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“Hold these for me, will you, Love?” Lockwood said slipping his family’s ring onto her thumb and the other two he liked to wear on her ring finger. He leaned down and kissed her cheek before walking to the practice area where he would prepare for the gold medal bout. Lucy blushed as she watched him walk away.
“Damn Lu,” Norrie whistled as she pulled her friend away towards Team Great Britain’s Athletes Spectators Box where they would watch the match. “I see now why you never came back to our dorm,”
“Shut up,” Lucy told her as they made their way to the box, waving to a few of their fellow countrymen already there.
“They’re so loud,” Quill Kipps complained to Norrie, coming up behind them. “Thank god I found a handsome host to take me in,” he said trying to garner sympathy. Neither girl paid him any mind, they were watching the women’s bronze medal bout below. Both had learned in recent days how dramatic Kipps was.
“It’s the city of love, someone was bound to find your face pretty,” Norrie teased as she watched the Spanish representative get a touch. “Think they’ll win?” She asked Kipps and Lucy. Lucy didn’t answer, she was spinning Lockwood’s family ring around her thumb.
“I have no doubts,” Kipps said seriously for once. He glanced down at the floor just as Kat Godwin, Kipps and Lockwood’s fellow fencing teammate, scored the final point needed for her to take the bronze medal. Lucy and Norrie cheered as the girl raised her mask, smiled, and waved to the crowds. The women were cleared off the floor quickly thereafter to get ready for the men’s gold medal bout.
Lucy watched as Lockwood strolled confidently up to his mark. He glanced to one section of the stands where she knew his family was sitting and then he glanced over to the athlete’s box and gave her a wink before lowering his mask.
Kipps whistled lowly, “You must have magical powers to have him winking at you before the biggest bout of his life,”
“No magic, just a killer right hook,” Norrie said with a grin. Lucy barely heard them. She was spinning Lockwood’s ring on her finger as she watched him raise his foil.
The Opening Ceremonies
“Why do we have to wear these stupid clothes anyway?” Lucy complained to her teammate. She much preferred the leggings and athletic shirts she usually wore for shooting practice and competitions.
“Because we have to represent our country and not look like the fucking northerners we are,” Norrie reminded her. The two girls had made their dreams come true and joined Team Great Britain’s shooting team just in time for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Lucy with her Shotgun and Norrie with her Pistol. Growing up in such a rural area as Cheviot Hills meant that both girls had grown up hunting, and with their parents’ finances being as poor as they were both girls often had to help put food on the table from a young age.
“Well, don’t you two clean up nice?” Ned said coming up to them and roping his arms around their shoulders. They had just gotten off the bus from the Athletes Village to the arena where the opening ceremonies would be held.
“Disgusting Shaw!” Norrie said, pushing him away. He was one of their teammates on rifle and was more than a little annoying.
“Come on you two, let me introduce you to some of my friends,” he said, not at all perturbed by being physically shoved away. Lucy looked at Norrie pleadingly, trying to make her eyes as puppy dog-like as she could.
“Don’t even try it, Carlyle,” Norrie warned. “We’re in Paris, at the fucking Olympics!” She cheered. “Let’s take advantage, let’s meet people, have some fun! Kiss a few boys and girls,” she teased her friend.
“Fine,” Lucy groaned as she let Norrie lead her to where Ned had gone.
Don’t get her wrong, she was so excited to be at the Olympics. This was one of her dreams come true. However, she didn’t like the tight skirt they had put her in or the clingy top. Someone from Team GB had found her and Norrie and almost slathered them in makeup to ensure they looked good for any photos or social media that they might end up in. As much as she hated it, she could admit it wasn’t a terrible idea. She had already gotten caught in a TikTok video for a German athlete and she knew she was in the background of several British pictures. She just didn’t feel like herself and she hadn’t eaten and she was tired from practice earlier so she was grumpy.
“Ah guys, here they are,” She heard Ned say as she and Norrie joined him and a group of people that all seemed to be their age. A tall, imposing woman with more than enough confidence, a man with curly hair and glasses who was talking about some sort of history of the Olympic parade of athletes, and an older man with reddish blonde hair who was arguing with one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen in her life. If she felt like she was playing dress up in her opening ceremonies outfit. He looked like he was born to wear the suit and tie the men were dressed in. There had to be something wrong with him for him to look that incredible.
“The two Scots, right?” The beautiful man said turning to look at them. And there it was, she thought to herself.
“Scottish?” She heard herself scoff.
“Yes?” He seemed confused.
