Chapter 8

“Claire! Claire! Wake up!...”

The voice that was pulling her from the deep sleep that she had collapsed into after de Launay had left her, seemed distant and had an unmistakable Scottish accent. Claire tried to move and open her eyes to find that someone was cutting the ropes with which de Launay had tied her to her bed. She still couldn’t focus on the face of the person speaking to her but she instinctively called to her.

“Jamie! Oh Jamie, you are here!...”. And in that instant she sadly realized that was not he but a handsome boy who had just finished untying the last rope. She also noticed that the young man had put an old filthy blanket over her body, the first thing in a long time that covered her nakedness.

“No, Claire, I’m not James. My name is Robert McKinnon and I’m a distant cousin and a his close friend. I’ve been here on duty at the Bastille for a few months but I went to Scotland and only returned today and I heard that you locked up here. Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here but you have to be strong and trust me. I’ve already let James escape, soon I’ll make you escape too.”

“Where’s Jamie? - asked anxiously the woman, lifting on the bed and covering herself modestly with the blanket.

“Claire, you must be strong... - the young man began to say with visible embarrassment - James is back in Scotland. He left you... - and under the shocked and distressed gaze of the woman, he resumed - He could no longer stay here. The rumors that have been spread about you...”

“Voices? What voices?...” the astonished woman asked.

“The rumor is now on everyone’s lips in Paris and in Versailles: they say that you are a whore in the service of King George, that you have offered to make love with the King of France in the most obscene ways and positions possible, having a great enjoyment, and then with many guards of the court. Many nobles reported that for months they had paid sex with you, even some ladies claimed that she had received from you the offer to make love together. Madame de Pompadour said to have seen you ... in his stables, completely naked surrounded by five of his grooms, who fucked you in every hole at the same time while you ... with your hands ... They are falsehoods, I know. But now in Paris and at the palace they are talking about nothing but the modern Semiramis of France. There are those who even attribute to you having had sex with animals...”

“But that’s not true! It’s not true!...” Claire said bursting into tears.

“I know, Claire. I have been here in Paris for a long time and I know how these things go: when someone falls into disgrace in the eyes of the king, everyone turns their back on him and to acquire the sovereign’s complacency they lend themselves to spread false news against. James no longer knew who to believe, everyone laughed at him saying he was the greatest cuckold in France, the unwitting husband of a sex insatiable whore. And so he went back to Scotland, disappointed in you, after cursing you in the face to all his friends. I accompanied him to the port of Le Havre and secretly put him on a ship bound for Edinburgh. That is why I was not here when you arrived. I would try to defend you from those who hurt you and I will try to do it now, as much as I can. In the meantime I brought you this blanket, but as soon as I can I will get you some clothes: I don’t want the guards to see you naked. Unfortunately de Launay has given all his officers carte blanche to make of you that whatever they want, he said you are the new Bastille’s whore, available to everyone. I just hope the whole troop doesn’t take advantage of it too. But I’ll try to stop them, I promise you. Now I have to escape, I can’t help myself anymore, I’m on duty at another wing of the prison, but I’ll be back to see you soon. I promise you.”

And he left her and he gave her an affectionate kiss on her cheek.

Claire were amazed and shocked by what she had just heard. Jamie had left, he had left her here at the mercy of these people, these monsters ... she hugged the blanket that Robert had brought her, the only thing besides the promises of the young man that still protected her.

She looked around in bewilderment, recognizing the cell in which de Launay had locked her up after subjecting her to that humiliating bath and cleaning of her internal organs, violated by so many cruel men. She instinctively put her hand to her pubis, finding it for the first time completely shaved like that... “ ... of a slave...” she immediately thought, remembering de Launay’s words. That mound of smooth skin, from which her sex slit protruded, was a bit like her stigma infamous for her, the declaration to everyone that she was willing to be used, fucked, raped as the new masters preferred. De Launay wanted to bend her, forcing her to accept the idea that she was a slut, a kinky woman who deeply enjoyed the brutalities she received, but she knew she wasn’t like that. But she was worried because she actually enjoyed her during the violence she had suffered, both in the square and here at the Bastille. Maybe she wasn’t her fault, maybe her body needed that and she couldn’t resist making her feel that pleasure, after a continuous and brutal stimulation of her most sensitive areas. She was therefore a prisoner of this place and her body at the same time. But now she had found a good soul who would help her, a man who had not thought of raping her by taking advantage of the fact that she was naked and tied to her bed but rather he had untied her and had covered her. The memory of her tender kiss on her cheek, almost like a boy’s when he first met her, moved her about her and made her feel less alone and abandoned to her fate.

While she was taken by these thoughts she heard the sound of the key turning in the lock and soon after three soldiers in their red uniform of the Bastille guardhouse entered the cell. Their gaze did not bode well.

“Good morning, sweetheart! Have you had your beauty sleep?” the first said, as Claire got up from the bed, covering her body with the blanket, and tried to move back towards the back of the cell. But one of her three was more enraptured than she was and cut her retreat, so that she was in an instant surrounded by her.

“How did you get that blanket? Did you suck someone’s dick, huh? Or did you offer them your nice aristocratic ass?” she said grinning the second approaching.

“If you paid in kind then you are a business woman, fine. This means that you will be able to evaluate our proposal well. We are the guardhouse of this corridor, we are the ones who will bring you the food and watch over your cell. You know, We may even forget about you and give your bowl to some other prisoner. And then we may fall asleep while your cell is open and you are chained in here. There are about three hundred guards here at the Bastille just waiting to come and meet you, like say you educated people... “ ... in the biblical sense...”.

“Well, I don’t think any of us would come in here to say prayers with her...” said the third, who was certainly the dumbest - Say a little, your grace, but what does this “Semiramis” mean, that I hear repeat for days about you?

Claire looked around in fear, immediately understanding the intentions of the trio. There was no escape, she was lost, and Robert was too far away to hear her.

“I’m getting impatient, Your Grace. Will you be so kind as to make me as cultured as you are?”

“Semiramis... - Claire began to say - she was a queen of antiquity, a woman known ... for his obscene habits...”

“Madame wants to be modest because she disfigures the ancient Semiramis - said the second, who seemed the one with more authority in the group - This Semiramis was a great slut, who fucked all her husband’s soldiers, even three or four at a time. In order to be freer to to do her filths, she stabbed the king lo in the back and took power, to be able to fuck the whole court with impunity. Like Madame de Salope here, who was fucking half Versailles behind her husband, from king to the last of the grooms, and he enjoyed it like a great slut: we heard how he screamed with pleasure while he was with that old man the Marquis and with those of the sixteenth dungeon of the north tower.

“What a great whore! ... But now, my dear, your career is over!”

“I would not say, - intervened the first, who was behind the woman, - let’s say that she has only changed the range of his clientele: from the court of Versailles to the court of the Bastille. We have the queen of whores here with us!” All three laughed at that vulgar joke. Claire resentfully looked red in anger.

“I’m not a whore!”

“In this case - said the second guardian annoyed - we will not waste time protecting you from all those who will come to torment you. We will chain you to the wall and leave the door open, and after you being fucked by us, the whole garrison will fuck you. Happy?”