Princess Sarah and the Origin

"Never you mind, my dear," the king said as he opened the sealed envelope. "Leave the men to their work."

"Nay, Father, it is my staff member who is in danger here." Sarah stood up and reached for the envelope.

"How dare you?" The king stood up and held the note far out of her reach. Before Sarah could hope to get anywhere near it, he looked up and read the note, and burst into boyish laughter. "Good Lord!" Then he buried it in the folds of his robe and nodded at the guard in the doorway to keep Sarah at bay if necessary.

There was no need, for Sarah rushed out of the room in tears. So much for showing they wouldn't get to her, but she no longer cared.

"I shan't wish to violate your authority, Father," Cornelia said. "But surely you won't keep us in the dark as to what was so funny."

"Oh, I do not suppose you would tell your sister any more than I would," he said. "Three days hence, on the fourteenth of July actually, the kidnappers -- and no, they do not identify themselves -- say they shall set Justin free 'if the princess agrees to walk naked through the village at midday.'"

At this, his wife and his daughter both burst into peals of laughter. "Little wonder you didn't want to tell Sarah that!" Lady Clara said. "She would no doubt do it!"

"My thoughts exactly, I am afraid," the king said. "Which is why Sarah shall hear nothing of the contents of this note. Do I make myself clear?" He looked at Cornelia with as stern a look as ever he had given her.

"Of course not, Father," Cornelia said.

Justin knew nothing of where he was being held. It was a dingy cellar with only a sliver of light through a tiny window in the opposite corner from the bed he was chained to. He had spent the better part of the first afternoon trying to see something -- anything -- out that window to at least figure out where he was. But all he could make out was a tuft or two of grass and an occasional squirrel that ran past. It could be anyone's garden.

Anyone but his mother's beloved garden where his mind wandered for hours at a time, fighting for his sanity with happy memories of his innocence; or King Leopold's vast garden where he and Marguerite had taken to rambling and lounging and ever so much more.

The memory of her body close to his, her breasts in his hands, her vagina embracing him so tenderly, was but a bitter irony now. But he let those beautiful memories in now and again as well, in a stubborn hope that he would be reunited with her soon enough. That alone kept him from going insane, of that he was quite sure.

A man in a mask had turned up at intervals to feed him or escort him to the privy, most recently at dawn that morning. Justin could only guess how many hours that had been now, for he couldn't tell the angle of the sun with any reliability. Regardless of that, he welcomed the sound of the door opening -- no matter what the masked man might be there for, at least it would break the monotony for a precious few moments.

But it wasn't the masked man. Justin knew as much before the descending figure came into view. Having lived in an otherwise all-female sanctum for some time now, he knew the sound of swishing skirts when he heard it. His heart leapt. Could it be the princess come to set him free? Or maybe Marguerite had talked her way into being the one to liberate him?

It was neither of them, but another of the entourage. Justin's heart was flying, though he didn't understand why Sarah would send anyone other than Marguerite. "Well, hello!" He tried to stand up, only to recall he couldn't do so with his wrist chained to the bed. "Has the princess paid the ransom?"

"I wish," his colleague said. "I am afraid it is out of my hands now. Nathan has sent a demand to the king, and we shall see if he or the princess honours it."

"Wait." Justin sat up straight enough to make her take a step back, though she was already out of his range. "You are involved in this? You told the kidnappers when we bathe?"

"Justin, I'm sorry," she said. "It is nothing personal."

"Nothing personal?!" Justin felt tears of rage welling up, but he didn't care. "I don't even know if I'll ever get out of here alive!"

"I had no choice!" she responded. "Nathan was going to tell the king a horrible lie about me that would have got me cast out of the palace and probably selling myself in the street because no respectable house would hire me! My only way to avoid that was to talk."

"You could have told the king, or at least Princess Sarah, that it was a lie! There are ways to get ahead of these things!" Justin rattled his shackles in frustration.

"I could have, but you don't know if he would have believed me!" she protested. "Besides, Justin, honestly, you don't belong in our entourage. We all know that deep down, even Sarah I'm sure."

"Did I ask to be put there?" Justin seethed. "I didn't have a bloody choice, did I?"

"You could have quit and taken a trade elsewhere. If you had, you certainly wouldn't be in the soup now." She paused and fidgeted. "But look, what's done is done. When they let you go, surely there is a way I can ensure you will keep all this to yourself?"

