Princess Sarah and the Origin

"Nathan," Justin hissed. "I might've known! I mean, I did know!"

"Yes, well, there's no need to thank me for my hospitality," Nathan said, setting the bowl before Justin on the bed. "Your stay here is nearly over. I offered your boss a deal: she is to walk naked through the village today, and I shall set you free. Of course, if she doesn't..." Nathan grinned and patted the sheathed knife at his hip.

"You bastard!" Justin felt his eyes well up -- fear? Rage? Despair? All of them and more.

"That's no way to talk to a man who's given you a free room and board for nearly a week," Nathan said. "I should have to remember your words this afternoon if the princess won't humiliate herself for you." He turned to go back upstairs. "Enjoy your breakfast, Justin."

Nathan ordered Chester and his men to stay and watch the prisoner, but he brought Brant with him. "I need my own protection these days, don't I?" he asked as they stepped out into the morning light.

"Tell me one thing, m'boy," Brant said. "If the 'orny princess does show up in the skin, will you be a man of your word?"

"Haven't decided yet," Nathan said. "But I doubt I'll have to make good on anything."

They went to an outdoor café along the high street and procured a table just off the street, and ordered cakes and ale. There were two hours to wait, but Nathan was more than happy to sip his brew and eat and watch the growing crowd of people out and about for their business. He was pleased at the size of the crowd -- at the worst, at least the princess would have a nice crowd in front of whom to embarrass herself.

Brant excused himself to visit the privy shortly before noon. When he returned, it was but minutes to the zero hour. "Big crowd," he said.

"If she's got any shame at all, she'll never do it," Nathan said. "I'll learn Marguerite to lie to me!"

But the words were scarcely out of his mouth when a collective whoop of hoots and applause came from around the corner. Word travelled fast among the townspeople, and soon they were lining the streets. Nathan wasn't privy to any of the disbelieving conversations, but he did hear the words "princess" and "naked" repeatedly.

He stood up and climbed onto the bench he'd been sitting on all morning to see over the crowd. "She wouldn't!" he whined.

Brant followed his lead and, being taller than Nathan, he caught a glimpse at the spectacle first. Then he burst out laughing. "Indeed she wouldn't, my boy, but you lose just the same!"

"What on earth do you mean?" Nathan said.

A moment later, he saw for himself. Princess Cornelia, flanked by two guards who were struggling to remain straight-faced, was strolling along the thoroughfare, waving cordially at her dozens of admirers on either side, wearing a broad smile.

And absolutely nothing else.

Trailing her were a few of her ladies in waiting and a few of Sarah's as well, though Nathan didn't know their names. Sarah herself brought up the rear in a horse-drawn carriage with Morgaine at her side, both of them fully clothed.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Nathan snapped, sitting back down and hoping Sarah wouldn't notice him. Then he had a change of heart and leapt back to his feet, and forced his way through the crowd just in time to confront Cornelia. "This wasn't the deal!" he roared. "It was your sister I wanted!"

"Then you should have said as much," Cornelia stopped, bringing the whole bizarre parade to a pause behind her. "Your demand specified that 'the princess' must walk through town in the nude. You made no mention of which princess."

"But no one ever thought you would..." Nathan sputtered.

"Exactly," Cornelia said. "No one including myself. But I must say I find it a remarkable kick. In fact..." She helped herself to Nathan and Brant's table and climbed upon it. "Ladies and gentlemen, I assure you there is a reason for this absurd spectacle, but that is not important. What is important is, I have never felt more beautiful or alive! I encourage one and all to follow my lead if you wish, and as your princess I vow that no one shall suffer any punishment for enjoying the warm sun on your bare skin!"

This brought a round of lusty cheers, and before Cornelia could even resume her place at the head of the procession, dresses and pants and vests were being discarded most enthusiastically. By the time she reached the end of the block, over a dozen townspeople had joined in the bare parade, as the ladies in waiting applauded their example and encouraged others to join.

"Well, if they're going to play dirty, so can I," Nathan said to Brant -- and then he turned to see Brant was gone. "Where the devil..." And all at once he knew.

Brant had a slow and lumbering run, and Nathan could easily outrun him, though he'd never had any cause to do so before. But he'd had a substantial head start, and the streets were crowded. There was no sign yet of Nathan when Brant burst back into the house.

"She didn't do it, did she?" piped up one of Chester's men.

