A Knight's Tale: Kenilworth

by Gabriella West

  “I will probably return here in the summer,” he said to Christiana, who did not reply. Stephen just looked at him as well.

  “Safe travels back to Kenilworth, Tom.”

  He nodded to me, lips quirked in a smile.

  ***

  Lady Eleanor and her small entourage returned in late January of 1265 and then our routines took over: Stephen scratched away in the study; I spent time with him, time in my room, time riding about the castle or talking to Christiana. I shared a tankard with Wilecok each time I saw him.

  Earl Simon was away at the Hilary parliament, I was told by Wilecok, but there was going to be a family conference at Odiham in March. Amaury would not need to come, of course, but Guy would be there. Henry also. And Simon was expected.

  “Never mind, lad, he’ll be very busy,” Wilecok said, wiping his lips on his sleeve.

  After a frozen moment, my heartbeat speeded up again.

  “How is it with young Stephen?” Wilecok asked with a smile.

  I shrugged. “He’s well. You must have seen him.”

  “I have, but I wondered where things stood.”

  “Things?” I said with a smile. “We’re not lovers, if that’s what you mean.”

  Since the hall was empty, I spoke frankly.

  Wilecok grinned. “Why not?”

  “Well, because he’s not ready.”

  “Ah. I ’spect he’s waiting.” Wilecok looked sagely at me. “To see how you handle Simon, I mean.”

  I groaned, but said nothing.

  That March, the family trailed in slowly from separate directions. Guy had traveled the farthest; young as he was, just twenty, he had been given Cornwall and Devon to make safe for his father. It was always hard for me to tell how much blood was being shed on these adventures. Earl Simon had committed to fight in the Welsh marches, because he had made an alliance with the Welsh king, Llewellyn, and had promised his young daughter Eleanor to Llewellyn’s son in marriage. I grimaced at the thought of young Eleanor being married off to the prince of such a wild country, but her marriage would not take place for years yet. And perhaps never, I privately thought.

  Stephen stuck close to my side. Christiana was our steady companion as well. We sat and supped with a motley group of tired and dirty knights while the family conversed at the high table far into the evening. Henry and Simon sat together. I covertly watched them, thinking of the first time I had seen them at Kenilworth. Now Henry was bearded, with lines on his forehead, the close image of his father, and Simon was unsmiling, his hair closely shorn. Yet his deep blue eyes regarded his brother, his mother, and occasionally me with the usual intensity. I paid close attention to my friends, dreading a tap on my shoulder, a summons.

  But it did not come.

  The next day, though, I was sitting in my chamber, staring vacantly out the window, when a knock came on the door.

  “Yes, Stephen?” I called, for we were supposed to walk in the garden.

  “It’s Simon,” a deeper voice said.

  I sprang up and opened the door. “I’m leaving the door open,” I said curtly. Stephen appeared just then, his eyes growing wide as he saw Simon step inside my chamber.

  “I want Stephen to be here, to witness this.”

  “I come in peace,” Simon said, holding up his hands. They were bruised and cut, I saw. I closed my eyes for a moment.

  Stephen stepped inside and sat down quietly on a chair by the window.

  We faced each other inside the door. He could see from my eyes that I knew the truth, that was certain. His own eyes flickered slightly.

  He paused, as if waiting for inspiration. Then he spoke.

  “I’m so glad Stephen’s life was spared. I heard when Gobithest returned to Kenilworth last summer.”

  “Yes, and you apparently weren’t rejoicing!” I snapped at him.

  “I was glad,” he repeated coolly. “At any rate, my mother says that you wish to stay here. That you’re comfortable.”

  “I am,” I said. “I ask your forbearance to stay at Odiham. That way if Stephen and I need to leave quickly, I can protect him.”

  “There’s no risk of that,” Simon said, but he didn’t sound quite sure. “Although, to be honest, Will, I fear the Lord Edward may find some ruse to escape. Did you know he’s no longer at Kenilworth? He asked the parliament to ease his imprisonment restrictions, and they did it. The fools. So now he’s allowed on the Hereford castle grounds to exercise, accompanied by his guards.”

