping back her curtain of hair. Two eyes looked back at her nervously from a smooth, unblemished face.
Maria nodded, her Light Magic going out. "You're looking much better already. Will you be able to sleep alone tonight?"
Sadako's eyes widened in fear, but her face was serene as she said, "If Lady Maria-dono wishes me to…"
Maria nodded. "Very well. We shall have to repeat this again tonight. In the meantime, get dressed. We have the sword soon. "
"Yes, Lady Maria-dono," Sadako said with another bow that once more made her hair fall over her face like a curtain, leaving only a small opening in front of one eye.
Maybe she should get her maid hairclips or ribbons or something…
Breakfast was the usual cheerfully rowdy affair it always was. Maria found herself eyeing her wards– all her wards, regardless of age– however. Did any of them seem particularly sleepy? Tired? True, some of them, both among the children and otherwise, were lethargic in the morning, but she'd simply assumed they were slow to start. Now, however, she wondered if it was because they couldn't sleep, for fear of what they'd see behind their eyes…
She winced as she realized she'd been reading stories and sleeping with the children less ever since Rafael had moved in. Had she been neglecting her– er, the children in favor of her fiancé? Ugh, had she been acting like one of Katarina's entourage and thinking with her loins? Now that was an embarrassing thought…
She realized she was rubbing Rafael's thigh above his knee with her foot crossed over her leg and stopped, wincing at herself. Rafael, may he be blessed by the queen, didn't even react. Argh, she'd been fondling him like… like… like Lady Hunt given a pretext to touch Katarina! She needed to get her aim straight. She was acting like a blood-addled teenager, not a grown woman and hunter!
…
All right, granted, she currently was a blood-addled teenager, but still!
She was simply going to have to be more responsible about this. In between running her estate (the parts that Ghirardeli sent to her), teaching her wards the sword, teaching her squire, and managing her part of the manufactories (which she'd already begun delegating by promoting suitable people working there), she'd need to sleep with all the women on her estate to help treat their nightmares and return to a manageable schedule of reading her children to sleep, and then she could work on ravishing or being ravished by her fiancé. That was… doable.
Then she remembered she had to do her taxes too.
Maria suppressed a groan.
Perhaps she should get more help after all…
…
"Maria?" Maria blinked, and turned left to face her mother, who was looking at her with concern. "Dear, are you all right?"
"I'm fine, mother," Maria was about to say.
Instead, what came out was, "Mother, I don't want to be an adult anymore…"
She immediately blushed, berating herself for undignified and Katarina-like behavior. Argh, what was she doing, complaining about her life to her mother?-! Especially when she was still recovering from her ordeal!
To her surprise, her mother smiled and stood up, then rounded the corner of the table and leaned down to give Maria a hug. "Do you want to talk about it?"
The child, crying on the table, really, really wanted to, but the hunter and the lady were firm. Firm… but not without sympathy.
"Yes," Maria sighed. She was vaguely aware of a hand she recognized as Rafael holding her right hand and giving it a gentle squeeze and she buried her face in her mother's embrace. Maria sighed again. "But not right now. People are counting on me…"
Her mother's eyes looked down at her worriedly. "Is there anything I can do?"
Maria opened her mouth to refuse… then paused. "Can you… help me read to the children tonight?" she said. "I can't read to all of them, but if you can help me…"
Her mother smiled. "Of course, dear. Is that all?"
"It's enough," Maria said. "It's more than enough…"
She couldn't read to all the children, but if she and mother took each dormitory… and if Rafael would help her tuck them in… at least she'd be sure the children were sleeping well.
And she still needed to find time to sleep with her maid and ravish Rafael. Or have Rafael ravish her, whichever. Well, one set of problems at a time…
Maria Campbell took a deep breath, nodded to herself, and prepared to face the day ahead. First, finish her breakfast, then teach her Squire, who was able to parry with a shield a quarter of the time now…
A/N: So, my Pat-reon is up now at P.A.T.R.E.O.N.C.O.M -/-SCM2814. If you want to support this fic, that would be great, but no pressure. But if you do, you'll also get advanced access to my new original fiction series about a wizard on the frontier, her dungeon, and the idiots around her...