"Yes she did, and a bunch of other ladies followed 'er lead!" Brant said. "Go have a look for yourself!" He was prepared to brush off any concerns about what Nathan would say, but there were none as the men hurried out of the house. Brant grabbed the key from its pathetic hiding place, the same gap in the wall boards where Nathan had hidden flasks of whiskey as a youth, and clomped down the stairs.

He took no offense when Justin recoiled against the headboard of the bed. "I'm 'ere to set you free!" he said, holding up the key.

"Aren't you...Nathan's guard?" Justin asked.

"I was," Brant acknowledged as he turned the key and pulled the shackles away. "Recon I'm fired now, but it's a good job to lose!" He scooped Justin up in his arms and carried him to the stairs. "Let's get ou' a here affore Nathan gets back."

Brant guessed the naked parade would be near the fountain at the end of the high street by then, and he set off that way. "Ever so sorry, Mister Justin," he said on the way. "I did me best to talk some sense into hisself, but he ain't never listened to a wor' I 'ad to say!"

"How's Marguerite?" Justin asked.

"I 'ear she's been a wreck, but she's 'ere. Wi' 'er dress on, mind."

"Brant!" came Nathan's voice when they were nearly there. "Put him down!"

"You just make me, m'boy." But Brant knew his boss well enough to know his defiance wouldn't go unchallenged. To Justin he asked, "Can ya walk?"

"I think so," Justin said.

Brant set him down gently on a patch of grass, and turned around in time to see Nathan rushing at him with his knife drawn. The knife Brant himself had taught him to wield, and which the silly boy had never mastered; he always left his right side wide open for anyone who could get a hand on his wrist.

"Judas!" Nathan roared as Brant crouched into a defensive stance. He took a lustful dig at the air with his blade, which Brant had no trouble anticipating. He clutched his massive hand around Brant's wrist and turned the blade harmlessly away while he belted Nathan in the jaw with his other hand. Nathan landed on his back with a thud and let go of the knife, which Brant picked up and sheathed in his belt. He longed to give his former boss a swift kick in the ribs, but Nathan lay there unmoving and Brant found he couldn't justify it.

He turned back to Justin, just in time to see him limping to the crowd around the fountain, where there were now more people naked than clothed. Sarah and Marguerite, holding court above them in the carriage and still clothed, saw Justin at the same time. "Justin!" their relieved voices rang out in unison.

"Thank heavens!" Sarah said.

"You're all right!" Marguerite leapt down to the street, and the revellers parted ways for the reunion as they collapsed in one another's arms. "I was so scared for you!"

"Me too!" Justin said. "Dare I ask what's going on?" They were surrounded by naked townspeople.

"It's for you," Marguerite said.

"For me?"

"I'll explain later," she said. "For now, please don't take this the wrong way, but you smell awful. Let's get you in the fountain there, shall we?" Princess Cornelia and a few select guests were splashing about joyfully in the fountain; Justin spotted Ellie there.

"With pleasure." He let her undress him. "What about you?" he said as she pulled his tattered shirt off.

"I'll explain that later too." Only now did it occur to Marguerite that she didn't know just how much Justin knew about the facts of life. "But I know Ellie will want to greet you!"

"That was very noble of you," Sarah said as they both watched Ellie and Justin embrace.

"I don't want the lot of us to ever fight like that again," Marguerite said. "Got to do my part. No one deserved us getting all suspicious about her like that."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Sarah said. "Have you seen Julia today?"

"Not since breakfast," Marguerite said. "Why?"

"Ellie came to me last night and said Julia had said something to her about Justin being held here in town. Would you have guessed the kidnappers would be dumb enough to keep him so close by?"

"Oh, dear..." Marguerite's voice trailed away as her attention was momentarily diverted by a loud cheer from the fountain. "Isn't that...Nathan's guard?"

"It is!" Sarah said.

Brant was just as hairy and well-endowed as anyone might have imagined, and Sarah had no doubt as to what all the women in the fountain were thinking. But Justin welcomed him in and embraced him, so she could only assume he'd been somehow involved in Justin's rescue. "Just how does he fit into all this?" she asked.

"I've no idea," Marguerite said. "But I look forward to hearing all about it."

They did indeed hear about it, later that evening, when Brant was Sarah's guest for dinner, with Justin and Marguerite and, to Justin's surprise, Cornelia. "Justin, I've got to apologize," Cornelia told him as they sipped their drinks while waiting for the meal. "I learned on Monday of Nathan's -- well, we didn't know it was Nathan, but I suspected as much -- of his demand that 'the princess walk naked through the village', but Father insisted I tell no one. I do not believe he took any notice of the lack of any demand as to which princess it was!"

