It was all tangled. I felt myself, naked, sore, crying, being rushed to the pillory just as I watched the dainty accomplished little slave being rushed down the steps and thrust over and forward, her head and hands locked securely as mine had been locked. Gilded wood, of course. Wood decorated with curlicues and white flowers! And this a pillory in the village, one out of an endless number. But her little head was the finest flower.

Forgetting my manners, my friends, and the gracious lady beside me, I strode quickly through the loosening crowd and towards the distant pillory.

I came up before her.

Blue scarf. Wine. There it was again, those long-ago moments, as I was pilloried after each paddling. The Captain of the Guard had been so cross with me by sundown. “You are learning nothing, Prince.”

I’d been so thirsty. And every time there had been the village girls with their cups of wine or cider or even milk, sweet white milk.

She sobbed uncontrollably.

Before I could turn and look for it, a tall slender male slave appeared beside me with a pitcher and cup.

“My lord, she can only lap it, from the cup or your fingers,” he said as I shoved the coin into the leather purse he wore around his neck. Even his cock was half hard, his balls bound up tight to it, and the thin gold straps decorated with jeweled rosettes.

“Yes, I know that, little boy, believe me,” I said.

I held the silver cup under her face, and dipping my fingers, I moistened her quivering lips. But she was far too distressed to drink. I reached into my tunic pocket for a handkerchief, and mercifully found one with which I wiped her face and her eyes and her nose. Blue scarf.

At sundown, after that third paddling, there had been the prettiest boy comforting me. “Prince, you’ll learn,” he’d confided in a shy halting voice.

And now the dish was silver and the wine was sweetened with honey. I could smell it.

This was wonderfully comforting to her. She glanced up fearfully and then down, then stared at the buckle of my belt, or at the cup I held in my right hand.

Now when I fed her the wine with my fingers, she lapped at it, and then I let her lap from the cup itself.

“What is your name, little blossom?” I said.

“Barbara, sire,” she said through her sniffles and sobs.

“You were splendid on the turntable, Barbara,” I said.

“But sire, I was so clumsy, I . . .”

“Ah, precious, never contradict your betters,” I said. “That will never do. Thank me, if you like, but do not tell me I am wrong.”

Her hair was almost golden in the sunlight but truly brown, a light shimmering brown.

“Yes, sire, forgive me!” She jumped suddenly and behind her, over the gilded pillory, I saw the boys and girls gathered there screaming with laughter. They’d been stroking her sex with those wicked little broom toys.

I put up my hand ominously and to my astonishment they backed away. Why did this surprise me?

“Listen, Barbara, you are very beautiful,” I said. “I adore you. I have come many miles to revisit this place. I shall never forget you as the tender blossom I saw here during these moments.”

“I’m so glad you’re pleased, my lord,” she cried. Crisp articulation. A well-spoken girl.

“Look up at me, go ahead.”

Her eyes were dark blue and I could see her piquant nose and mouth. A ruddy finely shaped mouth.

I shifted the cup to my left hand and felt of her little chin, more flesh than bone. I pressed my thumb into the soft flesh—there was a dimple there, very pretty—beneath her lower lip.

One should not say eyes are intelligent but she had intelligent eyes.

“To whom do you belong, girl?” I asked.

“To the village, sire,” she said, and her tears came again, thick and glassy and catching the sun. “I’ve only just . . .”

“Go on, little sparrow,” I said.

“I’ve only just come to the kingdom.” More tears. “I want so to please, my lord. I sold all I possessed to come here, my lord.”

I turned.

The Captain was standing right behind me with Alexi and the lovely lady to whom I’d been unforgivably rude. But she seemed entirely patient and was smiling at me rather wistfully and said at once:

“What can I answer for you, Prince?”

“The girl, I want her!” I said.

“Arranged,” said the Captain. “Whenever and wherever you like.”

“I know what I want now, the sort of lodgings, if I’m to stay. I must talk to the King and Queen.”

