Solstice Castle - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I quickly donned my clothes and hid behind the large bed, covering myselfwith the silk bedclothes. Within moments, Lorena rushed in, looking wildly about. "Jaze", she whispered loudly, "are you still here?" Satisfied that she was alone, I emerged. The blonde beauty ran over and buried her face in my chest. She looked up, her beautiful blue eyes brimming with tears, and questions.

"What happened?" she demanded. I explained the mysterious attack on the Prime Minister and a young guard just outside the chamber door, with slight, dark-haired young Rebca arrested while trying to tend to the injured official, the late-arriving guards mistaking her tidiness at picking up a few jewels scattered in the robbery as an attempt at thievery.

Lorena pushed me away and began pacing. "Oh, dear! Rebca is my servant and at the very least my position with the princess is in jeopardy if I am found to have permitted a common thief to serve me." She froze and whirled to me, "And if you are found here, I will be sent back to my family in shame, if not arrested as one of the den of conspirators." She resumed pacing.

"Your concern for Rebca's welfare is touching," I replied drily. Lorena's golden curls whirled toward me as she started to snarl a reply. I held her by the shoulders, still distracted by her swaying bosom beneath the thin robe.

"Look, the only way to clear you completely is to convince the castle officials that Rebca was not involved. We need to find the attacker in the green cloak and determine who his conspirators are." Lorena nodded. "Whoever it was, the thief must have had connections in the castle to have been given access to it. So, we must be careful; we do not know who this enemy and his sponsor is."

I could see her thoughts speeding up to catch mine, her brilliant blue eyes dancing back and forth. "They tell me that both the Prime Minister and the guard who were struck by the villain are still senseless and likely to remain so for a few days." I breathed with relief, as the guard had seen both Rebca and I peering out of the chamber door, perhaps we had some time to seek the hooded assailant before I was identified as a by-stander in a place where I had no business being. "I will find out more information and meet with you in the mid-afternoon at the market square. For now, we need to rid this place of you."

My libido was returning, and my hands slid around her slender waist. "But I cannot think of a more idyllic hiding place," I protested. Her long slender fingers briefly rubbed along the front of my crotch, feeling my awakening hardness. "Listen, you randy young fool. The guards certainly will return soon to search the area. If we get this mess straightened out, you can hide yourself-and this," giving my rod an affectionate squeeze, "wherever you choose."

She walked to the heavy oak door to her chamber and peeked out. "Now, Jaze, all is quiet for the moment. All I can figure for your escape is to go down the laundry shaft into the laundry room, and escape out there." She said this casually, as though suggesting I step off of a wooden walk onto the street.

"Are you crazy?!!" I sputtered. "That drop must be five landings of the stairs. Surely, I'll break every limb I have. That would be convenient for you; no one would know from which suite I came, and I would languish a cripple in the dungeons until I'm an old man!"

Her voice grew husky in an effort to persuade me. "Honestly, I saw a huge pile of laundry at the bottom of the shaft this afternoon. You could land in it and fall as though into a cloud."

"And if they have washed that laundry.?" She shrugged. Still, I knew she was right; I had no choice.

We crept out of her room and down a short hallway, into an alcove. She pulled open a small wooden door, and I pushed my feet and torso halfway through, my wide shoulders catching in the jamb. I started to protest that perhaps the shaft was too narrow for me, when we heard the synchronized footsteps of guards approaching. She hastily whispered, "Then lose some weight," kissed me quickly but soundly, and pushed down on the top of my head, casting me into the shaft.

I barely noticed the sound of the small door slamming, for I was falling into utter blackness, the only sound that of my tunic brushing the rough stone sides of the shaft. The descent seemed to continue forever, as I desperately fought to keep my legs beneath me, but relaxed for such time as my fall terminated.

Abruptly I found myself enveloped in white, as I hit feet first and pitched into a mass of sheets and robes. The laundry was still there, and I was intact! My relief was short lived, as I felt a foot blindly strike my back, and a muttered oath in a male voice. I righted myself and looked out, seeing only a pair of wide nude male buttocks, as the owner lurched out of the pile, grasped a small stack of clothes, and darted out of room. His dark-maned head never looked back at me. My first thought was again one of panic. The man certainly would beckon the guards.

"Oh, fuck!" A young contralto voice behind me, slightly accented with the dialect of the gypsies of Bertrain. I whirled, and found myself looking into the dusky features and huge dark eyes of Lindea. The rest of her remained hidden in the sheets which covered us both, a mound perhaps four paces across.

