Ballad 7; All That Are In My Mind
Roll Over
Sunlight was come, Lina was gone. But my leash once again padlocked me to the bedframe, what a lovely way to start a morning. Will came busting in, and I sat up in alarm, naked and with my knife not to hand. He handed me a mug of sugary coffee, which I drank down greedily. “Roll over,” he said, “I’m your morning masseur.”
“Nuh uh,” I said. I realized just how sore I felt, at that, and gave up the argument, and let him rolf my shoulders. “It’s too much like those stupid novels full of grooms and handlers,” I complained, while he unlocked the chain.
“Yeah, well, that’s life with Lina,” Will informed me. “She likes those books. Roland and I stood guard outside your tent half the night, girlfriend. Folks were sure murder was being done. Ask her to gag you next time, do me a favor.”
“Ah, jeeze. I’m sorry, buddy. Did you get yours?”
“Don’t worry about it. First show’s in fifteen minutes, if you think you can make it, here’s your new outfit.”
There were black hose, shirt and surcoat to replace my browns, greens and grays. Will smirked. “Lina is so predictable. Listen girlfriend, we’ll tell her the stuff didn’t fit you.”
“Why, you don’t like it?” I asked, surprised.
“Oh, it’s alright– But, honestly, the woodland thing is so much better. You’re losing that Lost Boy look, and I don’t think you want to do that.”
Sooth to say, the black garb tickled my fancy. I liked the idea of a dark dandified Moll getting slapped down by that imperious bitch. There was a velvet cap touched with ermine to complete the ensemble, and it sold me. “So, I’ll have to work a little harder to keep her, I can do that,” I said, and cast about for my belt and dagger. Crumbs of wax still clung to the grip. There was a tingling, suddenly, on my ribcage just under my left breast. I touched the spot where Lina’s initial was carved into my skin, under my sleek clothing, and the world swung around me.
Moll’s Madness
“Well son of a bitch, you must be tired,” Will said, grinning. “Are you going to make it?”
“If I can keep my hardon down,” I said and then I remembered that my dick was laying half under the bed. That meant I had to drop my trousers to strap in. My skin protested the too-familiar feel as the straps settled in around my hips.
“Sorry,” Will said, after he realized that I was staring back at him. “Just, that’s a strange sight. I mean, there are times when I wish I could take mine off.”
I thought about that. Mad Moll was a different person than ol’ Molly Kennedy. Moll was led around by her dick. It made her dark, needy, ruthless. It got her into brawls that Molly would laugh her way out of. I tugged the straps tight and pulled my hose up, tied the waiststring, and packed my basket into its codpiece. Mad Moll came to life, checked that her dagger rested at her side, stomped down into her boots, and set her black cap, mark of her mistress’ favor, on her head. Will looked me over critically, nodded.
“Okay, it ain’t as bad as I thought,” he admitted. “You look lost enough.”
“What do you mean, lost?” I asked as we tramped down the path.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said vaguely. “I guess… I’m a watcher, you know? A voyeur, I guess. And don’t take this the wrong way, okay, but you’re very seductive. I’m gay, you know.”
“Yeah, I noticed you and Roland, looked pretty damn sexy yourselves.”
“Oh?” Will was taken aback. “Well. Anyway, I saw you around yesterday. Do you have any idea how many of us watched you go by? Roland started mooning over you. Geoffrey. Lina was the one made the catch. Is this too much to hear so early in the morning?”
“Well, yeah, but don’t stop.” But it was disconcerting. ‘Tis the actors trade. They’ll take your performance apart, play it back to thee, moment by moment.
“You have this… quality of a predator. That can be tamed. Lina just knows she can have you eating out of her hand. But so does every other woman that sees you. And each and every one of them is right. All they have to do is want you.”
“I like women, that’s all,” I said weakly. “I like them all. Some of them I like more.”
“I’m sorry, sister,” Will said triumphantly. “You love them, they know it, they grab you by the throat, you’re shit out of luck. You got no defenses.”
“That’s what they think.”
“That’s what I think, girlfriend, and I ain’t in the game.”
“It’s sex you’re seeing, buddy.” I suddenly understood. “None of yesterday was about love. It’s all about pussy, and this Mad Moll character. The truth is, I’m a little different in the mundane world myself. Mad Moll, she’s got no defenses against pussy.”
“Oh?” Will seemed unconvinced. He wanted the romance. “I say you got no defenses against a woman who wants you.”
“What do I need defenses for? I want her tail, she wants me to want it?”
“Oh, never mind,” he said and I was just as glad to let it go. The conversation was surely going in circles.
“We gonna fight today?”
“Yeah, let’s see what we can work up. Maybe some choreography with our daggers? Make it look real desperate.”
“What do you do in the real world, Will?”
“I’m a nurse-therapist.” Have you ever noticed how you don’t meet a woman alone, you meet a whole social structure?
The main stage loomed ahead. Mad Moll felt her heart flutter like a stripling. I wanted desperately to see a mirror. Yet, when I heard My Lady’s voice I drew near, swift as a swallow to his nest.
