Feast Of The Rose Garlands

"They forbid you to enjoy it as well, but do you think that's stopped anyone?" Fye interjected.

"Does it hurt much?" Hanne asked, she was a little afraid of that aspect of lovemaking.

"It will if he's any man at all." Fye said, winking at her.

"Steffan said Alaric draws himself nude and that he's endowed like a horse." Lype, her nineteen year-old sister chirped. Lype's husband, Steffan was apprentice to Johannes Dusek as a gold engraver.

Hanne stared at Lype in disbelief and shock, her mouth was open and her eyes were wild.

"Perhaps he exaggerates. Shut up, Lype, you'll scare her to death." Elisabeth scolded. They finished getting dressed.

"I dont know Hanne, they say he has the most accurate sense of perspective, that reality in art is his obsession..." Lype teased. Elisabeth hugged her younger sister to her plump body.

"All men are braggarts when it comes to their manhood, I'm sure the illustrious Master Dusek is no exception." Fye, always reassuring said.

Hanne was still frightened when they reached their father's house. It was imperative that she be a good wife to Alaric, even if it meant the pain of physical incompatibility. The memory of his strong virile body and beautiful features were enough to make her believe she might endure anything to have him next to her every night for the rest of their lives.

Hannelore and Alaric exchanged their vows at noon in front of St. Albans Cathedral. Never in her life had Hanne seen such a handsome man as Alaric on their wedding day. The couple looked like royalty in their fine Italian inspired clothes. Almost everyone in the city turned out for the ceremony and festivities which followed, except Willhelm Van Broyen who made a point to be far away in Antwerp on business.

The reception was held at her father's house, it was a sprawling feast with musicians, dancing and lots of honey mead and wine. As things dragged on, Alaric and Hanne found themselves alone at an outdoor table in the dimness and far from the drunken merriment of the dwindling party. Hanne felt her husband's arm come around her tiny waist and she gladly let him embrace her, something he had never done before. Aside from chaste kisses on the hand or cheek, there had been nothing else. She moved over to sit on his thigh and he rested his head against her breast, enjoying her perfumed smell and the beat of her heart.

"Shall we retire?" He asked, a hint of a grin on his face. Hanne was too tired and drunk to be afraid. She only nodded her approval.

The newlyweds attempted to sneak away, but as was the custom, they were accompanied to their new home by a procession of friends and family. The huge four-story house with it's ornately pitched roofs was familiar to Hanne since it had belonged to an astronomer friend of her father's who moved to Munich a few years before. With their arrival, Hannelore braced herself for attack since another wedding custom was for the guests to try to swipe a piece of the bride's costume. Overzealous, drunk and rowdy guests had nearly ripped Elisabeth's gown to shreds. Fortunatly, Hanne was saved with only a few ribbons lost. Alaric carried her swiftly over the threshold while half a dozen of their brothers dispersed the crowd out to the street. They bid the brothers "goodnight" and Alaric barred the door against further intrusion.

Drunken singing outside could still be heard as they climbed the stairs to their third floor bedroom. Hanne sat on the bed while Alaric was looking out one of the tall, wide windows, from which one could see a vast expanse of the city.

"I think the constable ran them off." He chuckled, then poured more mead for them both. Hanne had to refuse.

"I musn't, one more and I shall be very drunk." she giggled.

"If I weren't so drunk, this might be somewhat awkward." His nervousness was quite obvious and it struck Hanne as odd.

"Dont tell me you've never done this before, a handsome man like you, m'lord?" Hanne teased. Alaric took off his waistcoast and sat beside her on the bed.

"What I've done outside the sanctity of marriage is in the past. I'll only say I have much to atone for. To live properly with you is to be my salvation."

Hanne was dying with curiosity to know what he had done. What could be so sinful and terrible that only a pious union could deliver him from evil? Instead of asking him about it, she went again into his strong embrace.

"We begin anew this night, my husband." she whispered.

He brought his hand under her chin and kissed her mouth tenderly. Something about this girl made Alaric's heart ache. The young master was never one to fall madly in love. He was cautious by nature and found attachments time consuming and sometimes painful, but Hannelore inspired his mind and his desire, something a woman had never done to him. The guilt he felt was almost overwhelming, for he knew he wasn't good enough for her. He feared he might betray her one day if he couldn't control his compulsion for debauchery. Alaric prayed to God to give him the strength to be faithful. Looking on her, he found he could imagine making love to only her forever.