I nearly jumped straight into the air. Lindea was the dark beauty of Speysard. Her family, like many of the gypsies, ran a laundry in the east end, where Lindea always could be found sweating over tubs and tables. I, along with all young men of the town, looked forward to dropping off my clothes, merely for the opportunity to glimpse the tops of her heavy sweat-soaked breasts exposed as she leaned over the steaming laundry tubs, her nipples visible 'neath the flimsy top made almost transparent by the steam and perspiration. I always imagined that she had a special smile for me as I brought the cassocks of the monks. Yet, no man had been known to spend time alone with the beauty. Rumor had it that her family was a deposed royal family of the Bertrain gypsies, and that her father would permit her to see no man who was not himself of royal blood. She always carried herself with regal disdain notwithstanding the menial nature of her work, giving only a curt greeting to each customer, and then returning to her scrubbing.

I could not decide which of us was the more starled, or frightened. She recognized me. "Master Jaze! What are you doing here?" she hissed. Her glance drifted up to the end of the chute out of which I had dropped. One brown arm pushed away from her head a mass of sheets that threatened to topple on her. I realized that the shoulder attached to that arm was bare, and suddenly I reasoned why she might be scared. The bare man's ass I had seen explained much.

I could not keep the grin from my face. "I could ask you the same. I don't think this is a way to get the laundry clean; in fact, you'll soil it in that fashion." I stretched toward her and pushed to one side a wad of white sheetsshe clutched before her, exposing the bare right side of her voluptuous form. I glimpsed a large round breast, floating in defiance of gravity, its dark nipple taut. She angrily pulled the sheet back in front of her.

"It is not your business what I do. Besides, he is royalty, like Lindea." Her pout broke; she threw her hand in front of her face as she realized what she had disclosed. Yes, I recognized the fleeing form now. It was Phenshraw, the oafish crown prince. No wonder he had bolted, afraid of being caught in the arms of a common laundress. I smiled and shrugged to assure her I had no desire to give away her secret.

Her regal manner returned. "Lindea has so little opportunity to be with a man. My father, he will not let me see anyone, saying I must wait for one worthy of our family. And now, when I have an opportunityto lie with not just any man, but the future king of our country, Lindea is interrupted by someone who is in training to be a priest!" She spat out the last phrase. Her sheet carelessly slipped, exposing the better part of one perfect breast and the swell of her womanly hip. Despite my two interludes with Lorena and Rebca, my loins suddenly stirred at the sight of the flesh that for so long had been the object of my fantasies.

"Wait a djarr," I interjected. I sat up boastfully, knowing my physique would match up to any prince. "Just because my abode is with the priests does not mean their path is my own. If you were but minutes ago in the room of a certain lady-in-waiting, you would see how unlike a priest I am." Now it was my turn to bite my tongue. By conceding I was on the wing where the ladies-in-waiting resided, I in one swoop had placed myself at the scene of the Prime Minister's attack, not to mention in a compromising situation in the boudoir of a high lady.

Lindea's glare softened, as her eyes swept me as though for the first time. Her eyes stopped at my crotch, noting my renewed swelling. She glanced up at me, and-her eyes remaining locked onto mine-she began dropping the clutch of sheets down the front of her smooth skin. She paused at the tips of her full breasts and gently kneaded the full orbs with fabric covered fingers. Her hands dropped further, displaying for the first time the magnificence of the fabulous breasts whose shape I had reconstructed in my mind so many times in the past. Her dark nipples and large areoles stood proudly, the heavy tits sagging not at all. She again espied my crotch, which now was fully tented in my excitement. She smiled for the first time, an uncharacteristic wantonness to her visage.

"Yes, Jaze, I see you are a failure as a priest novitiate. It is not your calling." She swept the sheets aside, showing her to be kneeling amidst the soiled linens, the thick forest between her legs drawing my eye and my passion. "I, however, am calling you. You owe me that which your ill-timed arrival deprived me of." With that, the auburn-tressed voluptuary rose onto her knees, exposing all of her glories for me to explore. Suddenly, I found myself pushed onto my back, with the raven beauty groping at my breeches' drawstring. Before I could move, the trousers were pulled down to my knees, and Lindea was straddling my midquarters, her strong fingers wrapped around my tumescence. Her eyes grew wide as I continued to grow as a result of her fondling, and she muttered, "No priest at all not this one." I felt wetness cover the tip of my cock, as she slowly sat back, taking me inside her.

