Tommy's Second Year at College

This story follows on from Tommy's First Year at College, which should be read first. There is a key to the identities of the characters on my Biography page. Click on my name, then on the Biography tab, and then scroll down to the bottom.

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Chapter 41 Martin and Tommy's Second Martinmas term

Tommy and Martin had after three months now got well settled into their apartment in Saint Saviour's Street in Camford. By the first Monday of the Martinmas term in Camford University, they had completed their vacation work and checked out their schedule for the next two terms until their exams. A preliminary meeting with their respective college tutors led to them deciding which lecture courses they were going to attend. As usual there was some overlap, but about 50% were different, so they only met perhaps once or twice per day, and even their daytime periods of private study took place in different college libraries. Most nights they ate together at the Sparrowhawk or a student restaurant, but were obliged to dine in their respective colleges twice per week. Of course they fixed the same nights, one of which was Sunday, so that they were able to eat together at lunch and in the evenings about five times a week.

Tommy's tutor Dr Featherstone had given Tommy at their first tutorial session an outline programme for what he should do in the two terms before the first public examination. He also asked Tommy about his plans for the rest of his course. Tommy said that he wanted to major in Italian for his last two years, and Dr Featherstone said that as Boni's modern language tutor did not deal with Italian, Tommy would be 'farmed out' to a tutor in another college. Dr Featherstone recommended Dr Cagliari, the Italian Tutor at Buckingham College, who some years before had taught Tommy's brother Luke. "I will get in touch with him next term and arrange a preliminary meeting with you," he said. "I will also arrange it with the college, because money has to change hands!"

So the term continued, with lectures, reading and some translation work taking up Tommy's work time, and in his leisure time, he and Martin went to concerts or to the cinema. Full-scale sex only happened about once per week, usually on Saturdays, but whenever one or other of them needed it urgently, a quick blow-job usually sufficed.

Conscious that so much social life in Camford University was concentrated among members of the same college, the Junior Common Room at Boni's that year had introduced an innovation: a weekly guest night and black-tie dinner for undergraduates to invite members of other colleges to dine with them, or even friends from outside the university. The meal was held in the college function room, adjacent to the Hall and enabled college members with friendships or relationships outside the college to enjoy their friends' company. The number of places was of course limited, and the price and quality rather higher than the standard college meal, but offered much more scope for hospitality than the old guest-table system. A bar was open until midnight, and all visitors had to be off the premises by 12-30. Tommy availed himself of this opportunity every two weeks and he and Martin were able to enjoy themselves in company together in college. More than 70% of the guests were members of the opposite sex to the hosts, but there were a substantial number of same-sex guests, not all of whom were in relationships of course.

In preparation for the first of these events, the question arose about clothing. Tommy already had the necessary outfit, although he wore it with reluctance, because his fathers had insisted on buying him a dinner suit as soon as he had stopped growing. Martin, on the other hand, did not have such garments, so he went to one of the top men's outfitters in Camford and purchased a very expensive number, together with a frilly dress shirt with lace collar and cuffs. His tie too was of fine silk, though it was impossible to distinguish it from Tommy's cotton-polyester tie! "I've persuaded my father to foot the bill for this outfit!", he said.

However, Martin had got what he had paid for: the black and white outfit suited his slim figure admirably. He looked stunning. The first time Martin put it on, Tommy looked at his handsome red-haired friend and was filled with both tenderness and lust at his beauty. He got an immediate hard-on and wished for nothing else but to strip his friend naked and ravish him.

Tommy decided to make the first of these dinners his official coming-out in the college, so he introduced Martin to all his college friends as his boyfriend. This caused some surprise among his acquaintances, but was welcomed by those who knew him well. They now understood why he had decided to spend his second year living out. Carol, who attended one of the dinners with yet another boyfriend, and to the latter's annoyance spent quite some time talking to Martin, was clearly impressed with the figure he cut, and she allowed him to buy her a drink. The boys would both come on foot to the dinner, as they did not want to cycle home if they were the worse for drink. They walked home rather unsteadily, hand-in-hand.