  “And if he escapes?” I asked, drawn in despite myself.

  “Oh, well, then, everything changes. Mother would have to leave here. I suspect we’d go to Dover Castle. I’d take her, if it comes to it. We’d stop at Portchester on the way. It’s a damned long ride.”

  Portchester was one of the southern coastal castles that he controlled now, I knew that much.

  “Would you take Stephen and me as well?” I steeled myself for his refusal.

  “If it came to it,” he said patiently. He looked amused at my startled expression.

  “Mother needs friends such as yourself. And I hear Stephen has been helping with her household rolls.”

  “We’ve been making ourselves useful,” I said, though it wasn’t really true in my case.

  “She’s fond of you both.” Simon’s voice was light. “It’s true that I could use your help, Will, in Pevensey. But it’s a ghastly place, and I’d hate for you to get killed by a stray projectile. We have to be helmeted all the time. They throw the dead bodies over the castle wall...”

  Glancing at him, I saw that he was serious. He did look pale and his leanness wasn’t particularly healthy.

  “Can’t recommend it, in short,” he said with a wry grin.

  “I’m sorry that you are stuck there,” I said finally.

  “It keeps me out of trouble.”

  I glanced over at Stephen, who was biting his lip. “Is there anything else?”

  “Not really. Just wanted to let you know, I understand why you’re here, I don’t need you in Pevensey...” It was as if he was ticking boxes in his mind.

  And we couldn’t talk about what he’d done.

  “Thank you,” I told him. Now it was his turn to look startled. “I expected a little more...”

  “Pressure?” he put in. We were both sweating slightly. “No, there’s none of that. I actually like seeing you well and safe.”

  I could hear Stephen breathing by the window. I could tell he was getting agitated.

  “I am well, my lord,” I answered. Just for a moment I saw the pupils of his eyes dilate and wondered if my own had, at his proximity.

  “Au revoir, then,” Simon said, nodding at both of us. He turned away and left with rapid speed, his broad shoulders the last I saw of him.

  I pushed the door closed.

  “I’m glad you stayed.” I walked to the window.

  “Only because I would put nothing past him.” Stephen’s voice was more relaxed than I’d expected. “But I’m proud of you.”

  “I’ve been proud of you, too, lately.” I didn’t look at him because it was easier to look out the window, to watch the men and horses starting to trot away from the castle. “You’ve spoken up when you needed to. You state yourself clearly.”

  “I had to learn that. Brother Anselm helped.”

  He stood behind me, resting his head against my shoulders. It was a gesture of tenderness. I waited, aroused already.

  He slipped his hands under my shirt, grazing my nipples. He wrapped his arms around me.

  I leaned back wordlessly, feeling him stiffening against me, the gloriousness of that.

  “We shouldn’t do it here,” he said. “Not the first time.”

  “Tom told me to take you to the wood.”

  “That was sweet. Let’s do that, in a couple of weeks,” he murmured.

  “And we have to wait because?”

  He turned me around slowly. “Because I say so...”

  I melted into him and our lips pressed
together, ardently this time.

  We kissed and kissed, moving against the wall for support. My tongue plundered his mouth. He tasted as before and my body responded violently.

  “Let me stroke you.” I didn’t hear a protest, so I quickly gained access to him, jerking my hand up and down on the warm, silky length of his member, spitting into it for more lubrication.

  “You... did this with him,” he moaned, eyes closed. His face was deliciously warm and flushed. “Ah, Will...”

  I ravaged his mouth until I could feel his warm seed spurting into my hand. Then his tongue grew cold, and I pulled back, watching him with satisfaction.

  “I will be gentle with you, Stephen. This time was just...”

  “I know,” he nodded.

  I felt a strange reluctance for him to touch me. I wondered if I could ask him not to without causing offence.

  “It’s seeing Simon, I know. You don’t need to say.” He smiled, buttoning himself up. “In a couple of weeks, we’ll continue this.”

