Princess of Perchhold Ch. 01

Her stomach was cold lead. "Killed?"

Etan lay his palm over her white-knuckled hands. "You can trust me, Caryn. How can I help you?"

"Well, Aric is expecting you to sleep with me, yes? Probably to spend the majority of the evening with me and into the morning. He would not expect that I might be, say, a day's hard ride away by the time you awaken and discover that I slipped out while you slept..."

"Aric is not a fool, Caryn. He will be keeping a close eye on you."

"Yes, I know. But I have a plan. You may not have heard, but there was a serving boy, very close to my age, who was caught sneaking into your chambers in the dark of night. As he was unable to provide any explanation, he was assumed to have been spying at best, possibly sent to assassinate you at worst. He was thrown out of the castle." Caryn's eyes were sparkling as she spoke, seeing the story now in a completely different light.

Etan grip on her hand tightened fiercely. "You've seen Leif?"

Caryn grinned. "I took pity on the boy as he was being taken out, and told the guards to release him to me. He was so distressed — he confessed to me that he fell in love with you after months of cleaning your chambers and watching you from a distance, and he had been desperate to be near you. He said nothing of your own preferences; very loyal of him. He has been working in my chambers in the disguise of a maid under the name of Lisel for the past two weeks."

To the princess' immense surprise, there were tears in Etan's eyes. "I was afraid he'd been killed. I couldn't ask too many questions about him without seeming...overly concerned. But he's alright? He wasn't hurt?"

"He's fine. He's a very pretty young man...a believable girl, in fact. He's roughly my size, particularly if he were to stuff his chest a bit, and in his current disguise, his hair looks very similar to mine. In fact, it is mine. I had my hair cut for his wig."

"You want to make a trade? Leif for you?"

Caryn nodded. "A small young woman with brown hair in one of my gowns — naturally, she is assumed to be your sister — is seen coming into your chambers, and a night of raucous lovemaking ensues. When, at length, you collapse into sleep, a serving boy exits, clearly having been summoned to clean up after you and your sister. In the morning, you'll discover that the princess has disappeared, and raise the alarm."

"Aric will be angry."

"Yes, but what can he do? You have spent years cultivating the impression in his mind that you are his large and stupid younger brother. You have done what he wished, introducing your sister to base pleasures, and you cannot be blamed if I have slipped away from you in the night with your youngest brother. Nathan has always been willful and tricksy, after all."

Etan stared at her for a long moment before planting a kiss on her forehead. "Did you just come up with this?"

"I had been searching for a way to actually slip away from you tonight. Once I discovered your inclination toward men...everything became much simpler."

Etan laughed. "Your definition of simple must be very strange, sister."

***

"Lisel" was pleased with the plan, especially once it was decided that Etan would encounter the serving woman during the great search for Caryn and covet her, taking her for his own. Leif would not be forced to leave the castle again.

Nathan was more difficult to convince, even after Caryn laid the entire plan before him, leaving out only Lisel's true identity and what it meant about their brother.

"There's no way we can take that kind of risk, Caryn," Nathan said. He was seated on her bed, listening impatiently as she stood in front of him. "Do you have any idea what they will do to you if we're caught?"

"No. Do you?"

"No! That's just the point. There's too much uncertainty in this. A thousand and one things could go wrong."

"Or it could all go right, Nate. And we could live the rest of our lives as husband and wife, just as close as we have been all our lives until now. I don't know what will happen if we try and fail, but I do know what will happen if we succeed. And if we don't try at all...I've got an old man to look forward to."

Nathan flinched, but his face said he remained unconvinced. "What if I lose you?"

"If you do nothing, I am already lost to you," Caryn said coldly. She let the chill settle into him for a moment, then knelt in front of him, hands on his knees, looking up into his face. "I want to be with you forever, Nate. I want to fall asleep next to you and wake up in your arms every day. Don't you want that?"

He did want that. She could see it in his face, in the way his breaths were coming a little faster, a little closer together. This idea excited him, she could see that, and awakened a hope in him that he had probably been trying to kill for years.

"It's a good plan," Caryn said. She raised herself up, put her face within an inch of his. "It will work." She kissed him lightly, just a taste, to see if he would follow her lead.