Hanne had unbraided her thick, fiery, red hair and let it fall down the middle of her back. Alaric helped to unclasp the back of her gown and she removed it, she wore only her loose white chemise. She watched as Alaric stood and stripped down to only his trousers. His body was a work of art in itself, lean and muscular,with skin as pale as her own and defined like that of Greek sculpture she'd seen depicted in her books. The body was magnificant, but it was his lips she always came back to. Did angels have such succulent mouths? She doubted it very much. Hanne stood to disrobe completely and Alaric stopped her.

"Wait." he said, about to blow out the candles for her.

"Don't you wish to see me?" she certainly wanted to see the rest of him.

"Of course I do. I didn't know if you would think it proper to be nude in front of me." Alaric said. He was testing the waters, being careful not to offend his bride.

"It would be a pity for you to have a portfolio full of nude sketches and to never have seen your own wife." Hanne told him, whilst shucking off her chemise, under which she wore nothing.

"My God, you are lovely." he'd said, catching his breath while she came closer to him, revealing a lithe but womanly body.

Her full, firm breasts, adorned with large, pale pink aureole which matched her pouty mouth perfectly. The waist was tiny, leading down to her flat belly and the voluptuous swell or her hips and rear. Hanne's skin was like cream, giving her an almost unearthly glow in the candlelight. Alaric thought she could've easily been a pagan fertility goddess, a forest nymph or any number of mythical women. He would enjoy painting her, if she should let him. He wanted to know everything, all her secrets and to delve into the untouched recesses of her. The narrow protrusion of her mound, lightly covered in fine, reddish hair, between ivory thighs seemed to beckon to him like a siren's song.

Alaric's experience with women was limited to whores and noblewomen who sometimes acted like whores in order to get the prolific artist's attention. Never had he taken a woman's virginity. He found most of the women he encountered to be boring and limited sexually. The whores in Italy would do anything, but he wanted his lovers to do anything out of desire, not for money. It was truly rare for a woman's purity to attract him as it had with Hannelore. Since he considered himself a libertine and inherently flawed individual, this attraction worried him considerably.

"Are you shy?" Hanne said, bringing him back to Earth.Alaric shook his head "I am anything but." he replied, taking a step closer to his naked wife. He unlaced his breeches and took them down.

Though Hanne was standing only inches away, she thought her eyes must surely be playing tricks on her. She tried to remain calm while taking in the sight of the rest of her husband's nude body. Proof that Alaric Dusek was no braggart and that his attention to perspective never wavered, was right in front of her. His half-erect penis, thick and uncircumcised was lengthly and only growing larger as she moved closer to it. Fear and fascination gripped her and she couldn't make herself look away from his swelling member.

Hanne reached out caressing him with her small hands. He was so very thick that when she tried to wrap one hand around him, her fingers would not meet completely on the other side. The length was even more astonishing and Hanne wasn't such a talented judge of perspective, but she thought it must be nearly nine and a half inches long, surely half a cubit, as she rubbed him to full arousal. In the back of her mind, Hanne knew her virginal opening could not take something of his size without great pain, even when Willhelm had inserted only one of his fingers inside her, there was barely room.

Kissing, the couple spilled backwards onto Alaric's massive feather bed. Hanne was beneath him as he kissed her gently, her mouth opening to his tongue. The kisses became more fevered and he tangled his hands in her silky hair. Already, they had broken several church laws but neither seemed to care. Hanne could find nothing lewd or lascivious in their lovemaking. Hanne loved the feeling of his hardness pressed against her stomach and wrapped her legs around his svelte waist so that his cock might rub in exactly the right spot. When it did, she moaned with pleasure and Alaric knew he wanted to make her come since she seemed so willing enjoy this with him.

Alaric kissed down her throat, across her chest and stopped to linger at her breasts, flicking each big, erect nipple with his tongue. When she cried out, he didn't stop, but sucked each of them with a bit more pressure, causing her to wiggle beneath him and dig her fingernails into his back.

"Scream if you like, I've sent the housekeeper back to the country for the weekend." Alaric mumbled cheerfully and continued leaving a trail of kisses down her heaving belly.

