Queen Brat

  By

  Sharon Green

  Chapter 1

  Elissia woke easily and completely, finally feeling rested after so long a sleep. Yesterday afternoon, after the savage had spanked her, she’d made up the bed in the cabin’s back room and her husband had made glorious love to her. After that they’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms, and it had been so long since Elissia had had a decent, uninterrupted night’s sleep that even two missed mealtimes hadn’t wakened her.

  Her cheeks warmed as she suddenly remembered a dream she’d had. In the dream she was entirely naked, and the savage held her hand as he led her to a chair. He sat down in the chair and took her over his lap, then put that horrible insertion into her bottom again. The thing immediately made Elissia burn for the savage, but when she tried to reach behind and pull it out again she found she couldn’t do it. She wanted to remove the vile thing, but for some reason couldn’t do it.

  Then the savage’s hand moved over her bottom in a long, slow caress, which let her know exactly what would happen next. The first smack of his hand on her seat made her choke, but by the time the second and third smacks came she was able to howl. She desperately wanted to put her hand back to protect herself, but again she couldn’t do it. All she could do was lie across his knees, howling as his hand came down again and again in the hardest spanking she’d ever had from him.

  Many long minutes had gone by while the ache in her seat grew higher and higher, almost as high as the burning in her blood. She’d squirmed and cried shamelessly as a hand that felt like wood kept striking her bottom, and even as various strangers walked in and out of the room she could do nothing to stop the punishment she was being given. She’d been horrified when her father and brother came in to watch for a while, but she’d forced herself to beg them to stop the savage. They’d simply shrugged to show that they couldn’t stop him either, and the spanking had gone on and on.

  Finally, after a very long time, the spanking ended. Elissia had decided that the savage had probably found out the real reason she’d been by the pond, and that’s why he’d punished her so thoroughly. She hadn’t wanted him to know, but he’d found out anyway and had reacted just the way she’d known he would. He lifted her off his knees, but didn’t give her a chance to even try to rub her hot and aching bottom. He took her hand again and led her to the bed, then made her lie down.

  She’d howled when her bottom touched the bedcovers, but the savage hadn’t paid any attention. He’d put his big body between her raised knees, and then had begun to lick her all over as if she needed encouragement to want him. He didn’t come to her until he had her screaming and begging, but then he gave her everything she needed and wanted. His lovemaking was marvelous, perfect, and she’d actually fallen asleep in his arms in the dream, but now she was wide awake and feeling deliciously satisfied and rested.

  But jumping up to open the shutters and let in what looked like the light of a new day wouldn’t have been a very good idea. There wasn’t much of an ache left from the hard spanking she’d really been given, but she could hear the savage’s soft breathing on the other side of the bed. He was obviously still asleep, and being awakened by blinding morning light would have been poor repayment for the pleasure he’d given her. Maybe, if she used a few soft kisses instead, he might be coaxed into repeating the performance?

  Feeling downright wicked to be planning another campaign against her husband so soon, Elissia turned in the scratchy linen and moved closer to the man who claimed to love her. Elissia hadn’t been able to speak about her own love for him, not yet, but if he’d told the truth about his feelings then the time would come. She put a gentle hand to the warmth of his beautifully muscled arm -

  And instead of warmth found heat, the heat of fever. He wasn’t quite burning up, but fever of any kind wasn’t a good sign.

  “Derand?” she said, using his name for what was probably the first time. “Derand, we need to get you to a doctor as soon as possible. Derand, wake up.”

  The big man moved just a little and mumbled something, but even after all the sleep he’d had he didn’t wake. That had to mean he wasn’t really sleeping, not the way he should be. A clutch of cold appeared around Elissia’s heart and she quickly got out of bed to find her clothes. Those clothes went well beyond rank by now, but they were all she had with her?

  It must have taken no more than seconds for Elissia to dress, and then she went to the window. Opening the shutter took another handful of seconds, but then she was able to see better as she hurried back to the bed. With the shutter down the room had been really dim, but now?

  Now Elissia was able to see that the bandages around the savage’s body were stained with blood. She hadn’t been able to see that yesterday after they went to bed, not with rain and clouds turning the day almost as dark as night, but she was willing to bet that if she had been able to see the man clearly she would also have seen the blood.

  “Oh, you fool!” Elissia breathed at the unmoving body, fear turning her throat tight and making all of her tremble. “And I’m a double fool for having believed you were all right.”

  If the savage had been healthy and on his feet in front of her, she probably would have hit him with something hard. Doing something this stupid? ! How was she supposed to get him back to Ramsond and into the care of a doctor? Carry him to his horse? Even if she could get him out of the cabin and across his saddle, the trip would probably do him even more damage. She could ride to the city herself and bring help back, but that would mean leaving him all alone and unprotected. So how -

  “Elissia, you’re a triple fool!” she growled at herself, briefly wondering how any woman who claimed to be able to think could be so thickheaded. The savage was never left unprotected because he never went anywhere alone, a fact she’d used to poke at him with at one point. That should mean his men were around somewhere, and all she had to do was find them?

