Enchantress(Seven Brides for Seven Bastards, 6)(MFMMMMMM)

by Georgia Fox

  But, of course, he was a boy once too. Like his son. Again she pictured a dark, curly-haired boy running through a sun-filled meadow, the fragrance of lavender thick in the breeze. A little boy laughing and happy.

  Oh, why did she have to keep seeing that image? She did not want to think of Nino as a cheeky-faced boy.

  "Don't stand there gaping, girl. Pass me the salt. He hates the taste of it so I use plenty. The worse it tastes the stronger he thinks the medicine."

  Amused she obeyed. "Why do you tend him?"

  "It is a mother's duty."

  "But he is not sick." She fidgeted with the bells around her wrist.

  "He may not physically be ailing, but someone needs to keep an eye on him. Who else would do it for such a man?"

  Jesamyn thought of the poison seeds she kept hidden inside her bells. Now would be the perfect time to open some, break them into the old villain's "medicine". But Sister Marie-Angeline was watching, her eyes sharp. "Why are you here, girl?"

  "Nino brought me here." She spoke as if to defend herself, although she had not yet been accused of anything. "I did not want to come. I was forced."

  "Were you? Strange. I thought you had come here to kill my son and his family."

  She stepped back, her heart beating too hard.

  "Don't bother trying to lie. Who sent you? That old pig Herallt?"

  "I did not—"

  "You're not the first who has tried, you know. How much did he pay you? Not as much as he should, no doubt. That crook!"

  Jesamyn was silent, staring at the old nun. If this woman knew, why had she not told the others?

  Abruptly the other woman broke into croaky laughter. "Ah, your face! Priceless. It was only a jest, girl. Pass the cinnamon, if you will."

  With a slow, shaky hand, Jesamyn did as she asked, trying to keep her expression composed, stoic.

  "I don't suppose it would surprise you to know this, girl," the nun muttered, "but there are many who would want to see my son in his grave, many who would pay a high fee to have him dispatched to his maker. With me at his bedside they'll have a harder job, eh?"

  Slyly she shot the old woman a quick glance. "Yes."

  "I brought the bastard into this world," the nun added with a sigh. "If anyone takes him out again, it ought to be me, after all I put up with."

  "I'm sure he was a very difficult son."

  "Is there any other kind?" Sister Marie-Angeline placed her bowls on the tray. She looked and Jesamyn, at the bells around her wrists, and shook her head. "The d'Anzeray male is worse than most. You'll find out one day."

  "Me? I have no sons. And no intention of bearing any. Least of all a d'Anzeray."

  "Yet," said the nun, crisply. "I once said the same thing, with an identical expression on my face too no doubt." She carried her tray out of the room, leaving Jesamyn to stare after her in horror.

  She didn't know if she could believe that the nun had joked with her. Was it meant to be a warning? If so, her time was running out. Desperate, her eyes scanned the many jars and bottles on the shelf. She slammed her wrist against the table to break one of the bells and out spilled two wizened brown seeds. She had just dropped them into a mortar and grabbed a pestle to crush them when a hand touched her shoulder.

  "What are you doing in here, woman?"

  The pestle slipped from her hands and fell to the floor. Jesamyn turned, leaning back against the table to obscure his view. He stood with hands on his hips, glaring suspiciously.

  "What are you up to?"

  "Looking to drop poison in your father's medicine, of course," she replied, chin in the air.

  "Very amusing. Come." He half turned away, clearly expecting her to follow at once.

  She folded her arms. "I will not be summoned like a dog."

  Nino looked at her again, his face exasperated. She expected to be shouted at, cursed at. Instead his shoulders relaxed. "Please come with me, Jesamyn. If you would."

  Warily she stepped closer, but kept her arms folded. He nodded, gestured at her to walk ahead of him, and they left the room together. She wondered if he meant to send her on her way now with a purse of money to pay for her services.

  But again she was to be startled, for he brought her outside into the yard where two horses were waiting and saddled. "Will you ride with me?"

