Sir Launcelot gave him gold to spend, and clothes, and whenever the boy went where there were games or feats of strength he excelled in them all.
But always Sir Kay would taunt him with these words spoken to others, "How like you my boy of the kitchen?"
And so Fair-hands, the kitchen boy, continued in service for a year. At the close of the year came a lady to the court and told about her sister who was besieged in a castle by a tyrant who was called the Red Knight of the Red Laundes. But she would not tell her name, and therefore the King would not permit any of his knights to go with her to rescue her sister from the Red Knight, who was one of the worst knights in the world.
But at the King's refusal, Beaumains, or Fair-hands, as he was called, spoke, "Sir King, God thank you, I have been this twelvemonth in your kitchen, and have had my full sustenance, and now I will ask my two gifts that be behind."
"Ask, upon my peril," said the King.
"Sir, this shall be my two gifts: first, that you will permit me to go with this maiden that I may rescue her sister. And second, that Sir Launcelot shall ride after me and make me knight when I require it of him."
And both these requests the King granted. But the maiden was angry because, she said, he had given her naught but his kitchen page.
Then came one to Fair-hands and told him that his horse and armor were come for him. And there was a dwarf with everything that Beaumains needed, and all of it the richest and best it was possible for man to have. But though he was horsed and trapped in cloth of gold, he had neither shield nor spear.
Then said Sir Kay openly before all, "I will ride after my boy of the kitchen."