Chapter 14

PAULA

On this particular morning, when Beatrice and Jenny were brawling over the maid, Lily, and Roberta was once more inside the Palace confines, Lady Paula had slept poorly for some reason and kept yawning. The Queen was sinking faster these days and the King, or Teddy, as she had learned familiarly to call him in the last few months, was at the poor lady's bedside a great deal, waiting for the end, which could not long be delayed.

Although a loving and attentive husband in his wife's final days, as a conscientious ruler he still needed to attend to important affairs and this he did for three hours each morning. He liked to have the Lady Paula standing by during these tedious sessions. She would stand near the large windows, sometimes looking out over the small Private Courtyard and sometimes the main courtyard where the nightly whippings of defaulting Golden Guards took place. Last night Bertha had received her second punishment in a week, getting twenty lashes this time, weakly applied as usual. Why the Commandant didn't dismiss her, Paula could not make out. She probably wasn't even a good lover! Paula couldn't imagine her to be a good anything! Although the Commandant and she were getting to be almost an embarrassment recently with their ill concealed affair.

When not staring at the goings on outside, Lady Paula contented herself by looking around the large Presence Chamber and the myriad of petty officials and humble petitioners who pestered poor old Teddy until he became almost frantic.

The two Golden Guards, stood discreetly on either side of the entrance, scrutinising all the visitors as they came in and never taking their eyes off them until they left. Since the attempt involving Rowena and her alleged collaborator, the traitor Roberta, security was very tight. The only other naked woman visible to the visitors was the Lady Paula, who tried to look haughty, as befitted a Great Lady. Even after several months' experience, Paula still occasionally found that nudity and haughtiness did not always go too well together - but she was getting there and these days the diminutive former parlour maid was the haughtiest nude in the Kingdom!

This particular morning, while Jenny was being pulverised by her comrade and friend Beatrice, Lady Paula was watching the dried blood from last night's flogging being washed off the polished marble flagstones where the whipping post was situated. She knew that only one defaulter had been spotted at today's morning parade, and that was Charlotte, one of the two Personal Attendants on the King. As in Roberta's time the two personal attendants were inspected separately, one at a time - so that the King was never left unattended even for a few seconds.

Paula had witnessed the inspection and had been incredulous when Charlotte had been summarily sentenced to one hundred lashes for her slovenly turnout. The Commandant had personally inspected both girls. Paula had seen Charlotte and there had been nothing in any way amiss with her appearance. She wondered whether the increasingly erratic Commandant were losing her reason.

If Charlotte had been shocked and terrified at the savage and unwarranted award, she did not show it. With that calm acceptance of discipline that was the hallmark of the elite Guard she had saluted smartly and returned to her duties. Paula stole the occasional glance at the soon to be flogged Charlotte and marvelled at her calm demeanour. Once again Lady Paula, who had served as a frequently punished auxiliary for a time, wondered why there was so much competition to enrol in a unit which treated its members so harshly and, in this case, so monstrously unfairly.

She went over to the opposite window and looked down at the Private Courtyard. Now that the well had been uncovered and the day's supply of water taken up, there was not a tremendous amount of activity there, in fact it was as quiet as the grave. Even so, there did seem to be some violence going on in the Guard's Rest Room. If a fight was in progress then the two quarrelsome Golden Guards in question had best be careful not to be found out! Quite a few unexplained bruises and cuts had been overlooked in the past few months, despite a likely breach of the strict rule against unauthorised brawling, but a crackdown was about due. It could just be that this particular quarrelsome couple would be made an example of.

Paula rather hoped the pair's fighting each other would not be found out. In Paula's opinion, it was better to get these petty squabbles settled quickly rather than allow resentment to fester, and a good quick fight, such as appeared to be in progress right now, was the best way to go about it. And this had been Roberta's view.

In any case, the Lady Paula was getting to be a bit sick of all the punishments of late. Some of them, like the impending flogging of poor Charlotte, had been as grossly unfair as they had been savage. There should be a better way of regulating the Golden Guard than bloody and capriciously awarded floggings every night. Not that morale seemed to be adversely affected by so many women's painful and disfiguring experiences. But, by this time, Lady Paula was tired of watching. Seeing Roberta on the punishment stand had been different, of course! But that had been a long time ago and in any case she had long since forgotten her former Mistress.

