Chapter 4

(In which Clementine, the victor, savours the spoils, but for how long?)

"We've been friends for nearly two years now and in all that time I never knew you could fight, darling! At least not like that - you are something else. Where the hell did you learn? I mean that was just tremendous the way you took all that punishment and still came through it all to win. You must be made of something more than ordinary flesh and blood to have kept going against that woman. Because she was tough too. I should have thought you'd both have been unfit to go on after a couple of minutes and I reckon it was getting on for a half hour you two were slugging it out."

Estella babbled on,

"We watched a lot of it, you know! When we were just outside the wood it sounded so exciting, the two of you going at it with all those biffs and thuds; the crack of fist against bone and all those gasps of pain. We just couldn't help ourselves, Clemmy! Listening to all those lovely hard punishing blows wasn't enough - we just had to watch them landing on their two gorgeous but battered and bleeding female targets! Do you mind terribly? I was so sorry when it ended; really I was and I wouldn't have cared who won, it was such a great fight. I know it's a horrible thing to say that I was enjoying it, when my best friend was getting really badly hurt and her face marked for life, but it's true. I want to see more fights now - lots more fights! Jules is going to take me to a boxing tournament next week - only men, though. I think I'd sooner watch women fighting - especially you! I suppose you're feeling the effects today! You're certainly showing them! I bet you're sore all over! You don't have quite such big tits as me, but I bet it hurt, all the same when she kept bashing away at them!"

Estella and Clementine were outside the apartment, waiting for Viola to come down to the taxi. The lovers were due at the airport in half an hour and Stella was to meet Jules later that day. Next week, the three of them would be back together in the boring Home Counties! Stella was not too sorry about that. A part of her craved for boredom after the bizarre things she had seen this last few days!

"I'm glad you saw us in action, Estella, and pleased you enjoyed watching. It would have been a shame for Rashumba and I not to share all the excitement with you two! From your enthusiasm I think you have developed a new, and rather bloodthirsty interest! I'm even happier to think that my Viola saw it. Now she knows how much I love her - how much I was willing to go through to get her! And I'd go through ten times that - a hundred times - just for her."

Stella quite believed this last protestation. Clemmy was in love alright. You only had to look at her yesterday when she seized Viola and kissed her. Her face had contained such joy as Estella had never conceived of.

"As for my fighting skills, continued Clementine. "They are mostly from looking at others. I trained at a gym, but only for exercise. Apart from some very friendly sparring, I never hit anything other than a punch bag for real until yesterday until I graduated to hitting Rashumba!! I did do a lot of stomach firming exercises, or that cow would have winded me very early on. She kept on trying - that and breaking my legs - fat chance of that! I could see Rashumba wouldn't last that long, as she's not built for speed and all I needed was to keep moving around and out of trouble. Mind you, as you saw, I took a good few hard knocks from her fists! When her blows land, they really land! I shall feel the effects for a month!"

"Well, it was a revelation to me" enthused Estella, her eyes bright with the remembered excitement of it all. "By the way, I'm sure Rashumba has had quite a lot of experience fighting. In fact I know she has. Viola told me that several other rivals for her affections bit the dust in that clearing before you triumphed yesterday. I think the local Police must be pretty well used to battered naked lesbians turning up in that area! "

"It's a kind of Sacred Grove isn't it?" continued Estella, as breathlessly as ever. "That clearing in the wood? The King Must Die and all that! Let me know if there are any more challenges - I wouldn't miss out on a second of it and I'll bring a video camera next time so I can watch it over and over again afterwards! We must show the pair of you around a bit - try to drum up a few rivals and see who turns up! You could be on the verge of a great career, Clemmy!"

