La Gitana

by Carol Ann

  “Of course, Your Majesty,” she replied, “a fine repast awaits. You must be starved from your long journey.”

  I, too, was very hungry. Now my skeletal hands hold naught but a rotted apple, and, I am a feast for the maggots. Louis had three heaping plates of food, ham, venison, beef, and halibut and he sampled every one of the fifteen vegetable entrees.

  He ate half a loaf of bread, and three rich desserts. Louis is known far and wide to have a huge appetite. I ate much less as is my discipline. Not being a great beauty, I can afford no slothfulness. Everyone sat at the table until Louis had his last bite.

  “Well, Queen Maria Anna, you set a mighty spread, and We never had such delicious ham! As you know, Carmen will accompany Us back to France. We assume this will not displease you. Carmen can be very crafty and divisive at times.

  At first, she did not want to come. We told her she was coming whether she liked it or not, even if We had to tie her up and carry her on my back like a fatted calf. We know what is good and right and will brook no contention. Now I bless all you good people: you may leave the table now. Carmen, you and Magdalena come to my room at ten o’clock. We must discuss old times. See that I receive five bottles of your finest Cabernet and a tray of cheeses and fruit right away. Thank you for a lovely meal, Maria 219

  Anna.” And he went over, bowed and kissed her hand. I perceived a trembling in her loins by the blush on her face. That is the effect Louis has on women.

  I spent the two hours readying myself for Louis. I bathed in a bath of rose petals and cloves and rubbed my body with exotic oils from India. I braided my long, black hair in the manner of a Nigerian princess tying the ends with gold ribbons. I chose a green velvet gown, the color of a shaded pond and gold high boots. Then I put on diamond earrings and a choker of the same.

  Magdalena looked very lovely in her shimmering, turquoise gown and topaz jewelry, and she had woven white roses into her long blond hair. And we both wore face paints to enhance our eyes and lips. Louis opened the door in a royal blue robe with gold trim.

  “Come in my lovelies, let us get drunk on wine and cheese. Sit on either side of Us.”

  We sat on a gold brocade couch with numerous lace pillows. The room was a dark vibrant red with gold trim at the ceiling and floor, and black velvet curtains hung at the windows. Angels cavorted on the ceiling.

  “Carmen,” he said, handing me a full goblet of red wine, “We want you to know that We, Magdalena and I, have raised your boys to be strong willed and fit for men’s pursuits. Julio and Antonio are educated in all the languages, French, Italian, German, and English. Julio also studies Latin and Greek in case he desires to work in one of the learned professions like physician. They study history, math, science and literature and also, the art of war. Antonio is a gifted court painter, and Julio may chose his own way to go.”

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  “I see he is certainly strong willed,” I said.

  “He will get over his anger in time for he is so like you, Carmen,” said Louis.

  Magdalena said, “He really loves women. He has an interest in cooking and spends much time in the royal kitchen. His specialty is baking French delicacies, and the cooks adore him.”

  I hoped that time would mend all and he had the benefit of two mothers.

  “Ladies, We are much careworn. We fear a war over the succession of Philip to the throne. It is a surety that Austria and England do not want a Bourbon heir to the throne. They feel an alliance of Spain and France will make Us too powerful. We don’t know if Philip has the strength to endure it. But he is in line for succession and We will not tolerate another mentally ill Hapsburg ruler. They have bred a tribe of fools, and imbeciles.”

  “You are right, my King,” I said. “As much as I loved Carlos, he was a disaster.

  Had it not been for the Duke of Osuna and the other Hidalgos, Maria Anna would have ruled Spain, and Spain would have faltered.”

  “The Hidalgos and you, my Gitana,” he said.

  “Thank you, Louis, and I am excited about my new life,” I said.

  “You shall live to the hilt and have everything you desire. You shall also have a formal education such as We gave the boys. That will be my first gift to you. The mind is more precious than any diamond.”

  “Oh, Louis, I do love you so.”

  “We feel the same.”

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  “And I love the Lady Magdalena for all she has done for me.” And I rose and embraced her.

  “Ladies, We have much love and esteem for you, and We would require you two to make love to Us. What think you of my desire?”

