Lara sighed deeply as she felt him filling her with his hard heat. “Oh, Magnus!” she purred and then she leaned back and rode him until neither could bear another moment and the pleasure burst over them as his big hands fondled her breasts, gently caressed her belly. She fell forward onto his broad chest.

He was still buried deep within her and was not yet ready to withdraw, but he did roll them over, one of his long legs swinging over her hip. “Why is it,” he asked her, “that no matter how much you give me it is never enough, my beautiful faerie wife?”

“I feel the same way,” Lara murmured. “You give me pleasures in excess and yet I want more, and more and even more, my darling husband.”

“Then I suppose I must see that you are content,” he told her as he began to move upon her once more. She was so hot. So wet. He could feel his member throbbing fiercely within her tightness as he thrust and withdrew until they were both half sobbing with the delight that they brought to each other. His juices flowed a second time and her sigh of happiness brought a smile to his face as he groaned with the pleasure of his release. “I love you,” he said into the tangled golden hair that surrounded them. “I will never stop loving you, Lara, my wife.”

Relaxed and content, filled with happiness beyond measure, Lara curled against him with a sigh. “He is going to be the most beautiful boy,” she said, her hands enclosing her faintly swelling belly. “He will look just like you.”

Kissing the top of her head he replied, “I should rather he look like you, my darling. You are far prettier than I am.”

“Oh, no,” Lara told him. “He must look like you so our people will accept him as a Terahn. We want no one claiming he is too faerie to rule Terah. Have you decided what you will call our son?”

“I will decide when I see him,” the Dominus told her. “He will tell me his name.”

THE SUMMER WANED, and the autumn came. Magnus Hauk was content that Terah had returned to what he considered normal. In Hetar, however, the women of The City had been insisting on a greater voice in the government and they would not cease their demands to the surprise of the magnates, the High Council and the new Lord High Ruler.

Jonah suspected that Vilia was involved with the agitating females but thought it better not to confront her on the matter. He would rather learn from his wife just what it was the women of The City wanted. “You hear things,” he said to her one evening as they lay together.

“What can you mean, my lord?” Vilia asked him coyly. She had a great surprise for him, but she was not yet ready to share it.

“The women around you surely talk,” he replied. “And you go out into The City to shop. Lady Gillian says that the women are not yet ready to speak with the High Council. If these women want something, why do they not tell us? Why do they delay?”

“They delay because they have not yet finished deciding how to word their manifesto, my darling,” Vilia told him.

“A manifesto? Vilia, my love, surely you are jesting with me? What could the women of Hetar possibly want that they do not already have?”

“They want the freedom to decide for themselves, my lord. They don’t want their husbands and their fathers telling them what to do,” she told him quietly.

“But women are frail and need to be protected,” Jonah told his wife. “They do not have the wisdom to make decisions for themselves. It is the way the Celestial Actuary created them. Surely you agree with me, Vilia.”

“Nay, my lord, I do not agree with you. Women are strong both in body and in mind. Men may own the Pleasure Houses, but it is the women who manage them.

“Shopkeepers’ wives and merchants’ wives can all tell you the inner workings of their husbands’ trades and businesses. Women in the lower orders all manage to keep their homes running and all women, no matter their class distinction, bear children. We have women who are healers, but dare not practice too openly lest they offend the physicians who are all men.

“Yet, my dear husband, the women of Hetar have no say in how it is governed. But now, having suffered through the late emperor’s ridiculous and bumbling reign-a reign that has cost us at least half of our able-bodied male population-the women of Hetar have decided that it is time for us to take part in the government of the land,” Vilia concluded.

“Ridiculous!” Jonah exclaimed. She was involved. The wife of Hetar’s ruler was involved in what was going to become an insurrection unless it was stopped now. If it were discovered by his enemies-and he was not foolish enough to believe he was beloved by all-they would have a merry romp making a fool out of him. And Hetar had had enough fools ruling it.

“Nay, my lord, it is not,” Vilia told him firmly. “You are in danger of becoming Gaius Prospero, Jonah. You cling to the old ways which are no longer viable for Hetar. Make a different road for yourself and take it, my lord,” Vilia encouraged him.

