The Surrender of Sleeping Beauty

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “You’re ruining my fantasy!” Julia snapped open her fan with some irritation. We were riding to the city today to prowl the garment district and choose a royal clothier. “I just want a dream shop. I’d serve everyone tea and make ridiculous clothes for costume balls, and the Duchess of Haranburg would be banned.”

  “I think I’d like to make simpler gowns,” I said.

  “Riding habits?” Julia teased.

  “No, no, just very soft. Maybe white with ribbons…and lots of fresh flowers. What if I combined a clothing shop with the flower shop?”

  “Oh, that would be lovely!” Louisa said. “And so practical. We could order flowers for our hair and trims at the same time as the gown and set a date for delivery.”

  “What if we each did part of it?” Julia said. “Rose could sell flowers because she knows them so well, and I’d have a whole tea shop right there, and Louisa could handle the gowns because she has the patience to make sure they fit.”

  I laughed. “Girls, let’s do it. Who needs a queen anyway?”

  “Mm, more than one reason to abdicate now,” Julia said.

  “I don’t have any other reason to abdicate.”

  “Oh no? Then you could take up with Count Axelicious,” Julia purred. “I’ve been trying to get his attention all week, but oh no… He only has eyes for you.”

  “So much for your marriage,” Louisa quipped dryly. “What happened to Lord Merdon?”

  “Ehh. I mean, we’re fine.” Julia shrugged her slender shoulders. “As for my marriage, the duke is much happier when I’m happy.”

  “Is that so?” I was a little startled. “Does he know about Lord Merdon? Is poor Francis sleeping all alone in that apartment I gave you?”

  “Yes, reading without me to interrupt him!”

  “I wonder if Augustus would be happier…”

  “What is going on with you two?” Julia said. “You think I don’t notice? Augustus seems to welcome a little sense of healthy competition.”

  “He does…” I bit my lip. I still felt some confusion and guilt over my initial attraction to Axel. I never meant it to go farther than a pleasant conversation at a ball. Augustus was the one who had pushed it beyond that, and Augustus seemed as aroused as I was by the idea of Axel being sworn to us.

  I had worn the King’s Vine for a week and so far the vines just stayed quietly ringed around my waist and thighs without movement. The Sun Palace was full of carvings and statues of maidens entwined in enchanted vines, reminding me of the pleasures they promised. But this week he had been very busy and I had barely seen him. On a few nights he didn’t take me to bed until three in the morning and fell promptly into sleep. I wondered if he ever intended to fulfill that promise.

  “You’re blushing.” Julia nudged me.

  “Well, anything that makes Augustus happy makes me happy,” I said.

  Julia snorted. “Tell us how you really feel.”

  “But it’s true… I love him. I’m so afraid that someone might think otherwise, that I might accidentally look at Axel the wrong way! But Augustus doesn’t seem to mind. As much as I love him, I think he is more complicated than I am and sometimes I simply don’t understand him at all!”

  “Just follow Augustus’ lead, that’s all you can do,” Julia said. “There might not be a role for a male lover in the court, but if Augustus wants you to have one, well, ultimately he is the king now and oh dear, I suppose you’ve just have to do it, won’t you?” She cackled.

  “Don’t encourage her!” Louisa snapped. “They’ll both get in trouble! I don’t think it’s wise to mess with any more rules. The old biddies are all so furious at me for usurping Madame Etiquette! You should have heard them the other day. They were threatening to leave the ‘little girl’s court’.”

  “Yes, yes, my mother wrote me about it. ‘You must not offend the most valuable members of court just to please a few cronies’,” I repeated in an old-Osterian-lady voice.

  “She called us ‘cronies’?” Julia’s sharp laughter grew even louder.

  “You’re the most valuable members of my court, girls.” I shook my head. “Let them be furious. Really, a queen should be able to choose her own ladies and Noria hated me. She wasn’t loyal at all.”

  The carriage rolled to a stop in front of the House of Bertin, an unassuming building of bricks painted white with a small sign that said simply, M. Bertin.

