Chapter 11: Christmas Day - Evening

Katie O'Brien put on her dress for the evening and surveyed the vision in the mirror. It was a more pleasing sight than she would ever thought possible an hour ago, when it had looked as if she had just fought the battle of Waterloo single handed!.

She had washed the blood from her face and treated the cuts with an alum pencil (God - had that stung!) and been relieved to see that the damage was a lot less fearful and far more superficial than it had felt when the fight was in progress. A bit of make-up sufficed to hide all but the bruises around both eyes, but even these she was able to make fainter. The nose was persuaded to resume something like its normal size and shape by the application of copious amounts of ice and cold water compresses. Any one could see that she had been hurt, but she still looked beautiful. It was a noticeably batttered but still lovely face that stared out at her. The bogus Consul's promise to disfigure her had proved a very empty threat indeed.

"I think you'll do, Katie!" she said to herself with relief in her voice.

She regretted that she had brought an off -the- shoulder dress to wear for dinner, as the damage to her arms and shoulders was much harder to conceal, but she had skilfully applied make up to these abrasions and bruises and from across a room, nobody would notice anything amiss. Close up would be different.

"Yes, I'm not going to be the belle of the ball this evening. I just hope I don't give those old dears heart failure."

CHRISTMAS DINNER

"My dear!, whatever has happened? Have you been in an accident. Were you attacked? Are you sure you are alright!"

This had been the initial twittering reaction of the two old ladies as they saw Katie walk into the hotel lounge prior to dinner.

Over the festive meal and later, she had related to this astounded old couple, her entire story from the long weeks in the police station yard, down to that epic, bruising but ultimately triumphant and exhilarating contest earlier in the day.

"I still feel on top of the world after that fight!" said Katie. "I used to enjoy unarmed combat and that sort of thing at school and later at University, but it was all a bit tame and rule-bound." (except for that one unofficial bout in the car park - that had been great fun!)

"Ever since they kept me naked outside in all weathers, I just haven't been the girl I was. All sorts of thoughts and feelings are whirling around inside me. I was forced to survive hardship for all those weeks and now I seem to have to go out looking for discomfort, danger and exposure to the elements. It's kind of scary and yet wonderfully life-enhancing. I've got to almost hate the old routines at work, although I'm brilliant at my job - (I'm not boasting, it's just a fact. When you are really good at something - you know it)"

Her companions were spell-bound by all this. They had been schoolteachers until retiring to this hotel as

permanent residents and their lives had been pretty tame. Hearing about Katie's adventures was like a breath of clear fresh air - a window opening onto a new wonderful world of romance and daring.

"You should try to get that horrible man traced and put away." said Miss Amelia.

"Yes, he can't be far away. Get the police on to it!" said Miss Matilda

"I don't see what they could do about it. It would just be his word against mine concerning the Pony episode and his impersonation of a British Consul was done overseas, and probably doesn't come under our jurisdiction - and again I have no witnesses. As for our fight today, it was fair and square up to a point and let's face it, I did beat him. Any way I really enjoyed it, at least when it was over! That's the trouble, I keep finding out even more about myself and discovering strengths I never knew I had. And it's all because of them. I really should be grateful to these two for what they put me through and I would like to tell them so. I think that would even the score between us and the laugh would be on them. Trouble is it would just make them more mad!"

"But forcing you to drag those two women around that estate - you couldn't have found that liberating."

"Strangely enough it was in a nasty kind of way. It was a chance to test my physical limits, but you are right - I would just love to catch up with those two fat old buzzards and they won't like it when I do."

"Weren't you afraid they might have been around on the walk back across the Country Park?" asked Matilda.

"Yes, it was all a bit creepy and I kept imagining I could see them lurking behind every tree and bush - not to say every blade of grass! I was jolly glad to get back, but if they had tried anything, I was more than ready to take them both on, I can tell you. It would have been nice to have been able to take out all three on the same day!!"

