An Italian Boy in Camford

[If you get confused by all the minor characters, you can find a complete list of the characters by clicking on WittePiet, then on the Biography tab and scrolling down to the bottom of the page.]

Chapter Fifty: Two telephone conversations between Sandro and Dom

(1) D: Hi Sandro, please can you give me your mother's E-mail address, and I will send her a letter of thanks. How is my lustful bed-mate today?

S: Missing my stud-boy desperately. I want to spoon up beside you in bed, I want to kiss your sweet arse, I want to get hold of your tool. How is your revision going?

D: Not too badly, better than if you were here. I would then be spending time thinking about your brown body!

S: Dom, my father has guessed that we are an item. He even asked me which of us was doing the fucking! I told him that it was none of his business, but did admit that after we graduated I wanted a long-term relationship.

D: What did you expect? You tell your parents that you are gay, and then you bring a male friend home. It's not rocket science to put two and two together, especially when we are put in the same room! It's interesting though that they can't guess which of us is fucking the other, particularly in view of the fact that we've not yet gone anal. I still feel strongly that we should concentrate on getting to know each other and understand each other's bodies before we pop our respective cherries up the chocolate boulevard.

S: I agree. Kissing you and sleeping with you are what I long for most and miss when you are away. We must make sure that we get a duplex college room next year. Then if we get desperate in the night, we can creep into each other's bed. Do you have any plans to come out to your family yet?

D: No. It's all very complicated, and I want them to meet you before I tell them that we are an item. It will have to wait till after my exams. That doesn't mean that I'm ashamed of you, or of our relationship. I'm proud that we belong to one another. I want you in my arms right now! I want your sweet tongue in my mouth, I want to run my hands over your delicious arse! I've got a photo of you beside my bed (in a drawer) and when I miss you I take it out and as you can guess, I wank myself off.

S: Snap! I do just the same! Dom, its nearly time for dinner. I'll see you in two weeks time. Best of luck with the revision. I'm dying for a suck! I want to bury my face in your sweet blond hair! I'll send you that E-mail address. Ciao, carissimo amico mio!

D: Ciao, caro Sandro mio! One day, I must start to learn Italian.

(2) D: Sandro, this is just to tell you that Jon has invited me to spend the last week of the Easter vac. in Fountain Street for a nominal rent. The invitation came out of the blue. Jon says that he is so used to having young people in the house and is lonely now that Cathy is working in London. He promises me that he will not disturb me during the day, but let me get on with revision, and he will do his charitable admin. from his college room. Then we can eat together in the evening. He's missing your uncle, currently in Bristol, but coming back to Camford a couple of nights per week. I think that he is very generous to me, considering how little we have seen of one another. Maybe he wants to get to know me better.

S: That's good, Dom. I think he does want to get to know you. He mentioned it to me when he rang me to find out your phone number! Because I'm his son's brother, he considers himself

in loco parentis.

I'll come back a couple of days early, and we can have two nights in bed together before moving back into college! I want your cock in my mouth! I think that my father also really needs to get to know you better. I think it was totally off limits for him to ask me which of us was doing the fucking, and even though I love him very much, I told him to mind his own business! But in spite of my absence for a two-month placement, you'll have to come here for longer in the summer and get yourself recognized as my lover.

D:Yes, but I want you to come and meet my family too! I've got two brothers who should meet you as well as my parents. I don't want to have to wait till Christmas, so we must try and fit in a week in September. Where is your placement going to be?

S: At the Rail-UK offices in London. My uncle has said that I can live in their London flat, so I won't have to find somewhere to live. Maybe I could come to your home, wherever it is, directly after I finish in London.

Chapter Fifty-one: Jon makes a discovery

Jonathan Singleton-Scarborough got off the train from Camford at Fennington Station in London and took the underground to the office of Tim Ingledown, his legal and financial adviser, and close friend. They had arranged to have lunch together in a nearby pub. Jon wanted to discuss the affairs of the Edmund Heptinstall Educational Trust, and to have a quick update on the state of his own finances. The Trust had awarded a record number of scholarships that year, and they wondered whether the charity needed a further cash injection. Bernard Silverdale, Tom's former teacher, the Executive Secretary for the last few years, had done an excellent job. He and his wife were now well settled in Camford, having with some delay finally sold their house in Tom's home town. With the forthcoming departure of Liz for Newcastle-on-Tyne, Tom would now have no reason to visit his unhappy birthplace ever again unless anything happened to his father.