With both hands, he grasped her face and deepened the kiss, his lips parting and his tongue parting hers. She could feel him start to tremble as he began to accept that everything he had wanted could be his. All he had to do was steal away with her in the dead of night, and he would have her for the rest of his days.

"Okay," he gasped. "We'll go. Tonight."

***

Aric sat in his father's private audience chamber, hiding the trembling of his hands by clenching his fingers around a goblet of spiced wine.

"The ball went well. The bids for her hand have never been higher," King Darin said. He scratched at his beard as he paced the room. "Micravale was practically drooling on himself when he saw her last night. I trust you've started her preparations?"

"Of course, Father. Etan is with her tonight."

Darin nodded. "Very good. And Nathan tomorrow?"

"Nathan has declined to take part."

The king swung around in surprise, brow furrowed. "Declined? He is her brother. Let him know I will leave no one room to say she was not thoroughly trained as a wife. She is a princess of Perchhold, and I will have her educated properly. Gods, would he have her bedded once and turned over like a common farm wife? She'll be a duchess!"

"...Or a queen," Aric said quietly.

Darin's frown deepened. "A queen? Hardly. The only king this side of the mountains is Carrigan, and gods know I don't need any alliance with him. He doesn't have enough men to guard his own palace doors, much less mount an attack."

"My mind was turned a bit closer to home, Father," Aric said smoothly, despite the nervous tightening of his chest. This was it. If he could get his father to agree, to put the orders in motion now...

"What do you mean? Speak clearly, boy."

"Father, I wish to take Caryn as my wife when Micravale dies. All the power of his house and the lords sworn to him will be mine, and our line will be purer, stronger than ever."

Darin blinked and frowned, turned away from his son and poured himself a cup of wine. He threw it back in a single mouthful, wiped his mouth, and sat heavily in his heavy wooden chair. He fixed his eyes on Aric, lips pursed as he considered his eldest son's request.

The boy had made his argument as if his choice were purely political, but Darin could hear the desire in his son's voice. The king remembered deflowering his own two sisters on their eighteenth name days, and the strange pleasure it had been to release his seed into a woman of his own blood. But his sisters had been married to young lordlings far from the castle, had been gifted with many children by their husbands and had never returned to tempt him. Neither of them had been married to an old man, powerful in name and title but feeble of body and mind. Neither of them had had Caryn's likelihood of being a widow within their first year of marriage.

"You want me to change the laws regarding the marriage of a brother and sister. To clear the way for you." Darin poured another cup of wine and swigged it. "You desire her. Is that why you supported me in courting Micravale?"

"Micravale was the clear choice for his assets," Aric said. "Although, I must admit that his failing health gave me the idea. And once I had..."

"Once you'd taken her, you were caught, yes? That's the way with women."

Aric frowned. It hadn't been the way with the women before Caryn. They were largely transferable, one as satisfying as the next; but Caryn had been something else entirely. It was the contrasts in her: her mouth said the most delightfully nasty things, surrendered to him, begged for more, while her eyes and her body warred against him. It drove him wild. Thinking about it now, in this room with his father, he grew excited.

"Do I have your blessing then, Father? Will you help me?"

Darin drained the last dregs of wine from his goblet and sighed. "Caryn will be yours."

***

Leif forced himself to walk slowly as he made his way down the hall, his head bent so that the wig's long locks of dark hair swung in front of his face. He would have preferred not to have to dress as a woman day in and day out, but if it kept him in the castle and within reach of Etan, he could put up with it.

He paused and adjusted the front of his dress, and tried to discreetly keep the wadded fabric that made his "breasts" from flattening and slipping down his torso. When he resumed walking, he reminded himself again that he as a princess, and should be walking with Caryn's confident, swaying stride. He tried to force his hips side to side.

The relief of finally reaching Etan's door was great, and he relaxed as he knocked.

"Caryn, come in," Etan called as he opened the door. His voice carried through the hall behind Leif, letting the lingering servants in the hallway know that the princess had presented herself for her brother's pleasure, if any were waiting to report to Aric.

When the door shut behind them and they were alone in the room, Leif and Etan just stared at each other for a moment.

"I was afraid you'd been..." Etan trailed off, eyes running over Leif.