" It was certainly one up for us women, you beating that horrible man. We were never encouraged or allowed in our youth to do the sort of things that you people do! You are so lucky to be young now. It was such a men's world in our day! It's been so interesting and SO exciting hearing all your adventures. We do wish you luck against those awful people. Promise you will come back often and keep us up to date"

"Promise - cross my heart" laughed Katie, kissing the old couple goodnight and going up to bed.

BOXING DAY

Katie awoke the next morning to find that the trials of the previous afternoon had caught up with her with a vengeance. She painfully and slowly levered herself out of bed and sat at the dressing table looking in the mirror. Some of the bruises were already beginning to assume very lurid hues and it was obvious it would be a while before that young body would be its proper, pink, glowing self.

For the first time in weeks she ran herself a hot bath and stayed in it a long time, feeling the heat ease out the stiffness.

"I wonder how that bastard is feeling this morning. Not as good as I do. No one in the whole world could feel as great as I do, even if I do ache all over!"

She was still on the same triumphant emotional high as when she had stood over his motionless body and found herself, with a fierce and terrifying joy, to be his superior after all.

Time to get out and about. She put on a sports bra and posterior-hugging running shorts. Though she still scorned to protect her feet from the cold by wearing shoes, she took a towel with her to the beach. It was a little less mild today and there was still a little rime on the grass, when she got up on to the hill.

More people were about than yesterday and it was not until she reached the beach that she finally removed her two items of clothing and walked down to the sea. The salt water caused all the cuts and abrasions to sting again and the experience was rather less satisfying than she had hoped On coming out of the sea she dried herself off gently as she still hurt all over and sat on her towel, letting the cool air caress her body. Despite the cold, she sat motionless for some minutes, her sore arms around her bruised and battered legs, and her chin resting on her knees. "Hell, just look at those yellowing bruises! It's going to take weeks to get back to normal. I hope I get to keep a few of these marks for a long time, though. Honourable scars - I'm so proud of them all - nice scars, I love you all! God, what is happening to me! I used to be a normal first-class honours graduate with her name to make in the world, not a wild, barefoot abandoned child of nature and a mean and vicious fighter. "

She lay back, her arms behind her head, and went over that titanic struggle again, reliving every move and thinking of nice John and nice Bozo. Married! Why are the best fellows all taken?

What had he said to her "You were never in any danger" Well, she'd felt doomed, she remembered under that onslaught and she still thought it was a miracle she had won. John believed in me, though and he seems to know about this kind of fighting. Maybe he's right and I was always going to beat the guy (what is his name?). That means I could beat him again and his fat female friends. Take them all on at once - no trouble.

She was still tired out after her strenuous Christmas and despite the rather cool fifty degree temperature, fell into a doze.

"The sleeping Beauty - wake her up Bozo!"

Katie felt a dog's tongue licking her face and looked up to see John and Bozo standing next to her.

She rubbed her eyes and forced herself to return to the real world. She had been dreaming and was none to pleased to have had the pleasant sequence curtailed. She shivered - gosh it was cold and she was still bare.

"Nice to see you both again. Had a nice walkies Bozo?"

The dog wagged its tail.

"Katie, if you don't have any more appointments, how about coming to lunch with us. You're dressed perfectly for our household! But I suggest you put those things on before we leave the beach. There are a lot more people around today."

She readily agreed and she chatted with John and patted dear old Bozo for a while, fighting back the desire to put on something - anything to keep out the cold - she had been too long immobile. Finally and reluctantly she put on her clothes and left the beach for the last time for a week or two, moving off to have lunch with this nudist family.

And so Katie found herself being introduced to John's wife, Janet, and his three daughters, called Faith, Hope and Dawn (why not Charity?) and told to get out of her minimal clothing. John went upstairs and reappeared as naked as the rest of them. "Yes", thought Katie, "he knows all about extreme fighting". His body was covered with many pale scars, the trophies of many a fierce contest. How she envied him because of them and would dearly love to have, in time, plenty such scars of her own! Never mind, she thought she'd collected a few trophies in the past, most of them yesterday!

