Knightly Promises | Closed
Claire, or rather Claude Novak was in her last year of being a squire to Sir Gordon. Of course, nobody, but one other person, knew that she was really a girl. No, women were not permitted to be trained in any kind of combat. But as a child, Claire was always learning how to shoot a bow or swinging around a wooden sword. She’d imitate the knights she watched training and apparently became quite good.
By the time she was 11, she was already going by the name Claude and hiding the fact that she was a girl. She wanted nothing more than to learn to be a knight. To fight and protect those she cared about.
It was a tradition that the royal family would choose a boy to sponsor for a knighthood. Sometimes, they made it. Other times, they couldn’t cut it and decided to give up as a page or squire.
She’d been chosen because she’d beat all the other boys in her town in a small tournament. A tournament that the royal family happened to attend. It seemed like the eldest of the young princes was rather interested, and as he was soon to be a page himself, probably thought they could be friends. He was the one to sponsor her for knighthood. Something she would not squander.
About a year later, she hadn’t been as careful as she thought she was while she was getting a bath and he’d wandered in. After some thoroughly awkward spluttering on both sides, Claire had kicked him out. They talked about it later that night. To this day, he’s the only one that knows her secret.
However, a few nights ago, Sir Gordon had asked her to attend him in his tent on the field. It wasn’t uncommon for Knights to lie with their squires, especially on nights as cold as this one was. When she refused, politely of course, he took it upon himself to order her into his tent. That is how he found out. He’d opened her shirt and saw her bindings. His shock bought her enough time to get away from him and fix her clothes before being seen by anyone else.
But that wasn’t enough for him. Now, he was threatening her. Saying that he’d expose her if she refused to lie with him again. That he’d throw her into the middle of the camp showing her for what she was for all the men there to see.
So, for the last few days, she’s been trying to find a way out of this. A way to probably run away. But they were at war, and their camp was near the front lines. There wasn’t really anywhere for her to go and she wouldn’t put this burden on her single confidant.