  Magdalena said she would be willing, and I, too, assented.

  “Is it a duty or a desire? We must know.”

  “It is my pleasure to serve you, My King,” said Magdalena.

  I put my hand on his cock and said, “I so desire it, Louis.”

  “But do you have such a desire in full measure as I do? It is a man’s desire to make love to two beautiful women at once.”

  “It is a woman’s fantasy to pleasure a powerful, dangerous man, to see him rut and ejaculate in her arms. I do so desire it as does Magdalena.”

  “I do so willingly, Majesty,” said Magdalena.

  “Let me see you disrobe and embrace one another and let your hands wander, and your mouths be hungry.”

  Magdalena unfastened my gown from the back lightly biting and licking the back of my neck, and shoulders. My nipples became erect and my lower part became moist.

  So like a tangerine it is in color and in texture. I helped her out of her dress and under clothes folding them on a chair. I turned to her and caressed her tiny buds of breasts and she did the same. She took two of my fingers and sucked them as she pleasured me. I gently circled my fingers around her clitoris and she began to buck with her hips after a time and begged me to touch it directly and I refused. Sometimes it is better to yearn than receive the object of desire. Louis then rolled down our stockings holding them to 222

  his nose for the scent. His own goat smell was very strong. He ran his hard hands over our bodies, kissing our bodies. A thought came to me: it was lizard on lace.

  Then he said,” Ah, you are topaz and Magdalena is ivory. The dear sweetness of your full breasts with their purple nipples, and the long pearlescent curve of Magdalena’s back and the sweet, girlish buds of her breasts. The candle light casting light and shade over your naked bodies. The warm orange light like the swollen golden moon careening across the night sky. Ah, the beauty of softness upon softness. It brings tears to my eyes.

  Come to my bed, ladies and we shall break the world open.

  Louis’s bed was something to behold. A gold stitched coverlet with black satin sheets and there were numerous multi-colored velvet and lace pillows atop the bed. Most beautiful was the carved walnut headboard. It was a herd of wild stallions running in a meadow. Above the bed was a tapestry of a pale, nude, green-eyed maiden stretched out on ferns lying next to a rushing creek. Inside the creek swam beautiful, gold, green, and turquoise colored fish with wings.

  “No, on second thought,” said Louis, “let us go to the couch and drink wine and we all shall laugh and discuss the vagaries of existence. We hesitate to devour such a beautiful feast as you two. We shall sit in the middle and feed you bits of cheese like two little doves. We shall pleasure you with my hands until you are quite undone.

  Louis poured the wine, and laughed, and fed us bits of cheese for a time. Then he pleasured us with his large hands. Then for good measure he stuck two fingers up my ass and said we would try that on another day. Then he held his fingers to his nose and said,

  “It is ambrosia to me. We love each part of you, my dear. Take your hand and do the 223

  same to me. I have heard it is quite pleasurable for a man to have a pearl necklace stuck up his ass, and then have it pulled out as he comes.”

  “Are their pearls enough in the kingdom to do that, Majesty?” asked Magdalena.

  “Yes, my Lady, We fea
r so.” And he laughed his baritone laugh. “Next We shall tell bawdy jokes and gossip about the nobles who are not noble. We shall play a drinking game I knew as a young man. You shall transfer a sip of wine into my mouth with a kiss, and all of us will do the same until we are riotously drunk.” Later on Louis laughed and said, “We know two white doves who have eaten from the hand of a King. Now We own you.”

  “Rather like two, dew kissed roses growing on each side of a wild thorny weed,” I said.

  “My thorn aches for a soft, lovely mouth. Carmen take me: Magdalena suck on my nipples. I find it pleasurable.”

  As Magdalena began to tongue and suck his nipples his hand gently guided my head downward. His cock stood, straight, full, engorged with semen, a sword filling my mouth to the hilt. His sex smell permeated the room. I sucked him for a good long while: then I tongued him down his shaft, taking his balls in my mouth. I then stroked him with my hand. He screamed when he came as his hips jerked wildly. I wiped my hands with a napkin and licked him clean. His sperm was precious to me.

