The king's wife

"Jack, please," Matilda begged, "you can put your sword down now. You've done enough."

Jack turned fast on his heel to face his wife, the queen, his sword held tightly in his fist, shooting out to point directly in her face. The blade was dangerously close to her eyes, but stopped just short by his extreme control of the blade. The years of fighting had honed his abilities, and the blade was practically inseparable from his arm. It was rumored that he even slept with it.

"Do not try to tell me what to do, woman," he hissed through his teeth. "I am making sure our kingdom is safe and prosperous. How dare you imply that I can simply step down from my campaigns." Matilda hesitated for a brief moment, knowing the wrong move could push that point in her face too far. But she refused to step down.

"You have claimed to be protecting our realm for ten years now," she replied hotly, "yet you crushed the rebellion ages ago! Ever since then all you have done is claim evil intent has been held by our neighbors so that you might crush them and take their land." Jack glared as the word's came out of her mouth, unable to believe the words that were coming out of his wife's mouth. "Sure," she continued, "you're expanding our territory, but are you really protecting us? You've been so busy off fighting that you don't even have an heir to your throne."

Only at this point did Jack realize the weight of what his wife was saying. Slowly his arm lowered, pulling the sword away rom Matilda's face. She let out a small breath of relief, but she did not let her guard down. She had gotten her husband to think again, but that didn't mean her work was over yet.