A Brother's Price Part 17

"Oh, but I like the blush," Lylia said.

"If he keeps blus.h.i.+ng like that, you'll have to use a pry bar to get the women off him," Cullen said. "Arrogance. It's the only way to have a moment's peace."

"As if you had practice," Lylia said, tugging on Cul-len's braid.

Cullen tweaked her cheek. "I'll have you know that there are families out there that are willing to overlook a small streak of headstrongness."

"Small? Ha!" Lylia rolled her eyes. "I was going to suggest a walk in the gardens." She tilted her head in the direction of the door. "Just the six of us."

"A pleasure," Eldest murmured.

Lylia did not take Cullen's arm, as Jerin expected her to do, but let her cousin lead the way. Summer and Eldest fell into step with Cullen, flanking him. On a hand signal from Eldest, Corelle took Jerin's arm with a sigh of the long-suffering, and Lylia walked beside them.

"There are actually several gardens inside the palace walls," Lylia explained as they strolled down a flight of stairs and several hallways to the porch where the Queen Mother Elder had first met with them. "The family is mad about puttering about in the muck, bending nature to their will. I don't have the madness, so I don't quite understand it, but Trini and, strangely enough, Odelia are both crazy about it."

The gardens were a riot of color, in full bloom with early-summer flowers. Paths of pea gravel meandered through drifts of peonies to archways leading to other gardens.

"The back wall is sixteen feet tall and is patrolled night and day. The gardens are as safe as the house." Lylia pointed out the wall a few hundred feet away. "We can walk around without fear in here."

"My favorite area is down here." Cullen led the way to a well-shaded grotto, where water spilled over a water-fall into a deep, rock-lined pool. "The cliff was built here for my uncle. If you look carefully, you can see the individual slabs of stone they fitted together to make it."

Jerin studied the wall several minutes before finding the finger-wide joints of the very natural-looking cliff face.

"The water is pumped by that windmill." Lylia pointed to a picturesque structure, its sailcloth arms creaking in the stiff wind.

"Oh." Pieces of Jerin's education came together in his mind. "We're at the top of a sandstone cliff. The ground is probably too porous to keep water up here."

His reasoning seemed to please the princess for some reason. Lylia grinned widely at him. "Exactly!"

Beyond the grotto, there were lily pools and a hedge maze. They strolled on, he and Lylia falling behind the others, frightening hidden frogs into the water with a soft plop, plop plop, plop.

"Does the windmill pump all the water for everything, or just the gardens?"

"There are several water supplies. Specially lined cisterns collect the rainwater; plus there are several wells. If you look up there, on the roof, there are tanks that the windmill fills. In the family wing, there are indoor privies with running water. Mothers had them installed when I was little."

"My aunts needed to build a new wing to their home, so they designed their house to have a indoor privy," Jerin said. "It's very clever."

"It's just a tank of water high over a p.i.s.s pot with a hole in it," Lylia said, grinning as if she enjoyed the innocent rudeness of the conversation.

"It's that the tank fills itself to exactly full and stops that I think is amazing. A human would know that the tank is empty and could fill it and then stop when it was full. It's like they made it intelligent, yet inside the tank are only little pieces of metal and cork."

She covered her mouth on a laugh. "Oh, please, you'll make me nervous to sit with my pants around my ankles with these 'intelligent' tanks of water above my head."

He laughed. Lylia surprised him by taking his hands in hers and looking up at him.

"Kiss me," she demanded.

"What?" Jerin blinked in amazement.

"Kiss me."

Jerin glanced around to see if anyone was about to observe them. Where had his sisters and Cullen gone? "Would it be proper?"

Lylia seemed to consider for a moment, or maybe it was just an act of considering. "Proper enough. It's not like I'm asking to mount you."

"No." he admitted uneasily, "but one seems to follow the other."

She giggled, and then leaned forward-pressing her body full against his, wetting her lips before whispering again. "Kiss me."