Patiently, but firmly, she gyrated as she forced herself down on me. Her thick, lustrous dark hair fell forward, tickling my chest, her head bowed and brow furrowed in concentration. She rose slightly, then dropped her full weight down, taking my entire length into her with a sibilant sigh. Her head snapped up and eyes sprang open. Her lascivious smile returned. Her hips began rocking forward and back, her balance maintained by spreading her long arms out to her sides, her fists balled with the sweet tension of our coupling.

She then leaned forward, bracing herself with strong splayed fingers on my chest. She hastened both her pace and the length of her strokes. My hands found her dangling tits, barely able to encompass their fullness. My thumbs teased the already erect nipples, to her murmured approval.

Her passion escalating, she caught her lower lip with her teeth and closed her eyes. I could not resist the tease; "Is it some prince you now dream is beneath you, my wonderful Lindea?" Her gaze returned to my face, with surprising fondness. She shook her head.

"No, Master Jaze. No royalty bears a scepter such as yours," she giggled. Her features stiffened as she continued to ride me. "Besides, I question whether you are as common as you think. Such things are among those my people can detect, and I feel that"

Her surmise was cut off by a sliding sound above us. We both looked up just as a huge mass of sheets, a good half the size of our sexual bed, dropped from the shaft I had traveled myself. The force knocked us over, still entwined, but now I was on top, the gauzy light fabric imprisoning us.

Lindea did not falter, but locked her strong legs around my hips and drew me to her. I began to stroke deeply into her. Her fingers captured my face and drew her to her own, and we shared our first kiss, one of astonishing tenderness in view of the abrupt manner of our meeting. She sustained it, her sweet tongue shyly probing the inner edges of my lips, and then seeking my own. I returned her kiss with as much passion as I knew. Our eyes locked and smiled. We knew that in this castle filled with royalty, no two lovers had ever been enveloped in a tryst as worthy of being called regal as that which we now enjoyed. I slid my lips off hers and down the sides of her throat. I nipped with quivering lips at her breasts and nipples. Her hands stroked up and down my back.

Our frenzy caused the sheets to shift, flinging us onto our sides. We laughed aloud and began to roll to and fro, as children rolling down a clover-laden hillside. One would be on top for a bare instant, and then with a twist or thrust we would reverse positions. Finally, we found a firm oasis in the shifting fabric, with me in virtually a sitting position and Lindea astride me, still joined at our loins. Her hands rested on my shoulders, and mine at her hips. Our lurching passion increased, and I knew she was but moments from her peak of joy, as was I. She came to it not with a shriek, but a long, low-pitched wail.

With a jerk she pushed down onto me, her fingers digging into my shoulders. I could feel the pulsations of her inner walls as her moment arrived, sending me into my own paroxysms. I jetted my release into her as my hips rose. It seemed our spending would be without end. Soon, of course, it did, and we slumped back-Lindea outstretched atop me-in the near-darkness of our fabric tomb.

She tented her fingers on my chest and rested her chin on them. The dark pools of her eyes scanned my face. "Master Jaze," she uttered but then caught herself, laughing at her own formality. "Lover Jaze, I sense we may have much of an interesting future-at least in part together." Her features clouded,"But I suspect that future will be short if you are found here. Why are you in the castle, and why did you come down the laundry shaft?"

I already had alluded to a liason in Princess Paleema's suite. Still, Gypsy women are notorious for jealously removing an appendage or two of a lover who lies with another, and I suspected that she would grant me little allowance for the fact that the rendezvous upstairs had preceded my interlude with Lindea. Still, Lindea's knowledge of the castle and gypsy gifts might be of great aid. I told her as much truth as I could, that I was asked to assist on some errand upstairs and-before I could commence it-I saw the Prime Minister attacked and some poor maidservant unjustly accused. She did not ask for details of my alleged romantic tryst, and I volunteered none.

Lindea grew thoughtful. The gypsies are noted partisans of the wrongly accused, and I could see her heart go out to young Rebca, even though she knew the smaller girl only slightly. "The King's Guard will probably bring her to the storage catacomb down the hall from here," she said. "Perhaps if you are close enough, you can discover their plans for her." I nodded, and retrieved my clothes that had been flung off in our passionate frenzy.

When we both were dressed, she kissed me again. She tied her full thick hair back with a ribbon. "You must be careful, my love. I sense great intrigue and deceit in the castle. Those who would attack a Prime Minister would not hesitate to take a blade to one such as you." She kissed me again, and I slipped out of the room and headed down the hall.

Continued in Chapter 4