Chapter 4
Natonito walked in to his mansion in Bravia and saw Bathsheba sitting with an open mouth, apparently surprised by what she had seen or thought about that day.
�You have a harem, my love?� Bathsheba asked.
�Yes, I do, my love,� Natonito replied. �What else does one expect for someone who has not found someone fit to settle down with and marry?�
�Are all of these girls commoners?� Bathsheba asked.
�Yes, most of them from backgrounds like yours. I do not go poaching around to seduce girls with strong families to turn them into my whores. These girls are prostitutes that I bought the contracts for so they could be my kept women,� Natonito replied. �I hope that does not bother you.�
�No, it doesn�t. So, this is part of your plan for increasing the morals of the Bravian people?� Bathsheba asked with a wink.
�Not at all. You�ve seen the girls; these are no ordinary streetwalkers. These are beautiful girls that probably got kidnapped like you probably were,� Natonito said. �I take them off the street, and they are most grateful to me. If I settle down I will let my wife decide if she wants to have the harem around or if the girls are to be given their freedom.�
�They are all young girls, too,� Bathsheba said. �Some even younger than I am.�
�Yes, they are,� Natonito said. �I like those with a hint of innocence left, ones not completely hardened by the world.�
�I see,� said Bathsheba. �Would you ever marry any of us?�
�Well,� Natonito said. �If it ever came out that you were of noble origin, I would probably marry you. As for the rest, they are here for amusement, not really for love.�
�So you want to marry a noble girl? Why not pick a noble girl from around you. There have to be plenty that aren�t married that are beautiful and sweet,� Bathsheba said.
�I don�t want someone who is going gold-digging,� Natonito said. �It is very difficult to trust girls when one has influence and wealth. One can never be sure what the young lady wants more, the money or the love.�
�You are a very suspicious person, I take it,� Bathsheba said.
�Of course I am,� Natonito said. �One does not get in my position without watching like a red-tailed hawk the people and events around. I hope that does not bother you.�
�No, I was just observing. What has made you so, paranoid?� Bathsheba said.
�I have always been a little suspicious of others, considering I grew up a high noble in a family that was trapped in the intrigues of Bravia and Secfenia as a whole. For members of the ducal houses of Bravia, there is no respite from the revenge of the other houses who you have tangled with in the past. After all, Duke Longbert lost his oldest daughter over six years ago to kidnappers hired by my brother-in-law,� Natonito said. �Are you paranoid yourself?�
�Yes, I am,� Bathsheba said, troubled. �I do not remember my childhood. I think the pimps wiped away my memory when I was a small girl myself. When one is a streetwalker, one has to be on guard to make sure customers pay and are not violent. It is a very insecure life.�
�It�s like being a politician,� Natonito said with a wry smile. �Only one gets the satisfaction of orgasm occasionally.�
�What do you mean by that?� Bathsheba asked.
�Politicians, like myself, when I was a Senator, have to whore ourselves around to special interest groups for money and blocs of votes. Our satisfaction comes when we win office and power and respect. Sometimes, in the Empire, for example, it became intolerable because the Emperor wanted us to whore around to his own interests as well, being obsequious to him and neglecting our constituents. That is unacceptable, since a politician cannot be �kept� by more than one group at a time unless those groups share the same interests. Else we would not only be whores but liars as well,� Natonito said.
