Mates
By:
Will B
(© 2009 by the author)
The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's
consent. Comments are appreciated at...
Unknown to the two youths, their fathers had gone up on the roof of the Manor to catch the evening breeze. They had seen their sons wrapped in each other’s arms.
“I had no idea…,” Tom started to say. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t’ say anything, my friend, my very dear friend. Don’t you remember how we used to….when we were just a little older than our sons. Your father had died, and I held you in my arms and comforted you, and then we ….”
“Yes, John, I do remember, and I am so glad we have stayed friends all these years,” Tom said.
Chapter 7
July 1646
It had been over a year since the men had left Longleaf to join the King’s Army. Tom and Mary Robinson, Elizabeth Johnson, and Ed and Henry waited at home. They had only received three letters from John in all that time.
One morning, Mary and Elizabeth were in the garden, seeing if there were any fruits that might be gathered for food. Tom was with Alf helping to deliver a calf that was having a hard time being born. Giles was working with the men of the village to keep their skills with quarterstaffs and bows and arrows honed, so that they would be ready in case an invasion came.
Reverend Poole was giving Ed and Henry, and the other children of the village lessons in Latin. Almost certainly Ed, probably Henry, and perhaps some of the young boys in the village might have a chance for a career away from the Manor, if they could only get a good education. The good pastor was doing his best to see that they got the best one possible.
Mary was saying to Elizabeth, “We’ve gathered enough pears to make some perry wine*…” She stopped because Elizabeth was not listening to her; she was staring at the road. “What is it, Elizabeth?”
Without another word Elizabeth picked up her skirts and started to run toward a tall figure limping his way to the Manor House.
“Tom! Tom! Come quickly….it’s…. it’s…. it is John!” Mary called to her husband.
Tom started to go to meet his friend, but Mary laid a restraining arm on his. “No, Tom, let them have this moment together.”
Alf came out of the cowshed, and all of them waited as Elizabeth and John walked slowly arm-in-arm back to the Manor House.
When the couple reached the Manor, Mary hugged John, and Tom clapped him on the back…and then hugged him, too.
“Welcome back, Master John,” said Alf. “But… but… where are the others?” Alf asked.
“They will be coming along soon, with the cart carrying a few wounded,” John said.
Alice, the maidservant, ran out of the house. She was carrying a baby. “Where’s my Ted? Is he all right?”
One look at John’s face told her the news.
“Oh, no, now he’ll never see his son…..Oooohhhhhh!” Alice began to cry, great wracking sobs shook her body.
Mary went to comfort her. “Alice, this is a terrible thing. Take comfort that you at least have your son, and you know that you will always have a home here at Longleaf.”
The group at the Manor now became aware of a creaking cart and a babble of voices. They saw the cart, slowly being pulled by two of the village men making its way through the village street. Men and women poured out of the houses. Reverend Poole came out with the children. Giles and his young warriors-in-training also came upon the scene.
Women who saw their husbands who had returned safely ran to them and embraced them. Other women, who did not see their husbands began weeping, their cries reaching to the heavens. Children ran to their fathers, and others clung to their mothers’ skirts.
Ed and Henry dashed to the Manor, and Henry threw himself into his father’s arms with tears of joy coursing down his cheeks.
”Let me look at you, Henry. You’ve grown another two inches, I’ll be bound,” John said.
“Welcome home, sir,” said Ed.
“Oh, it’s not a very happy homecoming for some, I’m afraid,” said John.
“Tell us what happened, John,” said Reverend Poole.
“Reverend Poole, can we have everyone meet in the church, so I can tell everyone at once?” John asked.
“Certainly, my son. Why don’t you have something to eat, and at 11:00, I’ll toll the bell so that everyone will know they are to gather in the Sanctuary,” the good Reverend said.
John went into his house to refresh himself and at 11:00 the tolling of the bell sounded across the fields. The villagers quickly gathered in the church.
Reverend Poole stood at the top of the chancel steps, and said, “This is a sad day for Longleaf. I would like to open the service with the ‘23rd Psalm,’ and those of you who know it can say it with me.”
All of the adults and many of the children were able to say that most beautiful of the Psalms with Reverend Poole. Then John Thompson strode to the front of the church.
“First of all,” he began, “ I want you to know that all of the men fought bravely, even in the face of overwhelming odds. After several weeks of tramping, we joined the King’s force in Scotland. The end came on May 6th in a fierce battle, and the… King… was… defeated. He surrendered to the Scots.”
A gasp went up from the congregation.
“Just a few days ago, we learned that Oxford, the King’s capital city, surrendered to Parliament. Many of us are afraid that the King will be taken prisoner.”
There were more gasps and someone cried out, “Oh, Lord, have mercy on us. Help the King.”
John went on. “There isn’t much more to tell. Our men fought bravely and died bravely. There is no way we could have brought their bodies back to Longleaf. We had to bury them on the battlefield.”
There was more sobbing, and Reverend Poole announced that there would be a Memorial Service the next day.
Tom Robinson stood and said, in a voice that was close to breaking, that he would call a meeting of the village after the Service to discuss what kind of assistance could be provided to the bereaved families. He announced that he was immediately suspending the collection of all taxes, feudal dues, and fines for the rest of the year.
That night while Tom and Mary were in their bed, and John and Elizabeth in their bed, they discussed what the future might bring.
Alice held her baby and mourned, but she also gave thanks for the kindness her employers had shown.
Alf and Giles, in their bed, held each other and wept for their friend.
Ed and Henry were in Ed’s bed and held and comforted each other.
Like a ship that has been hit by a wave and had been listing, gradually the good folk of the Manor and Village of Longleaf accepted what had happened and went on with their lives.
