Chapter 32

Bar fleur, France. July 1069

Two months after the French defeat, Luke was standing on the shore of the Cotentin Peninsula in the fishing village of Bar fleur, watching his two divisions offload from their ships. Once again, he used his commercial empire to further his wife’s political goals. This time, it was his merchant ships to transport the army across the channel, and he would continue to use them to keep the troops supplied. Once the British Navy had commissioned enough supply ships, Luke wouldn’t need to use his ships. Soon the other source of loud noise attracted his attention. Looking to his left, Luke could watch as Pollyanna’s engineers worked to build a temporary port to facilitate the efficient offloading of supplies. Then Luke saw a shadow walk up behind him, and he smiled. There were times when he swore Polly was like Beetlejuice; say her name too many times, and she showed up.

“General Hall, it’s always a pleasure.”

“It is indeed. When do you plan to move out?”

“At dawn tomorrow. I’ll leave a brigade here to provide security.”

“A brigade, sir? Isn’t that overkill?”

“No, they will provide security for the whole peninsula.”

“Ah. Brittany then France still the plan.”

“It is, and you will remain here. I can’t afford to lose the best engineer in Europe.”

“Yes, sir. See you for dinner?”

“Of course.”

Pollyanna headed off to follow up on her daily problem list while Luke smiled to himself. Having Pollyanna with him made being away from his wife and lover easier. He did wish it was easier on her, though. Everyone in Marion’s inner circle knew about her marital problems, with most of the pain stemming from Pollyanna’s rocketing through the ranks while Matt was going in the other direction.

Matt had taken to proving himself incompetent with any complicated task. He seemed too locked into the old system where an officer advanced based on who he married or how much money he could shell out to buy a position. In the modern British Army, an officer was promoted based solely on merit, with seniority used as a tiebreaker. As Pollyanna proved herself an excellent commander and advanced, Matt was given fewer essential tasks, eventually landing a job as the army historian. Instead of blaming himself, he blamed Pollyanna and began cheating on her every chance he got.

Luke thought Pollyanna could do much better than the loser Matt ended up being, and it ashamed Luke to think Matt was once a good friend. He wondered how much longer things would go on before Pollyanna told Matt to fuck off and get out, which couldn’t happen soon enough for Marion and most of her inner circle.

The Matt problem soon took a back seat to immediate problems for Luke. None of the local nobles liked the changes implemented as soon as the British landed. Serfdom and slavery were banned outright, and any trying to force peasants to stay on their land would have all their wealth stripped from them. Luke hadn’t been in France a day before he stripped all the nobles on the Cotentin Peninsula of their wealth. That money was then used to pay the peasants for food, whose prices were set at the same levels as the market prices in Britain. This meant the cost of food on the Cotentin almost doubled overnight, making it very popular for French farmers to sell their produce to the invading army rather than their nobles.

One thing Luke wanted to do while in France was to redistribute some wealth from the nobility to the lower classes. He knew the French nobles would reestablish control after the British left, but hopefully, the lower classes would be better off. Maybe enough seeds would be planted in the lower classes so that the church and nobility would be held accountable in the future.

When it was finally dinnertime, Luke was glad; he was starving. It had been a long, hot, dusty day, and he was moving the army out in the morning. Walking into his tent, all his hardships were forgotten, replaced by a personal hardship with an emphasis on “hard.” In front of him was Pollyanna, with her black hair combed out and wearing one of Marion’s negligees. Not for the first time in his life, Luke was at a complete loss for words as he watched Pollyanna. There was no denying that even without both breasts, she was a gorgeous woman.

It had taken Marion almost a month to convince Pollyanna to cheat on Matt. Polly only consented because she and Matt hadn’t been intimate since her last child was born and needed to get laid. To make her statement permanent, Pollyanna knew she was ovulating and hoped Luke would plant a child in her.

“Polly, are you sure?”

“Yes. Matt and I haven’t been to bed in six months, and during that time, I know he has been with at least six women.”

“Damn. I’m sorry, Polly.”

“Why?”

