The Blacksmith's Woman

by R. R. Vane

  “So, this heat you speak of…” he asked lazily, at last breaking the kiss and yet again brushing his palm against her clad breast. “Now that we’ve kissed, does it feel to be more or less than it was?”

  Master Reed’s voice was playful and inviting, and Beth had begun to wonder how it was that this man, who’d spanked her so hard, could speak and touch her so gently. He was plainly teasing her now, and a mischievous smile had blossomed on his lips.

  “You know it’s more. Even more heat now than before. You’re only teasing me,” she muttered.

  He slowly slid a hand inside her gown and boldly cupped her naked breast. She blushed scarlet, because no man had ever touched her this way.

  “Master Reed, I–”

  Would it be good to tell him now that she was new to coupling? But Beth’s thoughts became muddled as the heat of his hand against her naked skin seemed to rob her of all reason. He chuckled.

  “I see you like to call me Master Reed. Yet, since I’ll thrust inside you tonight, it might be best if you called me Tom. So call me by my name.”

  “Tom,” she muttered, as Tom began to unashamedly tease her nipple.

  “Take off your gown,” he said lazily after a while. “I wish to taste what I have touched.”

  Beth found herself complying with what he’d asked. She strived to appear calm and make nothing of the fact she was unused to standing naked in front of a man. Tom perused her for a long while with his handsome, dark eyes before he took her hand to lead her to the bed. When he lowered her on the bed, Beth began to think he would soon claim her, but it seemed Master Tom Reed was far more master of his lust for her than she’d thought.

  She blushed crimson when he took her nipple in his mouth, yet soon forgot to feel ashamed of the deep pleasure coursing through her. She found she loved his mouth upon her breast, and everything else his clever mouth and fingers started doing to her.

  Yet she was seized by deep astonishment and shock when he kissed his way down her belly to stick his tongue where no man’s tongue had been before.

  “Wait… I–”

  But she could no longer speak. The velvet of his tongue was simply bliss against her quim and it soon found that secret spot she never thought a man would know about.

  “Oh, here it is, and it tastes so sweet,” he said, as if in echo of her thoughts.

  As he started to suck upon it, Beth began to moan wantonly, forgetting herself, and soon caring only for the bliss which took hold of her. She peaked against his mouth, and for a while couldn’t even recall herself. It was as if in a beautiful dream that she heard her lover’s voice.

  “Spread your legs wide for me, dearling. I want to find my own release.”

  She obeyed him, because at this time she’d have gone through all the nine circles of Hell and back for the man who’d given her such bliss. He was now on top of her, and had taken firm hold of her hips. And soon she felt his hardness, probing against her soaking wet folds. He then thrust inside her, and his cock was hard and large, stretching her painfully. She gritted her teeth against the pain, knowing from her mother and from her married friends it was natural for a maiden to feel such pain when she was deflowered.

  The woman beneath him was so very tight, and Tom nearly spilled himself when deep, fierce pleasure coursed through his veins as he entered her in one thrust. Never before had he felt so enraptured when he’d thrust inside a woman. He smiled to himself, gazing into the eyes of his new lover, because he liked the look of a woman well pleasured under him. Yet it was not pleasure he saw in her eyes, but pain. He frowned, opening his mouth to tell her she should not act and feign her pain. He’d heard some men enjoyed this kind of love play, but he didn’t. Yet the strained look upon Beth’s face didn’t seem an act at all. Her pain was true. Just as the maidenhead he belatedly understood he’d just breached had felt very true to him. She was a maiden. Or, better said, she’d been a maiden. Cursing under his breath, Tom simply withdrew his cock from her body, gritting his teeth against the deep wave of lust and regret that seized him. She seemed relieved he’d retreated, but the damage had been done.

  “What did you make me do, you foolish wench?” he muttered under his breath.

  He felt like shouting at her, yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it, because he’d just taken her maidenhead and she must still be in pain from it. As she sat up to stare at him, his eyes fell on the blood that already stained the sheets. Not much, because she’d fortunately been wet and eager for him. Yet he’d thrust hard inside her, and at least some of her pain could have been helped if she’d told him it was the first time a man would be inside her. He wiped the blood on his cock with the sheet, striving hard to keep his anger at bay.

  “Did you think to trick me into marrying you?” he gasped, still stunned that someone he’d treated fairly would be capable of such deceit.

  She shook her head, and Tom saw, in some relief, that her face no longer looked pale and strained and her eyes were dry of tears. The pain had probably been swift and it must have already passed, now he’d retreated. He strove to ignore his stiff cock and the sheer lust which was still seizing his body.

  Hurriedly pulling a shirt over himself, which did a bad job of concealing his hardness, Tom strode angrily away from the chamber. He felt like taking the woman over his knee and giving her the mother of all spankings just there and then. And while he fully intended to spank her for her deceit, this was hardly the time to do it. He spent his night on the floor of the kitchen, unable to get a wink of sleep and seething with anger. How could a night which had begun so well turn out to be so foul?

