CHAPTER SIX

Signs of Hope


Mr Hargreaves, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General to the Bastanian Republic, sadist and big time embezzler, was in a foul temper as he spoke over the telephone to the Prisons Minister.

"I agree, Minister. It was right to bring the girl back. She is a good fighter and we need her. But she mustn’t get it easy! Keep her under constant watch and make her life a misery. We can't have her punished to the extent that she can't fight, but make her life very hard. I hate that cow. No one spits in my face and gets way with it. The other one? She's had a rough time and had gone to seed. Another month should see her right again. Then I want her up against Miss Chambers. Not a death fight just yet -  we don't want to, lose either of them right now, but a fight to a knockout finish! That cocksure young filly won't have it so easy against the other one! I know they were lovers at the camp, but in the ring they're both out to win. Why! She even killed her best friend - remember? These fighters are animals, Minister! Animals and scum. Women are even worse than men. No sporting instinct. Just born killers.

Remember, Minister! These two are still chain gang women. They get to sleep on the floor and they get no clothes. If that cow Chambers had been taken to that fight naked she wouldn't have got even as far as she did in her escape. No white prisoner is the be taken to the fights clothed in future.

I'm off to tour the work camps today. I like to see those stuck up cows working naked eighteen hours a day. I'm going to talk to the overseer. Those fucking bitches get it too easy. I want the whip used on them a lot more and we are cutting their rations. Obese, overfed under worked cows. I'll show them!"

The Minister phoned the main prison and asked for the chief Jailer.

"Karl. That Miss Chambers. You are to keep a very close watch on her at all times and make sure she is given rough treatment. Keep her fit for the fights but she gets no privileges, no favours and plenty of punishments. When they take her to the market to fight, do not send your assistants. Go yourself. I am trusting you, Karl!  Watch her and guard her around the clock. Only use your best men on her and devote as much  of your own time as you can. Hargreaves insists. And she and Angelina are to be kept naked at all times, and chained at night in the yard."

Karl put the phone down and smiled. The fools had played right into their hands this time! He ordered Lilly to be given twenty strokes of a slipper on her always bare backside. Ultra hard, ultra tough Lilly would shrug off such a punishment and in any case it would sound a lot worse than it felt! But people would get the message that Lilly was having a rough time.

He sent her to fight a succession of three native women in the market on consecutive days and was delighted to see her win easily each time. What a wonderful girl she was! After the third fight he saw her safely stowed away in the van and went across to speak to the young woman who was always watching, always waiting. He tapped her gently on the shoulder and she looked petrified.

"Miss Green? Can we talk somewhere? Not here and not now. See that tavern over there? Tonight at ten. I will meet you outside."

Then he got into the rear of the van, alone with the two fighters. Lilly, concerned for her opponent now the fight was over, was helping the loser clean herself up. She looked up at Karl and grinned. It always did something to his stomach when she did that. Something nice!

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"We are really in luck, Mr Marcelinus. I can still hardly believe it. I have just had a talk with a man called Karl von Verstein. He's about thirty and I think he's South African. He wasn't too keen to talk too much about himself. Didn't really sound like a German somehow, despite the name. He's the number two at the prison. Virtually runs the joint!  And he's recently been given instructions to keep Lilly under observation at all times! And, here's the good bit! He's totally but totally in love with the girl. Really besotted! Head over heels! He wouldn't stop going on about how brave, lovely, sweet, and adorable in every conceivable way she was. Embarrassing! Believe me! The sun shines out of Lilly's arsehole as far as our Karl is concerned!  After the whipping she was given he's out for blood. Can’t look at her back without crying. He'll kill any and everyone who had a hand in his darling Lilly's whipping! And he'll help us get Angelina out of the country. He wants us to take Lilly as well. But I can't see that would be a problem - just one extra girl?"

"No problem, Marina! But first we have to get the girls out. Did Herr von Verstein have any ideas on that one. And what if Lilly returns Karl's affection? Maybe she will want him to come too? It will certainly be hard for him to explain the loss of two prisoners!"

"He's working on it! And he's no fool, Mr Marcelinus. I trust him! And I've no idea if Lilly fancies him. She's a lovely looking girl, but my guess is that she prefers other women to men! I mean, it‘s not very feminine to love fighting the way she does. Although I liked boxing at school and I‘m normal enough!"

"I take it Angelina is also at the prison?"

"Yes. She's not fit to fight as yet. She needs to work hard on her legs. Plenty of skipping and running. But she has been training some of the girls, both white and native. That's how Emma improved so amazingly. I wish she could come too but I doubt it can be arranged."

"How does Lilly come to be back here so soon? I  thought they'd give her a year in the chain gang. At least!"