She was right in many ways. He was becoming his predecessor except that he was not as big a fool. Terah was blocked to them for now. Hetar had to rebuild itself and regain its prosperity, yet the council was full of the same old faces. They were dull and their ideas were stale. He needed fresh ideas to help Hetar. “If I were to set my spies to learning about the Women’s Movement,” Jonah said, “I would find you were implicated, my love, wouldn’t I? Tell me exactly what it is these women want, and I will tell you whether I can help them.”

“Wait for the manifesto, my lord,” she told him. “I will see that you have an early copy of it before it is made public. That will give you time to consider what is possible right now and what isn’t.” She did not directly answer his question, he noted.

“You are an ambitious woman, Vilia,” he said to her, and he took up her hand and kissed it, nibbling on her small knuckles. And a clever bitch, he thought silently.

“Surely you always knew that,” Vilia replied coolly.

He laughed. “I knew. Very well, I will be patient and allow you to orchestrate your scheme, my darling, because I know whatever you do it will be best for me. Now tell me this other thing you would tell me.”

“I am with child,” Vilia said quietly.

He was speechless. He had not known if she could bear him a child and he would need an heir eventually. His mother had only recently pointed that out to him, suggesting he divorce Vilia and marry a young girl of good family who would serve him as a breeder of his progeny. Or, she had said, if he preferred he might take a second wife. Vilia at her age would surely not want to bear another child, and yet here she was telling him that she was going to do just that.

“Say something, Jonah,” Vilia murmured at him. “I cannot believe I have rendered you speechless, my lord.”

“I did not think you wanted any more children,” he finally managed to say.

“I could have hardly given you a child while I was yet married to Gaius Prospero,” Vilia replied dryly. “And a child while Gaius Prospero lived would have made you vulnerable, my lord. Now, however, your position is secure. Now is the time for you to have an heir. I am still young enough to give you two or three children. Or did your dear mother suggest otherwise? Such a troublesome woman, Husband, and one who until it appeared you were climbing the ladder of success barely acknowledged you. Yet I have always had faith in you. Faith enough to betray Gaius Prospero for you,” she reminded him. “What has Farah ever done for you but use your power to gain her election as the new headmistress of the Pleasure Guild?”

“She gave me life,” he said softly.

“Because she knew that your father loved her. Had he not, she would have rid herself of you, Jonah, but by keeping you she bound your wealthy father to her. Do not become sentimental about Farah at this point in your history, my love. When Rupert Bloodaxe died and his wife sold you into slavery, your mother did not protest. She let it happen because it was easier for her than having to pay for the schooling that your father had begun. Farah did not care what happened to you, my husband. She cared only about herself. Only when it appeared that you were, indeed, despite everything, becoming a person of importance did she acknowledge your existence.”

“You are hard,” he said to her.

“I love you, Jonah,” Vilia answered him. “I took you to my bed when you were still a slave. Your status mattered to me not at all. I will never desert you or this child of ours that I now carry. Your mother drops her poison into your ear because she sees the love I have for you. She does not know how to love, has never loved. But she understands power. And she wants no one influencing you but her.”

“Aye, you are hard,” he repeated, “but you are also astute, my love.” He turned on his side so he might look down into her face. “If this child you carry is a son, Vilia, you will never have to fear being replaced in either my affections or my council. I know what my mother is, but having gotten her elected headmistress of the Pleasure Guild, I now need her influence. Now tell me, is she involved in this group of women? Are any of the Pleasure Mistresses?”

“Nay,” Vilia said. We did not believe she could be trusted. She did not completely answer his question which told him exactly what he wanted to know and she knew it. But at least he would not know who, or how many women from the Pleasure Guild were implicated.

Jonah nodded. “It is possible,” he said, “that these women can be of help to me. You accuse me of falling back into the old ways and not moving forward. But if I could aid Hetar’s female population in obtaining a modicum of power I should be their hero. And while I prefer the order and civility Hetar has lost in recent years, it is entirely possible that with the best and most intelligent of our women helping to manage the government we could once again rebuild the finest of what was once Hetar.” He leaned forward, and kissed her lips. “You have given me much to think about, Vilia.” He bent lower, pulling aside her garment and licking at her nipples.