Fifty Shades of Sleeping Beauty (6 page)

“I can remember when Johnny and I would go out and sit by the river on days like this. There were always days like this, back then – it was before you were born, little princess.” Griselda let out a sigh. “Oh, Johnny and I would frolic like you wouldn’t believe. It seems so long ago now.”

Talia couldn’t believe that her governess had ever frolicked, but she listened politely. Griselda, however, suddenly realised who she was talking to and where her line of memories was leading her. She blushed and then made to stand up but Talia placed a hand on her arm very softly.

“I didn’t know you had a husband,” she said.

“Oh, we weren’t married!” Griselda said and then blushed again. “Anyway, enough of that. You must get on with your studies.”

Talia sighed. Her time of pleasure seemed to be coming to an end, but it had been fun while it lasted. There was, however, one thing that she wanted to talk to someone about and Griselda seemed as good a person as any.

“Griselda,” she said slowly. “You know last week, when you fell asleep and I went for a walk.”

Behind them came the regular snip, snip, snip of the gardener’s shears. He had climbed onto a ladder and was tending the tower-shaped privet.

The governess frowned but, before she could reprimand the princess Talia hurriedly continued. “I didn’t do anything bad. Honest. I was just walking by the gates, you know, that lead from the palace into town, and there was a man there, selling stuff.”

Griselda opened her mouth in horror. “What was he selling?” she asked, while the gardener continued his work behind them.

“Just food!” Talia said quickly. “Fruit and vegetables, really. I’ve seen him before, but he’s never sold these things before, and I wondered why.”

“What kind of things?” Griselda asked carefully.

“Really delicious stuff,” Talia replied innocently. “And he let me try them all for nothing. He said that all these things used to grow in Nysa, but not any more and he was trying to make a living.”

“Well, they’re probably very bad for you,” Griselda answered. “I’m surprised he wasn’t arrested.” Neither of them
were aware that the gardener’s pruning was becoming somewhat more erratic.

“Oh, he
was, which surprised me. I mean, all the things he had tasted so lovely. I had my hands on a big pair of melons, and when I gave them a squeeze it made him laugh.”

“By the gods!” muttered Griselda under her breath. There was a particularly loud snip behind them, and then concerted efforts to work more regularly.

“Yes, they felt lovely in my fingers, and when I popped a cherry in my mouth it was the sweetest thing I’d ever had. I couldn’t believe how it felt on my tongue. Then he handed me a banana, and after I peeled it back I gave it a good suck before swallowing it all down. I don’t think I’ve ever had something so big in my hands before.”

Griselda was speechless at this, her eyes bulging, but Talia smiled at her with clear, innocent eyes, her face as lovely as the summer’s day.

“But the best bit,” she continued, “was when I got his plums in my mouth. I rolled them around before I bit down hard. They were so sweet and juicy! You wouldn’t believe all the stuff I had trickling down my lips and chin – it was all wet and sticky! It made such a mess all over me – you wouldn’t believe the trouble I had cleaning up afterwards.”

Before Griselda could think of any sort of response, there was a groan followed by a loud crash from behind them.
Both women immediately jumped up and turned to see that the gardener had disappeared – but not before lopping off the top of the tower-shaped bush so that it hung limply toward the ground. Rushing forward, they found the old man collapsed in a tangle with his ladder, a strange, stupid smile on his face.

“By the gods,” he muttered. “Now I can die happy.”

Talia had no idea what the gardener was talking about, but then that was a situation she was used to. In recent years, plenty of the courtiers and servants at the palace had taken to speaking in hushed tones when she was around, and more than a few of them were embarrassed when she came upon them in the middle of a conversation.

For her part, however, Princess Talia was so innocent and happy that she did not mind the fact that the whole world seemed to share in certain kinds of knowledge that she was not party to. She trusted that her parents had
organised things with her best interests at heart, her only disappointment being the suspicion that she was the cause of some discomfort among some of the younger men of the court in particular. Whenever the princess attempted to console such difficulties among those young men, in every case they would make their excuses and leave. She had even begun to suspect that she was the cause of some physical ailment among them, in that the vast majority of them appeared to develop some terrible swelling in their trousers that they would attempt to hide from her as - groaning in evident pain - they scuttled away from her.

Banishing such thoughts, however, Talia took every opportunity to find time to be on her own away from the watchful but (in her opinion) over-protective eyes of Griselda. And so it came to pass one day that the young princess was exploring a part of the castle that she had never visited before.

It was something of a surprise that the area she found herself in seemed not to have been visited by anyone recently. That it was new to Talia herself was not such a cause of concern: the castle was vast and rambling, and even in eighteen years of exploring she was very aware that she had not uncovered every nook and cranny. Nonetheless, when she opened a door she had never seen before the amount of dust on the stairwell that led up into a tower seemed undisturbed by any footsteps.

