The Price to be Paid: (A Fairy Tale Romance)

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Dairymaid Kay's life is one trial after another, mostly caused by her father's drinking. When he drunkenly brags of her ability to spin straw into gold he attracts the attention of the cruel king. She has two options. Spin the straw into gold...or off with her head. Fortunately she has some help...but is the price to save her life too high? This is an adult fairy tale and contains sexual situations. Short. 6,800 words.

Excerpt:
He stopped spinning. Bits of straw fell to the floor. “That’s right. You don’t get something for nothing. Now, what can you offer me?”

Kay looked down helplessly. She wore a plain brown wool dress, darned stockings and dusty boots. She didn’t have so much as a coin or ring on her. “I have nothing. You can have some of the gold,” she said, “Or…the king couldn’t possibly have been serious about making me queen.”

“I don’t see why not. You would look quite regal in a tiara, and the man could do worse.”

Me? Regal? Kay was attractive, but pretty enough to be queen? She chased away the thought, as quickly as it came. Beheading was so permanent, so…dead. Yet marrying the king would be vile. Still, where there was life there was hope, and sooner or later someone would be brave enough to assassinate him. Dead she couldn’t help her family. Living and married to the king, she would never have to worry about them again. Sacrifice. It was all she knew. “When I am queen. I can get you anything you want.”

“I don’t take credit,” he told her. “There is a price to be paid for any service. But there are so many things of greater worth than shiny bits of metal and rock.”

“What do you want?” she cried out in frustration. “I’m just a milkmaid. If there’s anything I have, it’s yours, but I have nothing.”

He gave her a sly look from under his eyelashes. “There is something you can give me.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“A kiss.”

She hesitated. It was an odd request. “Just a kiss?”

“Are you afraid?”

“I’m more afraid of losing my head.”

“Come to me.” Something in his voice seemed to pull her towards him. She didn’t like it. What if he put a spell on her and turned her into a frog? Its just a kiss, she told herself. A kiss to save your life.