A king can have any woman his heart desires. He can leave his bride’s chambers for that of another, and another, and another. He will mistake her broken heart for illness, send her off to a cottage in the country with healing waters while he philanders with his mistresses throughout the halls of the palace. The vibration of the bodies still felt through the cushion of the queen’s throne seat when she returns.
He impregnates women, populates half the kingdom with his bastards, meanwhile, his queen’s womb is left empty. She is the hallow shell of a woman. Unloved, unwanted, until a poet comes to court and sweeps her off her feet with his eloquent words.
She chuckles to herself when he reads his poem to the king’s pleasure. Hearing her words from the night before repeated back to her, “Dear heart, how like you this?” Remembering his moist lips on her shoulder as he loosened her gown from behind.
But an adulterous queen is treason.
He doesn’t have the heart to watch her head tumble into a blood-soaked basket. Still lips meeting her lover’s one last time. He’s whisked another mistress off to Calais for the weekend.
—Nortina
Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers is a weekly challenge where you write a story in 100-150 words (give or take 25 words) using the provided photo prompt as inspiration. I apologize for going over the word limit today. Creativity has been slow this week, so I had to snatch it up when it came. Thanks, Sonya, for inspiring this story with your photo! You may have helped me kick my writer’s block.
Lovely Curses 
It is a terrible fact of life, and although this has been mentioned before, Henry VIII came to mind.
Great take on the prompt!
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Thanks! It’s funny. I bet all the kings of the past did this, but we always think of Henry VIII first.
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Lovely story. Excellent!
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not good to be queen, excellent story
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Such double standards! Good story. 🙂
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very true, still in some place of the world. nice writing I like how you described her feelings and how the king felt no remorse.
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It was tough being a woment back then, hey? Great post. Tell us what you think of how long a person should hold on to their V-Card by commenting on this post: https://rinsebeforeuse.wordpress.com/2015/08/12/jane-the-virgin-glamorising-celibacy
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I so loved this line Nortina: The vibration of the bodies still felt through the cushion of the queen’s throne seat when she returns. Excellent way to describe this unfair world. I thought you made an excellent and very pertinent point throughout your tale.
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Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’ve always been obsessed with that time period. Although the world isn’t necessarily ruled by kings and queens anymore, it’s funny how very little as changed in the area of love and marriage and philandering spouses!
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Horrid times for a woman, any woman. Very well written.
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Poor queen, I feel for her. It was very well written
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Thanks!
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Sounds very true to me. Poor Queen that she should have the doubt standard. Lucky for her, her King is a nice philanderer.
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Nice to an extent. Lol. Thanks for reading!
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Have you ever watched the show Reign, your story reminds me of it. I haven’t watched it a lot but it has the Queens and Kings and sex element.
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I’ve seen one or two episodes. It’s about Mary Queen of Scots while she lived in France, right? I like the Tudors when it was on TV, and boy, did that show have some sex in it! Lol
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Wow! Excellent! And I’m sure this was how it was back then too. (King Henry VIII comes to mind. lol) This is great!
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Thanks. And I actually did have King Henry in mind when I wrote this!
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That’s funny! Doesn’t surprise me!
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Fingers crossed the block’s gone… Good story – pretty much sums up my thoughts on Henry XIII.
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Thanks! That’s exactly what I was going for too!
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