Eleanor Meets Tommy and Martin Pt. 01

"The lead oboist in the band that's playing is a friend of ours," said Martin.

Chapter Five

The Christmas Vacation

My Progress test with Dr Smith went well. He particularly congratulated me on my progress in Hebrew. "It's not a popular study topic for women, so it's nice to meet a competent female student. Indeed, if you continue to make progress, you will very likely get a scholarship next year," he said.

My parents welcomed me home after my first term, and we had a very enjoyable Christmas. I was one of the servers at the Midnight Mass and held the gospel book. The whole village seemed to have turned out that year. There appeared to be no non-Anglicans left in the village (both the two chapels had closed years before). The next few days flew by and by the third week in January, I was back in college.

Chapter Six

The concert

The concert was held in the Hall of Q College. The seats were of the modern stacking variety, and we were near the front. The boys very kindly seated me between them, so that they were unable to hold hands. This suggested to me that they wanted to make a special effort to make me feel comfortable, and that I should not feel that I was entering a different world, the world of homosexual men. The concert programme consisted of works by Haydn and Mozart suitable for a small orchestra. A few minutes into the first item, a piano concerto, Tommy got hold of my hand. A thrill went through me. I liked this boy. I gently manoeuvred my hand so that both our hands were on Tommy's thigh, as near to his crotch as I could manage without seeming to be a total slut. The idea was to send a clear signal to him that I was interested in him sexually. Men are often slow to get the message from a woman, particularly if they are gay. I looked at his face, but he seemed to be absorbed in the music.

Reading this, you must think that I am indeed a total slut. Why should a nice girl waste time on a guy who prefers men? He seemed to have plenty of money, but then, so do I. Did I want to lure him away from his boyfriend, just out of nastiness or because I hated homosexuality? No, I just wanted to be close friends. Obviously, if he wanted to fuck me, I was not going to say no, and I always kept a packet of condoms in my handbag. But if he just wanted friendship with the odd kiss, that was OK as well. Both the men had nice figures and not particularly hairy bodies, free, so far as I could tell, of tattoos or piercings.

When the music ended, Tommy withdrew his hand to applaud, and so did I. He then took my hand, replaced it on his thigh and smiled at me. Clearly he did not resent my attentions. But I noticed that Martin had seen what he did and was frowning. I found it hard to analyse my feelings towards Martin. I liked his red hair and his figure, but I knew from what he had said on other occasions that he was not even slightly interested in women. The schemer in me wondered if it would be more of a challenge to try to seduce Martin. However, I reckoned that I had done enough for one evening.

The concert ended at 10-15, and we went for a drink afterwards at a nearby pub, the Sparrowhawk. We arranged to go to the cinema the following Saturday and dine at the Hang Zhou Chinese restaurant afterwards. After one drink, Martin invited us back for coffee in Sanguis. Having ascertained our respective tastes, he made the coffee and having supplied each of us, he sat down beside me on the sofa. "Did you enjoy the concert, Eleanor?" he asked. I made a suitably informed reply and looked him full in the face. His freckles seemed to glow, and he gave no signs of resentment of Tommy's attentions to me as he smiled sweetly.

By now, Tommy and Martin were only six months short of their final exams. However, they would not be leaving Camford. Tommy had been accepted to do a Diploma in Education (training to be a schoolteacher), and Martin was hoping to do either an M.Litt. or a Ph.D. So my chances of getting to know them better were not as limited as I had thought. My friends in college used to tell me that I was wasting my time chasing a known gay, but I pointed out that (a) sex was not the only reason for friendship with men, and (b) that fag-hags know that they are unlikely to be tempted or threatened, which can make for a much more comfortable relationship. To some extent of course, both these statements were false as far as I was concerned!