Towards the end of term, Tommy was invited to attend the President's drinks party with other second-year students. Three such parties were held for each year of study of the undergraduates, and the President and his wife circulated with drinks, snacks and conversation. It followed the usual pattern of such events, finishing promptly five minutes before formal dinner at 7 pm. The President read assiduously the labels on the students' lapels, and when he came to Tommy and saw his name he said, "You must be Jonathan Singleton-Scarborough's son."

"Yes," replied Tommy, "both my fathers are honorary fellows of Boni's. They were one of the first gay couples in the college to come out of the closet, back in the 1980s."

"And this academic year, across the whole of the junior college members, I understand that we have ten gay and three Lesbian couples in the college that are out of the closet. How many there are still in the closet of course, I have no idea!" said the President. "Of course my predecessor, Lady Howarth, was a big supporter of the gay community in the university, to the extent that her marriage broke up when she defended her gay son against his father! How things have changed since then! Are you gay yourself, and if so, is your partner a member of the college?"

"Yes I am, and no, my partner's at Sanguis," replied Tommy. "He's the reason that I am living out of college this year! The following year I shall, all being well, be in Italy on an Erasmus year, but I will be back living in college for my final year."

"l hope that you have a successful Erasmus year, and good results in your first public exam," said the President, and moved on.

On Wednesday of the last week of term, the chapel choir held a public Advent carol service. Martin said that he wanted to come and hear Tommy sing, and they would go on to the Venezia for a meal afterwards. Most of the visitors had to sit in the ante-chapel, but Tommy arranged for Martin to sit in the main body of the chapel. One of the numbers was Orlando Gibbons' anthem

This is the record of John

, and Tommy sang the tenor solo. Afterwards, Martin said, "I never realized how well you can sing. Maybe you should consider professional musical training like your father David!"

Chapter 42 Christmas at Rockwell's Barn

It was Christmas before Martin made his first visit to Rockwell's Barn. Since Tommy's grandparents had moved in, they occupied the second largest bedroom on the first floor. That room had previously been the guest bedroom, but the latter was now moved to the top floor, adjacent to the prayer room, which, when he was staying there, Tommy used for his evening prayers. At night, they had that floor to themselves, and as their room was adjacent to the study, they could also do vacation reading undisturbed by the rest of the house. David's parents now had difficulty with steps, and found the lift that with great foresight had been installed when the house was converted from a barn, very valuable to them to move around the house.

As this was Martin's first meeting with David's parents, he had to undergo the ordeal which everyone who joined the Scarborough family had to undergo, of 'evaluation.' Thirty years before, this had first happened when Jon became David's partner, and was now a sort of routine. What Mr Scarborough had originally considered as a scrutinizing process had now lost most of its 'third degree' character, and just become a friendly interrogation, much less demanding than the ordeal that Martin had been put through by Jon and David, but nevertheless involving pretty shrewd questioning. However, this time Tommy and Martin were interviewed together, and most of the hard questions centred around Tommy's bisexuality. "Since you both want children, how are you going to manage it? By adoption, by surrogacy or by one of you finding an accommodating woman? asked Mr Scarborough.

"Tom and Luke were very successful finding a mother for their children. Maybe we could do the same," said Tommy.

"But will you ever find a woman prepared to become number three in a man-man relationship?" asked Mr Scarborough. "It's going to require a lot of love and self-control! I'm not really expecting you to answer these questions at this stage. You've both got to graduate and get jobs before you can even consider civil partnership or marriage and family life. But it's important that you consider all the alternative ways of becoming parents and bear in mind all the consequences, because the wrong decision then could not just get you into deep water, but could destroy your relationship."

"If we went down Tom and Luke's route, it would have to be Tommy who fathered the babies. I couldn't touch a woman!" said Martin.

"Tommy, could you father a child and still let Martin fuck you?" asked Mr Scarborough to Tommy's total surprise.

