Enchantress (12 page)

Finally she said, "Very well. As you
desire."

Just like that, Nino the reluctant had
got himself a wife.

* * * *

They did go for a ride, but he led her
horse by the bridle, giving her a quick first lesson. He seemed
amused by the fact that she had never learned, and he was an
unexpectedly patient tutor.

Jesamyn tried to concentrate, but her
mind spun with thoughts. She had agreed to be one of their wives
and she did not know why she had done so, but then he would have no
idea why he asked either. Because she had cast her spells upon him.
The man did not know his arse from his elbow at that moment, did
he?

Soon all be dead, once she had found a
way to administer her poison. A marriage would just mean delay.
Unless, of course, she could slip her poison into the wedding
feast.

It might be the perfect ending to her
mission. The perfect victory.

Jesamyn was not made to be a wife and
mother. She was quite sure of that.

"When can the marriage take place?"
she asked him.

"Tomorrow, if you are ready," he
replied, smiling. "No need to waste time."

No indeed.

So this would be their last night.
Theirs and hers for she would take the poison too. It would be for
the best, preferable to flight. She was tired and saddened, strange
images passing through her thoughts. The spirits were silent, so
perhaps they had left her already. She must prepare herself for the
end.

Suddenly she thought of the crushed
seeds she'd been forced to leave behind in the distillery. What if
one of the women went there and accidentally swallowed some? What
if one of the babes...? The rhythm of her pulse was uneven. Her
blood ran cold.

When they got back to the fortress,
she ran at once to the distillery and found the crushed, spilled
seeds had been cleaned away, but a little bitter odor remained in
the air.

That night she was not shared. Nino
slept with her alone and surprised her again by making no demands
upon her. Instead he slept with his arms and legs wound around her,
warm and tender. He spoke to her of his hopes that she would be
with child soon, but she did not reply. What was there to
say?

Eventually he slept. She listened to
the sounds of his steady breathing and felt his strong heart beat
in unison with her own. Moonlight, cool and silver, slid across the
stone floor of the great hall and touched all the sleeping bodies
laid out on their pallets around the fire. The women had a chamber
of their own in which to sleep. She'd heard it was comfortable and
well furnished, a place where the women could go when they desired
peace away from the men. But Jesamyn found herself thinking of how
much nicer it was to rest in Nino's arms than it was to sleep
alone. She had not slept with another body beside her own since she
lost her sister, for that story she'd told him about her female
lover was a lie.

She had been alone for ten
years.

Her sight became blurred as she
watched the streaks of moonlight and sleeping lumps of shadow
around the hall. She blinked and felt damp drops fall to her
cheeks.

Chapter Nine

The ceremony was organized for early
in the morning. The other wives gathered to bathe Jesamyn and
prepare her body with perfumed oils that made her feel very
pleasantly relaxed and yet vibrantly alive too. They washed and
combed her hair, then braided it with silk ribbon. Jeanne presented
her with a wedding gown more beautiful and exquisitely sewn than
any garment Jesamyn had ever owned. It even had a train, as if she
was a noblewoman.

They removed the bells from her wrists
and ankles.

"But I must keep them," she cried in
alarm.

"Don't worry. You just won't need them
for the ceremony," Princesa explained. "I'll keep them safe for
you." The woman seemed to understand how important these very small
items were as a link to her past life. But of course she did not
know about the dangerous seeds hidden within them.

"Don't let the babes play with them.
They might swallow them and choke."

Isobel assured her not to
worry.

She knew they thought she was merely
worried that the babies might break her precious bells. But she was
anxious that they might swallow some of the poison. The poor babies
were innocent and she did not want them hurt.

"I have been thinking about what you
said," Aelfa whispered to her. "Perhaps I will try some of your
potions, if you don't mind showing me."

She looked at the woman. Her face was
so full of hope. Jesamyn could only say, "I would be happy to help
you."

"I am so glad you came." Aelfa beamed,
squeezing her shoulder. "I know we shall be friends."

Isobel passed her a cluster of flowers
to hold and adjusted the final ribbon in her hair. Cedney fastened
a sprig of lavender to her gown, "for luck," as she said with a
smile. Jeanne looked on with pride, exclaiming at how well the
color of the gown suited her. Princesa brought the babies over to
see how pretty their new mother looked.

Jesamyn had never been surrounded by
so much kindness and she did not know what to make of
it.

They took her down to the castle
courtyard and there, before all the residents of the castle, she
said her vows to an unusually solemn Nino. He was dressed in fine
garments that day and seemed to have combed his hair and scrubbed
his fingernails clean too. She found it oddly endearing that he
went to such trouble.

It all seemed quite unreal.

She was given a goblet of wine and
advised to drink it all down quickly. "Why?" she
demanded.

Nino kissed her cheek and whispered in
her ear, "You will need the drug for the branding."

"For the
what
?"

"We must mark you with our crest as
you are now our property, Jesamyn. It means we will always protect
you, and no one can steal you away from us."

He had neglected to tell her about the
branding.

Well, she was too far in now to
refuse. Already she'd drunk half the goblet. Oh, why not? What
difference did it make now. They would soon all be dead.

As the dizziness took hold she needed
his hand to lead her to the podium and the low table. The residents
of the fortress gathered to observe as her gown was lifted and she
was laid on her back, her legs spread and held by two of his
brothers.

