and quite suddenly Lady Juliana might give Beauty a deep kiss that startled Beauty and weakened her. Lady Juliana stroked Beauty all over. She lavished her with kisses and compliments, and when she did beat her with the leather strap, Beauty cried softly with deep moaning breaths and languid sense of abandon.
Very soon she was gathering little flowers in her teeth for Lady Juliana, or with great grace kissing the hem of her skirts, or even her white hands, all of these gestures delighting her mistress.
"Ah, am I becoming what Alexi wanted me to become," Beauty thought. But most of the time she did not think at all.
At meals she took great care to serve the wine gracefully.
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