  She stared at the big animal. "I do not know how."

  "What?"

  "I do not know how to ride a horse."

  He looked perplexed.

  "I never learned," she added. "I can sit on one, but I don't know how to make it move, or stop."

  Suddenly he smiled. "I will have to teach you then."

  She scowled fiercely. "Why bother?"

  "Because we want you to stay. We want you to be our wife."

  * * * *

  He hadn't meant to say it. The damn words came out without warning. Now, there they were, in air between them. Until that moment he didn't even know he'd made his mind up.

  Slowly she unfolded her arms. She was quiet, just staring at him. As if he'd told her the worst news a girl could ever want to hear. As if he'd just sentenced her to a public stoning, or something similar. Despite her sun-browned skin she turned pale. Her eyes were wide, unblinking, her lips puckered and stiff.

  "Will you stay?" he asked. Again he was cross with himself. Why ask her? He should simply have told her that she would stay. She was a woman and should do as he commanded.

  She fiddled with the bells around her wrists. "You said we. What about you, Nino? Do you want me to stay? You have a mind of your own, don't you?"

  He walked up to her, letting the reins of his horse slip away through his gloved fingers. "I do... have a mind of my own."

  Her eyes narrowed and she pressed her lips even tighter.

  "And yes. I do." He grinned. "Want you. To stay."

  "Because you like to fuck me?"

  "And because I like to argue with you."

  She moved around him and stroked one hand along his horse's neck. The animal turned to sniff her. A little breeze picked up, moving her black hair, tangling it with the horse's mane. They were the same color, he realized. Both warhorse and woman were beautiful creatures, powerful, strong, noble.

  "I am told you will make a good wife," he said.

  "For all of you?"

  "Yes, of course."

  She appeared to consider, still slowly petting his horse. Then she looked at him again. "Your father does not agree."

  "He will, eventually." He hoped so. His father wanted rich brides brought into the family, but he'd have to take what he was given. Besides, this woman was rich, with strange, mysterious talents.

  Finally she said, "Very well. As you desire."

  Just like that, Nino the reluctant had got himself a wife.

  * * * *

  They did go for a ride, but he led her horse by the bridle, giving her a quick first lesson. He seemed amused by the fact that she had never learned, and he was an unexpectedly patient tutor.

  Jesamyn tried to concentrate, but her mind spun with thoughts. She had agreed to be one of their wives and she did not know why she had done so, but then he would have no idea why he asked either. Because she had cast her spells upon him. The man did not know his arse from his elbow at that moment, did he?

  Soon all be dead, once she had found a way to administer her poison. A marriage would just mean delay. Unless, of course, she could slip her poison into the wedding feast.

  It might be the perfect ending to her mission. The perfect victory.

  Jesamyn was not made to be a wife and mother. She was quite sure of that.

  "When can the marriage take place?" she asked him.

  "Tomorrow, if you are ready," he replied, smiling. "No need to waste time."

  No indeed.

  So this would be their last night. Theirs and hers for she would take the poison too. It would be for the best, preferable to flight. She was tired and saddened, strange images passing through her thoughts. The spirits were sil
ent, so perhaps they had left her already. She must prepare herself for the end.

  Suddenly she thought of the crushed seeds she'd been forced to leave behind in the distillery. What if one of the women went there and accidentally swallowed some? What if one of the babes...? The rhythm of her pulse was uneven. Her blood ran cold.

  When they got back to the fortress, she ran at once to the distillery and found the crushed, spilled seeds had been cleaned away, but a little bitter odor remained in the air.

  That night she was not shared. Nino slept with her alone and surprised her again by making no demands upon her. Instead he slept with his arms and legs wound around her, warm and tender. He spoke to her of his hopes that she would be with child soon, but she did not reply. What was there to say?