  Then around 2:00 in the morning Louis led us to the bed, two willing lambs to the soft kingly slaughter.

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  “We will lie down and Carmen you shall mount me while you Magdalena will place your cunt on my mouth. We shall eat you like a fresh peach, juicy and flavorful.

  You will find me quite skilled as Madame so adores it.”

  The candlelight flickered in his dark eyes and what I saw was a dangerous animal staring back at me. All semblance of Louis the man had fled. The hard, unyielding quality of his face aroused me. In sex, one either yields, or thrusts. I mounted his marvelous cock and Magdalena gingerly sat on his face. We were facing one another.

  We kissed and caressed each other’s breasts until they were sensitive, and swollen. Louis pulled Magdalena’s cunt more down on his mouth as he tongued and sucked her fiercely.

  In exasperation, Louis raised her up and spoke in a harsh voice, “Grind me, Magdalena. We can take it. We love your cunt as We love Carmen’s. Push harder. You smell of cloves and roses and heated passion. Do it, my lady, that We may delight you.” After a while I noticed her skin was tinged with pink as it got when she was about to come. When she turned her dazzling eyes to me I saw they were glazed over and that she was climaxing. She got off and lay panting on the side of the bed while Louis and I remained on the threshold. He spoke my name as his hands cupped my breasts, and then he pinched my nipples even harder than ever before. The pain pushed me closer to the limit. He pulled me down and whispered, “We await your climax, only then shall We.” To be hollow was wonderful, a black hole like the universe where no light may go. My hole ached and soon I clinched my teeth and let loose a flood of my juices and a sharp piercing pain that was also pleasure destroyed me. Then Louis laughed and shot me full of sperm, so much that I had to wipe my legs afterward. Then he clung to me and caressed my cheeks and breasts looking me straight in the eyes.

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  “So long have We waited, Gitana.” Then he put his other arm around Magdalena and he told her his love extended toward her, too. She said nothing but I saw a smile etched into her face in the half light. I had a dream that night that Louis was dressed as St Nicholas and had his cock out which I took in my mouth. Madame, all dressed in black, was holding up a sign which said 1715. There was blood flowing from her eyes.

  That was the year he died at seventy-two and I was fifty-two then. The sky was cloudy and gray that day. The light of the Sun King went out of the world that day.

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  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  The next morning I told Louis I had to make a little trip to Sacro Monte to bid my mother goodbye. He understood my need and wished me a safe journey, and kissed me hard on the lips. Magdalena kissed me as well. I told her I hoped she would entertain Louis in my absence, and she said, “As La Gitana wishes and as the King wishes. Louis professed his love for me beyond the love of any other women and said it would not be necessary.

  He said, “We put no one before you. We love you beyond the stars and the universe.”

  “If His Majesty requires entertainment, I wish it so,” I said. He thanked me and said I had a generous heart and “God speed.”

  With that, I left the palace, and made my long journey. I wore a veil that came over my face to disguise myself and rode a mule as they have more stamina than a horse.

  The second mule carried a trunk of goods for winter to give my parents, and in my saddle bag I had enough sovereigns to last the winter. A week later I reached Sacro Monte.

  There were many new faces, dark faces glowing with avarice and hunger for money, wry, tough, gypsy faces. I was still a gypsy in heart and understood their attitude. I rode over to my parent’s wagons and no one was at home.

  A little gypsy boy approached me and said, “Senora, quien es?” (Miss, who are you?”

  “Soy una gitana que quiere visitarlos.” (I am a gypsy who wants to visit them)

  “Entonces, como se llama?” (Then what is your name)

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  “No voy a decirte. Esto es una sopresa.” (I’m not going to tell you. This is a surprise.)

  “Bueno, me voy a ir. Buen dia, Senora” (All right, I’m going to go. Good day, Miss).

  “Vaya con Dios, mi hijo,” I said. (Go with God, my son). He grinned when I threw him a coin and blew me a kiss.

  Then I saw them coming from the west, probably, Granada. My father looked well in his black leather coat, and I knew mama was lying in the back of the wagon.

  Before I could greet him he said, “Tekla, what are you doing here. You are mahrime.

  You consort with the gadjes.”