  He rose at dawn, and by the movements he heard in the bedchamber he knew Beth was already pacing up and down. He thought, with grim satisfaction, her night had been just as sleepless as his. Her face looked pale and set when he opened the door, but he told himself he should spare her no pity. She had deceived him, although he’d warned her he would have no deceit.

  “You’re up, I see,” he said in a terse voice.

  She nodded and looked at him with eyes which seemed steady.

  “I didn’t reckon it would matter to you. That is… it’s not what you think. I understood from the beginning you would never marry me. So I did not mean to trap you into marriage.”

  He raked a hand through his hair. Her voice sounded true, but at this moment it no longer even mattered. He’d done it. He’d taken her innocence. And he had made a virgin into his leman.

  “Whatever your reasons, it was a foolish thing to do. Plainly foolish!” he said, making his voice harsh. “You’ve ruined yourself. With a man who cannot ever marry you.”

  He felt blazingly angry with her, and his anger grew even more when he saw her shrug, with an unconcerned expression on her face.

  “You call it ruin. It’s just my maidenhead though. But I suppose in everyone’s eyes this is the only worth an unmarried woman can possess. She’s only virtuous as long as she has her maidenhead. No other thing matters,” she told him and her own voice sounded bitter.

  Tom forced himself not to ponder upon her strange words, but on what had taken place. She might not see it, but there was no return from this and no way in which he could do right by her.

  “Perhaps you didn’t understand and I should have spoken even more plainly. I cannot ever be your husband. And it is not only because I do not wish to marry you. It is because I already have a wife.”

  She stared at him.

  “But…”

  “I do not share my life with my wife. And never will. Ever again. But that does not change the way things are. You know, as well as I, that no man can undo wedding vows.”

  He waited patiently for her disappointed astonishment, but none came. He only saw her shrug.

  “I see. You now live forever apart from your wife, but that doesn’t mean you cannot choose to share your bed and house with another woman. I did not ask for more. I agreed to become your leman. Why would you think I’d ask for more?”

  He glared at
her, because she plainly didn’t understand he’d have felt compelled to wed her if he’d been free. He might not be noble-born, but he had his honour. And he’d always held his honour dear. Beth had just made him dishonour himself.

  “You deceived me,” he told her in a stern voice, knowing he would have to teach his new woman a lesson in honesty.

  “I did not mean to! I didn’t think you’d care!” she countered.

  “Then you already think too little of me,” he replied in turn.

  She heaved a deep sigh, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

  “You’ve just become my woman and there is naught either of us can do about it now. Still, there is something that needs to be done. You need to be taught not to hide things from me as you did. You need to see that what you did was reckless. And I intend to deliver a lesson you’ll remember well. A lesson for your own good.”

  His eyes challenged her to protest his decision, but she only sighed again.

  “So I suppose you’ll spank me for this… just as you told me you would.”

  “I am a man of my word,” he told her tersely.

  Her blue-green eyes seemed very uncertain when she looked at him, so he decided it was best to speak plainly.

  “You shall be spanked tonight. And well spanked,” he said in a steady voice.

  She nodded with a fierce blush on her cheeks, and Tom supposed he should feel pleased by her acquiescence, yet he still felt terribly angry with both her and himself. There was no return from the course both their lives had taken, and she would have to learn what being his woman meant. Once she’d indeed learnt he expected full honesty from her, there’d be no further need of harsh lessons. Yet he knew it was a harsh lesson she needed to learn.

  “I’m off to my chores,” he called to her from the kitchen, when he was fully dressed.

  Beth came to where he was, and looked at him in a level way. Her eyes seemed to hold no regret for the reckless way in which she’d ruined herself, but he promised himself he would teach her about recklessness tonight.

  “I’ll have lunch ready at noon,” she called to him in a placating voice, but he turned his back on her, still angry about the way things had turned out between them.

  Beth strived hard not to think upon Master Reed’s promise of a good spanking, yet from time to time her thoughts drifted upon it. She thought of the spanking she’d already received from him, and of how sore and red her bottom had been for several days after. But she also thought of the strange, shameful heat she’d felt pulsing in her quim whenever she’d touched her reddened skin. And she also thought of the great pleasure she’d had whenever Master Reed’s lips and hands had been upon her. It was mightily strange she didn’t think upon a spanking from him only with distress. Nevertheless, she attempted to steer her mind away from the spanking, which, she understood, couldn’t be avoided in any way.

  Tom Reed had seemed set on his course, and it would be to no avail to plead with him she hadn’t meant to deceive him. Because, in truth, she had ended up deceiving him, knowing deep down within herself that a man such as he was wouldn’t have lain with a maiden. Yet, she’d fiercely wanted to be with him, in spite of all, and that was why she’d resolved not to tell him, lying to herself he would not set such great store on it even if he were able to tell. So he was right. She had, in a way, broken her word to him of always being forthright. And she’d managed to do so on the very first night spent under his roof.

  She suppressed a sigh, returning her mind on the chores she had to do in a house which hadn’t been tended properly in several months. She scrubbed and cleaned and put things to rights, at the same time keeping an eye on the potage she had boiling on the stove. She remembered too well Forge work was hard, and that at lunch the menfolk working there would be hungry and eagerly waiting for their food.