�I never thought of politics like that,� Bathsheba said ironically. �Who knew it was such a dishonorable profession?�
�That is because most politicians are lawyers,� Natonito said. �Nothing against practitioners of the law, but lawyers have a well-earned reputation for dishonesty, because ethical principles demand more than technical legalism, and lawyers are paid to help their clients by exploiting every favorable technicality, and by explaining all sorts of unfavorable technicality by appealing to broad principles. Still, defense lawyers are preferable to prosecutors, who spend their lives like inquisitors seeking to make vile sinners of us all. Mercy triumphs over justice. So, I suppose that when one is a lawyer or a judge, one cannot win in terms of ethics. As a lawyer, one is a sinner or a hypocrite, and neither option is pleasant. So it is with politicians. One either is a sinner and whores to the lobbies and organized voting blocs, or one is a hypocrite and pretends to serve the people while serving powerful patrons, flattering emperors like slaves or courtiers, or serving one�s own self interest.�
�Do you think this much about everything?� Bathsheba said. �If so, I would much enjoy to talk to you. I will probably be bored much of the time, but I like hearing your scholarly discussions.�
�Yes, I talk like this a lot,� Natonito said. �I never met a subject that completely bored me, a book I didn�t get something out of, or a person I had nothing in common with.�
�That is good,� Bathsheba said. �I am not nearly as intelligent as you are, but I love hearing you speak about things and helping me increase my own knowledge. You are so smart, and yet you are so interested in talking with me, and even in listening to me when I have something to say.�
�Thank you very much,� Natonito said, touched. �I am so glad that you like talking to me. That is why you are my favorite of the girls in here. I can talk to you and you like listening to what I have to say, even if it is about subjects most people find boring, like math or law or biology.�
�It is the way you speak about the subjects that is interesting. You show how all of these facts can be interesting and relevant,� Bathsheba said. �And I am glad that you are so sweet to me, though I do not understand why you think I am so beautiful and sweet. No one has ever told me I was beautiful other than you.�
�You are very welcome, my love,� Natonito said. �I am glad that you enjoy my compliments of you so much. You are really the most wonderful girl I have ever met. I hope I get to enjoy your love and your company for a long time. You are really well worth the money I spent to buy your contract.�
�I am glad I am worth your investment,� Bathsheba said with a grin. �But I want to know something about the other girls you have.�
�Go ahead,� Natonito said. �What do you want to know about them?�
�Do you ever try out more than one of them at the same time?� Bathsheba asked. �Do any of them like other girls.�
�I don�t think any of them like other girls on their own, but sometimes I have asked for two at a time,� Natonito said. �And they are a rather obedient lot.�
�I see,� Bathsheba replied. �Do you think you will ever do that to me?�
�Why would I?� Natonito asked. �When one is interested in someone just for sex, it is nothing at all to try to have sex with several people at the same time, because it is the act that one is interested in. But when you love someone, it is the love that is important, and you want no one to share in that, because the other person is yours and yours alone. As you would not anyone to share the one you love, if you really truly love someone, you will not want others to share you either.�
�Have you found that love?� Bathsheba asked.
�I do not know,� Natonito said. �I hope I will someday. That is what makes life worth living, finding someone that you can give yourself completely to and having someone completely. Only those truly blessed by God find that, and I have not been so blessed yet.�
�You will find it someday,� Bathsehba said. �Because you are not yet completely hardened and cynical yourself. Despite your wariness of those around you, you still have a child-like spirit within you that seeks an honest and true love. I know that you will be rewarded for your faith. God is not cruel, and He does not make sport with the hearts of His people.�
�You are skilled with kind words, my love,� Natonito said. �I am tired and sleepy, but do you want to make love before we sleep? It would be a fitting end to the day. After all, tomorrow the new emperor and some advisors will come seeking Bravia�s entrance into a Secfenian empire.�
�Yes, I would like to make love to you,� Bathsheba said as she rubbed her belly button. �Why wouldn�t I? It�s not my time of the month.�
�Shall we go then?� Natonito said, locking elbows with his beautiful mistress.
Natonito and Bathsheba went into his private bedroom, and took off their clothes. Natonito loved how Bathsheba was so soft and gentle, and yet so passionate. He never stopped loving the way they were together. He was glad in so many ways for finding this amazing young lady. He hoped she was as pleased at finding him.
�You�re such a sweet guy,� Bathsheba said, breathing heavily.
�Why do you say that, my love? I like to hear that, but I also like to know why so I can keep pleasing you,� Natonito said with a grin, while breathing heavily himself.
�You don�t just do your business and then leave, like a rutting animal,� Batsheba said. �You actually care about pleasuring me, and I want you to know I appreciate that. I couldn�t bear to be the mistress of a boar.�
�I am glad that you do not consider me a boar, or a bore,� Natonito said. Bathsheba laughed at the pun.
�You are neither, that is true,� Bathsheba said. �I just want you to never forget that I am here for your love. I don�t want your heart to be taken in by someone who doesn�t love you the way I do.�
�You really mean that?� Natonito said. �That is really touching. I do not think that anyone else could captivate me the way you do. I guess only time can tell, though. Who knows what the future has in store.�
�Yes,� Bathsheba said. �But I want my future to be with you.�
�I know you do, my love,� Natonito said, kissing her passionately, and Batsheba responded in kind.
After more pleasant bedroom talk between the two, they went to bed and awaited tomorrow�s events. Both of them were in love, and Bathsheba was the only girl who ever slept in Natonito�s bed overnight. She considered his bed her own as well, and she was right to. After all, she quickly had become his chief mistress, and the other girls saw him rarely, if at all, as time went on. As it was, though, it was the events in the political sphere that soon drew importance.
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