Chapter 14: Purging The Guilt

ANNIE AND ERIC

Annie was in charge! She had been a little lonely these past three weeks. Joanne was still suspended in the cage, purging her guilt rather painfully, and dieting rather severely at the same time. Francesca had gone off to the nearest village to arrange for the camp to be provisioned and try to recruit a few lusty, brave and exhibitionist local wenches to the cause. Annie had been in charge for three days now and was making the most of her time in command.

Rosie was seeing to the prisoner once daily. The acting Commander was too busy with her responsibilities. Fran might be gone for weeks. Rosie had reported that Joanne had needed to be reminded several times of the need to show respect and bear herself bravely. Annie had been disappointed to hear that her friend still displayed these signs of weakness. It did not bode well for Joanne's future!

Josephine was a great help, of course, but that was all the proper support she had, since Francesca had taken Frieda off with her to the village. Lucky pair! It seemed such a long time before Jo was due to be back. Silly Joanne! Brave and honourable, but silly and not very considerate, leaving poor Annie all alone at nights! It was still very cold at night.

This particular day she had roused all the girls a little before dawn and taken them on a ten mile run down into the densely wooded valley. It was becoming a little warmer by this time, at least at these lower altitudes, and the entire party were soon sweating. The undergrowth, containing briars and sundry other thorny vegetation, had played havoc with everyone's bodies. There was not one of the young women who did not sport a myriad of scratches, many bleeding, by the time the run was half finished.

Annie called a temporary halt as they reached a forest clearing. The exhausted girls flopped onto the grass, panting and inwardly cursing this diminutive Tartar.

"My feet hurt and I'm cut all over" moaned one of them.

"On your lazy feet, you!" stormed Annie at the lady in question. "Come over here!"

The unfortunate complainer did as she was told. Annie drew herself up to her full height and stuck out her firm determined chin.

"Of course your feet hurt - you stupid girl! You aren't wearing shoes - idiot! What do you expect - HALF-WIT! We all have sore feet. And of course you're scratched. You don't have any clothes on and the wood's full of thorns. We are all scratched, but WE don't beef about it. And another thing! On the way back we run through a forest of nettles, so by the time we get back to camp we'll all be stung as well! Now get back into line and the rest of you MOVE!"

Annie pretended not to hear, later on, as the screaming and protesting moaner was picked up by half a dozen of her fellows and cast bodily into the nettles, not once, but several times to everyone's huge amusement, ensuring she was stung over her whole body and not just her legs.

When they were back at the camp, Annie dismissed the rest but called Annette, the unhappy sore footed lady over to her. She directed her to a level area covered with many razor sharp stones.

"Now! Mark time where you stand! Come on LEFT-RIGHT- LEFT- RIGHT! Get those knees up chest high and DRIVE those feet onto the ground HARD. HARDER!! You'll know all about sore feet after a few hours of that!"

She left an impressed Josephine to see that the poor girl was kept hard at it and went to organise the rest of the women.

Later on Annie rested after overseeing the digging of some latrines. Later, there would be another forced march. Those girls really had to be watched every second if they were to kept hard at it! Anybody would think this was some of Girl Guide camp, the way they behaved. There was a war to fight and an army to train, and some of these airheads thought that it was all a joke and an adventure.

And then, as she was about to get back to work, there was this tall, bronzed and bearded youth toiling up the hillside towards her! As soon as she had seen who he was, Annie had forgotten her newly conferred importance and scampered down the hill towards her long lost and almost forgotten boyfriend, rushing up to him and, on tiptoe, putting her arms around him, bestowing kiss after frenzied kiss on that handsome and excitingly bearded face!

"Oh, Darling, darling, darling Eric! It's so lovely to see you again! And what a surprise, all the way down here! You look so gorgeous! I love that beard, Eric! I still recognised you, though! It's been such a long time, my love! Just think of all the things we've got to talk about! To say nothing of the things we have to do!"

They went into Annie's lonely tent - lonely no more! - and settled down together. She admired the muscularity of his bare arms and shoulders. It had been a long climb and, despite the coolness of the Spring morning, he had been heated by the exercise, removing his coat and shirt.

"You've really filled in a lot, Eric! That's an impressive load of muscle you've built up. I could eat you, Eric! I really could, you gorgeous heap of man!"

Eric and Annie took a while to renew their acquaintanceship and exchange stories. Eric had gone over to the rebels after Annie's arrest. He had partly been shamed into it. If that little girl was a rebel, then so would he be and maybe one day rescue her from wherever the State had put her, or avenge her if she had died.

Finally he remembered why he had been sent here.

