Wen Spencer Brothers Price

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dimmed to pity as the list continued until only guns and knives were left to
Corelle.
That s not fair! Corelle yelped.
1 could throw in a horsewhipping too. if you like, Eldest snapped.
What about the others? Corelle indicated Kira beside her. Eva and Summer
across the table.

You were left in charge. Eldest jabbed a finger at Corelle.
You decided to go to the Brindles .
You will pay for this.
No!
Yes. Eldest calmly stated. You left four brothers prices, our entire
future, the only hope we have to buy a husband and have children to care for
us when we re old
all of that
unguarded when you had been specifically told not to leave the farm.
Fine! Corelle stood up. There s nothing I want. she said, and then paused
to run her tongue over her lips in a manner that made Jerin recall Ren
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delighting him, that I can t get for free.
Eldest caught Corelle by the hair and muscled her down into her chair. First,
you have let your hair grow too long. I suspect Balin Brindle to be the cause,
but you will cut it shorter. Secondly, you re acting a little too
knowledgeable for someone your age. Again, I suspect Balin Brindle to be the
cause, and that better not be the case. That s how syphilis enters a
family one sister dallying outside of wedlock.
He s clean, he promised me! Corelle protested, indignant.
Eldest slapped her hard. You do not put your family s lives on the line with
a promise from an outsider.
Tomorrow we will take you to a doctor and see what she says about how clean
you are. I warn you: if you ve gotten yourself infected with something, you
will not be wife to our husband. If we have to, we will throw you out of the
house.
No! Corelle cried. I haven t done anything wrong!
You d have us be like the Treesdales? Ignore the situation so our husband
gets infected? Have him pass it to all of us, and then all the youngest
sisters as they come of age? Do you want the whole family to die a hard, slow
death? Do you remember how the Treesdales suffered? The pain? The babies born
dead, born twisted? They re gone, Corelle! The whole family gone, because Zera
Treesdale got the itch to try out a crib.
Corelle hunched down, ducked her head, and pouted. He s not in a crib, and
we re going to marry him anyhow.
No, we aren t! Eldest stated, then forestalled an argument by explaining,
They approached us. We listened. That was all. That is not an agreement for
marriage. Frankly, Corelle, we can do better than them. We have land, money,
and breeding. We ve got Queens blood in us, and don t you forget that.
You re acting like a cat in heat, presenting yourself to anything that might
want to service you.
At least I m not servicing women on the kitchen floor in the middle of the
night! Corelle hissed.
Jerin clapped hands to his mouth to trap in a cry of protest. Corelle
witnessed him and Ren? Eldest turned toward him, saw his face, and went white.
Corelle, go to your room, Eldest said.
I m not a child! Corelle whined. I have a right to hear
Now!
Corelle flinched backward from Eldest, shot an angry glare at Jerin, and then
bolted from the room. Her footsteps thundered up the stairs and her door
slammed shut with a bang.
Jerin sat frozen, hands still over his mouth.
The rest of you too. Eldest indicated the youngest sisters, and they filed
out.
Who was it? Eldest asked quietly, emotionlessly, when he was alone with his
middle and oldest sisters.
His voice would only come out as a whisper. Princess
Rennsellaer. Unbearable silence followed. He had to break it. She didn t
mount me. The silence continued. She was sitting in the dark when I came
down for something to eat. I didn t see her until she had me in her arms,
and and I tried to resist. I asked her please not to and she pushed me against
the hearth and kissed me. She didn t mount me we didn t go that far. Father
told me ways to make a woman happy, and that satisfied her.
The bitch! Eldest muttered finally. Come to our home, eat our food, sleep
in our beds, and then rape our little brother!
Jerin wrung his hands, feeling guilty for not confessing that he had done
nothing he hadn t wanted to, that it wasn t truly rape. He was afraid, though,
of his sisters fury, and the cold disapproval he would have to live with
until he married well, proving he wasn t ruined by the incident. His life
would be bearable only by claiming the part of wronged innocence.
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Still, it galled to leave the dangerous word floating there, uncountered. I m
still a virgin, technically. In the end, when I said that going farther would
ruin me, she let me go off to bed alone.
The level of anger in the room lessened slightly. He rocked slightly in his
chair, chiding himself for being a coward. Should he tell them how he
surrendered to the seduction, enjoyed giving pleasure to the princess, and
received ecstasy beyond description? Who was the true hussy in this family?
Do you think, Summer said quietly into the stunned silence, he did enough
to catch any diseases she might have?
She s a princess! Jerin cried.
She s a rapist, Eldest snapped.
She didn t rape me. She didn t try to use any crib drugs on me. I m still a
virgin.
She took you. Maybe not completely, but still she took you against your
will.
Was it rape? He didn t know. Certainly if she had let him go when he first
asked, he would have fled back to his bed, remaining chaste in his lips, his
hands, and his memories. Now only parts of him were virgin. He wavered in the
belief of his virginity. Maybe being a virgin was like planting a garden you
could turn the earth and rake down the soil all you wanted, but until you
pushed a seed into the dirt, you hadn t created a garden. Or was being a
virgin like a frosted cake, where once someone stole a slice, you couldn t
proudly serve it to visitors?
He realized that while he debated his virginity, his sisters were discussing
the issue of diseases. It would be too soon, they had decided, to tell if he
had caught something. They would take him to a doctor, but one far away, so
his reputation would not suffer.
He remembered with sudden, sickening clarity how experienced Princess Ren had
seemed, how sure her touch, how skilled her kisses. If she could have any man
that she wanted, then what was to say that she hadn t already taken them all?
What was to say she wasn t diseased? Had they been intimate enough for him to
catch something from her? God, they could barely have been more intimate!
If he was diseased, who would take him as husband?
The answer was obvious. The Brindles would take him.
The thought made him cover his eyes and weep.
Eldest pulled him into a hug, murmuring, Hush, honey, hush, as the rest of
the family fled or were shooed away.
I m sorry. I m so sorry, Jerin sobbed.
We don t blame you, honey, Eldest murmured.
I could have fought.
She s a princess. All her life people have obeyed her commands. You re a boy.
All your life you have listened to others. It was up to her to stop at any no
you gave, even if it was whispered.
Please don t hate me, but I didn t say no. I protested some, but I didn t say
no, not until the very end, and she listened to it. He could not look at
Eldest when he admitted, in a whisper, I liked what we did, only I was afraid
to do more.
When silence was the only answer, he peeped at her. Eldest gazed unseeing
across the room. When she finally looked at him, her eyes were sad. I don t
hate you. Truly, it is easier to know you gave in to passion. It hurt to think
you had been pinned and taken against your will in our very kitchen. I m still
angry with her. Making advances on you is akin to dangling candy before a
child.
I m not a child. In a few months, I m going to be a married man. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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