A Brother's Price

with mother-of-pearl. To give the youngest sisters credit, the greed in their eyes dimmed to pity as the list continued until only guns and knives were left to Corelle.
    “That’s not fair!” Corelle yelped.
    “1 could throw in a horsewhipping too. if you like,” Eldest snapped.
    “What about the others?” Corelle indicated Kira beside her. Eva and Summer across the table.
    “ You were left in charge.” Eldest jabbed a finger at Corelle. “ You decided to go to the Brindles”. You will pay for this.“
    “No!”
    “Yes.” Eldest calmly stated. “You left four brothers” prices, our entire future, the only hope we have to buy a husband and have children to care for us when we’re old— all of that —unguarded when you had been specifically told not to leave the farm.“
    “Fine!” Corelle stood up. “There’s nothing I want.” she said, and then paused to run her tongue over her lips in a manner that made Jerin recall Ren delighting him, “that I can’t get for free.”
    Eldest caught Corelle by the hair and muscled her down into her chair. “First, you have let your hair grow too long. I suspect Balin Brindle to be the cause, but you will cut it shorter. Secondly, you’re acting a little too knowledgeable for someone your age. Again, I suspect Balin Brindle to be the cause, and that better not be the case. That’s how syphilis enters a family—one sister dallying outside of wedlock.”
    “He’s clean, he promised me!” Corelle protested, indignant.
    Eldest slapped her hard. “You do not put your family’s lives on the line with a promise from an outsider. Tomorrow we will take you to a doctor and see what she says about how clean you are. I warn you: if you’ve gotten yourself infected with something, you will not be wife to our husband. If we have to, we will throw you out of the house.”
    “No!” Corelle cried. “I haven’t done anything wrong!”
    “You’d have us be like the Treesdales? Ignore the situation so our husband gets infected? Have him pass it to all of us, and then all the youngest sisters as they come of age? Do you want the whole family to die a hard, slow death? Do you remember how the Treesdales suffered? The pain? The babies born dead, born twisted? They’re gone, Corelle! The whole family gone, because Zera Treesdale got the itch to try out a crib.”
    Corelle hunched down, ducked her head, and pouted. “He’s not in a crib, and we’re going to marry him anyhow.”
    “No, we aren’t!” Eldest stated, then forestalled an argument by explaining, “They approached us. We listened. That was all. That is not an agreement for marriage. Frankly, Corelle, we can do better than them. We have land, money, and breeding. We’ve got Queens’ blood in us, and don’t you forget that. You’re acting like a cat in heat, presenting yourself to anything that might want to service you.”
    “At least I’m not servicing women on the kitchen floor in the middle of the night!” Corelle hissed.
    Jerin clapped hands to his mouth to trap in a cry of protest. Corelle witnessed him and Ren? Eldest turned toward him, saw his face, and went white.
    “Corelle, go to your room,” Eldest said.
    “I’m not a child!” Corelle whined. “I have a right to hear—”
    “Now!”
    Corelle flinched backward from Eldest, shot an angry glare at Jerin, and then bolted from the room. Her footsteps thundered up the stairs and her door slammed shut with a bang.
    Jerin sat frozen, hands still over his mouth.
    “The rest of you too.” Eldest indicated the youngest sisters, and they filed out.
    “Who was it?” Eldest asked quietly, emotionlessly, when he was alone with his middle and oldest sisters.
    His voice would only come out as a whisper. “Princess
    Rennsellaer.“ Unbearable silence followed. He had to break it. ”She didn’t mount me.“ The silence continued. ”She was sitting in the dark when I came down for something to eat. I didn’t see her until she had me in her arms, and—and—I tried to resist. I asked her please not to—and she pushed me against the hearth and kissed me. She didn’t mount me—we didn’t go that far. Father told me ways to make a woman happy, and that satisfied her.“
    “The bitch!” Eldest muttered finally. “Come to our home, eat our food, sleep in our beds, and then rape our little brother!”
    Jerin wrung his hands, feeling guilty for not confessing that he had done nothing he hadn’t wanted to, that it wasn’t truly rape.