by Sharon Green
Taking the lamp back into the front room, Elissia began to look around for what food there might be. Pots and pans hung on the wall near the hearth and various cabinets held sacks of odd looking things, but none of it actually resembled food – or at least not food that she’d ever seen. Granted her knowledge of food came from sitting down to table or choosing from dishes on a buffet, but could the uncooked variety look so completely different from what it appeared like when prepared?
That was another question she found herself unable to answer, so she went to her saddlebags, removed the bread and cheese she’d saved, then sat down at the table to eat it. But she didn’t put the food down on the table, not with the layer of dust it had accumulated. The skimpy meal satisfied her hunger only to a certain extent, but it would do until she could get to the next inn. There were inns and roadhouses and posting houses at fairly regular intervals all along the road to Ramsond, so she wasn’t likely to starve.
She took a small drink from the water skin she’d also put into her saddlebags, hoping there was a stream somewhere near the cabin. What was left in the skin was warm and odd-tasting, and although it was better than nothing she would have enjoyed it more if it had been tea instead. She’d have to see
to that at the inn she stopped at tomorrow. She should have thought of replacing the water with tea sooner, but now that she had she’d take care of it as soon as possible.
And that was it as far as settling in went. Her horse was taken care of, her saddlebags were with her, and the latchstring on the door had been pulled in. If she’d thought to bring a book she would have had something to do other than just go to sleep, but she hadn’t thought of it. It had been a very long day, but sleep wasn’t as enticing a thought as it should have been. What about considering how her rescue of Gardal would be best off going?
“Now, isn’t this cozy,” a voice said, making her jump to her feet with a small shriek. “A private inn, just for the two of us.”
“How could you possibly have found me?” Elissia demanded, trying to get her heart to stop thundering around from the fright. It was the beast who stood near the door to the bedchamber, but he shouldn’t have been within miles of that cabin.
“Obviously you were silly enough to think that you were the only one Gardal told about this place,” the beast replied, coming forward to one of the crude wooden chairs near the table and then sitting in it. “When we met a traveler on the road who said he hadn’t seen anything of a boy traveling alone, I had to stop to think where you might be. That was when I remembered about this cabin, and I actually got here right after you did. I saw the lamplight inside and found the window open in the back room, so I took that as a sign of welcome and came inside.”
“You were mistaken about it being a sign of welcome,” Elissia told him wearily before sitting down in her own chair again. “And I don’t understand why this keeps happening. How am I supposed to save my brother’s life if people keep getting in my way?”
By then she had the fingers of both hands over her eyes, not only to rub them but to blot out sight of the world. If she couldn’t even elude one single man, how was she supposed to accomplish anything in Ramsond? She couldn’t be that useless could she?
“Maybe this keeps happening because of all the lies you’ve told,” the beast suggested with faint anger, answering a question that hadn’t really been put to him. “If you ever began to tell the truth, the world would probably shift drastically in shock.”
“I would have lied with my brother’s life at stake, but I haven’t had to,” Elissia decided to point out, tired of simply going along with whatever he said. “And if you haven’t noticed that, it’s your fault rather than mine.”
“Really,” the beast returned flatly, the doubt in his voice more than clear. “What about the first time I told you that you would be staying in your father’s palace? You agreed that you would.”
“You asked me if I understood you, not if I would obey,” Elissia corrected, finally letting herself look at him. “I agreed that I did understand, and that’s all I agreed to.”
He paused to frown in thought for a moment, then brought those dark eyes back to her face.
“All right, I’ll grant that that may be true,” he said with clear reluctance. “But that doesn’t cover the lies you told last night. You made me believe you regretted disobeying me and that you would never do it again. Am I mistaken about that as well?”
“All I did last night was ask what I might say to make you believe me,” Elissia told him with a sigh. “I admitted I had no idea how I might do it, but said nothing about actually feeling what you wanted me
to. Apparently you refuse to understand that nothing will keep me from trying to free my brother, not even the possibility of losing my own life. That’s another thing I don’t know how to convince you of, and if you have any suggestions I’d be more than happy to hear them.”
Elissia put her head back and closed her eyes, privately wondering just how much strength she really did have. How was she supposed to fight against the entire world before she even reached that vile Waysten?
“Don’t start doing that again,” the beast said at once, reaching across to put an oversized hand on her arm. “Letting depression take over is a form of giving up, and I thought you said you’d never give up. If you do, then I have the example of lying I was looking for.”
“Since you’re the one causing the depression, you have an awful nerve complaining about it,” Elissia countered, opening her eyes and shaking off his hand. “If you hadn’t decided to appropriate a woman who wanted no part of you, it would never have happened in the first place.”
“If you hadn’t decided you were exempt from the sort of political marriage most princesses are subject to, it also would never have happened.” His retort was immediate, and a touch of annoyance was now clear in his manner. “Is that what was bothering you? The sudden need to share a man’s bed and the fear that thought caused?”
