He went to the shelves, took down a box, and brought it to the table. Inside was a short, pearl-handled knife and a piece of cherrywood about half the size of his palm. He sat at the table and turned the wood over in his hands, rubbing the grain with a thumb. He’d thought at first of making a fox from it—the wood was the reddish-orange color of a fox’s fur—but now he wasn’t sure. He picked up the knife and made the first cut.
The fire crackled and a log fell.
After a while he looked up. Lady Georgina was watching him, her cheek cradled in one palm. Their eyes met, and he looked back down at the carving.
“Is that how you make all of them?” Her voice was low, throaty from sleep.
Did she sound like that in the morning, lying in her silk sheets, her body warm and moist? He pushed the thought aside and nodded.
“That’s a pretty knife.” She shifted to face him, curling her feet on the chair. “Much nicer than the other one.”
“What other one?”
“The nasty-looking one in your boot. I like this one better.”
He made a shallow cut, and a curling strip of wood fell to the table.
“Did your father give it to you?” She spoke slowly, sleepily, and it made him hard.
He opened his fist and stared at the pearl handle, remembering. “No, my lady.”
She raised her head a little at that. “I thought I was to call you Harry and you could call me George?”
“I never said that.”
“That isn’t fair.” She was frowning.
“Life seldom is, my lady.” He shrugged his shoulders, trying to relieve the tightness. ’Course, the tightness was mostly in his balls, not his shoulders. And shrugging sure as hell wouldn’t help that.
She stared at him a minute longer, and then turned to look into the fire.
He felt the moment her eyes left him.
She took a breath. “Do you recall the fairy tale I told you, the one about the enchanted leopard that was really a man?”
“Aye.”
“Did I mention that he wore a golden chain around his neck?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“And on the chain there was a tiny emerald crown? Did I say that?” She’d turned back to him again.
He frowned at the cherrywood. “I don’t remember.”
“Sometimes I forget the details.” She yawned. “Well, he was really a prince, and on his chain there was a tiny crown with an emerald in it, the exact green color of the Leopard Prince’s eyes—”
“That wasn’t in your story before, my lady,” he cut in. “The color of his eyes.”
“I did just tell you that sometimes I forget the details.” She blinked at him innocently.
“Huh.” Harry started carving again.
“Anyway, the young king had sent the Leopard Prince to get the Golden Horse from the evil ogre. You do remember that part, don’t you?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “So the Leopard Prince changed into a man, and he held the emerald crown on his golden chain…”
Harry looked up as she trailed off.
Lady Georgina was staring into the fire and tapping a finger against her lips. “Do you suppose that was the only thing he was wearing?”
Oh, God, she was going to kill him. His cock, which had started subsiding, leaped up again.
“I mean, if he was a leopard before, he couldn’t very well have been wearing clothes, could he? And then when he changed into a man, well, I think he’d have to be nude, don’t you?”
“No doubt.” Harry shifted on his chair, glad the table hid his lap.
“Mmm.” Lady Georgina pondered a moment more, and then shook her head. “So he was standing there, evidently in the nude, grasping the crown, and he said, ‘I wish for an impenetrable suit of armor and the strongest sword in the world.’ And what do you suppose happened?”
“He got the armor and sword.”
“Well, yes.” Lady Georgina seemed put out that he’d guessed what any three-year-old could’ve. “But they weren’t ordinary weapons. The armor was pure gold, and the sword was made of glass. What do you think of that?”
“I think it doesn’t sound very practical.”
“What?”
“Bet a woman made this story up.”
Her eyebrows arched at him. “Why?”
He shrugged. “The sword would break the first time he swung it, and the armor would give to even a weak blow. Gold’s a soft metal, my lady.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” She tapped her lips again.
Harry returned to his whittling. Women.
“They must’ve been enchanted, too.” Lady Georgina waved away the problem of faulty equipment. “So he went and got the Golden Horse—”
“What? Just like that?” He stared at her, an odd sense of frustration filling his chest.
“What do you mean?”
“Wasn’t there a grand fight, then?” He gestured with the wood. “A struggle to the death between this Leopard Prince and the evil ogre? The ogre must’ve been a tough bird, others would’ve tried to take his prize before. What made our fellow so special that he could defeat him?”
“The armor and—”
“And the silly glass sword. Yes, all right, but others would’ve had magical weapons—”
“He’s an enchanted leopard prince!” Lady Georgina was angry now. “He’s better, stronger, than all the others. He could’ve defeated the evil ogre with a single blow, I’m sure.”
Harry felt his face heat, and his words came too fast. “If he’s as powerful as all that, my lady, then why doesn’t he free himself?”
“I—”
“Why doesn’t he just walk away from spoiled kings and ridiculous chores? Why is he enslaved at all?” He threw down his whittling. The knife skittered across the table and slid to the floor.
Lady Georgina bent to pick it up. “I don’t know, Harry.” She offered the knife to him on the palm of her outstretched hand. “I don’t know.”
He ignored her hand. “It’s late. I think you’d better go back to your manor now, my lady.”
She placed the knife on the table. “If your father didn’t give you this, then who did?”
She asked all the wrong questions. All the questions he wouldn’t—couldn’t—answer, either for himself or for her, and she never stopped. Why was she playing this game with him?