She felt a brush of cold air as her
sex was exposed to the crowd. How many faces there were staring at
her! She'd had no idea there were so many residents that lived and
worked within these walls, for she'd always pictured the d'Anzeray
as living in the dark like bats that came out only at night and
sucked blood from their victims.

Now she saw that the folk who lived
there were quite ordinary. Men and women like any other. Did they
not know the evil of their lord and his sons?

Nino looked down at her, touching her
pussy with a gentle stroke of his fingers. His eyes shone through
lowered lashes and he licked his lips. She could smell fire
somewhere near and heard the clanging of metal.

"Look at that lovely cunny," an
unknown man's voice shouted excitedly from the crowd. "This one's a
fair peach."

"You mean a dark and dusky peach,"
shouted another with a laugh.

And then she saw the iron brand in
Nino's other hand— glowing from the heat of the fire.

She tried to flinch but her muscles
would not cooperate and then the white-hot brand disappeared from
her view. Even straining to lift her head failed. She felt a pinch,
a sudden searing pain. The two brothers holding her legs apart were
looking at her pussy and smiling lustily.

As if far in the distance she heard
the watching crowd cheer.

Nino had branded her with their crest.
She was trembling. He hunkered down and licked her pussy while his
brother's still held her legs and the crowd watched. Her climax
built rapidly, as if the branding had heightened the senses in her
nether regions. She began to squeal in raw delight, pumping her
hips, riding his mouth, pushing her cunt into his face. Suddenly
her juices shot forth like a spring, as they never had done before.
The brothers looked on in evident amazement. Apparently they had
never seen a woman come that way either.

They were so fascinated by it that
they each took turns making it happen again and again, much to the
raucous delight of the audience. Her pussy was milked thus without
mercy for half an hour or more, their new toy proudly exhibited to
the people of the castle as the cum squirted out like a
fountain.

* * * *

She slipped away to use the privy,
while they were all still feasting. But she could not find her
bells. They were not put away where Princesa had told her they
would be.

Jesamyn did not look too hard for
them, but went back to her wedding feast and her new husbands.
There would be plenty of time and opportunity later.

I think I love you,
Nino had said.

She was inclined to think it merely a
state of lust. But she too was feeling strange. Perhaps the drug
they put in her wine still had not worn off yet.

Our crest ...you are now
our property, Jesamyn. It means we will always protect you, and no
one can steal you away from us.

He thought she belonged there now with
him, his brothers and the other wives.

Just as she reached the passage to the
great hall, a cloaked figure appeared before her and she stopped.
It was Sister Marie-Angeline.

"You look for your bells, my
dear?"

"Yes."
How did the old lady know that
? "I
was promised they would not be lost."

The nun lifted an arm and showed the
missing cuffs and anklets hanging from her fingers. "And I kept
them safe for you." She handed them to Jesamyn. "As I keep my son
safe."

"Thank you." She snatched the bells
and hurried into the hall. The old lady did not follow her, and
Jesamyn did not look back.

"I thought you had run away," Nino
said when he saw her return.

"I decided against it," she replied
snippily. "For now."

He laughed, grabbed her hand and
squeezed it. "I am growing accustomed to the sight of you in
clothes," he said. "That gown suits you."

"Jeanne made it." She sniffed. "It is
too grand for me."

"Nothing is too grand for my wife." He
lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Once he was
distracted again and talking to the brother on his right, Jesamyn
examined her bells and found that each was intact, the poisonous
seeds still inside. But the nun knew what she meant to do. Why had
she passed them back to her without comment? Without trying to stop
her?

After a moment Nino's attention
returned to her. "Is something amiss, Jesamyn?"

"What could possibly be
amiss?"

His eyes narrowed. "Oh, I thought
perhaps you were feeling... thwarted."

She snapped her head around to face
him. "Thwarted? Why do you say that?"

"Well, you were so determined to hate
me. Now you cannot." He winked.

"I shall do as I please."

"But now you're my wife and you cannot
hate me."

"On the contrary. Now I am more
entitled to hate you than ever." She glowered at him.

He reached over and cupped her right
breast, sweeping his thumb across the little peak that rose
instantly against the soft, thin material. "Yes, I see how you hate
me."

"My body acts that way. Not my
mind."

He squeezed her breast and licked his
lips. "Pull down your gown and feed me your luscious
fruit."

After a moment, she slipped the
shoulder down to reveal her perfumed breast. She held it in her
palm, pink nipple jutting out. He bowed his head and took it in his
mouth. Jesamyn saw that everyone was watching as he sucked her
gently. And he slid a hand between her thighs, rubbing her pussy
through her gown until he had made a good-sized wet spot. She
squeezed down on her climax, knowing her face was flushed, her
breath coming in short tell-tale gasps. Nino slipped her other
shoulder down until she was bared to the waist and he bade her sit
that way for the remainder of supper, his hands and mouth toying
openly with her naked breasts for all to see.

Tonight they drank plenty of wine,
passing the jug around and toasting their new bride. On the table
before her there rested the bells with their deadly ingredients
held within. Her heart quaked.

The other wives sat among the
husbands, teasing and laughing playfully. She saw Aelfa's autumnal
hair gleaming in the candlelight and remembered that she had
promised to help the woman with a fertility potion. With her magic
she could truly be of assistance. Aelfa, she knew with one glance,
had given all her trust, all her soul, to Sebastien d'Anzeray —the
man she said had "rescued" her from her miserable first marriage.
The woman laughed a great deal and loudly, but she hid her true
feelings, afraid to show them to the man she adored.