Looking up, she saw a raven perched on top of the opposite roof. The bird seemed to be staring right into her eyes and with unnatural intensity. It winked! Paula nearly fell through the floor. She knew enough of sorcery to be well aware that this was no ordinary bird. Something significant was afoot today! Perhaps the creature constituted a threat of some kind. She was undecided over whether to have the bird shot when she felt a great need to leave the Presence Chamber for a few minutes. It was not an upset stomach, but a compelling feeling that she needed to be outside, that drew her away from the King's side.

Coming out into the open courtyard she felt the cold air against her tender skin for the first time since leaving the now forgotten Roberta. Because of the King's insistence on her twenty four hours a day seven days a week nudity she had never felt much like coming out of doors in the winter. And although it was now springtime it was still far from warm. Today, in particular, was chilly in the extreme! She looked at the two Guards on duty outside the Royal apartments, where Roberta had once mistakenly thought a wasp had stung her, almost two years ago. Both Guards stood rigidly upright and unmoving. Paula felt colder than ever merely by looking at them with their tall and almost naked bodies. She felt colder still when she realised that they would be standing there, motionless in the chill breeze, for seven hours until at last they were relieved.

She decided to walk around the Guard's living quarters and, as soon as she was out of sight of the two gate guards, she felt a hand on her bare shoulder. Looking round she saw a naked girl, younger than she and clearly not a Golden Guard or an auxiliary. Paula knew all the auxiliaries well and this delicate raven haired beauty with the battered face and bruised body was not one of them.

"Go straight to the King, Lady Paula, and tell him you are not well. Then go to your room and lock the door. Do not come out until you hear my voice telling you that all is safe. Hurry! There is no time to lose. Don't worry, Lady Paula! All will be well - I promise you!"

Paula immediately obeyed this amazing woman, who seemed not to feel the early morning chill any more than did the hardy Guards. She realised, as she sped to the King's side, that she ought to have asked this strangely compelling apparition what right she had be here in the first place let alone naked and issuing orders to the future Queen.

Ten minutes later she was in her room, locking and bolting the solid door behind her. As she lay on her bed she thought about that strange naked dark eyed and beautiful girl. For she was very, very lovely, despite her battered face and black and blue body. The girl had clearly been attacked recently - either that or she had been involved in a pretty ferocious fight. It had been a fight, decided Paula. Without having any reason to do so, she knew that the girl was a warrior - of a sort.

Paula had only once seen a woman involved in a fight using her bare fists and that had been when Roberta had fought and killed Bernard at the bandit's camp several months ago, not too long after she had helped her to escape. She found herself fantasising about Amy's injuries and how they had been acquired. As she constructed a likely scenario, involving this slim but obviously very exciting young woman, she found herself becoming sexually aroused.

What Paula needed was a proper relationship, one that went beyond being slapped on the bottom from time to time! But the King's loyalty to his dying wife meant that this was impossible for now. So Paula was forced in upon herself. Physical violence had always been a thing that turned her on sexually, even if the nightly floggings had become stale entertainment of late. She had masturbated times without number when watching the long suffering Roberta's back being whipped to a bloody mess and also when she had relived these unpleasant episodes later.

Now she found her hands reaching down to that familiar place between her legs as she writhed on the bed, imagining Amy exchanging hard blows with whatever opponent had done such damage to her and ultimately triumphing. For she had no doubt that Amy had triumphed; that had not been a recently defeated woman who had told her what to do with such authority.

Twenty minutes after she had locked herself in her room, feeling more than a little ashamed of her timorous behaviour, a commotion could be heard from down below in the King's Presence Chamber. Soon after this, footsteps became audible running towards her room and there was banging on her door and shouting at her in a rough and coarse voice to come out in the name of the People - whoever they were! She still had a dagger in her room and she ran and got it out of the drawer where it had lain for months. If the intruders did manage to get in she would not die without putting up a fight.

The sounds increased in volume and intensity, with curses, shrieks and, finally, the groans of dying men. At last silence returned. A knock on the door was accompanied by the sound of Amy's voice telling her that it was safe to come out. She opened the door and saw several bodies lying in the corridor. She recognised two as belonging to recently recruited servants. Obviously the Palace had once more been infiltrated by rebels. Roberta, with her uncanny knack of spying out traitors, would have spotted them right away, had them arrested and sent down below for the Chief Torturer and his buddies to play with.

"Come with me, Lady Paula!" said the bruised young woman. "And why don't you put on some of those fine clothes that have been languishing in your wardrobes? I realise that Her Majesty, the Queen, is still alive, but it is nevertheless wrong for you to be naked. The King will assuredly agree when he sees how fine a lady you are in those wonderful garments! Get dressed and come with me!"

