Kill The President's Women (Joe The Magic Man Series Book 2) (35 page)

“I’ve never seen a castle before; let me come see it before you burn it down,” Jean pleaded innocently.

The captain thought about it for a moment. “Oh okay, but stay with Steve-e-Joe and don’t get in the way.”

Captain Morgan rode proudly and his men marched in silence behind him, their chests sticking out and their heads held high. Right behind the captain was Sergeant Jones, the senior sergeant and behind him rode four men. One of them was Sergeant Evans.

Jean and Steve-e-Joe walked up behind them and a hundred archers followed them. The party marched along the main road into York and the fields on both sides were covered in tents with their campfires burning brightly. Jean guessed the men in those tents had been there a day or more.

At the end of the last field, was a group of lords with their squires standing aside, looking after their mounts. Jean felt proud of Steve-e-Joe when he ran up and took Captain Morgan’s horse as he dismounted. She went over and stood next to him, attracting confused looks from the other squires.

There wasn’t much wind but the little available must have been blowing at them for Jean had noticed the clean smell in the air. It was very different from the smell of smoke from the fires which she had become used to.

“That’s York down there.” Steve-e-Joe whispered through the side of his mouth.

It was starting to get dark, but following his subtle signal, Jean could see a wall going around the city. They were on an elevated plain and Jean could see the houses behind the wall and their wide, evenly-spread nature. The wall had a heavy, beautiful-looking gate and Jean wished it was daylight for her to see more. A slight movement stirred in front of them as a horse and cart pulled out in front of them and made its way down the road to the city gates.

Captain Morgan came back to his men. “Gather round, men.”

They formed a circle around him, pushing Jean and Steve-e-Joe closer to the centre. “King Henry wants to show the rebels in York that he’s going to burn them out of their homes if they don’t renew their vows to him. We’re to show them how easy it would be. Now see that cart of hay going down that road, well that is going to be our target. As soon as it’s totally dark, we’re going to set that alight with flaming arrows.”

“Why can’t we target the gate and burn it down?” one of his men asked.

“The King doesn’t want a war with York if he can avoid it, but if they don’t surrender, then he will burn it down and the castle with it. But he’s hoping they’ll see sense when they see what a flaming arrow can do, and how easily we can do it.” There were a lot of “Ayes” as they agreed with him. “Right, Sergeant Jones I want fifty men on each side of the road threes pace apart, and on the signal they will light their arrows. We are to aim high into the night air, and hit that cart of hay.” They all nodded. “And if any man misses the signal or the cart, then he’ll have no pay to take home, got that clear?”

Jean found herself nodding along with the men and when they started to break away under the orders of the sergeant, she felt like she was part of them and had to do something.

Sergeant Jones arranged his men, making sure they all had a flaming torch to take with them and at least three arrows wrapped in oil-soaked cloth. Jean watched the cart driver pull the cart to the side of the road about a hundred paces from the gate and unhitch the horse. He brought the horse back, leaving a lantern lit on the cart. Jean realized they had to leave the cart with a light for the archers to see their target when it got fully dark.

There was a line of flaming torches behind the archers as they awaited the signal. Captain Morgan and Sergeant Jones stepped on to the road and stuck their torches on opposite sides of the road, joining up the line of the archers. They notched their arrows and waited with the rest of the men for the signal. It seemed to take ages for it to get completely dark.

Jean nearly jumped out of her skin when the trumpet sounded just in front of her. A second trumpet sounded far off on the right, followed by a third far to the left. Steve-e-Joe whispered to her. “That’s to get the attention of the people of York, unless they’re deaf.”

Jean jumped again as the trumpet closest to her gave three loud sharp bellows; it was the signal to light the arrows. She watched Captain Morgan touch his arrow head to the torch, and gasped as it became a light. He pulled back his arrow and pointed it up in the air. He calmly lined it up with the target, held it steady for a moment and then he said to the trumpeter that was standing by him, “Now”.

The trumpeter blasted his trumpet again for the final signal.

