Love's Nest Read online

  “Do you think that will make him any happier to taste your prick?”

  Mateo barely stifled his gasp, horrified by Imelda’s comment. He waited for his sisters’ reprimands to fly, but none did. They instead stared at King Hernando as if they wanted his answer. The man turned bright-red and gulped his wine down, coughing.

  Catalina climbed from her bed, a contrite expression on her face, and poured the King another draught. “There,” she said softly. “That should help.”

  “Doves…” King Hernando started again, sounding a bit dreamy suddenly, as if he’d spent hours in his cups. “They are delightful, honest things. And so smart. Like your brother. He is no doubt as pure as a dove.”

  “No doubt,” Imelda supplied. “For no man has dared try his ass. Is that what you dream of, King Hernando? Our brother’s sweet, round ass?”

  King Hernando looked scandalized. “Is this how you do it, then,” he pondered, his words slurring as he took another long swig of wine. “Do you show yourselves so crass that…that…” He blinked, looking somehow stupider than he had only moments before. “Oh.” He concluded, and then doubled over, passed out in the chair.

  “Good Lord, he is a monster,” Imelda said, tossing aside her sheets and stretching high. “We are saving our brother a great deal with this one.”

  “A monster?” Josefina asked. “For wishing to build Mateo something wonderful to make things easier for him? I rather thought he was kinder than I expected. Though not the right man for Mateo, naturally.”

  Each of his sisters climbed out of bed and pulled on fresh pairs of pale-pink slippers, delivered that evening to the castle from the shoemaker in the town.

  “Luz,” Adelita instructed. “Go check the antechamber. Ensure no one else lingers inside.”

  Mateo scrambled back, sitting very still under the portrait of their mother hanging to the right of the bedchamber door, and bit the inside of his cheek. The bell rang yet again, making him feel quite secure that none had heard his clumsy movement.

  Luz carefully tried the main door. Then, sniffing at the air, she froze in place. She turned around slowly, scanning her eyes over the dark corners of the antechamber. Mateo’s heart hammered as her eyes fell on him, but then skimmed away.

  “Mateo?” Luz shoved a long, curly strand of black hair off her forehead, revealing her shining brow. Her frown was accompanied by her usual sharp commentary as she moved aside the curtains and tapestries on the opposite wall. “Too much cologne, Mateo. Sir Franco won’t be seduced merely from the scent of cloves and musk wafting across the court. I am certain you must actually speak to him to make your intentions known, little brother.”

  Little brother. As if nine minutes made such a difference. Mateo held perfectly still, hoping that Luz wouldn’t walk into him in her search.

  “Mateo?” she sounded confused, but then straightened her back. “My imagination is playing tricks on me.” Luz returned to the bedchamber.

  Mateo waited a moment before creeping on his hands and knees back into the doorway to watch. His sisters were now in various states of dress and undress. Luz was the only one who made no move to change from her nightgown. The others had put on fancy dresses or were in the process of donning one.

  Mateo generally didn’t pay attention to his sisters’ attire, but he could tell by the material that they were all quite fine, the frills and shine of them fit for a ball. He wondered if he were to throw off his cloak and barge in now whether they would all claim that they were only dressing for bed. He could imagine the tale Delfina would spin about why she was preparing to sleep in a diamond necklace and drop-pearl earrings.

  “There was no one?” Gracia asked Luz. She tightened Adelita’s corset a bit before helping her step into a dress of blue-and-white sky.

  “Mateo?” Luz said uncertainly.

  The sisters’ heads all snapped up and searched the doorway where Mateo stood. Seeing no one, they went back to their powders and ribbons and perfumes.

  “Is he gone?” Felipa asked.

  “Yes.” Though Luz didn’t sound convinced. “I’m not sure he was ever there at all. I only caught the scent of him.”

  “Ah, yes. Mateo’s cologne.” Gracia laughed softly. “Who does he imagine it will impress?”

  “Maybe Mateo has softened toward him,” Herminia said, nodding toward the drugged and snoring king. “Perhaps our baby brother came to wish his future husband luck.” Her hands sifted through the jewelry box on the desk in front of her and finally came up with a sparkling comb encrusted with diamonds. She shoved it into the bun at the nape of her neck, and preened in the mirror.

