Cupid and Psyche |Lesbian Version|

Chapter 11: The Suspicion

Psyche woke to the break of day and eagerly awaited her beloved sisters. Her happiness was overflowing, seeping through her every pore, making her face radiant even more.

As previously done, Zephyrus recalled his queen's command, and somewhat unwillingly enfolded the two older sisters in the bosom of his breeze. Then he set them down on the brilliant garden.

Without hesitation, the sisters at once marched with measured steps into the grandiose palace and embraced their prey.

They cloaked their deeply hidden trickery with joyful expressions and flattered their youngest sister with warm words.

Psyche was clueless about their evil intention and invited the two women inside. As soon as they had rested their feet to recover the weariness of the journey and had steeped their bodies in a steaming bath, Psyche served them in the dining room with the most delicious meal of meats and savories. She ordered a lyre to play, and the string-music came forth. She ordered pipes to start, and their notes were melodious. She bade the choirs sing, and the angelic voices duly did.

All this music soothed their spirits with the sweetest tunes as they listened. But those baleful sisters were not softened or lulled even by that honey-sweet entertainment. Psyche was still beaming from the night before, marveling at the pleasure of having a lovely swelling in her own womb soon. She wished she could share with her sisters the good news, but she remained silent instead and only listened to them talking about their children and families.

"Psyche, you are no longer the little girl of ours, you are a woman and far more beautiful than ever," the older sister said. "Imagine what pleasures you will bring to our whole family of a blessing in that belly of yours is with child!"

"Yes, a prince of infants, my dear, if he is as handsome as his parents, and why not?" the other added. "You have told us that your lover is a beauty."

With this pretense of affection, they gradually wormed their way into their innocent sister's heart. Then the two sisters began to ask with nagging curiosity about Psyche's beloved spouse.

"Where is your husband now?" said the eldest one. "Why is he not here to welcome us?"

"Oh, he is now hunting in the hills of the countryside and won't be home until sundown," Psyche said.

"Perhaps he doesn't want us to come," the second sister said.

"He did, he did!" cried Psyche. "He is so kind and gentle. He even sent his personal servant, the west wind, for you."

"Oho," sniffed the other sister. "It is he we have to thank for being taken by force and hurled through the air. Pretty rough transport I must say."

"But so swift," said Psyche. "Do you not like riding the wind? I love it."

"Yes, you seem to have changed considerably," said the eldest. "But that's still not telling us who your husband is. It is odd that he should not wish to meet us."

"Very odd," the second sister agreed.

"Not odd at all," said Psyche. "He...he has things to do..."

"What sort of things?"

"Oh, you know...wars, peace treaties, hunting...you know the things that royalties do."

"He's never at home then?"

"Oh no! No...at night he returns," Psyche replied.

"Ah, then we shall meet him tonight. At dinner, perhaps..."

"No!...well...he will not be here. I mean...he will, but you will not see him."

"Just what I thought!" cried the eldest. "Too proud to meet us! My dear sister, I think we had better go home. This place is too grand for us."

"Yes, indeed," said the second one. "If your husband is too mighty and strange to give us a glimpse of his august self, then we're plainly not wanted here."

"Oh, no!" Psyche cried with a distraught look. "Please, listen to your dear girl, you don't understand."

"We certainly do not, Psyche," the older one replied.

Poor Psyche, simple and innocent, was unable to bear her sisters' barbed assumption and told them how things were. The two sisters sat at the splendid table, listening. They were so fascinated they even forgot to eat, which was unusual for them.

"Oh, my heavens!" cried the eldest sister, "It's worse than I thought!"

"Much much worse," said the second. "The oracle was right! You have married a beast! A monster!"

"Oh, no, no!" cried Psyche in tears. "Not a monster! But the most beautiful being in the world!"

"Beautiful beings like to be seen," said the eldest. "It is the nature of beauty to be seen, Psyche. Only the ugliness hides itself away. You have married a true beast."

"Yes, yes," said the second in agreement. "A monster...a serpent...perhaps...some scaly creature with many heads that feeds upon young maidens once they are fattened with all this food! No wonder you grow so healthy and fine. While you sit here, content and in happy ignorance of your grim fate, giving no thought to the Pythian oracle of Apollo, we are worried of your fragile life."

"My dear, now we know for a fact that a monstrous beast lies unseen with you," the other said with a grimace. "The mighty serpent creeps along with its numerous knotted coils, its neck is blood-stained and oozes deadly poison with jaws lie gaping open. You must remember the prophecy of your doom. It chanted that you were to wed a horrid beast!"

"No! No!" Psyche was crying, shaking her head with her hands over her ears. She couldn't open her mouth as she gasped and stammered out her reply.

"Psyche! You must now decide whether you are willing to side with your sisters, to live in our company and escape your death, or you prefer to be in the stomach of that fiercest of monsters!"

"Yes, you must leave this haunted residence inhabited only by voices and illusions. Forget the foul and hazardous intimacy of deceitful love. Leave the embrace of this hideous lover at once!"

Psyche was horrified at their bitter words, pale as the blood drained from her face. As she sobbed and trembled, fear and anger rolled over her taut shoulders like avalanches.

"Stop it! I won't listen to another word!" she cried at the two sisters, leaping from her chair. "You are wicked evil-minded shrews, both of you! I'm ashamed of you and ashamed of myself for listening to you. I regretted bringing you here to my home. I never wish to see you two again. Never! Now leave!"

Then she struck a gong. The table and a delicious meal were snatched away. A window flew open and the west wind swept in, curled his arms about the two jealous queens, swept them out, and back so fast the two sisters thought they would be plunged straight into space. Zephyrus did toss them down the hills near their homes.

Psyche was left alone, teary, frightened, and bitterly hurt, longing for her loving companion.

But there were still many hours till nightfall, and all that long hideous afternoon she brooded about what her sisters had said. Psyche resisted these persuasions as hard as she could, but they did not fail to plant seeds of suspicion in her mind. Their words and her own curiosity pierced her heart like poison thorns. They festered in her body, throwing her into a fever of doubt.

She knew her lover was good and beautiful. But still -why would her spouse not let her see? Other words of her sisters came back to her like a whispering breeze.

"How do you know what your partner does during the day? Perhaps he has dozens of palaces like this scattered about the countryside, a princess in each one. Perhaps he visits them all."

And then jealousy, more terrible than fear and suspicion, began to gnaw at her. Psyche was not really afraid that her loved one was a monster. Nor was she at all afraid of being devoured.

A terror plagued her afresh if her love companion did not love her true, and she would want to die anyway. The idea that Cupid might have other brides, other palaces, clawed at her heart and sent Psyche almost mad.

The princess felt that if she could only see her wedded pair, her doubts would finally disperse.