  “We’ll see. If it’s not fit for a queen we’ll leave right away,” Julia said, opening the door.

  Our mouths fell open at first glance. Somehow I just knew this was exactly the shop we had all envisioned. A woman and her daughter were drinking tea in the front room, perhaps waiting for an appointment, and the rooms were full of flowers that gave the air the fragrance of a garden. The walls were all painted in delicate pastels with decorations of flowers and birds, the wooden floors plain but polished to a warm sheen.

  A small woman with brown curls, a snub nose, and freckles came right out to greet us. She was dressed simply herself, and had a bold stride that made me think of a boy; it made her seem ungraceful. She had advance word of our arrival but it didn’t seem like she had dressed up at all. “Your Majesty,” she said, bowing. “It is my greatest honor to have you in my shop today.”

  “Madame Bertin?”

  “Just so.”

  “I hear you have been the talk of the town,” I said.

  “For my clothes, or the audacity to be here at all?” She replied boldly, and before I could answer, she continued, “As you can see, I use the best trimmings on all my gowns. Fresh flowers, leaves, branches, lichen and moss—“

  “Lichen and moss on gowns?”

  “Carefully foraged, so as not to disturb the forest,” she said.

  “It is traditional, I think,” Louisa said. “Isn’t it what people used to wear?”

  “Why don’t you come and see the workroom?” Madame Bertin said, sweeping ahead through curtains.

  My mouth fell open for the second time now, because this room looked nothing like I imagined a workshop to be. It really was more like a florist’s than a dress shop. Assistants were trimming flowers, arranging twining vines and branches of delicate berries, carefully making rosettes of fabric with real roses pinned inside, and yes, there were even bits of very delicate moss shaped like stars, carefully placed on the shoulders of a gown. They were like some wild woodland fantasies, but they had the proper shape of courtly gowns, and somehow both elements blended perfectly.

  “My stars,” Julia said. “This is far better than I imagined.”

  Madame Bertin seemed like a very straightforward woman, almost rudely so, and not one to react to flattery, but she smiled a little. “I am glad it pleases you.”

  “Oh my goodness,” I said, noticing a gown decorating with cascades of tiny white flowers and blue ribbons, and sprays of golden grass. “How do you keep these things fresh through a ball?”

  “We have a special solution we spray on the natural elements so they do last the night, although…that is all. Part of their beauty is in knowing they won’t last, isn’t it?”

  And so we must have our gowns trimmed every night, I thought. But then, it was already common to have a dressmaker change out a bit of lace or add a flounce to a gown between balls.

  “We could have our hair coordinated,” Julia said, admiring some tiny toadstool mushrooms. Beside them were the most delicate white mushrooms with spindly necks and frilled caps. There was no end to all the things to look at in the room. All sorts of orchids and lush flowers, cacti and tiny speckled eggs, shells and coral, precious stones… Some of these exotic plants I had only seen in books; they must be lovingly grown by hedge witches in private greenhouses or gathered from remote places.

  “Augustus would certainly approve, I’m sure,” I said. “This seems very much in the spirit of the faery traditions.”

  “I like to keep the gowns themselves simple,” Madame Bertin said. “So the trimmings can shine.” The gowns in Madame Bertin
’s shop were not the formal gown shape I was used to, but were a softer line. The hips of the skirt were not as wide and there was a soft fall of fabric down the back, almost like a small cloak, which would not lend itself to such tight bodices.

  “A woman after my own heart!” Then I forced myself to tamp down my enthusiasm. “Of course, we still have other venerable dressmakers to visit today, but which ever I may choose to be my primary merchant a la mode, I am certainly in awe of your innovations.”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty,” she said, quite calmly.

  I suppose she already knew I was going to choose her. When we got back to the carriage we were practically squealing with excitement.

  “I want those toadstools on a headdress!” Julia cried.

  “I liked the purple flowers in the corner, did you notice those? They looked like fireworks!” Louisa said.

