Yet there came that moment when she spilt the wine, and must take her punishment dangling from the Page's strong grip, scampering afterwards to the Prince's boots to beg silently for forgiveness. The Prince was furious with her, and when he ordered her spanked again, she was scalded with humiliation.
That night, he whipped her mercilessly with his belt before taking her. He told her he loathed the slightest imperfection in her. And she was chained to the wall to spend the night in weeping and misery.
She dreaded new and frightening punishments. Lady Juliana hinted that Beauty was but a virgin in some respects, that she was being tried very slowly.
And Beauty feared Lord Gregory too, who was always watching her.
One morning when she stumbled on the Bridle Path, Lady Juliana threatened her with the Hall of Punishments.
Beauty fell to her hands and knees at once, kissing Lady Juliana's slippers. And though Lady Juliana relented at once with a smile and a toss of her pretty braids, Lord Gregory, nearby, showed his disapproval.
Beauty's heart was a throbbing pain in her chest as she was led away for grooming. If only she could see Alexi, she mused, and yet he had lost some of his charm for her, and why, she was not certain. Even as she lay on her bed that afternoon, she thought of the Prince, and Lady Juliana. "My Lords and Masters," she whispered to herself, and wondered why Leon had given her nothing to make her sleep when she was not tired at all and tortured by the little throb of passion between her legs as always.
But she had been resting only an hour when Lady Juliana came for her.
"I don't much approve of it myself," Lady Juliana said, as she forced Beauty out into the garden, "but his Highness must let you see those poor slaves being packed off to the village."
Again, the village. Beauty tried to conceal her curiosity. Lady Juliana thrashed her idly with the leather belt, light but stinging blows, as they moved down the path together.
Finally they reached an enclosed garden full of low limbed flowering trees, and on a stone bench Beauty saw the Prince and a handsome young Lord at his side who was talking to the Prince earnestly.
"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.