Filled with excitement, Talia placed foot after dainty foot on each of the steps that led onwards and upwards. She was dressed in a long skirt of dark-green, crushed velvet, and had anyone been on the steps beneath her they would have seen her delicate ankles and her slender feet, each one encased in a slipper of soft satin. The anticipation of exploring the unknown made her cheeks flush a gentle pink and her chest heaved as her breathing deepened.

At the top of the stairs lay another door, its heavy wooden surface carved with strange figures of what appeared to be naked men and women arranged in the most exotic postures. The sight of this made Talia blush even more - it was certain that the people depicted there must have been hurting each other from the strange acts they were committing, yet the expressions on their faces appeared to show anything but pain. For her part, Talia wondered why her nipples became harder beneath her dress and an odd throbbing began in her lower parts, and for a moment she considered turning back and leaving that strange door and its strange carvings behind.

Curiosity, however, may not have killed too many cats in Nysa, but it was to be the undoing of a young princess. Feeling foolish that she had considered turning back at this point, Talia looked over her shoulders quickly. There was no-one else around. She would just have a quick peek behind the door and then make her way back downstairs for dinner. In any case, it was probably locked which was why nobody had visited for such a long time.

Her secret pleasure that the door was
not
unlocked was only surpassed by her complete astonishment to discover that not only had this room in fact been visited recently, but it was still occupied.

A
quick glance revealed a plushly-furnished room, with a large bed in its centre around which was arrayed various tables with very odd-looking implements, while a welcoming fire blazed away in one corner. Had she had more of her wits about her, Talia would probably have considered why - if the door she stood at was the only entrance to the room - there were no footsteps in the dust that lay in the stairwell outside.

Her attention, however, was entirely taken up with the room’s single occupant. Although it was summer (a slightly drizzly summer, but summer for all that), the fire was very warm and that was presumably why the woman lying on the bed was dressed in such a flimsy robe. While the fabric covered her from head to foot, it was such a gauzy material that her white skin was clearly visible and Talia
realised that, for the first time she could remember, she was looking at a pair of small breasts and narrow shoulders, while the woman’s hips were turned so that the pale, cleanly-shaven skin above her private parts could be seen.

The woman appeared to be sleeping, her long hair,
raven black apart from a white streak that flowed like ice among her tresses, laid out on the pillow. Embarrassed to have disturbed her (and also disturbed by the more intense throbbing in her belly), Talia began to close the door quietly. At that moment, the woman stirred and opened her eyes - piercing the princess with her gaze.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” the woman said. Lifting her head, Talia now saw that she was slightly older than she had first thought - though her age was such that, if anything, it made her appear even more beautiful. Her lips were a deep, dark red, like drops of blood, and her eyes glittered with a
humour that made the princess feel awkward. As she moved her slender, toned arms, her long fingers played across the robe that barely covered her, sharp nails seeming to slice the fabric so that the snowy-white skin beneath was exposed.

“Oh!” Talia exclaimed, looking behind herself to see who the woman was referring to. Seeing no-one else, she turned back to the bed with a confused expression on her face. “Waiting for me?” she asked stupidly.

“Who else would it be?” the woman asked. Her voice was soft and slightly hypnotic, an effect that was enhanced by her dark eyes, and Talia had to shake her head to recover herself.

“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to make her voice sound as prim and proper as Griselda’s. “I think you must have the wrong person.”

As she began to move backwards, the woman on the bed stood and moved towards the door with astonishing speed, causing Talia to jump as her wrist was grasped - again with a firmness that seemed to belie the woman’s slender body. The stranger was taller than the princess, with a body that was slight and willowy at a distance but now, Talia could see as she stood so close to her, revealed itself to be taut with well-defined muscles.

“Oh no, Princess Talia,” the stranger breathed with glee, her eyes sparkling and her smile wide and almost wolf-like, “I certainly do not have the wrong person.”

With a graceful motion she gestured for Talia to enter. The princess rationalised to herself that it would be rude not to enter, but it would have been more honest to say that she was fascinated to find out who this woman was.

“My,” she said hesitantly, looking for an innocent topic of conversation. “It’s very warm in here!”

“Is it?” the woman asked nonchalantly. Crossing to Talia, she reached out and, with a deft movement of those long fingers, undid one and then two buttons at the top of Talia’s dress. The action, so simple, surprised the princess who did not move - just as she made no effort to resist the woman when she stroked the princess’s cheek. Again, while the action was a mundane one, its effect on Talia was to make her blush and avert her own gaze. She felt
very
peculiar in her belly now.

“Charming,” said the woman, and for a second there was an odd tone in her voice - almost of regret - which made Talia’s head snap up. At this, the woman laughed to hide her previous mood and took up Talia’s hand, leading her gently towards the bed.

“As you say, it’s very warm in here,” the woman continued as though nothing had passed between them. “If you’re too hot, you might prefer to remove that heavy dress.”