  Eventually he slept. She listened to the sounds of his steady breathing and felt his strong heart beat in unison with her own. Moonlight, cool and silver, slid across the stone floor of the great hall and touched all the sleeping bodies laid out on their pallets around the fire. The women had a chamber of their own in which to sleep. She'd heard it was comfortable and well furnished, a place where the women could go when they desired peace away from the men. But Jesamyn found herself thinking of how much nicer it was to rest in Nino's arms than it was to sleep alone. She had not slept with another body beside her own since she lost her sister, for that story she'd told him about her female lover was a lie.

  She had been alone for ten years.

  Her sight became blurred as she watched the streaks of moonlight and sleeping lumps of shadow around the hall. She blinked and felt damp drops fall to her cheeks.

  Chapter Nine

  The ceremony was organized for early in the morning. The other wives gathered to bathe Jesamyn and prepare her body with perfumed oils that made her feel very pleasantly relaxed and yet vibrantly alive too. They washed and combed her hair, then braided it with silk ribbon. Jeanne presented her with a wedding gown more beautiful and exquisitely sewn than any garment Jesamyn had ever owned. It even had a train, as if she was a noblewoman.

  They removed the bells from her wrists and ankles.

  "But I must keep them," she cried in alarm.

  "Don't worry. You just won't need them for the ceremony," Princesa explained. "I'll keep them safe for you." The woman seemed to understand how important these very small items were as a link to her past life. But of course she did not know about the dangerous seeds hidden within them.

  "Don't let the babes play with them. They might swallow them and choke."

  Isobel assured her not to worry.

  She knew they thought she was merely worried that the babies might break her precious bells. But she was anxious that they might swallow some of the poison. The poor babies were innocent and she did not want them hurt.

  "I have been thinking about what you said," Aelfa whispered to her. "Perhaps I will try some of your potions, if you don't mind showing me."

  She looked at the woman. Her face was so full of hope. Jesamyn could only say, "I would be happy to help you."

  "I am so glad you came." Aelfa beamed, squeezing her shoulder. "I know we shall be friends."

  Isobel passed her a cluster of flowers to hold and adjusted the final ribbon in her hair. Cedney fastened a sprig of lavender to her gown, "for luck," as she said with a smile. Jeanne looked on with pride, exclaiming at how well the color of the gown suited her. Princesa brought the babies over to see how pretty their new mother looked.

  Jesamyn had never been surrounded by so much kindness and she did not know what to make of it.

  They took her down to the castle courtyard and there, before all the residents of the castle, she said her vows to an unusually solemn Nino. He was dressed in fine garments that day and seemed to have combed his hair and scrubbed his fingernails clean too. She found it oddly endearing that he went to such trouble.

  It all seemed quite unreal.

  She was given a goblet of wine and advised to drink it all down quickly. "Why?" she demanded.

  Nino kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear, "You will need the drug for the branding."

  "For the what?"

  "We must mark you with our crest as you are now our property, Jesamyn. It means we will always protect you, and no one can steal you away from us."

  He had neglected to tell her about the branding.

  Well, she was too far in now to refuse. Already she'd drunk half the goblet. Oh, why not? What difference did it make now. They would soon all be dead.

  As the dizziness took hold she needed his hand to lead her to the podium and the low table. The residents of the fortress gathered to observe as her gown was lifted and she was laid on her back, her legs spread and held by two of his brothers.

  She felt a brush of cold air as her sex was exposed to the crowd. How many faces there were staring at her! She'd had no idea there were so many residents that lived and worked within these walls, for she'd always pictured the d'Anzeray as living in the dark like bats that came out only at night and sucked blood from their victims.

  Now she saw that the folk who lived there were quite ordinary. Men and women like any other. Did they not know the evil of their lord and his sons?

  Nino looked down at her, touching her pussy with a gentle stroke of his fingers. His eyes shone through lowered lashes and he licked his lips. She could smell fire somewhere near and heard the clanging of metal.

  "Look at that lovely cunny," an unknown man's voice shouted excitedly from the crowd. "This one's a fair peach."

  "You mean a dark and dusky peach," shouted another with a laugh.

  And then she saw the iron brand in Nino's other hand— glowing from the heat of the fire.

