Part 16
The Raising of the Guard
"The Marchioness visits tomorrow, Lizzie, it falls upon me to arrange everyÂthing down to the smallest detail. It is certainly a worry I can tell you. Really Worrity expects too much. Look how I droop with worry. You must help me Lizzie, there's a good girl. Can you sort out the Guard? They send messages that they cannot unlock their weapons and will notâyou see the consequence is obvious - cannot parade. You will do this for me Lizzie? S'il te plaĂŽt?"
The Chevalier looked almost unwell. It was clear to Lizzie that he needed her help. But that would be to help Conrad, as it was he who wished to put on an impressive show for the Marchioness, to welcome her in style. MarÂchioness? The wife of a Marquess.
She did not want to help Conrad at all but she liked the Chevalier and so, rather reluctantly, agreed to help. Why all this worry, surely it was Conrad who had invited, indeed invented the Marchioness in his book? Surely he could not be at all worried, it would just be everyone else who had to run around in a panic. Where was the Marquess? Was there a Marquess?
Lizzie left the Chevalier. Where was the Guard, what was the Guard? She had not seen any soldiers indeed there seemed no need for soldiers. People were rushing this way and that with bunting, mops and bottles. It was mayÂhem in the corridors and no one would stop to speak to Lizzie, to answer her question about where she might find the Guard. She came out into the garden and stood looking back at the house trying to think where to look next.
"Looking for someone or something to do?" asked a familiar voice.
"Why Robin, yes I am and you can be of some use... for once."
Puck looked pained, his nut-brown face wrinkled under his blue cap, but then he brightened, "you fancy a frolic, a tumble in the long grass, to get away from all this tiresome bustle. Yes, I agree, let us go..."
"No, Robin, you were right on your first idea, I am looking for someone or some peopleâthe Guard."
"Oh, well, if that is all," he said testily and turned to go but then looked back, "see that door there at the corner of the house. It leads to the GuardÂroom. And much pleasure may it give you. Ho ho, they can give you none for their spears are all locked up!"
Puck stalked off, clearly cross. Lizzie doubted it would last for long. He was bound to find some mischief to make with all the preparations underway. Perhaps he would make himself a nuisance with the kitchen maids, he was sure to find amusement with them now they were so busy. She doubted whether he would simply curdle the milk. Lizzie crossed the lawn and stood at the corner of the house looking up at the stone built round tower. It was the only corner of the house to have a round tower or turret rising, through several windowed storeys, to a conical slated roof in the French style. She turned the handle of an iron studded oak door and pushed. It was heavy, but slowly opened revealing a flight of stone steps spiralling upwards. She ascended.
For the first two storeys there were no doors but right at the top another oak door awaited her. She pushed it open and stood, quite frozen to the spot with astonishment. The door opened on a circular chamber with rough stone walls pierced by the windows Lizzie had seen from below. The floor was flagged without carpet and the whole appearance of the room was Spartan and manly: very different from much of the rest of the house. It was not the room which froze Lizzie but the occupants. Lizzie had never seen such beautiÂful menâthough striking or handsome was perhaps a word more appropriate to the Guard. Six magnificent black men occupied the room; or not so much ocÂcupied as dominated the chamber drawing her eyes to them. They were tall, muscular, beautifully proportioned, handsome, noble, even, thought Lizzie, breathtaking. Moreover they were almost entirely naked. This sight that excitÂed Lizzie even after all the nakedness she had seen and the sex she had experiÂenced both in dreams and Conrad's mad fantasy. They were naked but for a curious arrangement around their sex, their genitalia, their penises and balls. These were partly hidden, partly obscured by finely wrought lattice cages apÂparently made of silver and held in place by fine silver belts encircling their waists and thighs.
Men so magnificent should have been adopting dramatic poses to show off their musculature, their fine features and interesting, but tantalisingly obÂscured, sexual attributes. The reality was quite different. The men sat in posÂtures of dejection and despair. Even their black skin, which Lizzie thought, should have shone with vitality and health seemed dull. Three of the men craÂdled their heads in their hands. Two stared blankly into space. Only one seemed able to turn and look at Lizzie as she stood in the door.
"I... are you the Guard?" asked Lizzie rather lamely.
The affirmative reply came slowly and, whilst accurate, it did not greatly help Lizzie in understanding anything of what she saw before her.
Lizzie did not know what function the Guard performed, what the great problem was that the Chevalier had alluded to, nor what was the reason for the terrible state Lizzie found the Guard in.
"Who is your captain?" she said brightly in an attempt to lighten the somÂbre mood of the room.
"We have no captain. We are unled and useless. The key is lost." The only member of the Guard who had shown any interest in Lizzie turned away and hung his head. It was not a promising beginning for Lizzie.
"What key? I do not understand."
The man turned to her, "the key that releases our spears for the ceremoniÂal. Without the key we cannot parade, cannot perform our duty." His hand waved downwards towards the silver cage around his penis. Lizzie bent to look closer. The silver work was indeed of the highest quality, beautifully made and forming an enclosure. Lizzie's eyes looked within at the man's penis. Her adventures both in her remarkably vivid dreams and in this strange place had exposed her to a succession of penises, she was almost a connoisÂseur, her interest and fascination aroused by what she had seen and done over the last weeks. The penis nestled within its cage, soft and at rest lying across its ball sack, dark and wrinkled with only a little lighter brown of the glans showing through at its end where the foreskin did not fully cover the smooth head. Lizzie wanted to touch it and stroke it to see what it would look like ready for use, fully erect.
"This cage surely must open," she thought to herself. She could see where the metal appeared to be jointed, appeared to be hinged. The man moved his thighs and sighed. The movement of his thighs as they opened a little revealed, hanging just below the silver cage, a small heart shaped padlock securing a contrivance of rings holding the whole silver assembly together.
"It's locked," said Lizzie out loud and really to herself. But the man anÂswered.
"Alas, all locked and we do not have the key. It has been lost, been mislaid we know not how."
"You poor man," said Lizzie and began to stroke his thigh close by the silÂver cage, "but why, why are your cocks locked up?"