"Angelina agreed to come back and to fight again, but only if Lilly could come with her. That's why it took so long. There was a lot of disagreement apparently about whether Lilly could come back so soon. Finally they decided to give her another whipping in lieu of the months she still had. Angelina said if they touched her again, she'd refuse ever to come back. So Lilly was finally allowed to return with Angelina and her back escaped a second whipping. Angelina's such a lovely good girl. She mustn't stay here for long! We must get her out!"

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Mr Hargreaves checked the revised diet sheets for the work camp prisoners. Then he went over the work returns.

“These three prisoners have incredibly poor productivity, Warden. Have them flogged in front of the others. Now! Fifty lashes apiece and reduced rations for a month!”

Hargreaves watched as three middle aged women, who had been working here for twenty five years and were old before their time, were cruelly whipped. It was hardly likely that they would still be alive when the Consul - General made his next visit.

In happier days all three had been daughters of important members of the Colonial administration. Hargreaves as a poor and lowly clerk had hated those indulged and frivolous bitches. Walking past him with their pretty noses in the air as if he were a nasty smell. And now Hargreaves pretty well ran this place .

 He ran it with the aid of a corrupt government and a few fools in the Foreign Office and State Department who had no idea how their man in Bastania and his American counterpart were tyrannising a whole country, albeit a small one. And the nicest part of Hargreaves’ life was persecuting innocent white women for no better reason that his own personal inadequacy and king-sized inferiority complex.

He went back to the capital well pleased with his day’s work.

After he had gone, the Warden had all three women taken off duty for a week and increased their rations. He had their wounds treated with such primitive medication as was available. And he thanked the three guards, who had punished the poor wretches, for going extremely easy on them. The Warden was a decent man and there were a lot like him who were itching to rebel against these two bastards and the madmen who were running the country on their behalf - milking its wealth into numbered Swiss bank accounts.

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“I ordered her to be beaten with a slipper again, Minister. Her behind is as red as a beetroot!”

“A slipper! Are you going soft in your old age, Karl? Twenty strokes of the cane. I’ll come round myself and see them laid on. Give the job to the strongest man you can find! And she gets it every other day until I say it’s to stop. It won’t affect her fighting ability. Get it arranged, Karl. I’ll be there in thirty minutes. Mr Hargreaves would be furious if he knew she had been let off so lightly! Furious!”

Karl put the phone down. He looked ready to cry at the things that were still being done to poor Lilly.

“Let the time be short until I can get her and Angelina  out of this stinking country !” he prayed.

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The Minister stood watching as Lilly was tied to a frame ready to be caned. The poor girl was almost bent double, with her arse cheeks positioned for the blistering they were about to receive. She could hardly breathe in this position and knew it would be even worse once the cane started to land on her. She had seen the cane and shuddered, brave girl though she was. It would draw blood with every cut and she was due to receive twenty.

Then the Minister gasped. He clutched at his chest and his face was purple. He fell to the floor and in seconds was being rushed to hospital.

Lilly remained where she was for half an hour, getting more and more uncomfortable. Then Karl came and released her. She looked into his eyes.

“Thanks, Karl. There are times when I love you!”

“Don’t mention it, Lilly. And there are times when I love you. Like all the time!”

As she and Angelina lay side by side in the yard, chained to the ground for the night, Lilly told Angelina about  Karl.

“He loves me, Angelina! Jealous?”

“A bit. But it’s good news! With his help, we’re much more likely to get away. He’s the man who really runs this place. The Warden is senile and mostly drunk. Don’t be affectionate to me any more, Lilly! We don’t want Karl to get jealous. And don’t let on you fancy him, whatever you do! If the authorities knew about you two they’d move him.”

Next day, when Karl was alone with her, Lilly stressed how important it was to keep their affection for each other secret.

“One way of showing how little you like me would be to give me that caning, Karl! Don’t you agree? But don‘t make me bleed, darling. Just leave me badly bruised!”

Karl obliged.

For the next week Hargreaves was too busy trying to find a replacement for the stricken Prisons Minister (whose role included so much more than prisons and was very much a key figure in the financial racketeering that he and Potter were organising. ) to have time to pursue his vendetta against Lilly.

Meanwhile, Angelina was rapidly becoming fit to fight. She lay under the night sky chained next to Lilly and the pair discussed the day they would have to face each other.

“I dread it, Lilly. How about you?”

“A fight is a fight to me, Ange! I’m a pro! I’ll show you no more mercy than I‘d show any opponent. That means none! You’d better forget our friendship when we climb into the ring! I won’t kill you, darling, but I’ll knock you out! With the minimum of force!”