Glade and Ivory Ch. 17

Ptarmigan pressed her face against Ivory's and nuzzled her about the ears and then pressed her lips gently on Ivory's lips.

"I enjoy my time with you," she said shyly and softly.

"More so than with your husband?" asked Ivory, who however nonchalantly she replied was struck with alarm by the implication of Ptarmigan's words. Were these lesbian encounters organised by the Chief genuinely for his wife's pleasure and not merely to satisfy his voyeuristic tendencies?

"It is different," said Ptarmigan softly. "The Chief is my husband and it is my duty to bear him children. When I make love with you it is for pleasure alone."

"I see," said Ivory, who took the cue and reciprocated Ptarmigan's words with caresses, deep kisses and an urgent fingering of her vagina. All the while the Chief lay nearly unclothed on his back, surely at risk of catching a chill.

However passionately, if discreetly and silently, Ptarmigan made love to her in the furs that warmed their backs while their bosoms were pressed against each other, Ivory wondered—but prudently didn't venture to ask—whether Ptarmigan loved her for mere pleasure or whether she loved her with the emotion that Ivory felt towards Glade.

Ivory didn't share these reflections with her older lover when the Chief finally recovered his wits and dismissed her. He looked distinctly uncomfortable as he made sense of the undignified state in which he was slumped and secured himself as well as he could inside his thick furs.

"The Chief was very foolish," Glade remarked when the feasting was finally over and the two women could nestle together in the corner of the cave that for one last night was to be their bed.

"Foolish. Why?" asked a bleary-eyed Ivory. She wondered whether Glade had peeked past the mammoth pelt and seen the Chief lying half-naked by the fire.

"I know this is by no means the first time that you and he, and of course you, he and his wife, have enjoyed carnal pleasure together. And I also can't pretend to fully understand the morals and ethics of your tribe. But although no one has said anything openly, it is public knowledge just why he took you to one side and detained you in his quarters for so long. It is one thing for the Chief to have sexual relations with other women than his wife and another for the village to be made publicly aware of his sexual dalliances, even with women like us who are neither married nor considered marriageable. He was very indiscreet and he will regret his foolishness before long."

"The Chief was very drunk," said Ivory in his defence. "I'm sure he didn't really know what he was doing."

"That may be so," said Glade. "But the villagers want their chief to be someone they can rely on. We are on a long and dangerous trek south where there is no guarantee we shall find winter quarters that will adequately feed and shelter everyone. The Chief has the responsibility of safely guiding his people to their winter home. It isn't prudent for the guardian of the tribe's values to flaunt his infidelity to his wife: even if she speaks with a curious dialect. It suggests a lack of respect to the traditions that bind your tribe together. If his only defence is that he was drunk, this is no recommendation for a man whose sagacity and wisdom has a higher value now than at any other season. No man wants to place his life or that of his family in jeopardy. What greater risk might there be than to follow a chief who loses his wits to mead, sacrifices his virtue to the shaman's apprentice, and shames his wife and the mother of his children?"

"What do you think might happen?" wondered Ivory, as she fearfully surveyed her fellow travellers who were slumbering beneath their layers of fur by the fire's smouldering embers. "Will there be a revolt like in the Knights' villages?"

"There is no one who is an obvious successor to the Chief," remarked Glade. "He is fortunate in that respect. But should his foolishness be reflected by poor decision and feeble leadership, he is unlikely to remain chief for very much longer."