Kevin and the duchess in a compromising position.
*
An avenue ranalongside the eastern side of the meeting hall as Kevin and Annavieve emerged into the darkened street. Having just left the cloying heat of the hall, the sudden coolness of the night was both refreshing and welcome. Annavieve tugged on Kevin’s arm.
“Where are we going?” she asked, a harsh whisper because the darkness of the street seemed to dictate that she speak quietly. “Where is the privy?”
Kevin pointed down the road. “There is a livery at the end of this road and a public privy,” he said. “That is where we are going.”
Annavieve went along with him quickly after that. They came to the livery at the end of the street, a small stable that had a boy outside of it, tending the horses that were in the corral for the night, and adjacent to the livery was a small structure with a slanted roof that was the public toilets. As the stable boy took his shovel and headed back into the dimly lit livery, Kevin pointed to the slanty-roofed structure.
“There it is,” he told her.
Annavieve had never seen such a thing before; there were garderobes at the convent, and there had certainly been garderobes at the palace on Thorney Island, and the tavern they had stayed in the night before had simply a bucket in a corner. So a public toilet was something entirely new. Curious, she entered.
It was essentially a room with two holes in the floor into which big barrels had been sunk. A stool was positioned over each barrel with a hole cut into the bottom of it and there was a bucket of water with a gourd ladle in it next to each one for washing afterwards. And it stunk very, very badly. Pinching her nose, Annavieve hurried and finished her business, fleeing the very smelly public toilet before the smell made her gag.
Kevin was waiting for her outside, leaning against the corral of the livery. He grinned when he saw how quickly she was moving away from the public toilet.
“I see the stench drove you out,” he commented.
She made a face. “Horrid,” she said. Then, she drew in a long breath. “It is much better out here, even if it does smell of horses.”
He continued to smile at her, warmly. Since there was no one around, he reached out to tuck a stray piece of hair off her face.
“In my travels, I have seen many public toilets like that,” he said. “They are mostly built by the Romans and, of course, the Romans are everywhere. There is a public toilet near Rome that will seat twenty men. It is built in the shape of a crescent moon. You can sit there and talk over your business with the next man as you relieve yourself.”
Annavieve had to laugh at the mental picture of such a thing. “Is there no privacy at all?”
He shrugged. “Men do not need privacy,” he said. “It is only the women that require such a thing.”
She couldn’t disagree, glancing back at the public house. “It is better than pissing in a bucket, I suppose.”
He frowned at her, lightly done. “Where did you hear that word?”
“What word?”
“Pissing.”
She laughed softly. “You would be surprised what I have heard from the nuns at Sempringham,” she said. “I have heard them curse like men at times when they think no one is listening.”
He feigned shock. “Terrible,” he said. “My former master, Ranulf Kluge, called all his novice squires a ‘twat’. It took years before I finally figured out the true meaning of the word.”
Annavieve put her hand to her mouth to stifle the giggles. “It sounds terrible,” she said. “What does it mean?”
He shook his head. “I will not tell you,” he said primly. “It is unseemly for a lady to know such words.”
“Youbrought it up.”
“I did. I am very relieved to see that you do not know what it means.”
Annavieve continued to giggle, finally leaning against the fence as he was, butting up against him. They were very close, touching, and Annavieve dared to lay her cheek against his bicep.
“I am packed, as you requested,” she said softly, gazing up at the half-moon against the black sky. “Everything is ready. My bag is under my bed back at the tavern.”
He relished the feel of her against his arm. Looking around to make sure no one could see them, he put an arm around her, pulling her against his tight torso.
“Excellent,” he said quietly. “We will wait until Victor and Salisbury become too drunk to care before making our exit. I will tell Victor that I am returning you to the tavern, which he will freely allow me to do. The trick will be keeping Thomas and Adonis from following.”