  Mateo barely held back a small gasp. Herminia had never shown interest in jewelry before. She preferred men’s clothes and had convinced the caballeros to teach her to spar. Even when attending court functions or balls, she preferred to wear plain, functional gowns and never applied paint to her lips or cheeks.

  “I’m glad old King Hernando drank the wine so quickly. I could not bear it if he’d begun to tell us his dreams of poor Mateo’s wedding night,” Josefina said as she twisted her hair up in a complicated manner.

  Luz looked over her shoulder toward the open door, and Mateo felt her gaze burn into his chest. For a moment he wondered if she could see him after all.

  “Mateo,” Elisa snorted. “He is in the palm of Papá’s hand.”

  “He cannot be trusted,” Adelita added, applying a dab of pink paint to her mouth.

  “Don’t say that,” Luz said sharply, and Mateo noted how all the sisters looked her way before busying themselves again, focusing anywhere but on Luz. “Mateo is better than you credit him.”

  “Oh come, Luz!” Gracia interjected. “You know as well as I do that his temper would override all else. He would consider it his duty to defend our honor.”

  “Indeed,” Adelita said. “He might not be as protective as Papá, but he’s still too gallant for his own good, especially when it comes to proving himself entirely grown. And wouldn’t this just be his chance?”

  Luz frowned. “But given his leanings, it seems possible that he really might be the one.”

  “In time,” Adelita said, cutting her off. “The joy of so many can’t be put at risk in order to test a theory. We will continue as we have until we know for certain.”

  “But what of Mateo’s joy?” Luz crossed her arms over her chest in defiance. “Doesn’t he deserve to be as happy as the rest of us?”

  Adelita threw up her hands. “Darling, we don’t even know if he’s the one.”

  “He must be. It is quite obvious.”

  Adelita groaned. “They are all expecting another sister. Admittedly, it’s been since he was a babe in arms, but last I saw the parts in question he was decidedly not a sister.”

  “Yes, the last waits for a bride,” Elisa chimed in.

  “But!”

  “Mateo can’t be trusted, Luz,” Gracia said. “He’ll report us to Papá as surely as the sun rises and sets.”

  “There now,” Blanca said, rising from her ornate vanity to put her arm around Luz’s shoulders. “Let’s not argue.” She glanced at Gracia and Adelita. “Or pick on our little brother, whom we all adore. Are you not going with us, Luz? You know you must attend!”

  “There’s no question about that. Of course I’m going.”

  “Why are you not dressed?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I wear,” Luz said softly, red creeping up her neck.

  A frisson passed between the sisters, each of them seeming to burn a little brighter.

  “No, I suppose it does not,” Blanca agreed. She pressed her hand against her bosom and her eyes gleamed with something akin to fever.

  “Mateo really does wear too much cologne,” Elisa said, her nose wrinkling. “Someone should tell him. I’m quite sure Princess Sara will not find it at all nice to hold a handkerchief to her face so that she may breathe while she courts him.”

  “Perhaps he wears it to ward off the princesses,” Adelita said.

  “Princess Sara is to be the next to try, then?” Felipa asked. “It’s unfortunate that she won’t succeed. And while Mateo would not enjoy her as a wife, I’ve always liked her rather well. She’s a delightful correspondent.”

  “Prince Leon has been added to the list,” Gracia broke in. “I think he’s a good match for Mateo. Handsome, funny and properly inclined from what his older sister writes.”

  “If King Hernando is too old, Prince Leon is too young. Just a boy. He hasn’t even grown a beard.” Adelita waved off the idea.

  “Do you think there is no hope that Mateo may find something appealing in Sara?” Herminia asked, a gentle note to her voice. “She’s a good huntress. She brought down three deer on the last visit she made. Do you remember?”

  A collective groan went through the room. Mateo wondered how long his sisters had been so interested in his marriage prospects. He’d not even known they cared.

  “Please, spare us waxing on about the lovely Sara,” Adelita said. “As for Mateo, we all know he longs for stronger things than any princess can give him.” She held up her hand to stop Herminia from speaking. “Three slain deer from a feminine hand will not suffice.”

