Dutiful Pt 2

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

Characters: Sophque, Morin, Inokin, Harlino, Norbad
Description: Sophque remembers the past.
Location: Sunstone Seahold
Date: month 12, day 4 of Turn 6
Notes: Part 2 of 3

Sophque

Inokin handed her his canvas bag before walking over to the
small bath. It looked more like an slightly elongated barrel with just
enough room for a person to sit in, knees bent, but it was adequate to
serve it's purpose. Inokin pulled his shirt over his head and dropped
it to the floor before reaching in to dangle his fingers in the water.
"It's a bit cool."

A smile lit her eyes when he chose the bath first and she put the
duffel in a corner to deal with his dirty laundry later. "Coming with
the hot water," she answered his call as she wrapped hot pads on the
handles and lifted it from the stove. She was strong enough to carry
the water toward the tub and rested it on the lip for a second before
pouring it into mix with the cooler water. She bustled back to the
stove and set another bucket of water into it to heat for herself
later.

"Thanks," he called after her as he kicked off his boots and unbuckled
his trousers. Inokin could just smell the yummy goodness she was
cooking up for him. She was a sharding good cook. Another reason he
had snatched her up as soon as he had found her.

He stepped into the bath and gave his arms and chest a good scrub with
the sweetsand she had left out for him. After rubbing it into his hair,
his dipped his head under the water, using his fingers to work it out
before flicking his head back out of the water, spraying droplets across
the room. "Sophque, can you get my back?"

"Be right there," she called and put his plate on the hearth to stay
warm. She smiled as she picked up the sand. Her husband might not be
many things she would have liked but he was very pleasant to look at
she mused as she scrubbed then rinsed his back. Of course she didn't
miss the spatter and dampness on her clean floor. "There now. Your
dinner's ready."

"You're a jewel," Inokin sighed happily as he stood up and reached for a
towel. "Do I have any clean pants?"

**So far so good,** "Yes they're on the bed," she said as she returned
for their plates and slid them onto the table. She stood by her chair
waiting for him to sit first.

"Nice." His wet feet padded across the floor and through the curtain
they had strung up across the cot to make a sort of bed room and slipped
into the pants laid out so considerately on the bed. Good, they were
the linen ones that would be easy to slip off after he ate. It was
always a pain trying to pull pants of wet legs when he was in a hurry.
"Oh hey, by the way, be careful when you're pulling my laundry out of
bag there," he called back to her as he ran the towel one last time
through his hair. "There's a present in the bottom for you." Inokin
tossed his towel into the corner before pulling back the curtain once
more. Food!

Her once spotless cottage now looked like a cyclone had somehow gotten
inside but Sophque knew it was useless to say anything. He'd be gone
back to sea again soon and she could clean to her hearts content. "Oh
thank you," It was probably too much to hope for a book. She tucked
into her meal.

Inokin grabbed up his fork and shoved food into his mouth ravenously.
Fresh meat and vegetables where rare on ship, and their cook wasn't all
that good anyway. This was exactly what his stomach had been craving
for months. "Anything happen while I was away?" he asked before shoving
another forked tuber into his mouth.

"Ciecie had a boy," she told him. She was one of his friend's wive's
and had been about four months along when they'd left on their last
voyage. "He's healthy judging by his crying." She half smiled knowing
she wasn't being the least bit subtle. But then subtle didn't really
work on Inokin.

"Oh yeah?" Predictably, he was only half listening as he reached across
the table for the pepper to decorate his herdbeast with. Poor bastard.
Coming home to a screaming baby. "Hey, did you all get hit with that
storm just after we left? Our ship caught the waves it kicked up and
let me tell ya, I almost got personally acquainted with the ship fish."

"Oh my," she gasped and touched his arm. "We did get the storm but the
seawall kept most of it out of the streets. Our cottage is high enough
but I had to go out and close the shutters."

"Yeah, it was a big one." He shoved his plate towards her. "More,
please." Inokin leaned back with a content sigh, his eyes scanning the
room to look for any changes. "Was that curtain there before?"

