Meeting at the Manor House Ch. 04

Today there was hustle and bustle at the Manor House. Six months before, the master of the house, Lord Roger de Couverley, had received the Princess Anne, daughter of King Edward, who on that occasion became betrothed to Lord Roger's son, Richard. A neighbouring landowner, Sir Thomas de Montfort, had provided finance for Lord Roger to institute a small militia to safeguard the interests of the King in that area. A feast had been held at the Manor House, to celebrate both the creation of the army, and the betrothal.

And now the wedding day was come. As it was fitting that on her marriage Anne should be received into the de Couverley household from elsewhere, and her former home at Winchester was too distant for the day's travel, Sir Thomas had offered his castle for her temporary disposal, thus Anne and her small retinue had travelled the day before from the castle of de Montfort.

At the Manor House, the day dawned to see servants rushing this way and that, setting up a tented dais and chairs in the garden, the kitchens abuzz with both the Manor's, and visiting, chefs putting final touches to flesh and fowl, fruit and fancies. Barrels of mead and cider were being brought up to the feasting hall, and large trestle tables laid in place. All had to be just so, as the King was coming!

Richard awoke early, and remained in his chamber, remembering the clandestine pleasure he had already enjoyed with Anne on her visit at the time of the betrothal some months ago. Unexpectedly and to his great pleasure, Anne had followed him into the far reaches of the garden in the late evening, and he had had great pleasure in unwrapping, initiating and exploring her on the lush, soft grass throughout the night. He had found her fair enough, and although untried, she showed signs of potential pleasure once he finally took her to wife. Indeed, she had so enchanted him that in the long months in between, he had sought the company of more than one local girl in order to quench the fire in his loins which Anne had aroused. His member was beginning to arouse now at the thought, and he rubbed it a little, thinking "Soon, my boy, be patient!"

Anne had journeyed the previous day from nearby Rockingham Castle, with her maids and Lady de Montfort, and had passed a restless night in the stately guest apartment at the Manor House. Her maids supposed that this was due to her excitement about her pending marriage, but in fact there was a totally different reason.

Two nights before, at Rockingham Castle, Anne had retired alone to her chamber, her maids beyond the communicating door. Anne had snuffed out her candle, and settled into the large four-poster bed, clad in a linen shift and a cotton bonnet. After a short time, the door at the other side of the room opened, and the figure of a man walked softly through the room towards the bed. Anne was about to call for her maids when, in the light of the candle he carried, she discerned the features of Sir Thomas.

Realising she was a guest in his house and that to jeopardise the betrothal would bring great shame upon all, she dared not call for anyone, but lay, rigid with fear, and regarded him. He was dressed in night attire, being a long linen chemise and nightcap of the same material. De Montfort pulled back the coverlet, and looked the length of Anne's body in its linen wrapping, setting the candle down on the night table. Impatiently he undid the fragile fastenings down the front of her shift, and coming to the waist, rent the remaining fabric in two, to reveal Anne's naked body in the candlelight. His bony hands squeezed at her flesh greedily, stopping at her breasts and bruising her delicate nipples. De Montfort drooled with anticipation as he parted her legs, climbed upon the bed, and lifted his chemise to reveal his large, ugly penis, dark red and swollen with lust.

Anne gasped with horror. It was all she could do not to scream, and De Montfort bound her mouth with torn linen to ensure her silence as he leaned over her, parted her roughly, and forced his engorged organ into her unready sex. Of course he then discovered that she was not a maiden, and was exceedingly angry, and swore at her, as he had a taste for virgins and had long looked forward to deflowering Anne. Hot tears of suffering and outrage escaped Anne's eyes, as he butted his penis into her repeatedly, muttering obscenities. Forgetting totally that he was addressing royalty, he called her a trollop and told her she had to suffer. After more savage buffeting, he wrenched his penis out of her, which made Anne recoil with pain. He turned her over roughly, and having her thus supine, he parted her legs again, spat on his penis and entered, this time not the soft fleshy folds now bruised, but her rear orifice. Even through the linen gag, Anne cried and tried to scream as he finished his brutal act, disgorged his slime into her and withdrew, panting, delivering a vicious slap to her buttocks.