Jon happened to mention to Tim that his nephew's boyfriend was staying in the flat in Fountain Street for the week before term to use the Science Library, and remarked what a nice lad Dominic Overton was. The reply was remarkable. "As you know, I am extremely discrete about my clients' financial affairs," said Tim, "But I see no harm in mentioning that I know him, because his family have been clients for years, and he is the heir. Without me being indiscrete, try looking his grandfather up in

Who's Who?

under 'Wakefield'."

Jon did not like London, and out of hatred of publicity, had no social life there. The only 'social life' he had had there in the last few years was a few visits with David to the opera or a concert or recital, and when as David's partner, he had seen him receive his CBE. However, he still maintained membership of a London club, and after he had left Tim, he walked to the club and went in to use the library. He took down the latest issue of

Who's Who?

. Under 'Wakefield' he read:

Henry Thomas Francis Overton, 12th Marquess of W, b. 1936. Ed. Eton and Bonif Col, Oxf. Nat Service, Roy Guard, 1954-61, Pres, Country Landowners' Union, 1964-85, member Hse of Lds 1962-1999, Patr, Roy Soc for Preserv Countryside, GCB 2001. Heir, Edmund Richard Overton, E. of Batley, b. 1960.

This startled Jon. He moved along the library shelves and found the

Peerage

, and looked up 'Wakefield.' Sure enough, the Earl of Batley's eldest son was Dominic Francis Overton, Viscount Overton, born 1985. His lodger was the grandson of a nobleman. He decided to say nothing to either of the two lads. No doubt Dom would reveal his identity in due course. It seemed to Jon that there were going to be difficulties if Dom came out to his family. Peers (noblemen) expect their sons to marry and have offspring to pass on the title. It cannot be inherited by a daughter. Adoption and illegitimacy do not allow inheritance of a title of honour. This would be a big test for Dom if he wanted to become Sandro's civil partner.

When Sandro got back, three days before the beginning of the Pentecost term, he took a cab from Camford station to the flat in Fountain Street. David was in Bristol, and Jon in college. Dom welcomed him and showed him their bathroom, in which there was a tube of lube and a packet of condoms. "Still too early to use those," said Sandro, "but we'll take the lube when we go. I've got plenty of unused condoms. It seems funny that when I came to Camford, I thought I might need them with a woman rather than a man!" It was about 4 pm, and Dom announced that he was done with revising for the day.

"Your uncle will get back about 5," he said, "and we'll then go for a drink and something to eat. So there's time for a suck session!" They undressed hastily, and Dom put his arms round his slender friend and started to kiss Sandro's chest. "Three weeks without you is about as much as I can stand!" he said. "I need that cock of yours in my mouth. I want to eat you up, beginning at your cock-head, until you are entirely inside me. Sandro mio, ti adoro!"

Chapter Fifty-two: The Pentecost term and afterwards

I was amused and delighted at Dom speaking to me in Italian. It was highly significant, because it was clear testimony of his love. I was quite relieved. It meant that he was really heading for commitment, and not just a fling. Clearly he had rapidly developed a taste for sex! We went into the bedroom and hastily undressed. He pushed me onto the bed, made me lie on my back and knelt over me straddling my chest so that his rapidly stiffening cock was within reach of my mouth. I opened my mouth and started to lick the head of his cock. I opened it wider and took the head into my mouth and started to suck it and run my tongue over its sides. Dom groaned with delight. "You dirty slut!" he said, "you crotch-obsessed genital-sucker! You spunk-eater! Who taught you how to give me such pleasure? I ought to turn you onto your belly and give your arse a good hard spanking! But it is such a sweet and delicious arse. I just want to kiss it, lick it, caress it and cover it with love bites!"