"You have got to be kidding!" Justin roared. "Why would I want to keep your secrets?"

"You wouldn't, I concede." She began unbuttoning her dress. "That's why I'm willing to make a deal, Justin."

"You know I wouldn't hurt Marguerite like that!"

"Wouldn't you? You already have, you silly boy, getting yourself hauled up here and chained down, and she doesn't even know if you're alive or dead." She opened her bodice. "But I do, and don't think I haven't caught you admiring these in the bath."

"Yours and everyone else's as well. But the answer is no!"

"I do not believe you are in a position to refuse, my friend." She pushed her dress down over her hips and stood stark naked before him. "Indeed, if I cannot trust you to keep your mouth shut, I could be facing the clink should you get out of here alive. But they wouldn't throw a pregnant lady in there."

Despite his utter revulsion, Justin felt himself getting hard. Not at a time like this!

To his horror, she noticed it as well. "You men can never hide your true attraction to us, can you?"

"I'm not attracted to you! The exact opposite!"

"You're not, but it looks like he is!" She yanked his pants down and, sure enough, his penis was pointed straight up at her. "See, he's even reaching out for me!" she laughed.

"HELP!" Justin called out. Surely the men who'd brought him here did not want this!

"Scream all you like, my dear, but I am going to mate with you! You leave me no choice."

"RAPE! HELP!"

"Rape. Such an ugly word, Justin. But as you wish. If I don't rape you, can I trust you to mind your tongue?"

"How could you?! What have I ever done to you but do my best to be a friend in an unimaginably awkward situation?!"

"It's what you haven't done," she chirped, standing up but leaving her dress on the floor. "Can't you see we were all mad for you? But Marguerite, with her big jugs and big beaver and she was already the princess' favourite, you just had to let her have you as well?"

"A man cannot control who he falls in love with!"

"A man cannot control much of anything, it seems." She slapped his hard penis and he yelped in pain. "Oh, really, now, the key to running the world, and it's that sensitive?" She sat down and took it in one hand and his balls in the other, and rubbed them gently -- but firmly enough to let him know she just might squeeze harder if he crossed her. "Achilles had it all wrong. It ain't your heel that's the weak point. They call us the weaker sex, but you can't do this to us, can you?"

On "this" she did squeeze harder, and he yelped in agony.

"Now then, Justin," she said, her hands still clamped on his genitalia, "Can I trust you to keep mum, or shall I ravage you right here and now?" She knelt over him on the bed and rubbed his erection enticingly around her wet pussy lips. "Or are you going to give in to what you know you want?"

"One question," Justin said. "If I say I'll keep my mouth shut, how do you know I really will?"

"You wouldn't want Marguerite to hear what we did in this bed, would you?"

"But we haven't done anything! Or I haven't!"

"You're a hot-blooded young man who lives and works with eight women and you see us all in the raw on a regular basis and vice versa, and I've known her far longer than you. Which one of us do you think she'll believe?"

"Marguerite loves me, and she trusts me."

"Does she, though?" She finally let go of his balls, but grasped his penis harder and lowered herself over it until he could feel the hot wetness.

"All right, all right! Mum's the word," he said.

"My God, you're no fun, Justin!" To his mild surprise she did back off and let go of him. "But look, you've got me all hot and bothered, you can at least finish me off, can't you?" She nodded at his free hand.

"Oh, very well," he said, recalling how Marguerite looked the other way on the fun they all had in the bath.

"Two fingers, please," she said matter-of-factly, settling herself on the edge of the bed with her legs open to him.

"Your wish is my command," he grumbled.

He could not very well deny, though, that a woman's soft and wet inner flesh was always a welcome sensation, as were her encouraging words and grunts as he rubbed with his two fingers and flicked his thumb around her clitoris. At least he had a reprieve from his boredom as she rocked about and called out, "Oh, yes, knew you'd be good at that! Yessssss..."

Her moans were loud enough to be heard upstairs, where Nathan and his band had a good laugh about the matter. "Let's see if Marguerite wants anything to do with him now!" said Chester, the leader of the kidnappers.

"Might not matter," Nathan said. "I've got a feeling the king ain't gonna play ball with us, and if not..." He drew his finger across his throat. "Thhhhht!"

"M'boy!" Brant jumped up and kicked his chair away. "I'll not have no part in no murder!"