  “I could hardly even choose a favorite,” I said. “We would be endlessly surprising. And just think of the holly berries in the winter…”

  “Like beads.”

  “Against white fur?”

  “I was thinking against blue.”

  “Girls, we are going to turn every head in this place at the next dance,” I said. “It’s too bad we can’t keep her a secret. Those old ladies will never have seen anything like this.”

  “Well, they might have. Doesn’t she already have clients?” Louisa said, with some of her annoying practicality.

  “From now on, we shall occupy all her commissions,” I said mischievously.

  When I got home, my first act was to send a letter to the House of Bertin inviting her to the Palace of the Sun.

  Yes, as the queen I had much more freedom to control my own court and my own wardrobe, but I also had an even more strict schedule than before, with guards and courtiers following my every move. When Augustus went anywhere at all, he was preceded by four trumpeters and a hundred uniformed guards, the royal bodyguard in blue and red surrounding the coach, and then another hundred guards. Our hunts came to an end. There was no more chance of sneaking off for a private moment and all the joy was lost. I had a royal portrait done that was so stuffy that even my mother sent me a letter telling me she had seen a copy and found it a terrible likeness.

  Even at night Augustus and I had guards outside both of the bedroom doors; we knew they were probably listening to every word. Everyone was always listening to every word, watching my every move. I simply had to get used to it because there was no escape, no privacy at all. During our grand dinner at the end of each week we had nearly four hundred servants attending to us. The sheer scope of humanity following our every move was exhausting.

  Since I could have no real privacy, I craved the illusion of it—the intimacy of nights around the card tables, candlelight and the din of conversation, wine dulling my senses, and the play of dice and cards keeping my mind off this utter lack of privacy.

  Dinner that evening was just as usual. Julia, Lord Merdon, Louisa, the king’s brother Josef and his new goblin bride Elnora were playing cards. Augustus so rarely joined us at the card tables and lately he was busy meeting with potential new advisors, making appointments and other business. Before I knew it, he would be going to bed and I would have to go with him.

  Well, at least I was having fun in the meantime, throwing down two winning hands in a row. “Looks like I’m buying the toadstools.”

  Julia pretended to menace me with her wine glass, threatening to pour it on my head. “Pretty cocky for a little Osterian girl! I always have better luck after—oh!” She put the wine glass down and curtseyed.

  I realized that Augustus was behind me.

  And behind him, Count Farren. They had come in together. What did that imply?

  “Might I join you tonight?” Augustus asked.

  Josef rose and offered his seat. “Here, brother. The Master of Delights needs to mingle, in any case.”

  “No need. I can take Rose’s chair,” Augustus said, pulling me up with a hand and resettling me on his knee. “This is where my queen belongs in any case.”

  “You’ve been neglecting me as of late,” I commented.

  Axel took Josef’s chair. He grabbed the card deck and shuffled, dealing a new hand for the table with an air of authority I found shocking, as if he was also taking on a role. He raised an eyebrow at me as he whipped the cards around, one for each in a circle until we each had seven.

  Augustus put his hands on my hips and I felt the King’s Vine begin to crawl around my skin. As its coils tightened around my waist, it pulled my thighs open, and then slipped between my legs. I hadn’t realized how much I had yearned for this feeling. I wanted to feel stimulation there. I wanted Augustus to—

  “What are you gentlemen betting?” Julia asked, with a suggestive smile.

  Thin tendrils of the vine wrapped around the lips of my pussy and spread me wide against Augustus’ knee. His hand went around my hip and pulled me against his chest, in such a way that my pussy was bared and spread against the fabric of his trousers.

  “I’d rather not spend the treasury on this nonsense. I think we could make it more interesting. If you win, you get to kiss Rose,” Augustus said, his words clearly meant as a challenge to Axel. “And if Rose wins…she gets to kiss whoever she likes.” He wiggled his leg a little just to tease me. A pulse shot through me, my core clenching against him.

  “I am not sure this bet is very fair, Your Majesty,” I gasped. “If I win, I will have to kiss you, of course. So it seems to me that you have given yourself an advantage.”