She immediately got up to refill his plate and glanced over at the
window. "No, it's new. I made it while you were gone." She came back
to the table with a full plate for him then sat back down to finish
her own.

"Oh. It's... nice." Inokin grabbed up his fork and began shoveling
tubers in his mouth again. To tell the truth, he had no opinion of the
curtain. He just was wondering if he was crazy thinking it hadn't been
there. But he also knew women needed compliments about silly things
like that now and then. "You know the curtain over there is looking a
little threadbare." His knife was waved at the long curtain separating
the room. "Can't you patch it up or something?"

She looked where he was pointing and didn't see much more than sun
fading. Her eyes flashed momentarily before she quickly looked back
down into her plate. Of course he had to find something to criticize,
but she nodded anyway. "Sure, I can fix it."

Inokin gulped down last bite of roast in his mouth before shoving his
plate to the middle of the table. "That was great. Thanks." The legs
of the chair scraped across the wood floor as he stood up. "I'm going
to the head." Walking round to her side of the table, he reached down
to take her breast in his hand. "Don't do the dishes now. You can do
them later." He gave her a gentle squeeze before padding off to the
necessary. Now that his belly was full, another hunger was waiting to
be satisfied.

Sophque stood and quickly cleared the dishes to the sink. She'd could
hear him and knew what followed. It was her duty as his wife and she
went willingly to the bed and removed her dress before slipping
between the sheets to wait for him. The first time he took her on
return from a sea voyage would most likely be brief. Sophque knew her
duty and while it wasn't repugnant to her it didn't seem to throw her
into the same raptures some of her friends experienced.

As Inokin slipped through the curtain, it was obvious that he already
had been imagining just what was waiting for him. The pants were off in
a flash, and he made very little ceremony about pulling the sheets back
to the foot of the bed. Sun Stone was warm enough without them and they
just tended to get in his way. Their bed was so small anyway, all he
had to do was hitch his knee onto the side and he could run his lips
from her navel, over her chest and up to her lips. In the first
candlemarks of his visit home, that was about all the foreplay she could
expect as he lifted himself the rest of the way onto the bed and covered
her body with his.

She wrapped her arms around him responding in the way she knew he
liked. He had taught her from the beginning of their marriage and he'd
even paid attention, at least at first, to the things that made her feel
good. But then he just seemed to get frustrated for some unfathomable reason
and he'd stopped the extended attention when she appeared to react
like he was.

Not long after, there came a pounding on the window pane. "Cracking
shells! I'm busy here!" Inokin roared, furious that he was being
interrupted.

"Hey Inokin, get off your woman!" came the reply from outside. "We're
all going to the tavern for a pint!"

She flinched first at the loud rap on the pane and then at Inokin's
bellow of anger. She couldn't help but gasp at the way his friends
talked to each other, or about her.

"I'm busy here!" Sophque's husband growled back, then muttered under his
breath, "Sharding bastard."

Another voice, far more muffled could be heard saying, "That's not some
tavern wench he's screwing in there. That's his wife for Faranth's
sake. Have some sharding respect, Harlino." It was the voice of
Ciecie's husband, Norbad, who had always been a decent sort.

A slightly contrite Harlino called, "Sorry ma'am. No disrespect
intended. Just come when you can, Inokin."

Even though that fellow Harlino apologized those two men knew... they
knew exactly what she and Inokin were doing and she felt so embarrassed
she could hardly bear it..

Norbad's intervention had calmed Inokin's anger, and he called back, "Be
there in a bit." He looked down at his wife apologetically. "Sorry
about that sharding tunnel snake. Harlino can be a real wherry's arse
at times, but he's a good hand in the riggings."

She just nodded at Inokin's appology. Criticizing his friend wouldn't
accomplish anything and might well undercut her real reason for trying
to make him as happy as possible. She wrapped her arms
around him again and pulled him back to her.

Last updated on the January 17th 2013

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Dutiful Pt 2