“If I hadn’t promoted you, you and Matt would be happy.”

“We? maybe. Me? NO! Luke, I love my job and wouldn’t trade it for anything. You have pushed me to grow to heights I never thought possible, and just when I thought I was done, you forced me to grow more. Here,” she handed Luke a sealed letter from Marion, “this will explain everything.”

Luke broke the seal and read the letter before rereading it. Just to make sure he didn’t imagine anything, he read it one more time. It was one of the most outlandish letters he had ever received, and even with Marion’s seal on it, he had a hard time believing it. In the letter, Marion ordered Luke to take Pollyanna to bed and knock her up. When they returned to York, Pollyanna would join them in bed on a trial basis.

When Luke finished reading the letter, he found Pollyanna lying on the bed with a glass of wine in her hand and another drink on the small bed table. Guessing correctly, Luke took the other drink and drank half before removing his coat. After losing his pants, Luke lay beside Pollyanna, lightly running his fingers over her smooth ivory skin.

Pollyanna had begun getting moist when she slipped into Marion’s negligee and smelled her scent. That wetness didn’t compare to the floor now flowing between her legs. Feeling Luke’s rough fingers find her nipple through the negligee, Pollyanna’s breath caught as a small moan escaped her lips. Barely touching her, Luke managed to signal Polly to roll on her back, and once there, their lips locked.

It didn’t take Polly’s hands to find the edge of Luke’s shirt and pull up to remove it. In removing his shirt, she managed to get Luke tangled in the sleaves causing him to break out in laughter. Pollyanna giggled as she helped him out of his shirt, followed by his undershorts. With Luke naked, Pollyanna showed him some of the things Marion had taught her, like giving proper head.

This was the first time Pollyanna had ever sucked a cock. Matt thought it was dirty, not that he believed in foreplay; his idea of sex was wham bam, thank you, ma’am. Now, Pollyanna was sucking a cock that was at least twice as big as Matt’s and loving it. What Marion didn’t mention to Pollyanna was Luke loved eating pussy.

Luke was getting close to blowing his load when he pulled Pollyanna off his cock; he didn’t want to cum yet. Before she could ask, he rolled her on her back and kissed her toes. Slowly he worked his up her body, pushing the negligee up as he went. It surprised him when Luke got to her crotch and found it neatly trimmed; the last time he saw her pussy, it was overgrown with black hair; Gabriella had trimmed it a week before.

From between Pollyanna’s thighs, Luke could smell a heavy musk that went straight to his cock. It was everything he could do not to mount her right there, but he wanted to give her the best time of her life. Using his chin, Luke gently pushed Pollyanna’s legs apart, opening her pussy like the petals of a flower. What came next was a complete shock to Pollyanna. Instead of Luke’s hard cock sliding into her, she felt his hot wet tongue exploring her private area. She couldn’t stop the moaning that escaped her lips or her hands grasping the back of Luke’s head to hold it in place. She didn’t know what he was doing to her; her only thought was to keep him from stopping.

Luke was in no mood to stop for anything. Short of a massive enemy attack, there wasn’t a force on Earth to keep him from turning Pollyanna inside out. When Pollyanna’s first orgasm hit, she screamed as her thighs squeezed Luke’s head so tightly he thought his head might pop. As soon as the first orgasm passed, Luke started working on her second, then her third. The only reason Luke stopped was Pollyanna pushed his head away, she was too sensitive, and if he continued, she feared she might go mad.

What Luke did to her next bout drove her mad anyway. Before Pollyanna could recover from her orgasms, Luke climbed up her body and slid Little Luke into her parking space. Feeling Luke slide into her, Pollyanna’s eyes snapped open, and she tried to speak, but nothing came out of her mouth.

When Luke slid into her, the top of his penis rubbed her prominent clit, sending electrical shocks through her body, which didn’t happen when she was with Matt. The shocks threatened to consume her, and her first instinct was to fight back until Luke whispered in her ear.

“Let yourself go, Polly. Let your body tell you what to do.”