"Who says you've got a choice?" Nathan replied. "I've already let you off the hook about playing with yourself outside, ain't I?"

"What?!" Chester said, while the other men hooted with laughter. "Who'd want to see that?"

"Absolutely no one, that's why I let it go," Nathan said. "But if you're going to go handing out demands..."

"If that's what it takes to wash my 'ands of all this!" Brant said. "'Ell, I'll do it right now!"

"No need," Nathan said. "Tell you what, if the princess doesn't take me up on my demand, you take her place. Walk naked through the village at midday, and I'll see to it that you come to no harm when I slit that little sissy's throat."

"I'll gladly do it," said Brant. "But my boy, why kill him at all? It's Sarah and Marguerite you've got a problem with, ain't it?"

"And what better way to deal with that problem than to deprive them of their best friend? More than that in that lying bitch Marguerite's case."

Brant banged his fist on the table. "You are one disgusting little boy, you know that?"

"So you've been telling me all my life, Brant. But you've never left my side, have you?" Nathan chuckled at the sound of a particularly loud gasp from the cellar. "Doesn't sound like Justin is too unhappy about his wretched fate right now anyway."

That sound was her coming hard. When she caught her breath, she stopped rocking but clamped both her hands over Justin's to keep his fingers inside her. "That bitch Marguerite certainly was one lucky lady," she said.

"Was?"

"You just remember our deal," she said, finally letting go and pulling his hand out. "You know, if you do get out of here alive and she does come to her senses..." she patted her triangle. "You are always welcome with one who really does deserve you."

Justin set his jaw and said nothing, and didn't even move to wipe his hand dry.

As the week wore on, no further news of Justin reached Sarah's ears. "Father must have told his entire staff to hide everything from me," she advised the ladies in her chamber on Wednesday morning. "But I've been hoping one of you might have overheard something."

"Something's underfoot for tomorrow, I know," Darlene said. "My mum told me about it when I went to see her yesterday."

"At the new home that Nathan bastard bought for her?" Cassie retorted. "Just what else do you know, Darlene?"

"I'll never speak to Nathan again as long as I live!" Darlene protested.

"But you'll go to the home purchased with his money?" Laura said.

"She's my mum! And I told him myself I never wanted to talk to him again!"

"Then you did talk to him?" Kathleen asked.

"Ladies, please!" Sarah raised her hands. "Let's not fight among ourselves! You know I've interrogated all of you about this."

"But you don't know if the others told you everything," Cassie said.

"Or that you did either!" Darlene snarled. "I am innocent!"

"Then you won't mind telling us what you meant by 'again'," Julia said. "So you did talk to him at some point?"

"None of your business!" Darlene snapped.

"It is my business, Darlene," Sarah said. "If there is anything..."

"He did want me to help him get at you," Darlene admitted. "But I said no!"

"Oh, wonderful!" Marguerite looked like she wanted to slap Darlene. "Why should we believe you? Obviously your mother didn't say no to him."

"What are you saying?" Darlene jumped to her feet, and Marguerite did the same.

"That was out of line, Marguerite," Laura said.

"You're the one who questioned her first, about her mum's house!" Marguerite roared. "Or were you trying to throw suspicion off yourself?"

Ellie spoke up for the first time. "Marguerite, please! Calm down!"

"How dare you?!" Marguerite roared. "You of all people?! You think I don't know what you and Justin have been getting up to in your room?!"

"We're only friends!" Ellie was as defiant as ever she had been. "And it is our room!"

"Enough!" Sarah stood up. "I've questioned you all, and I'm satisfied that none of you are involved with what happened to Justin! Darlene, I wish you had told me what you just said now, but you did tell me he knew your mother. Now, we've got to stick together here, understood? And Marguerite, I've already told you Justin's heard belongs to you, all right?"

Marguerite sighed. "Yes, of course. I'm sorry, Ellie. It's just that, my true love is out there somewhere alone, we don't even know how to save him, and...well, you know what time it is. You and me, right?"

Ellie was nonplussed. "Thank you, but, you and I what?"

"Oh, very well," Marguerite chuckled. "We all love Justin, but we have become a little more circumspect about certain private matters with him here." No one including Ellie showing any sign of comprehension, Marguerite finally spelled it out. "Ellie and I are on the same cycle, and it is that time when our temper grows short."

