Chapter 8

The next evening was indeed, very painful for Penny! Once Miranda had decided that her nose was sufficiently pulverized, she started to mark, in a very painful way, the rest of that pretty face. Both eyes were blackened and her lovely lips were cut by some brutal and well-aimed blows. Penny was forced as never before to concentrate on defending herself. She managed to fend off and evade a fair number of kicks and punches. By the time it was over, she was totally whacked and her head was on fire. They both sank onto the floor at the end.

“Well done, Penny. You’re getting the hang of it at last! Do you think you can make it home on those tired feet tonight? I’ve a spare bed at my place!”

Penny explained that she did not live alone and must get back, come hell or high water.

“I don’t live alone either! I’d have liked you to meet my partner! Some other time! I suppose it hurts that battered face of yours far too much to kiss your cruel teacher tonight?”

Penny put her arms around her tutor, breathing in the heady smell of their mutual and fight induced sweat, and kissed her hard and long, paying no heed to the pain.

“How’s that for an answer?” she laughed. “See you tomorrow, Miranda my love!”

Five more weeks of this went by. Bit by bit, Penny’s colleagues saw her face gradually cease to bear so noticeably and colorfully, the marks of her training. In time Miranda was forced to admit that there was little more she could teach her pupil, who was now pretty well as good as she. Henceforth they would meet for the occasional friendly duel and more often than not their evening sessions would end up with a drink at a local wine bar.

The more Penny learnt about Miranda the more bewitching she found her company. This was a woman who believed that, since Man was Mind Body and Spirit, the health of all three was inter-dependent. Having seen to Penny’s body, she began to look to the other two components of her being. They started to go to the theatre from time to time and the opera, of which Miranda was a fanatical devotee. Penny realized that she loved this woman as she had never loved any one before.

Thanks to Miranda, that hardest of taskmistresses, she was fast becoming the career woman that part of her had always secretly desired to be. The new job was bringing out all manner of qualities and abilities in her that she would never have imagined herself to possess. Day after day, she was finding out just what a very able and resourceful young lady she was.

And it was all because this mysterious person had appeared out of the blue and taken her in hand! She could not imagine that she would ever be able to repay her. A thousand bloodied noses would be a small price to pay for what she had learned from this dear friend!

One day, Miranda stopped at the door of the gym as they were on their way out at the end of a session.

“I can’t teach you a lot more, Penny. You know my moves by heart after all this time! I’d like you to fight a girl I know. I’d be interested to see how you do. I warn you - she’s hard and she’s good! No audience - just me! Are you game?”

Penny agreed, not without misgivings. This had only been a means to an end so far. She had no great desire to reduce some other poor girl to unconsciousness! But she agreed nevertheless.

The fight that night was long, hard and very bloody. At the end she stood over the senseless body of her defeated opponent and looked down with a feeling of utter exaltation, despite the fact that her own blood was dropping steadily onto the defeated foe beneath her. When she got home it was a different story. All she felt then, as she prepared for bed, was abject shame! She vowed never again to fight another human being. Not as long as she lived!

A week later, she was sent on a trip to the USA and was away for three months, keeping fit at a gym, of course, but not indulging in that addictive sport which she now hoped never to take part in again. The memory of the battered face of that poor girl on the canvass still haunted her. How could she have done that to another woman? What had she turned into? Despite this revulsion, however, a secret part of her still gloried in her hard-won proficiency and itched to prove herself again. And again, and again and again!