What do you mean, lost?
‘Tis difficult, to relate the matter of my entrance to the Court. Mad Moll was never one to pretend to modesty; as well has the mundane Molly a fair idea of her worth, neither over nor under the market value, shall we say. Even so, I never before have walked into silence. All about me, eyes appraised, condemned, coveted, admired. I could do aught but return look for look in wonderment. I marked Roland, desire naked on his face. Rarely see I men look that way towards me! Damsels, some, cast glances lingering in sweet promise; others primmed their lips and tossed heads. I tell you, consternation o’erspread me, Mad Moll’s thought was to escape this scrutiny. When Geoffrey and his men spoke greeting to me, glad was I to greet them. And Lina advanced in their midst. Bewitchingly dressed, she was, in a gown of cerulean brocade. Her underdress was of a blue like the deep sky, and her bodice the color of pomegranate, or garnets. A regal chain lay over her bosom, adorned with sapphire brilliants that echoed the sapphire of her eyes.
“How say you, my laggard servant? Am I to wait the morning on thine convenience?” Her face had a flush to it, and her sparkling eyes hearkened to the night before. Most tender she seemed to me then, and I went to one knee to kiss her hand. A collective sigh seemed to rise at my movement. Nay, t’was more than I cared for. I was more than glad to humble myself before her and listen to my faults. By the time she allowed me forgiveness much of the public attention had drifted elsewhere.
Mad Moll, renewed in her native arrogance, craved leave to saunter behind-stage. The Break-Fast board had yet a few bagels lingering on it, a pert wench filled my goblet with coffee.
Munching my feast, I wandered to the dressing room where the mirror showed me the sleek dandy I had become. A panther prowled in the glass. The dull black hose molded itself to each muscle in my legs. The surcoat was velvet, doubly black for the deep pile. The deep red lining of the black muslin shirt’s slashed sleeves called prettily to the ermine edging of the black velvet cap. Black leather for my boots, belt and codpiece. I was an obsession in black. My mistress came up behind me.
“Marry, a pretty man he are,” she purred. “Thy garb doth become thee, Moll my pet.”
I could scarce credit the merriness of her mood. She let me sit down on the bench and lift her into my lap. She cooed, and rested her head against mine like any loving maid might do. And fiddled with the silver chain a moment, till she had it laying over my collar in a way that pleased her. Lest I forget that I was in thrall to the damsel I cozened on my knee. Fat chance! Her skirts billowed about my legs. All her vital, breathing force was encased straightly by the flat Elizabethan bodice. Her breasts swelled up over it, pale gold against the red stuff. I leaned my cheek against their bounty, and felt her lips press against my ear. Pleasant, and I waited for her to bite down. When she didn’t I raised my head and she met my lips.
All that are in my mind
“Faith,” I said when the kiss was over. “Thy kindness does me great honor, dear My Lady.”
“Needs must thy mistress be cruel to thee all times?” Her Grace wriggled her bottom. “How sayeth thee?”
“Nay,” I said and settled her into my arms. “Be she mild, be she hard, she is yet my mistress.”
“That’s nice. I don’t have to give you the Mistress lecture number twenty-two, then.”
“No, Ma’am. I don’t like SAMs either.” I slid her off my lap onto the bench so that I could kneel before her. “Lina,” I said out of a rush of tenderness; “I feel so damn proud that you chose me to be your slave. I know who I am, you know? It takes a hell of a woman to flip me.”
“So you wouldn’t fall to your knees in front of just any girl.”
“No, honey. And even then, it’s never gotten this far.”
“No?” She wanted more compliments.
“I don’t wake up the next day and want to do it all over again. Or no, that’s not it- I want to see what we’re going to do today.”
“Well then. The court meeteth at the noon hour, and the nobles spend the morn strolling the fairgrounds. We shall wander abroad, my pet, and smile upon the peasantry somewhat.”
Well, what could I say? “Very well, My Lady.”
She clung to my arm as we wandered out of the stage building.
I ask ye, can there be a finer thing in the month of May, than to stroll a wooded market town? We wandered gently along, with frequent stops for bowing and curtsying. There were wares to be perused, questions to be answered, complements to be graciously acknowleged. Her Grace was in her element.
The damsels that stopped and curtseyed before her, a roundfaced redhaired wench and a taller, slimmer, darker girl, seemed to have been lying in wait so fast did they hurry down the hill.
“Oh, my lady, how dost this sweet morning? And thy lord also?”
“Full well, my child.” Lina smiled upon the shining faces, full of the joy of life. The redhead dimpled at me, the darker positively sparkled.
“Good morrow to you both. Whither dost run so fast?”
“we haste to our stations, by your leave, milady!”
I was enjoying the swing of two little asses as they ran off, and suddenly I was seeing stars. I put my hand, carefully, to my cheek, turned to Lina. She was smiling most tender.
“What gives?” I asked, adding quickly; “My lady.”