Chapter Seven

Eleanor's first Pentecost term

The Candlemas term passed quite quickly, our threesome went out together once a week, to a concert or to the cinema, or sometimes just to eat together. We ended the evening by having coffee in either Boni's or Sanguis. I think that we grew closer together as a result, and we began for example to celebrate each of our birthdays. Easter being early that year, I was home early in March. The vacation was spent busily reading and practising my Hebrew. Although at that time, most university exams still used handwriting in the exam papers, because of the awkwardness of the script, the Hebrew exams mandated the use of laptops and keyboards, but the laptops were university property: students were not allowed to use their own. They were crude 'netbooks' which could not access the internet.

My own exams were to be six three-hour written papers at daily intervals over the last week of term and the first of the summer vacation. I did not go out much either with my female friends or with the boys, although Martin used to join Tommy and me when we went out drinking with the chapel choir after Sunday dinner. We also spent one evening a week on the river, as the college owned several punts. The boys soon taught me how to propel a punt (it is very easy once you know about three basic points), and we would navigate the river to the Carp pub at Stubbington, tie up the boat, purchase drinks and enjoy them sitting on the terrace beside our boat. Those summer evenings are among my most cherished memories of student life in Camford. I could enjoy friendly and affectionate male company without any romantic overtones.

Just before the exam period, it was a tradition at Boni's to hold a College Retreat. It was open to all matriculated undergraduates, but mostly made use of by final year students, to enable them to take stock over their lives as they left the ivory towers and dreaming spires for the wide, wide world. In some ways, students were contemplating a bigger change in their lives than the transition from school to university. The retreat was open to college members of any religion or none. Naturally, Tommy signed up for the retreat, and so did I. It was a day retreat from 10 am to 5 pm, held over a weekend in the house of a religious order on the outskirts of Camford, a short bus or cycle ride from college, where we ate our breakfast and dinner. No activity was compulsory, except that total silence was enforced for the whole day, except for a half-hour break at lunchtime when conversation was allowed. One could join the sisters for their prayer offices, or their Sunday mass, or read in the library or garden, or simply sit or walk and meditate. Lunch was bread, cheese and fruit with a cup of coffee or a glass of water.

My participation in the retreat was not targeted at Tommy. I had begun to experience doubts about my vocation to the priesthood, and I needed a couple of days without academic distractions to ask myself serious questions about whether my career hopes came from a desire to love and serve Jesus Christ, or simply as a pleasant way, for someone with a private income, to live in a town or village as a public figure and to lead public worship. In particular, was my personal desire for sex with a gay man going to make me unsuitable for the life I was considering? Suppose for example that I married Tommy? It goes without saying that Martin would live with us, as both he and Tommy needed to fuck each other. A ménage à trois was hardly compatible with vicarage life. The clergy, as public figures, inevitably attracted curiosity by their parishioners about their private lives.

Of course, it was not possible at the retreat to make any definitive decisions about my life or vocation. Nothing I had done was irrevocable, and my sexual hopes and fears might never be realized. I had not yet been accepted as an ordination candidate, and there were many alternative graduate jobs available. So after a lot of hard thinking, I decided that my objective for the next two years had to be to get as good a degree as possible, irrespective of career or relationships. That meant that I must NOT fall in love with either of my gay friends.

On the day of my last exam, the boys were waiting for me outside the exam hall with a bottle of Prosecco and carried me off to an early dinner at the Venezia at which I was persuaded to remain in Camford until the following week (we could keep our college rooms until the exams were over), so that I could join them when they took Prosecco to each other after their respective exams. No exam results would be available until early August, after which we all had appointments to see our respective tutors.

I had decided not to seek employment during July, until the exam results were known. I didn't need to earn money. My father, with an eye to inheritance tax, gave me an allowance of £5K to spend each year in addition to the monthly allowance that I got during term. However, I stashed this money away in case I needed a large sum to finance perhaps a gap year after I graduated and before I went for my year of full-time residential theological training for the Anglican (Episcopalian) ministry. Besides, Anglican clergy are not well-paid, and I would need extra money to finance my present comfortable lifestyle if I became a parish priest.

