your people — is uncouth. But in truth, it does tell of a day and hour now past." She laughed. "So, I did truly avoid my doom."
Jasmine closed her hand on the corner of the book and tugged. "I‘ll have it back now, please."
Lady Maud wrenched it free, rose -
- and vanished. She gave a disembodied giggle. "You must first lay hands on my person!"
Jasmine rocked back on her haunches and swore.
A dress – an invisible dress — rustled. "So, your folk have no magic, otherwise you would have been less astonished!"
Jasmine pounced. The invisible princess squeaked. Something soft brushed Jasmine’s fingertips. Her hands closed on empty air.
"Sir Ranulph spoke of you as a lady knight," came a voice behind her. "Is that not unnatural?"
Jasmine turned and shifted her head from side to side, trying to gauge the girl’s position from her voice. This is crazy. Nobody can turn invisible. Yeah, just like nobody could hack up a tank using an oversized novelty letter opener. "Not with my people," she said.
A pair of foot-shaped indentations broke the flow of the bearskin. "But all those rough men and no runes to keep your honour!" exclaimed Lady Maud. "What if you were got with child?"
Jasmine edged to the side, so as not to knock the girl into the fire. "Modern birth control makes for modern attitudes. We fight and die like the men. Like them, we also –" Jasmine chose the word carefully. "- fuck as we please."
Lady Maud giggled.
Jasmine sprang at the source of the sound. Her arms closed around warm velvet.
The book thudded into the bearskin. Lady Maud smiled down on her. She slipped her hands behind Jasmine’s neck.
Jasmine wanted to see where the book had landed. But somehow she could only gaze up into the Real Princess’s wide green eyes.
"So…" Lady Maud stooped and, pulling her close, kissed Jasmine on the mouth. She nipped her lower lip then drew back. "Is this in accord with your Modern customs and usages?"
"Yes," stammered Jasmine. She returned the kiss, deeper this time, and let her hands drift up the girl’s back, tracing her spine. Her nails snagged imperfections in the velvet. It was thinner, rougher, than machine-woven fabric. The heat from the fire became almost unbearable. Kissing a Real Princess.
Lady Maud twisted her lips free. Her breath was warm on Jasmine’s ear. "From whence did you come?" Now her teeth nipped at Jasmine’s neck. "I desire to visit the land of the Modern People."
The question startled Jasmine out of her daze. Was she being played? She glanced at Lady Maud. A flush ran from the girl’s cheeks, down her long throat and onto the speckled tops of her breasts. It triggered an answering heat in Jasmine. "We came through the…" She recalled the traditional name... "Puck Stone on Unicorn Hill." That much was public knowledge.
Lady Maud drew Jasmine down onto the rug. "From Fairy Land?" she purred. "Since when were elves so buxom?"
Jasmine laughed and eased the redhead onto her back. It was the most natural thing to coax a small breast free of its velvet mask. The medieval girl’s skin tasted earthy. Of peat smoke, fresh perspiration, herbs.
Lady Maud stroked Jasmine’s head, teasing out her hair. "Do you think us otherworldy?"
Jasmine looked up and eased Maud’s dress from her mottled shoulder. "You are a dream." And there, half-draped by Maud’s red hair, was the book.
With a mental sigh, Jasmine reached for it.
Lady Maud lashed out and sent the book skidding over the stone floor. With a peel of laughter, she rolled onto all fours and crawled after it.
Jasmine grabbed her ankles and pulled her back onto the bearskin. Her hem rode up, revealing a light linen shift and white silk stockings held up by green ribbons just above the curve of the calf muscle.
Lady Maud was panting with laughter now. She grabbed the book and rolled onto her back. "Were you a man, my honour would be in great hazard!"
Jasmine slid her hands up the Princess's legs. A fine red down covered her