I have written many gay/bisexual stories and would welcome any feedback. This particular story "Archie" is a Victorian Occult fantasy. It is available for the Kindle on Amazon. It is slower-paced than some of my gay novels and details the homoerotic friendship between two young, virgin men in Victorian society, who do not yet realise they are homosexual, but nevertheless develop a strong, intimate, adult friendship.
So this time, don't expect explicit gay fiction, but hopefully you will enjoy the more naive, homoerotic descriptions. Here is part 2.
My Blog is: http://richardpetersbooks.blogspot.co.uk/
My Amazon author page is: http://amazon.com/author/richardpeters
Archie Chapter 2 – Bottlebury Mansion
A footman was waiting at the door as we drew up on the lavish driveway to the impressive Bottlebury Mansion. He took my overnight bag, but I refused to let him take my art folder. With it under my right arm I stepped over the threshold.
"Archie!" Percy's merry voice sang out and my friend skipped down the curved staircase, lightly holding the banister. But his steps were so graceful he seemed almost to be flying like Peter Pan himself. He rushed over to me offering his hand in warm friendship. I fumbled unable to release my right hand to return the greeting, because my precious folder was between my arm and torso. So clumsily I offered my left in non-conventional fashion.
Percy took my hand warmly and rather than a handshake we clasped hands together like children. We laughed, Percy squeezed my hand and then let go wrapping both arms around my shoulders and clutching me to him.
"It's very kind of your family to welcome me into their home, Percy." I said as our bodies parted.
"Nonsense, my dear friend, it's good of you to come! Oh and you have your art materials. We shall have the most wonderful weekend!"
We smiled.
"Anyway, I'm afraid my father was called up to Glasgow this afternoon on business. He'll be away all weekend."
"And your mother?" I enquired.
A voice piped up from our left "My mother is dead." It said matter-of-factly
I looked over and a fair boy, a younger version of Percy, stood regarding me curiously.
"This is my younger brother Frederick, He's just a boy." Percy said.
"Sixteen!" The Bottlebury sibling replied defiantly.
I put my art folder down and stepped over to the boy who had a few inches still to grow to reach Percy's six feet. "I'm pleased to meet you Frederick,
I said offering my hand.
"You can call me Freddie." The boy said with a nod deciding that he liked me and offering me his hand in return. I shook it softly as a friend, but he gripped mine hard like an adult, like a business greeting. I squeezed back hard returning his firmness.
He had his brother's steel grey eyes and his soft red lips. We smiled, agreeing that we liked each other.
"Go and ask Mrs Danbury to cut some beef and some bread for our guest's supper, Freddie" Percy said, rather harshly.
"Why do I always have to do things!" young Freddie protested as he slunk off into the house.
"I'm sorry about your mother, I didn't realise" I whispered, as Percy and I followed the footman carrying my case.
"When he was seven. I was only nine, he doesn't really remember her." Percy said softly.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I sighed.
Percy's cheery, gay demeanour did not alter. "You have the room next to my own, we shall have the best of times!" he said.
The room was wonderful and lush with the leaded window looking out over the great park.
"That's the lake." Percy said as the footman left the room and we both peered through the window. His finger pointed to the lake to the left of the grounds.
As yesterday I found the close proximity of my friend to be strangely intoxicating. We didn't move, our heads just inches apart, we looked out over the grounds.
Eventually Percy broke the spell. "Get settled in and find me down in the dining room, we'll have some food for you. You are hungry." He said in that way he had of commanding rather than asking.
We smiled and he gave a silly wave like yesterday as he went out of the door
We laughed.
The bread and beef was good and Percy offered me a rather fine red wine for it. He chatted on endlessly about what a wonderful time we were to have. He lit a candle as it was getting dark and showed me the library stacked with rich looking, fine books and the drawing room with a roaring log fire and well lit with candles.
"We can spend the rest of the evening in here, it is the most comfortable room." he said.
"Yes!" A little voice piped up from behind the armchair. Frederick's smiling face popped up. "We can play Bezique, oh do tell me that you play Bezique Mr Copthorne, er Archibald" He said, not sure what he could call me.
"I'm Archie" I reminded the charming boy. "And yes I play Bezique". I smiled
"Oh can we?" Freddie asked his older brother.
Percy sighed somewhere between annoyance and indulgence. "Well it's rather late, already thirty minutes after nine." He hesitated. "Maybe Archie is tired from the journey and would prefer to retire to bed?" He actually asked me a question!
The young lad looked at me with hopeful eyes. I hesitated. And said, "When I was at boarding school, we used to get into our nightgowns and play Bezique! So long as we were ready for bed, matron used to sometimes let us!"
"Oh yes!" Freddie said gleefully. "A nightgown party! Yes, Percy please!" He pleaded.