The serving boy pushed the wig back off his head, revealing his own straight, nut-brown hair. "Your sister is a saint."

Etan nodded. "Was it alright? Working in her chambers?"

With a shrug, Leif grinned and began to pull off the dainty satin slippers Caryn had given him to match the dress. "She treated me well. Your brother would have killed to see her naked as many times as I did." He laughed, a sweet sound, like a bell.

"Which one?"

Leif laughed again. "Either, I guess. Help me with these laces. I pity women for having to wear these things. They're regular torture."

He turned around and Etan began to fumble with the fine corset laces. His fingers were too large and blunt to be of much use, but between the two of them, the dress came off, and beneath it was only Leif's smallclothes and pale, smooth skin.

Etan cleared his throat. "I — ahem — I had forgotten how nice you were to look at."

Leif lay his hands against the prince's chest. "I didn't forget you. Not for a second." He stepped forward and leaned against the taller man, his head on Etan's shoulder. "I missed you."

The prince sighed as if all the weariness in the world were draining out of him. He sank down onto the mattress, bringing Leif down with him. With a tenderness that seemed out of place in a man Etan's size, the prince pressed his lips to Leif's.

They kissed like the first moments of a summer rain, like a flower bud opening, like the first tendrils of dawn. Then Leif's lips parted and Etan pulled him tighter against him with a hand on each side of his face, and everything became motion and fury and passion and wet, sucking moans.

On the other side of the door, Aric leaned against the wall in the corridor and contemplated bursting in to tell Caryn the good news that she would be his for the rest of her life. But he could hear Etan inside, sounding more frantic than Aric had ever heard him, and he thought it cruel to delay his brother's pleasure. He so rarely seemed to truly enjoy the women that came around.

There was one pleasure Aric could take in his moment of triumph. He could tell Nathan the fate of their baby sister, and watch the boy try to shrug off losing her to his eldest brother forever. It was bound to be a satisfying moment. Whistling, he set off for Nathan's chambers.

***

Nate had thought himself packed, but when Caryn saw the small rucksack and meager allocation of clothing he had bundled in, she was ripping through his chest of drawers, tossing garment after garment at him and bidding him to pack those as well.

"Cari, every shirt you add makes it that much harder for us to slip out of here unseen. You're wasting time! We need to me running! Lisel has already gone to Etan's...we only have a few hours head start as it is."

"Give me one more minute. You're going to need more smallclothes than that. We won't have maids washing them for us on the road."

"No, and I can't see us needing feast day clothes on the road either," he said, pulling out the silk shirt she had stuffed into the mouth of his pack. "If this doesn't mark us as an escaped prince and princess, I don't know what will. We need plain clothes."

"We'll get those on the road. What if we need things to trade? How much gold do you have on you?"

"Whatever's in my purse. Enough for the journey, at least."

Caryn was digging through his shoes and didn't appear to have heard him. Nate gently took her by the arm and pulled her up to face him. "Cari, let's go. It's time." She was shaking beneath his fingers, her skin pale and eyes wide. "Are you afraid? This is your plan. You assured me it was flawless."

"It was! I mean, it is. You're right, we have to go." She scrubbed a hand through her hair, forgetting about the wool scarf that she had worn to cover it and knocking it askew. Nathan pulled it straight and tucked the loose strands of hair back into place. He took her hand and squeezed it firmly, then picked up his sack and hers.

They were two steps from the door when someone knocked on it. Both froze, but Nate recovered first and shoved Caryn toward the wardrobe, dropping the sacks onto the floor. "Hide!" he hissed quietly.

Another knock on the door, and then the impatient visitor opened it, just as Caryn stuffed herself into the wardrobe and pulled the doors shut.

"Aric!" Nathan said, too loudly. "What a surprise. Didn't expect to see you in my chambers this evening. Don't you have state business, or a lady to terrorize, or something?"

Aric smiled unkindly. "What a sweet brother, so concerned about my responsibilities. No wonder Caryn's so taken with you." Nathan coughed, having no other response to that.

The eldest prince continued, "I came to tell you the good news. Caryn is to be married!"

"Of course she is. Isn't that what this whole mess is about? It's to be Lord Micravale, isn't it?"