De Montfort immediately re-covered himself, climbed off the bed, took his candle, and without a backward glance strode out through the door from whence he came. A slight knock, and through the other door came Elspeth, her lady in waiting, curtseying quickly then enquiring what was afoot. Anne covered herself rapidly with the coverlet, and told the servant that she had stirred due to a bad dream. The next day she had asked to take a bath, and Lady de Montfort, divining the reason for her husband's wandering that night, supplied ointments and unguents for Anne, looking upon her knowingly and with such tender sympathy.

Back at the Manor House on the day of her wedding, Anne arose, and her maids assisted her to take a bath and don her wedding clothes. These consisted of a sumptuous dark red woollen gown, two linen under-dresses, and naught else beneath, as was the custom. Her maids braided her hair, and on her head placed an elaborate wired headdress of the same dark red cloth, encrusted with jewels and trimmed with golden braid.

Anne went through the ceremony mechanically, only brightening when her eyes alighted upon Richard, resplendent in his dark hose and matching jacket trimmed with fur and jewels. They acknowledged each other with slight nods and discreet smiles as he had walked down the aisle created within the garden, and joined her on the dais, the King resplendent on his throne, the Queen enthroned beside him, and various courtiers arranged around. The Bishop of Winchester, who had baptised Anne as a baby along with several of her relatives in the royal palace, performed the ceremony, and the deed was done.

The assembled company moved through to the Great Hall for the feast, with the King and Queen and the newly married couple assembled at the top table. A large salt cellar resided there, below which the remaining guests sat, as was tradition. Some of the servants brought in joints of beef and lamb, whole fowls, and delicate pigeons, while others regularly filled up the cups of the company with mead and cider. After the feast, the married couple led off various stately dances, while musicians played crumhorn, cornamuse and lute. As the evening wore on, the monarch and some other guests alike, having partaken of too much drink, began to lurch and stagger in the dance, and at one point, Sir Thomas de Montfort looked full at Anne across the room and leered at her.

Eventually in the third watch of the night, it became time for the bedding ceremony. The groom, Richard, led his wife down the corridors to the bedchamber which had been fitted out anew for them both, with tapestry hangings on the walls and heavy linen curtains surrounding the double bed. As was the tradition, he paused, picked Anne up in his arms and carried her over the threshold, and the heavy door was closed.

They then disrobed. Maintaining a facade of happiness and calm, Anne slowly unfastened and removed her dark red woollen robe, laying it upon a chair. She carefully removed her wired headdress, and shook her head so that her hair became loose from its braiding, and tumbled over her shoulders and back in a mass of curls. She then removed the outer petticoat of stiffer calico, placing it neatly upon the gown, and was then ready for the final stage of her uncovering.

Her undergarment was of the finest gauze, which clung to her shapely contours and through which her dark, proud nipples protruded. The material also clung to her rounded belly and thighs, showing the outline of her loins, promising that the remembered delights lay within. Anne unfastened the shift slowly, from the top downwards.

When it was open to her waist, she moved slightly, and one of her breasts was revealed between the fine folds. Richard put out a hand and caressed the nipple, causing it to stand erect. In both hands he gently took the material of the bodice, gently eased it down over her shoulders, and she released her arms, which left her breasts naked. He leaned forward and kissed her pointed nipples one by one, taking gently into his mouth a little of the pale flesh of her breasts as he did so.

Quivering, Anne continued her undressing, sliding the garment downwards until her belly was revealed. Richard gently caressed her flesh, from her breasts, past her waist, and on downwards, until he felt the beginning of the soft curls, which made Anne gasp ever so slightly. His hands gently took the edges of the garment from her, and dropped it to the floor, the fine material sliding down her flesh, leaving her naked before him.

