Chapter 2

ROBERTA

IN DEEP TROUBLE - YET AGAIN!

"TWENTY FIVE"

OH HOLY FUCKING SHIT!
The all too familiar lash came curling and whistling down again and another neat red line appeared as if by magic, joining the twenty four that had gone before, cutting transversely across the punishment hardened Roberta's leathery back. This one went from her right shoulder blade to her left buttock - and very pretty it looked too to the artistic Felicity, who took great pride in the decorative work she did on Roberta! Such a broad back to draw lots of lovely red lines on! There were to be many more crimson lines drawn on Roberta this evening before she would be free to leave, and she knew it! There was strength and skill in the arm that wielded that whip! Punishment hardened Roberta cursed again! What a way to spend a pleasant balmy Summer evening! She could think of plenty better! Such as the way she had spent yesterday evening, for instance, even though that few minutes of heaven that had got her where she was tonight! Worth it, though!

The King's best guard simply couldn't keep her stupid self out of trouble these days, no matter how hard she tried - not that she ever tried particularly hard! Roberta was absolutely incorrigible lately! Last night she had not been trying at all to avoid trouble - and here she was!

Despite the familiarity of this experience, Roberta could hardly claim not to notice the pain any more. She noticed it alright and, on the whole, she hated it; but she could handle it just fine! No problems! She had discovered this ability to take pain during that first awful flogging back in the winter. That had taken away all fear of this particular form of retribution! Tonight she kept still and quiet as always. She might as well be sculpted in marble were it not for the straight red lines that kept appearing with every swish - and the blood that was seeping out of some of them. Strong armed Felicity continued efficiently to punish her, flaying her for the latest in a string of serious disciplinary offences. But, despite her outward calm, Roberta's foul mouthed inner reaction to each lash was such as would turn the air blue if she were to give verbal utterance to what was passing through her mind!

Nothing that had happened in the past three months had made her regret her good fortune in being chosen as one of two Guards in constant attendance on the King. Not even her regular, awesome and always well merited floggings could make her regret her new and favoured status! Even so, she was giving Senior Guardswoman Felicity a lot of work since the King had appointed her to be Roberta's sole Punisher. The well behaved Anna got her occasional and far fewer lashes from a much less muscular lady. Roberta was a very big and incredibly strong girl and the King felt she should be chastised by someone as near her own prodigious size and strength as could be found!

Felicity and she had had that promised trial of strength a week ago, before the entire Inner Golden Guard, as soon as Roberta had completely healed after the last whipping. Roberta had won easily. Felicity had crumpled. Now she was having her revenge for that humiliation!

"TWENTY SIX"

OUCH! FUCK! FUCK!! FUCK!!!
This was Roberta's fourth punishment since she had started her new job, not counting the transitional one hundred lashes of her second flogging. This time it was a pretty trivial lashing for her, but it would be very, very major for anyone else! Roberta had been pleasantly surprised when told how few stripes she was getting tonight! She'd really thought she would be breaking her own record after what she'd judged to be easily her worst offence to date! Why were they going so easy on her? Not that she was complaining. This stinging taste of leather was quite painful enough to be going on with, thank you very much!

Her first ever appearance at this whipping post had been for a marathon lashing and Roberta had carried on that way ever since! No small change - no piffling little tens and twenties for her! Roberta was into the big time! She'd never yet got less than a hundred and usually a great deal more! Despite the fact that she was back at the familiar post again, Roberta had a good, not to say splendid, record of service behind her. In her three months she had several successes to her credit.

She had spotted one of the King's visitors as being one of a group of scoundrels she had tangled with in her first year. His fellows had perished at the point of Roberta's sword, but he had escaped, fleeing from the wounded but still deadly golden haired warrior like the miserable coward he was. She had spotted the dagger concealed under his cloak, stepped out from behind the screen and disarmed him before he could harm her master. This rogue was now in his second month on the men's island prison, from whence he would not be returning - ever! The King had warmly congratulated Roberta.

"TWENTY SEVEN"

FUCK YOU FELICITY! YOU FUCKING COW!
Some other would be assassins had been spotted by the vigilant Roberta. Two had been visitors ostensibly presenting petitions from their villages. But Roberta had been to both villages several times and knew these villains had nothing to do with either place. The others had worried Roberta a lot, but her warning to the Commandant had not been followed up.

"TWENTY EIGHT"

FUCK YOU, YOU CUNT! YOU FUCKING ARSEHOLE!
Roberta was watched like a hawk these days. Her sister Guard had fared better than she. Anna had received just two floggings, one of ten and one of twelve. Roberta quite envied her! But she was pretty well used to pain these days. Which was just as well because a lot of it seemed to be coming her way!