That was all it took for a massive orgasm to overtake Pollyanna. Her scream was beyond the range of human hearing as every muscle in her body wanted to break loose from the bones they were anchored to. The orgasms didn’t stop either; Polly wasn’t sure if she had one continuous orgasm or many smaller ones close together, but Luke took her places she had never been before.

Eventually, Luke started to tire, but he wasn’t done with Pollyanna by a long shot. He buried himself deep inside and wrapped his arms around her before rolling over and pulling her with him. When Polly opened her eyes, she was shocked to be on top of Luke with his cock buried deep inside her.

“Now you get to experience the “cowgirl” position. Just move your hips around until you find what you like the best.”

It didn’t take Pollyanna long to figure out that if she moved her hips in a circular motion, her clit would constantly rub against Luke’s pubic bone, and his cock would hit some sensitive spots inside her. She thought she was doing pretty good until Luke pinched her nipple with one hand and her clit with the other. The resulting orgasm caused her to see stars and collapse against Luke’s body. As he waited for her to recover, Luke rubbed her strong back and, finding some knots, worked the muscles to relieve them.

Pollyanna wore a goofy smile and had glazed eyes when she came to and looked into Luke’s eyes, where she could see his love for her. The tears hit her hard as Luke continued to rub her back and sides.

“Thank you, Luke. I’ve never had an experience like what you gave me, and should we never do this again, I will never forget it.”

“You’re welcome, darling. You know Marion invited you to our bed when we return.”

“I know, but I don’t want to stay in your bed, Luke. I couldn’t compete with your other women and don’t want to.”

“Do you still want me to give you a child?”

“God, yes! Wait, you haven’t put your stuff in me yet?” Luke shook his head no. “God, I might not survive until you do. How does Marion survive?”

“She’s used to it, and she starts working my cock as soon as I enter her. More than a few times, I have knocked her out cold from her massive orgasms.”

“Can we do it again, but when we do, can you focus on putting your baby juice inside me? Don’t worry about my pleasure; I’m unsure how much more I can survive.”

“Sure thing Polly.”

Luke rolled over to be on top again and began thrusting deep inside Pollyanna. Although he focused on his pleasure, she had two orgasms before he pumped his load inside her, triggering her last orgasm of the night and knocking her out cold. Seeing Polly asleep, Luke chuckled and pulled her tight against him as he pulled the blanket over their bodies to keep their drying sweat from giving them chills.

The next morning came too early for Luke as he groaned when one of his aids woke him. As he got up, Pollyanna woke up and staggered, standing up. Using a bucket of cold water, they gave each other a whore’s bath before getting dressed. Both had plenty to keep them busy so they couldn’t repeat their previous night’s activities.

Luke was first out and headed off to ensure everything was ready for the army to march at dawn. They were headed to Brittany, and Luke wanted to ensure they caught the damned duchess. While Luke was finishing last-minute preparations to march, Pollyanna had a mountain of paperwork to get through.

Finally, it was time for Luke to march his army out of camp and head to Brittany. The brigade he was leaving was busy building fortifications across the peninsula’s base and setting up their living quarters.

With his army’s baggage and the poor condition of the roads, Luke only planned to move the army about 30 kilometers a day. The attached engineers would be busy building bridges and widening roads to allow the artillery train to pass. The slow-moving army meant the cavalry would have plenty of time to sweep the area around the column and recover enough loot for everyone.

To his surprise, the army was able to make almost 40 kilometers a day on their march south to Rennes, and within five days, Luke was looking at the city. His cavalry sealed the city off three days before and repelled several attempted Breton Army breakouts. What made soldiers happy as they had already sent two shiploads of loot back to England, where it would be organized and sold or melted down. Half of the money would be put into the Army Bonus Fund to pay the soldier’s bonuses, while the other half was turned over to the crown. Any confiscated French coins were used to buy food from the locals, keeping the farmers on the British side.

Luke had barely parked his army when he received a communication from Rennes. His cavalry missed Hawise and her husband, who were out of town. The leading citizens of Rennes, however, wanted to surrender. Many had seen or heard rumors of the mighty British artillery and didn’t want to be on the receiving end of a barrage.