A hundred archers let loose their arrows as one and the flaming projectiles soared with a whooshing sound in a perfect arch to their maximum height. The flames faded slightly on the way up and then seeming to pause, they reached their peak, and then came swooping down like a hundred fiery hawks after its prey. They hit the cart with a burst of flames and everyone cheered.

Captain Morgan shouted above the din, “Well done men, let’s get back to camp and have some grub.” He strolled back to Steve-e-Joe and handed his bow and arrows to him. He smiled at Jean. “There wasn’t much to see, you could have stayed back in camp and had a warm bed waiting for us.”

“What, and missed all that?!” Jean pointed up to the sky, “I’ve never seen anything like that before! But how is it going to frighten the rebels into surrendering?”

“Well I’ll tell you that when we get back to camp, after we’ve had supper.” He looked around. “There are too many ears listening around here.”

Jean looked around; the crowd was dispersing. “What, you mean spies?”

Captain Morgan nodded.

Jean stayed up late with the cook – mostly because she felt guilty that she sneaked off to see the display – and helped to clean up after supper. She got back to her tent and Steve-e-Joe wasn’t there. She guessed he’d be with the captain and so she walked over and shoved her head into the captain’s tent.

“Ah Jean gull, come on in,” Captain Morgan said as he made room for her in between him and Steve-e-Joe.

Sergeant Jones was standing at a corner of the tent and the moment Jean showed up, his face, along with the faces of the other two men, lit up.

“I thought you’d all be asleep. Do you know how late it is?” Jean asked mischievously, knowing they were only waiting up for one thing, to bed her before they turned in.

Captain Morgan patted the bed beside him. “We stayed awake so I could tell you about why we put on that display for the people of York.”

Jean smiled and crawled to her place; she kissed Steve-e-Joe and settled down. “Okay, why did you put on that lovely display?”

Captain Morgan stole a little kiss from her and started to explain. “King Henry has many spies in York; he’s even got one on the York council. He’s got word to his spies inside the city to spread the word that the King has hired 800 Welsh archers to join his army to drive out the rebels and bring York back under his reign.”

“800? But…” Jean let him continue and relaxed as Sergeant Jones took her shoes off.

“Those that saw how quickly the flaming arrows burned a cart of straw to ash wouldn’t want a couple of flaming arrows landing on their roof or their neighbor’s roof, and mind you, most of the people in York live in a wooden house with a thatched roof. So right now, they’ll be thinking twice about wanting to go to war.”

Jean was getting used to them undressing her every night. It was like being a child again. It had become quite regular but it turned her on every time. They didn’t ask her permission, they just took their time and it gave her a rush of pleasure.

As Steve-e-Joe helped her out of her blouse, the captain said, “By morning, that story would have spread faster than the fire burnt that cart. Women will be threatening their husbands with running away with the children.”

Captain Morgan lay next to Jean as soon as her head came to rest. He and her husband reached for her now naked torso and fondled one tit apiece. He explained further: “There is a man in York that doesn’t agree with the way King Henry runs this country and the churches. His name is Robert Aske and he’s the leader of the Pilgrims of Grace. He’s also the Chief Captain of Yorkshire.”

Sergeant Jones had undone Jean’s skirt and was admiring her legs and her mound of thick, curly hair. Jean loved the way they admired her naked body every night, like it was the first time they were seeing her naked.

“So if the King can get the people of York to turn against this Robert’s preaching, then surely, there won’t be any war,” the captain said and gently kissed her hard nipple, “and King Henry and Queen Catherine can go back to London.”

Jean had closed her eyes and was resigning herself to them, when she heard the Queen was up in York. Her eyes shot open. “Queen Catherine is up here?”

“Yes, she is with King Henry about twenty miles back in a tavern. Lord Davenport’s men took over the town to protect them.”

Jean sat up and looked at Steve-e-Joe. “My Steve is with Lord Davenport’s regiment, isn’t he?” Their hands stayed cupped to her breasts tighter then her blouse had.

Steve-e-Joe still played with her tits as did the captain, even as she sat up. “Yes he is.” Steve-e-Joe looked at the captain. “Do you think you could get a message to him for us, captain?”

“I’ll certainly try.”

