A Lady's Submission

Anna started backing towards the door. Anger filled the mayor's eyes as he roared out, "Don't think that I won't do as I've promised! I will and what's more I'm not above hiring someone to seize you when you're out and about town and bring you here for me and all the other men your husband owed in order for us to have our way with you and collect payment! What do you think of that?"

Anna opened the door and said, "You want to know what I think! I think that if you were even half a man at all that you'd restrain me yourself in order to collect payment! But as it is you're nothing but an overweight conniving coward without the human decency that God graced most of mankind with! You Sir, are a monster and I hope you get everything you deserve for seeking to take advantage of a helpless widow!"

With that said she slammed the door shut and ran as fast as her long skirt would allow. She didn't stop running until she was relatively close to the home she governessed in.

A very real fear began to eat at her. Despite the mayor being a coward she did not doubt that there had been an intent in his voice to see her done for in society and without a good standing of name she was hopeless of ever securing a new governess position.

As it was she should be out of a job now, as her charge hadn't needed her for a long time now, but her brother had kept her on as a sort of supervisory companion, but how much longer would that go on? Not for very long was the answer to her way of reasoning.

Whispering a prayer for strength she made her way up the walkway of the modest home and stepped within it. Peace enveloped her as she always felt safe here in this home.

The knowledge that this security was soon to be taken from her brought tears streaking down her face.

"What's wrong Anna?"

Anna opened her eyes and quickly wiped at the tears on her cheeks as her charge, who was only six years her junior came to her with open arms. Holding her arms up to ward off Francesca she asked quickly instead, "I need to speak with your brother. Is he home?"

"Yes, Torin's in the study, but what's wrong Anna?"

Anna smiled wanly and eased past Francesca and said, "Nothing for you to worry about."

"Why aren't you talking about it to me?" Francesca asked indignantly.

Anna left her comment of, 'Because you're sadly un-prepared to deal with the world as it is in its fallen, corrupt state.' to herself and moved on out of the entryway and into the house in the direction of the study.

The study door was closed and rapping softly she waited for an answer.

"Yes?" Came a masculine voice from within.

Opening the door partway Anna asked her employer, "Can I talk with you about something?"

"Why certainly Anna! Come in. Come in." He said encouragingly.

Anna stepped into the room and approached to sit down on the chair before the desk. Torin sat back down as a look of concern marred across his handsome features.

As handsome and upright as a man as he was, she had never imagined herself with him in any romantic fashion and he the same towards her. It was as if they both knew that they just weren't right for each other. Besides that, she was two years older than him, not that it was some-thing that should overly matter.

"What's wrong Anna?" He pressed leadingly.

She looked away and then back to his honest and caring gaze. Of a truth he was a great friend to her and the thought of losing both him and Francesca hurt her deeply. So deeply that she was unable to stop the tears that began to streak down her face.

Brushing at them, she whispered out, "I'm sorry. I..."

"Anna what's wrong? Please tell me, if not as your employer, then as the friend to you that I am!"

Anna nodded, and looking up into his kind gaze, she resolutely said, "I will. I... I just don't want you to think the less of me."

"Never!" He affirmed.

Anna gathered herself and said, "Well, I had better start from the beginning. It began..."

An hour went by in which through the course of she told him everything from her marriage to this morning's encounter. The story came to an end and she waited to hear what he had to say.

She'd read many emotions across his face, chiefly of which had been anger, but not anger directed at her, at least she hoped not.

"I have to leave town. Can I please ask of your generosity once more for a small loan to see me on my feet elsewhere, as well, as a reference from you?"

Torin looked up from something lying on his desk to her to state plainly, "Anna I'm paying your debts off. I wish you'd come to me sooner about this."

"No, no, that's not right and besides it doesn't matter even if you do that! Debt paid or not the mayor has it out for me. I need to leave!"

Torin didn't deny the logic of what she'd said, but again glanced down to a sheet of paper on his desk. Again, his eyes rose to hers and she wasn't quite ready for his question to her, "Anna where do you see it all ending?"