"Indeed!" Clementine looked impatiently to see what was keeping Viola but that eager young woman was bursting out of the apartment block just as Clem was about to go and get her. The two kissed passionately, a string of saliva escaping from Clementine's mouth as she drew her head back. Yuck! Estella thought longingly of Jules and good healthy STRAIGHT sex! They did make a handsome pair, though, despite Clementine's battered face. Viola was tall and slim and Clemmy stood tall and straight, a few inches higher than Viola and strong, so strong. She looked prouder today even than yesterday when she had walked with such an arrogant, triumphant stride to claim the painfully won Viola!

But it would be a relief to Estella when her face lost those awful bruises and her eyes emerged from behind those swellings. And as for that frightful cut, which Rashumba had been working on so busily right up to the end, it was bad and looked to Stella like it needed quite a few stitches!

The next week was one of the happiest that Clementine had ever known. Viola found herself a job in the town's most expensive jeweller's and every night her mistress would have a meal waiting on the table as the blonde returned. The nights passed quickly and Clementine scaled heights of love she had never dreamt of in all her short, active and eventful life.

"Do you want to be whipped, darling?" asked Clemmy one morning as the waking pair gazed lovingly at each other, still exulting in having each other's beloved faces to see immediately after waking. Clemmy stroked the hair away from Viola's forehead and kissed it, before going down to that lovely mouth and sweet tongue whose cunning witchcraft had so inspired her just before the fight. She lingered there a very long time before drawing away to hear Viola's answer.

"If you want to, sweetheart. Whatever you want is OK with me!"

"You'll have to ask me first, dear sweet Viola. You'll have to ask me. I'll only whip you if you want me to and you MUST tell me when to stop. I couldn't see you cut up like the first night I saw you. I would hate that!"

"I think you'll have a very long wait, Clemmy my love. Maybe for ever!"

"Good! I hope you're right!" But Clemmy was a little disappointed, against her better nature. She had a bit of mutuality in mind!

(Clementine came out of her reverie for a second, back to the awful present. She knew that an answer was expected - and soon. How had she been so silly? Why had she not listened to Viola's warning? Then she went over the rest of her descent into disaster.)

Viola kissed Clementine just over her eye where the cut was still terribly visible. The stitches would come out in a week, but the mark would always be there. Poor Clemmy!

"I'm sorry I got you two to fight, darling! I should just have come away with you when you asked. Will you forgive me?"

"Nothing to forgive, darling. And you couldn't leave your old mistress without a new mistress first showing her worth by beating her. You know that! Maybe one day I'll lose you the same way. Who knows?"

"Don't say that, Clemmy my darling. Please don't say that. I don't care if you do get beaten. I'll still stay with you. I will!"

Clementine laughed gently.

"Well. here in England, women don't fight over other women. At least I hope not!"

She thought about this conversation while Viola was away at work. Would she lose her one day in the same way as she had won her? Would she be obliged to defend her right to this submissive and captivating blonde with her tender smile and sweet adorable body? After the battering she had endured, whose effects had still not worn off, she wasn't sure she fancied ten challenges a year - which was what Rashumba had faced, by all accounts. She doubted she was as durable as the tough African girl who had shown no sign at all of past battles. She looked at her face in the mirror. That eye still looked a mess and her nose would never be straight again. Maybe when the stitches came out? Even then there would be a scar which might never fade. Her doctor had warned her of that. And one of her teeth was loose - a miracle she hadn't lost any! No. A life spent defending her right to Viola against all comers was not likely to prove beneficial to her health - and yet!

And yet, she had never felt so alive as when she knew she must beat Rashumba to win Viola. The fight itself had been the greatest physical ordeal she had ever faced and she still savoured the triumph of those minutes afterwards when she had put her bruised arms around her lovely prize, swept her up and carried her off, in full view of the recovering Rashumba!

She wondered if Rashumba would track her down and demand a rematch and what Viola would say to that. She guessed the bond between those two, even though it was based on an unhealthy desire on Viola's part for ritual domination, had not been wholly broken. There was a reserve about her, as though she was already hankering for the old life of beatings and pain.