Virginblood (Seven Brides for Seven Bastards, 4) (6 page)

She had not known Princesa's history
and hearing it stated now so matter-of-factly was shocking. The
woman glowed with an abundance of good health and happiness. It was
hard to believe she had once been abused so badly. That she had
ever been a slave.

"And Aelfa," she continued softly,
"had a husband who raped and beat her with his fists. Then one day
she met Sebastien d'Anzeray and he rescued her."

Jeanne swallowed, but her throat was
dry. "I did not know."

Princesa smiled again. "So you see,
those men may not be angels and perhaps they do not pray to god,
but they have done good things. Sometimes I wonder if they even
know what they have done. Perhaps it is entirely by accident that
they saved us. But I know we shall always be glad of it. I have
heard it said that god works in mysterious ways." She
laughed.

Slowly Jeanne sat up, but leaned on
her hip to save her sore bottom. "He does."

"Well, if I were you, Jeanne, I would
stay out of Salvador's way for a while and say my prayers inside
from now on. I have a feeling god will still hear you."

She nodded.

Princesa slid an arm around her waist.
"I think Ram is quite taken with you."

Her cheeks hot, she stared at the
other woman. "What?"

"Carrying you in his arms so
gallantly. I did not think he had it in him."

"I cannot think what you mean." She
stood, slipping out of the other woman's warm embrace. "He carried
me because he felt guilty. As well he should."

Princesa shrugged. "Perhaps. But men
do not think as we do. They seldom consider what they do before
they act. With them it is all instinct. And his instinct was to
carry you in his arms."

Not knowing what else to say, thinking
the pregnant woman was simply dreaming among the daisies again,
Jeanne thanked her and then hurried out of the stillroom. It was a
sad state of affairs that the females in this place should find one
single kind act by a man so weighty in its significance. Yet Jeanne
had to admit it was strange. Even stranger that in his arms she had
felt secure for once. Which was ridiculous.

She could not reconcile her sense of
wounded pride with the throbbing excitement that had overtaken her
as Ram spanked her bottom in the courtyard, and while Salvador held
her down, exposing her private regions to the entire castellany. It
was all too confusing. And Princesa's confession about praying
stuck in her mind, wedged there in the midst of it all. God
certainly did work in mysterious ways if this was his idea of
"saving" women, she thought peevishly.

Jeanne had seen Princesa run out to
greet Raul d'Anzeray recently when he returned from fighting Saxon
rebels. The couple had embraced heatedly, but also lovingly. Raul,
tired and dirty, had allowed Princesa to wash his face with water
from the well and then he'd kissed her tenderly, deeply. Of course,
Princesa was shared between all the brothers so no one knew which
was the father of her child, but Raul had petted her stomach and
kissed it, his silver eyes shining so vividly that the color could
be seen clear across the yard. It had struck Jeanne as romantic, in
that moment.

But she had quickly chastised herself
for such foolishness. How could it be romantic to have seven
husbands and not know which was the father of one’s
child?

Now she pondered what
Princesa had told her about the past and how she and Aelfa came to
be there. She supposed there
were
some things, some places and some men worse than
this after all.

* * * *

It was a month since he first laid
eyes on Jeanne when she arrived there with her mistress. Ram had
thought her the most beautiful creature he ever saw. But, of
course, he said nothing to his brothers. He would not know how to
say it without sounding like an addle-pated fool. Instead he
watched her closely, unable to take his eyes off her, trying to
make sense of something he eventually realized was
unfathomable.

She was a proud, angry little thing.
All tightly closed off, clutching her religion like a shield to
keep them at bay. But it didn't chase him off.

After the public spanking, Ram called
a counsel of his brothers. For once they were all present, and it
would be a good opportunity to stake his claim.

"I want Jeanne, the maid," he stated
as soon as they were all assembled around their father's
bed.

Salvador slouched by the door. "Then
take her. What are you waiting for?"

"No. I want her for a
wife."

Silence fell over the chamber. Even
the puttering candles seemed muted.

