Maiden and the Monster

by Michelle M. Pillow

  Thunder crashed, lightning struck. The priest signed the cross over his breast and turned away. The men turned their heads from their leader’s body, unable to watch its lifeless swinging, but Eden held still and faced her fate bravely, handling the death better than any around her did. Her gaze stayed with her dead husband and her heart didn’t beat again. A throbbing pain replaced the beating, a pain she knew would last all of her life.

  Just as the reality of lost hope assaulted her and she was about to scream with the agony of it, Vladamir’s body came crashing down from the gray sky. Her hands were still outstretched above her head. The duke’s listless form fell to his feet, tumbling forward to land on his wife.

  Eden gasped and clasped him to her chest, refusing to give up his weight to the many hands that rushed forward in confusion to help her. His unmoving form pressed her into the muddy earth, soiling the back of her gown, as his large size pushed her deeper. The breath squeezed from her lungs but she didn’t care as she hugged him to her breast. She wanted him to crush her. Tears welled in her eyes. She wanted to die too.

  And then through the wet black waves of Vladamir’s hair, she saw Raulf standing above her. The bruise given him from her husband was still fresh on his neck. He was talking to her but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. His lips moved more urgently as she held tighter to Vladamir, fighting the insistent pull of the hands.

  Eden struggled to keep her husband to her. Raulf motioned some of the men to remove the duke from her body. As Vladamir was finally wrestled from her desperate grasp, she looked about in desperation. Her father was at her side, helping her to her feet, but she fought his hands and those of others that only sought to help.

  Eden stumbled to gain footing in the mud, lurching about like a lost child. Only when she was finally able to stand did she hear the excited murmurs of the crowd. Gradually, she noticed the rope to the noose had been severed and a guard chased after the runaway horse. The end of the sliced rope hung from the stallion’s saddle as he galloped away.

  “Back away,” Raulf yelled, breaking completely through her silence. The knight kneeled by Vladamir’s side. “Back away. He is an innocent man.”

  Through her bewildered haze, she saw the king moving toward her fallen husband. Bitterly, she glared at him. Flinging her dirty hands in the air, she tried to work her way to where Vladamir’s body lay. The heaviness of her wet tunic gown made it hard to walk. She fell to the ground, forced to crawl along the wet earth to her fallen love.

  Getting closer, she stood and pushed a knight out of her way and into the mud. The man landed with a grunt and slid over the damp earth, knocking over several others in his glide. Eden didn’t care as she pushed another man to the ground the same way. It seemed like an eternity before she was able to stand over the lifeless form of the duke.

  She blocked the rain from his face with her soiled body, ready to fight anyone who dared to take him from her again. Leaning over him, she reached out. Suddenly, she stopped in astonishment, perceiving his eyes to flutter open. Skeptical of her own vision, she wiped her eyes with a fist and fell to her knees to look closer. She put a hand on his scarred jaw and he coughed. Eden gasped, finally able to breathe as sweet relief flooded her.

  It cannot be!

  Was she insane? She welcomed insanity if it brought with it her husband.

  You were dead.

  “He lives!” Raulf announced to the crowd.

  Eden jolted back to reality at his words. Scooping Vladamir’s dazed head into her arms, she hovered protectively over him. She would kill any if they dared to try and take him from her. The pain of losing him had been more excruciating than she could have ever imagined. She couldn’t live through it again.

  “Raulf?” breathed Eden, looking over the duke’s chest to him. “Is it true? Am I dreaming?”

  “‘Tis true, m’lady,” Raulf said heavily in relief. Then turning to the hovering crowd, he yelled, “Back away!”

  “Please, Raulf, you have to help me get him out of here. Tell the men to fight. I order it to be so. To arms,” Eden yelled when Raulf turned back to her. “The king—”

  “All is well, m’lady,” Raulf broke into her panicked insistence. He directed her attention to Alfred with a toss of his head. “He’ll live.”

  Eden looked over to the king who yelled, “Bring the royal surgeons.”

