"That is Lord Stefan," Lady Juliana confided in a hushed voice, "and you must show him the utmost respect. He is the Prince's favorite cousin. Besides, he is quite miserable today. It is his precious and disobedient Prince Tristan who is the cause of it."

"Ah, and if I could only see Prince Tristan," Beauty thought. She had not forgotten Alexi's mention of him, an incomparable slave who knew the meaning of yielding. So he had caused trouble, had he? She could not help but observe that Lord Stefan was very handsome. Golden-haired and gray-eyed, his youthful face was heavy with brooding and unhappiness.

His eyes rested on Beauty only for a second as she drew near, and though he seemed to acknowledge her charms, he lapsed again into listening to the Prince, who lectured him sternly.

"You bear him too much love, it's the same with me and this Princess you see before you. You must curb your love as I must curb mine. Believe me, I understand even as I condemn you."

"O, but the village," murmured the young Lord.

"He must go and he will be the better for it!"

"O, heartless Prince," whispered Lady Juliana. She urged Beauty forward to kiss Lord Stefan's boots as she took her side beside both of them. "Poor Prince Tristan will be in the village the whole summer."

The Prince lifted Beauty's chin and bent to take a kiss from her lips, which filled Beauty with a softening torment. But she was too curious about all that was being said and dared not make the slightest movement to attract him.

"I must ask you..." Lord Stefan began. "Would you send Princess Beauty to the village if you felt she deserved it?"

"Of course I would," said the Prince. But he did not sound convincing. "I would do it in an instant."

"O, but you couldn't!" Lady Juliana protested.

"She doesn't deserve it, so it does not matter," the Prince insisted. "But we are talking about Prince Tristan, and Prince Tristan, for all the abuse and punishments he has endured, remains a mystery to everyone. He needs the rigors of the village just as Prince Alexi once needed the kitchen to teach him humility."

Lord Stefan was deeply troubled, and the words rigor and humility seemed to pierce him. He rose and begged the Prince to come with him and make a better judgment of it.

"They go tomorrow. The weather is already very warm and the villagers are already preparing for the auction. I've sent him to the prisoners' yard to wait there."

"Come, Beauty," the Prince said, rising. "It will be good for you to see this and come to understand it."

Beauty was intrigued and followed eagerly. But the Prince's coldness and sternness made her uneasy. She tried to remain close to Lady Juliana as they proceeded along a pathway, out of the gardens, past the kitchen and stables to a plain dirty yard in which she saw a great cart, without its horse, standing on four wheels against the walls that surrounded the castle.

There were common soldiers here, menials. She felt her nakedness as she was made to follow the brightly dressed trio. Her welts and cuts smarted anew and fearfully she looked up to see a small pen, fenced in crude sticks, in which a gaggle of naked Princes and Princesses stood with their hands bound to the backs of their necks, milling as if it were less exhausting to walk than to stand by the hour.

A common soldier dealt a blow now and then through the fence with a heavy leather belt that sent a squealing Princess towards the middle of the group for cover. And, catching other naked bu**ocks, he walloped them as well, producing a groan from a young Prince who turned to him resentfully.

It infuriated Beauty to see this lowly soldier abusing such lovely white legs and bottoms. Yet she could not keep her eyes off the slaves who backed away from the fence only to be tormented from the other side by another idle, devilish boy who struck much harder and with much more deliberation.

But now the soldiers saw the Prince and bowed at once, showing him the strictest attention.

And it seemed at that same moment the slaves saw the little group approaching. Moans and whimpers commenced from those who struggled in spite of their gags to make their plight known, their muffled cries became a lamentation.

They seemed as beautiful as any slaves Beauty had seen, and as they writhed now, some of them dropping on their knees before the Prince, she saw here and there a lovely peach-colored sex beneath curls of pubic hair, or br**sts quivering with crying. The Princes were many of them painfully erect as if they could not control it. And one of them had pressed his lips to the rough ground as the Prince and Lord Stefan, and Lady Juliana with Beauty at her side drew up to the little fence to inspect them.

The Prince's eyes were angry and cold, but Lord Stefan appeared shaken. And Beauty perceived that his gaze was fixed on one very dignified Prince who neither wailed or bowed, nor in any way begged for mercy. He was as fair, as was the young lord, his eyes very blue, and though the mean little gag distorted his mouth, his face was otherwise serene as ever she had seen Prince Alexi's. He looked down humbly enough, and Beauty tried to conceal her fascination with his exquisitely sculpted limbs and his swelling organ. He seemed in great distress, however, behind his indifferent expression.

Lord Stefan suddenly turned his back as if he could not quite contain himself.

"Don't be so sentimental. He deserves his time in the village," the Prince said coldly. And with an imperious gesture he ordered the other wailing Princes and Princesses to be silent.

The guards watched all with folded arms, smiling at the spectacle, and Beauty dared not look at them for fear their eyes would meet hers, giving further humiliation.

But the Prince ordered her to come forward and to kneel up and listen to his instruction.

"Beauty, look on these unfortunates," the Prince said with obvious disapproval. They are going to the Queen's Village, which is the largest and most prosperous in the country. It houses the families of all those who serve here; the craftsmen there make our linen, our simple furniture, supply us with wine, food, milk, and butter. There is a dairy there and the fowl are raised on the little farms, and there are all those who make up a town in any location."

Beauty stared at the captive Princes and Princesses, who though they could no longer beg with groans and cries, still bowed before the Prince who seemed indifferent to them.

"It is perhaps the loveliest village of the realm," the Prince went on, "with a stern Lord Mayor and many Inns and taverns that are the favorites of the soldiers. But it is allowed one special privilege that no other village enjoys, and that is to purchase at auction for the warm months those Princes and Princesses in need of dire punishment. Anyone in the village may purchase a slave if he or she has the gold for it."