"Oh very well!" Percy relented. "Call Yates and have him dress you for bed."
"We all have to be in our nightgowns." I said. "Otherwise it's not fair!" I giggled.
"Yes, it's not fair, Percy" Freddie agreed. He really liked me now.
"Very well," Percy gave in. Ask Yates to come to my room after he has dressed you for bed, so that he can attend to me, Frederick" He said and young Freddie ran happily out of the drawing room.
He smiled a joke rebuke at me "You will indulge the lad, I can see that!" he sighed gaily. "Do you need anyone to undress you?" He asked naively. "I could summon Bertram, the footman, to come to your room and prepare your for bed if you wish."
"Er I think I can take my own clothes off, thanks!" I smiled ironically.
"Of course." Percy replied without it occurring to him that he too could do so himself. "It will be about half an hour for Yates to undress my brother and then myself so shall we see you here at ten o'clock?" He said without expecting a reply.
We took candles and headed up the stairs to our rooms. "This is mine." Percy said opening the door on the landing, just before my own.
I went into mine and stripped my shoes, socks, jacket and shirt off. Discarding my trousers I imagined the rather hapless young lordship waiting in his bedroom for his butler to come and undress him. This was a different world! Half an hour to undress, I laughed to myself as I slipped down my undergarments and stood naked, my toes sinking into the thick carpet. In the candlelight I regarded my nakedness and again thought of his lordship still fully dressed waiting for his man-servant. My body was lithe and strong, my thighs were now nicely filled out and my man hung limply in a pleasing bush of brown hairs. I played with the position of the candle until the light cast a shadow onto the wall, clearly showing my man's shadow protruding from my groin.
As the light flickered and danced and the warmth of the candle caressed my hip I felt my man stir and watched the shadow as it rose and grew until it stood proud and horizontal. I looked down admiringly at my seven inches, I had taken a rule to it in the past. With my free hand I pulled back my foreskin and watched my man become another inch longer, my rule had measured an extra inch when my man was fully exposed.
I liked my man. I put down the candle and stepped over to the window, opening the curtains to see the moonlight illuminating the lake. My mind went back to my boarding school days and the midnight larks in the dorm when I had been a boy.
I left the window and found the jug and bowl, washing my face and arms with the flannel. I pressed the cold wetness to my man and wiped myself.
I turned and found my nightgown, pulling it over my head and down my frame. My man was still half erect and I waited for it to subside so that it no longer tented the front. I looked at my pocket watch. Still ten minutes before ten. Percy may still not be out of his day clothes, still waiting for his man!
I picked up the candle and left the bedroom, hearing muffled voices from Percy's room. Yates was undressing him. Did Yates lave him with a flannel too? Did Yates wash Percy's man?
Downstairs in the drawing room an excited Frederick leapt up from the rug in front of the fire and ran over to me. He looked like a cherub in his white nightgown and his smile was angelic.
"Now Matron used to ask us if we'd washed behind our ears?" I said jokingly. And she'd inspect us to make sure we were clean. Frederick skipped away gleefully and jumped onto the armchair as if it was a den from which he couldn't be touched.
"Yates always washes behind my ears" He giggled defiantly. But my mind was filled with the strange image of Yates wiping a flannel over his brother Percy's manhood!
I sat in the other armchair and waited silently while young Freddie watched me. The door opened and I smiled as Percy entered, his white nightgown enrobed in golden flickering candlelight. His bare feet padded over the carpet his bare ankles exposed below his gown, his legs rustling the material as he glided gracefully over to us. No boy at school in our midnight larks had looked so handsome! His hand softly touched and squeezed my shoulder in friendly greeting.
I stood and hoped my man was not protruding inside my gown, for I felt strangely excited.
"Bezique!" Frederick said and we two smiled at each other and knelt down on the rug in front of the log fire to play. We each sat cross-legged and played a wonderful, exciting game.
"Another!" begged Freddie when it was completed and his big brother had won.
"Bed!" Ordered his older brother. He pulled the chord to summon Yates.
"Ooh!" said Freddie in disappointment. "It's not fair!"
"It's late and we will want to talk about big boys' matters now Frederick"
"Oh girls!" Freddie said with an exasperated sigh.
He stood up and with us two sitting below him on the rug, he no longer looked so young. Our nightgowns equalised us in appearance and rising up above us, I appreciated that he was a fine young man, becoming square of shoulder like his brother and showing the potential to soon flower into a strong man. Percy stood to kiss his brother goodnight on his forehead and I saw in comparison that although older, Percy was strangely youthful in face.
