Consorts for Ladies Ch. 02

Christopher's teeth ground against the short metal tube, helpless to bite or form the shapes of words.

There really was only one remaining thing his mouth could do.

"Present your tongue," Elizabeth ordered.

Christopher stuck his tongue out through the tube of the gag.

There was one tool left in the bag: a velvet pouch full of condoms.

Elizabeth hung the pouch from a branch and selected one from inside. It was made from a narrow length of cured sheep intestine, and took some patient stretching to slide all the way onto Christopher's tongue.

Elizabeth eased a finger in on each side of the gag's opening to make sure the condom was all the way in place.

"If you can learn your lesson, your true lady might allow you touch and taste while using your tongue this way," she reminded him, in compliance with the code. "But for now, your purity remains the priority."

Elizabeth's hands hesitated a moment on the way to her leggings. When she had read the punishment Christopher was due for, she'd thought she was prepared, but it felt a bit different, standing out here in the courtyard, where anyone might wander through, and a crowd was due to gather at any moment.

She had engaged in a sort of public intimacy in her claiming ceremony with Gabriel, but that had required no real exposure on her part. She couldn't be entirely sure how her body would react to these unfamiliar conditions.

There was no point thinking about it too much. Christopher wasn't about to abandon the Heartgarden, and nor was Elizabeth. And within the garden's code, taking the first turn retraining his mouth was an essential part of the duty she'd accepted as his disciplinarian in this matter.

She pulled up the front of her tunic and opened the flaps of fabric.

Christopher had retracted his tongue for a brief respite once the condom was in place, but he hurriedly presented it again now, flicking it back and forth, as if to limber it up.

Elizabeth grabbed him by the wavy brown wisps that had escaped his braid, raised her right leg to rest against one of the low knots on the tree trunk, and pressed her cunt to his confined, virgin mouth.

Christopher licked faithfully. The condom didn't feel quite like the spongy texture of tastebuds, but the outside was slick with his saliva and pleasantly smooth against her folds.

Any doubts Elizabeth had harbored about her ability to take the satisfaction he was required to give her dissolved within seconds.

His immobility made his tongue useable to her in a different way than she was used to from her few courtly affairs. She could put it right where she wanted it, and thrust right up against it or retreat almost out of reach to adjust the pressure as she pleased.

After learning how venomous Christopher's sweetness could suddenly become, there was also a certain delicious relief in knowing that he wouldn't be able to spoil the moment by speaking.

"Ah, good," Jane's voice entered the courtyard behind Elizabeth. "This is underway."

A handful of ladies strolled in behind her and settled into the little garden tables to wait in comfort and shade, while more aspirants waited near the edges to freshen drinks or join conversations when invited.

Elizabeth gripped the bark of the tree with her free hand, relieved to find that the responses of her body did not even pause at the crowd's presence.

Unafraid of the observations or judgments of the higher, nobler ladies, she proceeded with her enjoyable chore. After all, the other ladies would soon be displaying their own carnal natures without a second thought for what Elizabeth might think.

She dragged her clit back and forth over Christopher's insulated muscle a few more times and then brought it up to rub against the metal covering his upper lip, which was now warm with his breath. In this position, she could press her opening right to the opening of the gag.

Christopher obligingly plunged his tongue as deep as he could reach.

"How is he doing?" Jane asked, approaching to within a few feet of the tree.

"It would be difficult to ask him just now," said Elizabeth. "But he's been meek as a mouse since the gag went in."

"Tongue still incessantly wagging?"

"Less so now," said Elizabeth.

Christopher's tongue was twitching inside her, lacking the substance of a finger, let alone a smooth, clean cock, but still offering tickling reminders of its aliveness.

"Well, that's to be expected," said Jane. "But don't let him grow lazy."

She ran the end of her riding crop along Christopher's cheek, while Elizabeth steadily pleasured herself with his gag and tongue.

"Don't rest," Jane warned him. "Accept the strain. Accept this rare opportunity to redeem a part of your body you chose to sully with ungentlemanly behavior. Such a feat cannot be achieved painlessly."

Christopher's tongue ceased most of its unfocused twitches and hardened to a stationary pillar of resolve.

Elizabeth ground against it at her own pace, stirring her muscles to their own point of twitching excitability.

