"O, but Mother, it is so soon."
"Such rigor will be good for her; it will make her malleable," said the Queen.
And turning with a broad gesture that loosened the train of her gown and made it fall behind her, the Queen left the parlor.
The Page released Beauty.
And the Prince at once took her wrists in his hand and urged her out into the corridor, Lady Juliana coming beside him.
The Queen was gone, and the Prince moved Beauty angrily along ahead of him, Beauty's sobs echoing under the dark vaulted ceilings.
"O, dear, poor exquisite dear," said the Lady Juliana.
At last they reached the Prince's apartments, and to Beauty's misery, the Lady Juliana came in as if this were nothing to enter the Prince's chamber.
"Have they no propriety and restraint among themselves," Beauty thought, "or are they degraded with each other as we are degraded?"
But she soon realized it was only the Prince's study, and Pages were about. And the door remained open.
The Lady Juliana took Beauty now from the Prince, he soft cool hands urging Beauty down on her knees before her chair.
Then from somewhere in the folds of her gown, the Lady produced a long narrow silver-handled brush and she commenced to brush Beauty's hair lovingly. "This will soothe you, my poor precious one," she said. "Don't be so frightened."
Beauty broke into fresh sobs. She hated this lovely Lady. She wanted to destroy her. She felt such savage thoughts, ad yet she wanted at the same moment to cling to her, to sob against her breast. She thought of friends she'd had at her father's Court, her Ladies in waiting, and how many times they had been easily affectionate with one another, and she wanted to abandon herself to the same affection. The brushing of her hair produced a tingling all through her scalp and through the flesh of her arms as well. And when the Lady's left hand covered her br**sts and gently patted them, she felt herself defenseless. Her mouth went slack and she turned towards the Lady Juliana and laid her forehead against her knee, defeated.
"Poor, darling one," said the Lady. "But the Bridle Path is not so dreadful. You will be grateful afterwards that you were used rigorously in the beginning, for it will all the sooner soften you."
"Familiar sentiments," Beauty thought.
"Perhaps," the Lady Juliana went on with the rhythmic stroking of the brush, "I shall ride beside you."
What could this mean?
And then the Prince said:
"Take her back to the Hall now."
Without explanations, without farewells, without tenderness!
Beauty turned and rushed to him on her hands and knees and gave his boots fervent kisses. Again and again she kissed them both, hoping for what she did not know, one real embrace from him perhaps, something to allay her fears of the Bridle Path.
The Prince received her kisses for a long time, and then he lifted her and turned her to Lady Juliana who clasped Beauty's hands behind her back.
"Be obedient, beautiful one," she said.
"Yes, you ride beside her," said the Prince. "But you must make a good show of it."
"Of course, I should very much enjoy making a good show of it," said the Lady Juliana, "and it is best for you both. She is a slave, and all slaves desire a firm mistress and master. If they cannot be free, then they do not like for there to be ambivalence. I shall be most firm with her, but always loving."
"Take her back to the Hall," said the Prince. "My mother will not allow me to keep her here."
Chapter 14
THE BRIDLE PATH
AS SOON as Beauty opened her eyes from sleep, she could feel a new excitement in the castle.
Torches everywhere brilliantly illuminated the Slaves' Hall, and all about her Princes and Princesses were receiving elaborate preparation. The hair of the Princesses was being combed and studded with flowers. The Princes were being polished with oil, their stiff curls combed just as carefully as those of the young women.