The Sleeping Beauty's Tale

by Grace D'Otare

  The Sleeping Beauty’s Tale

  Grace D’Otare

  If you think you know the story of Sleeping Beauty, you’ve never heard Maeve and Devlin’s version….

  Hale didn’t realize that his wife, Polly, burned with the same passionate cravings he felt…until he sees her aroused by feverish, erotic dreams while locked in an endless sleep. Now he’s even more determined to save Polly and get a second chance to discover her unspoken desires. Will a magical hot spring cure her…or is making her sensual dreams reality the key to awakening this sleeping beauty?

  Contents

  Begin Reading

  “Still sleeping,” Maeve mumbled.

  Devlin said nothing. She felt his hum, basso profundo, in the acoustic curve of her neck. It reverberated all the way to her feet.

  She kicked at the cloud of comforter surrounding them. “Tickle.”

  Devlin exhaled audibly.

  “That, too!” Maeve cocked her shoulders toward her ears for protection.

  The flat of his hand crept around her ribs. He pulled her against his body, skin-to-skin, ten degrees warmer and the rock-solid opposite of the pillows, mattress and covers cocooning them against the winter morning. Not exactly what she’d call spooning, though. Dev was too angular. The man was more of a fork. Or knife.

  “One more hour, Dev.” She slit one eye open to confirm her suspicions. “Not even morning, you madman.”

  He didn’t reply. Didn’t move. Didn’t soothe or sigh.

  He just held on.

  That’s what roused her.

  Nightmare. He got them now and then. Vivid, bloody awful things. Unconscious musings on worst-case scenarios portrayed across his mind’s eye in full sensory detail. Sight. Sound. Smell. Every negative possibility his conscious mind would never tolerate. He’d described bits of them to her occasionally after spiking awake, wide-eyed, skin flushed to a deep red and more than usually ready for action.

  Forget flight. Fight or fuck—that was Devlin’s autonomic response.

  Despite their complementary position, he’d cocked his hips away from her. The space created a draft across her bottom. He was holding back. The dream had left him too raw to close that final inch.

  She snuggled backward, connecting them.

  “Christ,” he hissed. “Your ass is like ice.”

  “Helps bring down swelling.”

  He huffed a sound of relief as he pushed against her, pillowing the thick heat of his cock against the cool of her cheeks. “Doesn’t seem to be working.”

  “How odd.” Maeve didn’t wait long before prompting, “Dev?”

  “Shhh.”

  “Tell me about it?”

  He didn’t answer. Against her back, Maeve could feel the rise and fall of his chest. His breath lulled her like waves against the sand.

  Time settled around them, soft as their bed.

  “I’ve a story I could tell.” His voice ran rough over words. He sounded like he’d been shouting. “That do?”

  The cold skimming her skin’s surface settled in her veins.

  She gave his hand a squeeze to distract from her shudder.

  “Lovely.”

  The well water ran to icy. Enough to make a man shudder before it even touched a body. Hale stripped off his shirt and dumped a fresh bucketful over his head.

  He’d crammed half a week’s chores into one infernally long day. Every muscle ached. He’d cleaned stables. Repaired fencing. Stacked wood.

  So much to do. He’d been too long away.

  His breath steamed the air as he scrubbed with the soap cake and rag that Polly had installed by the pump for these occasions. He was in the peak of health. Strong. Capable.

  Helpless.

  He rinsed with another half bucket of icy water. Slicked the hair off his face. Hale could smell the hot supper the old woman must have organized.

  Hard work. A pump bath. A good meal. A soft bed to lie down with his wife.

  A week ago, he’d have counted himself a wealthy man, a lucky man.

  “That you, sir?” But tonight, it wasn’t his wife calling him in for supper. “Mr. Hale?”

  “I’m coming,” he answered.

  His stomach clenched as he passed the kitchen hearth. There was a soup simmering and the faint aroma of yeasted bread, cooling on the sideboard. The comfort of it, the normalcy, made him want to rush back outside into the night.