  “I find them to be kinder and more loving than you ever were, papa.”

  “You had no need for kindness. You were a bad seed. I curse you to the devil, and Rupa, too. I have no daughters.”

  “I do not come here to see you. I came here to see mama. I am going away to France to live. I did not come to ask your pardon.”

  “You may not see Maria Sonrisa. She is ill.”

  “I will not leave here without seeing mama.”

  Papa raised his whip and cracked it over my head. “You will not see her. Go back to the filth you came from!”

  “I don’t come from filth and you shall not whip me. I will get mama a nurse to always be beside her. She shall have the finest money can buy.”

  “No, gadje shall ever touch my Marie!”

  “Is that Tekla?” Mama’s came from inside the wagon.

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  “You will not converse with her, Maria Sonrisa. She is gadje filth.” She is mahrime because you would not call a Kris to absolve her. I am dying, Moishe, and want to see my sweet girl.”

  “I shall not allow it.”

  “You will allow it, old man. I will shoot you on the spot. Soy La Gitana.”

  “You would kill your own father?”

  “Kill, no, cripple, yes. How would you like to scuttle across the ground like a brown beetle?” And I fired a shot over his head.

  “It was me who sent you all that money over the years. What do you say now?”

  “I wouldn’t have taken it if I knew it was you!” yelled papa.

  “Moishe, you cannot prevent me from seeing my darling daughter. I will go back with her if you can’t be reasoned with! I am dying and if anyone has a right to be bitter it is her.” And mama was outside the wagon holding onto it for support.

  “Maria Sonrisa, I forbid you as your husband!”

  I took my revolver out and shot his horse right between the eyes.

  “The next one’s for you, papa. I mean it. I have no love for you. You are only the stranger who made me. Nothing more.”

  Only then did he look afraid. It seemed as if he had shrunk inside his coat. And I got off my mule and walked over to embrace and support her. I told her she might sit on my trunk of gifts.

  “Nonsense, bring me a chair. I am a woman and must see what you brought me.” mFirst I brought out my ba
g of sovereigns to give her.

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  “The first thing I give is enough money to last the winter, and secondly, I shall send a gypsy trained as a nurse to tend you and be a companion to you. So, there will be no issue of mahrime. She will administer shots and medicine as she was trained as a doctor’s aid.”

  “I won’t allow it. She has been trained by gadjes.”

  “Mama is dying, and she shall have every comfort the Kingdom affords. A soldier will come with her if you continue to resist. If you continue, you shall die in a gadje prison, and mama shall accompany me to France. I am not the heart broken young girl you vanquished all those long years ago. I am La Gitana and I give orders now, and the world turns at my behest.”

  “You cannot be disrespectful of me,” he replied.

  “I can and will. I am the consort of kings now. You will do as I say, old man.

  You are less than shit to me. Papa you will cease talking. I am apt to put a bullet in your head if necessary.”

  “No, Tekla, don’t execute Moishe. He’s old and set in his ways. Moishe don’t anger her. She means every word she is saying. She is La Gitana and is much feared.” Papa’s face crumbled into wrinkles and his normally erect posture evolved into a slump.

  “I will say no more, Maria Sonrisa,” he replied.

  “Show me what’s in the trunks,” said mama.

  In them were four lamb’s fleece blankets, numerous, practical, well-made gowns, twenty bottles of fine Spanish Bourbon, various house hold necessities, cloth to make 230

  more clothes, wool lined coats and wraps and ten bottles of rose perfume, and twenty bottles of fine French brandy.

  “Oh, Tekla, you bought me perfume. I shall be a fine lady now. I have always secretly wanted to smell of flowers. You read my heart, my dear daughter.” I replied that she was a welcome and commenced to put the gifts in their wagons.

  I selected a bottle of Bourbon for us to drink right away. Mama had aged greatly and her joints, and hands were really twisted as you see in the really old. The wrinkles on her face were like tributaries to a large river and her eyes were the same limpid pools of pain and suffering. Yet, there was the fire of wit and intelligence burning in them. Her long hair had turned completely white and it was matted and dirty. We broke out the Bourbon, and I told of my alliance with Louis, King of France, and that I would always take care of them.