Their father sat up, pressing his
knuckles into the bed for leverage. "She's got no dowry, no family,
no land."

"Neither did Princesa, or Aelfa," he
pointed out sharply, glancing over at Raul and Sebastien, who had
brought those wives home. "And she works hard."

"And she has lovely big titties,"
added Nino, the brother closest to Ram in age. He grinned. "Isn't
that why you want her most of all?"

"I don't know why you don't just fuck
her and get it out of your system," said Salvador with a
sniff.

Ram looked at his eldest brother. Sal
wouldn't understand, of course. He didn't really believe wives were
necessary, although he would never say that before their father.
Guillaume wanted his sons to get wives, and what Guillaume wanted
he usually got. "I want to marry her, Sal. I want to make her a
wife."

Until that moment he'd never realized
that his feelings for Jeanne were deeper than lust. Watching her
pray had frustrated him, not because he did not believe in her god,
but because he wanted that devotion and loyalty for himself. He was
jealous.

Their father looked around the
chamber, pausing briefly on each of his sons. "Well, it is up to
the seven of you. Do you want her as a wife? If so, I tell you now,
the rest of you had better bring home the richest damn women in the
land to make up for these impoverished beauties I keep welcoming as
daughters-in-law."

Ram followed his father's gaze,
circling the room looking for approval from his
brothers.

One by one they said,
"Aye."

The last to speak was Sal, who rubbed
his chin, seemingly mystified by Ram's decision. "I can see why you
want to fuck her. I just don't know why you think she'd make a good
wife when her god will always come first," he said
dourly.

Dominigo spoke up before Ram could.
"Her god comes first because she's still a virgin. At least, that
is how nuns think. They keep themselves chaste for their god, don't
they? In which case, the man who takes her maidenhead will become
her new master." It was evident Dom had been giving it all a great
deal of thought and that was the best he could come up
with.

"I do not even try to get into the
mind of a nun," grumbled their father, "but I daresay young Ram
here looks forward to claiming her virginity." He leaned back,
frowning and half-laughing. "I'm surprised virgins still exist
outside a convent. I know I haven't seen one in a great many years.
Are you sure she is what she claims to be?"

Ram nodded. "She's a virgin. I would
stake my life upon it."

"I say we make certain," Sal muttered
peevishly. "Prove she's a virgin and then I'll believe she's worth
taking to wife. I suppose it'll make a change from whores, slaves
and other men's wives."

Dom laughed. "What has got into you
lately, Sal? Anyone would think you're tired of our women. Or angry
at the female sex in general."

Sal merely glared and folded his
arms.

"I'll prove to you she's intact," said
Ram firmly.

Their father laughed. "You'll have to
catch her first." He glanced at Sal, grinning, "I hear she's got
quite a bite, eh?"

"Don't worry," said Ram. "I know how
to catch her too. By curiosity."

Chapter Five

She had gone down to her usual place
by the stream with some of Lady Isobel's laundry. As usual she was
accompanied by a guard for her own safety, but Jeanne did not speak
to him or smile at him. After her public spanking and humiliation
she had decided she would never be pleasant to anyone ever again.
Let them call her haughty and proud. She did not care.

The stream was icy cold that day and
did not flow with its usual bubbling depth so she was obliged to
walk out into it a fair way just to get enough water to wash the
garments. Her feet and ankles were soon numb. Frustrated she
climbed out again.

"There must be a dam stopping the
flow," she exclaimed irritably to the guard.

He merely looked at her with a bored
expression.

Leaving him with the pile of clothes
she stormed off to find out for herself. Passing through the bowing
branches of a willow, stomping over a fallen flurry of gold and
copper leaves, she suddenly came upon a scene that stopped her
mid-step.

Aelfa's red hair was instantly
recognizable, like a flame in the forest. With her in the stream
there were four men. Dominigo, Salvador, Nino. And Ram. When she
saw Ram, Jeanne's heartbeat quickened. He had stayed away from her
since the spanking, and she'd actually begun to miss finding him
under her feet wherever she went.