Elissia studied him for a moment, wondering how he would take the truth. Most men would hate having it, and that might be for the best after all. If it bothered him enough, her annulment would be guaranteed.
“There’s nothing about that to be afraid of,” she said, deliberately showing a faint smile. “I never expected to be married, but I did get curious. So many of the girls raved about how marvelous it was to lie with a man, that I finally decided to try it. The experience wasn’t marvelous at all, and in fact was a bit painful as well as boring, so I never tried it again. The one time was more than enough.”
This time it was the beast’s turn to close his eyes and rub them, his expression something that could only be called pained. He hadn’t liked what he’d heard, and a moment later he shook his head.
“If your father ever heard you say that, he’d probably commit the first violence of his life,” the beast commented, then those eyes were on her again. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that women are supposed to stay untouched until they marry?”
“People have always told me a lot of things, but most of them either weren’t true or didn’t make sense,” Elissia pointed out. “On top of that, why would I have worried about a time that I never expected would come? There were no lines of suitors waiting for my father’s approval, so why would I have expected to be married?”
“There were no lines of suitors because your father knew you were already married,” the beast replied with a sigh, shifting in his chair. “Obviously he should have also made sure that you knew it, but should-haves never count. Don’t say anything about this when you get back. There’s no need to disturb him over something that can’t be changed.”
“I won’t let you send me back,” Elissia stated, making sure her voice stayed calm and reasonable.
“Waysten has to have set traps to snare you when you show up, since it’s highly unlikely that he arranged Gardal’s kidnapping just to try taking over my father’s kingdom. He does want my father’s kingdom, but he’s not stupid enough to tr
y taking it without doing something about you and your father first. If he manages to displace you and take over as High King, he can then walk in and help himself to my father’s kingdom any time he pleases. Can’t you see that?”
“You’re joking,” the beast said with a small laugh of disbelief, staring at her as though she were insane.
“I met your Prince Waysten when we were still boys, and it was perfectly clear that he wasn’t up to anything important. He was a spoiled, greedy little fool, and – ”
“And yet when he was old enough to take over, his father fell ‘ill,’” Elissia finished when the beast’s words simply broke off. “Why he didn’t just kill him instead I have no idea, but it’s been perfectly plain that he’s the cause of his father’s ‘illness.’ No one will admit out loud to believing that, but I’m sure they all know it as well as I do.”
“He wouldn’t have killed his father because it’s politically smarter not to,” the beast muttered, rubbing his face with one hand as he stared at nothing. “If a king starts to show aggressive tendencies toward his neighbors, they won’t hesitate to call him to accounts. He is, after all, the only one responsible for his actions. But if a prince, acting as regent, does the same, who’s responsible? The prince himself, or his father the king who might be giving him his orders? That question would make people hesitate before taking action, possibly until it’s too late for any action to help. I didn’t think Waysten was smart enough to know that.”
“A lot of people have been underestimating him, but I’m not one of them,” Elissia said, faintly surprised that the beast had bothered to tell her what she needed to know. “He’ll have been horrified to hear that Gardal was kidnapped inside his very city, and he’ll supposedly have people out searching for my brother’s whereabouts. Those people in reality will be making sure that no official investigators get close to the smallest clue, so what the situation calls for is an unofficial investigator. And I can get into the city without Waysten being immediately told that I’ve arrived, so – ”
“If Waysten is behind all this, is he likely to be keeping Gardal in his palace?” the beast interrupted to ask. “I would have said no, but now I’m not completely certain.”
“It’s highly unlikely that Gardal is being kept in the palace,” Elissia replied, startled by the intensity of the dark gaze which had returned to her – and by the fact that he was actually asking her opinion. “If word ever got out that my brother was there, Waysten would have no neutral position to retreat to. If Gardal was kept elsewhere and he managed to escape or be rescued, Waysten would only have to claim to be overjoyed at the good news to be perfectly safe. Nothing and no one would be available to link him to the kidnapping.”
“Yes, I agree,” the beast said with a distracted nod. “As a boy I also considered him a sneak, and that’s typical of the way a sneak would think. But now I have to change my own plans. I never thought anyone would try to mousetrap me like this, but the chances are too good that you’re right. If he ever managed to defeat me, even my father would be neutralized. So how did you plan to get into the city without Waysten being told about it?”
Every time those hard black eyes came back to pin her with his gaze, Elissia found herself startled. She didn’t know why this man was suddenly talking to her as though she were something other than a useless woman, but it felt incredibly good
“I know someone who lives on a farm not far from the city,” Elissia admitted without hesitation. “I can count on her to add to this flimsy disguise I’m using, and that way I can get into the city without anyone recognizing me. And I also intend to have them quietly question their neighbors throughout the countryside. If Gardal is being kept on a farm instead of in the city, it won’t take long before I know.”