"Oh, my..." Ellie's hands flew to her face. "Don't misinterpret this, Marguerite, but...I'm late. That's why I didn't know what you meant."

In an instant, Marguerite's goodwill was forgotten. "You're late? Only one way that could have happened, is there?" She lunged at Ellie.

Kathleen stepped in to try to reason with her, and caught Marguerite's fist on her temple. "You bitch!" she roared, and took a swing at Marguerite. Cassie stepped in and tried to separate them, and soon found herself mixed up in the scratching and hissing and punching.

Ellie managed to steal away out of harm's way. Sarah stood up on her bed and bellowed for order and peace, to little avail. "Ladies, please!" No one hit her, but by the time peace was restored, Marguerite had a black eye and Kathleen a bruise on her cheek, and Cassie had a bloody scratch on her arm. Laura got a stray punch in the nose as she was pulling Kathleen off Darlene, who was writhing on the floor in pain In the corner, Julia was comforting Ellie. "It's not your fault," she reassured her in a whisper. "Poor Justin, locked up in town, we're all sick for him."

"Please!" Sarah hopped down from her bed and helped Darlene to her feet, revealing she had a bloody nose. "We are not the enemy! This doesn't do us any good and it certainly doesn't help Justin! Do you understand that?"

"But what can we do to help Justin?" called Julia from the corner.

"I shall let you know as soon as I have any such idea," Sarah said. "In the meantime, I'll ask that you all retire to your chambers and relax until you are prepared to be civil! Do I make myself clear?" Even Marguerite got a stern look the like of which Sarah hardly ever gave her.

"Yes, my lady," said Ellie, and she was the first to leave the room.

"Easy for her to say, she's got a chamber to herself," said Kathleen as she followed suit.

"She doesn't want that, does she?" Laura snapped.

"All of you, out!" Sarah said. "Now!"

A long, hot bath on her own settled the princess' temper somewhat, but her heart still ached for poor Justin and Marguerite. She wanted so to help! But she couldn't even maintain order among her own entourage, and what if they were right and one of them had lied to her? She couldn't bring herself to believe shy, polite Darlene would do such a thing; but she had been less than forthcoming. But she was merely the only one for whom Sarah now knew that. There could be others!

She soaked until the water cooled to lukewarm, remembering happier times with Justin soaping up her breasts and Marguerite rubbing her own breasts playfully against her back in the steamy water. Finally she could no longer stand being alone in the bath where first the three had bonded, and she drained the tub and dried off. Having left her dress in the bedchamber, she hung her towel by the window and stepped back into her room in the nude.

Cornelia, seated in her favourite chair by the unused fireplace, saw Sarah before Sarah saw her. "Oooh!" she squealed and turned away. "Sarah, I'm sorry!"

Sarah shrieked as well, her shock subsiding only slightly when she realized the intruder was her sister. Grabbing up her dress from the bed and draping it haphazardly over her body, she said, "What are you doing here?"

"I have news, and I think you'll like it," Cornelia said.

"Coming from you?" Sarah sneered. "I doubt it!"

"I cannot blame you for thinking that way," Cornelia admitted. "That is why I came to see you myself rather than sending a messenger. Well, that and we can't trust Father not to intercept any message. But I come in peace."

"Prove it or get out," Sarah said.

"I shall prove it, and with any luck, I'll get Justin set free," Cornelia said. "You see, I know the contents of that demand Father received the other morning."

Thursday, the fourteenth of July, dawned clear and warm. Sarah called for breakfast in her chamber, so her father was free to boast about the success of his subterfuge. "I do feel sorry for the boy," he told Cornelia and Lady Clara. "But he had a role to play in putting an end to Sarah's awful habits, and he only made matters worse."

"But does he deserve to die, Leopold?" Lady Clara asked.

"Oh, I don't think Nathan will kill him," the king said. "I discovered when he was here, he may be a little wretch but he does have a conscience."

"Then what do you suppose will become of Justin?" Cornelia asked.

"I neither know nor care," the king said. "And I shouldn't have you worrying about it either, my darling. Incidentally, what have you planned for the day?"

"I have an errand to run in town," Cornelia said. "On my own, if you don't mind."

"Hardly!" her father chuckled. "Why should I want to be wrapped up in your lady business!"

In the village, Nathan brought Justin his morning gruel himself for the first time since the unwilling guest had come to stay. He saw no reason to wear a mask, and he saw instantly that Justin recognized him.