He supposed this was why the sisters were princesses. They commanded and everyone else was helpless not to obey. Certainly he also was helpless not to enjoy. Her lips were warm, moist velvet, her taste of apples, and her scent of cinnamon. She put her arms about his neck, ran her fingers down his braid, and tugged at the end. A moment later his braid uncoiled and his hair cascaded forward, a waterfall of silky black. She ran fingers through his hair.

"Lylia," Ren said from behind her sister.

The younger princess broke the kiss. "I'm behaving." She skipped backward, grinning, until she collided with Ren. She rolled her head back on Ren's shoulder to look up at her older, taller sister. "He's dreamy."

"You're supposed to be escorting your cousin." Ren lifted her arm to point back up the path. "Go!"

"I'm gone." She spun to duck under Ren's arm and cantered off.

"Um." Jerin ran his thumb across his forehead, gath-ering up his hair and pulling it out of his face. "I'm not sure how to say no to you princesses."

"I suppose not," Ren said quietly. "Our society can't allow men to learn how to say no; it's too important they say yes to so many women. Maybe if there were one man for every five women, or every three women, we could afford for men to say no."

"What if there were five men for every woman?"

Ren studied a cloud as she considered. "Interesting question. Five sisters can share one man because each of them is individually rewarded with a child. Five men could could share one woman, and be individually rewarded, but only if the woman was careful in allotting her pregnancies. It seems to run against human nature, though. Waiting five nights for one's turn is not the same as waiting almost five years. Allowing your husband to impregnate your sister is not on the same level of commitment and risk as letting your wife carry and give birth to a child for your brother. Plus, any midwife can tell you, s.p.a.ce the babies too close together, and each subsequent child is unhealthier than the previous one. Which brother gets to go first? Which brother has to be last?" share one woman, and be individually rewarded, but only if the woman was careful in allotting her pregnancies. It seems to run against human nature, though. Waiting five nights for one's turn is not the same as waiting almost five years. Allowing your husband to impregnate your sister is not on the same level of commitment and risk as letting your wife carry and give birth to a child for your brother. Plus, any midwife can tell you, s.p.a.ce the babies too close together, and each subsequent child is unhealthier than the previous one. Which brother gets to go first? Which brother has to be last?"

"It would seem that the power would remain with the woman," Jerin said.

"It does indeed. The very nature of intercourse-an act to produce a pregnancy-and the risks to the woman's health as such, I think will always make' the choice of yes or no the woman's."

"So the man can never say no."

"Actually," she said as she gathered up his hair into a ponytail, "you can always say no. I suppose I sound the hypocrite, but you have the right to choose who does what to your body."

"Even though I belong to my sisters, as much as a chair or a table belongs to them, and they can sell me to whoever they want, despite my wishes?"

"I have never believed that to be right and good."

She began to rework his hair into a braid. "Nowhere in the holy book does it say that a sister has the right to treat her brother as something less than human. Sometime, somehow, simple human greed worked its way into the law. The greed says, I will not give up something I have without getting something in return, even for someone I should love dearly."

"But if you are giving up the only male you have, you're giving up the ability to have children, even if only by means of incest. No babies to love, no daughters to tend you when you are old, no descendants to honor your memory."

She picked up his ribbon from where her sister had dropped it and tied the end of his braid. "If it didn't cost you to gain a husband, you wouldn't have to sell your brother. The ability to sell a brother leads to circ.u.mstances such as your uncle's, who was sold to finance a trading house."

"My mothers allowed him to choose his wives. He loves them dearly."

"Your mothers are particularly n.o.ble, then, compared to stories I have heard at court. The most pitiful ones are widows suing their husband's sisters because he committed suicide after the money was exchanged."

He nodded slowly. "It is hard knowing I won't be going back home, that I'll only see my youngest sisters and little brothers again if my wives allow it."

"That, unfortunately, is the nature of marriage and not an evil that can be banished by law. The husband has to go live with his wives."

"I suppose it's because a man's little sisters will grow up and become women with a husband to fill their thoughts, run their house, and raise their children. In his wives' home, a man's wives and children will always need him."

"You are wise beyond your years." Her eyes sung his praises.