She learned a lot about the Naturist movement from this family. She had always used the word "nudist" before, but this was apparently not acceptable. It amused her to be told that users of their beach who wore costumes were called "textiles". All this jargon fascinated her. It was good to be in nude and refreshingly normal company for a few hours for the first time ever in her life. Her nakedness had been a solitary thing up until now, and always would be, she decided, but a bit of socializing, especially with this charming family was OK from time to time.

After lunch as the girls went to do the washing up, John drew Katie to one side.

"When I got up to the car park yesterday, there was only one other car there and I waited across the road for a while and your friend got in and drove off. Looked a bit sorry for himself. I copied down the registration number. Give this to the police and you will then know a bit more about him, including his name."

"Thanks." said Katie.

She found it a little embarrassing to be so close to a naked man, which was stupid. After all she had not minded being naked in front of him and so it was only fair he should be nude in front of her. No, she would never really fit in to this scene! She was not going to be one of them at all. Just have to plough her own lonely furrow!

She saw that his penis, which she had never for long been able to take her eyes away from, was totally flaccid and had shown no sign of excitement all the time she had been with them. It was all so natural - so normal with him. He had not glanced once at her bush, but always looked her in the eye when talking to her. It was as if these people could only expose their bodies at the cost of ignoring them and forgetting about them. She could never forget hers and would always be excited at baring it.

A nudist beach, populated by people of both sexes and with her degree of excitement and physical awareness would pretty soon cease to be a decorous family affair and assume the nature of a Roman Orgy, the entire beach, heaving with copulating bodies! Not a pretty sight!

She wished she could emulate these people and subdue her own private parts and inner feelings. She had this urge to jump into bed with this battered veteran of so many hard fights and she wanted her body to resemble his in its battle-scarred appearance so that they could go into the world and avenge wrong together, riding side by side. She was still a woman alright but getting to be a bit of an Amazon, she realized.

Katie O'Brien pulled herself mentally together, wondering if she needed to consult a shrink. Her inner turmoil and ludicrous fantasising were going from bad to worse.

The afternoon over, Katie accepted John's offer of a lift to her hotel. She said goodbye, went into the hotel, paid her bill and went back to London and work.

NEW YEAR IN PARADISE

Katie lay stretched out, naked on the white-sanded beach listening to the ceaseless roar of the surf. Beside her lay Fred Underwood and Jim Akenside, two fellow financial scribblers sent out by their bosses, like Katie, to cover a secret meeting of world central bankers in this Indian Ocean Island paradise.

What a total waste of time! The local police had the whole conference so well wrapped up that there was no way at all of gleaning any useful facts. No one connected with the arrangements would talk to them. Too damned scared. The nearest anyone could get to the meeting place - on a well protected island belonging to the local President-for-Life (and prize arsehole) was five miles away.

Their bosses, in their wisdom had insisted that they stay. You might come across something, was their reasoning. Fat chance!!

The two guys had hired a boat to take them out to a small and deserted islet for a day of idling around and maybe catching the odd fish. Although Katie was not in the mood for company, she had leapt at their invitation and gone with them. She had spent hours in the water swimming far out to sea and the fellows were scared she had been eaten by a shark. They would have missed her company and her body, which she had revealed in its still bruised entirety as soon as she had got on board the boat, to their delight and that of the boatman.

For some reason they had both declined to take off their swimshorts and had fallen asleep on the beach having succumbed to the effects of sun and alcohol, leaving the sober Katie to contemplate what a very different scene this was to that on the beach on Boxing Day. She remembered how she had slept on that deserted beach for over an hour despite the cold and then sat chatting to John for an hour more before getting dressed and leaving, beginning to feel the effects of her bravado. Here she could live all year round without clothes, and it would be no hardship at all. This was a much better climate for nudity - and yet...