Two Swords and the Angel’s Feather

Ellen walked to one side while River closed the door behind her back and looked around the room slowly. Her hands trembled and she couldn’t breathe. If she hurries up, she’ll be able to finish quickly and cry. Ellen began to untie the laces of the dress on the side. She was used to dressing and taking it off by myself. As she didn’t like other people to see her body, she always ordered the tailor to place the lacing on the forward part of her clothes, such that she could wear and take it off by herself.

When her tight dress loosened, her heartbeat went faster. Ellen glanced over her shoulder. River was staring at her, leaning against the door, with his arms folded over his chest. Sunlight came through the window making her body even more visible. Ellen hurriedly blinked her eyes and swallowed her tears, then continued to untie her clothes.

The heavy dress fell forwards. Ellen swallowed her dried mouth and slowly lowered the dress down. She also took off her gloves. The scar from the neck to the shoulders and arms is visible beneath her thin cotton underwear and corset.

She turned slowly. This should be enough. With this, he would probably…

“Do you need help in removing your corset?”

He pulled himself away from the door and approached Ellen. She blinked in surprise and stumbled backward.

“No, I can do it by myself.”

“Why don’t you finish then? I still don’t understand what’s supposed to make me sick. Except if by ‘making sick’ you meant to make my lower body grow hard.”

His hands slowly went down between his legs. Ellen’s eyes followed his hand and fixed on the part where his pants were being pushed up. She wasn’t naive enough not to know what it was. However, she couldn’t believe it.

No man had ever been excited looking at her. No matter how hungry for women they were. And it was unlikely that River Pelbrook was short on women to seduce. Even Queen Celia said he was attractive.

“Come on, don’t stop there. I want to see everything.”

His tone was relaxed but somewhat imperative. Ellen swallowed her saliva. Somehow she felt she had made a mistake. Unknowingly, her feet kept backing away.

“Ellen?”

“Why, why are you doing this? Look, I’m not the kind of person you’d be interested in. There are many graceful and pretty women. I, I…”

Ellen put out her right arm. The skin on her arm was all crumpled and distorted like a little snake crawling.

“This isn’t the only place. The same goes for my body. It can’t be that you find this attractive, is it?”

Just then, River’s hand grabbed Ellen’s wrist and pulled her, then he pressed his lips against that same crumpled skin. Ellen gasped in surprise and tried to free her arm from his grip, but he stayed still, only moving his eyes to look at her.

“Still show me. And you’ll know how I react.”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

She really couldn’t understand. Was it also some kind of bet? Did he challenge it because he had more guts than the others? If it was not it, then…why?

“You really don’t understand? I like you, Ellen. I realized I have found the woman that I have been looking for when I saw you standing up against Countess Bryson for Her Majesty, even though you were scared.”

Ellen frowned.

“But it’s…but I’m the maid of honor of Her Majesty. Of course, I should have done it, and I should have done it earlier. I’m a coward, so at first, I pretended not knowing about these rumors.”

“Countess Bryson is a scary woman. Even I do not want to get involved with such a woman. But you stood up. No one would have done it just like you did.”

Ellen bit her lips for a moment and looked up at him.

“That doesn’t really matter in bed. What matters is a beautiful body and soft skin….”

River took a step back and untied his cloth. His elegant jacket fell to the floor, followed by his tunic. Before she knew it he stood showing his smooth upper body just like the soldiers who are training on summer days.

He had a wide chest and shoulders with beautiful muscles, and…