by Susan Kohler
The Beast found his voice and snarled, “You’ve been working in the fields too long, lass, and you are very dirty. Indeed, right now you look more like a plough horse in need of a good grooming than a lass I wouldst bed, but I will admit you could clean up passably well, and your teeth do seem to be decent. Now drop your cloak and let me see if there’s a body worthy of my interest under all that wrapping.”
Beauty was torn between being insulted, defiant and afraid. Her eyes flashed as she struggled to hold her tongue and her mind worked feverishly to figure out if she was helping her brother at all or hurting his cause. Slowly, her eyes down, she removed the heavy, concealing cloak, dropping it to the floor.
The Beast was no stranger to a woman’s charms so he could tell that she had a stunning figure beneath her loose, bulky dress. Her breasts were very full and round for someone so slender. They stood out proudly against the rough material. He was amazed and more than a little angry that she’d been hidden from him. After all, she was his property!
He decided to get a little revenge. It would be fun to see how long it would take him to shatter her spirit. Even through the dress, he noted her shaking legs and wondered if she would even last out the night.
“You still have too many clothes on. For all I can tell you have no shape at all,” the Beast snarled. “I said disrobe.”
“M’lord!” Beauty blushed.
“Is not your brother worth it? What did you think would happen when you offered to do anything to save him? Didst you think I would leave him go without demanding payment?” The Beast was without mercy, leaning into her pale, ashen face as he finished with deadly quiet. “Without seizing payment from your body and your very soul?”
“I am more than ready to do anything you ask of me to save my brother’s life,” Beauty replied softly as she slowly struggled to remove her clothes with numb fingers. “But, M’lord, I am an innocent, a virgin. No man has ever seen me undressed or touched me. I admit I’m afraid of you, yet I will do whatever you ask if you will but free my brother.”
“You will do whatever I ask of you whether or not I free your brother.” That it was a statement of cold, hard fact, and not a threat made the utterance even more chilling. “If I wanted to bed you in the shadow of your brother’s hanging corpse, you would obey.”
She gave a soft involuntary gasp at his bitter statement. She had undressed down to her soft shift and knew it offered no protection from his piercing eyes. She stood still before him, her erect nipples clearly outlined against the thin fabric, eyes down and knees shaking. The Beast looked her over, noting the firm thrust of her breasts, the curve of her tiny waist and the soft flare of the hips. His eyes skimmed down and he realized that her legs were long and well formed. She seemed flawless. He felt himself grow hard with desire.
“The shift too, if you think your brother’s life is worth it,” he growled roughly.
Without a word she slowly slid the straps of the shift off her shoulders, letting it fall gently to the floor. She raised her eyes, staring straight ahead. Naked, she stood before him, looking proud and unafraid. It was a sham; although she appeared outwardly calm, inside her stomach was roiling, and she struggled hard not to faint.
The Beast knew well how to read the tension in her face, the slight clenching of her jaw, the furrow between her brows. He knew the effort she made to appear calm and felt a faint hint of admiration for her courage. Knights had shown more fear facing him than did this lass.
He tamped down the admiration and sneered cruelly, “Why should I release your brother? You are mine anyway, and I can have you anytime I want. I should hang your brother for trying to hide you from me, and if I could do it twice, in all likelihood, I would. God’s truth, I should have you whipped for hiding yourself from me but I’d hate to mar that silky skin before I had a chance to touch it. You were very foolish indeed to come here. Now, go upstairs and prepare yourself. I’ll attend to you shortly, after I have hanged your brother.”
Chapter Two
“No!” Beauty shrieked.
In that instant, all her attempts to appear calm and unafraid were for naught. She struggled to control her sobs as her legs gave out and she slumped once more to the cold stone floor. She raised her teary eyes with tremendous effort, and for the first time deliberately met the Beast’s gaze head on and held his eyes.
What she saw in his eyes both amazed and strangely saddened her. The eyes of the Beast, eyes that were known far and wide to be merciless and cold, filled with cruel rage and hate were instead bleak, touched with pain, filled with loneliness and hopelessness.
“M’lord, I am not a fool. I knew well the peril I faced coming here. Truly, you can and probably will ravage me anytime you feel the urge, and do anything with me, however vicious and cruel, that fills your dark desire. I know I cannot withstand you or refuse you anything, including my own death. That is the power you hold over me, over all of us in the village. It is your privilege by right of conquest and by sheer strength.” She swallowed a few times, still holding his eyes. “I am only a commoner and a woman, a small woman at that. You may take my body and demand anything you want to from me, but there is still one thing you cannot take from me by force, something I can still give or withhold from you only at my own will.”
“What is that?” She’d barely managed to pique his curiosity but it was just enough to bring the question out.
“The thing you claim never to have felt or known, real affection, mayhap even love.” Beauty paused, choosing her words with care. “You can rape me now, ‘tis true, but if you will release my brother unharmed, I promise I will stay with you willingly tonight and do anything you ask, freely and with affection. If you release my brother unharmed you can do anything you want to me: Rape me, beat me, use me in any odious way you choose, and I will still strive to love you and serve you faithfully in any way I possibly can all through the night.”
