Jaspernon the Prince Ch. 05

Morning came. Regniold was awake before his wife. As soon as the light penetrated between his opening eyelids, the memory of the night before assailed him. He tried to close them again, preferring to forget and go back to his dream, far more comforting than the bare reality of his dead marriage. She however was not awake. At first he was grateful for this but as his jealous thoughts created turmoil within him he wanted her to wake so the issue could be dealt with. She slept soundly. Her exercises of the previous night must have tired her. He imagined all sorts of ways to deal with her, what to say when she awoke, but when she did he would say what he had to say, he was sure of that. He waited and waited. Finally it was the time when he would normally begin to rise, and the pressure within him grew until he had no choice but to deal with it.

"Kathryn, awake!" he called. "Awake wife," he shook her angrily, rising above her on the bed, and still she was slow to come around. Finally she looked at him open eyed, as he shook her with rage. Never had he shook her awake before in all their years of marriage.

"What now, husband?" she asked, a little frightened by his behaviour.

"Wife how do you dare to give yourself to another man?" he said angrily. He mentioned only one man, wanting to test her honesty. "And in the name of religion?"

"Regniold what are you saying? You are angry, I can see, but why?" At first she denied everything indignantly.

"I know you shared your body with another man."

"How do you accuse me of such a thing?"

"Because I was there and I saw you!"

"Where?"

"At the local Temple of the Goddess, on the Day of Rest last, last night." She paled and he could tell that she recognised her guilt and feared discovery very greatly, but she did not yet believe that he had really been there. He had only mentioned one man so far, and if he had really been there he would have known there were a few more.

"I went to the Temple to worship the Goddess," she said, searching for excuses, doubtless hoping that Regniold would not really know anything about the new practices which went on in the Temple in recent months.

"You do not appear to believe me when I say I was there last night," he said.

She seemed shocked by her husband's insistence. "I was there, and you behaved like a common prostitute, worse than! There was more than one man. I saw you. You accepted three men, by my count."

"Regniold, if you really were there I surely did not see you. Where were you?"

"I was in disguise, at the back of the hall. I followed you there. I saw everything. You cannot deny it."

"I do not know what to say."

"You admit it now?"

"Have I any choice?"

Regniold was still angry, even now he had proved to her that he had seen everything of the last night's festivity. She had admitted her actions of last night, but he wanted more, a confession of sin.

"How many times have you done this?" he asked. He knew that she had been there regularly on every Day of Rest, every week for six months, and more intermittently before that.

He asked her, "Do they take off all clothes and take each others wives and husbands at all the ceremonies?"

"No," she cried, "Only recently once or twice." He suspected she sought to diminish what she had done so he slapped her sharply, unexpectedly, on the cheek, which made her cry again. He felt sudden anger, because he could see through her lies.

"You are lying to me!" he shouted. "I can tell. You never showed much interest in this cult in the past, although you went occasionally. Now in the last six months obviously something has changed to make you want to go every week. Don't tell me that you have been attending in dedication to this Goddess every week just to pay her respects. Something changed to make you go. Which must obviously have been all this depraved sexual behaviour."

"No we used to pray more and discuss ways to help the people. I found friends there, and I came to believe that the Goddess provides for us if we provide for her."

He knew she was still holding back some of the truth from him. He thought then that her reluctance to reveal any more than she had to was pathetic.

"I know you are lying to me. When did the Cult of the Goddess cease to be a religion and become the excuse for the worst kind of behaviour? These were no mistresses and lovers. You behaved like animals, with no rules or decency, in front of each other, with anyone who requested you! You will admit this is not the way a wife should behave. Admit it," he railed at her.

"I am not lying. Please husband, be reasonable and calm your anger!"

The merchant was very angry now, and although he was not one of those men who normally lays his hands on his wife in any more ways than love, this time he thought that only this expression of his anger would extract the full confession he needed from her. So he held her and shook her, and then he pushed her so she fell onto the floor weeping. As he came towards her to drag her, she screamed at him for mercy, but he beat her in his rage. The more she screamed, the more pathetic she became to him, until she said, "Alright Regniold, I confess it all!"

"Tell me the truth," he demanded.

"The truth is Regniold, that I have been going to the Temple for six months and engaging in sexual acts every time. Before then the cult was different, traditional, friendly, but not involving the mixing of the sexes. I do not go merely for sexual pleasure. I believe in their cause now."

"If you believe in their cause, why could you not be honest and admit it?"

"Because I knew you would not understand."

"I will be the laughing stock of this city if they realise my wife has been visiting this depraved sect," declared the merchant bitterly. His anger did appear to be passing as his thoughts entered a new phase.

"I am sorry to cause this pain," she admitted. "This is not the way wives or husbands have behaved, in the past. It is a new way. I don't expect you to understand, not yet at least."

No, I do not understand," he said. "I am ashamed. What a wife I have. It appears you will go with any man who offers you temptation, and yet you wish to go on sharing my wealth, and the lifestyle I afford. You wish to continue living in my house?"

"Of course I do. I do love you Regniold. I want to continue being your wife."

