Chapter Fifteen

When they put Paige to sleep at Sleeping Beauty Inc., they put her inside a display case looking like a princess. In the manual Paige read that accompanied her delivery, it said that they do this to make the girls feel safe. They dress the girls up in pretty dresses, do their makeup just right, curl their hair, and reveal the effect in one grand motion in front of a gilt mirror. They let the women gaze at their beauty and tell them they are the fairest in the land. Then they lead them down to a special room that has only one glass coffin in it, all the while telling them fairy tales they have known all their lives. It’s a trick to make a woman feel safe, like a little girl on her way to dreamland. Slowly, carefully, they place her inside the coffin, telling them the part of the story where the wicked queen is coming for them and that the only place they will be safe is here, where she will trick the queen into believing she’s dead. They tell her she’s going to have to be brave. Gently, they close the lid on her and flood the chamber with sleeping gas.

Some girls find the experience terrifying. In one moment, it was like a reenactment of their mother putting them to sleep as a little girl, when all they dreamed about was becoming a beautiful woman someday. In the next moment, gray fumes have filled the chamber and a smell has overtaken them that their body rejects with the greatest urgency. They pound on the lid and ruin their perfectly set hair. Sometimes they scream and cry, ruining their makeup. After cryostasis has been achieved, company employees open the lid, correct the damage, and put her up for sale.

Sleeping Beauty Inc. was one of the first companies to succeed in getting girls to volunteer for servitude with this experience as bait. Apparently, a lot of women love fairy tales and love the idea of being a princess… even if it’s only for a little while.

Paige had heard stories of women who were sold over and over who took a great deal of pleasure in monitoring how they were presented for sale. Eventually, they even learned to breathe in the gas without panic, and no correction was needed.

That was one of the things about Paige’s experience that was unusual. It was her first time being frozen and she didn’t bat an eyelash at the strange-smelling fumes that entered the chamber. She remembered the look on the face of the technician who was putting her to sleep. She stood over Paige with a look of amazement on her face. Paige saw the expression through the glass before she fell asleep.

That didn’t make sense since it was her first time.

Because when Paige dreamed, she was not haunted by that woman’s voice. It was a man’s, his lips were chapped, stubble on his chin as his mouth moved so close to her ear that she could feel his breath, his skin, and his intentionally spoken words all over her. There was a smell, the smell of a man that both awakened her senses pleasantly and reminded her that she was in a place she should not be. It was his masculinity her body deeply desired, and it was being used against her. It confused her. She wanted him to stay close, but she also wanted to run. Just running forever because he had a body that would always catch hers.

It was a dream she had sometimes, like an awareness of something looming over her just before she woke up enough to remember that nothing was wrong and there was no reason to fear.

Normally, she brushed it off.

That morning, there was a man’s voice in her ear. The same voice that terrified her.

He said, “How are you feeling this morning?”

And she screamed.

***

On their way to town, Paige and Harrison did not try to talk. Neither of them looked at each other, both puzzling what had happened between them that morning.

She had screamed and utter chaos ensued in a bedroom that had not seen chaos in years. Paige had yelled things. She’d thrown things at him. He’d caught her and she’d screamed and cried with tears streaming down her face.

“It was you!” she shrieked.

“I did what?” Harrison asked, blocking her hands that were flying at him in forceful slaps.

She stopped hitting him instantly. “You… uh… No.” She began wringing her fingers, but she could find no words to describe what had been bothering her.

“I’m not Zaphier,” he said. “I’ve never hurt you.”

“I know you’re not Zaphier!” she snapped, embarrassed by her delirium.

Harrison tried to hold her, tried to get her to calm down, but she begged him not to touch her, while she unpicked whatever had happened when he whispered in her ear.

By the time they were ready to go, she had no answer for him about what she was afraid of or why what he did had struck her as so completely terrifying.

In Paige’s mind, she knew Harrison had done nothing to hint that he was not her friend. What owner in the world would cheerfully pay back a purchased woman’s debt? No one. Anyone else would have rented her out until the money was paid off. Either that or he would just sell her for a profit as fast as he could and start again with someone new.

Paige looked out the window at the open prairie. He had bought her because there were no women around here. Harrison probably had no intention of taking a wife aside from her. He had been so desperate for someone to live with him that he had bought a woman when he didn’t know whether or not they would love each other. The example of Wystan and Narissa had given him the courage to do something unconventional that had a low chance of working out. Paige had been the cheapest model on the floor, she was damaged goods if the unprovoked screaming meant anything, and Harrison had paid all the money he had in the world to buy her.

It was a bad situation.