Once again it did not occur to the Lady Paula to disobey. Not that it wasn't a very welcome command! She had been longing to dress up for ages and was heartily sick of shivering all day! Long gone were the days when she had found nudity exciting.

On returning to the Presence Chamber Paula saw a very disturbed scene. The King, her adored Freddy, had been slightly wounded and was having his arm dressed by a surgeon. Five very dead looking bodies were being taken away by members of the Golden Guard. And overseeing these clearing up operations was Roberta, wearing her sword, arrows and quiver - and not only that!

"What HAS been going on?" asked an astounded Lady Paula, dressed in all her finery and looking very imperious. "Is it OK for me to stop forgetting Roberta now, Freddy?"

ROBERTA

"You must be mad to come back here, Roberta!" spluttered Amelia as she was released from the blonde giant's iron grip. "They'll kill you this time, after torturing you so horribly that even you will scream for mercy. Why didn't you get out of the country when you had the chance?"

"Shut up, Amelia! Come with me and be quiet, or I'll send you both to dreamland like those two idiots over there!"

"Yes, they are a couple of fools!" agreed Joanna, who was rubbing her arm and trying to restore some feeling now that it had been released from Roberta's brutal grasp. "And it wasn't even much of a fight! Pathetic, in fact! Jenny should be whipped just for being so bad at unarmed combat. She needs six weeks non-stop training to bring her up to scratch, does that one!"

Both girls found themselves being propelled towards the living quarters and were astonished when Roberta pushed them inside the Commandant's room. This was a kind of holy of holies as far as ordinary Guards were concerned. It was an open secret that Bertha was brought here for the purpose of being made love to, but no other Guard would dream of setting foot in here!

"You are mad, Roberta! Fucking insane!" said Joanna. "I hope you make it clear you forced us to come in here. Mind you, people only need to look at you to see nobody could resist you. You are totally amazing these days! How did you get such an amazing body? I want one just like it! You aren't a mere human any longer!"

"Pull the bed to one side and stop talking. You two are really beginning to piss me off!" ordered Roberta. She felt like telling Joanna that she, too, could have a body like hers - if only she had seventy years to spare!

It took both Joanna and Amelia five minutes to shift the heavy bed, revealing a square stone underneath it. Roberta then ordered them to pull up the flagstone by the metal ring in the middle. Once again it took both strong and sweating women a long time. When they saw what was under the stone they gasped in sheer astonishment. Inside the recess was the uniform of a golden guard together with a small packet.

"That's very like your sword, Roberta! It IS your sword! And it's your belt too! I see your number etched on it! How did your uniform get here?"

"It was hidden here after I was drugged and robbed. " replied Roberta. "See that sachet? That's what is left of the drug they used to poison my food. The stupid women were afraid to be seen disposing of them so they hid them here. Also the witch who prepared the potion wanted the evidence to always be where you have found it. Don't ask me why! I can tell you from personal experience that these witches are a law unto themselves! I suppose she wanted the Commandant to be under her power. Bertha and the Commandant conspired together in this diabolical plot. They were behind the attempt to kill the King that night and they wanted me out of the way. When the plot failed they had me accused and convicted. And this morning they are going to try again to assassinate the King and his beloved favourite, the Lady Paula."

"How do you know they are going to try again?" asked Amelia, still not entirely convinced. Joanna was completely convinced, though and was having difficulty keeping her hands off Roberta's incredible muscles! She worshipped her already!

"Never mind that! We must warn His Majesty! One of you must go and rouse the rest of the Guard and then come to the King's Presence Chamber. You, Amelia!"

Amelia went to sound the alarm and returned pale-faced to tell Roberta that the entire Guard except for the two unconscious fighters, the pair of gate guards, the two personal guards and the three of them were asleep and could not be roused.

"Drugged, the lot of them, just like me! We have no time to lose, girls!" shouted Roberta. "Don't ask questions! I don't know all the answers myself! These bloody witches play their cards very close to their chests - even my dear sweet Amy!"

In a few minutes the three Golden Guards, together with two hastily alerted Gate Guards, were at the door of the Presence Chamber. The two Personal Attendants looked at Roberta with the same amazement that her presence had caused Amelia and Joanna a few moments ago. Hawk-eyed Roberta took in the scene at a glance and didn't like what she saw. Talk about arriving in the nick of time!

"That pair talking to the King! Who let them in? Are you two blind!" shouted Roberta who was now wearing again the weapons that had once been stolen from her.