Secretly, Talia agreed that in many circumstances that would be the most sensible thing to do, but her upbringing meant that she shook her head. “Oh no,” she replied as firmly as she could. “Nobody in Nysa takes off their clothes in front of other people if they can help it.” At the same time, she thought that the woman’s own apparel looked so very, very inviting.

The woman sighed at this - and again Talia thought she heard a hint of regret in the sound. “It was not always thus,” she said very quietly. Catching herself, she smiled warmly at Talia and gestured to the bed. “Perhaps you would sit with me for a while. I would love to find out what you’ve been up to.”

Something told Talia that she should refuse, but at the same time she had been reared to be a very polite girl and so she moved towards the bed - after all, everything in Talia’s education told her that a bed was simply a place to sleep and nothing more. Nonetheless, she couldn’t help but ask: “Who are you? And why haven’t I seen you before?”

Again the woman sighed. “I am - or, rather, I was - an old friend of your mother’s. Your father and I were quite close too. Once.” Her wistfulness seemed to be tempered by something more bitter, causing Talia to frown. Catching the princess’s expression, the woman laughed once more. “You can call me Bella - and I promise to show you everything I know, but first, I must simply find out all I can about you. I’ve missed watching you grow up. You really have become a beautiful woman. Why, I would almost be jealous of how pretty you are - if I was the type of woman to be jealous.”

This time Talia missed the undertones of the woman’s speech. Having seated herself by the bed, the princess’s attention had been distracted by some of the objects she saw laid out on a table. If she hadn’t known better, she would have sworn that they were instruments of torture. The manacles and whips were easy enough to ascertain, but the two other objects lying there were very peculiar indeed. Both of them were longer than they were slender, and the smaller one was easily the length of Talia’s hand and a good width across the circumference. The larger one, however, looked as though it would have reached halfway up her forearm and was also considerably thicker, being of a darker
colour. Each one had a strange, smooth head with a groove in the middle, while the shaft of each was covered with what looked like moulded veins. When the princess picked up the larger of the two, feeling its weight in her hand, it felt slightly warm and slippery to the touch.

This made Bella smile, a wicked expression as she arched her eyebrows. “The man that was
modelled on,” she almost purred, “gave me a great deal of pleasure once. As did the other one.” As she said this, however, she frowned and muttered - almost too quietly for Talia to hear: “Before he broke my heart.”

The princess did not heed the words: her attention was still taken up by the odd object she held. The sensation of it in her hand made her feel very peculiar in a way she couldn’t explain. Something about the smoothness of its head made her want to slide her lips along it in the same way she rubbed her fingers along the groove, and had the woman not been present she would have tried that very trick.

“What is it?” she asked.

The dark-haired woman came and sat beside her on the bed and gently lifted the toy from her dainty fingers. “Haven’t you ever seen a cock before?”

It was Talia’s turn to frown, then the light slowly started to dawn in her eyes. “I’ve heard that word before! You mean a pizzle, don’t you. I’ve seen the horses, once or twice, though daddy orders them to be covered most of the time, and once I glimpsed a bull when he was doing something very odd to one of the cows and before Griselda could drag me away but... that was larger than this.”

Bella laughed at this and raised her eyes. “A bull’s cock - yes, well, I can imagine that
would
be bigger, but it’s the only thing that is, I’ll warrant. The man this was modelled on was a giant in every sense of the word.”

“You mean this is a man’s cock?” Talia asked in astonishment. “No! Never! I mean... if they were all this big they’d always be visible and I’m sure I’d have seen one before now!”

Moving slightly closer so that Talia was aware of the warmth from her body, Bella rested one hand lightly on the princess’s knee while she held the huge object in her other.

“So innocent,” she breathed. “And tell me, young princess, haven’t you ever noticed how when some of those men look at you there is a visible swelling in her trousers?”

Talia frowned once more. “Well, yes, sometimes. But they always look embarrassed and I feel so sorry for them. I mean, they always seem to be so poorly.” She turned her large eyes on Bella with such concern that the other woman blushed for a moment and seemed to hesitate. Nonetheless, with a shake of her head, Bella seemed to regain her confidence and began to speak quickly.

“So innocent,” she repeated.
“And so foolish. I’ve been waiting here for you, you know, because now it’s time for me to complete my education.”

At the mention of the word “education” Talia groaned and rolled her eyes. “You sound like Griselda,” she muttered and began to stand up, but Bella grabbed hold of her hand and, with a gentle pressure pulled her back onto the bed.

“I suppose you’re going to test me on what I know about all the kings and queens of Nysa,” she grumbled, “or whether I can conjugate my verbs.”

Bella laughed delightedly at this. “Oh, I did have some conjugation in mind, but it has very little to do with verbs - though I imagine I shall be using my mouth rather a lot before the afternoon is out.”