Free The Lord's Right by Carolyn Faulkner

knew he couldn’t do that in good conscience.
He knew how that would end, and he didn’t have time for it,
especially considering that she obviously needed to be reminded
that she had been prohibited from doing exactly this.
    So, as she climbed, naked and
glistening out of the water, he appeared out of the forest, walking
onto the shore and preventing her from reaching for her clothes.
Instead, he appropriated the scrap of cloth she’d brought to dry
herself with and proceeded to do it himself, rubbing her briskly
but gently all over until she was entirely dry, and even taking
several swipes at her hair, but giving up since there was so much
of it. But he did manage to get a lot of the water out of it, and
seemed to enjoy running his hands and the cloth through
it.
    Amber had stood docilely throughout
this process, which had surprised him somewhat. That wasn’t like
her, and he was a tad suspicious. But he didn’t waste any time once
he thought he’d gotten her to the point where she’d be a little
more comfortable standing out of the water, and he brought her a
bit to his side, bent her over while holding her with one arm, and
stepped on that long hair of hers with his foot, which trapped her
right where he wanted her. She couldn’t get up without scalping
herself, and her bare bottom was exactly where he wanted it. The
wooden training sword he’d been using earlier in the day was the
perfect implement to help refresh her memory about the rule he had
set for her. It wasn’t as if he had made a thousand of them. She
should have been able to obey that one.
    “ What did I say to you not
too long ago about staying close to the castle, Amber?”
    She had forgotten. She really had.
There had been so much hustle and bustle with the king arriving
shortly, and she just couldn’t stand it any longer. Amber had made
sure she’d gotten everything done that she could, helping
everywhere she could, but she needed to escape for a while, just
one last time, knowing she’d be pressed into service in every
possible way while he was here, so she ducked into the woods to
swim and bathe while she thought no one would miss her.
    Of course, he would notice, and she
would end up punished, as always. It seemed he never missed a
chance to blister her for one reason or another. Sir Piers punished
her three or four times more often than her father ever
had.
    She shuddered to think what he was
using on her now. Amber could feel the welts rising individually
each time his arm fell, and, as usual, she was crying almost before
he’d begun spanking her. It annoyed her to no end that she had so
little control of herself around the person she wished she had the
most control. Her emotions seemed so scattered with him, and it was
as if he knew her body much better than she did—how to deliver it
searing pain and unbelievable ecstasy, sometimes in the same
instant.
    It was in the middle of this
disciplinary session that they heard thunderous hoof beats, and
before they knew it, they were descended upon by a large army of
men bearing the king’s crest, and then by the king himself, who
stepped to the forefront and required that his men, who found the
scene to be quite comical, step well back into the
woods.
    King William, who knew and liked Piers
quite well, walked down to the shore, where both of his subjects
were on their knees to him, one quite prettily but unintentionally
giving him a very nice view of English scenery, indeed.
    “ Rise, rise, the both of
you.”
    Piers did so immediately, handing
Amber her new tunic and shoving her behind him to don it
quickly.
    Amber was shaking so badly that it
took her five times longer than it might have, because she knew the
King of England was a mere ten feet from her.
    When she was done, she barely peeped
around Piers, wanting to sink to her knees again, but King William
wouldn’t hear of it. “I see you’ve found a fair English flower with
whom to occupy yourself, Sir Piers. And what an