by Princess and Her treasure



  Chapter Fourteen  

           Allanah felt unusually tired and heavy as she walked up the stairs to Pablo's room.  She stopped at his door and took a deep breath.   Even after the debacle at lunch, she was more than a little taken aback by what she encountered when she went into the room.  Pablo lay in the center of his bed,  his wrists and ankles secured with heavy plastic zip ties, struggling and  cursing in a slurred combination of Spanish and English.  Poor Andrew  was nearly in tears trying to convince him to drink coffee through a bendable straw.  Had the situation been any different, it may have been actually comical, but it wasn't.
        “Andrew, thank you for your help, you may go now.”
        “But Mistress, he is still fighting very hard, and is not himself yet.” Andrew struggled to convince her she should not be alone with him right now, as he was, all the time wishing he could just be somewhere else.
        She touched his face and whispered, “Don't worry, I'll  be fine, we've been through this once or twice before.  I'll look after him now.”
        “But-”
        “Andrew!” 
        “Yes, Mistress,”  His shoulders slumped a bit and he walked toward the door, looking worried and relieved at the same time.
        Allanah moved closer to Pablo, and sat on his bed when he seemed to lose a little steam.  It was no shock to her when his ranting began all over again.  He screamed and threatened and accused and sobbed until he was hoarse.  When he finally began to quiet she looked at him with a touch of sadness in her eyes and brushed his hair back with her fingers, then took a cloth from the tray that sat on his bedside table and wiped his forehead and then around his mouth.
        She did her best to remain coolly detached and spoke to him gently, “Pablo, you may as well be still and allow  yourself to pass out.  You are not going to be able to go anywhere today. Later, when you are sober, we will discuss your behavior today and your punishment.”
        Pablo looked at her, his emotions raw and exposed.  His throat was sore from  the yelling, and his body finally began to give in to the fact that it was immobile.  His voice sounded like a child's and was barely above a whisper when he finally asked her, “Why?  Why do you want to get rid of  me? I thought you loved me.  I knew... I knew you did.  Didn't you?   Just a little?”
        Allanah battled herself, knowing that comforting him in this state would not only be useless, but in some small way would be condoning his behavior.   Oh, but she wanted to.  Deep inside her she wanted to wrap her arms around him and comfort the little boy lying there, desperate not to be deserted, aching. 
        In the end she sat there quietly, wiping his face and neck, and simply said, “We'll talk in the morning.”
        He looked hurt, as if he had been punched in the face, and finally surrendered to his situation.   He turned his face away from her and lay still, letting the alcohol take him far far away from her.  Once he was unconscious, she cut away the makeshift restraints and called for one of the boys to bring a bucket and some more coffee for her.    If her memory served her correctly, things would get very messy in a very short period of time. 
        She moved to the chair just beside his bed and waited, thinking about the men in her life. Of them all,  she had only been madly in love with two.  Two great loves.  Most people prayed for just one in a lifetime, yet, as always, her cup overflowed.    They were so different.  One master and the other slave,  each exceedingly strong in their own ways.   Each fiercely jealous, convinced that the other was one step closer to stealing her away forever.   
        She had loved them both.  She still loved them both, as passionately as ever.  She would never choose between them.  If only there could be some way--   No, there was no point in beating that dead horse, Pablo and James would never be friends.
        Her thoughts were interrupted by  Pablo's restless stirring, and she sighed, “And so the fun begins.”


        When he had stopped heaving over the bucket, she handed him a glass of  juice.  She waited to see if he would be able to keep it down, and then handed him three aspirins.  He took them, and fell back against the bed, sweating.  When he regained a modicum of his composure, she helped him to the bathroom and into the shower.  The lukewarm water washed over him and helped the room to stop spinning. 
        Allanah was soaked by the time she finished helping him bathe, and just peeled her sopping clothes away from her body before they left the bathroom. 
        She layed him back  on the cool, fresh sheets that had miraculously appeared on the bed (thank you Andrew) and grabbed his robe from the hook  on the door of his closet.  He had still been too drunk and too upset to actually have a conversation with her, so she limited her speaking to simple, no nonsense commands that pertained directly to what they were doing.  She arranged a light blanket over him, and he turned his head away from her once again and remained quiet  until he mercifully slept once more.  She left a note on his table, telling him to stay in his room, and to ring her on the intercom when he awoke. 
         Joshua was in the kitchen with Kayli,  making dinner for them all, and not so subtly glancing in the direction of Pablo's room every few seconds, making sure he stayed put.  But, there was no more excitement in the kitchen that day, unless one could say that a  slightly undercooked dessert was excitement.