Courtly Love

Interlude - Stage One

Safely back 'home' in the barracks, Guy was thankful that the others were nowhere to be seen. Shedding his heavy, leather doublet he dropped the garment onto his bunk and heaved a breath as a weight seemed to lift from him. He wished he was back at Gisbourne Manor so he could have some real privacy, but he would be unable to return to his ancestral home for at least another month. As it was he would have to settle for the temporary quiet of the knights' dormitory.

Sinking down to sit on the edge of his bed, he dropped his head into his hands and threaded his fingers through his hair.

He had tried to resist the charms of the Lady Marian, for the sake of his own sanity if nothing else; but it was to no avail. She had beguiled him as she had all the others, and like those others he was now held in her thrall. The worst part was that it had taken her no time at all to ensnare him; he had been enamoured of women before but never had he fallen so quickly.

He surged to his feet and started to pace, one hand scrubbing over his jaw as he did.

As a knight he was entitled to engage in courtly love with any noble woman he pleased, even a married one, and as a Knight of the Garter his honour was beyond question.

Therein lay his problem.

The violence of his emotions, when Huntington's attachment to her had been brought into conversation, had startled him and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt in his mind that he could never be content with courtly love with her. He wanted her; not her favours, not her coy glances of affection, he wanted ALL of her. Lost to his heart he moaned softly, "Midons," and the term of endearment sealed his fate. For now he would have to content himself with loving her the only way he was permitted, the small consolation being that he was within his rights to do his damnedest to make her feel more deeply for him than she did for huntington.

His lips pulled back in a grinning snarl, it was a challenge he would savour.

A/N For anyone who may have been wondering what the hell this story is actually about, here it is! Courtly love was a recognised practice in the middle ages and from the sounds of it the poor sods who practiced it went through an agony of longing. With that in mind, you can expect the UST factor to ramp right up from the next chapter onwards!

Thanks for sticking with me thus far ^_^

Doc x