  “Unless she hides more than a shocking skill with the bow behind those muddy riding skirts, he’ll never be interested in her,” Imelda added, her black eyes snapping in amusement.

  Herminia didn’t reply, her face going dreamy.

  “Ah, look at her. She thinks of the green fields beneath Cacatúa’s skirts,” Imelda said with only a touch of a sneer.

  Cacatúa?

  Herminia grabbed a folded fan and threw it at Imelda. “Shall I tease you about the way you nearly toss up your own skirts at the sight of Gallo?”

  Toss her skirts up? For a roost
er? Mateo’s heart raced. Was he hearing all of this correctly? Had Imelda been compromised, and willingly? And Herminia too, with a woman called, of all oddities, Cacatúa? Such names befit travelling performers, not courtiers, and where would his sisters meet such folk?

  Mateo stared at each of his eleven sisters, trying to see if any stain appeared on their faces or bodies that would tell him if they’d been ruined already. The bell rang again, an aching sound that shook the furniture in the room. King Hernando slumped so that his hands touched the rug.

  Then, as the irritating reverberation from the bell passed, his sisters’ clock struck the hour. The comparatively gentle sound swelled in the room and seemed to stretch into a pulse that beat with anticipation. Everything slowed, the air itself moving in visible currents. Mateo’s heart pounded in his chest, his throat and mouth dry while his sisters transformed in front of him. They grew brighter, as if someone had lit hundreds of candles behind their eyes. Each of them became nearly too beautiful to look at, and Mateo lifted a hand to shield his eyes from their light.

  “The window,” Luz said, her skin glowing as though she was made of shifting sunlight. “It’s time.”

  The casement grew and flexed, and to Mateo’s amazement, the glass seemed to crinkle and then vanish as a set of three steps appeared before it. Adelita guided Catalina first, and the other sisters lined up behind her, with Luz taking the rear. To his disbelief, Catalina and Adelita walked up the stairs together and stepped out the window holding hands. Miraculously, they did not fall to the cobblestones below, but instead appeared to briefly walk on air before they disappeared.

  Mateo stuffed his fist into his mouth to keep from crying out. Luz turned back, her eyes searching the space around where he was standing. Shaking her head, she faced her sisters. “Hurry, the window will close soon. We don’t want to miss it.”

  “You are quite eager, Luz,” Imelda said. “Wearing only a shift to make it easier for him. Urging us to make haste. What would Father think? Or Mateo?”

  “As if propriety matters now,” Luz shot back, stepping behind Imelda up the three stairs. “Just hurry, will you?”

  Mateo rushed up behind Luz. At the top of the stairs he hesitated, his stomach in his throat, staring at the stones below. They were near the top of the castle, far above the trees in the courtyard. He watched his sisters walking on air. Luz waited until all the others had disappeared before stepping out herself.

  It took all the trust in Mateo’s soul to step out of the window. When he did, he found he did not fall, and the air was as solid as earth beneath him. The stars grew so bright that he could not see. The wind rushed around him and he shielded his face with his hand.

  For a moment Mateo was overwhelmed with the urge to retreat to the safety of the castle. Then he strode onward, into the abyss.

  Chapter Three

  They were in a wood—but no ordinary wood. The trees were tall and shaped like maples and oaks, but were heavy with silver leaves. Mateo reached out to touch, and the metal felt cool and bright, like pure moonlight against his fingers. He tugged on the shining leaf until it broke free. He quickly stashed it in his pocket as his sisters turned at the snap.

  “Did you hear that?” Catalina asked.

  “It was a deer,” Adelita said. “Come, we’re all here now and we mustn’t keep them waiting.”

  The ten eldest started off into the woods in their usual way. Adelita, Blanca and Catalina in the lead as the others followed arm-in-arm with their birth-mates, whispering in excited tones. Luz alone lingered, searching the forest behind her and sniffing at the air. Finally Luz gave up and followed her sisters. Mateo kept her in his sights.

