A Princess

“W-what are you doing?” Maria said and started to pull her arm back but **** herself to remain close to the redhead.

As they were traveling to Maria’s bedroom, unbeknownst to Jayne still, she had wrapped her arm around Maria’s to walk alongside her. “Oh... any number of things. Trying to make you at least look a little bit less angry at yourself and the world. Trying to seek some sort of contact for comfort. Or maybe walking like this makes us almost look like a couple, and I get the feeling that’s going to make you get all flustered.”

Maria never broke their stride but did look at Jayne as if she had suddenly grown two heads. “Hmph.” She looked away, gritting her teeth slightly, her tawny cheeks turning darker. Maybe it wasn’t so bad, she thought. Yes, after all, it kept the woman she was supposed to protect closer. Better than having her charge follow behind her where she couldn’t see her. Yes, that’s it. Linking arms with the other girl and having her other hand- wait. She felt Jayne’s other hand now resting on her bicep. Maria looked down at the redhead who returned her gaze with emerald eyes.

Jayne had paid close attention to the guards and servants they passed along the way upstairs down the long corridor, she had noted that they averted their eyes as the two passed by. But she caught glimpses of them taking a second look once Lady Lucero could no longer see. Their linking arms together was having the desired effect. It wasn’t lost on her that she was in the deep end of the pool but couldn’t swim on her own yet. She put some faith in Lord Lucero when he gave his word about her safety but Maria had tried to kill her earlier and therefore, magical pacts or whatever, Jayne thought it wise to try and endear herself to this woman. She made sure to lock eyes with the knight, “if you’d rather I didn’t, just tell me and I’ll stop.”

Maria sputtered, saved by her door... “here!” Opening the door to her bedroom she ushered the redhead inside, not so subtly avoiding a response.

Jayne studied the room. The walls were painted a shade of basil with plum trimming accentuated by brass. The carpeting was a similar shade of plum. The ceiling was painted navy blue, one look at the tiffany style lamp in the room told her why. While the edges of the hanging lamp shade depicted knights and dragons, the top had the glass darkened to block light, save for a few small cuts. It made the ceiling look like a night sky. Amongst many things, Jayne noticed what she thought was a family portrait. Lord Lucero, a much younger Maria flanked by an older boy and girl, and a woman whom she could only assume to be Maria’s mother, their eyes were the same. She thought better than to ask who others were, or where her mom was. There was a grand vanity, walk-in closet, a bookshelf that may well have been filled with every known treatise written on war or weapons. There was a study desk nearby the shelf with a high back rolling chair. A small stand of practice weapons and a dummy in one corner. A door to their left led to a private bathroom. The bed appeared queen-sized and decorated with pillows of every which size. The bedding itself bore colors similar to the walls and floor, while the four-poster frame was beautifully carved and decorated. There was a chest at the foot of the bed that looked as if it had been plucked from the pages of every pen and paper RPG ever. This was a very nice guest room, she thought. Though the inclusion of a family portrait in a guest room seemed odd to her... that and the combat dummy.

“Make yourself at home. I’ll go get you some food” Maria didn’t give her any chance to respond before closing the door and making haste to the kitchen. Curiously she saw a couple of maids gossiping only for them to hastily go back to dusting an already clean table when they saw their Lady.

One return trip from the kitchen later...

Maria sighed internally. She had to gently rebuke several maids and their butler who offered to take the tray of food for her, explaining to the bewildered employees she wanted to bring it to their guest herself. When she reached her door again she realized her folly... she had closed the door all the way. She leaned against the door, “Jayne, could you open the door for me?” Jayne swung the door open wide for her. Maria entered and sat the tray down at the study and pulled back the cloche to reveal a hearty bowl of well-seasoned beef stew that’d been prepared with fresh-cut vegetables and about a quarter of a baguette.

Jayne looked at her appreciatively, “thank you,” she said before hungrily digging into the meal. She had managed to get somewhat more comfortable while Maria was away, she peeled out of her jacket and kicked off her shoes, she didn’t feel right about having them on the carpet anyway. While waiting she had pulled one of the treatise on various weapons off the shelf and started to read it.

Maria had noticed that, and the title of the book. She walked over to the bookcase and pulled off another, “it’s good you take an interest in the theory of combat, I’d planned to teach you how to defend yourself. But might I suggest starting with this one? George Silver’s the Paradox of Defence. It has a more practical take on several weapons, plus it’s already in English.”

Finishing chewing her food and dabbing herself with the napkin provided Jayne took a look at the book Maria held, then back at the one she was reading, “you’re... saying that one isn’t in English?”

“Correct, that’s Flos Duellatorum, by Fiore dei Liberi. One of the Italian masters. First one known to have recorded these techniques in Italian as well...” Maria gave Jayne a skeptical look. But the redhead picked up the copied manuscript and turned to a page, she began to recite a passage regarding field conditions and mounted combat, in perfect 15th century Italian.