"TWENTY NINE"

SHIT, SHIT, FUCKING SHIT!
It had been a week after her second flogging that she had been awarded one hundred more lashes for sloppy turnout. Her quiver had been the cause of her downfall on that occasion. Roberta had been allowed to look at herself in a mirror and been forced to admit that it stuck up a smidgeon more than the regulation inch. On the standard Morning Inspection she would have got away with it. But not now she was a Guard in the Royal Presence for the whole day!

"THIRTY"

OW!!! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU FOR THAT ONE! FUCKING FELICITY!
That one had got her down the entire length of her spine. Fucking wicked bitch!

The night when she had fallen asleep with a fear that her back would never heal came back into her memory. It had been a very prescient fear! Very prescient indeed!

"THIRTY ONE"

HELL'S FUCKING BELLS!
Roberta sometimes felt that she could count on the fingers of one hand the days her back had not been sore. Her second punishment as a Palace Guard had been two hundred for yawning on duty. Felicity had been told to give that flogging everything she had and had been allowed to rest after every ten in order to recover her edge! And that had been richly deserved. The King didn't yawn at his visitors and he was every bit as bored as she! He was a clever man - even cleverer than the super intelligent Roberta.

"THIRTY TWO"

SHIT AND FUCKING ARSEHOLES!
How much more of this agony had she to endure tonight? She knew, of course. But it was best not to think about it. It did no good to remember the precise amount of pain that was still to come! She knew the routine by this time. Just take each lash as it came, hang on in there and mouth ever more unladylike obscenities under her breath! This approach had got her through plenty worse floggings than this! Her third visit to the whipping post had been to receive another two hundred for untidy hair and a pubic bush which bore clear signs of something sticky and almost certainly nasty adhering to it. And other things!

Roberta had badly missed her glossal probing of Bertha's magnificently hirsute and juicily cavernous vagina. By way of comforting herself the sex-starved Golden Guard had indulged in one bit of masturbation too many. The juice was still oozing on the Morning Parade! Roberta had a lot of love to offer, and it was clearly visible. Major disgrace! She could hardly complain of being treated unjustly on that occasion! Caught bang to rights, as the saying goes!

And now she had been apprehended in flagrante very passionately kissing the sweet new parlour maid. More than just kissing, actually. A whole lovely delightful lot more! She'd explored, groped, fingered and slobbered over every delicious inch of that piece of pure, sweet honey before being caught! No! She was a very bad girl these days and this was the result. The very painful result. It had been worth it, though! Had it ever been worth it! That Paula was a darling! A juicy little darling! Yes!!

Roberta was one heck of a hard bitch these days! Hard as fucking nails, she would tell herself! Every day she worked on her body, building up muscle. She was a deadly fighter who had taken on and slaughtered seven enemies at once on one famous occasion. And now she had learned to take a whipping that would kill some of her comrades and still do her job. And still have her fun and games on the side with Paula - and any other pretty girl she wanted! Life was pretty damned good these days, even though her back was being sliced up yet again!

It was always the job that came first, though. She never forgot she was a Golden Guard, even if she were a very wild one nowadays!

PAULA

Paula was well used to her new life by this time. She rose every day at dawn and swept the King's chamber. A neat and nimble worker, she had the room looking spotless and shining long before His Majesty came into the chamber to receive the unending succession of visitors with all their myriad petitions.

She was resting now that it was late evening. It had been a long day, as ever, and she would soon be thinking of going to bed. It might be resting time for Paula but it was punishment time for errant Golden Guards. She listened to the meaty sound of hard leather falling upon Roberta's not so hard flesh. She still hated that sound, preceded as ever by the stern voice of the Commandant. As long as she lived she would hate that dreadful noise, and the thought of the horrible pain it was causing to a fine and wonderful woman. For all the Golden Guards were wonderful women and this particular one was the finest of them all. It came drifting through the window. Why didn't she shut it and banish that awful noise from her room?

"THIRTY THREE" - CRACK!

How cruel, and how utterly stupid, to punish the bravest of the brave in this way! Where was the sense, the justice, in such savagery?