"I... what do you mean? I don't understand your question."

"You are without a doubt an extremely beautiful woman Anna. Where do you think you're going to go that there aren't going to be unscrupulous men demanding the use of your body from you? If you leave town I can't protect you. Where does the road end?" Torin finished with gently.

More tears tracked down her face as she honestly ad-mitted, "I don't know. God will help me, this I do know."

"Yes, I believe He has. Tell me Anna where were you born? Here in America or in Ireland?"

"In Ireland, but I was a baby when my folks made the journey across as indentured servants."

"Whereabouts in Ireland did your folks come from?" Torin asked, looking once more to the paper before him.

She told him and a look of satisfaction spread across his face of which she wasn't entirely sure she trusted.

"Tell me Anna what do you know of me and Francesca?"

Anna looked down and remaining silent.

"Oh come on I know what a blabbermouth my sister can be. Has she told you of my family and how we left Ireland and all that?"

Anna dutifully nodded.

"Has she told you of Ar'mora?"

"A little. I don't think she knew any more than what she told me of it, only that her brothers are there working to make a start for you and her to one day return to."

"They are indeed. In fact, I have a letter before me from my oldest brother, Mahlon. It's not the first correspondence I've had with him over the last 10 years, but definitely the oddest request by him to date for sure. You see, my brother is requesting that I find him a wife and that I marry her in proxy for him as he has already done so on his end. Here's his signature on the article about marriage." Torin said, holding up another sheet of paper.

Feeling stunned Anna asked in a hushed tone, "He trusts you that much?"

"Apparently. My father made a very specific request of my brother Mahlon in terms of the wife he was to have. You my dear fit the bill perfectly and then add quite a good bit more I might add. In this letter he also mentions that any debts of his intended be paid off and that she be given an allowance of money to pay for a new wardrobe and whatever else she may have need of. Anna I think this has your name spelled on the dotted line in invisible ink. Shall I make it official?" Torin asked at the last as he held the marriage document up into view again.

Anna swallowed somewhat convulsively. Oh God, she didn't know what to do!

One thing was clear to her. The road she was on now didn't end well. Whereas the road into marriage with Torin's older brother was a complete mystery as to whether it would end well or not, but at least it had the potential for something better than what she was faced with.

On the other hand, perhaps it would turn out far worse. It was rather hard to say being a complete gamble no matter which way she went.

She looked from the letter to Torin and asked, "Can you tell me what kind of man your brother is?"

"I can try, but I haven't seen him in 10 years. That said some things just don't change. He is a forceful man, but not one without kindness. He is a skilled warrior and every bit a man of war. His letters over the years have revealed to me the success that he has had in reclaiming Ar'mora back from the jungle. He has rebuilt some of the primary structures and crops are now once more growing in the fields. He's held out and survived attacks from roving headhunters and provided a place of sanctuary for the native people of the area. My brother is an honorable man. He is also, however a hard man. Be in no doubt that if you agree to become his wife, I do not believe he would ever allow you to escape."

"Nor should he, if I have sworn myself to him." Anna sub-commented, as the possibilities of having a husband completely opposite from her first began to work on her in terms of taking away some of her fears of the un-known.

"Anna do you want to have children?"

"More than anything." She whispered passionately.

"Well, if you decide to go this route I think I can guarantee you just that."

"What do you mean?" She asked uncertainly.

"What I mean is that my brother is an honorable man. Among the men of my clan the act of becoming one flesh with a woman is a statement of the marriage covenant with that woman. My brother has been held to the oath of selecting a wife from the Isles of Ireland from where you came from. I put it to you plainly that he is a virgin to this day and yet he is a man of intense passion. Are you fully prepared to be with a man who may bed you repeatedly for days on end and many times a day in every fashion imaginable? Much more so than the cur-rent society around us would deem how shall we say 'proper'. I know I speak bluntly as to this, but I fear I must make this plain to you."