"Where is Joanne Esterhazy? Your leader, Annie! I have some messages for her from general Anderson. "

"Oh. Joanne's hanging about somewhere" giggled Annie with callous humour! Gosh! But it was good to have Eric around again! Not very bright, but a real hunk of a man!

"She can't see anyone, I'm afraid Eric. It's a long story, but Francesca's in charge - the new Duke's missing daughter! And Fran's away for a few weeks so I'm the boss for the time being. You can give me your messages and I'll see Joanne gets them if needed."

Eric supposed that would have to suffice. He emphasised that the general wanted a reply soon. He was most anxious to have Joanne's opinions about several things, now that the State was under new and more aggressive management.

"How's Angela?" asked Annie after they had made love for about the seventh time. She had never really taken to her, especially after all that time spent on the beach with a raw back, but felt it only polite to express an interest.

"In the guardroom, Annie and she's due to stay there for a long time to come. She made a pretty bad mistake and got a lot of good men killed because she was so careless. She was flogged before the whole regiment and permanently reduced to the ranks. I'd say she was silly not to stay with you."

"I'm glad she didn't!" replied Annie. "She was a bit generous with her strict punishments for my liking! Not that it hasn't taught us all a thing or two about discipline. I've been whipped quite a bit, Eric. Take a look! And she was pretty brutal to Joanne, although I admit she was fair according to her upbringing and training. Can you stay a few days, Eric, darling? In the evenings I get a bit lonely nowadays. I can guarantee you'll have a great time!"

"Yes, I heard about her temporary command and the reason for it! You certainly know how to be hard on each other! And, yes, Annie I can stay a while. The general seemed to think it would be good for us both!"

Annie took Eric to look around the camp.

"That girl being punished?" he asked, pointing at the wretched Annette, well into her third hour of marking time and looking ready to fall over with pain and exhaustion.

"No, Eric! She loves doing that all day long! What do you think!"

Eric reddened at this and Annie apologised for her sarcasm. He looked at his girl and saw how much she had changed from the sweet innocent he had known a few months ago. He like what he saw, though, and was proud of her.

"How long can you stay, Eric?" she asked.

"Well - I think about thirty days."

"Good! You must promise not to cover up that lovely hairy chest until you leave us! I'm afraid Joanne still won't be available then, Eric. There's unfinished business left over from the Island. But it will be great to have you around. Francesca will be back before you leave, though and you can give her your messages. The girls need a boost to their morale and so do I! And you can't just hang about in my tent all the time waiting for me to come home after a hard day's work! I have lot's of things for a big strong man to do around here! We can't let those lovely muscles go to seed, can we darling!"

FRIEDA AND FRANCESCA

"I like this village, Freddy! Reminds me of a place Daddy took me too once, years ago, just after Mummy died. We were so close at that time, and he had never yet laid a hand on me. After that things just went downhill!"

"Shut up Fran! I hate it when you talk and talk! Let's make love, not talk!"

Francesca Moroni, daughter of the latest despot, obeyed her lover's command and ceased prattling. Once they had finished their pleasant antics, both of them fell asleep. Frieda was the first to wake up. She prodded Francesca in the ribs. Francesca woke up abruptly.

"I could have you whipped for that! Trouble is, you'd most likely enjoy it! I know I would, as long as you were doing it!"

"You bet, Fran! Let's try it, one day! We've tried everything else by this time!" giggled Frieda. "Not as much fun as both of us being whipped together though! Lucky old Joanne gets all the decent whippings around here! You'd think she could spare a couple of dozen lashes apiece for us!"

Francesca shrieked with laughter.

"And she'd still have hundreds left for herself!"

Frieda tried stuffing a bit of the bedsheet into her mouth to stop herself laughing but it was no use. Her whole body was shaking uncontrollably. She managed at length to gasp. "That girl might not get to do much fighting, stuck up there, but she sure as hell must hold some kind of record for being punished, and it's all voluntary, the daft bitch!"

The two calmed down by degrees. Francesca dived between Frieda's legs and licked away hungrily. Her tongue was busy for some time, as was Frieda's with Francesca!

"All that talk of floggings has made us both pretty horny, Fran!" said Frieda, raising her head briefly "You're lovely down there!"

"You too, darling." said Francesca, smacking her lips. "Yummy!!"

Frieda had an idea. It was so brilliant that the force of it made her see stars.

"Why don't you hand over to Annie, Fran? She's going places, that girl. In a few months, once the fighting gets going for real, she'll be a general or something - always provided she doesn't get herself killed. Then you could get yourself busted back to Private and given some lovely lashes and I can be implicated in whatever you have done and we can be flogged side by side just like that other time! Wouldn't that be great?"