He leaves (for now)

With a sigh and shake of his head Merthin abruptly turned and headed for the heavy wooden door to the room.

"I'll be back with clothes and food." He held up the ring of keys, "the door will be locked. We don't want any rogues slipping in and making off with you, do we?"

As reassurances go, Merthin's parting words left a lot to be desired. The solid 'clunk' of the lock turning into place did little to ease Christine's troubled mind as she looked around the small room. It was a cell. A cell complete with barred windows and a heavy oak door with an expensive iron lock. After her experience with Bishop Anthryl, it was impossible for Christine not to wonder why Merthin brought her here ... and why he took away her only bit of clothing leaving her naked. At least there are no rats, and the bed had a thin blanket she could wrap around herself.

Christine lay back on the bed in question, it was small but so was she and although the quilted bedding was simple, it was clean and soft against her skin. She tried to relax, but instead found her mind wandering. Years ago, in her father's library she found an account of one of her great, great grandmothers. A proud Saxon beauty held captive in her own ancestral holding by the Norman knight whose descendants became the House Gerard. When William the Conqueror doled out the villages, hamlets and holdings to his loyal knights, this unmarried daughter of the former lord came as part of the land grant.

The proud Saxon maiden's untouched body was awarded, along with the rest of the Earls' holdings, cattle and fields to the Norman invader to be used as he pleased. According to the neatly inked account of the manuscript, the newly-landed knight had a special apartment built for Earl's lovely daughter where she could be locked safely inside, and where he could visit her as he pleased. The Norman knight never married this captive maiden, but he fathered three sons and two daughters from her fertile womb. The oldest of these bastards in time was recognized by the lord and inherited his father's lands as his own, and thus started the line of the Family Gerard.

It did not take long before Christine was laying on her back on the bed with one hand squeezing her naked breasts while the other one was gently teasing between her legs. That poor young maiden had been **** to serve the very men who had vanquished her father and his men. Her fingers picked up their pace as she imagined what it must have been like for that innocent Saxon noblewoman. How many times had it taken for the victorious new lord to have his way with her before she surrendered to her new life and became a willing participant in her fate. Had her new master been gentle with his teenaged prize, teasing her until she could no longer deny what her body craved? Or had he held her down and ravished her as she struggled beneath him like a wildcat?

It was unusual for Christine to have this kind of complete privacy. Although she had her own suite at home one or more of her ladies-in-waiting was usually nearby; even when she slept there would be someone in the small bed by her side. In the past, when she touched herself like this it was always under the blankets, and she had learned to minimize the movement of her hand and keep her gasps of pleasure soft so as not to wake her companion. Alone in this locked cell, she could let herself go without fear of embarrassing herself. The other difference between this time and her earlier clumsy attempts, was her new experience with men.

As awful as her experience with Bishop Anthryl and his guards had been, Christine had a much better sense of the effect her young body could evoke in a man. As she stroked the slick folds between her petals, she could not help but remember how Merthin's eyes had lingered on her naked body. Was she to be like that Saxon maiden from her family's distant past? A plaything for Master Merthin to take as he liked in this secluded bedchamber far from any help? The warmth that bloomed from her loins as she stroked herself grew with every prolonged minute of her fingering and all too soon, she could feel the imminent arrival of a climax. It was so wrong ... but there was so little she could do about it. She needed the wealthy man's good favour if she was to ever see Erik knighted.

Unlike back in her room, there was no need to be quiet and when her whole body stiffened with the sudden arrival of her climax Christine did not even try to stifle the loud scream of pleasure that escaped from her lips. Only after the very last wave of the orgasm passed through her shuddering body did she gratefully climbed into the bedding with a long sigh of contentment.