The Royal Seamstress | ONC2020

Chapter 15: The Pleasure Horse

I had just stitched the last diamonds on the third dress. To make it look like stardust, I had got a lot of the finest diamonds imported. I had asked the King for them and he had just ordered it right away. Shortly after they had arrived, and I had begun my work. He had said nothing was too expensive for the Queen and that he would import every single costly thing for me to make the best dresses.

I was to show all the dresses to the King within a few days. Finally, the task was done. I had completed it. Hopefully to a successful extend in his eyes. Otherwise I wouldn't get the fine gifts he had promised me, but did I even deserve them? I had committed adultery with the King of England. A married man. I had sinned and all I really deserved was punishment from God. Maybe God waited to punish me until I was on my deathbed, giving me double the time in the purgatory. God had an all-seeing eye. Nothing slipped his gaze.

I was nervous, but not only for my fate related to the dresses. My nerves were also on the edge because of a piece of information, I had just overheard. What if the King wanted more from me than I already gave him in his rooms at night? I had heard that some royals practiced a special kind of taste in sexual acts. Something about whipping and being tied to some device made of wooden and leather. Some of the nobles had been talking about it the other day when I had walked through some of the corridors. I had hidden behind a wall to get more information; trying to find out what they referred to when talking about a pleasure horse. No explanation had come right away. Only after half an hour when a young noble man had asked for a detailed explanation of the "pleasure horse" himself, I had discovered it was the name of the instrument used for this odd kind of pleasure. Though I had been in the King's rooms many times I had never seen anything close to what they had described for this young man. I felt relieved. At some point I thought about him having other fantasies in his mind than what he and I did. Fantasies, he would only share with me when I had a little more experience. For the time being I was still only on the first steps to pleasing him properly. He said, I was a quick learner but still had a long way to go before being exactly what he wanted. I had felt a sting of sadness with those words but mostly anxious for what he had meant. He had never elaborated further on the subject, and since hearing of the pleasure horse, I started to panic inside. How was I ever to find out whether the King had such a singular taste in the carnal lusts or not?

Just as I was hiding behind the wall, Lord Surry came across me. He looked at me with a wondering gaze.

"Elizabeth, what on earth are you doing hiding behind a wall?" he asked. "Aren't you supposed to be in the sewing room, making the three dresses for the King?"

"I am," I said. "But I only came up here to make ready for the showing of the dresses when I heard some of the nobles talking about some kind of odd sexual pleasure. Some instrument called a pleasure horse and I need to find out if the King expects me to whip and punish him in the way they described."

"If the King liked such games, it would probably be you who would get the lashes with the whip and not him."

"Do you mean he would punish me and make me suffer?" My eyes were wide with horror. "I can't see how that has anything to do with pleasure."

Lord Surry laughed. I felt like a little child who knew nothing about anything. I felt diminished. Like every woman was just a creature without any knowledge, only acting on feelings and pathos, nothing more.

"Don't laugh at me like I'm a little ignorant child. I just don't understand what kind of connection exists between pain and pleasure."

"Some men just like to inflict pain on their wife during the sexual acts."

"And what about you, Lord Surry; do you like pain and pleasure in the same sentence?"

He looked strict at me. He clearly hadn't expected that question, especially not form a servant.

"You have no right to ask me such questions."

"You laughed at me before, my Lord. I'm in every right to ask."

"Don't forget you are a woman." He said it almost like a warning. Like I had forgotten my place in the hierarchy. How would he even have thought it possible for me to forget such a thing? In this kind of world, it was impossible to forget one's place and the part played by women.

"I may be a woman but I'm just as clever as you, my Lord," I answered. "Being a woman has nothing to do with intelligence. It is only because you men are busy finding fault in all the women to make your egos bigger, but the reality is you're all afraid of the female sex."

"Afraid?" he exclaimed. "And why do you think that?"

"Because you always shame us. It's a way to make justice for yourself. If a woman are having other men than her husband and aren't a virgin at the wedding, she's declared a whore, while you men can have as many women as you like without any shaming or punishment from anyone."

Lord Surry gave me a strange look, then shook his head like I was a mad woman, but I knew what I was talking about. In my short time at court I had heard this story on several occasions, also even before I went to the place. My sister had had sexual intercourse before she was wed. No one knew, except from me. I had guessed it. She had often run out at night and I had suspected her for having a sweetheart. After a couple of months, I had confronted her, and I had been right. To my biggest fear I discovered she had already shared her body with this lover, and she was pregnant. She was overjoyed since she thought she was going to marry this young man, but soon he abandoned her when he learned of her pregnancy and she was now condemned to live in shame for the rest of her life. She had never married. No man would have her and if she was ever to marry she would have to give up her child, and I knew she would not.

"No matter what you think, Lord Surry," I said in a decided voice. "Women is unfairly judged for the acts they do, which is exactly the same as men. Men are privileged, more privileged than they think."

Word count: 1184 words.

Total word count: 17274 words.