Alaric went between her thighs only when Hanne thought she could no longer tolerate his delicious teasing or she would surely go mad with lust. His hands spread her apart and he tasted her with his cherubic mouth, running the tip of his tongue across her clitoris softly, much the same way she did with her fingertip. His skilled tongue slipped inside her, pressing deep into the slippery wet core of her and she had never felt anything so divine. Moving his tongue in and out of her, he rubbed the clitoris with his thumb. Never before had he felt so compelled to give a woman such pleasure, but no woman had ever responded to him as Hanne had.

Hanne felt herself coming and now it was her hands which were buried in his hair. He held her thighs wide apart and sucked her clitoris into his mouth, gently but firmly. It was then that Hanne took him up on his invitation to scream. Letting out a wail of ecstasy, Hanne came and it was as if she was floating somewhere up near the full moon. She felt the result of glorious pleasure drizzling from her and when Alaric came to rest his chin on her breast, his face glistened with it.

"I could draw you right now, if I was not so-" Alaric tried to find the words and failed as he sometimes did.

"Desirous?" Hanne finished for him, while he moved his hips between her thighs once again.

"Yes." he whispered.

Hanne squeezed her eyes shut when she felt him rub the tip of his huge penis at her entrance. Though she was as wet as could be with his saliva and her own juices, the wide head of his cock seemed an impossible fit. Alaric was as gentle as possible when he attempted to push himself inside. It bothered him that he might hurt her and he stopped moving when she cried out softly in pain.

"It's alright, just be done with it." Hanne told him, then kissed the corner of his mouth.

"I cannot bear to hurt you." Alaric said.

"You must, it must be done." she replied. He nodded and went back to his task. He inched slightly further into her tightness and Hanne,overcome by a sharp stabbing pain, gave a loud yelp. Alaric stopped at once and sat up in bed.

"I wont yell again, I swear it." Hanne said, taking his hand to lead him back to her.

"No, I wont hurt you, perhaps we can try again another time." Alaric said, he got up to pour a cup of water for both of them. He refused to tear her apart due to his own selfishness.

"I've disappointed you." she said, very near tears.

"Not at all. You've made me very happy tonight." He went back to sit beside her.

"I thought you said making you happy was impossible." she quipped.

"Obviously, I was mistaken." Alaric answered, gesturing to his still raging erection.

"What can you do?" Hanne asked, wondering if the swelling would ever go down by itself without a release. She felt responsible for his condition and guilty for not giving him a climax.

Alaric laughed and shrugged. "Nothing, I suppose. The two other things which can be done rather than waiting are so immoral that I don't dare discuss them." he said tactfully. Hanne's curiousity was piqued, she had to know.

"What are you thinking? The things we've already done are grounds for excommunication and we haven't even consummated our marriage yet."

Try as he might to keep his marriage free from the fornication of his single life, Alaric made the spontaneous decision to do as he liked with his gorgeous bride. Hanne desired him, it was clear and he would be damned if he was going to let bitter, celibate men govern his bedroom.

"What would you say if I asked you to take me in your mouth?" Alaric inquired, full well knowing Hanne would probably politely(or not so politely) decline. Before he could say he was only joking, her delicate mouth was upon him.

Hanne didn't know exactly what to do, so she sucked gently what would fit into her mouth and stroked the rest of his shaft with her hand. To her surprise, she discovered she enjoyed pleasing him this way. Alaric's moans of bliss and his salty-sweet taste aroused her greatly. It became her goal to make him feel as incredible as he had made her feel.

Exploring with her tongue, she licked around where the foreskin slid back exposing the fat tip of his cock. Hanne watched in awe her confident and refined husband coming completely undone as she sucked him with more and more fervency. Alaric, nearing the brink, put his hand on top of hers, urging her to pump him faster. His seed exploded into her mouth and on impulse, she swallowed a mouthful of the hot, sticky substance, but it wasn't enough, a small amount dripped out of her lips and down her chin.

Alaric, in a state of delirious euphoria, pulled his wife back from his lap to face him, licked his own semen from her chin and then kissed her deeply, mingling their tastes together. Hanne should've been repulsed by such acts, but all she could think of was that it must be true love when two people are so willing to do anything to satisfy one another.

