Karl stood at the crenulations of the highest tower of his family home, [url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f8/98/0c/f8980c04572d5b1759488d9aa91267fe.png]Black Rock Castle[/url], and stared out upon the land below with both pride and disappointment.  Legally, his estate was only a County, as Karl himself was a Count, yet the lakes, rivers, valleys, hills, and mountains that made up his property were very nearly the size of the Earldom of Echo Valley, to which he owed allegiance and fealty.  

[I]How can it be that I am but a Count while that … that BOY … that BOY is an Earl?[/I]

Karl was, of course, thinking of the Peasant-turned-Nobleman, Phillip of the House Greeling, Earl of Echo Valley.  Karl was nearly twice Phillip's age; he'd been in the field fighting his and his now deceased father's enemies when the [I]Earl[/I] was still suckling him mother's tit; and if the War of the Three Rivers had gone a different direction, he would have been Chief Counsel to the [I]new[/I] King.

Of course, [I]that[/I] was the issue at the heart of his current situation: Karl had bet on the wrong horse.

As the War of the Three Rivers neared, Karl had anticipated an opportunity to expand his recently departed father's estate.  In the years before the War erupted, Karl had been expanding the County Guard and testing their metal by [I]picking fights[/I] with neighboring Nobles over border disputes.  By the time the real war arrived, Karl's army had expanded from a 60 man Guard to a 500 man Army.  

The County of Black Rock had historically flown their banner for the Earl of Echo Valley.  But when the fighting came to the Earldom and the Earl called for Karl's support, the Black Rock Guard failed to appear.  Only after the Earldom fell and the Earl himself was executed did Karl send his army in to [I]save[/I] the people of Echo Valley.  He pushed the invaders out, then set himself up as Lord Protector until the war ended and the King selected a new Earl.

Of course, while he and his forces occupied Echo Valley, Karl pillaged the land of most of its value: gold, silver, weapons, crops, livestock, and even beautiful young women were packed up and hauled north to Black Rock.  Karl justified it all as payment for services rendered.  Once he'd pillaged Echo Valley of all he could, Karl pulled his army back to his own County so that they would make a second trek into yet another conquered County and repeat the [I]rescue[/I] there.

This and other betrayals went on for the extent of the war, getting even worse when Karl pledged fealty to the most powerful of the rebellious Nobles opposing the King, Earl Yorran.  Yorran promised Karl three Counties -- including Echo Valley -- and the title of Earl, as well as the role of Chief Counsel to the King once the current King was caught and executed.

Of course, [I]that[/I] didn't happen, thanks to a man named Samuel of Greeling and his son Phillip, now Earl Phillip of Echo Valley.  

After Yorran was killed and his army -- which had included Karl's forces -- were crushed at the Great Infiltration, Karl found himself all alone and facing charges of treason.  The only thing that saved him from the gallows was the vast amount of coin he paid out to Nobles, Peasants, Soldiers, and Merchants, bribes to get them to proclaim to the King that Karl had fought the Crown's enemies during the war, not the Crown itself.  

It worked, or at least, it was working.  His spreading of silver and gold to dozens of seemingly honest people had caused a great deal of uncertainty in the Capital.  Was Count Karl a traitor?  Or was he a misunderstood hero?  In the end, the King had put off a decision about what to do with Karl until he was able to deal with other important issues … such as anointing a new Earl of Echo Valley.

"M'lord…?"

Karl's musing about his situation ended with the sound of his Chief Counselor, Bruin of Piermont.  "Yes?"

"You requested to be informed when Lady Clara had returned to the castle, m'lord," Bruin said as he approached along the wall walk.  When he was close, the Counselor offered out a rolled sheet of parchment, explaining, "This arrived my messenger just moments ago as well."

Karl took the scroll, nodded his acknowledgment and his dismissal, and -- once alone again -- broke the seal that indicated the message had come from one of his spies in the Capital.  He read the short note, then again; then he smiled.  Part of the King's proclamation regarding the new Earl of Echo Valley was that within six months Lord Phillip take a bride from one of the many Houses that had so faithfully served the King during the War.

[I]So faithfully served,[/I] Karl thought to himself.  [I]I still have my home … my lands … my wealth … and my head.  Faithfully might seem a stretch…[/I]

He reached out to stick the end of the message in a torch burning from a holder on the wall's merlon and tossed it to the stone walk to burn out of existence.  He hurried down the wall walk, down the spiral stone staircase, down a public hall, and past the Guards who stood station at the door of his private chambers all hours of the day.  Inside, he shed his cape and sword, passed through a door hidden behind a large tapestry, and ever so quietly navigated a secret passage that took him to the inner wall of his niece's bed chamber.

There, he cautiously pressed his face to the stone before pulling aside a small leather flap that concealed a hole in the wall.  His timing was perfect: just ten feet before him, his beautiful, shapely niece was being helped out of her travel garments by two of her Chambermaids.  As he watched, Karl's body reacted as expected to the sight of layer after layer of elegant clothing being loosed and set aside until finally Clara -- who had only just recently celebrated her Age of Consent -- stood next to her steaming bath tub in nothing but nothing at all.

Karl continued to watch the unfolding scene: Clara gingerly stepping into the hot water; a Chambermaid dousing her head with a pitcher, darkening and slicking back her long hair; a second servant soaping up a cloth to scrub the young Noblewoman's arms, back, and neck.  

Typically, Karl would have remained at the peep hole until his niece exited the bath, for one last wondrous look upon her naked body, the candle and fire light glistening off her wet flesh.  But tonight he was a bit rushed, needing desperately to write a letter to the new Earl of Echo Valley, requesting an audience with the man who might one day father a child with the young beauty that he himself wished he could lead into womanhood with a long, hard fuck.

[I]Who knows, he might not want her,[/I] Karl thought to himself as he replaced the leather block and made his way back to his own chambers.  When he was far enough away he laughed to himself, thinking, [I]EVERY man wants her.  What are you saying.[/I]

Back in his chambers, Karl wrote an eloquent note to Earl Phillip, requesting to either come to Echo Valley or to host Phillip at Black Rock Castle.  Once the message was sealed and out the door with a messenger, Karl made due with one of his Chambermaids while all the while imagining that he was pummeling the [I]womanhood[/I] of his niece instead.  After his [I]release[/I], he dropped onto his bed and imagined how such a marriage could benefit his House.

After all, the marriage he envisioned wasn't only the one of Lady Clara to Earl Phillip; it was of the County of Black Rock to the Earldom of Echo Valley. Karl's plan was simple and, in his mind, foolproof: Clara would marry Phillip and birth him an heir; shortly thereafter, Phillip would be killed in an unfortunate accident; the heartbroken Clara would, of course, select her Uncle as Regent, putting him in charge of caring for and educating her child in the ways of Noble leadership; once Karl's power in Echo Valley was without challenge, his niece and her child would also fall victim to an accident and die; and without a legitimate heir to the Earldom, Karl would officially take control and make the appropriate promises to the King, reassuring him that a combined Echo Valley and Black Rock would bring him more taxes, more conscripts, and more power. 

[i]Simple[/i], he thought as he reached to grasp his current lover by a handful of hair and urge her head toward his groin, whispering, "You aren't done yet."