“All through the night? What if one night isn’t enough for me?” the Beast asked sourly. “What if all the things I want to do to you, to your body and to your very soul, take more than one night? Is the rest of your brother’s life only worth one night of yours?”
“Truly, I meant to put no limits on what I would do for you, M’lord, or how long I would stay with you,” Beauty told him seemingly calmly. “Tis just that it’s well known that you only use a woman for one night. No woman has ever been known to hold your interest any longer than that. Why should I think to be any different from the others?”
“If I were to free your brother, I would ask much more of you than one night in bed, even with your willingness. I would ask that for as long as I want you to serve me, you would do so. I would ask for the use of your body in my bed and for you to service me in any way I wish during the day, either as my lowest servant or as my whore. If I tire of you, I would put you away from me in whatever manner I wish. I may give you to one of my soldiers as a reward for his good service or I may even decide to kill you,” the Beast glared at her sternly. “In other words, Beauty, to save your brother’s life, you must give yourself to me completely and forever. You must become my chattel just like my horse or my dog. Is your brother worth such a sacrifice?”
“Yea, M’lord. I would agree to anything to save him.” Beauty’s voice trembled.
“And knowing I think of you as a possession, could you still do anything I ask freely and with affection as you said you would? Could you even begin to try to love me?” the Beast challenged her.
“M’lord, I give you my word.” Beauty broke away from his gaze and lowered her eyes, her voice was hardly more than a whisper. “And I meant it. I knew it would not be easy.”
For a long moment, the Beast made no reply. Silently, he studied Beauty with a guarded expression as he considered the situation. Against his will, the spark of interest she had ignited within him began to grow. What was it like, the Beast wondered, to bed a woman without terror in her eyes? Without knowing only her pleading and her tears? To have sex with a l
ass who wasn’t scared and begging for mercy?
Once he’d been at court and soon learned that even the town whores feared him when he sampled their crude wares. They put on a brave face when they saw his purse, but they plied their trade reluctantly and quickly, disappearing as fact as they could.
How could it feel, he wondered, to have someone stand by his side willingly? To have someone he could go to for comfort and companionship, even someone who would come to him for the same. Someone to spend the long winter evenings relaxing with him. Possibly even to have someone reach out for him with affection. Would it be wonderful? Was it even possible or was this just a woman’s trick? He debated whether he could release the boy without being seen as too weak and soft to rule. He decided that he could.
Without a word, he determined it was worth the boy’s life to find out what a willing, affectionate woman was worth. After all, he could always hang the rascal later if he changed his mind.
Keeping his thoughts and longings to himself, the Beast growled, “How could you promise to love me? Lass, you don’t know anything about me except for all the tales you’ve heard. All those wild stories of my cruelty.”
“Are they true?” Beauty asked softly, hesitantly. “Those reports of your cruelty, could they possibly all be true?”
“Most of them, the worst of them, probably are true. I am a very hard and harsh man,” the Beast answered coldly. “Anyway, it makes no difference, I will take you to my bed tonight and then you will know for yourself. But make no mistake, Lass, I will take you with or without releasing your brother, whether you want me or not. It matters little to me how you feel about it. If I’m the monster you believe me to be, can you still promise me your love?”
“I can and will love you, in a small way, for the saving of my brother’s life but ‘tis true it’s not the same deep, abiding love, filled with passion, that’s said to be found sometimes between a woman and a man. It’s not the romantic love that poets sing songs about. I, myself, do know that sort of love truly exists, as my parents felt it for each other, but I’ve never found it. I can, however, promise to give you my admiration, my deepest loyalty, my lasting respect, and even my real affection.”
Unexpectedly, the Beast hid a grin. “I note you didn’t promise to give me your obedience. I want one more promise from you.”
“What more can I promise you, M’lord?” Beauty asked shyly, still shaking. “The obedience I just now failed to mention?”
“Nay, I can assure your obedience without much effort on my part. Be defiant if you like, for a while. A small woman like you is pitifully easy to bring under control. I’ll even enjoy bending you to my will, if you can manage to make it into enough of a challenge. The last promise I want from you is this: I want you to swear never to see any of your family again, even when I tire of you and send you away or give you over to one of my men as a plaything.” The Beast had no faith at all in her promises and protestations of loyalty so he decided to test her, to push her as far as he could.
Bleak despair washed over her. It took a moment for her to manage to say the words, her voice was trembling and her throat seemed frozen shut.
“Yea, M’lord, I swear it,” she whispered in heartfelt anguish.
“Then, I’ll consider it,” he curtly replied. “Be quiet, wench, and let me think.”
Without realizing why, he felt compelled to goad her into backing out of her oath. To prove she was treacherous like all the others in his life had been, men and women both.
There was only one woman who had stayed beside him throughout his life. She was a young widow who once served as a maid in the castle of the knight he was fostered to. At the time she became his maid, she had just recently lost her young son, along with her husband, to the great plague.
The sad young maid, Gwyneth, had taken to the small boy she helped care for. In him, she saw only the loneliness that mirrored her own grief, not the budding cruelty of the Beast. She had mothered him tenderly when she could, but the knight of the castle and the Beast himself made it difficult. Now she was growing older, without a husband or children of her own.