  “We’re back here, Mr. Hale, in the bedroom.”

  It wasn’t the dark and dreary scene he’d expected. There was firewood on the hearth. The bedclothes had been changed and smoothed. The floor was swept. A posy of autumn leaves and berries were stuffed in a cup. Nan, the only surgeon within a week’s ride, sat in his wife’s rocking chair, hands busy with a needle and thread.

  “No one heals in a muddle,” she explained, then nodded at the bedside table. “Look on the tray there. Took me nearly an hour to remove it all.”

  The monster was large enough Hale could pinch it between two fingers—a thorn, two inches long and black as pitch.

  “Wicked thing, to be sure,” the woman said.

  “She looks…better.”

  His wife lay on the bed, lightly tucked beneath the quilt. Eyes closed. No sign of pain in her expression.

  Polly.

  She might have been merely sleeping.

  Her dark hair was loosely braided, a hair ribbon tied around the end. Her shift was clean, the fine linen one she rarely wore. Too much fuss, his practical wife would say. I can’t pop ’round to the barn for French laundry soap, you know.

  In the candlelight, her skin was milky white, her cheeks faintly pink. Her chapped lips had been treated with ointment. Hale saw the pot on the nightstand. A blend of beeswax and sweet butter, he guessed. It smelled like lemon balm. Her mouth glistened, plump and soft, as if she’d been kissed. As if she’d been kissing him.

  Hale settled on the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb her. One of her hands lay tucked beneath the bedcovers. He lifted the other to his mouth. Her palm was cool and he pressed it to his cheek, instinctively. Warming Polly was one of his regular duties.

  What would he do without her?

  Beneath the quilted counterpane, Polly’s other hand began to move restlessly, rounding over her hip, then sliding up across the flat plane of her stomach, her ribs, until it came to rest over her heart. Her lips parted and she inhaled a tiny sigh.

  “Polly? Are you hurting?”

  Her fingers began to move beneath the blanket. At first, Hale thought she sought to ease an itch, but her steady motion was too deliberate. His mouth went dry, as he watched her thumb the soft weight of her breast. She turned her head toward the pillow, toward the breast being teased by her own hand. The temperature of his skin rose as his body readied to assist.

  “The fever makes her restless,” Nan commented.

  “I see that.”

  Under the bedclothes, Polly’s hand began to travel again. Her chin tilted, exposing the smooth skin of her neck above the flounce of her nightgown. He wanted to press his lips there. He wanted to feel the curling of her spine under his hands when he warmed her throat with his mouth.

  When she’d reached as far down the center of her body as she could, Hale felt the fluttering shift of her fingers beneath the blanket.

  Understanding put every ounce of his blood in motion.

  His wife was aroused. With old Mrs. Nan sitting across the room.

  Her breath ruffled in the wake of her body’s rhythm. “Hale.”

  Was it better, or worse, knowing his wife dreamt of him? Wanted him. Here. Now. When there was nothing he could do but pretend otherwise.

  He adjusted his seat. Sliding closer to her body, he shielded his wi
fe’s busy hand from view, while making room for the spreading length and girth of his own sudden congestion. Thank the Lord the light was dim, and the old woman’s eyes weren’t what they used to be. A man had his limits.

  “She’s touching herself?” Maeve clarified curiously. “With the old nurse in the room?”

  “Delirious with fever. Can’t help herself.”

  “Ahh. He must be quite an amazing lover.”

  “And if you’d let me finish the story—”

  “I beg your pardon,” she said, rocking her own hips rather sweetly. “Please?”

  “Please,” his Polly called softly.

  Hale felt himself fully harden so fast his back teeth ached. He cupped her palm to his lips, inhaled the scent of her skin. That kiss led to a touch of his tongue, which led to a nip of his teeth. Biting the plump curve at the base of her thumb made her fingertips dance against his cheek.