What I did with the money was not the concern of the tax authorities. As long as my father gave away the money and survived for seven years, it was not taxable on his death. For the rest of the summer, I was going to work in a care home in my local village. The work is demanding and badly paid, but I needed to do something to help others, and the care home was always short of staff, so I was not taking away the job of anyone who desperately needed the money, poor as it was. Conditions in some care homes are bad, for residents as well as staff, but I had worked before in this particular home, and I knew it to be well run. I had reserved two weeks in September for a holiday, but had made no plans as to where to go.

Chapter Eight

The Summer of Eleanor's first year

My exam results were sent by E-mail. I was delighted to find that I had done well enough in the exams to qualify for a college scholarship, which meant that I was in the top 10% of all who were sitting the exam. I went up to Camford for a day to meet my tutor. Again, that could have been done by E-mail, but I rather fancied a day in Camford and a meeting with Tommy and Martin. I had arranged to meet them in Camford when we went up to see our respective tutors.

Dr Smith was very nice to me, gave me a glass of sherry, and said he knew of a second-hand scholar's gown in good condition. He said that he would get it for me and I could collect and pay him at the beginning of term. He asked if I wanted to offer him my commoner's gown in part-exchange, and I agreed. "I'm not in the second-hand clothes business as a general rule, but I like to encourage my good students!" he said with a grin. "It's not every year that one of them gets a scholarship. You're showing signs of doing as well academically as your father. He was a colleague of mine for some years."

I thanked him and left. I rang Tommy on my cell-phone and we arranged to meet at the Sparrowhawk for lunch. When I got there, Martin was there as well. "I'm staying at Tommy's for a week or so, as my father and stepmother are in Italy at the moment," he said. "They've rented a villa and are spending most of the summer there. They will come home for the beginning of the school term in September, but their rental runs till the end of that month, and they've offered it to Tommy and me to do some reading in September. Would you like to come for all or part of the time? The pattern will be reading for three days per week, holiday for the rest of the time. The villa has a nice pool and the temperatures in September are nice and warm."

"Please come, if you can," added Tommy, "we'd love some female company. It will prevent us from indulging in too much sex and alcohol! The villa is near a station, and even without a car there are lots of places to visit!"

"How were the exam results?" I asked before answering their invitation.

"Great!" said Tommy. "Martin got a first and I've got an upper second. Martin's tutor told him that there is a vacancy for a Ph.D. student in classics, if he can get finance. His father is going to give him the money to do a one-year M.Litt. If he gets that OK, he will try for funding to turn it into a Ph.D. I will get a bursary to do the Dip.Ed., as trainee teachers are subsidized. Moreover we can get college accommodation in the graduate annex if we need it, which we will. But are you going to come with us to Italy?"

"I can't come for the whole month," I said, "but I'll come for the last two weeks. What's more, I will cook for us a couple of nights a week, as we can't eat in taverne all the time."

"Right!" said Martin. "Maybe we could cook a meal together. But before that, in August, Tommy's Italian friend Matteo is coming to stay in Camford for three weeks, and we will spend ten days in Octavia Avenue, and ten days at Rockwell's Barn, Tommy's country home at Ixton."

Chapter Nine

A visit from Matteo

The boys were looking forward to the visit of their Italian friend Matteo. They were determined to give him a good time, seeing the sights of Camford, as well as introducing him to the English countryside in Ixfordshire. They went to Gatwick to meet him, rather than letting him navigate the Thameslink rail service on his own. David and Jon were away in the Netherlands, so they had the house in Octavia Avenue to themselves. They took him on the river and visited the churches, colleges and museums.

He told them that he had got fixed up to do his Laurea Magistrale (Masters degree) in Professor Sescantanto's department in the University of Trabizona, starting in September. "I met your brother's partner, Dottore Appleton," he told Tommy, "and I may even do a project with him!"

"Did he know who you were?" asked Tommy.

"Of course! We met him when you took me to the opera in Trabizona, and he remembered my face."

"Yes, gays always remember handsome faces!" said Tommy with a grin, and gave Matteo a quick kiss. "Did you see anyone there that you fancied? Sescantanto's department attracts a lot of gay graduate students, because they know that they will not be discriminated against. But it's a good place to work, with a Europe-wide reputation."

