by Dani René
My eyes shoot open at his threat.
“Tell us what you want. Say the words, Jocelyn.”
After what I’ve done since I arrived, it shouldn’t be this hard to say what I want. I’m being ridiculous.
“I want you to let me come. Please.”
Harry’s smug grin grows wider as I utter the words he wanted to hear.
“Good girl. Now, come for us, Jocelyn.”
At his command, I come undone. The fire inside, ravaging my entire body. I feel my release shoot out of me, even harder than it did last night with Benji. My loud moan mixes with Henry’s. The look of approval on Harry’s face keeps the desire alive inside of me. My body tenses through another wave of release, right on the heels of the first.
When it subsides, I feel completely drained. As though I was a piece of clothing that I wrung the water from earlier and hung out to dry. Placing my palms on the ground next to Henry, I let my body fall. Henry’s body moves beside me and his face comes into view. He brings his lips to mine gently and I taste myself on him.
His hands land on my hips and before I know what’s happening, he flips me onto my stomach. The motion pierces through my fatigue a little bit and I push myself up onto my knees. When I do, I see both of them side-by-side, staring down at me. They’re beautiful creatures. Finding myself lost in their stare, the words that Henry speaks don’t register with me right away.
“Jocelyn.”
“Hmm?” I respond sleepily.
They break me from my trance.
“I asked if you were ready for round two?”
I wasn’t ready, but not because I didn’t want to. It’s because I didn’t think I had anything left in me.
The twins spend the next hour proving me wrong.
Chapter Ten
Benjamin
When I return from my trip into town, I unhook the cart from my horse and put him away in the stable with the rest of our horses. Walking into the house, I am hit with the pleasant smell of ham cooking in the oven. James is in the sitting room fashioning another item out of metal. I’m warmed immediately by the heat of the fire, blazing inside of the fireplace. I hear slight murmurs coming from the kitchen, where I assume Jocelyn and the twins are.
“We need to talk, something’s happened.”
James looks up from his creation with a pointed stare and the twins emerge from the kitchen. I wave them into the room and check to make sure Jocelyn isn’t within earshot. I catch sight of her, poking the ham inside the oven, checking on its progress. Pulling the parchment from my belt, I unfold it, and hand it over to James.
His face remains impassive as he looks it over. When he’s finished, I wait for him to speak, but he only stares into the fire. Henry reaches down and takes the parchment from him.
“Do you have anything to say about this, James?” I ask him, irritated that he seems to not care.
He turns his attention to me and the look in his black eyes is almost feral.
“We’re going to kill them.”
“What? You can’t be serious.”
“I’ve never been more serious in my entire life.”
My eyes shoot to the twins, my disbelief mirrored on their faces. Good. I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels like that would be a terrible idea.
“Think about it, Benji.” James stands so he can address the three of us. “Between the four of us, we can come up with a plan. Then, when we return her to the castle, we will get close enough to them to enact the revenge that we’ve craved for twenty years.”
Words escape me as I continue to stare at my oldest brother. The man who has led me my entire life. I’m thinking he’s going mad, just like Father.
“You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. Dreamed of the day when you’d be able to take from them the way they took from us. I’ll admit, I thought it would be enough causing the destruction of our sister. But I think we all know that’s not what’s going on here.”
A miniscule glimmer of emotion flashes through James’ eyes, but it’s gone so quickly that I question whether or not I imagined it.
“What? Do you think they’re just going to forget about the fact they wanted us dead just because we’re returning her to them? What makes you think we’re even going to be able to get close enough to them to pull it off?”
“You’ll have me.”
We all turn our attention to the sweet voice behind us. She’s standing in the doorway, freshly cleaned. Her hair hangs down to the swell of her tits, barely hidden beneath the shirt she wears. My cock leaps at the sight of her erect nipples poking through the fabric.
“I can help you. I can be your Trojan horse.”
“No. Absolutely not,” I tell her.
“Why? I want to help.”
“When we get to the castle, they’re going to take you back and they’re going to kill us immediately. I don’t know why you all think we can just walk right in there, and Mother and Father will decide that they want to have us around again.”
She speaks, but I turn away from her and regard James again.
“We’re better off leaving here and looking for a new home. It’s still dangerous, but it puts more distance between us and them. That’s safer than walking into the belly of the beast.”
“And you two? Do you care to weigh in on this discussion?” James asks the twins.
Henry and Harry exchange glances, communicating with one another the way they have their entire lives.
“We’re in. You know us, we rarely like conflict. But if for nothing else, then to return her to her rightful place. She’s too good for our dark souls, anyway.”
“It’s our rightful place and I don’t belong there without you,” Jocelyn explains. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all along. My soul does not differ from yours. I’ve felt it my entire life. I knew you were out here and I needed to find you. We belong together. As a family.”