I imagined in their twenties that Frederick would be the more manly, with Percy forever the young boyish-looking one. Yates entered the room and Frederick obediently followed him towards the door. "When you have done that Yates, could you come in and put some more logs on the fire?" Percy nodded to the pile of logs to the side of the fire. I wondered why Percy could not just bend down and throw some logs on himself.
"Can't Freddie put himself to bed?" I asked after Yates and Freddie had left
puzzled as to why a sixteen year old would need anyone to help him.
"Who would turn down the bed?" Percy said as if I were an imbecile.
We sat in the armchairs and waited for Yates' return. Eventually he came in and silently bent over picked up two logs and put them onto the glowing embers.
"A third, I think, Yates. We may be up some time."
Silently Yates placed a third log on top of the other two.
"Tell the staff they may retire, there is no need to stay up with us." Percy commanded, as Yates departed.
"Who will turn down your bed?" I said, but Percy didn't notice my playful sarcasm.
"Yates will do so now and put the warming pan in. He will do so with yours as well."
We fell silent in our chairs. "Are we to talk about girls?" I asked.
"Girls!" Percy said in exasperation. "My father is already on full-time look out for a suitable bride for me!"
"Mine says I will never attract a bride until I grow whiskers!" I sighed.
Percy looked at me and snorted with laughter at the ridiculousness of the statement. "Oh I could never marry Archibald Copthorne!" Percy said mimicking a girl's voice. "He has no whiskers!"
We both laughed gleefully. "Anyway" Percy laughed dropping his body off the armchair onto the rug and leaning his back against the front of the seat. You and I will never grow whiskers for we will be forever boys, forever young!"
I laughed in return and dropped to the rug with our legs forming two V-shapes our feet almost touching.
"No, by big boys' matters, I didn't mean girls, I meant wine!" and he sprung to his feet and padded over the room. He returned with a bottle of white and two glasses. Grinning he settled down on the rug again.
"Don't your parents, sorry your father mind you drinking?" I asked.
"Not really, anyway he is away!" he grinned and started pouring into my held out glass.
"What would your parents say? Would they think I'm leading you astray?" He grinned.
"My father would probably say it might put whiskers on me!" We both spurted gleefully and sipped our wine.
It was bitter and sweet and fruity. "Very nice!" I said.
"It should be, at a hundred pounds a bottle!" he laughed.
I gasped and sipped it again to see if the mouthful was worth several pounds
"Of course girls are all very well." Percy said sipping his wine like a connoisseur. "And of course I shall have to marry one day and beget an heir, do my duty. But girls lack vigour, don't you think?"
"Well if you never grow up, you'll never need to marry!" I said conclusively
while drinking my wine.
"Exactly!" Percy said leaning over towards me and raising his glass to the idea. "To never growing up!" He said.
We drank to that. And fell silent.
"What do you mean by vigour?" I asked.
"Pardon? Oh yes vigour. Well girls are somewhat delicate, which is not without its charm, but lads have a vigour that is most disarming, don't you think?"
"I'm not sure, why is masculine vigour disarming?" I said, sinking against the armchair and settling into the delicious wine.
"When we were running across the park, did you not feel the joy of our vigour, I'm sure you did!" He nodded.
"Oh well I enjoyed running faster than you. I enjoyed that feeling of power. Is that what you mean?"
"I enjoyed you asserting that power over me, it was disarming." He said as if his case was proven.
We fell silent watching the logs spark and flicker.
"But I also enjoyed the masculine power that you showed, you are a fine runner!" I added thoughtfully.
"Exactly!" He said and poured us each a second glass. I sank against the chair and my right foot touched Percy's left, softly and innocently. Percy sank against his chair and our V-shape meant out toes were now touching plainly for us both to see. We fell silent watching our feet silhouetted against the glowing logs. Idly Percy ran his toes over my feet, watching our innocent caress.
"I think masculinity is more admirable than femininity." Percy sighed.
"I think I know what you mean." I said. My heart was pounding as the conversation went to things that my mind had hardly ever dare think. Maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was our already intimate friendship, but it felt safe to talk about our innermost feelings.
"When we lay side by side on the grass panting, was it not wonderful to feel the vigour of the other?" He said softly.
"Yes." I simply replied, remembering the touch of his fingers on my face and the lovely touch of mine on his soft skin. It seemed to me that was not vigour. Rather that it was delicate almost feminine in nature. But I said nothing, just looked at our fingers holding our glasses, his strong and firm
mine thinner and delicate. How I yearned for his firm fingers to gently caress my face again. How I wanted to tenderly trace mine over his boyish cheeks!
His toes were stroking the soles of my feet and, in a wine swoon, I luxuriated in our gentle, masculine vigour.
I felt my man stir inside my nightgown and tried to think of something else.
"Lads sporting together is the most wonderful thing, don't you think?" Percy said softly and poured us each another glass, draining the bottle. His toes left mine, but he settled down again and reached out his limbs to touch his left foot to my right again. He raised his right foot forming his knee into a right angle.