Not wanting to enter into sexual details with his grandfather, Tommy said, "Yes, if we could find the right kind of woman without money coming into the transaction. But I know that the law is so heavily weighted in favour of the woman that we couldn't just expect her to give birth, feed her baby for six months and then walk out of our lives. We would want to share parenthood with her, and even perhaps marry her as long as she was happy with moving into a household with two men. But all this has to be a long time into the future. Finding the right woman might prove impossible."

"Well, I think that we have carried out as much discussion as possible. Things might change in the next few years. Welcome to the family, Martin. My descendants are a crazy lot!" And the old man kissed him and said, "and now, let's have a drink!"

The only other family staying for Christmas and New Year were Cathy, Tommy's sister and her husband Edmund and baby Hugh. Luke, Tommy's brother could never leave Trabizona over the holiday period, and Dom and Sandro and their daughters were spending Christmas at Getheringthwaite with Dom's brother's family to meet their new nephew, the future Marquess, Gregory Philip Henry Thomas Overton, who was now nearly a year old.

Rockwell's Barn had a 15-metre indoor pool. In the days before Cathy's family arrived, Jon said to Tommy and Martin "You boys are welcome to use the pool in the mornings, David and I use it in the afternoons. But if you want to swim naked, please close the blinds on the window into the hall. No-one wants to see two naked men with partial erections fooling around in the water!"

Tommy blushed. He whispered to Martin, "I never thought of nude swimming, but it seems a nice idea!" Martin just grinned. "But we'd better not do it when Cathy is in the house," continued Tommy, "she will complain, as she always has done about nude swimming, as if we were going to pee in the water or something! Personally I love Hockney's paintings of naked men swimming. If I had money to spare, I would buy an original."

Christmas followed its usual Ixton pattern. Tommy accompanied his fathers and grandparents to the midnight mass in the parish church. Martin assisted Jon in cooking the Christmas dinner, as much preparation having been done as possible the previous day. The lady who cooked for David's parents came and assisted in the kitchen for a couple of hours, but had then to leave to see to her own family, who were home for the festive season.

The weather was mild that year, and on Boxing Day, Jon, David, Tommy and Martin and Cathy and Edmund all went for a long walk, while little Hugh stayed with his great-grandparents. On their return, they all, including David's parents and Hugh, went for a pre-booked late lunch at the village pub, the Jellycotes Arms. The family had had a close association with the pub ever since Jon had stayed there when he was helping the builders reconstruct Rockwell's Barn, and about the beginning of the twenty-first century he had bought the pub to ensure its continued existence in an era when country pubs were being closed and turned into private houses. When he had found a good tenant, he was careful to charge a rent that was adequate to maintain the building, and improve it where necessary, but never to be so exorbitant that the tenant could not make a comfortable living. As usual Tim Ingledown was a fund of useful advice about rentals.

One morning between Christmas and the New Year, Jon and David summoned Cathy and Tommy to a meeting. "We need to discuss money," Jon said. "David's parents have been talking to me. When they moved in here, they put the proceeds for the sale of their house at Loxton, plus most of their savings, into a fund managed by Tim Ingledown. Its income will maintain them until they both die. The proceeds of the fund will then be divided among their grandchildren: Luke, you two, Jeroen's two children Andrew and Maria in Switzerland and Sandro and Bianca. David has no need of their money and there will be inheritance tax to pay, but whatever you get will be in cash and will be yours to do what you like with. What I want to talk to you two and Luke, whom I shall call up on Skype in a moment, about is the disposal of our property after David and I are both dead, and Tim Ingledown our trustee will of course be dead too by then. David and I have left our estates to each other, so the question of disposal will only arise after the second death.

"The main question is the fate of this house. I want it to remain in the family, so it would be useful to know which family member would like to live here permanently, and not use it as we have so often done in the past, as a place to spend weekends only. The same applies in lesser measure to the rest of our personal real estate: the flat in London, the house in Heemstede, the house in Montecatini-Terme, and the tiny little house in Madeira, not to mention the Jellycotes Arms. We would like each of you eventually to own something and wish to avoid selling any of the properties. Obviously not all the properties have the same value, but I don't think that matters if each one of you gets his or her first choice."