"Do that, then!" I said, taking his dick out of my mouth, and turning over beneath him. Dom started work on my rear-end. I wriggled with delight as he nibbled the cheeks and gently bit into the flesh of my arse muscles. All this attention to the lower half of my body caused my cock to stiffen and within half a minute it was rock-hard. I couldn't believe that this English boy, who up to a few weeks before had not known that he was gay, knew how to give such amazing pleasure. I suppose that really gayness does not come into it. A woman would have appreciated the same sort of attentions as my posterior was receiving! My new boyfriend was a genius lovemaker! Gradually, Dom moved his lips upward into the small of my back along my spine till he ended up between my shoulder-blades.

He then turned me over and turned himself to face my feet so that he could take my rock-hard dick into his mouth. His own dick hung temptingly near my mouth, which I opened and wrapped my lips round the long object. I could feel it stiffening as I ran my tongue along its length. In this classic 69 position we settled down to exercise our cocks, and managed ten minutes of oral intimacy before first Dom and then myself climaxed with a shuddering jerk and filled each other's mouth with man-fluid, which we each eagerly swallowed, united in one of the deepest ways that two men can come together.

After two delicious nights of sleeping together, we moved back into college and the term got into its stride. Neither of us had much leisure, but what free time we had was often spent in a punt on the river Camwell. We also went swimming regularly, and played squash once per week, but our trips to the Rialto virtually ceased.

As the end of term approached, our spare time got less and less, even though I had no major exams. But I had an industrial placement approaching, lasting for the whole of July and August. We spent one or two blissful evenings doing a typical Camford summer term-time activity: watching a play in a college garden. These plays were often obscure plays of Shakespeare or his contemporaries. A small sensation took place that particular summer, when one college society tried to put on Rochester's

Sodom

. This was overruled by the University authorities, not on the grounds of obscenity, but because it would bring the University into disrepute.

Early in June on the Sunday nearest to June 5, Saint Boniface's Day, the college had its annual Feast to commemorate its patron saint. Special food was served at both sittings of dinner and every member of the college got a free glass of wine or fruit-juice. It was generally treated as a pre-exams drinking occasion, and the beer cellar stayed open after dinner, which was not usually the case. Dom and I got extra teasing because we were sitting together.

I was due to leave Camford immediately after the end of term and my college progress test. I packed a suitcase with essentials, Jon gave me the key and I set off to find the London flat, which was near Fennington Station, next door to which were the offices where I would be based for my placement, though there would be a lot of travel with a railway engineer to various locations in the south of England.

Dom did not start his exams until the Monday after the end of term and was allowed to stay in college for the duration of the exam period. After that, he would go home till his exam results were known (at the end of July), and then return briefly to Camford to see his tutor.

I enjoyed my work placement. The first two weeks, I accompanied an engineer to inspect various locations where work was needed to be done, both to the track and the trackside structures. Thereafter, I travelled to sites where work was in progress. This was almost always at night and at weekends, so my days off were during the week. In some ways it was clear that I would have a lonely job if I joined Rail-UK. I spent my spare time visiting various places of interest in London, and keeping away from pubs and night-clubs. I ate fairly frequently in my uncle's favourite Italian restaurant, Alberto's, where I could speak my native language, and where a special single-seater table was kept available for me in a corner. The remaining time I subsisted on takeaways or microwave-ready food from a supermarket. Much of Monday was spent asleep in bed after two nights of work over the weekend. At the beginning of August, I got a phone call from my darling Dom telling me that he had passed his exams well and been awarded a scholarship by the college. I said that when we met in September, I would take him out for a celebration meal, pointing out that his Commoner's gown would have to be put on the market!

Chapter Fifty-three: Professor Sescantanto's summer party

On a hot July day, the Trabizona University chemistry department, and the Trabizona gay community gathered for Professor Sescantanto's summer party. It was a very different affair from the pre-Christmas party. The cypress trees that lined the path from the house to the huge garden behind the villa were glowing with summer green. The swimming pool had been thoroughly scoured and the water filters replaced, and the pool looked an inviting blue. Chairs and sun-loungers in abundance were lined up beside the pool, and a bar, provided by a professional bar-hire company, was dispensing drinks. To get food, the guests had to go inside the house via a magnificent terrace that ran the whole width of the back of the house.

Dress of course was extremely informal, but a minimum dress code of shirt and shorts was insisted on for all guests, except of course when they were in the pool. In previous years, some younger gay guests had tried to go round without shirts, but Arturo was anxious not to upset any of his non-gay guests, and would personally speak to any guest without a shirt, asking him to put his shirt on or leave!