  Under her palm she felt the steady rise and fall of Vladamir’s chest. She couldn’t believe that he was alive and once again in her arms. Looking to the sky, she let the rain mingle with her tears of joy. The grip over her heart lightened.

  “‘Tis sorry I am that I’m late,” Raulf said at last.

  “Raulf,” Eden asked moving her loving gaze to Vladamir’s peaceful but very living face. He was out cold but his color was fast returning to his flesh. Bruises formed on his neck where the noose held his life in its grip. “What is happening? I don’t understand.”

  “The king is my cousin many times removed, but related nonetheless. He sent me here to keep an eye on Lord Vladamir and report back to him about his doings. I told him that I saw Luther challenge Lord Kessen,” Raulf answered. He scratched his neck where the lightening bruise matched the duke’s dark one.

  Eden was stunned. Raulf was related to King Alfred? Overwhelmed, she tenderly stroked Vladamir’s face. Her whole body flooded with relief. “But why would the king listen to you now? He didn’t afore.”

  “The king didn’t speak to me afore. Lizbeth told him I died from the pox,” Raulf admitted.

  Eden glanced up at him from her place in the mud. She stroked her hand over Vladamir’s warm cheek.

  “But why would she lie? I told her that my husband didn’t mean to harm to you. He thought that we were lovers.” Eden was angry. If Lizbeth had been there she would’ve killed the maid. She’d come dangerously close to losing everything. “She almost killed him with her stupidity.”

  “Nay, m’lady,” Raulf answered protectively. “Don’t blame her. She said she tried to speak with you, but that you were not—available. She thought the king meant to hang Vladamir this eve. She thought we had time.”

  “More time for what? Tormenting us?” Eden spat in disbelief. “I’ll never forgive such a sick and selfish game. He is my life. She might as well have strangled the spirit from me if she was to let him die.”

  “Nay, not torment, m’lady. More time for us to marry.” Raulf defended Lizbeth stubbornly, all the time understanding the noblewoman’s anger. He looked regretfully to the duke.

  “What?!” King Alfred bellowed over them.

  Eden and Raulf looked to the king in shock. They hadn’t realized that he listened, that in fact the entire gathered crowd listened.

  “Raulf?” Alfred inquired with a red face. “What have you done?”

  “I’m married, cousin,” Raulf answered with a boyish grin. He turned to impishly wink at Eden.

  Eden stared back at him in stunned silence. Raulf was trying to look innocent and failing miserably as he nodded at the king in earnest candor. “You bid me to be under the duke’s command, to listen to him and to learn from him. He gave his permission. Besides, you have many other men to form your alliances, my marriage is hardly of consequence to you.”

  Eden shook her head as she glanced up at the men. “I don’t care to hear any more, Raulf, not until I know my husband is forever safe in my arms.”

  Raulf nodded in agreement. “Yea, Your Majesty. Let your men move him to his wife’s bed. Methinks that would be the best place for him to recover.”

  The king waved his men forward but his face was set into a mask of stone as he watched his cousin. Eden ignored their silent quarrel. She saw the relieved face of her father in the crowd, nodding at her in relieved approval. His thin lips moved silently in a prayer of thanks. Eden waved him to her and he graciously complied. She leaned on her father’s arm for support as the men lifted Vladamir and carried him under Lakeshire’s gates.

  As the excited throng moved back into t
he bailey spreading the news of the Lakeshire miracle, Eden heard the king exclaim behind them, “You married a servant?”

  Nothing could’ve wiped the smile from her face as she walked behind the motionless body of her husband. He was safe and he was hers.

  * * * * *

  “Shoo! Go!” Eden ordered, excited. She waved the servants from the bedchamber with a frantic sweep of her hands. Her heart fluttered with giddy excitement and she nearly slammed the doors on the ogling girls before they were completely clear of the heavy wood. Sighing as she turned to the bed, Eden beamed. They were finally alone. Her lips trembled and her eyes brimmed with tears of joy.

  Vladamir had been brought to their chamber as commanded by the king. A very relieved Gwendolyn was in the hands of her new grandfather and an extremely nervous, albeit happy, Lizbeth was being introduced to her new royal cousin. The king had only been partly upset by her lie and was mostly relieved that Raulf hadn’t in fact died from the pox.

