The following morning, Ailene donned breeches and a shirt for the fencing training. She looked for Frang and found him in his corner, in the process learning the purpose of the post. Frang would stand before the post and lunge, putting the point into the straw. Long lunges, short lunges, and everything in between; the point invariably hit the same spot on the straw, roughly corresponding to the heart. She also found four other new recruits; the younger youths too weak to wield the larger swords taught by Thorburn and Bjarkë, watching him. All of them were eager to use the new sword fighting skills so ably demonstrated by Frang the previous morning.
"This is for when you reach advanced stages of training, when you're practicing alone," Frang said. "Until then, you must learn about Prime, Seconde, Tierce, Quarte, Quinte, Sixte, Septime, Octave, Neuvieme, and inside and Outside"
"What are those?" One of the young men asked.
"Lines of parries, and the directions that you direct the parry" Frang replied. "If you are right handed, the inside is to your left, toward your body, the outside is to your right, away from the body. Left handed, inside and outside are switched. Quinte and Quarte defend your upper inside except for one, the palm is up, the other, the palm is down. Tierce and Sixte defend the upper outside, palm down or palm up. Prime and Septime, inside down, Seconde and Octave, outside down."
"What about New...new...," Ailene flailing on the word.
"Neuvieme," Frang said, "that's for behind the back, to defend the outside back against a passing or overtaking attack, but never mind that. We are a long way from that. Today, we concentrate on the Prime and Quinte, palm down defense against an inside attack on both the lower and upper lines. But, I cannot have my five new students stabbing each other," he handed all five sticks, saying, "take these. We'll work with them until you are all much better than now. Pay attention!"
They stood in 2 lines of three. Frang had Ailene thrust towards his face and he showed them the Quinte, sliding his hand left to put her stick out of line, the point of his own remaining pointed at her.
"Again."
He demonstrated again.
"Now, aim at my leg."
He showed them the Prime, sliding her stick off her line of attack, his own point facing toward her throughout the deflection, although the point was down.
"Again."
After she did it again with the same result, he asked, "Do I need to repeat that. Did all of you see what I did?"
When all had answered affirmatively, he said, "Practice."
First one side of the line, then the other, although Ailene was always on the defense, just parry, parry, parry. Over and over, upper line, lower line, thrust, parry, the same thing over and over. When he was finished, they were dragging. All but Frang was bent over, panting.
Robert, the youngest of the new fencers, stood up and asked, "What's the purpose of this?"
Frang's hand flicked out at Robert's face and Robert's hand slid up and deflected it to the side.
"That's why," Frang said. "Did you think about blocking my hand?" Frang waited until Robert shook his head, then continued. "When you are fencing, you dinna have time to think about what you are going to do, you must do it. Action, response. The response must be automatic, like breathing. You dinna think about the next breath, you take it. Unless you practice until every reaction is automatic, you will be too slow, you will die." He patted Robert on the back. "Repetition is the basis of reaction. You repeat the same actions over and over until you react without thinking. That's what we are going to be doing."
He pointed to their things. "Pick this stuff up. Be back tomorrow and we'll start on Seconde and Tierce. Ailene, if you would please join me in the armory?"
Ailene reluctantly went with Frang, remembering what happened in the armory yesterday. She assumed that a repeat of yesterday was what she was facing now. She felt more uncomfortable when he barred the door.
"When we start using blades," Frang said, "You're going to need some protection for your breasts. I'm going to have to devise something to protect them. I'm going to need some measurements. Could you remove the shirt please?"
"Frang, please, not today."
"If I were to take you every day in the armory, would that nae become obvious to everyone?" Frang asked.
"Of course," Ailene said.
"Then of course we should nae do so, for that would violate the rules, although I could make an exception today if you wish," he said, smiling. "Still, I need you to remove your shirt."
"Well, aye then, I suppose."
She reluctantly took off her shirt. Frang eyed her breasts critically for a half minute, then he reached out and hefted them in his hands. He held his hands out, looking at them.
"I'm not sure," he said, walking behind her.
He put his hands around her from the rear, filling his hands with her breasts again, then pulling them off and inspecting the cup of his hands, estimating the size.
"I think I have it. Go ahead and put your shirt back on. By the way, you have lovely breasts, lassie," taking another long look at them.
"Stuart thinks so, too," she said. She donned her shirt and went to the door, unbarring it.
"Of course," Frang said, "just because we canna do it in the armory every day, does nae mean we canna make time for sex at other times of the day. We just have to mix it up a bit. Never in public, nor give anyone reason to doubt your fidelity. Rule two."
"Aye, rule two," she said, closing the door behind her.
Ailene had her household duties to keep her busy all that afternoon, planning meals, identifying extra cleaning which needed to be performed. The household had a lot of responsibility associated with smooth operations and her fencing training was taking a lot of her time, time which had to be made up for.
