Dreaming of the Past
Chapter 6: Kisses in the Courtyard
Miranda walked out of her room and down the hall. The knights had told her they would be there grabbing some lunch so that is where she was headed.
"You don't scrub up too bad lass." Called Bors from the bench he was lounging on.
"Not bad at all." Lancelot sauntered over and Miranda shook her head in disbelief.
"You're such a sleaze!" she pushed him playfully in the chest.
"I take it that sleaze means something bad…" he cocked an eyebrow questioningly.
"Well you probably wouldn't consider it to be bad. You seem to pride yourself on the fact actually." Miranda rolled her eyes and sat down on a bench next to Gawain who threw her a chunk of bread.
"Your bath was good I hope lady Miranda." Said Galahad sarcastically and scowled at her.
Miranda finished her mouthful then poked out her tongue. "Yes it was very nice. Thankyou for being so willing to carry the water for me."
Galahad scowled again and Bors laughed, "Ha, we heard all about that. You boys are a lot of moaners! It's only a few buckets of water."
"Only a few buckets of water!" Gawain snorted, "Perhaps we should set you to serve her next time Bors, she's a harder task master than she looks!"
"Perhaps you should. Then you could see how a real man behaves."
Gawain jumped to his feet. "How a real man behaves? I'll show you a real man…" He waved his fists playfully.
The knights were laughing at Gawain's threat. "Ok, ok, calm it down boys. I'm sure Gawain is just as much a man as you Bors. Let's not get into a fight about it."
Miranda was struggling to hold in her mirth as she grabbed Gawain's arm and pulled him back onto the bench where he sat grumbling before grapping a flask of ale and taking a swig.
"So what do you guys plan to do this afternoon?" she asked inquisitively, genuinely interested in what they did to amuse themselves.
"We were discussing, just before you arrived, how we were going to go down to the practice yard for some training. You're welcome to come if you'd like" Gawain said over the top of the mug.
"And if you're lucky we may even take of our shirts." Lancelot once again gave Miranda his cheeky grin and she sneered.
"Do you crack onto every girl you meet or is it just me?" She replied icily. He was just getting annoying; better to end this once and for all.
Lancelot stuttered slightly, no women had ever rejected him! Especially when he smiled. Even though he didn't know precisely what 'cracking onto' meant he got the gist of it and it was definitely not an invitation.
"Come on lads, let's leave Lancelot here to handle his first rejection alone." Bors stood up and walked inside. It's about time Mr. Fantastic discovered the real world, Bors chuckled to himself as he left, closely followed by the other knights and Miranda.
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The practice yard was similar to the courtyard except it wasn't paved; rather, it had a floor of mud and… other substance. The smell was terrible but the knights didn't seem to notice. Miranda guessed that they must have been used to it by now but how they could be she had no idea.
They grabbed various practice weapons off hooks on the wall and began to test them while Miranda cleaned of part of the bench and sat down.
"Women." Galahad muttered as he walked by and noticed her cleaning. Miranda turned and glared over her shoulder at him, arrogant, sexist jerk.
Dagonet settled down next to her, not bothering to clean the horse shit (literally) off the seat "I will not take part this round, odd numbers with Lancelot not here."
"I didn't really hurt him did I?" she felt slightly bad for it, he hadn't deserved such a sharp remark, the comment wasn't that bad. Besides, she really wouldn't mind seeing the knights shirtless.
The large man next to her laughed, he had a deep, warm laugh that was somehow comforting. "No, no. You just deflated his ego a little, and trust me, he had it coming for a long time. He'll turn up in a few minutes and be back to his old ways, mark my words."
Miranda sighed, reassured and settled in to watch the show. She was pleasantly surprised by the men's bodies, I guess that's what 15 years fighting will do to you, yet the amount of scars they flaunted with pride was horrifying. Her eyes though, kept being drawn back to the very well toned arm of Galahad and the puckered scar that ran from elbow to wrist.
Dagonet had been right about Lancelot, ten minutes after the knights had begun practice he turned up and took of his shirt with a great show and dance, flexing his muscles as he walked past. Men. The friendly giant next to her got up as the numbers evened and joined in the fight, leaving Miranda to her perving.
The afternoon passed in a rather enjoyable flash.
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As dusk was settling in and the knights were cleaning up their few scratches and stashing their weapons Miranda took the chance too slip away. But not before asking directions of a laughing Tristan. Tristan. laughing! Would she never see the end of these miracles?