The remembered sight of his woman in her full nakedness set Richard into full arousal, and he deftly removed his top clothes, leaving him in chemise and braies, which lightly covered his form. He took Anne's hand and guided it to his male hardness, which was discernible through the thin cotton layers. He closed her hand around his erect staff, and caused her to move it to and fro through the linen, and she noticed a small wetness. Finally he removed his underclothes, and stood erect before her.

He bad Anne kneel before him and, drawing her head forward, gently inserted the tip of his erect organ between her lips. He felt her tremble. On his enquiring look, she whispered that she was over-excited due to the long separation and the festivities of the day. He showed her how he wished it done, that she should sometimes take the head of his shaft within her mouth and pleasure it wetly, and that sometimes she should run her tongue the entire length of the shaft, from the base to the tip, and then engulf the head again. He adored to have her pleasure him thus, and Anne began to feel calmer as she realised that her husband did not wish her any harm, indeed she began to feel stirrings within her own loins, and longed to have caressed her own intimate places.

Richard motioned to Anne to sit upon the bed, and he parted her legs and knelt on the floor before her. He dipped a finger between her pink folds of skin and discovered the wetness, ensuring that it was brought to the outside, coating the small, hard bud where all her desire would be satisfied. He leaned forward and this time gently inserted the head of his penis between her folds, and just let it rest there, whilst reaching up and tenderly fondling her breasts with both hands. Anne began to tremble anew, remembering the last time that a male organ had entered there, and Richard, mistaking the reason, put his arms about her and reassured her, and began to slide his shaft further in between the wet folds until his maleness fully penetrated her. He felt her sweet liquid velvet surrounding his organ, and moved rhythmically, feeling anew the almost-forgotten pleasure as he worshipped her form with his own.

After some time, he withdrew from her and bad her lay back. He took her legs, lifted them above her so that he rested them on his shoulders, and gently penetrated her again. This time she could feel the pressure of his organ against her bud of pleasure, and could feel beginning ecstasy in the places farther in. He moved in a circular motion, so that his firm staff could caress her on every internal contour, and she began to moan quietly in the pleasure of the sensations.

Presently Richard withdrew yet again, and asked Anne to lie on her back, full length on the bed, whereupon he laid his body on hers and re-entered her. Now she was very heavily aroused, and she responded to his firmer thrusts with abandoned thrusts of her own, grasping his buttocks with her hands and injuring his flesh with her nails. Threshing underneath him, Anne let out a long groan, arched herself, and climaxed. Wave upon wave of pleasure coursed through her, starting at her pleasure source and radiating upward through all her organs and downward through her legs, until it reached every extremity of her. She cried out in her ecstasy, so arousing Richard that his tidal wave of pleasure could wait no more, and he groaned and thrust hard inside her, releasing his hot seed within her loins. Again and again he thrust, until his seed was spent, and he calmed and lay still. Still joined, Richard and Anne kissed fully on the lips, knowing that their union was at last fully and properly consummated. They then separated slightly and lay and rested.

The assembled company had been waiting outside the chamber door, and slight consternation ensued about the sounds they had heard, especially the feminine sounds which were not seemly, wives being only for procreation. After a few moments, a ceremonial knock sounded on the door, it was opened and footsteps were heard approaching the bed-curtains. Richard quickly took out a small phial of chicken's blood from where he had hidden it behind the pillows, dropped a little on the linen bed-sheet and smiled at Anne as he removed the sheet and handed it out between the bed-curtains. This was a necessary deception, intended to fool the onlookers that the initiation of Anne from maidenhood into experienced womanhood had taken place. The man outside who received the sheet was Sir Thomas de Montfort, and through a gap in the curtains glared malevolently at Anne before bearing the sheet away for display. Richard and Anne were left to sleep for the remainder of the night.

The house did not stir too early the next morning, due to the excess of feast and drink of which it had partaken, but later in the day the guests gathered again for further feasting and singing, as the de Couverley family was officially allied to the royal house of Plantagenet, even if only through the female line. In due time the joyful news was spread abroad that the Princess Anne, Duchess de Couverley, was with child, but in one or two minds the question was -- whose?

THE END.