now bathing the hot, aching flesh so carefully.
  "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 buttocks 
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 buttocks 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 breasts 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 buttocks 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 breasts and sex was too much for her.
  But the Prince embraced her as if seeing that she needed embracing, and gently 
squeezing her sore flesh, sent another soft shock of shameful pleasure through her.  She 
knew her face was red again.  She had always blushed so easily.  And were there other 
ways in which he could tell what his hands did to her?  She would cry again if she could