Dutiful

Writers: Eimi, Suzee
Date Posted: 12th January 2013

Characters: Sophque, Morin, Inokin
Description: Sophque remembers the past.
Location: Sunstone Seahold
Date: month 12, day 4 of Turn 6
Notes: Pt 1 of 3

Sophque

Sophque lay on her side watching Morin sleep. She resisted the urge to
reach out and touch his hair or caress his face. She didn't want to
take a chance waking him when it was so difficult for him to get to
sleep in the first place. He carried so much care and responsibility
for everyone around him. She couldn't even fathom the depth of issues
that kept him awake so much of the time.

He was so very different than her father or husband had ever been. She
hadn't even realized what she was missing until she'd met Morin. He
actually _saw_ her, he listened to her, he even needed her a little.
She couldn't even imagine what her life would have been had she never
met him, if her entire life had gone on as a sailor's wife.

~*~

Day after day she'd gone to the warf to await the ship with the other
wives. It was already two days over due and though their small cot
wasn't far from the wharves, Inokin liked it when she met the ship. He
wanted to see her standing on the quay when the ship tied up. Over the
turns she'd found it best for her if she started out his visits by
making him as happy as possible. She really did think of his time at
home more as visits than anything else.

Sophque had never deluded herself that she was pretty like other girls
from nearby cots. She knew she was passable but didn't attract much
attention from the boys in the hold. So she'd been as surprised as
anyone when her brother's friend Inokin had offered for her. Of
course her father jumped at the chance to marry her off and the deed
had been done within a few weeks. Then Inokin had shipped off to the
east and come back a few months later. Rinse and repeat they'd fallen
into a rhythm she expected to be the pattern of her life. If she was
lucky, one of these times would result in a baby then she could begin
really loving someone.

She heard the in drawn breath of the woman next to her before she saw
the ship. She perked up and tried to strain as high as her short frame
allowed to see the ship rounding Wall Island and sailing into the
harbor and before long up to the quay. She watched the railing for the
familiar face of her husband ready to wave, smile and jump up and down
the way he expected.

Inokin waved back, genuinely happy to see her there. For a long time he
had stood on the rail, watching the women greet the men, see the smiles
of excitement and anticipation on his crew mate's faces as they came into
harbor. Before he asked for Sophque's hand, putting in at Sun Stone was
really no different from any other port they called in. They just
stayed a bit longer was all, and his friends all split off to go be with
their families. He had envied them. The words "home port" had real
meaning when there was someone waiting for you.

And Sophque definitely did her part to make him feel welcome and happy
to put in at Sun Stone. She was everything he had wanted in his wife -
thoughtful, obedient, obliging. Though she could talk his ear off at
times, she never talked back, never nagged, and never refused him. For
all he had to put up with her stories from time to time, she was worth
coming back to. And when her tongue got to flapping a bit too much, he
could always run away to the tavern to have a pint with old friends.
She always had a good meal, a hot bath, and a warm bed waiting for him
when he returned. That was enough for him to smile eagerly as they
tossed the rope down to the dockman to tie off.

Sophque bounced up and down on the balls of her feet from the moment
she saw him until he set his feet on the dock. By then she was close
enough to be grabbed for a kiss. "Welcome home," she smiled.

Inokin kissed her greedily, his hand traveling down her stomach,
searching for any sign that she might be with child. Thank Faranth,
there was no hint of it. It was not that he was worried that his wife
might stray while he was away. He wouldn't even dream of it. Sophque's
faithfulness was as certain as the sun would rise. She had been taught
right by her father. That above all else was the reason he had made up
his mind so quickly to marry her. Sophque knew her place, both in the
home and in the community. She would never do anything to bring shame
on either. No, he never had to worry that she might catch another man's
child. But neither did he want the responsibility of a child of his
own. Least, not yet.

"I'm starving," he murmured when their lips parted again. The fingers
curling into the fabric of her dress conveyed his double meaning.

His hands roamed her body embarrassingly but she'd expected that.
After all this was not a new experience for her. She also expected the
inevitable stink of unwashed male that floated like a cloud around the
crew. They probably didn't even smell it after so long aboard. She
smiled up at him anyway and tucked her hand into his. She only hoped
to get him into a bath before he had her on her back. No, Sophque
might be a little timid and subservient but she wasn't a dimglow, not
by half. She caught his meaning and would certainly do her wifely duty
as she always had done. "I have a nice herdbeast roast and tubers,
just the way you like all hot and ready."

"Perfect," he grinned as he looped an arm around her waist, steering her
back towards their tiny little cottage. "Is the bath ready too?"
Inokin was already hoping to shave as many minutes off as possible
between getting a full meal in his belly and getting his wife naked.

"The hot water is on the stove," she said knowing she could heat up
the tepid bathwater with hot from the big soup pot she'd filled and
had heating most of the day. A few steps more and she was pushing open
the door. "Bath or food first?"

"Bath." That would give her enough time to serve up his meal and do
whatever else she needed to do to get herself ready. After all, as long
as he had gone without being with a woman, Sophque had gone even longer
without being with a man. He was sure she needed him as much as he
needed her.

Last updated on the January 17th 2013

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Dutiful