“Nay dear boy. Thou hast not offended me, I know not myself… Ahh.” She sighed, mightily. “Tis thine deceitful face- Aye,” she added to my injured look; “I ken well thou means not to be so, yet look you! Gaze upon a wench with naught but lust in thy mind, yet thine eyes look to ride thy heart on their beams. What woman can resist?”
I blushed and shuffled my feet, Sooth, ’twas only her view of Mad Moll that she spoke of.
“I find in me a tender mood,” quoth Her Grace. She glanced sidelong at me like a coy maiden. This aspect of her was captivating. Her hand clenched and released in mine, and a smile hovered at the corners of her mouth. Soon enough her steps faltered; wrapping my arm up in hers she swung about on the path. We headed towards the actor’s camp now, pacing thro’ the crowd that swelled with the morning’s hour. Would you think that the cold bitch would hasten towards the tent? Nay, she measured her steps evenly, never faltering in the stately rhythm till I drew aside the curtain for her to enter.
“Moll,” Her Grace spoke faint, for her, and cast herself against me. There was this time no wall behind me, and I had lief there were. I staggered somewhat under her weight, and she put her face up to be kissed. She unlaced my jerkin and tugged my shirt off, unbuckled my belt and codpiece. And told me nay when I bent to my boots.
“Stand for me,” She sat on the cot “Put thy hands up, and turn.” I was a satyr, skin above, black from the waist down, hosed and booted, and my great black cock standing forth. My lady beckoned imperiously.
To undress a lady is always a delight, no argument there. I unpinned brooches and unclasped necklaces, untangled Lina from miles of bodice lacing, yards and yards of stiff brocade and tender linen till was uncovered the woman within. And there is something else. To see a woman’s body again and find that she delights you even more than the first time seen, how piercingly sweet that feeling. A lot like falling in love. She rolled back onto the bed. One hand playing along her neck, she looked a merry lass, welcoming me to her side, and kissed my shoulders.
“What is thy command M’Lady?” I rolled above her. She didn’t want to answer, for a change. Not in words, anyway, but she wanted me to pleasure her entire. She wanted me to keep the promise she saw in me. The tender curve of her shoulder drew me in and I tasted it, and then her neck and then her barely freckled breasts. And her arms went around my shoulders. This was more like. This was what I’d been waiting for since first I caught sight of her. I lay my cock gently against her vulva, felt her hips rise to it as her mouth sought out mine. Let her rub against it, but there was a lot to be done before the point. So I took it away and her whine struck at the heart of Mad Moll. My hand went there instead, to cup her mound, ah, sweet paradise. In daylight, softly filtered through the canvas walls, to see the pale gold of her body, my hand a little swarthy against it- an inordinantly gladsome sight.
But there was more to this than the delight of my eyes. My cunt was making a demand that pleased me mightily to give in to- I climbed above, straddling her body and gave myself the first turn.
Think you, Mad Moll has given o’er her senses? That all chivalry has died a rake’s death? Nay, mark you well how, in the mind of a woman in heat, outrage and erotic passion intertwine. I wanted her to get a good view of her creation. Can you see me? Woman above, man below, this strange centaur of hers. Black legged her ravisher, a gleaming black cock curving skyward, gliding above her belly as uncaring as seraphim above the earth. I ground my clit against her hip, cursing the hose I was wearing, but to my pleasure nevertheless- which hit harder than I expected. When my vision cleared she lay pinned by my weight.
“Thou whoreson pimp,” she grated. “Shalt thou fuck me now, ’til I bid thee leave off.”
Aye, tis all I ever wanted. I let off her to part those lovely legs, and buried my cock at last in her cunt.
How a man can do it, I’ll never know. Tis labor and ye need not kid yourself- to keep your cool amidst all her heat. As Her Grace heated, so did I, for her loveliness in all disarray, her wanton lips ever seeking mine, her legs locking around the small of my back. I were unmanned then, were I a man! A finger alongside the unfeeling silicone told me how her tides surged, ohw the floods came.
Anon she spake “Stop,” yet I knew her for a liar. The next words were truer, for she called me her darling, her lover, her baby. And then there were no words, yet she spake the truth withal. What a gift.
“Art thou then my Lord of Pleasure?” Her Grace asked me, after. Oh, Aye. I was the Lord of the Universe- but I had an answer ready for her
“Nay, Lady” said Mad Moll; “Rather call me the servant of thy pleasure” Ah, the Irish Blarney. Saves my ass when I need it most.
And thus, dear readers, the ballad ends– abrupt and before its time, I ween. For my busy mind, leapiing ahead could find no place to bring these women further, lacking the Renfaire year-round. Forsooth, ’tis arrant nonsense to speak of My Duchess and her servant in the harsh light of the Twentieth Century, and indeed now the twenty-first. And meseemeth, these women would not lightly hold the words they have spake unto one another.
How say you, dear readers all? Have you envisionings for your devoted talespinner? Upon what ship might this courtly love set forth, in this hum-drum sea of quondam labor and rising gas prices?
What-so-ere wisdom falleth from thy lips, I wait to hear it.