Maria’s heart fluttered a moment, and she looked at Jayne surprised. “Oh! I didn’t know you could read, and speak Italian so well,” perhaps a little over-excited for a passage about gauging the conditions of the ground to account for mud before you commit cavalry... but she couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the redhead’s command of the language. To think she read it so fluently she mistook it for English...

Jayne looked somewhat distraught and closed the book resting it back on the table, “Maria... I neither read nor speak Italian.”

Bubbling confusion and anger played across Maria’s face, she turned and put the Paradox of Defence back on the shelf and counted to ten mentally.

Ten seconds later...

“It’s fine. This is fine. We don’t have to deal with this right now. Go ahead and finish your meal...” said the exasperated knight.

The redhead was worried she’d done something else wrong, she nodded without another word and went back to the meal, it was delicious, but she was having a harder time enjoying it now. She was sopping up what was left of the stew with the last bit of her bread as she watched Maria enter the bathroom in the reflection on the silver cloche, she hadn’t bothered to close the door. Along with something else, Jayne’s confusion grew. She watched as Maria stripped out of her clothes until she was butt naked except for the pendant on her neck. She went about brushing her teeth as Jayne put the last of her meal into her mouth, only to nearly **** on it when the woman came out of the bathroom like nudity was the most casual thing in the world.

“I hope you don’t mind if we don’t get you a toothbrush until tomorrow, I’m sorry I didn’t even think of it, and I don’t really want to get dressed again. You arrived here with nothing but the clothes on your back, I... I should be more considerate” she noticed Jayne struggling a moment, “are you okay?”

Jayne’s cheeks were bright red, she didn’t turn around to answer, her eyes were transfixed on the reflection of that perfectly toned body, beautiful perky tits, and a gorgeously smooth innie between her legs except for a thin wispy landing strip. “Fine! I’m better, and that’s no problem at all, toothbrush tomorrow... I just have one question. M-maybe I’m a little slow to catch on today. This is your room, isn’t it...?”

“Why no, we put my family’s portrait, a training dummy, practice weapons, and centuries-old martial treatise in every guest room, why do you ask?” She felt like she had earned that little rib, though it dawned on her she never actually mentioned that fact to Jayne, “why, is sharing a bed going to be a problem for you?”

Well. Jayne could honestly say she didn’t have a problem with it. But Maria didn’t have any idea about the growing problem Jayne did have. “Forgive me, but do you mind if you turn around while I get undressed, I’m a bit shy... ok?” Not quite a lie, in her mind. She was a bit shy, especially around a gorgeous naked woman.

“You have my word as a knight, your honor will be intact,” Maria made her way around the bed and climbed into the luxurious covers, she turned around facing away for Jayne’s sake, “but for the record, it’s nothing we having each seen before, we’re both girls, Jayne.” She thought it was kind of cute she was shy about her body, but Maria didn’t feel like telling her that.

‘This is stupid and dangerous,’ Jayne thought to herself as she hastily undid her blouse and pulled down her skirt and panties at the same time... Obviously, she didn’t need to wear a bra. “Thank you, almost done” she pulled off her socks and hurried under the covers, she kept herself concealed and rolled to her side, laying on her back right now would give her away. “I’m good now.”

Maria rolled over and studied Jayne, she didn’t bother to cover up her own nudity. Shifting to her side, she folded her hands under the cheek that touched the pillow and gazed up, locking her ochre eyes with the redhead’s green. “Jayne... would you maybe...” ‘This is so silly, but I’ve got to take this chance, surely Jayne will understand... Uhg, why I’m feeling like such a little girl about this...’

Jayne laid there wide-eyed, ‘sweet heavens above, is she about to ask what I think she is?’ “Yes...?” She felt her precum dripping now and shifted to hopefully catch it with the inside of her thigh.

Maria’s eyes sparkled with hope and curiosity, “would you please maybe, if you don’t mind, read to me again from Flos Duellatorum?”

Somehow Jayne felt even more embarrassed. But hopefully reading the very dry instructions would help her erection, “o-of course.” She carefully rolled over just enough to reach the study next to the bed where she left it, careful not to tent the blanket. She heard Maria let out a girlish squeal, definitely not a sound Jayne had expected to hear from her. As the redhead rolled back over she felt a pair of lips on her cheek that lingered a moment. Her heart fluttered again... that was kiss number three today. She briefly considered if life had achievements, that had to be one of them.

“S-sorry if I overstepped my bounds... it’s just, even if you aren’t aware of it. Your enunciation is perfection,” Maria felt a little guilty asking Jayne to use whatever strange power she had received, to basically read her a bedtime story.

Jayne smiled, cheeks still red. “No... I... I liked it.”

Taking that an invitation, Maria moved closer and snuggled her head on Jayne’s should so she could see the book too and whispered without even realizing how sensual she sounded, “read...”

Lost somewhere between heaven and hell right now, Jayne began... “Il, Fiore dei Liberi...”

[Author’s note: I have no idea if Flos Duellatorum goes into that much detail about warfare, only that it covers mounted combat amongst many other things, I don’t have access to a copy at the moment.]