He suddenly realized that he was wasting this moment alone with her, maybe the last he would have. Perhaps it wouldn't be wise of him to kiss her, but he had been wanting to since she left the farm. He stepped closer to her, leaning awkwardly forward, torn between wanting to close his eyes and knowing that he'd probably miss her mouth if he did shut them.

For a moment he thought he was horribly wrong in trying to kiss her, because the slight smile on her face faded. But then she was pulling him close, her lips pressed to his in unmistakable desire.

I love you! I love you ! But he was afraid to speak the words aloud, because if she didn't crush him down with some cruel remark, he knew that his feelings would grow. Even now he found great comfort in her returning his kisses as if she was as starved for his touch as he was for hers. When the edge of their mutual hunger was dulled to bearable, they stood, foreheads gently touching, his arms about her neck, her hands on his hips, holding him to her. She would exhale, and he would inhale her warm breath, feeling at one with her. ! But he was afraid to speak the words aloud, because if she didn't crush him down with some cruel remark, he knew that his feelings would grow. Even now he found great comfort in her returning his kisses as if she was as starved for his touch as he was for hers. When the edge of their mutual hunger was dulled to bearable, they stood, foreheads gently touching, his arms about her neck, her hands on his hips, holding him to her. She would exhale, and he would inhale her warm breath, feeling at one with her.

He finally whispered much safer words that those that shouted in his heart. "I've missed you. I've dreamed of you."

"And I, you," Ren breathed.

Lest his empty mouth fill up with the dangerous words, he trailed kisses down the tan, graceful curve of her neck, desire filling him, blotting out common sense. The memory of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, replayed almost every night since that night in the kitchen, lured him downward. Her fingers moved in front of his advance, opening the line of attack. He moved his lips across skin silken as flower petals. Ren arched her back, making a small sound of pleasure. His right hand found the b.u.t.tons of her trousers, worried them open, and slid down her fiat stomach.

His universe became her; she filled all his senses and thoughts. The murmur of falling water, the birdsong, and the drone of bees faded till he heard only her breath, her soft sighs. She guided his mouth to hers, demanding his lips, and they breathed as one. And when she finally clung to him, shuddering, it was as if they were a single being, filling all of reality. They stood entwined-mouth to mouth, heart to heart, hip to hip.

"I envy my ancestors," Ren murmured against his lips. "I think I would give anything to be able to just take what I wanted."

"Does that include me?"

Ren laughed softly. "At the moment, you're the only thing I want-your sisters, my sisters, my mothers, the whole queendom be d.a.m.ned."

Jerin jerked away from her with a hiss and a curse. "My sisters! Oh, G.o.ds, if they caught us, they'd kill me!"

"They would kill me." Ren hurriedly refastened her trousers. "And Cullen's sisters would kill Lylia if they knew what she did."

"Lylia?" Jerin glanced around for the others. "What did she do?"

Ren laughed, b.u.t.toning her s.h.i.+rt. "She used Cullen to distract your sisters, to get you alone, the little minx."

Jerin winced, remembering Lylia's sweet stolen kisses. How many men had the young princess lured out and kissed before him? "They do this often?"

Ren grinned, cupping his chin with a warm hand and running a callused thumb along his cheek. "No, which is quite encouraging in all regards." She glanced down the path as sounds of the others reached them. "Here they come."

Cullen wore a crown of flowers, and looked extremely tousled, and pleased. Eldest had a slightly smug expression, which made Jerin wonder what exactly had taken place before-and perhaps even after-Lylia had caught up with them. The young princess grinned at her older sister, as if well satisfied with the whole affair.

"The dressing gong will sound soon," Ren said, making a show of pulling out her pocket watch and checking the time. "We should retire to get decent."

Clearly, it was ambush.

Lylia and Odelia lazed in Ren's study, idly bouncing a ball between them, as if they had nothing better to do. Odelia, on the divan, gave a nonchalant. "Hoy." Lylia, sideways in the leather armchair with her booted feet on the antique cherry end table, feigned a look of surprise. Plainly, they had been waiting for her, joining sides to do gory battle, but over what?

"Well?" Ren pushed Lylia's feet off of the end table.