  They were indeed hungry, she saw, as soon as lunchtime came and they came to seat themselves around the table. Beth watched with a suppressed smile the way the growing boys ate, suddenly feeling sad because the three brothers she’d lost one after the other in a mere week, had been only a little older than the boys in front of her. She bit her lip, striving to focus on the talk instead.

  “Wait and see, I’ll be a journeyman well before you!” Declan was now boasting to both William and Micah who must be a year or two younger than he was.

  Beth stared into her bowl, attempting to hold back her tears as she recalled the pride and joy in her brothers’ eyes when they’d gone from apprentices to journeymen. It had been a big step for them, as the Guild’s members’ standards were high in her hometown. She focused on the matter at hand and assumed these requests to be even higher in a big city such as London. To become a journeyman Declan would be required to have his master’s permission to show the Guild members items of his own making.

  As if in echo of Beth’s own thoughts, Micah started teasing his friend, declaring that surely the esteemed members of the Guild would split their sides with laughter as Declan was unable to fashion even a horseshoe. Master Reed said nothing, just shaking his head and smiling. Beth already understood he must be very skilled, because she’d known of few town smiths able to wield fine swords. Her own father had never made weapons or armour, but it seemed Master Reed was also becoming known as a swordsmith in London, and lords and knights had already begun to seek his work, although he chose to reside within the city and not within castle walls under some nobleman’s patronage. Beth already suspected a man like Master Reed would never seek the patronage of a lord. The disdain in his eyes over Sir Lambert had been clear for all to see.

  At present, the apprentices continued their squabble over who would become the most able of them, and at last Master Reed stepped in with a cocked eyebrow.

  “Seems to me of late you’ve all started daydreaming and are barely able to tend the fire in the Forge. As for the lessons I tried to teach, I wonder if you can remember them. And you, Declan, have your head in the clouds even more than these other two!”

  Declan shook his head, his face a picture of innocence, though Beth had already started to suspect that, of all three boys, he gave the most trouble to his master and was the most mischievous.

  “Not so, I swear. I already know the right and proper way to make an auger bit, just as you showed us last week!”

  Declan then fiercely blushed as Master Reed began to look at him expectantly, and as Micah did not miss the opportunity to make a further taunt.

  “Aye, Declan. Pray tell us… Since you’re the best and oldest of us, you should indeed share your knowledge.”

  “Fine,” Declan replied with a dignified tilt of his head. “I’ll tell you then. For the bit to be made, the smith most surely has to hammer and grind that piece of iron into the shape he wishes…”

  “Ha,” Micah said with a wave of his hand. “Everybody knows that!”

  A pointed look from Master Reed silenced him, and Declan was left to go on with the lesson he meant to share.

  “And then…” he went on, but suddenly looked upon Beth and became rather flustered.

  Beth understood that Declan might be a brash, mischievous boy, but she was a new woman in their household. She resolved to help him overcome his shyness.

  “I reckon,” she said with a shrug, as she began to ladle more potage into William’s now empty bowl. “What Declan surely means to say next is that the iron then needs to be covered in fat. Stale fat, if I’m not mistaken, but I think some smiths also use burned bone for this part. Isn’t it so?”

  Declan nodded at her, yet his cheeks now burned even more fiercely. Still, he soon cleared his throat and regained his voice.

  “Aye, it is just so. And then there’s the kneaded clay you need to place it in. Then it goes into the furnace for the hardening of the case. And then, while it’s red hot you plunge it into water–”

  Here Micah could no longer hold his peace. “Aye, though some say it needs to be placed into the piss of a red-haired boy, to make it better!”

  Both William a
nd Micah started shrieking with laughter, and Declan’s face got just as red as his hair. Master Reed smiled with good humour, and Beth suppressed her own smile, attempting to make Declan more at ease:

  “That is a tall tale though, isn’t it, Master Reed? I know some smiths swear by it, but I’ve never seen one use this in order to fashion an auger bit or any other such item.”

  Master Reed’s dark eyes bored into her before he nodded.

  “A tall tale, for certain, just as Beth here says. Water is what you need for quenching, but then the item will be somewhat brittle. So to remove some of the brittleness, it needs to be held over the fire for gentle tempering. An auger bit should be hard, yet not so hard that it should break when twisted sideways. So it’s tempering it needs. But how does one know the bit’s been tempered just well enough?”

  “The colour of it!” all three boys hurried to answer, and Beth understood that in this, at least, they knew their lessons well.

  “Just so,” Master Reed nodded, then started to talk about more of the work they still had ahead of them today.

  Yet Declan, William, and Micah seemed to have their heads in the clouds just as much as their master had said. They kept staring at Beth instead of listening to Tom Reed, and he soon ceased his talk with a sigh.

  “Quit staring. It’s not as if Beth here is the first woman you’ve ever glanced upon, is it?” he said, eyeing his apprentices with an arched eyebrow.