“Just because we’re from up north does not mean we’re Scottish,” She growled.
“You’re not?”
“We’re not,” Norrie said turning to glare at Ned.
“Don’t mind Shaw and Lockwood,” the girl told them stepping between the two shooters and their prey. “They’re both idiots, I’m Kat, a fencer,” she said sticking her hand out.
“Norrie, pistol,” Lucy turned to look at Norrie. The girl had been excited about meeting more athletes but the vitriol in her tone said otherwise now. She knew better than anyone how much Norrie hated people questioning her nationality. The Whites had lived in Cheviot Hills for generations and yet people constantly asked Norrie if her mother had dallied with a Scottish highlander since she was the only White to have red hair.
“I’m Lucy, I compete in shotgun,” she said sticking out her hand to shake Kat’s.
“Come on, these four are the worst,” Kat said pulling them away. “Especially if you’re interested in using some of those condoms they stocked for us. I swear coming to the Olympics with those idiots is like being back in my parents' house in secondary school,” Kat confided to them.
The tension broken now that they were away from the stupid boys, the girls got to talking about their respective hometowns, sports, and any athletes they thought were cute.
“So,” Lucy asked the question that they were all thinking, “Do you think you have a chance?” They all knew what she meant by that.
“I can’t win gold,” Kat sighed. “The Italian contingent is too strong, but I might make the podium if one of the Americans loses,” she confided. “And you two?”
“I’ll be lucky to medal,” Norrie said ruefully. “In England, I’m one of the best,” she paused for a moment. “But the world, I don’t think I have a snowball’s chance in hell…” she trailed off as an official signaled that it was time for their group to move forward. “But let’s just say, I’m ready to be Elsa in two days,” she said with a grin as she walked on.
“And you?” Kat asked Lucy as the girl smiled at her friend’s attitude. Both girls knew that Norrie’s chance of medaling was slim to none, but her friend’s confidence was inspiring.
“I’m going to win,” Lucy said confidently, as she followed her friend.
“I guess I’ll have to medal then, so I can match you two,” Kat said with a grin. The three girls strode out onto the world stage.
“Team Great Britain!” A voice called out in English, followed by the French translation.
The three froze for a minute as they took in the sights around them. The stadium was packed with people cheering, lights were flashing, and volunteers lined their pathway. It was frankly overwhelming. Kat grabbed her phone and quickly yanked Norrie and Lucy into her space so she could take a selfie. Lucy smiled at the image of the three of them on the screen. She had done it, she was here.
The joy of the moment quickly drained as someone roughly grabbed her wrist.
“Stop holding things up you annoying bitch,” Jacobs, one of her and Norrie’s older teammates, hissed at her as he squeezed her wrist hard.
That was it.
Jacobs had hated her from the moment she’d made the team. Partly because he didn’t like women being in the sport but mostly because she was better than him. He had been pulling all sorts of childish things, like messing with her equipment, body checking her in passing, and leaving nasty notes in her locker, but this was the most physical he had gotten. She could smell the whiskey on his breath. He went to yank her arm harder but before he could her instincts kicked in and she socked him in the mouth. Because he had been drinking he was down for the count.
“Lucy!” Norrie shouted, and Lucy realized what she had done. She had punched Jacobs. At the Opening Ceremonies.
“Shit,” she whispered.
“Lucy right?” A deep soothing voice asked her. She turned and there was the handsome man that had asked if she was a Scot. “Lucy?” He asked. And she realized she hadn’t answered him. She couldn’t speak, her throat was closing up and it was getting harder to breathe, so she just nodded. “That was a beautiful punch,” he told her with an unfairly charming smile. “I saw him grab you,” he told her as he gently took her arm in his hands to examine as well as to pull her closer to the edge of their contingent. “That will bruise but it won’t keep you from competing right?” He asked her as he gently let go.
“No, “ she said, shaking her head. “But…” She had just punched one of her teammates in front of the entire world, surely she would be reprimanded and asked to leave?
“Don’t worry about it, George caught the whole thing on camera, and I can smell the alcohol coming off of him from here. I know Jacobs was a staple of the British Shooting team for years but I’ve heard through the grapevine that a northern girl with a shotgun is the future,” he said with a smile. Lucy glanced over and saw the curly-haired man showing his phone to an official and Ned talking to a Team GB personnel while the older man and Ned stood guard over the fallen form of Jacobs. Several other GB members were also taking up guard around him and doing their best to shield Lucy and the beautiful man from view. Lucy was shocked to see some of her shooting teammates, as well as a few others she recognized from the journey over.