  “All,” Elissia muttered as she headed for the door of the room. “If those idiots are still trying to stay out of sight and hearing - ! How can they do that when their king’s life could well be in danger?”

  Distantly Elissia knew she was being unreasonable, but also being worried sick meant that reason went out the window. She strode to the front door, pulled it open, then hurried outside. Small patches of mud still dotted the ground here and there, remnants of the rain that hadn’t had time to dry up. The rain? Had the savage’s men really spent a cold, wet night in the open instead of going back to the city and a warm barracks? ?

  “Help!” Elissia called, desperately banishing all thoughts of men returning to comfort when they would be so badly needed. “If anyone can hear me, I need help!”

  For a long, terrifying moment there was no response, and Elissia was about to call again when a man in black leather suddenly appeared out of the woods.

  “May I be of service, Your Majesty?” the man called over as he paused just beyond the trees. “Your breakfast and the king’s will be brought in just a - “

  “Never mind breakfast!” Elissia interrupted, ignoring the fact that her insides did feel very hollow. “Your king isn’t asleep he’s unconscious, and we have to get him back to the city as quickly as possible. Do you have a wagon or something like - “

  Elissia’s words broke off when there was no longer a man to speak them to. The man in black leather had turned and run into the woods, hopefully to go for more help. With that in mind, Elissia returned to the cabin’s bedroom and sat down next to Derand to wait for that help to arrive.

  No more than ten minutes passed before a large number of black-clad men appeared. One of them came close to the bed, gently moved Elissia out of the way, then bent to look at his king. Derand moaned a little when the newcomer touched him here and there, but other than that there was no response.

  “You’re right, Your Majesty, the king is unconscious rather than sleeping,” the man said after straightening again. “I’m good enough to take care of battlefield wounds, but what the king needs is a real doctor.

  We’ll have to get him back to Ramsond.”

  “How are you going to do that?” Elissia demanded at once, not about to let anyone cause more difficulty for the man she loved. “He can’t sit a saddle, and draping him over one will - “

  “Please don’t worry, Your Majesty,” the man interrupted with gentle strength. “Some of the men are right now putting a litter together, and we’ll get the king back to Ramsond that way. He’s a strong man, Your Majesty, and I’m certain he’ll be fine once he’s had some bed rest.”

  “Bed rest he should have been getting instead of riding after me,” Elissia muttered as she turned away, so furious with herself that she wished the savage had spanked her even harder last night. Or done something worse, something bad enough to equal the way she’d put his life in danger. But how could she have known that he really did love her? Assuming he’d been telling the truth?

  Elissia’s thoughts went around and around, but she wasn’t left to their untender mercies for long. In a much shorter time than she’d expected, a group of men appeared and started to gently put the savage into his clothes. That suggested the litter was ready, so Elissia went out to look at the thing.

  The litter was no more than two long saplings trimmed down to poles with two blankets tied to them. The tops of the poles were also tied to the stirrups of a horse, with a second horse standing near the bottoms of the poles. Under other conditions the bottoms of the poles would be dragged along the ground
, but Elissia thought that this time the litter would be suspended between the two horses. Dragging the litter would give its occupant much too rough a ride.

  The small clearing near the cabin was filled with mounted men in black leather, and one of those men held the reins of the savage’s stallion. Seeing that made Elissia look around for her own horse, and only then did she notice that her mount had been saddled and brought out of the shed.

  As Elissia walked to her horse and got ready to mount, she tried to decide why she felt faintly annoyed.

  She had been raised as a princess, which meant she was more than used to having people do things for her. It just seemed that there ought to be a limit to having things done for you, if for no other reason than to let you learn how to do those things on your own. Being helpless was never a benefit at any time, but these people didn’t seem to care. And they probably thought that her being a woman meant she was helpless most of the time?

  Sitting on the hard saddle gave Elissia a distant reminder of what had been done to her last night, but the sight of Derand being carried out of the cabin banished all other thoughts. He lay so still and helpless-looking in the arms of the four men that Elissia felt the urge to hold him tight and protect him from everything in the world. Every man in sight was larger and better armed and trained than she, but Elissia knew she could do a better job of protecting Derand. And from now on she would?

  The trip back to Ramsond was neither fast nor pleasant. At one point one of the riders handed her a package, and Elissia opened the package to find bread and cheese and meat inside. The food must have come from the inn they’d passed, an inn Elissia had ignored through worry about Derand. But the savage’s men hadn’t ignored their queen’s needs, and Elissia bolted down the food even while she wished she didn’t have to. She hated to feel helpless, but right now she was able to feel nothing else.

  It was afternoon before they rode through the gates of Ramsond, and they went directly to the palace. By now Elissia was more angry with Derand than with herself, since coming after her had been the savage’s decision when he knew full well how badly he’d been hurt. And he hadn’t even taken it easy once he found her! Did the man have no sense at all? No wonder all those men trailed after him so doggedly.