Anna's face completely flushed red as Torin's words became very real to her. Looking down though she said resolutely, "I find much to admire in such a man. My own husband was not such a man. I think he was intimidated of me or my beauty. I'm not sure which. I... I have a yearning to be the source of one man's intimate possession. The frequency and depth of passion you speak of in concern to your brother is not something I don't think that I couldn't handle. I think I could make your brother a good wife, perhaps better than another woman could because I've experienced a relationship with a weak man and I want nothing more to do with that. It stands to reason, then that I should willingly submit myself to the passions of a strong man then in order to find what I need in order to be fulfilled in life."

"And what is that Anna? What do you need?"

"Security. The knowledge that I mean something priceless to the man I belong to and that I'll never be cast aside or traded away like a broodmare."

"Well, in this I can definitely say that with my brother you have found that man."

"Then, if you're willing to allow me, I'll sign that pa-per." Anna said resolutely.

Torin stood up and extended the marriage covenant across to her with the pen and before she could think anymore as to the lunacy of what she was doing she signed her name on the dotted line. Effectively she had just signed her life away to a man that she'd never met.

A man by all accounts who would be upon her like a rutting stallion from the get-go. Just the imagery that such a scene evoked caused her womb to clench tightly, as if in anticipation of the thrusting strokes of an impassioned man, who was a warrior of the flesh, where her first husband had never even come close.

Would he just hold her down and take his pleasure of her or would he kiss her and think of her pleasure as well? Maybe he'd do both. Somehow the thought of that didn't bother her at all.

"Anna?"

Blushing profusely Anna looked up. Not seeming to notice her state of embarrassment Torin said, "I'll see to arranging your voyage for you and all the procurement of clothing and all. I think, however, it would be best though, if you stayed in the house until I've had sufficient time to deal with the mayor."

"Oh, no! You don't have to do that! I don't care if he tarnishes my name now or not."

"Oh, but you see Anna I care. Your family now and an insult to you is one to me and besides that any man who would threaten what he has to your person needs to be dealt with and dealt with swiftly before he finds an-other victim."

Anna remained silent, then as she witnessed an inner steel of the character of the man who had employed her for many years now that she hadn't seen quite so well portrayed as it was being done so now. Was she getting the first glimpse as to what the man she had with one stroke of the pen bound herself to would be like?

If so then she had to admit that she liked what she saw. Anna stood up and left the study closing the doors quietly behind her.

With a sigh of exasperation, she beheld Francesca standing not very far off with her arms folded and a catty expression upon her face. The girl had been ease drop-ping again.

Coming closer Francesca enfolded her in a hug as she said, "Welcome to the family big sister."