It was agreed that Cathy would get Rockwell's Barn, Luke would get the house in Montecatini-Terme, and Tommy would get the house in Heemstede and the Jellycotes Arms. The three would share ownership of the London flat and they left open the fate of the house in Madeira. Everyone was happy with their choice, and David and Jon arranged to see Tim Ingledown to amend their wills.

The boys enjoyed the holiday period. Each morning they had a swim before breakfast and then spent three hours on their vacation reading, avoiding mutual distractions like snogging, and after a brief lunch went out early for a walk. The weather was cold, but dry, and Tommy showed Martin several of his favourite walks. Several times in isolated spots, one or other of them would stop, clutch the other tightly and kiss him passionately. When Tommy was in his arms, Martin thought of Whitman's words,

We two boys together clinging, /one the other never leaving

. Often too, they walked holding hands.

Mr and Mrs Scarborough decided not to sit up to see the New Year in, but the rest of the family went, as they had done for years, to the Rockwells for supper and drinks. On January 2, Cathy, Edmund and Hugh returned home to Richmond and Tommy and Martin returned to Camford the following day. The following week, term began.

Chapter 43 Introducing Kenneth

One afternoon, late in January, Tommy and Martin found that their lecture had been cancelled, and left with a couple of free hours, they went to the Fitness Centre for a swim. They each swam 50 lengths, not racing, but keeping pretty well together. On emerging from the water, they went to the communal showers and took off their swimwear and began to wash themselves and their hair. Another guy entered the shower area and positioned himself next to the boys, placing himself so that he could inspect their genitals without appearing to do so. He pulled off his swimming shorts and began to wash his hair, closely observing the two men as he did so. Martin grinned at Tommy when it became apparent that the man was developing a fairly obvious hard-on, which seemed to cause him no embarrassment. "Do you two lads fancy a drink?" he asked, as they stepped out of the shower and began to dry themselves.

The man did not look like a lecherous old queen. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, and was tanned, muscular and fit-looking. His physique was certainly an advantage if he was looking for a pickup. So the boys, having looked at one another, said yes. They all got dressed and adjourned to the bar.

"What will you have?" he asked them.

Both asked for WLB, as West London Bitter was known, and two pints appeared on the bar. The stranger ordered a third for himself and they all went and sat near the window. "Do you come here often?" he asked them. "Not as often as we would like," said Martin, "we don't have much time during term. We're only here today because a lecture was cancelled. What about you?"

"I'm a PhD student," he said, "in history. I spend hours each day in the Watsonian, and I need a regular dose of exercise to keep fit. I also have a part-time job in a bookshop, which keeps me busy on Saturdays and Sundays. What do you two do? I presume that you're students?"

"Yes, we're second-years, both reading Classics."

"I don't know a lot of people in Camford, because I did my first degree in Birmingham. Are either of you interested classical music?"

"Yes, we both are."

"I'm also a musician. I play the oboe in a small chamber orchestra. We have a concert on Thursday evening in Islip College. Would you be interested in coming? Tickets are only £5. It's at 8 pm, and you could come and have a drink with the orchestra afterwards." As they had no other commitments that night, Tommy and Martin agreed to come. They then said goodbye and left.

On the Thursday, after a quick meal at the Sparrowhawk, the boys walked to Islip College and bought tickets. They were fairly close to the front. The programme was very enjoyable. There was a Mozart symphony, a couple of works for string orchestra and a Haydn symphony. The concert finished soon after ten, and the boys accompanied the musicians to the nearest pub. They broke up into groups to buy beer. Somehow, their host, who introduced himself as Kenneth MacAlpin, managed to secure a seat between Martin and Tommy at a table some distance from the other musicians. As they sipped their beer, Kenneth McAlpin unobtrusively slipped his arm round the waist of each of them. "Although this isn't the Randy Soldier," he said, naming one of Camford's gay pubs, "I know that you're both gay. Are you an item?"