"You do have a fondness for unruly mouths, don't you, Sir Elizabeth?" Jane observed, as Elizabeth sighed with building pleasure. "You know, I could have another correction gag made, for you to take with you when you leave here. If keep your present choice of consort, I'm sure you'll have no shortage of use for it."

"Gabriel's tongue may have some charmingly rough edges," Elizabeth acknowledged, "but none vile enough to require the same regimen of polishing as this one." She thrust herself as far down onto Christopher's tongue as the gag allowed. "Frankly, I don't know how you could certify this one with such severe hidden gaps in his training."

"Yes, well." Jane pursed her lips. "We certainly value your feedback and assistance. The Heartgarden is in a state of perpetual improvement."

"My pleasure," said Elizabeth.

"But charming or not," Jane mused, "I suspect you'd enjoy gagging Gabriel from time to time. You could always pretend his mouth belongs to someone else, someone you'd rather shut up, but will never be able to."

Elizabeth turned her head to smile at Jane, shifting to put Christopher's tongue back to work on her clit.

If Jane thought her jabbering was making this more difficult for Elizabeth, she was mistaken. If anything, righteously correcting one of Jane's precious Heartgarden graduates in front of her, the ones she took such pride in ensuring were fit only for the highest nobles, and certainly not for a knight such as Elizabeth, held as much thrill as the act itself.

Her legs trembled under her, as all the muscles of her lower body flexed in anticipation. Each of her breaths became a grunt of approval, informing Christopher of his progress.

When the climax finally came upon her, she gripped his hair tighter, holding him steady, warning him not to dare retracting his tongue until she was quite finished with him.

Panting, she let go, and stayed leaning against the tree. The other ladies could wait a few more seconds for her to catch her breath. Christopher wasn't going anywhere.

"I'm sure he can always stand to learn something from it, anyway," Jane went on, as if what Elizabeth had just done were no more consequential than scratching an itch. Nothing to stop a conversation over.

Elizabeth's head was floating with clouds, and it took her a moment to piece together which "he" Jane was referring to.

"Where is Gabriel, by the way?" Jane asked innocently.

Faint annoyance crept up Elizabeth's spine. It was none of Jane's business to piece together why Gabriel was not at her side, and use it as fuel for her smirks.

"This sort of display was too much for his sensibilities this morning," Elizabeth answered honestly, re-fastening her leggings. "You know how gentlemen can be."

As Elizabeth stepped away from the tree, Lady Mary pushed her way past a few others, to be the first to pull a fresh condom from the pouch.

She switched them out roughly, drawing a gagging sound from Christopher when she pushed the new one into place. As soon as this was done, Mary turned around, pulled her leggings down to her knees, and splayed her ass gleefully for his tongue.

"Don't you hesitate now," she warned him. "It's not as if your mouth can get any dirtier."

"Do you recall what it was he said?" Elizabeth asked Mary, keeping the taunting in her voice as mild as could be. "Perhaps you could explain again what was wrong about it. If only so he won't forget."

Mary shot Elizabeth a furious glance, and then proceeded to ignore her utterly, plunging her hand down the front of her leggings to better enjoy Christopher's tongue between her cheeks.

Elizabeth chose a seat at one of the garden tables, dismissing the persistent feeling that she ought to make herself scarce before the higher ladies.

She waved politely but firmly to summon one of the aspirants.

"Would you kindly fetch my trial consort for me?" she asked the young man, who she was fairly sure was named James. "I believe he's rested long enough to return to some light social life. Have him bring a nice picnic basket."

#

Gabriel arrived still out of sorts, but he did arrive, carrying the requested basket.

He set it down by dropping it from an inch above the ground, and then curtseyed deeply, with a hard, grudging smile.

When he rose, he stole a glance at Christopher, now in use by Lady Vera, and then ever so briefly at the hem of Elizabeth's tunic, as if he might catch the wrinkles of it having been recently pulled up.

"Lay out the blanket here," Elizabeth directed, pointing to a patch of grass just to Christopher's left side, where it would be easy for him to see them, even with his head pulled back and the ongoing queue of ladies blocking his view from the front.

Gabriel took the blanket from on top of the basket and flapped it with a little extra violence in the wind, before spreading it out perfectly on the indicated spot.

"Sit with me," said Elizabeth, settling herself onto the blanket.

Gabriel knelt on the other side of the basket, near the blanket's edge.