"There's no question which of us everyone imagined it would be," Sarah admitted. "I am just glad you were willing to help."

"As am I," Marguerite said. "I'd be lying to say I was not surprised, though."

"Yes, well," Cornelia said. "Sarah and I have our differences, but we are sisters. When I learned Father was planning to do nothing, I just could not follow that lead in good conscience."

"Speaking of conscience," Sarah said, "I wonder what possessed Julia to get wrapped up in such a mess?"

"She said something about some lie he would tell your father if she didn't," Justin said.

"Are we quite sure it was a lie?" said Marguerite.

"The kitchen boy, no doubt," Sarah said. "She thinks I don't know they had a fling. I don't care, and Father never bothers with what the hired help get up to on their own time. Bloody fool to fall for that, she was." Then she turned to Cornelia. "I do hope you got the same kick out of your show today that I likely would have," Sarah said.

"Do you know, I truly did!" Cornelia admitted. "We'd best not tell Father, but I did."

"The Fourteenth of July, it's a date we ain't gonna be forgettin' 'round here, is it?" Brant said, raising his glass.

There were other things Justin hoped Marguerite would forget. By the time they retired to the opulent guest suite that Sarah had prevailed upon her father to let them use for the night, she had already vowed to forgive Justin for the transgression he'd confessed to. But she was struggling to overcome it. "I do understand that Julia was in control and you did the best you could," she said sadly as she watched Justin light the myriad candles Sarah had suggested for the occasion. "It just makes me so angry! Not at you, but..."

"Are you sure it's not at me?" Justin asked as the last of the candles flickered to life. He stepped into the warm glow just beyond the foot of the bed where Marguerite was sitting; he gave her a wide berth for the moment, but did look her in the eye. "Because I'm kind of angry at myself for not being able to hold her off better than I did."

"Justin, no!" Marguerite exclaimed. "She practically raped you! You were just doing what you had to do to avoid that!"

"Then what is the problem with us?"

"I just -- I hate so much that it happened at all! The others can tell you, Justin, I couldn't sleep or anything while you were gone! And if it had to happen, I'm glad you told me, because otherwise it would eat at you forever! But I love you, and I hate how this could've spoiled everything and neither of us could've stopped it!"

"Then let's not let it spoil everything!" Justin pleaded. "What's done is done, and we never have to see Julia again, except maybe at her trial. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to that!"

Marguerite's stern face melted into laughter, and she got up from the bed and hugged him. "You know, so am I. And you're right. But, I mean, does this change what we have?"

"Can I show you just how much it doesn't change anything?" Justin asked. Without waiting for a reply, he gathered up her skirt and pulled it up over her hips. Thanking her lucky stars that her courses had finished that afternoon (and that Ellie's had finally arrived, absolving Justin of at least that much wrongdoing), Marguerite willingly stepped back and raised her arms, and welcomed his hands on her bare skin once her dress was on the floor.

"How I missed this!" she murmured, exulting in his gentle caresses on her sides and belly, and his playful fingers in her bush. "Ohhhh, that especially!" she squawked at his first brush on her clitoris. A fleeting image of Julia forcing him to do the same to her roared through her mind, but she ignored it.

Nevertheless, Justin knew. He must have, for he prodded her gently back onto the bed and, still clothed, he took a moment to gaze reverently upon her triangle and the treasure it pointed to. "No one's is quite like yours, my dear," he whispered as her body grew ravenous for more of his touch. "Let me show you just how unique it is."

"Please do!" She could barely get the husky words out as desire overwhelmed her. But she had no problem letting out a delighted moan as he parted her vulva and slipped two fingers inside just as he knew she loved it. To think she might have never felt those perfect strokes inside her again! She gazed at the patterned cloth of the canopy and the colours danced across her view as she lost herself in pleasure.

But Justin wasn't done. She felt a puff of air and a tiny tickle on her hip, and looked down to see him blowing playfully at her dark curls. "Oooohooo, Justin, that tickles!"

"Should I stop?"

"I didn't say that!" She reached down and rubbed his head with both of her hands while he turned his attention back to her bush and resumed teasing it. Halfway across, he turned southward and set out across the heart of her feminine forest. Marguerite felt anticipatory jolts of arousal as she realized...he wasn't headed where it felt like, was he?"

