Chapter 11

Roberta finished going over in her mind the painful experiences that she had undergone since leaving Philippa and Rodolfo at the bandit's cave. It had certainly been a very unpleasant few months one way and another. She looked down at her body and saw the horrible scars the Town Tormentor's white hot irons had given her, just as the equally unpleasant burns from her first spell under torture had begin to fade. And she felt her still tender back and all the ridges and furrows there where she had been flogged without mercy so many times, the last such occasion being only a couple of days ago. It wasn't much of a life, really!

The closer she was to the Palace, the greater the danger of capture. Word must have reached the King's men by now of her approach. Several times the two of them had hidden while parties of soldiers had ridden past. It was easier to hide now that both girls were on foot. The horse had been left behind at the last town. The noble beast was now the property of Amelia and the Ladies' League for Truth and Decency.

How she hated Amelia! And how she loathed the contemptible Alfonso! Those two had better watch out once she was restored to favour! If she ever was restored to favour, of course! That was hardly guaranteed!

Then she tensed as she heard about a dozen riders approaching. As usual the phenomenally sharp eared Roberta heard these sounds long before Paula did.

"Hide, Paula! I Another search party - I think!!" she warned her friend.

The couple quickly hid themselves behind some bushes. But Paula saw who the riders were and nudged her companion in the ribs. (Or where she judged Roberta's ribs to be under all those ridges of muscle).

"It's Rodolfo, darling! These are friends!"

Paula had told Roberta about her meeting in the woods with two of Rodolfo's men. She had encountered them while the naked girl was still hard at work and sore from the latest flogging. It had pleased roberta to think that the bandit leader still thought about her. She didn't believe that Philippa had been following every detail of her sufferings with the aid of a magic crystal. It was odd that the old woman could keep so well informed, though. But carrier pigeons seemed a more likely explanation.

Roberta's continuing scepticism continued to imperil her chances of regaining her lost reputation. But the silly girl would persist in her course of wilful disbelief! Would nothing convince her?

The girls came out and greeted the riders. Rodolfo dismounted and embraced Roberta. It seemed to Paula that the lusty bandit leader took a little longer over this salutation than mere social politeness might dictate! She could hardly blame him, though. Roberta was more magnificent to look at by the day! The pair did make a handsome couple, being both tall, fair haired and strong.

Roberta must have thought somewhat along these lines herself, for she made absolutely no effort to disengage herself from Rodolfo's embrace. On the contrary she was visibly responding and pulling him closer to her naked body with those very powerful arms. Finally she kissed him with extreme passion on the mouth and Paula sighed to herself. She could see just where this was going!

She wandered off to find the two men she had met in the woods more than six weeks ago.

"Hi, you guys!" she said. "Thanks for coming to Roberta's rescue - a couple of days too late! But I knew it was no use interfering. I think she and your boss like each other!"

As Paula spoke, an obviously willing Roberta was being led away behind a conveniently large bush - the one behind which the two girls had just sheltered. She smiled at the two bandits.

"I suppose you boys get a bit sex-starved with the life you lead! Always out rampaging about the country. Fancy taking out your suppressed desires on me, while your leader fucks the arse off my lover? I can take twenty different cocks from twenty strong and rough men in a night and still be craving for more! My stamina has been described as phenomenal! How's about it, guys?"

Paula was amazed to see the fear on both men's faces. They shook their heads in refusal of her offer. It would seem that there was more to the arrival of Rodolfo's men than merely a wish to preserve Roberta's flesh from further torment.

"You are not for the likes of us, Lady Paula. We can only assume that you were joking! Any man laying a finger on you would be risking his life. We are here to protect you, not to make love to you!"

"Lady Paula? Who told you I was a Lady! I'm just a parlour maid, really. Once I was Roberta's plaything, then I became the King's toy (though he never laid a finger on me, aprt from pinching my sweet little bottom - such a gentleman!).

