"Verence, did you order this book by a Karma Sutera or something?" Magrat had found the book hidden under his pile of clothes. It was called "The Joyous Bed-Chamber Companion, by Karma Sutera" which sounded much more interesting than some old tome on foreign religions.
She looked at her soon-to-be husband curiously. He blushed even deeper than usual and stammered, "Well... er... I mean... no, not exactly..." His eyes flickered and his cheeks flushed a red only seen in some jellies and many embarrassed flowers.
Magrat smiled mischievously. "Then why don't we find out what all this talk about 'the marriage act' means? We could start here." She opened the book to a random page.
King Verence hesitated for only a moment before following suit, sitting down beside her on the edge of the bed. "Oh my, these drawings are very...erhm... detailed." Magrat said out loud. They both stifled giggles as they leafed through the pages together.
"Hmmm, let me see if there's anything useful here..." she murmured, skimming the text aloud while glancing up every so often at one of the many illustrations. Her voice grew high pitched as she continued reading. "...and then the man must insert his member into the woman's moist entrance until he feels resistance, indicating that their bodies are properly joined...."
Her words made no sense, "What moist entrance do you think they mean Verence? Is this a metaphor?" Her sheer ignorance of the sexual rites of kings and queens was astounding. Verence had never learned of this before either and as a trained joker, they had no need of carnal knowledge. Everyone knows a joker is about as randy as a eunuch with bells. It's not that they practice celibacy so much as celibacy practices them, only in a comedic way.
But now, faced with the innocent curiosity of his betrothed, he felt compelled to educate her. With a deep breath, he began explaining the mechanics of intercourse, using terms like "manhood" and "womanhood" instead of the crude language from the book. As he spoke, Magrat listened intently, occasionally interrupting with questions or comments.
What he didn't know is that he had it all wrong. "Well Magrat, a man and a woman have hoods, these hoods are like a pair. Some people like to dress them up together like...those foreign dolls that stack. Um, sometimes the dolls will drool and other times they sneeze. I think it's like a dance of coats and then... well that's all I know for sure."
Magrat was even more confused, "Maybe there's a manual in here Verence?" She searched through the book again, hoping to find a section titled "How To Have Sex Like A Real Couple." But after several minutes of fruitless searching, she gave up.
They sat there in silence for a moment, each lost in thought about the mysterious world of marital relations. Finally, Magrat broke the silence. "Perhaps we should ask someone who actually knows how to do this?"
King Verence's cheeks flushed and he nearly cried out, "No, no, no. A king is supposed to know these things... only I've just become a king and I can't let anyone know. I have an idea, in these pictures, each character is um... you know...not in pants..." He couldn't finish his sentence before silencing himself in embarrassment.
Magrat was picking up on his train of thought like a fly recently splattered by a windshield. "Oh, I see. So should we?" She asked mostly confounded but also curious what she might do if she were naked with a man in the room. She'd heard of witches being nude together while dancing in the mountains, but a man and a woman?
With a defeated sigh, King Verence nodded reluctantly. "Very well, my lady almost wife. Let us begin our lesson in the art of lovemaking." Guided only by the colorful illustrations and misguided advice of "The Joyous Bed-Chamber Companion." Their journey would begin with a stubborn silence where neither spoke at first. Then came giggles, followed by nervous questions, blushing responses, and eventually Verence spoke up, "Should you or me be the first?"
Magrat looked at her dress and remembered all her layers and the near hour long struggle with the wraps of fabric she had battled. "Um, you go first." Magrat finally said in matter-of-fact tone.
King Verence swallowed hard and took off his clothes carefully folding them neatly next to the bed, revealing a pale and skinny body free of hair save for around his member which he covered self consciously before taking hold of himself. He hoped that Magrat hadn't noticed that it was not in it's normal docile state. But Magrat observed him in a nearly clinical manner not knowing an excited member from a sleeping follower.
"So...in that last page the woman, touched the man... down there." Magrat said pointing to where his hands covered his semi excited serpent, well serpent might be too strong of a word, the garter snake may be more apt with his genetics.
Without looking away from his task of covering himself again, King Verence nodded slowly. "Yes..." His voice trailed off uncertainly.