She had returned with the Beast to his father’s castle when he was a grown knight. The Beast even heard rumours that Gwyneth had for a short time been his father’s mistress, as he had begun to recover from the death of his second wife. The Beast never knew or even cared if the rumours were true.
Still, she stayed with the Beast, following him to this castle. She worked hard, managing his castle and worrying over the man he’d become. Gwyneth was the only one who truly cared for him. She was also the only person who felt comfortable enough around the Beast to nag him, and even that was very rare indeed.
Everyone else had deserted him. They had all proven to be shallow and uncaring. If Beauty were to prove truly as loving and steadfast as she appeared to be, then he feared her instinctively, for she was a threat to everything he was raised to believe in. Still he had to know.
He gestured to her clothes strewn about on the stone floor. “Get dressed.”
“M’lord, whatever you decide, may I go to see my brother? Just to say goodbye since I will never see him again once he’s been hung,” Beauty choked out the last words and paused, swallowing several times and breathing deeply before she could continue. “Or, with hope, once he is freed and my promise to you takes effect.”
Beauty rose quickly and pulled on her shift and the loose dress with shaking fingers.
The Beast pondered for a moment then called for a servant, his eyes never leaving Beauty’s.
To her surprise, the servant who answered his summons was known to Beauty from the past. She was so upset that she couldn’t place his name at that moment but he was an older man, probably in his fifties. He was trim and spry with a handsome face, and he was surprisingly well groomed compared to most of the village people Beauty knew.
The servant was dressed in brown hose, a white shirt and a dark brown doublet with no trim. His simple clothes appeared clean and neat, and he seemed to have bathed quite recently, a rarity indeed. He showed no sign of recognizing Beauty, although she learned later that indeed he had. She also soon remembered that his name was Seth, and that he’d once been the personal servant to the old lord.
“Send for the maid, Gwyneth, to clean this girl up and get her in my bedchamber ready for me,” the Beast growled, ignoring the servant’s start of surprise.
He paused, and Beauty’s knees buckled before the Beast continued, “And get word to the stables to release… ” his voice trailed off and he cocked his brow at Beauty.
“Tom.” Beauty supplied quickly, a stunned smile lighting her face for the first time.
“Tom. He’s tied up in the last stall. He’s to go free,” the Beast ordered, mesmerized against his will at the force of Beauty’s smile.
“M’lord,” the stately servant hesitated, almost scared to believe what he’d heard.
He avoided looking at Beauty, now fully realizing why she was there. Without any words, he knew exactly what bargain she’d made and why. A curious mixture of relief and abhorrence filled him. Not that he judged her harshly for the bargain. Knowing her as he did, he knew she had no choice in the matter. He sighed for the old lord, and wondered how such things had come to pass.
“What is it?” The Beast held Beauty’s gaze, amazed, almost speechless, at the joy in her eyes.
“Both of the lads are named Tom,” the quiet servant pointed out.
“Then set them both free!” the Beast bellowed in a sudden temper. “I’m tired of this business and I have better things to do.”
“M’lord,” Beauty asked timidly, repeating her request, “may I see my brother for a moment before I go with the maid?”
“You will return to fill your promise?” the Beast asked.
“You have my word,” Beauty replied.
“I have never trusted in promises, very few men of my acquaintance are worthy of trust and none of the women,” the Beast snarled.
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�Then let me prove myself to be the first,” Beauty said calmly. “Truly, I am yours willingly and I do not seek to escape, but I would like to see my brother safe.”
“Then it’s you who does not trust me or my word,” the Beast’s tempered flared quickly and Beauty realized there was still the very real danger of losing her fight to save Tom.
“I do, M’lord, truly. ‘Tis just a woman’s way to want to reassure herself that her loved ones are all safe, that all is aright with them. Also, I would like a moment to calm my nerves before… ” her voice trailed off.
“You said you’d be willing,” the Beast growled, reaching out and grabbing her by the arms.
“M’lord, I am willing, truly,” Beauty stood in his harsh grasp without flinching. She looked him in the eyes and smiled shyly, “But I never claimed not to be nervous, as is a virgin’s right. Even a virgin who marries for love can be nervous the first night. Please, M’lord?”
“All right, but return shortly,” the Beast told her gruffly. “And remember that I can always hang him later, so warn him and be warned yourself: I will only keep this bargain as long as you keep it and as long as he gives me no more problems as he works.”
“You still want him to work in the stables, M’lord?” Beauty was surprised. “After all this?”
“Why not? He does his job well and I wondered who I would find to replace him.” The Beast was surprised at her question, as though a narrow escape from the gallows should not matter a whit to her or to her brother. “Now go!”
“Yes, M’lord.” She turned and moved quickly to follow the servant. “And thank you, M’lord.”
The Beast watched as she walked away, noting the grace of her stride and the sway of her hips. How long, he wondered? How long will it take for me to prove her to be the liar she has to be? How long before she loses her resolve? The game would be fast and furious but he already knew the outcome; Beauty would soon prove to be as inconstant as everyone else in his life.