August 10, 1647: Midnight.
A large vessel, newly returned from the Mediterranean, sailed slowly up the Thames towards London. As it was offshore near Longleaf Manor, a sailor came up on deck to relieve himself over the side of the ship. By the light of the ship’s lantern he saw a dead rat lying on the deck. Unthinkingly, he picked it up and threw it over the side and it landed on the shore.
The sailor didn’t know that a flea had jumped off the rat’s body and landed in his dirty, matted hair. The sailor didn’t realize that the flea had bitten him.
The sailor didn’t know, and didn’t care, that he had thrown the rat’s body so hard that it landed on the shore. Two rabbits had come down to the shore to drink some water and some of the fleas jumped from the dead rat to one of the rabbits.
The sailor went back to his hammock and fell into a fevered sleep. When he woke in the morning, he had the telltale buboes in his armpits. He quickly pulled on his shirt so no one would notice, but it was too late. By the time the ship reached London the next day, two thirds of the crew were dead or dying.
Two mornings after the rat had been thrown on shore, one of the village dogs came upon the distended body of a dead rabbit, He got close enough that some of the fleas could jump from the rabbit to the dog, which carried the fleas back to the village.
One of the fleas jumped onto one of the village men and bit him. In a day or so the man had a swelling in his armpits and groin. He developed some spots on his skin that were red at first and then turned black. He began to vomit blood. Before these latter symptoms appeared, his wife had been infected, and the disease began to spread throughout the village.
Hysteria spread through the village like wildfire. Reverend Poole offered the church as a place where the infected people could be placed until …. Well, there was no known cure for this plague. Indeed people did not understand the causes of the disease.
Mary Robinson and Elizabeth Thompson loaded kettles of soup onto the manor cart and took the soup to the church to give to the afflicted people. One morning Reverend Poole met them at the church door.
“Leave the soup and don’t come in. Stay away!” he wheezed.
“Oh, no, not you, Mr. Poole!” Mary said and went closer but he waved her away coughing severely. Unfortunately she was close enough that some of his sputum landed on her bare hand, where she had cut herself slightly in the kitchen that morning.
Mary and Elizabeth went back to the Manor, weeping for their friend. Again the germs spread, spread throughout the Manor household. As Mary sickened, she told Tom not to let the boys come near her. As John and Elizabeth began to show the unmistakable signs of the Plague, it was decided that Ed and Henry should stay in the Thompson house and John and Elizabeth should stay in the Manor.
In a few days all of the inhabitants of the manor house were down with the plague. Alice Taylor and her baby died. Then Elizabeth and Mary developed the symptoms and in two days they were dead. Grieving, Tom and John, dug graves for their wives, and as they laid them to rest, Tom noticed he had swellings in his groin. John tended him as best he could, but then he too came down with it.
Alf and Giles did what little they could, but Tom Robinson and John Robinson died on the same day.
Alf and Giles helped the boys bury their fathers.
Two weeks after these events, the plague seemed to have died out. Of the manor folk, only Ed, Henry, Alf, and Giles had survived. Of the 24 families of Longleaf Village, only ten families had survived, and eight of those families had lost one or two members.
On a hot August afternoon, Ed and Henry had gone to the pond to swim, to cleanse their bodies, and to relax in the sun.
Nobody seemed to realize that the frequent washings in the pond might have helped keep the boys immune from the plague.
Ed asked Henry, “What is going to happen to us?”
“I don’t know, Ed, but you are the Lord of the Manor now, and I will always be here for you,” said Henry.
Ed rolled over, and lay his body, glistening in the sun, next to Henry and kissed him. And then he kissed him again.
Henry returned Ed’s kisses with ever increasing fervor. Ed began to kiss Henry’s neck and his ears. He moved his lips over Henry’s shoulders and then his chest. He licked Henry’s nipples and Henry moaned in pleasure. With his tongue, he traced the line from Henry’s breastbone down to his navel. He swirled his tongue across and into Henry’s navel.
Henry groaned. “Aaaahhhh! Don’t stop. Don’t stop,” he said.
Ed now licked his way from Henry’s navel down to his bush. He blew on Henry’s cock which was rapidly stiffening. Henry was moving in ecstasy.
Ed began to lick Henry’s balls, running his tongue over each orb of pleasure. He took one semen sac into his mouth and caressed it with his tongue, and then he did the same with the other.
“I’m gonna …,” Henry started to say, but Ed paid him no mind. He took the pulsating penis into his mouth and sucked it as hard as he could.
Up and down his head bobbed and Henry began to feel a wonderful sensation starting in his toes and working its way up his legs, and then to his balls, and then . . .
Henry’s ejaculation was long and intense. His semen coated Ed’s mouth, and Ed’s face and chin. Shot after shot of creamy semen caused Henry’s body to jerk and writhe,.
When he had come back to earth, Henry looked at Ed, and said,… nothing! He just looked at Ed lovingly and smiled. Then he pulled Ed to him in a tight embrace and held him for a few minutes.
After a few minutes Henry pushed Ed a little away from him, and said, “Oh, Ed, I want you to….. I want …..”
With that Henry raised his legs up and pulled them back as close to his stomach as he could, and looked at Ed, and nodded yes, and said again, “Ed, my dear, I want you… to… be in me!”
No more had to be said.
To be continued...
Author’s note: * Perry wine is a fermented drink made from pear juice.
E’s comments: Our author tells it like it was in 17th century England. First we have a war, second we have the Plague and lastly we have young men making love to each other. What more could one wish for? I’m not going to tell you what I wish for.
Posted: 03/13/09