"Well, what?" Lylia put on her doe-eyed innocent look, perfected and much abused over the years. It worked well with people outside the family, but Ren had witnessed too many of Lylia's maneuverings to believe it.

"What are you two here for?" Ren asked.

Odelia smirked at Lylia. "Told you she would know."

Lylia stuck out her tongue at Odelia, then addressed Ren levelly. "What are you doing about Trini and Halley?"

"Trini?" Ren could understand their worrying about Halley's prolonged absence, but they'd worked alongside Trini that very morning. "What's wrong with Trini?"

"She's taken a tray in her rooms every meal since Jerin arrived," Lylia groused. "She's refusing to meet him. She's still saying it's too soon to get married."

Ren jerked in surprise at the word "married." She hadn't talked to her sisters about a possible marriage in hopes of staving off any negative reactions before they had a chance to meet Jerin personally. Apparently Lylia, Odelia, and, unfortunately, Trini all knew why the Whistlers had been invited to the palace.

"Completely pigheaded." Odelia added, hopefully meaning Trini. Odelia lay back on the divan, tossing the ball upward until it nearly touched the ceiling and catching it when it dropped.

"This is a perfect opportunity, and she's letting it slip away." Lylia launched herself out of her seat to rove through Ren's study with restless energy. "Every n.o.bleman available for us to marry has been raised like a vacuous songbird. Other than ignoring traditions and marrying Cullen, quite frankly, I don't see another alternative on the market."

"'Vacuous.' Is that really a word?" Odelia asked as the ball rose again in another orbit.

Ren settled herself on the edge of her desk, trying to smother a smile. Obviously both of them were for marrying Jerin-but then, she had figured they would be. "We can't marry Cullen."

"There's precedent for royal cousins marrying," Lylia stated firmly.

Ren shook her head. "The parents weren't full siblings in those cases. The bloodlines are too close with us and Cullen. I checked it one time-his mother was full sister to Father."

Odelia caught the ball and sat up in one smooth motion. "You two are serious! Cullen? Holy Mothers, you're both as bad as Trini."

"What's wrong with Cullen?" Lylia asked, jerking up her chin.

"Besides being more like our brother than our cousin?" Odelia scoffed. Then, apparently realizing that she about to fall into full warfare with Lylia, she threw up her hands. "Forget I said anything. We're here to talk about Jerin and Trini and Halley."

Lylia swallowed her attack, and nodded. "Trini can't be allowed to get away with this. It would be one thing if she met Jerin and found fault with him, but she's being completely irrational. We need to get married. She has to be reasonable."

Odelia snorted. "Trini is never going to be reasonable when the subject is men."

"What Keifer did to her couldn't have been that bad!" Lylia snapped, then glanced to them, uncertain. "Could it?"

This is going to hurt a little, right, Keifer? Oh, no, Ren, it's going to hurt a lot ! Ren flinched at the memory. At the time she believed the pain had been unavoidable. Since then, she had grown sure that Keifer had enjoyed inflicting much more pain than necessary. ! Ren flinched at the memory. At the time she believed the pain had been unavoidable. Since then, she had grown sure that Keifer had enjoyed inflicting much more pain than necessary.

"Oh, don't do that!" Lylia snapped at their carefully blanked faces. "Since I was ten, every time I ask about this, everyone gets quiet and then they change the subject. I'm an adult now! I'm a royal princess of the realm. I have a right and a duty to know what happened."

Ren sighed. Lylia was right. "You might not remember, but Keifer was very beautiful. Eldest and the others fell in love with his beauty, and didn't care that he wasn't very intelligent."

"I've seen dogs smarter than him," Odelia muttered, then added wistfully, "But he was beautiful."

"Trini was only thirteen," Ren continued. "She wasn't interested in men yet, and I think she saw him more clearly than the rest of us. She saw that he was stupid, spoiled, and ill-tempered. She called him a breeding bull. She tried to block the marriage, but she wasn't an adult yet, and she was vastly outnumbered."

"Back then, she was much like you, Lylia." Sorrow tinged Odelia's voice. "She had a sharp tongue and she was fearless in using it. She could get him so mad."