  She tried to flinch but her muscles would not cooperate and then the white-hot brand disappeared from her view. Even straining to lift her head failed. She felt a pinch, a sudden searing pain. The two brothers holding her legs apart were looking at her pussy and smiling lustily.

  As if far in the distance she heard the watching crowd cheer.

  Nino had branded her with their crest. She was trembling. He hunkered down and licked her pussy while his brother's still held her legs and the crowd watched. Her climax built rapidly, as if the branding had heightened the senses in her nether regions. She began to squeal in raw delight, pumping her hips, riding his mouth, pushing her cunt into his face. Suddenly her juices shot forth like a spring, as they never had done before. The brothers looked on in evident amazement. Apparently they had never seen a woman come that way either.

  They were so fascinated by it that they each took turns making it happen again and again, much to the raucous delight of the audience. Her pussy was milked thus without mercy for half an hour or more, their new toy proudly exhibited to the people of the castle as the cum squirted out like a fountain.

  * * * *

  She slipped away to use the privy, while they were all still feasting. But she could not find her bells. They were not put away where Princesa had told her they would be.

  Jesamyn did not look too hard for them, but went back to her wedding feast and her new husbands. There would be plenty of time and opportunity later.

  I think I love you, Nino had said.

  She was inclined to think it merely a state of lust. But she too was feeling strange. Perhaps the drug they put in her wine still had not worn off yet.

  Our crest ...you are now our property, Jesamyn. It means we will always protect you, and no one can steal you away from us.

  He thought she belonged there now with him, his brothers and the other wives.

  Just as she reached the passage to the great hall, a cloaked figure appeared before her and she stopped. It was Sister Marie-Angeline.

  "You look for your bells, my dear?"

  "Yes." How did the old lady know that? "I was promised they would not be lost."

  The nun lifted an arm and showed the missing cuffs and anklets hanging from her fingers. "And I kept them safe for you." She handed them to Jesamyn. "As I keep
my son safe."

  "Thank you." She snatched the bells and hurried into the hall. The old lady did not follow her, and Jesamyn did not look back.

  "I thought you had run away," Nino said when he saw her return.

  "I decided against it," she replied snippily. "For now."

  He laughed, grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "I am growing accustomed to the sight of you in clothes," he said. "That gown suits you."

  "Jeanne made it." She sniffed. "It is too grand for me."

  "Nothing is too grand for my wife." He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Once he was distracted again and talking to the brother on his right, Jesamyn examined her bells and found that each was intact, the poisonous seeds still inside. But the nun knew what she meant to do. Why had she passed them back to her without comment? Without trying to stop her?

  After a moment Nino's attention returned to her. "Is something amiss, Jesamyn?"

  "What could possibly be amiss?"

  His eyes narrowed. "Oh, I thought perhaps you were feeling... thwarted."

  She snapped her head around to face him. "Thwarted? Why do you say that?"

  "Well, you were so determined to hate me. Now you cannot." He winked.

  "I shall do as I please."

  "But now you're my wife and you cannot hate me."

  "On the contrary. Now I am more entitled to hate you than ever." She glowered at him.

  He reached over and cupped her right breast, sweeping his thumb across the little peak that rose instantly against the soft, thin material. "Yes, I see how you hate me."

  "My body acts that way. Not my mind."

  He squeezed her breast and licked his lips. "Pull down your gown and feed me your luscious fruit."

  After a moment, she slipped the shoulder down to reveal her perfumed breast. She held it in her palm, pink nipple jutting out. He bowed his head and took it in his mouth. Jesamyn saw that everyone was watching as he sucked her gently. And he slid a hand between her thighs, rubbing her pussy through her gown until he had made a good-sized wet spot. She squeezed down on her climax, knowing her face was flushed, her breath coming in short tell-tale gasps. Nino slipped her other shoulder down until she was bared to the waist and he bade her sit that way for the remainder of supper, his hands and mouth toying openly with her naked breasts for all to see.