I regarded the nightgown caressing his knee, and felt my man grow. I lifted my left knee to hide my excitement inside the folds of my gown. "I'm not sure what you mean? Lads sporting together?" I hesitated trying to remember anything wonderful about the grim sports we'd played at boarding school.
"Lads besting their vigour against each other." Percy said with an almost audible sigh.
"I never liked team games. I liked running and racquets, individual sports were what gave me pleasure." I said and drank the wine down, my head was reeling, my foot was burning against his and my man was hard in my gown.
"And after running, in the showers, where you felt you blood pounding through your body from your exertion and other boys throbbed too." Percy said, seemingly more in memory than in enquiry.
"Our showers were always cold, not too much pounding or throbbing under them!" I laughed.
Percy laughed and gaily finished his glass. "You really are the most wonderful boy, Archie!" He said looking towards me and grinning.
We fell silent again. Percy stirred and moved his right knee forming a tight tent of nightgown from right knee to left thigh. I wondered if his man was hardened like mine was under disguise of my gown.
"Do you find pleasure in seeing lads in vigorous contest, even though you prefer to take part in non-contact sports yourself?" Percy said, turning his empty glass and regarding the effect on the log fire through it.
"I enjoy watching cricket and hockey." I said. "But I've never considered this is because of masculine vigour."
"Yes the effort of masculine sinew against sinew like between a fast bowler and a fine batsman, or between teams of strong hockey players, is most exhilarating." Percy agreed to something I hadn't actually said.
"Surely, it is not an excitement over vigorous contest, rather the intellectual pitting of skill?" I asked.
"To some extent, But I am sure the stimulus of male vigour in contest is an impetus behind one's enjoyment."
I swirled my glass, regarding the fire's image being skewed by it, just as my thoughts were being re-shaped by my friend's unusual theory.
One eye closed to watch the play of his glass on the fiery image, Percy said "I believe male spectators enjoy the setting of male against male and also that the contestants take pleasure in sensing the male life force in competition."
I didn't reply, but played with the image through the glass.
Percy said, "In contact sports like wrestling or boxing the mutual enjoyment of vigour between contestants is plain and the spectators obtain a vicarious pleasure in watching them contest." Percy put his glass on the rug and put his hands to the back of his head while he contemplated the idea of males wrestling and boxing.
I glanced at the strength belied in his arms covered by the long sleeves of his nightgown tightly buttoned at the cuffs. And I began to understand his point.
"At the boxing club where I do my good works in Bermondsey I see the young men enjoying the contact and sweat and pitting their muscles against another lad's. They clearly enjoy responding to the other lad's vigour. Afterwards in the changing room this is seen in the joshing and larking, where the young men besport in various states of undress. One sees the pleasure they take in each other's male vigour." Percy sighed and lolled his head back.
I watched the exposure of his Apple of Adam in his neck and wondered if I could admire any other boy any greater than this.
"Oh." I said.
"Come with me next Thursday, Archie!" Percy said, kneeling forward towards me. "Come and watch the vigorous young men. Plain souls, but mighty in body vigour." Percy dropped his hands and laid his left on my right shoulder. Bolts of energy fired through my body at the unexpected contact.
"Very well." I said putting my left hand up to his hand on my right shoulder
Percy's face was glowing in the firelight. Our hands touched and I felt something of the mutual male vigour that my friend had been describing.
"Time for bed!" Percy said and gracefully stood up reaching for his candle. I hesitated due to the state of my man inside my nightgown. Standing would make my inappropriate excitement evident. "In the morning I shall take you around the estate and you can pick some suitable views for your artwork. Then in the afternoon we can sally forth with your materials and you can paint all afternoon."
Percy turned and I took the opportunity to stand and reach my candle, keeping my back turned from him. I followed him out of the drawing room and up the stairs watching my candlelight play on the rear of his nightgown. His physique took the stairs gracefully and I understood my friend's admiration of male vigour. No girl could match the combination of grace and strength that I saw before my eyes.
Percy turned outside his door to regard my face in the light of the candles. "Goodnight Archie" His voice softly said, so as not to wake the household.
"Goodnight Percy!" I said as we smiled.
In my room I set the candle down on the bedside table and ran my hand down the front of my nightgown forcing my stiff man down, only for it to spring up vigorously.
I felt most odd. Somehow Percy's words had struck a chord in me. I mused upon the sight of Percy's physique and his words about male vigour. It was true that I had a certain fascination for the strength and vitality of males
But I still could not fully understand what Percy was saying.
I fell asleep, thinking on Percy's words about male vitality, with memories of his handsome face. My new friend was the most delightful company.