  This wasn’t how their reunion should be. He’d been gone nearly a month, trading, checking traps. He’d returned to find her asleep in the middle of the day, feverish. The only outward sign of illness had been a tender redness on the sole of her foot. He’d ridden for Nan that afternoon.

  The abstinence created by their time apart always snarled him. Made him surly. And strangely tired, as if life wore him down more easily. He’d decided that Polly was a nourishment. Her company, of course, but also her skin, the sweep of her hair, her buried heat. When he hadn’t wet his mouth with hers, used her until they both dripped with exhaustion, when he hadn’t disappeared into the soft darkness of their bed, of her body, he simply wasn’t himself.

  She knew it, too. She was always waiting when he returned. Always welcoming.

  Still, he never knew she burned the same. His cock throbbed to the beat of his heart. She touched herself and called for him. He must have nourished something in her, as well.

  Hale had to clear his throat to form the words. “Has she taken any broth?”

  “Not since morning.”

  Polly’s head twisted against the pillow, disturbing the blankets that covered her. The sheer white cloth of her gown revealed the shadowed curves of her breasts. The darker rose of her nipples had tightened to stiffness. The keen memory of that little pebble against his tongue sent a rush of liquid to his mouth.

  “Hale?” his wife whispered.

  “I’m here. Can you hear me, Poll? Open your eyes.”

  “I don’t think she can, dear. It’s fever talking now.”

  Hale touched the back of his hand to her forehead and then, her cheek. “She’s so…hot.”

  “Poison’s spread.” The squeak of the rocking chair stopped. “Be a while before we know.”

  “Know?”

  Impossible. He wouldn’t hear it.

  “No! What else can we do? Anything. Everything. Tell me.”

  “We’re an ocean and some odd miles from the nearest Papist miracle well, Mr. Hale. Short of that, you need to prepare yourself.”

  He would need more than a miracle well to survive without Polly. From that thought, an idea bubbled. A miracle well.

  “The spring.”

  Nan shook her sad slowly. “If the poison takes her, she won’t last the week, much less until the—”

  “The hot spring. Up north of the lake. Where the Abenaki take their sick.”

  The woman’s embroidery hoop clacked against the pine floor. “You’re not serious.”

  “Can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.” He stood, already ordering his mind to what they would need. “It’s a hot spring. I’ve seen it heal men with wounds far worse.”

  “She’s weak to be moving.” The woman’s index finger tapped restlessly against the rocker’s arm, marking time on her objections.

  “I’ll take the small cart. She can lie flat. We’ll be there before the moon fully rises.”

  “You’ll have to submerge the whole leg, the longer the better. And keep her warm.”

  “I can do that.”

  “It may not help. You understand?”

  Hale refused to speak to that thought. “I’m going to rig the cart and make a palette.”

  The night was clear and cold. Hale forced their passage along a path meant to be traveled on foot. The cart shuddered over rocks and squeaked as it squeezed between trees.

  Polly never made a sound.

  Her silence drove him faster. And gave him time to think. He relived each moment at her bedside a hundred times, inhaling icy air, exhaling heat.

  What pleasure haunted her dreams? Was it a memory? A type of touch? Or was it some unspoken secret? Something she’d hidden, the way she’d masked her need for him after their separations.

  They had always pleased each other. Shared satisfactions. Hers. His. And back again. He thought he knew everything about his pretty Polly. Exactly what she liked—when and how he liked it.

  She must heal. She couldn’t leave him now, this way.

  Lonely. Wondering…

  The moon was high in the sky when they arrived at the entrance to the hot spring.

  The side of the mountain appeared to have split under its own weight. Shifting rock created an opening, a slice of darkness that triangled deep into the hillside.

  Striking a flint, Hale entered the cave.

  The entrance was narrow. He had to crouch to enter. The low ceiling trapped the damp air off the spring, but farther inside, the rock angled high to reveal a sheltered pond. Fresh, warm air circulated.

  Hale dropped his haversack in relief. He could make her comfortable, make her heal here.