“And I will make certain of the details,” said the lady eagerly. “Only tell me, Prince, and I’ll see to it for you. I know full well that the King and Queen very much want you to stay.”

“Yes, most definitely, they want you to stay,” said Alexi. “No doubt of it at all.”

“A townhouse, a townhouse here in the village,” I said. “Is there a well-appointed townhouse that actually overlooks the Place of Public Punishment? That’s what I want and, of course, will pay for it. And this girl as my slave.”

I turned to offer the shuddering little damsel another drink. I knew she had heard every word.

Her pink tongue darted gracefully into the wine, lapping as swiftly and skillfully as that of a cat. Indeed there was something quite feline about her allure. This would certainly shape the manner in which I kept her, trained her, used her.

I was now hard and again on the verge of coming.

I looked around and I could see the distant windows and roofs surrounding the place. Surely those were the diamond-paned windows and gabled roofs of townhouses, had to be, all smartly painted, but they were some distance away.

“There is an available townhouse near, perhaps?” asked Lady Eva, looking up at the Captain.

“Oh, yes, several, though they are hardly the finest or the most popular,” said the Captain. “Most people think the place too busy, too noisy. Prince, you do realize the place is almost never quiet now. There are so many coming and going . . .”

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “It’s precisely what I want.”

“I’m thinking which one would be the best,” said the Captain. He gestured to what appeared the broadest of the distant townhouses, the last one in the row that partially enclosed the far side of the square. “I think that one is indeed available, used now for guests who come and go.”

“We can have it appointed beautifully for you, my lord,” said lovely Lady Eva.

“Yes, that one,” I said. “It looks down here on the turntable and the pillory.”

“I’m sure I can arrange all of this immediately,” said the Captain. “The visitors in that house left early this morning for their native land.” He turned to gesture for someone behind him.

Lady Eva volunteered that she would oversee all the amenities herself.

“Dmitri, are you certain?” asked Alexi. “You don’t want to be in the castle with us?”

“Alexi, darling,” said the lady. “I think our beloved king might be quite pleased with all this. He’s eager to hear Dmitri’s views of the village and this very place.”

“He feels it lacks innovation and expansive ideas,” said the Captain in a low voice.

“Yes, but not to live at Court—” Alexi persisted.

“But of course Prince Dmitri would be living at Court, able to ride up at any time.”

“I never actually lived at Court when I was here,” I said to Alexi. I could hear the poorly suppressed emotion in my voice. And I knew that these words were foolish. They offered no real explanation for my choice.

I laughed suddenly, inexplicably.

I held the cup in my left hand while I smoothed Barbara’s hair with my right. I leaned over and spoke into her ear.

“You’re going to find me a very demanding master,” I said. “But fear not, when I’m finished with you, you’ll be perfection, and I may just keep you for a very long time, ever driving you to greater heights.”

“Master!” she whispered.

“I am Prince Dmitri. Remember that name,” I confided to her. “I’ll be back for you. Perhaps not tonight, perhaps not tomorrow, but very soon.” I turned to the Captain. “There’s no chance of my losing her, with all of these people, all of these slaves!”

“None,” said the Captain. I saw now that there were two grooms beside him, and they were eyeing the girl. “All slaves are carefully watched. No slave is left to slip from vigilance. And actually, Prince, that was always true even when the kingdom was one-third of what it is now.”

Had I insulted him? Of course. He’d certainly stood over me on that first day here so many years ago, hadn’t he? And we’d all known then that we were watched, accounted for, protected to be punished only in the approved ways. Again, I almost laughed, but why I didn’t know.

The noise of the place rose around me, as if stirred by a latent breeze, and the sun felt a bit warm to me suddenly. Ah, it was these Russian clothes. I imagined myself naked, completely naked in this balmy air.

Barbara had almost finished the wine, clever little creature.

I took the last few droplets on my right fingers and I pushed these against her tongue. Then I pushed my thumb into her mouth, opening it, feeling the hot wet inside of her mouth. I wished I could see all of her and not this gilded pillory. Well, I would soon enough.