"It is the King who has made you a Lady!" replied the taller of the two men. "He still seeks the traitor Roberta to have her flogged, tortured and branded before being permanently shackled and returned to Hell Island, but you are still high in his favour. When Rodolfo has finished his pleasure with Roberta, he will escort you to the Palace and a future as a Great Lady."

"And what about Roberta? Rodolfo's not taking her back to go through all that unpleasantness, I hope!"

"We will not return your friend to captivity, Paula, but in future Roberta will be on her own. Rodolfo has told the King's men of Roberta's innocence, but he was not believed. You must come with us and Roberta will walk the land alone, naked and friendless, to survive as best she can."

Paula was excited to think of the prosperous future that seemed to lie ahead of her, while at the same time sad to have to leave Roberta. But she hadn't seen all that much of her Mistress this last few months. They would have some exciting times together on the road and then they would inevitably be involved in some escapade which usually seemed to involve Roberta being flogged, put in prison and given hard labour of some kind or other. While all this boring nonsense was going on, Paula would have to kick her heels for a few weeks, admittedly in reasonably comfortable conditions. But before the pair went their separate ways, she must have a long conversation with her former Mistress and lover. There were things Roberta needed to know.

Because her back was still very sore, Roberta lay on top as she and Rodolfo made love. Despite her being a Golden Guard and a lover of her own sex, she was not a virgin, having been enjoyed by several men in her time. If Rodolfo had hoped that his noble cock was to be the first to penetrate the muscle goddess's remarkable cunt, he was disappointed.

The couple lay together for some minutes after a very hurried and almost brutal love making. Rodolfo had a very large member and it had more than satisfied even the well endowed Roberta. Roberta spoke first, a little breathlessly. That had been good!

"Great fuck! Thanks a million! I take it that was the sugar on the pill, Rodolfo? First the good news and then the bad?"

"Was I good, Roberta? I'd value a commendation from you more than from all my many other rapturously satisfied lovers put together. It goes without saying that you were utterly terrific! What a crying shame that you prefer making love to women! And - yes. I do have a bit of bad news for you. Smart girl to cotton on!"

"You were among the three men who gave me most satisfaction, Rodolfo. Now can we get to the point?"

"Considering you have known so few men in a sexual sense, Roberta, that is hardly an outstanding compliment! But I fear I shall have to be satisfied with that faint praise! Since we last met, I have been in negotiation with the Royal government. I am sure you will rejoice to hear that I and my men have been pardoned for our former crimes and are now His Majesty's loyal subjects."

"I am happy for you. It pleases me to think that you are loyal like me. For I too am loyal to the King. Despite his seeking me to have me horribly punished, I still live only to serve him."

"But he doesn't seem to realise this! To him you are a traitor. We have told him of your ordeal by whipping and how Philippa pronounced so favourably on the purity of your copiously shed blood. It may be that his mind will change in time, but he tends not to believe in seers like Philippa. He is a very modern man and has been infected by all manner of dangerous modern ideas."

Rodolfo paused here to make love to Roberta again. For the rest of his days he would boast of his double entry into that most sweet and succulent of cunts. When he had finished, to the entire satisfaction of both, he continued.

"The King misses Paula very badly. He wants her back at court and has made her a Lady. The Queen is very sick of late and her days are thought to be numbered. Paula may well be Queen before the year is out. So we will escort your little friend and helper to the King's presence and you will be left to survive on your own as well as you can. Perhaps you should put clothes on, Roberta, and flee the country in disguise."

"That would be the coward's way out, Rodolfo. I am not a coward. One day I will be restored. I would sooner die the most horrible of deaths in my own country than live in wealth and comfort in another. You believe in my innocence. Why are you casting me to the wolves like this?"

"I'm looking after Number One, Roberta. You wouldn't understand, having been brought up on a diet of total selflessness and loyalty to the King. Good luck, Roberta. Although I shall not lift a finger to help, I wish you well. Paula has some words to have with you before I escort her to the Palace."