I want to tell her no. I want to place my lips on hers, keeping her from speaking any more nonsense, but I can’t. We are a family. A fucked up, depraved mess of one, but family no less. Perhaps Father wasn’t stricken with madness all those years ago. Perhaps he always had darkness running through him. The same darkness that lives inside his children; some of us, anyway. It makes sense now. It all comes down to heredity. Some of us were graced with Mother’s goodness. That’s why they fought against James and chose to leave. The rest of us, the loathsome abominations we are, weren’t able to escape it.
We belong together.
“Either we stay here as a family or we fight them as one,” Jocelyn says.
My eyes dance from hers, to the twins’, to James’. Acceptance is clear in each of them. I take a deep breath before speaking to James again.
“What’s your plan?”
Jocelyn
It’s been a long, two-day journey back to the castle, but finally, it’s in our sights. On horseback, we sit atop the hill overlooking Sutherland Castle in silence. Benji’s arms tighten around me as he fixes the grip on the reins. I turn, my eyes meeting his, and I can see the fear he holds inside. I offer him a smile and then look at each of my other brothers, lined up next to us.
“Before we go any further, I need to tell you all that I love you. No matter what happens, I’m glad we finally found one another after all this time. If today is my last day on earth, I’m content knowing I’ll leave it with no regrets.”
James’ stare captures my attention and pulls me in. I think he’s finally realizing we’re not very different after all and that his initial reaction to me was unfair. In my stare back to him, I let him know that there is nothing to be forgiven for. Harry and Henry both look at me with smug grins on their faces and a knowing gleam in their eyes. I narrow my eyes, playfully at them, thinking back to the time we spent together in the yard.
“We should get going,” Benji says.
“Yes,” I agree, placing one last kiss on his lips.
We stow our horses at the bottom of the hill a
nd travel to the castle’s gate on foot. When we get there, the men on the other side ask us to identify ourselves. These men rarely, if ever, set eyes on the royal family, themselves. There is a chance that they won’t believe who I am, but I pray to whatever God will hear me, that they let us through without issue. My brothers are under hoods, with dirt on their faces, so they aren’t easily recognizable. I need them to pass as villagers in order to get them in front of Mother and Father, unnoticed.
“I’m Jocelyn Marie Victoria Sutherland; Princess of Northshire. These men rescued me and helped me find my way back home.”
“The Princess? Dressed the way you are?”
They take one look at the meager dress Benji brought home from his trip into town, and laugh in my face. Rage shoots through me. I love the dress because Benji picked it out for me. It could be a potato sack for all I care. I hold my head high and speak again.
“I said,” I begin again, louder than before, “I am Jocelyn Marie Victoria Sutherland. I am the Princess of Northshire and I demand you take me to my parents, King James and Queen Catherine, at once.”
“Open the gates!”
A man standing on the walkway above the gate shouts at the idiot standing in front of me.
“The Princess has returned!” he shouts again.
Thank goodness.
As the gate rises, the man who gave the order climbs down from the walk and greets me.
“Your Highness, welcome home.”
I recognize him, having seen him around the castle from time to time, but I don’t know his name. He looks between my brothers and I. I wait, nervously, wondering if he realized who I’ve brought here with me. If he does know who they are, he doesn’t say anything.
“Thank you,” I look at him questioningly, so he’ll give me his name.
“Officer Williams, your Highness.”
“Thank you, Officer Williams. If you don’t mind, I’d like to see the King and Queen right away.”
“Of course, I’ll escort you,” he says. “Garrick, Oakley, follow us.”
Following Officer Williams through the castle, it hits me how much I’ve changed in the past week. The place that once felt warm and welcoming, now feels as though it’s got me in a stranglehold. I’m suddenly feeling like our plan isn’t going to work and I fear for the lives of my brothers.
Williams leads us into the empty throne room and asks us to wait while he sends word to the King and Queen that I’ve arrived. Garrick and Oakley wait by the door as a security measure. I wish they would have gone with Willams. I want to speak to my brothers one more time before they face our parents.
James wanted to come in here, swords drawn, ready to slice our parents to pieces first and ask questions second. He didn’t like it when I told him that he’s lost touch with reality, secluded from the rest of the world as long as he’s been. Luckily, Benji and the twins were able to make him see reason. Together, we came up with a plan that I believe we can pull off.
As long as nothing goes horribly wrong.
“Jocelyn?”
I hear Mother’s voice to my left and I turn toward it. She rushes through the door, tears in her eyes and crushes me to her chest.
“Oh, I was so worried when I realized you’d gone missing. Are you okay? Were you hurt? What happened?”
She has more worry lines on her face than the last time I saw her and for a brief moment I feel sad. Pushing my feelings aside, the way she pushed my brothers out of her life, I take a deep breath.
“Mother, please. I’m fine.”
Over her shoulder, I see Father enter the room, a hard expression on his aging face. His eyes scan over the four men flanking me, two on each side. Nervously, I wait for him to recognize them, but he doesn’t.
“Jocelyn, my princess. It’s so wonderful to have you home. It wasn’t the same without you.”