  He left the chamber, and it was good to be left alone. I closed the shutters and lay on the bed, stroking myself. Just this once, I thought guiltily, and imagined Simon’s mouth sliding over my cock. It had been many months since I had thought of this. The bed shuddered as I pleasured myself. As Tom and I had agreed in the wood, though I hardly dared think he would have meant this, the strands were so tied together, we couldn’t separate them.

  ***

  April arrived, warm and lovely. Stephen and I walked together into the wood one early afternoon. Out of sight of the castle, we joined hands.

  We came to the clearing that Tom and I had seen at Christmas. It was grassy now, and a few white snowdrops were left. A patch of bluebells had sprung up between the trees.

  We spread a blanket down. We had brought food, which we laid out on another blanket nearby, but the silence of the forest overtook us.

  “There will be a hunting lodge here in a few years,” Stephen said under his breath, looking across the clearing.

  I shivered. “A royal one? That means the castle will go back to the King.”

  “Yes,” he murmured. He kissed my lips tenderly. “You know this.”

  “I know it, but I don’t want to think about it.”

  “All their castles will go back to the Crown.”

  I covered my ears. “We shouldn’t speak of that now.”

  “I know we shouldn’t. I didn’t mean to bring it up.”

  I laid my sword belt aside.

  We looked at each other. He was fair again, the pockmarks dotting his face, yes, but I had got used to them. In every other way he looked well.

  “I do feel better, Will,” he said. “My body no longer seems dirty and tainted.”

  “Strong words,” I said, lifting his hand to my lips.

  “I brought something,” he whispered. He threw a little vial onto the blanket that held the food.

  “Did that come from the priory?”

  “No, I fetched it from the kitchens.” He blushed slightly. “It’s not as nice as what I had before, but...”

  “It’s all right,” I told him. “That doesn’t really matter.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment and opened them again. “I can’t believe we’re here, free to do this. Can you?”

  He shook his head, smiling faintly. “This shouldn’t be hard. We know each other well. And have for a long time.”

  I nodded, but it was different now. As boys there had been a light-hearted quality to our encounters, which had transformed into something deeper and more permanent.

  “Let me start,” Stephen said, “since you started last time.” He began to unbutton and remove my clothing, kneeling close to me, enjoying my shivers at his touch.

  Finally, he was naked to the waist, and I tongued his nipples, starting to stroke him.

  “Stand up,” he said, and when I did, he moved his mouth onto me. I moaned, pumping into his mouth, my hands in his silky hair.

  He moved back onto the blanket when he was satisfied that I was quite hard, quickly stripping and throwing me the vial. I hesitated.

  He was lying there watching me, his legs fallen open. “You just need to cover me, Will.”

  I moved on top, smoothing the grease over my cock, remembering what Simon had done. Watching his eyes, I slipped my finger inside him. His eyes rolled back.

  Still inside him, we kissed. I waited until he had loosened a little and inserted another finger.

  He moaned against me, desperate. My fingers moved gently in and out. I felt I could pleasure him for a long time, keep him waiting.

  “Don’t tease me, Will,” he groaned.

  “Ssh, patience,” I whispered. I pulled one finger out, then the other, moving very slowly forward and into him with my stiff, throbbing cock. The feeling was exquisite as I sheathed myself inside him.

  “I want to be gentle, go slow,” I told him, biting his earlobe. He had wrapped his hands around my back. I felt the thumping of his heart as our bodies moved together.

  “I love you,” he ground out.

  “I know.” I was so deep inside him now that it frightened me. Each thrust seemed to bring him to new heights. He babbled.

  “Oh, Will. God, yes. God, don’t stop...”

  They say young men have great stamina, and they also say that the first time is usually over quite fast. But for us, it wasn’t the case. I shifted position so that I was lying on my back on the blanket and he was moving on top of me.

  “Oh,” he groaned. “I might swoon.”

  He was so beautiful, his hair tousled, streaks of sweat dripping off him. I placed my hand on the head of his cock and he came instantly, with an anguished cry.

  “When will you... oh, when will you...”