It didn’t take long for the city notables to learn Luke was not a man to mess with. They tried to dictate the terms of surrender, and Luke let go for about five minutes before ordering them to be quiet. The terms Luke dictated were far simpler: unconditional surrender and their city wouldn’t be flattened and looted. As a sweetener, Luke promised no looting if the city surrendered.

As the notables looked around, they saw the looks on the British soldier’s faces. They hoped the city wouldn’t surrender and they would get to loot it. Unfortunately, to the soldiers’ disappointment, the notables decided to surrender unconditionally. Now Luke had to figure out his next step.

Looking around, Luke saw a drummer boy watching the negotiations from a distance, and he knew what to do.

“I want all soldiers turned out in clean uniforms within the hour. Make sure all horses are groomed and the artillery is clean.” Everyone was looking at him like he had grown a set of horns. “Once everyone is ready, I want a parade right through the town center with the band leading the way.” Everyone was still staring at Luke with their mouths open. “What are you all looking at? You have your orders now, MOVE!”

All the troops stumbled over themselves as they rushed to carry out their orders. When Luke was sure nobody would hear him, he chuckled. He remembered from his time in the corps when an officer would issue some stupid commands that made no sense, and here he was doing the same thing.

To Luke’s surprise, the army was ready to go when he ordered. Climbing on his horse, Luke half expected the population to welcome them with cheering and half expected them to begin shooting at his army, but it was too late to do anything now.

The army moved out with the band leading the way. As they entered Rennes, the population came out of their homes to watch with awe. The people expected the British Army to start looting and pillaging when they got into the city, but none of that happened. After the parade, the army moved into town and spread out to secure the city.

As Luke planned, or at least what he told everyone, the parade helped everyone calm down. Luke was as surprised as his army was that everything worked smoothly. To the population’s surprise, the British troops were well-behaved and paid for everything.

The citizens got a vivid demonstration of how different the British Army was a few days after they arrived in town when a drunk soldier was caught beating a young man. Luke was furious with the soldier, and the hard look on his face scared everyone who saw it. After confiscating all the soldier’s money and giving it to her victim, Luke ordered the soldier executed by firing squad in the city’s main square. The entire army was assembled to watch as the soldier was hauled out and stood against a wall. To drive the point home to the army and the civilians watching, Luke ordered no blindfold to be used.

As a drumroll sounded, the former soldier shook uncontrollably as her former squad stopped before her and leveled their rifles. At the command of fire, all the soldiers shot and hit the convicted soldier; if they missed, they risked being stood up against the wall.

After the soldier was declared dead, Luke ordered her body displayed as a reminder for the rest of his soldiers to behave. The population was also shaken to its core; it was unheard of for a conquering army to disciple its soldiers over crimes against the vanquished population. After this, the British soldiers were on their best behavior. If Luke would execute a female soldier for the relatively minor offense of giving one of the conquered civilians a beating, they dreaded to think what punishment he would dish out for a serious crime.

A week after executing one of his female soldiers, Luke ordered most of the city’s notables executed. They had encouraged some of the city’s civilians to resist the British soldiers and tempt them into delivering a beating believing that if Luke executed enough soldiers, they would rebel against him. Instead, Luke saw through their plans and had them rounded up and executed. For their execution, Luke wanted something that would truly frighten the Bretons so much that they would never try him again.

After considering the matter, Luke decided to execute the notables using electricity. He knew it would be a genuinely shocking exhibition, and he found himself chuckling at the terrible pun. Thankfully for him, several of Pollyanna’s engineers were accomplished electricians who had no problems building the device Luke wanted.

To get the necessary power, the engineers temporarily converted a nearby water wheel to generate electricity. From there, they strung enough cable to reach the city center, where they built enough chairs for all the condemned. All the chairs were connected by a heavy copper wire and were designed so the condemned completed the circuit.