“So you do have a definite plan after all,” he said, an odd kind of amusement behind the words. “You didn’t just take off, you left with a purpose. But don’t think your plan will go to waste because you’re being sent home. I think it’s a good plan, so I’ll be incorporating it into my own ideas.”
“If you send me home, you won’t be able to use my plan,” Elissia said through her teeth, wondering if anything in the world would move the beast from the single track his mind seemed to be on. “You don’t know the people involved, and even if I gave you their names they would never trust you. Have you forgotten that Waysten has already started to blame you for the kidnapping? You won’t find anyone willing to talk to you freely, and if you try to force them into talking they’ll just lie because they’ll think that lying will save their lives.”
“You could be right,” he conceded as he leaned back in his chair again, strangely unmoved. “It might turn out that no one will be willing to talk to me, but that won’t be your concern. I can’t trust you not to make trouble at the wrong time – or even not take off on your own – so you’ll be going home whether you like it or not.”
“Do you want me to give you my word that I won’t leave on my own again?” Elissia asked at once when she saw the glimmer of hope. “I won’t break my word once it’s given, but you’ll have to give your word about something as well: that you won’t try to keep me out of things when it comes to rescuing my brother. Someone from my family needs to be there, just to show that we’re not all helpless, and I’m the only one it can be.”
“Let me think about it for a minute,” he responded, an answer that would have been more encouraging if he didn’t seem to have already done the thinking. He put his hand to his chin and pretended to be considering the matter, but the speed with which his pondering time ended made Elissia believe he was definitely up to something.
“All right, I’ve decided,” he announced after the moment, his expression much too neutral to be in any way real. “I’ll let you come along with me under certain conditions, and those conditions aren’t negotiable. Just how badly do you want to come?”
“You know how badly,” she told him bluntly, refusing to beat around the bush. “What impossible conditions have you decided to ask for?”
“Hardly impossible,” he disagreed mildly, still showing nothing but smooth and patient reason. “I never expect anyone to do the impossible, not even myself. What I want will be extremely unpleasant for you, but you do have the option of refusing. And if you do refuse, I’ll have to tie you up until morning when some of my men can take you home. I won’t give you the chance to disappear again, and there won’t be any stops between here and your father’s palace. That way I’ll know you made it back safely.”
“Tell me what you want,” Elissia ground out, hating what he had in mind even without hearing the details. If he was taking the trouble to threaten her before mentioning the details, it had to be something really extreme.
“I want a number of things,” he finally admitted, a gleam in those dark black eyes. “The first will be your sworn word that you won’t disappear again, and you’d better plan to put it in a form that I’ll believe. After that you’ll be required to start a new habit: at least once a day, you’ll come to me and ask me to give you a spanking. You’ll have to ask nicely, and after you’ve had the spanking you’ll ask me to lie with you and allow you to do your wifely duty. Do you think you can manage all that? If you can’t, I’ll look around for a rope to tie you up with right now.”
Chapter 4
copyright 1999, 2002 by Sharon Green
Elissia was too stunned to say a single word for a good deal longer than a minute, but the beast just sat there, patiently waiting for her answer. When her mind finally began to think again, she came to the only conclusion possible.
“You’ve got to be joking, and it’s in terrible taste,” she managed to get out, trying not to show how cornered she felt. “No one would expect me to agree to that, not even you.”
“I’m not joking, and I think you know it,” he rejoined, continuing to show very little more than calm patience. “You’ll be required to ask me to give you a spanking, and after you’ve had the spanking you’ll ask me to lie wi
th you and allow you to do your wifely duty. Take another moment or two to think about it.”
His generous offer probably came because of the knock on the door, Elissia knew, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to wonder who it might be. She had other things to think about, like the fact that she did know he wasn’t joking. It was obvious he would have preferred to send her home, but for some reason was giving her an option that would allow her to stay. He would certainly find her staying pleasant, but for herself
“Will you join me for dinner while you’re thinking about your decision?” the beast asked suddenly, putting a metal platter of something down on the table. “You also have your choice of wine or water to wash it down, and although the wine isn’t really the best it’s at least drinkable.”
He also put two medium-size drinking skins on the table, all of which told Elissia who had been at the door. He still has his men with him, and they were taking care of their king’s needs. Just as their king was trying to take care of his own needs – at her expense.
“I don’t know if I have much of an appetite left,” she replied with perfect truth, examining the platter of food. “And what is that? It looks something like chicken, but only in a distant way.”
“It’s rabbit,” the beast answered as he reclaimed his chair and reached for a piece that looked singed on the outside and bloody on the inside. “Don’t worry, if you try it you’ll like it, everyone always does. It tastes like chicken.”