“Thanks,” she told him.
“Lockwood,” he said sticking out his hand.
“Lucy,” she muttered as the Team GB representative came over with an Olympics official. The official spoke in French and she was going to ask for an English translation when Lockwood began to speak back.
“Are you alright Ms. Carlyle? Would you still like to walk?” The team GB person asked her.
“Can I?” she asked.
“Of course, you were only defending yourself. Mr. Shaw explained what’s been going on and Mr. Lockwood appears to be doing the same, we’ll sort this out after the ceremony,” the rep assured her before he walked over to where Jacobs was still on the ground with some medical personnel around him. Lockwood finished up his conversation and used his hand on her back to guide her to the tail end of the Great Britain contingent. The teammates who had been guarding Jacobs and obscuring Lucy and Lockwood surrounded them. Lucy was thankful that they had so many athletes and that the pathway was so thin that it took longer for large contingents to walk through. Hopefully, no one had seen too much, it would be just her luck to end up on the front page news for punching out her teammate at the Olympics instead of winning the gold medal.
“Only you would make headlines by punching someone out instead of winning gold,” Norrie teased in an attempt to lighten the moment.
“Mum will be disowning me,” Lucy told her.
“She already kicked you out,” Norrie reminded her.
“What?” Lockwood asked.
“Long story, and speaking French on my behalf doesn’t unlock it,” Lucy snipped back. Norrie took her uninjured arm and squeezed.
“Thank you for whatever you said to the official, we’ve been dreaming of this since we started getting scouted,” Norrie told Lockwood. “And I guess thank you too, Shaw,” she said.
“Jacobs was a massive prick,” Ned told her with a blush on his cheeks at the compliment.
“Thank you,” Lucy told Lockwood.
“You don’t deserve to miss out on this because of that twat,” Lockwood told her as he gestured to the crowd. Lucy smiled softly as she glanced around. It was incredible.
Team Great Britain eventually made their way to the end of the parade and they were allowed to spread out and mingle with other countries’s athletes, however, their group stayed together. Lucy learned that the curly-haired boy was named George and he was on the inaugural squash team. Quill Kipps, or Kipps as everyone called him, was on the fencing team with Lockwood and Kat.
“How did you all become friends?” Norrie asked them.
“We all went to school together,” Kat said gesturing to George, Ned, and Lockwood.
“And I kicked his arse at Nationals,” Lockwood said with a smirk as he grinned at Kipps.
“Whatever,” the older man said as he went off in search of some of his other friends.
“Is this your first games?” Lucy asked him.
“It is,” Lockwood said. “My mum was a skier and competed in Lillehammer in ’94,” he told her. “My sister and my dad were never into sports the way my mum and I were, but they’re proud of me just the same,”
“Must be nice,” Lucy told him.
“I’m lucky,” he confided. “They never pushed me into this, they’ve let me make my own decisions,” he paused for a minute as he smiled, “and my own mistakes,”
“You’ve made mistakes?” Lucy said with mock surprise.
“Oh many, the most egregious of which is assuming you were from Scotland when Ned told us he had two fiery Northern teammates,” he told her with a rueful grin. “Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?”
“I think I can,” Lucy said with a smile.
“Lucky me,” he grinned.
Neither saw the curious looks from their friends as they continued to talk, completely absorbed in one another in ways none of their companions had seen before.
“Well I better warn Quill to avoid their dorm,” Kat told Norrie.
“Please, he was planning to find an Italian or a Frenchman tonight,” George scoffed.
“George, where did you go?” A nasal voice belonging to a pale young man with an unfortunate bowl cut asked as he approached the group.
“Away from you Vernon, not everyone wants a 45-minute lecture on the history of Ralph Lauren and their partnership with outfitting Team USA,” George groaned. Kat’s eyes lit up at the sight of the awkward man.
“I’d be very interested,” she all but purred.
“Kat has a type,” Ned observed as she began to question the quickly reddening Bobby Vernon.
“She likes them awkward and innocent,” George agreed.
“Who’s her roommate?” Norrie asked.
“Technically she has one, but her parents are loaded so they got her a hotel,” George told her.
“You say that like she’s the only one of us who got a hotel room,” Ned scoffed.
“You’re all bloody rich, aren’t you?” Norrie asked.
“100%” George answered her.
“Perfect, then I know who drinks are on after the ceremony,” Norrie cheered.
“That would be me for inadvertently implying you were Scottish,” Ned said raising his hand.
“You may just be a good teammate after all, Shaw,” she said squeezing his shoulder.