Aric raised his eyebrows and walked a little further into the room, sweeping his eyes over the mess the Caryn had made ripping through his clothes. "No one escapes the rumor mill, I suppose. Gods, brother, don't you have maids? This place looks like the kennel."

Nathan shrugged uncomfortably. "Is that all you came to say?"

"No, actually," Aric said, his lip curling as he turned his attention away from the piles of clutter. "As I'm sure you know, Micravale is a very old man, and his health is hardly what it used to be. No doubt he'll die soon, and leave our Caryn a cold and lonely widow."

"Why brother, you sound positively gleeful," Nathan spat.

Aric's eyes glittered coldly. "Caryn the widow is free to marry again, bringing the power of Micravale's holdings to her new husband. And who better to hold that power than the king of Perchhold?"

Nathan blanched. "Father's going to marry Caryn?"

"Gods, no! Nathan, you're an idiot. Caryn's going to marry me."

"You? No! There are laws against that! To protect the sisters, so their brothers do their duty and then send them on. To their husbands!"

"She'll have gone to her husband. And come back. To me." The smugness in Aric's tone was echoed on his face, in his smile. "Father's already agreed to overturn those old laws. Caryn's mine."

Nathan shook himself. Caryn would not be Aric's. She was his. If he could get Aric out of here, they would be running together tonight, free from their brother. The thought made him smirk. "Are you done? Because I've got things to do this evening."

Aric's own grin shriveled a bit at his brother's apparent calm. He marshaled for a second attack. "You know, I'm glad you didn't want to do your duty to our sister. She's coming along so nicely under Etan and me, begging for us to cream in every hole. With your lack of enthusiasm, you might ruin a perfectly good slut."

Nathan's clenched fists shook with the effort of remaining at his sides, but he controlled the urge to crush Aric's face, reminding himself that in a few hours they would be miles away. "What better way for brothers to occupy their time than to beat and rape defenseless little sisters?" He fought to keep his voice mild. "Good night, Aric."

"Rape? Who said anything about rape? Caryn got on her knees and begged me to spread her, and hammer her, and flood her. Did she tell you how wet she was? How the more I hurt her, the wetter she got? She loved every minute of it, Nathan. Some girls want a strong man to take them over and use them. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"Get out!" He shoved his brother hard in the chest, forcing him backward unthinkingly. If he had stopped to consider, he would have remembered that he had dropped the bags in the middle of the room, and that Aric stood in front of them. But he could not think that far ahead in his anger, and Aric stumbled over the bags, tumbling the contents across the floor.

There was a moment of tense silence as Aric bent to pick up the corset that had fallen at his feet.

At last he asked, "Going somewhere, brother?" His voice was no louder than a whisper. "But with whom?"

"A—a trip. Just a few days in the country," Nathan said. He could barely speak through the tightness of his throat.

Aric reached into Caryn's bag and pulled out a gown, beautifully embroidered, dotted with seed pearls. She had worn it to the feast their father held in honor of the new year, a feast which all three brothers had attended. Recognition registered on Aric's face.

Dropping the gown, he seized Nathan by the throat and shoved him backward against the wall. "What are you planning?" he seethed. When Nate did not respond, he tightened his fingers, squeezing until Nathan's face began to darken to a deep plum. The younger brother kicked and scrambled at Aric, but Aric seemed to take no notice. "Does Caryn know that you're trying to steal her away? That's my future wife you're plotting with, little brother."

Nathan's mouth opened and closed desperately, and his eyes bulged from their sockets. With disgust, Aric dropped him in a heap on the floor, watching him gasp and cough as one would watch a dying rodent. "You're too stupid to be planning this on your own," he spat. "Let's see how Caryn answers for herself."

He seized his little brother beneath the jaw and began to drag him backward to the hallway. They were not far from Etan's rooms, where Caryn was presumably being ravished at that moment. But Nate knew they would find no princess in that room, and that Etan and the poor maid would be held just as responsible for their attempted escape as he and Caryn if they were discovered.

"It was me, Aric," he gasped desperately, struggling to free himself from Aric's grip and get to his feet. "I planned to kidnap her. She doesn't deserve to be at your mercy. I was going to take her to the woods, keep her away from you until we were forgotten about."