Luke stood in front of the condemned and read the charges, after which he ordered the switches thrown that would allow the system to charge. At first, nothing happened, but then an eerie hum filled the air. Some of the sharp-eyed spectators noticed the hair of the condemned began to stand up. Then it happened; there was enough current buildup to trigger a discharge. To the spectators, it appeared that Luke had summoned the power of the gods. Soon, sparks could be seen coming from the condemned as they screamed, frightening the crowd, but Luke stood still. He knew he was safe as long as he stayed put. Some had their eyeballs explode, while others had their hair catch fire. All had nasty burns on their skin and suffered greatly. It took them a few minutes to die, just as Luke had figured. By the time the show was over, most of the people watching had lost their last meals, and everyone was completely frightened by Luke, even his soldiers.

Once the power was cut, it was announced that anyone trying to rebel would be executed similarly. Luke walked back to where he was staying, followed by his guard. The head guard was Lieutenant Summerville, and he was more curious than frightened; something told him the general knew exactly how things would play out. Once inside, the lieutenant decided to ask;

“You knew how that would play out, didn’t you, sir?” Luke looked at him and smiled.

“Correct, Lieutenant. That was a demonstration of one of the worst ways to die. I wanted to make sure everyone understood our power.”

“Why, sir? I mean, you’re not a cruel man.”

“I want to ensure the civilian population never thinks about standing up to us again.”

“So, you’re not God?” Lieutenant Summerville asked with a smirk.

“My wife thinks so and tells me so every night.”

One of the nearby guards was taking a drink but spit it out when she heard Luke. Lieutenant Summerville and Luke chuckled as the guard caught her breath but had cheeks as red as apples.

With the population terrified of Luke, he could focus on preparing the 1^st division to march into France. While the 1^st division pacified Rennes, the remaining two brigades of the 3^rd were sweeping the rest of Brittany. Their goal was to capture Hawise and her husband, while their secondary objective was to find and eliminate the pirate bases.

While the 1^st brigade swept the north coast, the 2^nd swept the southern coast. Their cavalry operated between them to ensure nobody slipped past. It was the 2^nd brigade that ran into a nightmare.

At first, it was an easy march as they swept along the southern coast. All the local nobles and knights laid down their arms instead of facing the British juggernaut. Everything changed when the brigade was about halfway between Rennes and the westernmost point of Brittany near the town of Auray. There, they stumbled on the main base for the pirates raiding Britain and parts of the continent.

Brigadier General Ælfwynn was anxious when her troops first encountered the pirates. She was new to the rank, but her ego was massive. A decisive victory over the pirates would make the army commanders notice her and give her the accolades she felt she deserved. Most of her subordinates knew of her ego but hadn’t held the rank long enough for her superiors to learn.

With the pirates in front of her, Ælfwynn ordered a general assault without taking the time to do proper reconnaissance. When they heard the plan, her subordinates threw a fit. A few had been to the front and saw how many hiding places there were for the defenders. Attacking without reconnaissance was asking for a disaster, but Ælfwynn wouldn’t be swayed. The attack would commence as soon as the brigade formed up.

As soon as the attack commenced, it was obvious things wouldn’t go well for the British. The rough ground broke up their formations and allowed the pirates to get in close. Many of the pirates had been fighting the British for a while and knew how to take advantage of their more advanced weaponry.

The pirates spread out and hid behind trees until the British soldiers passed before attacking. In close quarters, the pirates’ knives and swords were better than the British rifles with bayonets. The attack quickly turned into a slugfest, with the British on the receiving end, and within half an hour of commencing the attack, the British were in a headlong retreat. While the British retreated to lick their wounds, the pirates looted the corpses and killed the wounded. There would be no quarter given in this battle.

Ælfwynn was furious with the lackluster performance of her brigade; she refused to see her role in the disaster and put the blame squarely on the shoulders of her subordinates. It took almost an hour to prepare for another assault and to count the cost of the first assault. Almost 2,000 soldiers attacked the pirate positions, and nearly 500 were lost.