  The way was not short. As they walked, the silver forest gradually gave way to another wood of burnished gold. The golden glow cast from these leaves lighted his sisters’ dark hair with fire, and drew out the warmth of sun from their skin so that they more resembled fantastical paintings on the castle’s gallery wall.

  Mateo didn’t dare risk breaking another leaf from a branch, but many lay scattered on the ground glinting in the moonlight. He quickly bent to pick one up, putting it into his pocket next to the silver leaf he’d taken earlier.

  The golden forest shifted into diamond-laden trees, and Mateo blinked in the dazzle. The light from the moon glittered wildly against hundreds of facets in every leaf, blinding in its opulence and beauty. Mateo didn’t resist. He reached out and tore one of the leaves from the tree. Luz glanced behind her at the noise, but the other sisters were oblivious, moving ever more swiftly, their skin dancing with rainbows of refracted light.

  They no longer looked human, but like multicolored birds who might take flight. Mateo glanced down at his own skin beneath the cloak and saw that he too appeared as a changeling. It was a delirious illusion brought on by the unearthly light from the trees—his sisters were still women, and he still a man.

  Just when Mateo began to doubt they would ever stop walking, the diamond forest opened onto a dark, wide lake. It was bigger than any lake he’d ever seen, with no end on the horizon. The moon on the waves left the impression of a glowing, heaving bosom, or the rolling flesh of man mid-coitus. Mateo felt stirring in his groin as he watched the waves move in relentless rhythm.

  There had been no male in the court he could trust to bed, not even once he came of age. Despite the courtiers vying for his favor, offering with simpering smiles to bend over for him if only to gain power, not a one of them had been daring enough to give him what he’d needed. But the dark, undulating lake brought to mind all the lust-fueled dreams that had long left him in a sweat, shaking with desire.

  He tore his gaze away from its seductive depths—and found in the water before them a row of strange men standing tall in wide, flat-bottomed boats that were half-filled with flowers.

  Adelita approached the first boat. The man who helped her in was of the most extraordinary appearance. His clothing was of an unusual style, colored in the most vibrant hues. In fact, Mateo realized, his garments appeared to be made entirely of feathers. And though Mateo could hardly believe it, the man’s hair was the yellow of a sunflower, and just as that flower follows the sun, his eyes followed Adelita walking toward him. He took her hand, kissed it with a redder mouth than Mateo had ever seen and guided her to sit.

  Blanca approached the second boat. The man who helped her inside had hair the colors of pink roses and sky twirled together. His nose was rather beakish, lending an avian air to his face. He brought Blanca’s hand to his lips and helped her settle before passing a bright-pink rose to her, then starting out across the lake.

  Like balloons floating barely above the ground, his sisters drifted to the boats and climbed in, exclaiming over the flowers. It was only when Herminia approached that Mateo realized not all of the men were…men. Herminia’s boat was commanded by a woman with dark hair twisted into the shape of a birdcage. The woman’s dress was of white and black feathers, with blue-green trim. Herminia did not simply take her hand to climb in, but kissed it passionately.

  Imelda was next and Mateo did not hold back his gasp as she allowed the man with red-and-purple hair to pull her into a close embrace, nearly tipping over in their enthusiasm. He could not believe his eyes when the man reached below to cup Imelda’s sex, and she did not cry out or bat his hand away, but leaned into the touch. Mateo turned his eyes resolutely away as their lips met.

  He was relieved when Luz merely allowed the man with clover-and-sky hair to kiss her fingers before she sat down opposite him, smoothing her nightgown. In the face of all the unbelievable things Mateo had experienced so far that night, his sister wearing her nightgown outside her chambers was certainly the least shocking, and yet he noted the impropriety with dawning comprehension as he watched his twin sail away.

  One boat remained.

  The man in this boat was as startling to look upon as the rest. He was smaller than the rest of the creatures, his hair short and quite pink, sticking up in all directions as though he’d just woken from sleep, or perhaps never used a comb. He wore a riot of colored feathers woven into a shirt and breeches made of the softest brown leather Mateo had ever seen. Mateo’s own fine woolen trousers and exquisite silk-trimmed tunic seemed almost shabby in comparison to the wild wonder before him.