“Hey!”
“You didn’t have to get my drink,” Lucy told Lockwood as they crowded into a Parisian bar not far from Athletes Village. It was packed with people from every country, at least those who weren’t competing the next day.
“You are much smaller than me, and you would have been crushed in the crowd,” Lockwood informed her as he handed her a vodka soda while taking a sip from his own whiskey glass.
“I knocked out a grown man,” Lucy pointed out. The official ruling after the end of the Opening Ceremony was that Jacobs would be asked to leave Team Great Britain and they would fly out a replacement for him in the morning. Luckily Shooting was not taking place until the day after so their team should be fine. Thanks to George’s filming, and Ned and Lockwood’s testimony to Jacob’s behavior prior to and during the Opening Ceremonies, no one was blaming Lucy for her very natural reaction to being assaulted.
“And that was incredibly attractive, but punching out one asshole does not mean that people will move out of your way,” Lockwood said. Lucy pouted at that statement.
“Says you,” she muttered.
“You are adorable even more so now that I know you could take me out,” Lockwood told her sincerely.
“Adorable?” Lucy asked.
“I thought I’d start there and work up to the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” he told her seriously.
“You’re kidding?”
“I’m not,”
“But..”
“Team GB has been abuzz with news of a headstrong girl leading the British Shooting team to victory. According to some, your sheer stubbornness has inspired all of your teammates to the point that we stand a decent chance of grabbing a medal for the first time in a while,” Lockwood informed her.
“I don’t like to lose,” she told him.
“Neither do I,” he said with a wolfish grin.
“You are something Mr. Lockwood,” Lucy told him.
“As much as I love hearing you call me that, I’d prefer you call me Anthony in public,” he said with a gleam in his eye.
“Anthony,” she said, tasting the way his name rolled off her tongue. It felt almost forbidden to call him that when all she had heard his friends call him was Lockwood.
“Scratch that, you can’t call me that in public either,” his gaze darkened as he pinned her with his dark eyes. Lucy felt trapped in his sights, much like the animals she had hunted when she was younger. She was no longer the predator in the room. And what was worse, she liked being the prey.
“And why is that?” She paused. “Anthony,” she tacked on at the end.
“Because I am liable to get you in the news once again for something not at all related to your athletic talent,” he growled.
“I think public indecency beats aggravated assault,” she told him cheekily.
“It doesn’t when I’m the only one who wants to see you naked,” he told her downing his glass.
“Then I hope you grabbed condoms on your way out,” She breathed out.
“Hard to miss them when they’re laid out on your bed, and in the hallways and at the entrance and exit to the village,” he said.
“Yours or mine?” she asked.
“Mine is a hotel room with better sheets and room service,” Lockwood whispered.
“Yours then,” she said as she downed her own glass and took his hand to make their way out of the bar. Lockwood was careful to keep her on the inside away from the street and he made sure not to stress her bruised wrist.
The two spent the rest of the night and the next day, up until their respective practices, in each other's arms. They attended each other's competitions and cheered one another on. Before each shooting event, Lucy would undo her friendship bracelet from Skull, one of her best friends at University, and put it on Lockwood’s wrist for safekeeping, and before each fencing bout, Lockwood would settle his rings on her fingers. Lockwood was there when Lucy took gold and helped her to cheer Norrie on when the English woman took silver in a major upset. They watched as Ned kissed Norrie in congratulations and laughed when he turned bright red at her kissing him back. They cheered George and Bobby on in Squash though neither had medalled, and they commiserated with Kipps when he was knocked out of the competition early by a younger German.
They found out that they went to universities in London surprisingly close to one another. Lockwood was studying law and she was pursuing art and art restoration. They had made plans to explore Paris after the end of their competitions, and now there was one bout left.
Men’s Gold Medal Bout
Lucy squeezed Norrie's hand tight as the match dragged on. Kipps and George explained things to the two shooters who had no clue what was going on.
“This is it,” George said. Lockwood needed only one more point. Lucy held her breath and watched. Just a few moments later Lockwood joined her in the Gold Medal Club. She saw a tear in his eye at the medal ceremony as they played God Save the King. She had cried similarly at her own ceremony. And after he stepped down from the podium he made his way straight to her. She went to offer him back his rings but instead, he pulled her close, leaned down, and kissed her hard on the mouth for all to see.
The next morning the headlines read:
More than Just Olympic Rings in the Future for Gold Medalist and Novice Boxer Lucy Carlyle and Gold Medalist Andrew Lockwood?