Exhausted from the days events, Hannelore snuggled against the coolness of the down mattress and pillows with Alaric by her side and slept. Alaric was also very tired, but sat up sketching his sleeping lover on silverpoint, the sight was far too moving not to document. He titled the portrait, "Mein Hannelore" and went to sleep next to the girl he was falling in love with.

The next day, Hanne made breakfast for the two of them while Alaric was busy deciding what prints and watercolors he wanted to take on his upcoming trip to Cologne.

"Must you leave so soon?" she asked, trying not to seem demanding.

"I'll only be gone a week to do preliminary drawings of Cardinal Albert for a portrait and to sell some works. I would take you along, but Botticelli is sending one of his assistants here to exchange work with me and to assist me for awhile until my apprentices are chosen. I'm not sure when he will arrive." Alaric explained.

"He sends someone all the way from Florence?" Hanne asked, her eyes wide.

"Yes, he is a very generous man and a good friend. I trust it wont inconvenience you to have a stranger staying with us, I am acquainted with his help and they are all reputable boys." Alaric said thoughtfully. Hanne thought she saw a hint of sadness in his eyes and dismissed it as a longing for for his temporary home in Italy.

"I shall be heartsick, but I suppose I will live." she sighed. Alaric was grinning at her across the table.

"Not half as heartsick as I, my love." he'd replied. "But I will bring you presents from Cologne."

"The only thing I need from Cologne is you." Hanne pretended to pout but was too unspoiled make it believable.

"Not even rosewater or violet soap?" Alaric knew even a lady as humble as his wife could not refuse such gifts.

"If you insist."

"I insist and I also implore you to take advantage of my library. Katherine can cook for you and our guest, she returns on Monday morning, which is when I depart." Alaric said, taking her hand.

"You will spoil me." she replied, caressing his hand.

"I will enjoy doing it."

The first Monday in July of 1494, Hannelore Dusek watched her husband, along with several local merchants and knights hired for their protection, ride across the River Pignitz, through the fortified city gates and out of Nuremberg. Hanne prayed to St. Christopher to keep them safe, for there was often trouble on the roads.

Hanne was alone in the vast, empty house for only a few hours before the stern-looking elderly housekeeper, Katherine, arrived. Though Katherine had a hard and unpleasant look about her, Hanne found her to be most friendly and diligent, getting right to work with the scrubbing. Hanne wandered out behind the house where gardens were already in full bloom behind the high walls of the estate. Taking off her shoes, Hanne busied herself with pulling up weeds which were undermining the growth of the strawberry plants. She could hear Katherine singing inside while she scrubbed the hardwood floors. The cool earth felt heavenly on her small, bare feet. She delighted in the fresh air and the songs of goldfinches at her new home.

She missed Alaric terribly already and he was barely out of town. Before mounting his horse to ride for Cologne, he had kissed her passionately in front of several onlookers and murmured "I love you." in her ear.

The few nights they had together before his departure were very much the same as their wedding night, the only difference was that Alaric had abandoned the idea of penetrating her in favor of the many other pleasures they found. He had drawn her many times in his sketchbook and she had grown to enjoy sitting for him, even when he asked her to undress in the middle of the day.

Much to her relief, it didn't seem to bother Alaric that they weren't having actual intercourse. Hanne did want all of him and couldn't see them going on forever in this manner. There would have to be children eventually. When she asked him what they would do about it, Alaric said he would consult a radical-thinking apothecary he knew in Cologne. Hanne was thankful for his patience, he could've forced himself on her, it was certainly his right as a husband to have her in any way he saw fit.

Just as Hanne was about to bundle up her skirts and get down to the business of harvesting some herbs for her medicinal experiments, she heard a commotion in the front of the house. The sound of horses very near and men talking to one another in raised voices. The sounds in the heart of the city were very different compared to her father's home which was more secluded. She began to go back to her work, but decided to go into the house to get a knife to cut the tougher roots.

Hanne stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him coming down the steps. Before her was the loveliest boy she had ever seen. Alaric Dusek was certainly the most handsome man she had ever encountered, but this boy was beautiful, nearly feminine. Only the broadness of his shoulders,his small but muscular frame and regal Italian dress, betrayed his gender. His shoulder-length hair was the golden blonde that children seem to have and then lose later in life, his eyes matched the clear, blue sky above and his smooth skin was as golden as the hair.