Fairy Godmother

He had the most peculiar expression on his face that she had ever seen, a mixture of tenderness, something she was sure was pure lust, and a touch of surprise.

'Elena,' he said, 'I — bear with me a moment. I've just had the most extraordinary flash of memory — '

She licked her lips, and nodded, though she wished that he would stop talking and go back to doing what he had been.

'It's the custom among my people for young men of my rank to be — ah — initiated — by ladies of experience.' He blushed. 'There's a slightly crude saying in Kohlstania; 'two virgins in a bed is one virgin too many.''

Fine, so he wasn't a virgin — as if she hadn't figured that out a long time ago.

'And I've just recalled a certain set of instructions that lady gave me regarding this situation. So I'm going to do something you might find rather peculiar, but it's for a reason.'

She had no time to ask what on earth he meant, for he went right back to where he'd left off, and it wasn't until he'd stolen up her skirt and suddenly his head was — good heavens! What was he doing between her legs —

She might have tried to push him away, except that she couldn't — because all she could do was melt away as his clever tongue probed all those parts of her that had been longing, aching, for something, and she hadn't known what it was — she had never felt anything like the excitement, the pleasure, and she moaned, wanting more —

And then the world exploded. Her entire body spasmed, and she cried out, something between a gasp and a scream.

When it was over, she lay there panting and spent, and opened her eyes again to see him grinning like a boy who has just stolen an entire cake.

'What — exactly — did that lady tell you?' she managed to get out.

He resumed the place beside her that he had temporarily abandoned.

'She said, 'Someday, you will find yourself with another lady, an untried lady, whether your new bride or your new lover, and she will be a lady you wish to make as pleased with her first experience as you were with yours. Now, that is not possible in the conventional sense, but I will teach you the unconventional, so that she will know, truly and completely, that there is very great pleasure waiting for her, once the pain that is sadly inevitable for an untried lady is over.''

'Oh.' She thought about that for a very long moment. Plenty of kitchen-tales about 'first times' flashed through her mind. The maids had seemed to take as much glee over telling them as they did over tales of childbirth that went on for days. So now she knew what she could expect once the whole painful business of 'deflowering' was done with.

Furthermore, she had no doubt he'd do this again until they were good enough at the other to make it equally pleasurable for both of them.

'Is there any way I could thank her?' she asked at last.

He chuckled. 'Perhaps someday. Oh, and she also said, 'the only woman who will thank you for spoiling her gown is the one you are buying a better gown for.' So — since I'm not in a position to buy you a better gown — ' He tugged at her skirt, and raised his eyebrow suggestively.

'Ha. Turnabout is fair, and you've got less skin showing than I do!' she said, a spirit of mischief rising in her as she grabbed for his sleeve and pulled.

It became a rough-and-tumble game for a little while, as clothing got pulled off piecemeal, a stocking there, a shirt here — a game that got more heated when she tried some of what she recalled from her dreams and some of what she'd watched covertly when kitchen-maids trysted with stableboys, and parlor-maids with footmen.

It actually ended in his bed, where he picked her up and tossed her, surprising her with his strength. And by the time they both fell asleep in a tangle of limbs and blankets, she was almost embarrassingly grateful to that unknown lady with her uncommonly good advice.

Chapter 19

'Blessed Saints!' coughed Alexander, reaching for the second cup Elena handed him. 'I'm not sure that is worth being able to understand animals!'

'It's a Traditional power of Champions,' Rose pointed out, as he drank down the entire hot cup of tea to wash away the taste of dragon's blood. It had taken Elena the better part of a month to find a dragon to trade a bit of blood for one of the jewel-studded trinkets out of the hunting-lodge. A dragon could always find food — but Elven-made treasure for its hoard was worth shedding a little blood over, apparently.

'Bosh! I'm sure you're only getting revenge on me for eating that pie you were saving,' Alexander coughed, holding out his mug for a refill. 'But if you will leave a pie in the middle of the kitchen table and then announce that dinner has been put back an hour because the goose was bigger than you thought, what's a man to do?'

Robin only smiled, and handed over a plate full of sausages and eggs to further take away the taste.

'There is only one thing that I am truly sorry for,' Alexander said, after polishing off his first helping. 'I've deprived you of Unicorns.'

Elena burst into peals of laughter, Lily giggled, Hob and Robin chortled, and even Rose unbent enough to chuckle a little.

'Don't be,' Elena told him, as he glanced from one to another of them, looking utterly bewildered. 'It's a little like being deprived of fawning, brainless lapdogs or a surfeit of Turkish Delight. One is sweet, two are amusing, but after you've been inundated by them a while, you start to think uncharitably of deep ponds and burlap bags.'

'And no matter how many beds of lilies and roses you put out for them, they will