Chapter 31 #3
“Please undress.” Languidere shook Nan’s chin, then stood back as she swung her bedroom door open and called out, “Where’s my pretty hungry baby?
I have something very special for you!” Languidere’s head snapped to Nan, who felt as though she was paralyzed.
“Nan, what are you waiting for? We don’t want hungry sweet baby tiger to choke on laces and cloth!
Come, take off that offensive frock.” She clapped abruptly, causing Nan to jump.
The princess grinned and stepped into the hall, where another maid waited.
“Malorie, what meat do we have for dinner this evening?”
“We have trout, Your Majesty,” Malorie said, glancing into the room at Nan, obviously confused by the terror on Nan’s face. Nan began to tremble. The princess shook her head slowly, grandly.
“Is trout really a meat? It doesn’t taste like it to me. No, fetch me a peacock.” She turned to look at Nan. “And a very sharp meat cleaver.” Nan began to shake uncontrollably. The princess strolled back into the room.
“Nan. Sh,” she cooed, rubbing Nan’s convulsing arms. “You are special. Now you will get to be very daring.” Her eyes grew wider as she taunted.
“Yes, special and daring. You will see. And then I will know how to best get my revenge on that simpleton Alice. Practice makes perfect, darling Nan.” The princess took Nan’s face in her hands.
Her tone dropped dramatically, and her fingertips pressed firmly into Nan’s skull.
“Remove your clothing, or I will dig your pretty brown eyeballs out with my fingers and eat them,” she said, pushing her fingertips harder, so that her nails began to dig at Nan’s temples and jaw.
She then released her, grinned and stood back, ready to watch.
With trembling fingers, Nan untied the laces of her clothing and slipped from her garments until she stood naked as the princess stared at her with a smug smile. Malorie finally returned with the chef, who carried a peacock beneath one arm, and in the other, a newly sharpened cleaver.
Malorie went to hand the bird to Languidere. “Oh, no! I don’t want it. Birds are dirty!” Languidere quickly stepped away from the peacock. “But well done, Malorie. Look at her lovely feathery head bobbles on her crown. Like a queen peacock!”
The chef, who Nan liked very much, looked horrified.
He averted his eyes from her nude body. Malorie looked on like an obedient dumbfounded child.
She was so young; Nan couldn’t blame her.
Languidere took the cleaver. The princess rushed them out.
“Leave that filthy bird, Malorie!” she barked after her, and with a toss the peacock scuttled across the marble with a flutter of her tail as the princess banged the door shut.
Languidere turned and handed Nan the cleaver.
Nan took the heavy weapon and nearly dropped it.
“Now! Cut off the queen peacock’s head!” Languidere said, clapping as though it were sport.
For a moment, Nan thought of wielding the weapon on the Princess, but the result would only lead to some horrible torture and dismemberment.
Nan turned and prayed that the peacock’s life would satisfy the bloodthirsty princess.
Nan knelt to hold the peacock, which fluttered and flapped, trying to escape her.
She slipped, clanking the cleaver on the floor, and the peacock struggled to free itself.
She straddled it, naked, and pressed its head to the ground.
“Swiftly. I thought poor people just ran around killing chickens on their farms or wherever you people live,” the princess taunted, circling her.
Every second was excruciating. Nan screamed violently and swiftly and, without looking away, struck the neck of the sacred bird.
It took just one swing with the heavy cleaver, and the peacock’s body twitched between her legs.
Its head lay severed, and blood gushed from its teal neck, even as its body continued to struggle to get free.
Nan began to cry as she tossed the cleaver at Languidere’s feet.
Languidere picked up the cleaver, examining the blood almost hypnotically.
“Nan,” Languidere said, in a hush. Nan’s heart pounded.
“You are so silly. You’re too chewy for Hungry Tiger to eat.
” Languidere smiled with a tilt of her head and laid the cleaver on her bedside table, before she shooed the baby tiger from the chamber.
Languidere exhaled dramatically. “And it is true. You are absolutely right. My dress is very daring. Thank you. It’s exactly what I am going for.
Now, quickly wash that mess and have Paramore clean the floor!
I need you to dress me. I wish to be gone before that fat whore Rosemarie returns, but before I go, I’ll put an end to this Alice intrigue.
The king won’t be thinking about her. Not after tonight. ”
Languidere took one last moment to smirk at Nan before pulling her hair into a twist and strutting off toward her bath, leaving Nan kneeling in a pool of blood beside the severed head of a queen peacock.