  I didn’t know how to answer that. He bent down to kiss me, still impaled on my cock, moving now in slow, tender circles and dips, watching me.

  I was close because my eyelids were fluttering and dark spots were appearing in my vision.

  He pulled me on top of him again. We were so entwined that I didn’t even slip out. He whispered in my ear.

  “You can fuck me hard at the end. It’s all right. Do it.”

  I pushed in hard, pulled back, thrust in again. The third thrust pushed him several feet so that we were lying amid the foodstuffs we had brought. Hot and sweaty, I released what seemed like oceans of seed inside him. Tears spurted out of his eyes and yet he was laughing. We both were. I kissed his mouth. And then we were very, very quiet for a while. I reached my hand up to wipe the tears from his eyes, then kissed the saltiness away.

  “I know you wanted to be gentle, Will. Still, I like the roughness too.”

  “Like” seemed a weak word for what he had shown me. “Are you incredibly sore?”

  He smiled, nodding. “I will be. But you have to remember, it’s not my first time.”

  He poured us two flagons of wine. We drank naked, looking at each other.

  “It was my best time, though,” he said in a dreamy tone.

  I brushed some twigs off my arm. “Given what you’ve told me, I doubt you have a good experience to compare it to.”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t tell you yet, but there was one... at the priory.”

  I held my breath.

  “A traveling scholar, a young man. He looked so like you, but he was Italian. He only stayed one night.

  “I had only had one man before in my whole life, you know, and I missed you terribly. I thought of you the whole time. It was dark and it was over really fast—compared to this.”

  I exhaled slowly.

  “I had seen you and Simon at Warwick. So I thought, ‘Will won’t begrudge me this one time.’”

  He looked at me closely.

  I concentrated on tearing a hunk of bread with my hands. “Well, since he was my doppelganger...”

  Stephen smiled. “He really was. He was so grateful, and...” He shrugged.

  “He’ll always remember the Dominican priory at Oxford.” M
y smile was rueful.

  He bent his head. “It was years ago now. The same year you went to Warwick. The same summer.”

  “I see.” I had a flash of Warwick, the upstairs room, waking up in the bed with Simon, eating the meal he had brought from the night before, standing half naked at the window. Other memories.

  “I see. I didn’t get fucked then, but... I can see why you thought the rules had changed.”

  “I encouraged you to experience pleasure,” he put in.

  I nodded. “If I hadn’t, I don’t know how I would have survived. And I suppose you needed to feel desired as well.”

  “Yes, just once, and not by a friar.” He shuddered. “Then it was nothing more for two years. I just waited for you.”

  “And I waited to be eighteen,” I said, chewing a piece of cold meat. “I don’t really understand what happened with Simon. Do you understand it?”

  His face was sober. “There are things that are outside our control.”

  “He’s not a good man. He’s not you. I always tell myself that it will never happen again. What do you see?”

  He shook his head. “Will. Is this the time?”

  “No. And I’m sorry to ask. But please tell me.”

  His eyes gradually took on the foggy look I remembered from the past. It seemed faster than his earlier visions. Then he blinked and smiled at me. The smile had a sensual edge to it, a new boldness.

  “You have to reward me for that, you know.”

  I nodded. “Whatever you say.”

  “The truth is, I see you in bed together once more, but not in England. And you look older. He looks much older.”

  “Say more.”

  “A hot place. A castle with a vineyard outside. You are doing it with him because...” His relaxed expression altered. “You think he’s going to die.”

  “And is he?” I watched him intently.

  “He’s very ill.” Stephen paused. “Though not wounded, outwardly. I see it, but it doesn’t feel real to me. Maybe this is not the way it will happen. Ask me another time.”

  I nodded and he moved towards me to bring my lips to his.

  “Did you like being on top?” I whispered.

  “So much. Did you like it?”

  “You being on top? I loved that.”

  I settled with my back against the tree, his hand arousing me. Our bodies felt so good coming together again. It felt magical as he slowly eased himself down onto me, our lips joining as our bodies did.