Jean lay back down and their hands followed her, not letting go of her breasts, while Sergeant Jones parted her legs and sent his tongue straight to her magic button. Jean closed her eyes and let them carry on.

“I might get to see the King and the Queen,” Jean said, looking at the captain. “I went to see the castle of York tonight but I didn’t see it properly.”

“That’s because we were too far away,” the captain said as he kissed her nipple. “That wall and gate across the road were just the city’s boundaries, there’s a lot more beyond it. Behind those houses you saw, lies the river Ouse. The road runs up to the bridge that crosses that river and I’m told the castle is on the other side of the river Ouse. The castle is built up on a great heap, and they would have been able to see our flaming arrows from the castles walls…”

He stopped talking because Sergeant Jones’ thick fingers and tongue had nearly brought her to a climax and they were watching and listening to her. She opened her eyes to see them grinning and immediately closed her eyes once more. Jean thought to herself that they might think they had coaxed her into another night of sex but in reality, it was she who had coaxed them. She had craved for their touch maybe even more than they had craved to please her and now, every little kiss or stroke sent pleasant shivers through her.

Jean gave them a show that night under the dimly lit lantern, shamelessly bouncing up and down on the end of the sergeant’s fingers and moaning those two little words of pleasure they were waiting for: “Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes”.

It rained in a misty drizzle for the next two days and Jean was disappointed because Captain Morgan had told her he’d take her to the front to see the castle in the distance but there was poor visibility and he was unable to take her. The captain was in meetings with all the Lords and Dukes most of the day, and when he returned at night, instead of telling Jean silly, sexy stories to get her worked up, he would give them a status report.

As the three men undressed Jean and started making love to her, Captain Morgan would talk about war until Jean’s purrs turned to loud moans. Jean continued to feel a deep affection for Captain Morgan and Sergeant Jones. She couldn’t tell if she was truly falling in love with them and it became more confusing when she discovered that both Welshmen were married with kids. She finally decided that she probably loved them for making a fuss over her, but she loved Steve-e-Joe more for letting them.

Jean realized she had come a long way from her boyfriend, Steve’s quick shags up against a tree back home to these elaborate, very pleasurable encounters. When they started out, Steve-e-Joe was her childhood friend, but now she loved him in a different way. She remembered how shocked she was when she discovered that Steve-e-Joe’s cock was so much bigger than her Steve’s small one. She was glad she had Steve-e-Joe to organize her life and the men in it. She was also glad she was still young for she also realized that the men craved for her because she was very young – just 18 – while the other soldiers’ wives were all over 30 and had been married for years.

Captain Morgan met up with Lord Davenport’s men, and he spoke to one of the sergeants that claimed to know Joe Wiggins – the name Steve Bateman used when he joined up because he was on the run. The captain told the sergeant to pass the message on that his friend “Steve-e-Joe” and his wife would meet him in Lord Bedford’s village of Foxcotte when the war is over.

Jean was glad to hear that and she made sure she thanked the captain properly. Concerning York, the captain told them that the King had sent an envoy to the council of York. He wasn’t sure what the message was but the Lords and Dukes seemed to think it was an ultimatum: surrender and renew their oath to King Henry, or be tried for high treason against the King. The spies inside the city had spread the word that the King wouldn’t take it out on the citizens of York, for listening to the words of their
religious oppressor.

Jean had heard the banging noise of carpenters, and the rumors spread that they were building gallows to hang the traitors. The captain laughed at the rumors and said they were only building a platform for the King and Queen to view the war, if there was to be one. The captain didn’t think there’d be one because reports coming back from the spies indicated that the citizens of York were willing to give up the names of the followers of the Pilgrims of Grace and swear an oath to the King.

The following morning, the captain came met Steve-e-Joe and Jean with a smile.

“Jean have you ever been on a ship?”

“No, why do you ask?” Jean had seen the first boat in all her life just a few weeks ago when they passed a river on the way up.

“Well if you want to, you can have a ride back to London in one of King Henry’s ships.”

Sergeant Jones, on hearing that, asked the captain, “I thought Jean and Steve-e-Joe would be coming back with us as far as Redditch?” There was disappointment in his voice at the thought of losing Jean.