  The king’s personal surgeons looked the duke over and declared he would recover quickly, though he would need much rest. Although he’d only wavered in and out of awareness since his hanging, they were certain he would completely regain his wits by the nightfall. They also determined that he hadn’t been without air long enough to do damage to his head.

  Nearly leaping her way across the bedchamber to her prone husband in her happiness, Eden sat on the edge of the bed to watch over him not caring how long he rested. She smiled through her tired yawn, not willing to sleep until he looked at her and said her name. Only then would she relax her watchful guard.

  The duke needed his rest but she couldn’t help her delight. She’d informed the king that she would be indisposed—intent of spending every moment of her patient’s recovery by his side. Leaving Haldana in charge of the kitchen and Raulf in charge of the soldiers, she made sure that their guests’ every comfort would be met while she tended her beloved.

  Everyone had been so relieved he lived that they hadn’t thought to worry about an illness. The king declared that it was nothing short of divine intervention, and soon after, the servants whispered that the hanging killed the monster that had overtaken Vladamir’s body, freeing the real man trapped inside. Eden laughed as Ulric confessed their gossip. The old servant only smirked, saying one maid had even gone so far as to claim she’d seen the monstrous spirit leaving the duke’s body.

  Eden brushed back the tangled waves of Vladamir’s hair from his face. He was caked with mud, his skin marred and darkened by the grimy earth. She had quickly washed the dirt from her own skin and donned a fresh servant’s tunic while the surgeons examined her husband.

  Running the back of her hand over his dirty face, across his bruised neck and down the front of his wet overtunic, she frowned. It was quite possible Vladamir could still die from a lung sickness if she weren’t careful. Taking a clean coverlet that had been left by the bed, Eden unfolded it and laid it next to her husband’s cold body. She pulled off his shoes and wet stockings, discarding them on the floor. Then crawling over him to the waistband of his braes, she lifted his tunic to expose the navel carved into his flat stomach. She tugged at the laces that bound his braes together.

  Suddenly, she stopped when the exposed muscles of his stomach vibrated. Her breath caught in pleasure as a powerful thigh came up between her legs.

  “I didn’t molest you, m’lady, while you were helpless and within my grasp.” Vladamir’s voice was hoarse and low as his accent washed over her.

  Eden grinned up at him, her breath catching on a relieved sigh. She let all her love for him shine on her face. With either hand along the side of his waist, she felt him suggestively push up at her sex with his thigh. Pleasure and desire washed over her, making her instantly wet to accept him.

  “I don’t know that for sure,” she said lightly before moaning in arousal.

  “And you never will. After all, monsters cannot be trusted.” He coughed at the obvious effort it took to speak but didn’t stop smiling.

  Eden grinned mischievously. “And neither can innocent maidens.”

  Vladamir chuckled at that only to wince at the effort. When he was finished, he wiped a drop of moisture from his eye and asked, “What happened?”

  “You nearly died,” Eden whispered with a painful lump forming in her throat. Her body quivered at the remembrance and she couldn’t take her eyes from him. Part of her was still afraid that this was a dream and she would wake up to find he was really gone.

  “That much I remember,” Vladamir said. “For methinks I’m dead and you’re my angel and we are in our castle above the earth.”

  “Nay, m’lord, you’re very much alive. But methinks we do float above the Earth and I don’t ever want to come down.” Eden braced herself as his leg once again pushed lightly at her sex. She moaned seductively as a spasm of gratification made its delighted way up her body.

  “How is it so?” His lips curled into a provocative half smile and he flicked his tongue over the corner of his mouth as his eyes strayed to her breasts. Eden blushed. Vladamir growled. “Did you attack the king’s army, lady wife? Are we at war even now?”

  “Raulf.” Eden sighed as Vladamir once again caressed her with his thigh. A deep fire raged through her blood at his nearness. Her heart pounded and her skin became flushed with arousal. She wanted to press herself to him but held back, fearful of his health. “You had better stop that. You’re in no condition to finish this.”