  Two holes had been hammered through the ceiling, one of them large enough to allow a glimmer of moonlit sky. Under the smaller hole, a fire had been laid with a tightly wrapped bundle of leaves for kindling. Sage, he recognized by the scent, sumac by the tasseled berry, both native healing herbs. The last to come had laid the fire for the next.

  He would do the same when he took his Polly home. Well and whole.

  He lit the fire and the walls of the cavern glittered to life. Mineral deposits from the moist, warm air had salted the walls with crystal nuggets. Light danced between the shiny surfaces. Where the water lapped the stone, the rock gleamed.

  She would think it beautiful when she woke.

  Look at that. Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?

  No.

  You’re not looking at the sunset, Hale.

  No.

  You’re looking at me.

  Yes.

  Gently as he could, he lifted Polly from the flat of the cart, still wrapped in her pallet of blankets. Her head lolled into the curve of his neck and shoulder. Her hair caught on the rough edge of his jaw, tugging his skin. There’d been no time to shave.

  He ducked through the opening and carried her into the cave of the hot spring.

  “You squeaked the last time I carried you over a threshold.”

  Hale laid his wife on the level rock beside the fire.

  “Do you remember that day?” he continued.

  He unwrapped the blankets, layer by layer.

  “My palms were sweating in the church. I was embarrassed to take your hand.”

  The sleeves of her nightgown were cuffed in knotted bows. It took a full minute to undo each one.

  “Your dress had petals stuck to it. After we rode in the carriage? I don’t think I ever told you.” Hale glanced at her and smiled. “All across the seat. Red flower petals. I could not stop looking at them. It occurred to me, that I could just reach out and brush them away. You were my wife. I was allowed to touch my wife’s bottom.”

  With careful fingers, he tugged loose the string that closed the neck on her shift.

  “More than allowed…I was expected to touch my wife’s bottom. After we’d finished choking down our breakfast and cake and coffee fortified with a little Dutch courage, I would most certainly be touching my new wife’s bottom.

  “It was a very distracting thought.” Hale raised the hem of her nightgown, easing it beneath her hips o
ne side at a time. He paused to admire the creamy curves of thigh turning to hip and the shadows that made every shape more interesting. “Do you remember what you said to me?”

  Hale? Are you coming?

  What? No!

  No? But…Hale, darling? Are you…blushing?

  Gown off, Polly curled onto her side. Hale thought she looked like a wood nymph. A creature capable of magic. Bewitching. It might not be safe even to watch her sleep. He could be risking…

  Her lips parted for a sigh.

  “I’m here, pretty Polly.”

  He stood and shucked his jacket, boots, shirt and, finally, pants.

  He knelt beside her. Traced her boundary with his hand—throat, shoulder, breast, waist. Her skin pebbled with awareness. He felt the change of texture beneath his fingers.

  “Is this the touch you dreamed of?”

  He cupped her bottom in his palm, soothing that ripple of arousal, then squeezing hard. She pushed back into his hand. He loved the tension of her taut, muscled flesh. Somehow, he could never quite hold on tight enough.

  Hale, is this customary?

  Customary?

  Well..normal?

  I’ve no idea. Shall we survey the congregation after Sunday meeting?

  Perhaps…not. Mmmmm, again?

  Again would be—

  Customary?

  Exceptional.

  He stepped back. Tested the water, stepped into the pond. It was warmer than he expected and slippery with natural salts. He eased his body off the ledge, plunging into water above his hips. Normally, a bath would cool his blood, lessen the pulsing awareness of his eager cock. The pond did the opposite. Soaking in hot, slick liquid made him burn. He felt thick, longer, as if that lusting root inside had spiraled down the back of his thighs to the bottoms of his feet. As if his entire body recognized the pond as a welcoming woman. He could not stop himself from clenching the cheeks of his ass, rocking forward until he stood poised on the balls of his feet.

  But there was nothing, nothing to counter the pressure building under his skin, only a gentle, buoyant support.

  Polly needed the water. Polly needed to heal.