THE KING AND PAULA

"It's so nice to see you again, Paula. Now that my wife is ill and dying, I am very lonely. She doesn't know me these days. It breaks my heart to see the poor lady the way she is. But your sweet bottom has lifted my spirits a little already! It looks a little red. Have you been caned lately?"

"No, your Majesty! Worse luck! My Mistress, the traitor Roberta, used to cane me, but stopped doing so more than a month ago. There was a misunderstanding in a place called Rockwell Green and they tortured her horribly for seven days until I was able to straighten things out. Poor thing!"

"Let us not talk of Roberta! If you know what is good for you, my sweet little bubble bottomed Paula, you will forget all about Roberta."

Paula obediently forgot her friend's existence from that moment onwards. It was her plain duty to her Sovereign as well as the way to continue enjoying a wealthy lifestyle, which she already liked far too much to put in jeopardy!

There was one drawback, however, to this new life of wealth and high social status. The King insisted on the Lady Paula being naked at all times. He kept the Palace well heated, which was just as well considering the severity of the winter this year. But the place was inclined to be draughty and every now and again a stray blast of icy cold air would bring the King's naked favourite out in goose flesh. He would laugh jovially to see her shiver, but she failed to see the joke.

But she dined well, had plenty of excellent musicians to play the latest songs to her and life soon began to get pretty good. The Queen continued to sink into the grave, although with tiresome slowness. When she was Queen herself, Paula would nag her new husband into letting her wear the fine clothes all the other Ladies seemed to be covered with and she would personally choose a pretty parlour maid to be the King's nude toy, after which she would have the heating turned down to save money!

The only members of the Golden Guard that Paula saw these days were the two in constant attendance on the King. These were still Rosemary and Charlotte. Since the incident involving Anna's death and Roberta's disgrace there had been no more trouble. The passage through with the intruders had got into the apartments had been blocked up and guards doubled throughout the Palace complex. But not even a whisper of a fresh plot had been detected.

She would sometimes look out of the window overlooking the Palace Yard of an evening and see the daily disciplinary floggings being administered. Bertha was getting flogged a lot these days, after having been given an easy time for a while. But her lashes were few in number and usually delivered by the smallest of the Guard and never that well laid on. Any one flogging Roberta that lightly would have felt the lash on her own back for going easy!

All of this total lack of serious trouble only served to make the King and his advisers more convinced of Roberta's guilt than ever. But it was odd, thought His Majesty from time to time, that Roberta's activities while on the road with Paula, had been so commendable. Could it be that the woman had repented and was trying to make amends for the great wrong she had done? Or was that crazy old Philippa right about her?

ROBERTA

The hardy Golden Guard soon adjusted to life without Paula. Rodolfo had forced her to hand over her sword to him as a condition of his not surrendering her to the Royal police, but she had her bow, so hunting was no problem. She also had a very useful pair of hands and feet to keep any would be attackers at bay and send them packing with more than just a flea in their ear!

Six weeks passed and she was wondering if life as a lone huntress was quite such a bad thing! Without the luxury loving and delicate Paula, Roberta had no need to visit civilised settlements any longer, and her back remained unpunished for all this time. The scars from Alfonso's last frenzied whipping had begun to fade a little and she had almost forgotten what it was like to be tied up helplessly and tormented at the whipping post.

The winter was appalling this year and even Roberta was happy to seek out a cave in the mountains and spend much of her time looking out at the utter desolation below. She must venture out to slay the odd animal, but restricted her ventures to the minimum.

Paula had told her to hold her fire until the weather improved before making a move and so she waited patiently for the sign that would let her know it was time to bring her long disgrace and exile to an end. Roberta trusted Paula. And Paula had done one last favour for her former Mistress before her Royal master's instruction to forget her. But Paula had then obeyed that instruction. Roberta was history now!