"THIRTY FOUR" - CRACK

The poor girl, Roberta, had been exhausted after accompanying the King on a trip to his hunting lodge. With Anna unable to make the journey because of a high fever and delirium, Roberta had been on her feet for three days, commanding an escort of thirty other Golden Guards. And the danger to the King had been real enough. She had killed three enemies with expertly aimed arrows and tracked another through the rugged terrain and killed him with her bare hands! But she had discarded her sword, arrows and quiver in order to track him more silently. One of the others had reported her for not wearing her proper uniform! What utter idiocy! At least that charge had been thrown out and the idiot who had made it been given ten lashes! Not that Roberta ever received so few! Roberta, who was better than all the others put together!

"THIRTY FIVE" - CRACK

How many more lashes was the poor woman to get before she could stagger away to lick her wounds and prepare for another day of loyally serving her beloved King?

"THIRTY SIX" - CRACK"

Roberta had been on duty only hours after returning from the hunting trip and been given her latest award. Poor brave Roberta! And it was her, Paula's, fault! No one was punishing her for being in love with Roberta. But Roberta was being whipped until the blood ran for loving her. It was all so terribly unfair! Anna had been covering for Roberta when she and Paula had made love for the first time. Maybe it would be the last time. The two would be watched closely from now on!

ROWENA

Rowena had also been working at the Palace for three months. She had listened gleefully to Roberta being punished for what she considered to be one trifling and insignificant offence after another. What idiots they were to treat the King's most faithful and efficient servant in this way. But she rejoiced to hear Roberta being flayed! It did Rowena a power of good and she cheered inwardly every time she heard that piece of blonde shit getting its hide shredded yet again! She hated the woman who had killed her two brothers.

And now her schemes were getting under way at last. Three of her comrades were with her in the Palace Yard. They heard the daily punishment as it proceeded its painful way.

"THIRTY SEVEN"

"How many more is the bitch due to get today?" asked Rowena's cousin. He had lost a brother to that ghastly woman. Hearing her get it was music to his ears. As far as he was concerned, the flogging couldn't go on for too long!

"THIRTY EIGHT!"

"No idea! My contact in the Guard seems afraid to be seen talking to me right now. Getting edgy these days - because of Roberta who is supposed to have eyes in the back of her head! But on past performance I doubt her ordeal is over yet awhile! They seem to have an obsession about flogging her big time! What idiots! What total dickheads! The only one of that bunch of blonde dykes we really fear, and they torture the cow like that, never letting her heal before the next time! If only the fools knew they were doing our work for us! But you have me to thank for that! Me and my special friend who set the ball rolling!"

"THIRTY NINE"

" I suppose you aren't about to let on as to who that is?" asked the oldest of her visitors, a man of about fifty.

"FORTY"

"It's best not to let too many into a secret. The only true secret is one that only one person is privy to!"

"FORTY ONE!"

"I'll say this for that fucking bitch. She's pretty damned hard! If only we had a few like her!" said the youngest of Rowena's co conspirators." She can sure take a mighty licking! And she's still dangerous, even when half dead after what they do to her!"

"FORTY TWO"

"But her brain is as thick as her filthy rotten skin!" scoffed Rowena. She badly underestimated Roberta here! "This is getting boring. On past form it could go on for ages. They're beginning to slow the pace down so that Felicity doesn't get tired and let the cow off too easily. Let's go inside!"

ROBERTA

"FORTY THREE"
(We will take Roberta's continuing litany of obscenities as read from now on! She did tend to repeat herself somewhat! And I think I have made my point - that her mind is like a sewer! It would seem that she is not being purified by pain!)

Roberta was still concerned about what she had seen at the Great Assembly. On that occasion her back had been almost healed but it made no difference to Roberta how much pain she still suffered. Her eyes missed nothing. Two of the relatives who had come to watch a family member being received into the Royal Service had reminded her of someone. She had hastened to the Commandant's side.

"Madam Commandant! I recognise two rebels. See! Over there by the pillar!"

But the Commandant had ordered her back to her post. Roberta wished she were Commandant at times! She could see how the Guard was falling down on the job. If only she could smarten herself up and stop getting these floggings! She had successfully avoided being at fault for fifteen months and now, after that first offence, she was getting into worse trouble all the time. It was all her own doing, though and she simply had to dig herself out of this and make a great effort to be all that she wanted to be and knew she could be.

"FORTY FOUR"

Roberta had long missed her darling Bertha. They hardly saw each other these days. Bertha was still punished frequently, although never as severely as Roberta was being right now. Bertha got about twenty lashes a month and would never improve. Poor Bertha! At least Roberta was rising in the King's service. She might be punished severely for the slightest fault, but she was a trusted and valued Guard these days even she was still whipped with painful frequency!

"FORTY FIVE"