Holiday Experience
Copyright© 2023 by Harry
Chapter 3
Jenny and Frances took their time getting back to the house. Poor Frances had lost count of the number of thistles, briars and razor-sharp stones her delicate little feet had trodden upon by the time she was finally able to relax by the poolside and examine her sore and weeping soles. To think that in some parts of the world a shod person was a rarity, though people like that were mainly peasants who had a higher pain threshold!
She recalled an account she had once read of the life of the Zulu King Shake, who had forbidden the wearing of sandals by his soldiers, training them to be able to cover scores of miles each day barefoot. This ruthless despot would force them to perform tribal dances on a floor strewn with thorns and those who missed their steps would be clubbed to death as an example to encourage the others. Well - she would have lasted maybe two minutes in an outfit like that!
Tomorrow, if the missing clothes still hadn’t turned up, she might drive into the nearest town, some twenty miles distant and buy some more shoes. Her flimsy sandals had been quite ruined before she had been forced to ditch them. As she and Jenny relaxed after their walk, the others came out of the house and settled themselves around their two returned friends.
“We have a confession to make, Jenny,” began Dorothy, “We thought you were behind these mysterious losses, so we looked through your room. Sorry, about that darling - it was just that we thought you were behaving unlike your usual self. Anyway, you’re obviously in the same boat as the rest of us. We do apologies.”
Jenny smilingly forgave them. “I suppose we’re looking at each other and wondering which of us it is. I vote we forget it for today! Tonight, we must all lock ourselves in our rooms and close the windows, stuffy though it is in this heat. And one of us should be in the corridor for an hour at a time to keep guard, armed with something suitably heavy in case we have visitors.”
Frances agreed, except that she suggested two of them at a time and for two hours at a stretch. Frances and Jenny agreed to take the first two hours, Dorothy and Harriet the next, and Frances and Elspeth the remainder of the night until everyone had got dressed. Frances resigned herself to a more sleep deprived night than the others, but she had always been the natural leader of the group and leaders have responsibilities.
They carried out an audit before retiring for the night.
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