"Good. You have been a good wife to me in the past. I would certainly say I have loved you, until yesterday! Yesterday has placed everything into question. I don't think you do love me any more. If you did you would not have done what you did yesterday. If you seriously want to continue being my wife I want you to turn your back on this cult. I forbid you to go any more to your evenings of debauchery!"

Kathryn cast her head down. Tears welled in her eyes again. She looked at her husband, gauging his anger, but unable to simply acquiesce as the cult had come to mean so much to her. "Must I leave the cult, Regniold? Please don't make me leave."

"If you do not wish me to disown you and cast you out of our home, you must leave it."

"And what of our children?"

"They are near grown. I would allow you to see them, but would have their teachers look after them more," threatened the merchant.

He reminded her that in Pirion, as in all lands she had ever heard about the man was the head of the household. If a couple did divorce the man would lose control of his offspring only if he wished to avoid the responsibility of raising them the rest of the way to adulthood. A rich man like Regniold could afford to hire teachers and nannies to look after the children. If she were cast out she could lose her part in raising her children.

"Will you leave the cult Kathryn? You must if you want to stay within this household!"

She looked uncertain, her hair uncombed and tousled. She stared bleakly, looking at the mirror across the room. She had been happy with her husband, although she had certainly been looking at other men with new eyes in recent times. The Cult's changes had brought a wealth of experiences and closeness with others, which she had hardly even imagined or dreamed about before. That had not meant she ever wished to leave her husband. She had continued to share her bed with him quite happily, and her exciting adventures had hardly damped her occasional appetite for lovemaking with her husband. Now he had gone further in anger than she had ever known him to go before. He had actually slapped her, and then he had pushed her onto the floor, and beaten her. She hoped he had calmed now, sensed that he was calmer. She didn't want to leave the cult, but then neither did she want to leave her husband and children. How would she exist without his money? She knew he was not usually a violent or difficult man. He might well calm down and forgive her, soon if not immediately. Perhaps she could still persuade him to allow her to remain in the cult.

"I don't want to leave them, please Regniold. I would like you to accept them now you know I worship the Goddess. I do now believe in the teachings of the Cult, they teach love for all. It goes far beyond purely physical lust," she explained tearfully.

"I have told you, that cannot be," Regniold said again, severely. He felt the anger returning. She deserved another beating for her insolence in questioning his word. He had told her she must leave the cult, so leave she must if she wished to stay with him. No, he could not beat her again. He had beat her enough before and it pained him to do it, probably more than it did her. He was not normally a harsh man. He was used to according his wife great freedom, and had always revered her until now.

He remembered afresh that he had given her a choice. "You make a choice. It's me and our children, or the Cult. One of 'us' has to go. Which is it going to be?" He waited for a reply, but when none came he said, "Think about what I have said, "I am getting up now. Tell me your answer later in the day when you have had time to think about your choices."

They ate breakfast and later lunch in relative silence, in the presence of their two teenage daughters and their teenage son. None of the 'children' seemed to notice the new distance between their parents, although it should have been obvious that both father and mother gave them greater freedom to talk about subjects which interested them than usual. Both parents kept to their traditional roles, avoiding real conversation between themselves. Their servants came in and out, serving food, tidying after meals. They were spoken to with the usual friendliness, together with the usual reserve when a brief question had been answered or a conversation finished.

Tearfully she came to him later in the day, when he sat alone in his study, having done some work upon his accounts. "I will leave the Cult if that is what you order me to do husband, although you know I did not want to."

"It is necessary," he said sombrely. "How can I be who I am, with a wife who goes behind my back? While you are in that Cult you will be continually tempted to cuckold me. It is the way of that cult, I can see. No good will come to the city from its spread. I would think that one of these days the King and his government will look into the activities of these Priestesses and their followers and there will be arrests, even bans. The social order is threatened by these activities. It cannot go on for much longer. That's what always happens when organisations or religion, even philosophies, get out of hand."

Kathryn looked perturbed, but, knowing her husband's mood, chose not to debate the subject any further. "I can see the possibility of what you say, Regniold. I can also see that I could not remain chaste to you if I stayed in the Cult. Therefore I will do as you bid from now on. I would thank you for forgiving my past disloyalty and my greed for new experiences. I hope we can return to what we were, a loving couple, who can share thoughts and experiences without fear of each other."

"That is what I want to hear Kathryn," he said, his expression brightening. "I hope all between us can return to normal too. I did not wish to beat you physically in any way, and do not intend to resort to such measures again, as long as there are no further betrayals. I do love you, have always done, and you are enough for me. I hope that now you have had your little adventures you will be able to return to me, and me alone. As long as you do, I shall forgive you. We can pretend it never happened!"

She was pleased, but even as she conceded, she knew she could never forget, or would ever want to forget the adventures and freedoms she had enjoyed. She did however value her husband and the life he had given her. She wanted to remain a full mother to her growing children, and to live in the wealth he provided. She valued the bond that should still be between them, and genuinely did not wish it to end. The price of her continued life with him was great to her, but was one which she must pay.