  “Kiss anyone you like,” he said, putting his hand to my chin.

  Is he implying…?

  He picked up his hand. I could clearly see it, and it was quite bad. Mine was fair, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to win.

  Do I? I glanced at Axel. He smiled in a way I couldn’t read.

  A little part of me did want to win.

  I took my cards, shifted around my hand, improving my odds, trying my best to look confident, all while Augustus kept me spread across his knee, every tremble of his muscles radiating up through me.

  “I fold,” Augustus said as we reached the end.

  “As do I,” Lord Merdon said.

  Louisa stayed in, but I could tell by the twitch in her eyebrow that she was unsure of her hand. Louisa almost never won.

  Axel had the same faint, seductive smile as always. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

  We put down our cards. Julia had a full set of towers. She laughed and sprung to her feet, sweeping over to me. “Well, well, you’re my reward, then, are you?” She kissed me boldly, and as I saw Axel’s glower of chagrin and heard Augustus curse softly against my ear. She tasted like lavender candies. I still was deeply aware of the hard muscle and soft but rough fabric of Augustus’ trousers tickling my spread folds, and it made me want to kiss her back. I had to restrain myself from pushing my tongue into her mouth.

  Julia straightened back out and waved a finger at the table. “You didn’t expect that outcome, did you?”

  “Come back here, you saucy wench,” Lord Merdon said, laughing. “I think I won that round, truly. Quite a kiss that was.” I could see why Julia needed a man like him; he was a little older and more assured than her husband, and always up for a good time, although I still felt bad for the kind Duke of Poligari.

  But she swears to me that she loved them both the same…and that they both accept the arrangement…so who am I to judge, then?

  “How many rounds must we play?” I asked Augustus.

  “As many as we need,” he said vaguely, sweeping the cards up himself. He dealt again, and for some reason I was more nervous on the second round, but Lord Merdon won that one, to everyone’s disappointment. He kissed my hand and then he plucked Julia’s breasts out of her gown and kissed her nipples. Julia would have made a fine Queen Who Bowed, I think—maybe too good. I don’t think she would blush enough to satisfy onlookers. I sipped my wine, growing warmer, forgetting the guards and the other t
ables.

  “I think it’s only fair we sit the next one out,” Lord Merdon said. “Give the rest of you a chance.”

  “Your sense of honor is appreciated,” Augustus said with a wicked smile as he slapped his hand on the cards before Axel could take them. Oh, they were competing to shuffle now. Louisa’s ears turned pink. “Perhaps I will also sit this one out,” she said.

  “I think it’s a duel,” Axel said.

  “You should deal, Rose,” Augustus said. “Let’s see whose fortune you favor.”

  “Don’t say it like that.” I took the cards, tapping them against the table to straighten the pile, feeling the softness of their well-worn edges, before flipping the cards out of my hand into three small piles.

  “To the victor goes the spoils,” I said, before looking at my hand.

  I had two towers and an emperor in my hand already. A very good beginning… I shielded the cards against my breasts. My heart was beating so fast, I’m sure Augustus could feel my tension. It was bad enough for Axel to kiss me, but for me to actually go to Axel and kiss him…

  We shouldn’t be playing this game.

  “You know, where I’m from we have different rules,” Axel said. “We might want to give those a try. Fives are a wild card.”

  “I’ve never heard of that one,” Augustus said. “But elves don’t have qualms about lies, either…”

  “You think I would lie just to get a kiss from a beautiful woman? I have more honor than that.”

  “What about self control?” Augustus asked.

  “How is that antidote coming along?” Axel retorted.

  “The palace mages are working on it, I’m sure.”

  Axel gave him a grim look. “You are a lot more merciless than your reputation suggests.”

  I plucked a card off the pile. The empress of jewels. Now I was holding a full “castle”. When the round was over, I already knew I had won. We put down our cards. I didn’t comment on my winning hand. Axel put his elbows on the table, but it was my husband he locked eyes with.

  “What would you like to do, my dear one?” Augustus asked me.