"I know your mouth has been feeling neglected," said Elizabeth, opening the flaps of the basket to check what she had to work with inside. "I wanted to remind you of some of the perks of your current situation."

Strawberries. Perfect.

The Heartgarden's regimen of discipline, while certainly thorough and strict, lacked a certain humanity, in Elizabeth's estimation. The aspirants knew well what would happen if they misbehaved, but where was the encouragement for doing well?

Elizabeth selected one of the strawberries and held it out by the leaves.

"May I feed you, my dear?" she asked more gently.

Relenting slowly, by stages, Gabriel softened his posture and inched closer on the blanket, bringing his sweet, soft mouth within reach.

Elizabeth ran the tip of the berry along his lower lip. Gabriel raised his eyes to hers and licked the tip gently, taking what opportunity he could to advertise his skills, before opening to accept the treat.

Christopher sighed with envy in the background, as Vera delighted in pinching his encased tongue punishingly hard between her fingers, before setting it back to work between her legs.

"You're not the most submissive or perfect aspirant in the Heartgarden, are you?" Elizabeth prompted Gabriel, choosing another berry.

"I doubt anyone would argue that I am," Gabriel acknowledged, and crouched forward on all fours to bite the berry a little more savagely.

"Yet you always seem to manage basic decency. And that's all it took for you to be sitting here, instead of there."

"Yes, my lady," Gabriel agreed, rolling onto his back, resting his head on Elizabeth's leg, and waiting happily for the next bite.

#

Christopher's correction lasted late into the evening. Elizabeth was required to check in frequently, to walk him to the privy by his chains or help him swallow small sips of water with his mouth still propped open, but she was able to get away long enough to take Gabriel to the evening play as a guest, and then chat at length over a roast chicken about how the titular Patrick had been tamed.

Gabriel felt it had happened too cruelly, yet too easily at the same time.

At nine-thirty in the evening, they both returned to the east courtyard, with a new kit sack ready for the final step. Per Elizabeth's request, Daisy was already there to meet them.

Christopher was resting heavily against his neck manacle, surrounded by discarded condoms. The pouch hanging from the branch looked much lighter than it had in the morning. By now, Elizabeth was probably the only lady in the castle who had used him only once.

Jane had returned to the courtyard and was looking at her pocket watch when Elizabeth and Gabriel arrived.

At a nod from Jane, Elizabeth directed Gabriel and Daisy to move one of the garden tables closer to the tree in preparation.

Elizabeth opened the sack, set a steel tray on the table, laid out the tools, and poured a layer of alcohol over them.

"Daisy, would you like to collect his apology?" she asked.

Daisy glanced hesitantly at Jane, who nodded again, and approached the tree.

"Where would you like him to kiss you to make it up?" Elizabeth asked. "Somewhere accessible, obviously."

Chaste and bound by the same dress code as any other aspirant, Daisy could not take pleasure from Christopher the way the ladies had, but that still left a few options for reclaiming her dignity from him.

Daisy chose one of the kindest, extending her hand like her majesty accepting a kiss of tribute.

Christopher ran his bare tongue unhesitatingly up and down her knuckles.

Daisy giggled in that curiously soft, masculine way she had, squeezing her knees together as if tickled. The slit between her closed fingers and the slit locked away between her legs had a resemblance that was difficult to ignore, knowing what Christopher's tongue had been doing all day. Daisy was probably tingling with imaginings of what it would be like to swap one for the other.

"Not so bad, is it?" Elizabeth asked Christopher. "Being civil to a woman with hands as soft as yours? It doesn't hurt."

Christopher did not attempt to answer through the gag, only continued licking. There was no reproach in his tired eyes. After the day he'd had, this was nothing.

"And you? How does his tongue feel?" she asked Daisy.

"Harmless, my lady," Daisy answered with another giggle. "Smoother than I thought."

"Let go so he can feel it against the roof of his mouth," Elizabeth directed.

Daisy complied and took a step back.

"It will never be quite that smooth again," mused Elizabeth.

After giving Christopher a moment to feel his own tongue and think on that fact, Elizabeth picked up the small pair of wire tongs, clicked them once, and reached into his locked open mouth.

Gently, she pulled his tongue back into the light one more time and adjusted the placement of the tongs, so that the holes in the centers of its two wire grips were in the exact middle of the muscle.

