Grace
Grace was a beauty. She was born and bred to be. From before she could walk she was taught how to behave, how to talk, how to think, and what to believe. She had long blond hair and deep blue eyes and she knew from a very young age that she would marry royalty.
Her father, the youngest brother of a king of a distant land married the daughter of the current King's cousin and gained a title here in Lystra.
Because he was the youngest and determined to prove himself he was a bit unconventional. All of his children, even the girls, were educated. To him education brought opportunity. If a plan failed you needed to be smart enough to plan a backup contingency as quickly as possible.
And so Grace was taught that planning was important and failure meant nothing if you continued to try. And, most importantly, Grace was taught that emotion was an abstract inconsequential thing. Something best left unexplored and undefined, because, in the end, it had no definition.
When the old king, King Albert, told her father that she would be perfect for his son, and heir, Gabriel, Grace's father went right to work readying her.
No he never introduced them.
He never told her about Gabriel's likes or dislikes. Of course this was irrelevant.
He never discussed, or had her taught, what is important to men. She had sexual education but it was not shown as more important than any of her other studies. It was merely another, of the many, aspects of a marriage. Not even a good marriage.
No he prepared her to be a helpmaid to a king. He trained her to be an asset, a tool to be wielded, because this is what he wanted. This is what he felt any king would want.
So at the ripe old age of eighteen she married Gabriel Brithe the first prince and heir of the Kingdom of Lystra.
She married him fully aware, fully capable, and fully unqualified for the task at hand.
Her beauty mesmerized both Gabriel and the people of Lystra and she was received well. And being the efficient person that she was she immediately went to work improving Lystra and improving the lives of its people.
And thusly earning their love and admiration. Soon she was their precious beloved princess.
Gabriel
Gabriel was a quiet boy. Sure he was good at all the things a prince should be good at, especially an heir to the thrown, but love and beauty were really the most important things to him.
He felt people should be happy and understand the joy that resided within them. He felt the world should be filled with things of beauty, art, nature, songs, and literature. He was sensitive, not because of his father, no the king was kind but stern and unaffectionate.
Gabriel was the way that he was due to his mother, his governess, and his sisters. They caused him to cherish things that others in their class tended to ignore. They provided the rose colored glasses he would eventually view his world through.
Many would call him soft or even a bit too idealistic. But this is who he was.
Even though he could kill any living thing with the utmost ease and efficiency he valued life. Even though he was taught to run a country he felt a country's highest priority should be promoting and understanding its cultural identity.
Leadership was not his forte but he felt that someone should always ensure that there was beauty in the world.
The first time he met his new wife, at their wedding, he saw her value as someone beautiful. He saw her as someone that the world needed simply because she brought more beauty into it.
But a wife… he did not really have a true concept of this notion. He did not understand partnership, discussion, or compromise. All he really understood were his needs, and always having them met. If his needs were not naturally met he demanded that they were.
And this is how these two entered into marriage. With different understandings, points of views of the world, different moral codes, and values.
The king celebrated and valued his new daughter. In the first few months of their marriage she already helped several of there provinces re-budget and restructure to become more self sufficient and even profitable to the kingdom. The king saw that his kingdom would prosper with its new queen at the helm.
Of course he had to send her family gifts and allot them more land. Grace's father was exceedingly pleased with this and felt that he had a good daughter.
All this and Grace felt troubled in her marriage. She was a talker and not afraid to ask questions. So she asked Gabriel what he needed.
"My prince what is it that you need of me? I feel that our marriage could be more."
Gabriel shrugged. "How would I know. I just want to be happy. You are a true and pure beauty but you do not understand happiness all you know is work and completing tasks."
Grace frowned. Was work and completing tasks not what adults did to be successful and prove themselves worthy in society?
"Well what will you have me do my prince? How can I make you happy."
Gabriel shrugged again. "Go ask my sisters. Ask my mother. They always make me happy. I am happy to look at your beautiful face but you are so boring. How can something so beautiful be so boring."
Grace blinked several times in confusion. No one had described her as boring before. Of course she knew nothing of showing affection. Emotion was understood but unimportant. She had a feeling it was the opposite for her husband.
She was a very smart girl.
"We need to speak about children. I am young and..." She paused when Gabriel rolled his eyes in annoyance. "What?"
"You are too boring to have sex with."
Grace raised her eyebrows, in a rare moment of emotion. She couldn't help it, she was stunned. Did you really need to be exciting for a man to want to be with you sexually? She had never heard of such a thing.
From what she understood men were ready, willing, and able if a woman just smiled at them pleasantly.
"But it is our responsibility to have children my prince."
Another eye roll and an additional sucking of the teeth.
"Go speak to my mother and find out about what a proper wife should do. Sex is definitely not about responsibility."
She was again stunned when he scoffed. She nodded her head blankly and said nothing more.
The next day she decided to speak to her trusted maid first. The woman had been with her since before she could remember and she was always brutally honest with her.
"Teresa?"
"Yes My Lady, how can I be of assistance?"
"I need to ask you some delicate questions."
"okay. Ask all that you need. I will always answer to the best of my ability."
Grace proceeded to explain, in detail, her conversation with the prince. In the end Teresa was left dumbfounded for a brief second, then she remembered these were royals they were talking about. She had always pride herself on helping her lady when she was growing up by supplementing her education and showing small moments of affection.
Unfortunately it was inappropriate to be too affectionate if her mother never was, but Teresa felt this little taste of affection helped her young mistress become just a bit more well rounded.
But this. Of course she would be given to a man who was even more clueless and naïve than she was. Teresa never thought it possible to be more naïve than her young mistress.
It took her a long moment to formulate a response. She could not speak ill of the prince or make odd accusations but she also wanted to be honest with her young mistress. In the end all she could do was sigh and just speak.
"My Lady. You know you were never truly taught about affection but it seems that the prince has. I will not say that his words are correct I will just say that these are his preference.
"Ask him kindly if he could teach you. He can already tell that you are very smart. He should understand that you are teachable. If this does not work you will have to use your wits and try to learn how to please him as quickly as possible and change your approach in such matters."
As Teresa spoke Grace constantly nodded. She was mentally agreeing and taking notes to help her organize her thoughts later. She thanked Teresa and allowed her to leave and immediately began writing out her mental notes and her thoughts about them.
She did not waste time and spoke to him that night.
She had expected Gabriel to burst out into laughter when she made the suggestion but he just stared at her blankly. After a very long nerve wracking moment a smile spread across his face.
"Teach you how to please me? That does sound interesting. You are a very capable woman, I can not deny that. Maybe you will be a quick learner."
He stood, clapped his hands, then rubbed them together.
"We start tonight!"