While David and Jon were away, Matteo joined the two men to sleep in their king-size bed. Naturally, they had a sexual threesome quite regularly, at least once per day. This varied in what they actually did. Sometimes Tommy and Martin fucked while Matteo watched and wanked. Sometimes Matteo had sessanta nove (69) with either of the others, while the third jacked off, while sometimes either Tommy or Martin let themselves be penetrated at both ends simultaneously. In the latter case, it required some practice to acquire the skill for both the penetrators to synchronize their orgasms. Matteo of course, because of his aversion to anal, was always the one with his cock in the mouth of his partner. They all enjoyed sleeping three in a bed. Generally Matteo found himself in the middle between the other two, and giggled quietly when anyone farted.

The three of them tended to eat out, rather than cook a big evening meal, so in Camford they ate at the Venezia or the Sparrowhawk, and at Ixton in the Jellycotes Arms. The weather was good, and the three of them were able to enjoy the numerous walks round Ixton. It was with great reluctance that Matteo returned home. His longing for a regular partner had increased and he hoped desperately to find the right man when he got to Trabizona.

Chapter Ten

What should a girl do?

I wondered what my parents would think about my spending two weeks in Italy alone with two men. It was not as if we were staying in a hotel. In the old days a woman spending time unchaperoned with men was regarded as a virtual whore. It was ingrained in social morals that a man and a woman alone together would inevitably have sex, to the extent that a married person who spent a night alone in a house with a person of the opposite sex was assumed to have committed adultery without any other evidence being necessary. My father of course had no problems with what I was going to do. "You are an independent adult with great intelligence. You can judge for yourself whether there is any risk in what you are doing. If you fear rape, then don't go. If you are sure that these are nice boys only interested in one another, it's up to you to make the decision. If you feel like sleeping with either or both of them, that is your decision too. I assume that you have a supply of prophylactics! Of course, they might just be looking for someone to do the cooking and cleaning! That's a point that you ought to bear in mind."

My mother was more concerned about my reputation than what I might actually do. I told her that if no-one in the family talked about it, how could there be any gossip? Moreover, I was not looking for a man to keep me. I had a private income and hoped to become a clerk in holy orders (the legal description of a priest). "But what about the selection panel for your ordination? The Bishop is not going to lay hands on a known whore."

"Mother, what about my spiritual wellbeing? I have a conscience. I'm not going to do anything that will bring me or the Christian faith into disrepute. The job I want to do as a priest means that I must set an example by my life, and I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize that!" This bit of plain speaking seemed to convince her that I knew what I was doing.

The fact was that if either of these boys (or both of them) wanted to fuck me, I was quite prepared to let them. But it was much more likely that they were only wanting to fuck one another. But of course, I had no idea what might actually happen, and even if I had had, I would never have told my parents! They understood that it was my life and having warned me, they trusted me not to do anything stupid. My own feelings were that, given encouragement by Tommy, I could well fall in love with him, but unless Martin was prepared to share him with me, I knew I must try not to fall in love. I had two further years in Boni's, followed by a year in a theological college for professional training, and I was keen to get a good degree. Being in love is a major distraction from academic work. Several girls in my sixth form had underperformed in their A levels because of love affairs.

Chapter Eleven

The villa in Italy

The villa was in the Apennine mountains, near Arezzo. Arezzo was by origin a populous city of the Etruscans in the pre-Roman era. It became Christian in the fourth century and remained independent until conquered by the Florentines and became part of the grand duchy of Tuscany. It was the birthplace of the celebrated architect Giorgio Vasari. Martin told me that he loved the city because of its Etruscan origins. The villa was in a small village some 10 km from the city. The village however had a regular train service into the city, from which Florence could be reached by fast train in 40 minutes.

The villa had four bedrooms of which the boys occupied the largest and most luxurious. But my room was also pretty huge for one person. The two men had met me at Amerigo-Vespucci-Firenze airport off my flight from Luton and escorted me by fast train to Arezzo and then by local train to the village. When we arrived, I washed and visited the toilet and joined my hosts on the terrace, where a glass of cold Prosecco awaited me.