The opera season was almost over, and so Luke was able to take a day off as there was no performance that day. He and Tom invited Pauline to join them, and at her request the visiting tenor Mario Lavini came as Luke's guest. The current opera production was the last of the season and everyone was in a festive mood. Lavini was about thirty, and a superb singer. Tom rated him as his second favourite after Luke's father, and the Teatro Musicale was very lucky to get him to play the role of Oronte in

I Lombardi

. It was mainly thanks to Pauline that he had fitted Trabizona into his schedule, she had worked with him before. However, she did not seem to know anything about his personal life. No sooner had he arrived at the party than he rushed off and started chatting up several of the more attractive gay guests, much to the amusement of Tom and Luke! "Pauline, you may have seen the last of Mario for the rest of the day. I'm afraid that you'll have to put up with our company!" said Tom.

"Well," she replied, "maybe two gays are better than one." At this, Tom and Luke burst out laughing.

"Didn't you know that he batted for our side?" asked Luke.

"Honestly, no," she replied with a grin.

"Arturo will be delighted," said Tom.

"I'll bet he knew already," said Luke.

"We are slightly outside the Italian gay world, because we're foreigners." said Tom. "So Arturo didn't know when I came here that I was gay, he just thought of me as an EU Leonardo grantholder."

"What about the saying that

It takes one to know one

? asked Luke.

"That all depends on how good your gaydar is!" said Tom. "Mine is quite useless. I had no idea that Arturo was gay until Ben told me. Let's go and find Leonora and Ben and get something to eat." So the three of them set off to look for Tom's colleague. "How are you finding life in Italy?" Tom asked Pauline.

"Fantastic!" she replied, "I'm so glad I came here. The food really suits me. The Belgians were so limited in their outlook. In contrast, Italy knows that it is the cultural centre of the world, and you just have to sit back and enjoy it."

When they found Ben and Leonora talking to a colleague from the chemistry lab, Leonora's face lit up. She ran to Tom and Luke and kissed them both. Tom responded by putting his arm round Leonora, while Luke merely blushed. Pauline looked with interest at Leonora. Luke had told her about how his former 'fag-hag' had an opera obsession.

In the afternoon, just as the effects of alcohol on those present were beginning to become evident, a loud noise was heard from the garden. Tom and Ben hurried outside to investigate. At the end of the garden farthest from the house, a crowd of people was gathered, shouting and gesticulating. It turned out that Mario Lavini had been showing excessive interest in one of the men present and the man's partner had hit him, and a fist fight had ensued. Mario was bleeding from a cut forehead and was already developing a black eye. As Tom and Ben approached, the aggrieved partner hit Mario again and knocked him down. As he fell, he hit his head on a rock. He was unconscious. An ambulance was summoned and Mario was carted off to hospital, just as the police arrived. They arrested the assailant, and he was carted off to the police station. When Luke heard the news, he was very concerned, because it was his guest who had been assaulted, and he and Pauline went to the hospital after advising Tom to go home with Ben and Leonora.

The tenor turned out not to have been badly injured, but the hospital was keeping him in for a CT scan, and he would not be able to sing for three days. Cornelio was fed up. "We will have to cancel two performances and refund the patrons' ticket money!" he said. "There's no other tenor in the world who has that role in his repertory."

Ben, Leonora and Tom went to talk to Arturo. He was also fed up. "That guy has given my parties a bad reputation!" he said. "It just confirms the prejudice that gays are aggressive men, not afraid of a spot of violence to get what they want."

"The guy who hit Lavini has my sympathy," said Tom. "If anyone tried to chat up Luca in a predatory manner, I would have reacted in just the same way!" he added. "Greek history is full of stories of the bravery and ferocity of gay men defending their lovers. That was the secret of the Spartan army's military success! In fact when we were undergraduates, I threatened an Italian guy who was pestering Luca. I didn't actually hit him, but I would have done if he had continued making a nuisance of himself. Luca was furious with me, he said that I must never go round threatening people. And now that we are partners, I never would do it, because I am confident of his love. A lot of male violence stems from jealousy and insecurity."