Reaching her room without incident she changed quickly into her slightly more formal evening dress and the fragile looking slippers. Miranda highly doubted that the slippers would last the night but she would rather wear them once or maybe twice than let them rot in the wardrobe.
The knights were already in the courtyard, dressed in their filthy practice clothes (obviously hygiene wasn't a biggy for them) and half drunk. The sun had fully set and the courtyard had become what could only be described as a medieval nightclub. Miranda laughed at the lame pun and strutted into the courtyard determined not to be shown up by the girls hanging of the knights' arms. They were like medieval rock stars with their medieval groupies. She laughed out loud, with Jols as a roadie. The image it conjured was so true to them she was bent over in hysterics before she reached the knights table. So much for the strutting entrance.
"Lady Miranda!" Gawain slurred and he jumped to his feet, knocking the girl of his lap and he gave her a wobbly, low bow. "We are honoured you could join us tonight at our fine table. May I introduce Sir Tris-"
"How long have you been here for?" she steadied herself and raised a suspicious eyebrow.
"Twenty minutes." Said a rather sober looking Tristan.
"And how many mugs of ale have you had?"
"He's only had three. Don't hold your liquor well do you Gawain." Lancelot patted the other knight on the back causing him to fall face first onto the ground as he was still mid-bow.
Gawain pulled himself back into his seat and dragged the disgruntled young girl back onto his lap. He planted a sloppy kiss on the side of her face and she looked slightly disgusted but stayed put. Aha, definitely a groupie. And the groupie must go.
Miranda had never really had a boyfriend. At high school she had always been so much younger than everyone else and at Uni, well she couldn't even get into a club yet. She had had her fair share of crushes, as any young girl has but nothing more. So it was part jealousy part belief that women should be above such demeaning exercises that caused Miranda to create her plan.
Plan S.L.U.T was in action.
Putting on what she thought must be her most attractive smile Miranda sauntered over to Gawain and pulled the mug out of his hands. The girl on his lap, Megan, gave her the get-off-my-turf look as Miranda sipped the ale and batted her eyelashes at Gawain. She nearly gagged on the taste, unrefined dark age ale was not very appetising.
The other knights at the table began to wolf whistle and Megan grew increasingly angry at her competitions progress. Gawain had practically forgotten the girl on his lap in sight of the new and previously inaccessible Miranda.
She, too, was surprised at how quickly Gawain had forgotten the whore and so she took advantage of this and sat on his other knee, pushing Megan off his lap. Gawain grinned drunkenly and reached for his ale which Miranda was holding temptingly out of reach.
"Giv' it." He slurred as he lunged slightly.
Miranda shook her head, smiling cheekily and lent forward, in expectation of a kiss. Oh my god, am I really capable of being this slutty? She thought briefly before deciding some residue of the previous inhabitant of this body must still linger, causing this behaviour. But she knew it was a lie.
Gawain pushed Megan fully of his lap and she landed on the ground with a thud before leaning in to kiss Miranda. Ewww… do I really want to give my first kiss to Gawain But there was no time to change her mind as he already had her in a rather sloppy passionate kiss which produced more wolf whistles and cheering from the other knights. He tasted of alcohol and unbrushed teeth, not a pleasant mix but if she wanted to get rid of the groupie she had no choice. Miranda didn't even think of the fact that by doing this she was sinking to Megan's level.
After a while the kiss broke off and Miranda looked around. Megan was gathering herself up off the ground looking sulky and stormed away without a backwards glance. The knights were all laughing and shaking their heads, except for Tristan who Miranda just realised had not been present for quite a while and Galahad who's expression she didn't understand. He got up and quickly walked out of the courtyard when he noticed her gaze before she got a chance to decode his expression.
Puzzled and for some reason guilty over Galahad's exit Miranda didn't spend the evening in the uncaring and rather confident manner it had begun. After the kiss she jumped off a surprised Gawain's lap and spent the next half hour of revelry subdued and attempting to ignore the new-found affections of an almost blind-drunk knight before leaving early.
She knew she would regret that kiss in the morning.
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Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! If so sorry about the long wait but hear me out! Please! School started back (homework chaos), then my mum was working from home and I had barely the opportunity to get my homework done let alone write. Then I was banned from the computer for three weeks. Yes I know it sounds like I made this up but really I'm not! So I must beg your forgiveness for that and also for the shortness of this chapter but as soon as my ban was lifted this afternoon I thought at least there will be something.
Please leave a non-killing me review. Or I guess you can but that would be rather unpleasant.
Pagan