There he was, sitting on a log with
Salvador, both with their breeches around their ankles while Aelfa,
on all fours in the water, sucked their cocks. She made an able
effort to consume both at once and then gave up, resorting to
servicing them by turns. Beneath Aelfa lay Nino, on his back in the
shallow stream, enjoying her breasts as they hung in his face, and
Dominigo was about to force his massive prick into her arse. The
crest of his hard cock was thick and dark, prying between her pale
buttocks as he parted them with his large, sun-browned hands. His
balls looked heavy and full like ripe figs on a tree.

Afraid the rustling leaves would
betray her presence, Jeanne remained very still and stared. A small
voice in her head told her to go back, to close her eyes, to save
herself. But she could only stand and watch.

She saw that enormous manhood thrust
between Aelfa's trembling cheeks, steadily filling that tiny hole.
And she heard the woman moan with a mouthful of cock. Domingo
grunted as he worked his way deeper, his own arse cheeks squeezed
taut, his strong thighs flexing, his broad shoulders heaving. Once
he was balls deep in her backside, he began lowering the woman onto
Nino's waiting erection. He reached under, grabbed the stiff cock
and helped angle it as he forced Aelfa down. Nino groaned and
laughed wickedly as he nibbled and licked frantically at her
breasts. Aelfa arched her back, her beautiful naked body dripping
with water as she struggled to accommodate all of them. The cold
must have made her nipples extra tight and sensitive, thought
Jeanne, placing a hand to her own left nipple, imagining the icy
kiss of that bubbling water as it rushed over the stones and around
the man who lay under her.

Salvador pulled his cock from her
mouth, making way for Ram, and while Jeanne stared, holding her
breath, she watched the eldest brother shoot his cream at Aelfa's
tits. A thick stream of ivory crisscrossed those full, swinging
orbs, and some dripped slowly down into his brother's face. He
reached over, stroking the woman's damp hair back from her forehead
and then her bulging cheek as she diligently continued sucking
Ram's cock, her body forced back and forth like a saw by the power
of Dom's thrusts in her bottom.

Jeanne finally swallowed
and let herself breathe. She wanted that cock in
her
mouth. She wanted to
know how it tasted. It was not fair, she thought. Ram had tasted
her pussy and now he let another woman feast on his splendid
manhood. She would never have that same opportunity.

If Aelfa was being hurt, she did not
show any sign of it. Her slender body moved like a whip between the
two men who penetrated it, and her mouth slid up and down Ram's
long, hard cock with ease, not choking despite that incredible
length.

As for Ram—that bastard—he let his
head go back, his eyes turned to the clouds above, his hands
resting on the log behind him.

Jeanne felt a wave of fury licking at
her. Why should Aelfa have all that pleasure? And pleasure it
clearly was for her eyes were shining, her body flexing wildly, her
face pink with excitement. Nino was gasping under her, his lower
body lifting and lowering rapidly as he filled Aelfa's pussy. And
then Dom cried out, jerking backward to spray his seed across her
buttocks.

As Jeanne's overwhelmed gaze moved up
and down the scene, she suddenly found herself pinned by Salvador's
dark eyes staring directly at her. She took a step back.

And into the waiting arms of Raul
d'Anzeray.

She did not fight. The scene she'd
just witnessed had apparently rendered her bones soft and her will
to resist temptation suddenly non-existent. Her pussy ached and her
nipples rubbed painfully on her gown. Jeanne realized, in some
degree of horror and shame, that every time she had watched these
men at work in this manner, she was jealous. At first she thought
she was jealous of them, because they gave her mistress pleasure as
she once did—a service for which she was apparently no longer
required. Now she knew she was equally envious of the women they
serviced. She was sure of it, when Aelfa looked her way with wide,
gleaming green eyes as Ram shouted out and spilled his load in her
throat. There was too much of it for Aelfa to swallow, apparently,
and some oozed from the corner of her stretched lips, trickling
down her chin. But she closed her coppery lashes and Jeanne knew
that if Aelfa did not have a full mouth just then she would have
been smiling, contented as the cookhouse cat after a dish of rich
cream.