he rewarded her with a kiss.
"If it pleases you, my Prince..." she stammered.
"Ah, that is lovely," he said. "And now to work, my beautiful one. And I want to see you work fast, yet gracefully. I want to see you do all things correctly, yet with some artfulness. In my closet on a hook you will see my red velvet scapular and gold girdle. Bring these things to me quickly and lay them out on the bed. You are going to dress me."
Beauty rushed to obey.
She had the clothing down from its hooks and hastened to bring it back, moving on her knees, the clothing in her arms. She laid it out on the foot of the bed, and turned waiting.
"Now undress me," said the Prince. "And you must learn to use your hands only when you cannot accomplish something otherwise."
Obediently Beauty took the leather lacings of his surcoat in her teeth, pulled loose the knot and saw them open. The Prince pulled the coat over his head and gave it to her. And now as he seated himself on a stool by the fire, she went to work unfastening his many buttons. It seemed she met with one obstacle after another. She was conscious of his body, its perfume and warmth, and his strange preoccupation. Soon she had the shirt off with his help, and then she must remove his long breeches.
Now and then he would aid her, but most tasks she performed herself, taking the upper lip of his velvet-lined boots carefully in her teeth she pulled at the heels with her hands until they slipped off easily.
It seemed a long time that she labored, learning every detail of his wear. And now she must dress him.
She placed the white silk undershirt on him with both hands as he slipped his arms into it. And though she laid the placket of buttonholes in place with her hands, she drew each button through with her mouth so that he was very pleased and commended her.
She grew tired; her breasts ached from the heavy brass bells, and she felt the weight of the others between her legs, and that maddening stroking of her thighs and the jingling sound, which never quite died away. But when she was finished, and he had just pulled on his new boots to help her, he gathered her in his arms and kissed her.
"As time passes, you will learn to work faster. It will be nothing for you to dress or undress me, to perform any small task I ask of you. I shall have you sleep in my chambers, and attend to everything."
"My Prince," she whispered, and she pressed her breasts against him, aching for him. She kissed his boots quickly, and all she had seen during the day came back to haunt and tantalize her: Princess Lizetta's cruel punishment, the Princes being trained, and then the one she had not seen, but never forgotten, Prince Alexi -- all of this came together in her mind, stoking her passion and at the same time frightening her. O, if she could only sleep in the Prince's quarters now. Yet when she thought of all those male slaves she had seen in the Hall...
But the Prince, as if he sensed her mind was not as attentive to him as it should have been, began kissing her roughly.
Then he ordered her to go down on her hands and knees with her forehead pressed to the floor so that he might see her buttocks turned to him. She obeyed, the cruel little bells reminding her of all the naked parts of her.
"My Prince," she whispered to herself. She felt some change in her heart, which she did not fully understand. Yet she was afraid as always.
He ordered her to rise, and again he gathered her into his arms, and this time he said:
"Kiss me as you desire to kiss me."
And overjoyed she kissed the cold smoothness of his forehead, kissed the dark locks of his hair, his eyelids and his long eyelashes. She kissed his cheeks, and then his open mouth. And his tongue passed into her mouth and she weakened all over so that he had to support her.
"My Prince, my Prince," she murmured knowing that she disobeyed. "I am so afraid of all of it."
"But why, beautiful one? Isn't it clear to you now? Isn't it simple?"
"O, but how long will I serve? Will this be all of my life now?"
"Listen to me." He became