He speaks to me as though I’ve been gone on a trip instead of disappearing without a trace. He places a kiss on my forehead and slowly walks up the steps to his throne. As he sits upon it, I think about how frail he’s gotten in the last year. At 55, he’s the only man in the Sutherland line to make it this long. The brief sadness I felt a moment ago for Mother doesn’t resurface when I think about the possibility of Father dying.
“Now, if my lovely ladies will join me, we can find out who these brave heroes are who rescued you and deliver their reward.”
He speaks with condescension on his tongue and it makes me uneasy. He’s already over this reunion, ready to get back to whatever he was in the middle of when he received word that I’d returned. Mother lets me go and takes her place to the right of him on her own throne. They wait for me to join them, but I don’t move.
“Jocelyn?”
“Mother, Father,” I begin. “I left here because I needed to find something.”
“What was it you needed to find, dear daughter?” Father patronizes.
“My brothers.”
I watch as his expression turns grim.
“Impossible,” he scoffs. “Your brothers died years ago.”
“Yes, a fact that you chose to omit from my upbringing until I managed to drag it out of Mother last week.”
Mother looks at Father with a fearful expression. Father returns it with a threatening stare.
“Only, they didn’t die. Actually, I found them. Four of them, anyway.”
Bound in a state of shock, they’re unable to form words as the four men that surround me remove their hoods, revealing their identities.
“What?” Mother gasps quietly.
Tears fill her eyes immediately as she stands and walks toward us. Inspecting each of them, she searches for recognition.
“James?” she asks when she gets to him.
He doesn’t answer her. His icy stare meets her wet eyes, but that’s the only movement he makes. She continues to Benji, who is standing next to James.
“Benjamin. Oh, my dear boy.”
“Mother.” Disdain drips from his voice as he greets her.
She crosses in front of me, stopping when she’s between Harry and Henry. Placing a palm on one of each of their cheeks, her eyes dart between them. Her silence makes me angry.
Does she not know who they are?
They follow James’ lead and regard her silently.
“Harry and Henry, Mother. That’s who they are.”
“I know. Of course, I know. They’re my children. I would never forget their faces.”
“You’d just banish them, callously?”
“Watch your tone,” Father barks from his throne.
“But the plan wasn’t for her to banish them, was it, Father?” I ask him. “How was it you planned to kill my brothers?”
“Silence!” he shouts, his voice echoing throughout the vast room.
“Leave us.”
Garrick and Oakley abandon their positions and leave the room, closing the door behind us.
“What courage you must possess, my daughter, to bring them here. Are you planning to kill me, too?”
“Of course not. This family has seen enough death. Andrew. Frederick. George. Louis. Do you remember them? I don’t, because I never got the chance to meet them. They died of the black plague, so it looks like there was one thing you weren’t lying about, Mother.”
Mother sobs under the weight of her guilt.
“You might be happy to know that Edward, Christopher, Philip, and Alexander are leading a somewhat normal life. They found love and started families of their own.”
Father’s disinterest in what I’m saying isn’t a surprise.
“What’s your plan, then, daughter of mine?”
“No plan. I just want you to make things right. Let them return to the castle and live the rest of their lives as they should have done all along. As Princes and as our future King.”
My father’s booming laughter makes my blood boil, even knowing he would not grant my wish. In fact, I was counting on him not to. Our entire plan rested on the hopes that our father is still
the stone cold, uncaring person who wanted them dead eighteen years ago.
“Let them live here? Knowing that they all probably want to kill me? Do you consider me a fool, daughter?”
“Of course not. They forgave you years ago, but they didn’t return home out of fear that you would kill them on the spot.”
“Their choice to return here should scare them.”
I watch as Father looks from face to face, taking in the sight of his sons standing before him. Anxiety ripples through me, making my stomach ache.
“Guards!” he shouts and within seconds several men storm the room, surrounding us.
“No!” Mother and I both scream at the same time, but only her scream is genuine.
“Throw these men in the dungeons and send for the executioner.”
I stare my father down with nothing but hate and disgust. This time, my feelings are real.
“Tomorrow, we will have a feast in celebration of the Princess’ return. At sunrise the following day, we will watch as the four men responsible for abducting her are given the death they deserve.”
I can’t stop the tears from falling as the guards swarm my brothers. This is what we planned for, but I’m no less frightened that something isn’t going to go terribly wrong. Mother grabs me and pulls me from the ruckus. I watch on as my brothers struggle to get free from the guards who wrestle them to the ground. Tying their hands behind their backs, they’re led from the room, each turning to look at me one more time. I look upon them with hope and love, and I try to let them see that this isn't the way their stories will end.
“How can you be so cruel to your own children?” I turn to Father and scream at him.
“I did it for you, daughter mine. So you can rule this kingdom on your own. You’ll go down in history as the first Queen of Northshire.”
“And as Queen, I’ll make sure the knowledge of what happened here is passed along from generation to generation. There’ll be no one in the Sutherland line who won’t know of your cruelty and callousness. You’ll live in infamy as a stain in the Sutherland bloodline and as the worst King who’s ever ruled over Northshire.”