Anna hugged her back having to admit to some small degree in the pleasure of once again belonging some-where.

~~~~~~~

Torin remained sitting at his desk as he worried over what could be a grave sticking point to the whole operation. Glancing back down to his brother's letter he reread the one line he hadn't divulged to Anna.

"And see that she is a virgin."

Torin looked upward, as he sat back in his chair and said, "God forgive me for my lie of omission and please help her when he finds out that she's not a virgin."

Prayer was all he could do now, but he wasn't overly bothered, as he knew somehow that Anna was the only woman fit to be his brother's mate. Things might be rocky at the get-go, but there was no way that Mahlon would be able to resist the tempting fantasy of fire red curls and curvy proportions such as Anna boasted.

No, the dress and everything else would come off at his brother's ripping grip and she would be well and truly yoked with a man who without fail would fill her full of his seed time and time again.

Torin well knew the pent-up desire his brother must feel, as he himself was under the same urge every day of his life, but the order to plunge his own shaft deeply into a particular woman of the future and fill her with his possession of her had not yet come. When that day would be he did not know, but just the same he knew that it was worth waiting for.

Chapter Three

Passion's Mercy

"Do you think Torin has found a wife for you so soon brother that you so earnestly wait in expectation of this day's supplies to arrive?"

The sound of Tyree's teasing voice had somewhat startled me, but doing my best to not let on to the fact of that I turned slightly to regard him and say dismissively, "It's possible."

I looked away again down river and he chuckled and moved on and inwardly I allowed myself to relax again. Truly, I hoped she would be here soon, if not today then soon thereafter.

I felt like I was going insane with the urge I had to be with a woman. Resisting the native girls of the area over the past few months had been one of the hardest things I'd ever had to do.

It had been different for my first 9 ½ years here. In those years my days had been filled with singleness of purpose. I had thought of and allowed myself to think of nothing but the work of restoring my ancient ancestral home back to prominence and six months ago I had finally achieved that to a large degree and my days since then had been filled with more idleness than I'd experienced in a decade.

The natural desire I'd always had, but that I'd re-pressed with never-ending work had resurfaced with a vengeance. I needed a woman and I needed her now!

I'd have taken one of the native girls to be my wife, if I hadn't been bound by my father's words to do other-wise. Oh, I hoped my brother had been successful!

Trying to take my mind off the supply boat that hadn't arrived yet I glanced over the land and all that my brothers and I had accomplished within a decade. This land of Ar'mora was a land of great wealth and hidden treachery.

My people had forever been a people of the sea trading with many nations, but one day they had discovered a mighty river that was as wide as a sea. They had sailed up it for many days as my people by birth were ever curious to discover something new.

The great river had branched apart eventually and they had journeyed up the one branch until they had reached this spot in the beginning highlands of a distant majestic mountain range. Here the jungle hadn't been quite so impenetrable and they had founded a settlement.

A settlement that had grown into a city. Other settlements had grown up further inland from the initial colonization of my ancestors. I had yet to restore them, but in time it was my intention to do so.

My biggest limiting factor right now was people. There were few left of my kindred in the world with many of them having become assimilated into the cultures of their host nations.

Even so I had put the word out and left advertisements in a language, yet unknown to any not of my family and it had born results. Over the past two years people had been arriving.

They varied in appearance from black to white, and every shade in between, but they were bound together by a commonality of ancient lore, language, and a desire to be a free people once again with a land of their own. Over 200 families now took up residence within the revitalized city of Arn.

Walls had been fixed and houses restored and all vestiges of the jungle that had overridden the place had been pushed back to where even now great verdant looking pastures were as far as the eye could see. Over 5000 native people had come in from the surrounding forest to take part in the restoration of the city and its surroundings.

I had coerced none of them to do so, but they had helped of their own free will and because of that we lived as one with them and treated them as equals. In truth, many if not all of them were a part of our ancient bloodline as much as I was.

You could see it here and there in the facial structure or a divergent eye color or lighter color of hair. No doubt when Ar'mora had fallen some of the survivors had made it into the homes of these natives and so even here they were again today helping to rebuild something fine and at the same time start something that was new.

I thanked the Creator for all my many great successes in achieving what had been done here in the past 10 years. Successes aside, we weren't without enemies here.

The jungle seethed against us and was a force to be reckoned with and then there were the twisted souls of humanity, it contained that thought there was nothing better in life to do than cut someone's head off and shrink it to serve as a good luck charm. They also thought it nothing to dine out on their headless victims.

As menacing a threat as the headhunters were, they were not my chiefest concern. The only major European country to make inroads into this huge new land of rivers and hidden wealth were the Portuguese.

They did not want us here and they had made that very clear. Up until now I had managed to keep the peace through diplomacy and greasing the pockets of the leaders in the local area, but conflict at some point was inevitable as they lusted for all the wealth of this new land and wished to share it with no one.

This land, however was not a new land, but rather one of ancient significance with a series of historical events uniquely its own. The Portuguese were outsiders, but my people were not and so we would stay even if it meant war.

To that end, I had rebuilt the fortifications of this once great city on the river and I kept a standing force of a 1000 native warriors along with some of the immigrants on standby at all times. In case of war every man and woman was prepared to take part in the joint survival of the colony.