He was, she realized at his first long and luxuriant kiss on her clitoris, which made her arch her back and screech in joy. "Oh, more of that!" she sighed.

There was more of that. Much more, as he continued working his magic with his fingers while his tongue and lips played all around her womanhood. Well before she felt her first orgasm welling up, Marguerite was well aware her joy was surely audible out in the hallway and maybe beyond -- if only that wretch Ellie could hear this! But she was aware enough to hold Justin's head squarely in place when she did feel the big moment coming. "Right there!" she ordered. "Stay there!"

Justin did as he was told, keeping his tongue swirling about her clitoris and his fingers rubbing in rhythm as his true love rattled the walls with her joy.

He kept at it until he felt her go limp and her screams subsided. When at last he looked up and slipped his fingers out, he asked, "Think I could do that to anyone else?"

"I know you wouldn't!" She propped herself up on her elbows to see him over her breasts. "Now put that in me before I lose my patience!"

Justin realized a second too late that he'd neglected to wipe his true love's arousal off his face. But she welcomed it as he settled on top of her and pushed gently inside her. "Welcome home," she cooed between hungry kisses all over his face, and she clamped her legs shut around him. "A different sort of captivity, huh?"

"The best kind!" he grunted as she enjoyed his first hard thrust. "I spent all week dreaming of this!"

"Me too!" Marguerite exhaled.

Then it occurred to her, as she gave in to enjoy his lusty thrusts, in a way they'd never been separated. All through that miserable week, he in that godforsaken cellar, she alone in her bed, both of them imagining the beautiful encounter that was now coming to pass -- in spirit, they'd been together all along! That epiphany added greatly to the thrill of his face bobbing serenely just above hers, his body on and in hers, her joyful embrace as she egged him on.

When Justin came, the utterly vulnerable joy in his eyes brought Marguerite off as well, and they collapsed together in a bundle of passion.

At the far end of the palace, Princess Sarah had gotten over her jealousy of her two dear friends. She was holding court in her private bath with her newest dear friend. "Dare I even ask how you walk with this?" she teased Brant as she soaped up his hard penis, marvelling at the thought of how it might feel inside her. She had every intention of inviting him to let her find out.

"It ain't usually this big and 'ard, is it?" Brant said, drinking in the view of Sarah's own body, which he'd just finished giving a gentle scrub. "Seein' and feelin' every inch o'you, m'lady, ain't nothin' like it!"

"The feeling is quite mutual!" Sarah rinsed it off and raised it out of the water, and helped herself to a kiss on the tip. "I am ever so glad you never have to bother with Nathan again." Then she laughed. "I'm sure a lot of the women in town feel the same way after today."

"Dunno how I can show my face there again knowin' how much else I shown," he said. "But I'm 'appy t'have Justin safe 'ome again."

"The same way everyone else who went bare can show their face again!" Sarah said. "You're in great company there." She gave his massive hardness a playful squeeze with both hands.

"Guess I'll 'ave to," Brant said. "Now I need a new job!"

"Father will hire you for something," Sarah vowed. "Cornelia and I will see to it!"

"You'd do that for me, m'lady?"

"Right now I'd do a lot more than that," she said with a wicked grin. "If you're willing, of course..."

"Dinnot I just say it ain't usually this 'ard?"

He reached out and Sarah welcomed his massive hands on her breasts, once again amazed at how gentle of a giant he was. "Oh, that's lovely!" she said. "Keep that up!" She climbed up and hovered over his lap, and wondered for a moment if she could fit him inside her at all.

To her pleasant surprise, she could. "I hope this is an adequate thank you for your services to our kingdom, Brant," she said with a pert smile as she began rocking.

"Oooooohhfffffff," was Brant's only reply. It was music to the princess' ears.

Brant could not have known how right he was about the day never being forgotten. A lot had happened that afternoon, beginning with both Nathan and Julia being arrested in town and the king giving both of his daughters an insincere apology, and the naked party had not died out until nearly suppertime. There would be legal wrangles that would land Nathan in prison for a lengthy sentence while Julia got off with some dirty looks and a bleak future as a servant anywhere her name was known. There was much that would soon follow after the fourteenth, including an engagement party for Marguerite and Justin, while Brant took up his new job as stable manager and Sarah mysteriously paused receiving suitors from near and far. The events that had led up to that day would become somewhat taboo in town, but for the occasional mother warning her children if they didn't mind their manners, Nathan might be about in the streets one of these days.