Duties of an honorable wife

With a sigh a beautiful woman sat on one of the soft pillows of a simple but carefully crafted bench. On the carpet in front of her two boys and two girls were playing with wooden blocks. Or rather, the two oldest children were playing while the little ones were either watching, trying to chew on the blocks or destroying their older siblings' work. The oldest children had bright red hair, one had a nice auburn and the youngest pitch black hair.

She had given birth to two of those children, the eldest son and the eldest daughter, while the one year old second daughter was from a concubine who passed away. The youngest child had been adopted by her husband on a whim. But the one responsible for all these children was her. When she thought about what was going to happen once her husband took more concubines and fathered more children the honorable wife could only sigh. In her great grandfather's time, before the empire set its sight on her home, men had only had one wife it was said. The honorable first wife sighed at the thought.

After watching the little ones for a while, their little quarrels solved by the nannies, the woman lifted a pile of scrolls up from the bench. Every one of those scrolls showed a picture of a young woman, with writing beside the picture giving information about who their parents were, their character, ability, skills, hobbies and cultivation. The woman in her twenties reading the descriptions and looking at the no doubt beautified images sighed.

Slowly and carefully she read through them, putting the unsuitable ones on one pile, high ranking ones on another and the rest on a third. After a while she looked up, towards the cildren on the floor.

Her gaze was slightly unhappy whenever she looked at the younger girl. But as the Lady of the household she had to care for all children, especially those who lost their own mothers. Even if said mother had died because she just had to take a bath in a thin white dress, only to leave the water in a sexy manner to entice their husband. In autumn, outside in a cold lake.

Heaving a deep sigh, the woman kept working through the papers.

Unnoticed by her a certain baby boy with black hair and almond shaped grey eyes pushed his little bottom up with determination and got up on wobbly legs. With his goal firmly before him he stumbled to her leg and clung to her until he was not in danger of falling over anymore.

The woman looked down at the young child that was currently busy looking at her. Shaking her head at his antics she lifted him into her lap and held him firmly. "Are you worried about me, little Ben? That's very sweet."

Benjamin bent his neck backwards to look straight up and then put his thumb into his mouth.

"I guess you're a bit too young for blocks. How about I tell you a story instead? Nobody is too young for stories." The little boy in her head tried to nod, but bent backwards as he was the motion didn't quite work right.

The word story seemed to be magnetic, since the other children suddenly became very interested in their mother, crowding around her with shining eyes.

The woman looked at one of the nannies at the side. "Take these papers to mu study, take care not to mess up the sorted ones. And someone fetch the Fairytale collection."

The nannies hurried to fulfill the oders and soon after the honorable lady sat on the floor, surrounded by children while reading a picture book.

The peace did not last long however. Half an hour after she had started reading with the children a maid entered and approached her. Usually a maid would have to wait outside and request entrance. The fact that this one entered directly could only mean that she was delivering a message from someone higher ranking. Almost nobody except her husband would send a message like this to her, so she looked at her questioningly. "The lord wishes to know the results regarding the candidates." The maid said quietly.

The sighs returned then. The honorable lady got up, to the displeasure of the little ones. She ignored it, waving towards the nannies to take care of the children as she went to her study to finish sorting through the profiles.

There were many lies, many beautified pictures she marked with notes in the following hour, thoughnonly those she considered eligible. The unsuitable ones were thrown aside directly. Conflicting abilities, looks she knew her husband did not care for, family connections to those in conflict with her own clan...there were many things that needed to be considered.

After a long time she finished sorting and marking the papers. In the meantime two more servants arrived, both messages from her husband to hurry. He seemed very eager to take a new concubine or second wife all of a sudden.

She had two maids take one pile each, the one for a second wife rather small, the one for concubines high. Then she walked towards his study with firm steps and a calm expression so nobody could guess what she might feel at that moment.

The lord, a redhead like herself, was impatiently pacing around when she entered and greeted her with a bright smile as soon as she set foot in the room. "My wife! Have you finished checking the beauties?"

With a smile that didn't reach her eyes the honorable lady bowed slightly to her husband before she gestured towards the maids behind her. "I have. There were five who would be suitable as your second wife. The concubines, well, I did not count but there are quite a few. Would you like to go through the selection with me present?"

"What a great idea. Women are hard to understand, so having one to explain things for me would be a great help." Her polite, powerful und completely insensitive husband smiled at her as he said those words.

They sat side by side at his desk while they discussed the candidates for his second wife. Finally, they came to the conclusion that such a position was too important to be filled on a whim, especially since it might be necessary to improve relationships one day. Thus he disregarded those carefully chosen profiles and threw them to the side. A servant hurried to clean it up immediately after, of course.

The concubines were a more difficult topic. Not because he hesitated to take any but because he had trouble choosing which young lady he could bear not to take as a concubine. The lady finally set a limit of two new Concubines. Rich as they were, over thirty women were simply too many. After a long discussion the two who would be her future rivals were finally chosen.

When she returned to her chambers that night her sighs were heavy once again.