  “Nay?” Vladamir’s devilish smirk widened. “Methinks my body says otherwise.”

  Eden glanced down at his prompting. Beneath her, his engorged arousal pushed against his unlaced braes. She gasped in amazement. “Just an hour ago you were dead.”

  “‘Tis a wonder what an hour will do, m’lady.” Vladamir reached his tapered fingers to her chin. Neither one of them noticed nor cared about the scars that marred his hand. “How is it I’m here?”

  “Raulf told the king you were innocent. He was late because he had to marry Lizbeth first.” Eden smiled when Vladamir suddenly stopped moving and frowned. She rushed to explain, “Raulf is the cousin of King Alfred. The king sent him here to spy on you. Raulf knew that if the king discovered his plans to marry Lizbeth he would never agree, so he married her in secret this morning. Since you gave them your blessing, the king’s priest didn’t try to stop them. When the king tried to find Raulf last eve, Lizbeth told him Raulf died from the pox. Raulf was actually just hiding from his cousin until the wedding was done, only Lizbeth got the time wrong and thought the execution was set for tonight. When Raulf learned that it was actually this morning, he left his bride at the altar and rode straight to the rope and cut you free.”

  Vladamir listened intently, pressing his thigh into her body as he tried to caress her.

  “If he would’ve been a moment later you’d be lost to me.” Tears streamed down her cheeks at the thought and she leaned down to rest her forehead on his stomach. His arousal pressed near the peak of her breast. She sighed in longing, trying to force back her desire so he could recover.

  “Methinks this is fate, you and I,” Vladamir whispered to her, stroking her damp hair. “‘Tis beyond us to control.”

  Eden crawled up to him, moving to lie against his side, nestling into his arms. “I’m waiting for your last question, m’lord, for it will be your last. After this, there need not be any more bargains between us.”

  Vladamir tilted his head in thought before whispering, “Would you promise to love me forever, lady wife?”

  “Don’t you know? I already have.” Eden tilted her head to receive his tender kiss. His body turned so that he inched slightly above her. His lips moved over hers slowly. She sighed dreamily, knowing they had all the time in the world.

  “Eden?” Vladamir whispered playfully against her mouth after a long moment.

  “Yea, Vladamir?” Eden ran her fingers into his muddied hair. Her smile was brilliant as she gazed at his dirt-smudged face. Her heart poured out her love for
him.

  “What were you doing to me while I fainted?” the monster asked the woman he held captive beneath him.

  The maiden just laughed bewitchingly at the former monster as she pulled him back into her embrace. Her lips touched his and she kissed him, intent on never letting him go again.

  Epilogue

  Eden’s body was sore from giving birth to her son two days earlier, but as she looked into his dark, already devilishly handsome face, she didn’t care. The pain had been worth it. The baby had his father’s looks, down to his sinfully dark eyes and hair until there was absolutely no mistaking who he would take after. Even his temperament was like that of his father—slightly incorrigible, incredibly demanding, and ever sweet and loveable.

  Vladamir held the baby in his arms as he walked around their bedchamber, rocking the boy gently. He smiled proudly, cooing to the babe and unmindful that he sounded like a fool. The baby’s fist pounded his father’s scarred wrist. The duke laughed, looking at his wife. “Did you see that? He’s not afraid of anything. He’s ready to take on his sire already.” Then to the child, he said, “You’re going to be a great knight, aren’t you, Vlad? Yea, you are. Yea, you are.”

  Eden laughed, turning to Gwendolyn at her side to roll her eyes heavenward. Her daughter giggled as they secretly poked fun at Vladamir.

  “I saw that,” the duke growled, turning to playfully grimace at them. Eden and Gwendolyn rolled with laughter as the duke charged forward, mindful of the delicate bundle he carried. Sitting on the bed next to his daughter, he kissed her lovingly on the head. The girl instantly reached for the baby, gently wrestling it away from her father. Eden giggled, watching them fight over who got to hold the baby yet again. Finally Vladamir relented, and Gwendolyn took her brother to the end of the bed and laid him down to play with him before he fell asleep on her again.