  They knew that if they didn’t look after him, he’d certainly never do the job properly himself.

  “El, what happened to Derand?” Elissia heard as she dismounted, the worry-filled words coming from Gardal as he hurried up. “We got word when you came through the gates, but no one said anything about

  - “

  “Anything about your friend being a giant fool?” Elissia interrupted as she turned to her brother. “Well, he is a fool, and that’s why he’s unconscious now. He pushed himself much too hard and far, and now he’s paying for the stupidity.”

  “If you want to discuss stupidity, let’s do that,” Gardal countered, looking at her with less than brotherly tenderness. “If you hadn’t taken off on your own to go the gods only know where, Derand wouldn’t have had to ride after you. If what happened to him is anyone’s fault, it’s yours.”

  “No it isn’t!” Elissia returned hotly, refusing to let her brother get away with accusing her of things even if those things were true. “Where I go and what I do is my business and no one else’s! I’m not a child who has to account for her doings, and I’m not a slave who needs someone’s permission to do anything but obey orders. If you were the one who had ridden off, would that savage have gone chasing after you instead of staying in bed?”

  “No, he wouldn’t have chased after if I’d been the one riding off, but there are two reasons for that,”

  Gardal returned after folding his arms as he stared down at her. “The first is that I’m a reasonable man, able to take care of myself and considerate enough to tell people where I’m going before I leave. The second reason is that Derand isn’t in love with me the way he is with you, and you don’t just let people you love ride away from you without a word of explanation.”

  “Why not?” Elissia asked, suddenly in the midst of a different discussion altogether. “Does loving someone give you the right to run the life of the person you love? Does your loving them mean they have to do things only in ways you approve of? And if you think you do have that right, what about the person who might love you? Do they have the same right to run your life, or does that particular right work only in one direction?”

  Gardal had parted his lips to answer in the way you do when you’re in the midst of an argument, but instead of words coming forth there was only silence. His stare had changed to one filled with disturbance and his arms were no longer folded, and those two things were answer enough. Elissia began to move around her brother to follow the men carrying the savage into the palace, but Gardal’s hand on her arm stopped her.

  “El, those are questions you need to discuss with Derand,” he said with a sigh. “If you care about someone - really care - it isn’t possible for you to stand by while they do things that might cause them harm. If you’d been here and it was someone else Derand meant to ride out after, wouldn’t you have tried to keep him from going?”

  “I might have wanted to, but I don’t know if I would have actually tried,” Elissia responded after a moment, the answer faintly startling. “If someone really needs to do something, how much concern are you showing for them if you stop them from doing that something? Is it really them you’re thinking about -

  or only yourself?”

  Gardal’s hand left her arm as silence descended again, so Elissia continued on into the palace. A heavy disturbance had taken the place of the worry she’d been feeling, and as she followed the men carefully carrying their king she couldn’t decide which emotion was worse. Or which was actually better?

  The savage was carried to a suite and through the sitting room to a large bed chamber, where he was gently deposited on the bed. Listan already waited there with another man, and as soon as Derand was put down the other man moved to the side of the unconscious king. Listan looked drawn with worry, and he watched closely as the other man lifted Derand’s shirt to examine the wounds.

  “It’s an infection that’s causing the fever, but the infection isn’t as bad as it might be,” the man, obviously a doctor, said after a few minutes. “I have poultices that can be applied, which will help to bring him back to consciousness. Once he’s conscious, however, I’ll give him a sleeping draught to settle him down again. A few days bed rest will make him as good as new.”

  Listan nodded with obvious relief as the doctor turned to a hovering servant and began to give the girl instructions. Elissia also felt a good deal of relief, so much so that she moved out into the sitting room through the groups of black-clad men who hovered around the open bedchamber door. She felt more tired than she thought she’d be, and now she had the added job of deciding where to go and what to do -

  “Your Majesty, I’m delighted to see you,” Listan said as he came up to her, looking as though he were ready to catch her if she suddenly tried to run. “I know it’s probably an imposition, but I’d like to ask the favor of your assistance once you’ve had a chance to bathe and change your clothes.”

  “Assistance with what?” Elissia asked, not about to commit herself to something without knowing what it was. And maybe not even then?

  “Things are in a great turmoil here in Ramsond, most especially since there’s no one currently in charge,”

  Listan explained at once, still looking anxious. “I’d expected my king to return and straighten things out, but my king won’t be fit to leave his bed for some days. I have no idea who he meant to put in charge of this city, and very frankly I don’t have the authority to put someone of my own choice in charge. If you take charge, though, you’ll be acting for my king and no one else will have to be chosen.”

  “Me? In charge?” Elissia knew perfectly well that her voice had risen an octave or two, but shock tended to do that to her. “Listan, you can’t be serious!”

  “I’m not only serious I’m desperate,” Listan returned with a sound of scorn. “Even if I had the authority to do the necessary, I don’t happen to know what the necessary is. I have no doubt that you’ll know exactly what has to be done, just as you did with the rescue of my king. Please don’t say no.”