"Beauty, Beauty," he whispered. "You have conquered me as surely as I have conquered you. Don't ever arouse my jealousy again. I don't know what I would do if you did it!"

"My Prince," she moaned and kissed him on the mouth, and when she saw the distress in his face, she covered it with kisses.

"I'm your slave, my Prince," she said.

But he would only moan and press his face into her neck, and seemed bereft.

"I love you," she implored him, and then he laid her down on the bed, and drawing up beside her, took his wine from the bedside stand and, gazing at the fire, seemed for a long time to be thinking.

Chapter 7

PRINCE ALEXI

BEAUTY DREAMED a dream of boredom. She roamed the castle in which she had lived all her life, with nothing to do, and now and then paused in a deep window seat to watch the tiny figures of the peasants in the fields below gathering the fresh mown grass into haystacks. The sky was cloudless and she disliked the look of it, its sameness and vastness.

It seemed she could not find anything to do that hadn't been done a thousand times before, and then suddenly there came to her ears a sound she could not identify.

She followed the sound, and through a doorway saw an old woman, bent and ugly, plying a strange contraption. It was a great turning wheel with a thread that was winding itself upon a spindle.

"What is it?" Beauty asked with great interest.

"Come see for yourself," said the old woman, who had the most remarkable voice, because it was young and strong and so unlike her visage.

It seemed Beauty had only just touched this marvelous machine with its whirring wheel when she fell down in a great swoon, and all about her heard the world weeping.

"...sleep, sleep for a hundred years!"

And she wanted to cry out, "Unbearable, worse than death," for it seemed some great deepening of the ennui she had struggled against ever since she could remember, the wandering from room to room...

But she awoke.

She was not at home.

She was lying in the bed of her Prince, and she felt the prickling of the jeweled coverlet beneath her.

The room was full of the leaping shadows of the fire, and she saw the gleam of the carved posts of the bed, and the drapery fallen about her in rich colors. She felt herself animated and flushed with desire, and she rose up, so eager was she to lose the weight and texture of her dream, and she realized that the Prince was not beside her.

But there he was, by the fire, his elbow against the stone above it, which bore a great crest with crossed swords. He wore his brilliant red velvet cloak still and his high turned down leather boots with their pointed toes, and his face was sharpened with brooding.

The pulse between her legs quickened. She stirred, and gave some faint little sigh so that he awoke from his thoughts and approached her. She could not see his expression in the darkness.

"All right, there is but one answer," he said to her. "You shall become accustomed to all the sights of the castle, and I shall become accustomed to seeing you accustomed to them."

He pulled the bell rope by the bed. And lifting Beauty he sat her at the end of the bed so that her legs were curled under her.

A Page entered, as innocent as the boy who had so diligently punished Prince Alexi, and like all the Pages he was extremely tall with powerful arms. Beauty was certain they had all been chosen for these endowments. She had no doubt he could have held her by the ankles had he been ordered, but his face was smooth without the slightest meanness.

"Where is Prince Alexi?" The Prince demanded. He appeared angry and resolute, and he paced back and forth as he spoke.

"O, he is in frightful trouble tonight, your Highness. The Queen is much concerned with his clumsiness. You know he must be her example to others. She had had him tied in the garden, most uncomfortably."

"Yes, well, I shall make him even more uncomfortable. Obtain my mother's permission and bring him to me and bring Squire Felix with him."

Beauty heard all this in quiet amazement. She tried to make her face as smooth as the Page's face. But she was more than alarmed. She was going to see Prince Alexi again, and she could not imagine concealing her feelings from her Prince. If only she could distract him from this.

But when she made a little whispering sound, he ordered her at once to be quiet, and to sit where she was, and to cast her eyes down.

Her hair fell around her, tickling her naked arms and her thighs, and almost with pleasure she realized there was no escaping this.

Squire Felix appeared almost immediately, and as she had suspected he was the Page who had so vigorously spanked Prince Alexi earlier. He had the gold paddle fixed to his belt so it dangled at his side as he bowed to the Prince.

"All of those who serve here are picked for their gifts," Beauty thought, looking at him, for he too was fair, and his blond hair made an excellent frame for his youthful face, thought it was somewhat plainer than those of the captive Princes.

"And Prince Alexi?" the Prince demanded. His color was high, his eyes had an almost evil glitter, and Beauty became frightened again.

"We're preparing him, your Highness," said Squire Felix.

"And why should this take so long? How long has he served in this house that he should be so lacking in respect?"

At once Prince Alexi was brought in.

Beauty tried not to admire him. He was naked as before, of course, she'd expected no less, and in the light of the fire she could see that his face was flushed, and his auburn hair hung loose in his eyes which were cast down as if he dared not lift them to the Prince. They were of about the same age, surely, and about the same height, but here stood the darker Prince Alexi quite helpless and humble before the Prince who was striding back and forth before the fire, his face cold and merciless and slightly agitated. Prince Alexi's organ was rigid. He held his hands behind his neck.

"So you were not ready for me!" the Prince whispered. He drew closer, inspecting Prince Alexi. He looked at the stiffened organ and then with his hand he gave it a rough slap, so that Prince Alexi flinched in spite of himself. "Perhaps you need a little training in being...always...ready," whispered the Prince. His words came slowly and with a deliberate courtesy.

He lifted Prince Alexi's chin and looked into his eyes. Beauty caught herself staring at them both without the slightest shyness.

"My apologies, your Highness," Prince Alexi said, and his voice was low in timbre, calm, without rebellion or shame.

The Prince's lips spread slowly in a smile. Prince Alexi's eyes were larger, and they possessed the same calm as the voice. It seemed to Beauty they might even drain away the Prince's anger but this was impossible.