My question hung between us, turning my lady wife's eyes round with surprise. I should not have asked her, nor should I demand an answer, but I found I could wait no longer.

I knew how I wanted her to answer. I knew how I thought she would answer. But the important thing was to have her give me an answer. I needed her to decide if she would prefer a life away from me...or not.

"Carrick, you must know how badly you hurt me."

"I do know, Calissande. And it grieves me to my bones."

"You have apologized to me, and even though you are an impatient man, and felt that I should get over it, you still showed me that you had also changed. Even though it went against your tradition, you sent her back, and when she came back...you dispatched her for her lies and disrespect. You made everything new in your chambers so there would be no sign of her; nothing that she had ever touched or looked upon even remained. You declared your love for me in front of the entire village."

"I am the most perfect lord husband, am I not?" I teased her.

"I would not go that far, warrior. Right now you are mostly tolerable," she told me with a sour look on her face, but a teasing glint in her eyes. "But I would remind you that you told me you are an impatient man and even so, you would give me the time I required to put my hurt behind us. You said you would no longer try to hurry me along with whatever I must do to forgive you, no matter how long it took."

I grunted at that. The little vixen remembered every word I had said to her. This did not bode well for me for future disagreements.

"But in effect, Carrick, by asking me whether I prefer to stay with you or not, you are hurrying me along the path toward forgiveness by requiring my decision."

She folded her arms over her chest and fixed me with a stern look.

"Do not think I do not see through your ruse."

"I promise that is not what I intended, Calissande." Unable to resist, I reached out and gently tugged one of her long curls. "That is not what I intended at all."

"Regardless, warrior, it would have been the end result. By saying I preferred to stay with you, I would have been saying I forgave you."

"Or perhaps you did not forgive me, but were staying merely to make my life a misery by poking at me constantly about my past sins. I have heard many a man complain about a wife's long memory and even sharper tongue."

At that, Calissande began laughing. "Well, my warrior, I admit that does sound like a just reward for you, to be saddled with a wife who tormented you daily, but I do not think that makes for a very happy home."

"I cannot imagine a place being anything but happy if you are there, Calissande. You are the very source of my joy."

"Very prettily said," she praised me with a laugh.

"And am I?" I asked her intently, for she had used an honorific I did not often hear from her. "Am I your warrior, as you just called me?"

"Well, since I see no other warrior about our bedchamber, I must have been referring to you," she sassed me in answer.

"Very well," I told her, trying to hide how pleased I was.

"And so I cannot be accused of tormenting you, I will tell you, warrior, that I prefer to stay here with you. I no longer wish to remove myself to another of your estates and to live a life separate from you."

I stopped moving or even breathing for a moment, knowing what this declaration meant.

After a moment, I found my voice. "I vow, my lady, that I shall do everything in my power to make sure you never regret your decision."

"See that you don't," she commanded me.

"An answer like that deserves a reward," I informed her.

Then I walked to my chest, knelt down and withdrew a small leather bag from inside. I walked back to Calissande with it, and then dangled the bag in front of her, a smile on my lips.

"As a reward, my lady, a small trinket. I had this made just for you."

She smiled widely, happy for the first time since we had been married to receive a gift from me. Although, once she opened it, she may discover she missed the days when my gifts were baubles and jewelry.

"Is it something to wear?" she teased me, obviously thinking it was jewelry as she hefted the slight weight in her hand.

"It is indeed," I told her with a straight face.

"Is it something I can wear all day or just at dinner? Oh! Or is it for even more formal events?"

I pretended to think and tried not to laugh. "I would have to say, my lady, that you could wear this all day, at dinner and at more formal events. It is a very versatile piece."

"May I see it now, please?" she asked me so prettily, I could not help but take the bag back from her hand and open it for her.

Her face went from delight to confusion as the object spilled into her hand. "My lord, thank you for the -- I'm afraid I do not know what this is."

She held the perfectly smooth, metal object up to me, looking curiously at the tapered tip that grew wider at the middle before it narrowed again only to widen at the base.

"It is a culpalo, Calissande," I said, as if that explained everything. I found myself wanting to tease this moment out, prolong the moment when she discovered just what it was that she was holding in her hand.

"A cul-palo," she repeated more slowly, looking back at the metal object and then back at me. "I am afraid I still do not know what that is, Carrick. I do not see a chain attached to it, so I do not know how I could wear it as a necklace all the time, as you suggested. And perhaps you have, for some reason, given me an object better meant for the kitchen staff? A masher of sorts?"

"It is neither a masher nor a necklace. And, if you will recall my words, as you are so fond of doing when it suits your purposes, I never said you would wear it as a necklace."

"You are speaking in riddles, my lord. You said I could wear this all day, at dinner and at more formal events, yet now you are saying it is not a necklace."

"Calissande, that is because you wear it where it will not show." I paused while she looked at me in utter confusion. "My lady, you wear a culpalo...in your ass."

Her sharply indrawn breath had her looking more closely at the culpalo, twisting it this way and that, her curiosity trying to make sense of how it would work.

"I do not know how this could possibly be comfortable," she muttered, "or enjoyable. Now that you have explained where it goes, I find my excitement over my gift tempered with a bit of uncertainty."

"There is no need to fear it, Calissande. And it is my responsibility to ensure my lady wife comes to enjoy her lord husband's gift to her. Now, I am afraid that this is becoming a habit I much enjoy, my lady, but bend over the bed, and I will show you how your gift works."

With one last look askance at the culpalo, Calissande lifted her sleeping gown and settled herself over the side of the bed.

My fingers stroked her cunt, not having to work hard to draw down her wetness.

"You are always so very wet, Calissande. I will use your own wetness to help ease it into you so it will not hurt you at all. After you have worn this for a few hours every day for the next few days and have become accustomed to it, then it will be time for me to fuck you there, as well. But for now, my lady wife, I will just fuck your cunt while you wear your gift, and I vow you will drench me with your pleasure."

She did enjoy it greatly, more than either one of us expected. And afterward, Calissande thanked me quite prettily for her new gift, indeed.

In the early hours of the morning, when the sun had just begin to rise, my lady wife lay sprawled across our bed, rumpled and looking very thoroughly fucked. A small, satisfied smile played at her lips and her hair was spread across the pillows in luxurious disarray. I liked leaving her looking that way in the mornings, for I could bring that lovely vision to my mind throughout the day whenever I pleased. The thought of her in our bed made me hurry to her side before the nooning meal, and then again before the evening meal.

This morning, my warriors and I were having an early training session before the sun rose too high and made our practice unbearable with the heat. I had already dressed in my breeches and boots, and had just strapped on my sword, ready to take my leave quietly.

But when I was at the door, about to open it, I turned and walked back to the bed, realizing I needed to clarify something to my lady wife.

"Calissande?" I called her name softly and waited for her eyes to open sleepily and focus on me. "So you have no doubt, I would never have let you leave me. It would be like saying I could live without my very heart."

My lady wife's eyes glistened and her smile was soft and happy. I smiled back at her, holding her eyes for a long moment, tiny words passing between us, unspoken but understood.

I love you.