"Cleanse it, please," she asked Gabriel.

Gabriel smiled with private satisfaction as he splashed both sides of Christopher's tongue with salt water to discourage any agents of rot that might be lying in wait there.

"Daisy, I think you deserve the honors."

"What do I do, my lady?" Daisy asked nervously.

"Use the hollow needle," Elizabeth pointed. "Press it straight down through the grips of the tongs. Don't drift to the side, and don't hesitate."

Daisy picked up the needle and lined it up with the hole in the upper grip, just touching Christopher's tongue, waiting for a final go-ahead.

Elizabeth paused, brushing stray locks of hair behind Christopher's ears.

"Don't you wish you had been a better gentleman in the first place?"

With his eyes on Daisy, momentarily focused by fear, Christopher made a sound that might have been an attempted word.

Elizabeth nodded, and Daisy shoved the needle decisively through.

Christopher winced, squeaking slightly in the back of his throat and squeezing his eyes shut, causing a couple of anticipatory tears to slip down onto his cheeks.

Almost as quickly, however, he opened his eyes again in surprise at the mildness of the pain.

In three quick motions, Elizabeth slid the piercing bar into the middle of the needle, withdrew the needle itself, and screwed the iridescent pearl bead onto the top end of the bar.

In truth, she was as surprised as Christopher by how easy it had been.

"Oh, isn't that lovely?" she sighed with genuine admiration for the shy little glitter of jewelry peeking out from his mouth. She squeezed Daisy's shoulders. "Just imagine how good that's going to feel against a clit the next time he's called upon for service."

Daisy smiled politely.

"Oh, I know it won't be your clit," said Elizabeth, "but you'll get to be part of the reason. And if a lady chooses him permanently, so she can do away with all the barriers between her and that pretty pearl? That would almost be worth putting up with the rest of his mouth." She patted Christopher's cheek. "Pity it'll be eight whole weeks before he can have any contact there at all."

Circling around to the other side of the tree, Elizabeth unlatched Christopher's chain and pulled it free of his manacles. They fell open, allowing him to stand again for the first time since morning. He stretched his back with several grateful, thunderous cracks.

Next, she removed the key to Christopher's gag from her necklace. Aware of Gabriel's suddenly sharp attention upon her, she refastened the necklace itself, making quite certain that Gabriel's chastity key was still there, hanging down under her tunic.

Christopher groaned slightly as she removed the metal from his sore jaws, but he had no urgent first words waiting. He simply stood rubbing his cheeks, delighting in his ability to shut his mouth, curiously playing with its new metal addition.

"Daisy, please walk him back to the aspirant private chambers so that he can rest and make himself presentable for tomorrow."

"Of course, my lady."

Elizabeth gathered the chains and gag to return to the trainers for sorting.

"Gabriel," Elizabeth stopped her trial consort before he could follow her. "Wait for me in my chamber."

#

Gabriel chose the safest possible interpretation of Elizabeth's instructions and waited in the middle of the chamber, fully dressed and standing in his heels, presuming nothing.

"You still have permission to speak," Elizabeth confirmed when she entered.

"I want to thank you, my lady," he started. "For the picnic. And the rest of the day. For being so understanding with me."

"Don't thank me for that yet," Elizabeth advised. "But feel free to continue describing what you needed understanding for."

Gabriel winced, realizing that his worst imagined version of this conversation was likely to be the real one.

"I was jealous," he admitted, wringing his hands against his stomach and looking to the floor.

"You were jealous," said Elizabeth. "Of the very idea of another man's tongue on my cunt before yours. Even in the course of the standard Heartgarden discipline you and your fellow aspirants all agreed to."

"Yes, my lady."

"Did you imagine I had never had a man before coming here?"

"No, my lady," said Gabriel. "But it was different, to imagine him--"

"So you decided to use that jealousy," said Elizabeth, "and all the passive gentlemanly tactics at your disposal, to try to make my day as miserable and full of uncertainty as your own."

Gabriel sighed. "Yes, my lady. It was unworthy."

"How long have we known each other?"

"A week, my lady."

"A week," Elizabeth emphasized. "A week ago, you begged me to take you, a near stranger, as my trial consort. To sacrifice my openness to all other trial bonds, in order to protect you from ill-use. Have I failed to do that?"