This time, Ælfwynn listened and started the attack with an artillery barrage. Ælfwynn might not have known what she was doing, but her gunners did, and they pounded the pirate positions. Their training required sustained bombardment for only ten or fifteen minutes before stopping. After a pause, the artillery would start shooting again. The intent was the men who hid during the first bombardment would come out of hiding and get caught by the second shelling. As the second shelling occurred, the infantry would get as close as possible without being in the path of friendly fire. When the shelling halted, the infantry would attack before the defenders recovered.

Once again, Ælfwynn proved her incompetence when she ordered the infantry assault after the first shelling but failed to inform her gunners. This time, the infantry blew through the confused defenders but were caught by their artillery, and the attack fell apart. When the remaining infantry finally returned, many gunners were horrified to learn what had happened. The artillery commander went out into the nearby woods and ate his revolver. None of this phased Ælfwynn as she began to organize another assault. It was proving difficult because she had lost almost half her combat strength, and none of the troops were willing to go forward again.

As Ælfwynn was forced to call for reinforcements, her remaining original regimental commander sent a message of his own; only his was going to General MacDougall detailing Brigadier Ælfwynn’s shortcomings. The rider only took a day to reach General MacDougall, and when Luke read the message, he shook his head. Somehow another incompetent commander had been promoted to a senior officer, but Luke didn’t have time to investigate. He had to act fast, or the pirates would get away. Thankfully for him, the 1^st division was ready to march; all he had to do was reverse direction.

The next day, the 1^st division, less a regiment left in Rennes, marched out and headed west. Back in the 2^nd brigade’s camp, the mood was hostile. Ælfwynn was trying to order assaults but her troops refused to move. They kept the pirates from escaping but wouldn’t go further than their front lines. The 1^st brigade commander was too tangled up with petty knights to spare troops for Ælfwynn.

Four days after the last assault, around midday, Ælfwynn’s world came crashing down around her when Luke arrived with the 1^st division. His first action was to relieve Ælfwynn of command and send her back to York. Her former troops hoped Luke would arrest her, but nothing she did was illegal, just stupid.

With the army’s commanding general in charge, the remaining troops of the 2^nd brigade were eager to attack and exact vengeance on the pirates for the mauling they received. Luke spent the remaining afternoon looking over the terrain his troops would have to attack across; it only took him an hour to develop a strategy he thought would win quickly.

The next morning, just as the sun began to light the eastern sky, the artillery opened up with a thunderous roar—ten minutes of shelling followed by fifteen minutes of quiet. Then the artillery opened up again to cover the sound of the infantry moving into position.

Unlike the last time this was tried, Luke communicated everything to all the commanders, and the shelling ceased just as the infantry finished getting into position. The final shot from the artillery was a white star shell, and when the infantry saw it burst, they charged.

Their attack was so swift that they ran over the pirate positions within minutes, and half an hour after the start, it was over. It was so quick that the pirate leaders didn’t have a chance to execute their prisoners, which were freed as soon as they were found. Any pirate that hoped for mercy was disappointed; the British troops were in no mood to take prisoners, and they didn’t. However, they did free almost 1,000 slaves and confiscate nearly two tons of gold and silver.

When Luke looked at his soldiers after the battle, he nodded and moved to turn over one ton of the captured gold and silver to the freed slaves. Luke also offered them transportation to Bar fleur so they could go home. With the pirates gone, Luke ordered the reduced 2^nd brigade to finish conquering southern Brittany while he took the 1^st division into France.

By the time the pirates had been defeated, the 1^st brigade had finished conquering northern Brittany, swung around, and began heading toward the 2^nd. While the rest of the 3^rd division finished with Brittany, Luke was headed east. Taking care of Ælfwynn’s mistakes had pushed his timetable back by almost a week, and he knew that every day he delayed invading France, the more rifles they would have to oppose him.

Being in Auray gave Luke an opportunity to surprise King Guiscard and hit his finances at the same time. Luke would move up the Loire River until he got to Orléans, then turn and head northeast to Paris. Doing this would allow Luke to make maximum use of water transport for supplies and loot.