"All right," Beauty said, "what is it you want to tell me?"

"Only that you were so lovely, dearest Princess, that you have such beauty. Even as you were there, why, how many who seem beautiful could have kept their beauty in such a trial, and you were so beautiful, Princess." Over and over she said this word, better words she did not know. "You were so...so graceful, Princess," she said. "You bore it so well, with such obedience to his Highness, the Prince."

Beauty said nothing. She was thinking of it again, of how it must have seemed to the girl. But it gave Beauty such a frightful sense of herself that she stopped thinking of it. This girl had seen her so closely, had seen the redness of her flesh as it was punished, and had felt her writhing uncontrollably.

Beauty would have cried again, but she didn't want to.

For the first time, through a film of ointment, she felt the girl's naked fingers on her. They massaged the welts.

"Ooooh!" the Princess gasped.

"I'm sorry," said the girl. "I am trying so to be gentle."

"No, you must go on. Rub it in well," sighed Beauty, "it feels good, actually. Maybe it's that moment when you take your fingers away." How try to explain it, her bu**ocks flooded with this pain, itching with it, the welts little hard pebblelike bits of pain, and those fingers pinching them and then releasing them.

"Everyone adores you, Princess," the girl whispered. "Everyone has seen your beauty, and nothing to disguise it or hide your defects, and you have no defects. And they are swooning over you, Princess."

"Is that really so? Or do you say it to console me?" asked Beauty.

"O, it is so," said the girl. "O, you should have heard the rich women out in the Inn yard tonight, all of them pretending they weren't envious, but all of them knew that stripped they couldn't hold a candle to you, Princess. And of course the Prince was so beautiful, so handsome and so..."

"Ah, yes," sighed Beauty.

The girl had coated the bu**ocks now and was putting even more ointment into the flesh. And she worked some of it into Beauty's thighs, her fingers stopping just before the hair between Beauty's legs, and again, with fierce annoyance and shame, Beauty felt that pleasure coming back. And with this girl!

"O, if the Prince were to know it," she thought suddenly. She couldn't imagine him being pleased, and it suddenly occurred to her that he might punish her any time she felt this pleasure without his giving it to her. She tried to put it out of her mind. She wished she knew where he was now.

"Tomorrow," the girl said, "when you go on to the Prince's castle, the road all along the way will be lined with those who want to see you. Word is spreading all through the Kingdom..."

Beauty gave a little start at these words. "Are you sure of it?" she said fearfully. It was too much to think of suddenly. She remembered that peaceful moment in the afternoon forest. She had been alone ahead of the Prince and had some how managed to forget the soldiers following him. And suddenly to think of people all along the road waiting to see her! She remembered the crowded village streets, those inevitable moments when her naked thighs or br**sts even had been brushed by an arm or the fabric of a skirt -- she felt her breath halt.

"But he wants this for me," she thought. "Not just that he see me but that all see me."

"It gives the people such pleasure to see you," he had said tonight as they entered this little town. He had prodded her on up ahead of him, and she had been crying so fiercely as she saw all about her those shoes and boots from which she dared not look up.

"But you are so lovely, Princess, and they will be telling their grandchildren about it," said the tavern girl. "They cannot wait to feast their eyes upon you, and you will not disappoint them, no matter what they have heard. Imagine that, never disappointing anyone..." The girl's voice trailed off as though she were in thought. "O, I wish I could follow you to see it."

"But you don't understand," Beauty whispered, unable suddenly to contain herself. "You don't realize..."

"Yes, I do," said the girl. "Of course I do...I've seen the Princesses when they come through in their magnificent gowns covered with jewels, and I know how it must feel to be opened to the world as if you were a flower, all of their eyes like fingers prying at you, but you are so...so splendid finally, Princess, and so rare. And you are his Princess, and he has claimed you and all know you are in his power and must do as he commands you. It is no shame to you, Princess. How could it be, with so great a Prince to command you? O, do you think that there aren't women who would give up everything to take your place, if only they had your beauty?"

Beauty was startled by this. She thought about it. Women giving up everything, taking her place. It had not occurred to her. She remembered that moment in the forest.

But then she remembered being spanked in the Inn, and all of those others watching. She remembered sobbing helplessly, and hating her bu**ocks propped up in the air, and her legs open, and that paddle coming down again and again. Finally the pain was the least of it.

She thought of the crowds on the road. She tried to picture it. It would happen to her tomorrow.

She would feel this drenching humiliation, this pain, but all those people would be there to witness her humiliation, to amplify it.

The door had opened.

The Prince had come into the room. And the little tavern girl jumped up and was bowing to him.

"Your Highness," the girl said breathlessly.

"You've done your work very well," said the Prince.

"It was a great honor, your Highness," said the girl.

The Prince came to the bed, and clasping Beauty's right wrist, he drew her up out of the bed and stood her beside it. Obediently, Beauty looked down, and not knowing what to do with her hands, quickly brought them to the back of the neck.

She could almost feel the Prince's satisfaction.

"Excellent, my darling," he said. "Isn't she lovely, your Princess?" he said to the tavern girl.

"O, yes, your Highness."

"Did you talk to her and console her as you were bathing her?"

"O, yes, your Highness, I told her how much everyone admired her and how much they wanted to..."

"Yes, to see her," the Prince said.

There was a pause. Beauty wondered if they were both looking at her, and suddenly she felt herself naked in the sight of both of them. It seemed one or the other she could bear, but both of them staring at her br**sts and sex was too much for her.