<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title>Roberta 2</title> </head> <body> ROBERTA <br> <br> IN DEEP TROUBLE - YET AGAIN!<br> <br> "TWENTY FIVE"<br> <br> OH HOLY FUCKING SHIT! <br> 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 scarlet 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!<br> <br> 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!<br> <br> 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!<br> <br> 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! <br> <br> 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!<br> <br> "TWENTY SIX"<br> <br> OUCH! FUCK! FUCK !! FUCK!!!<br> 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! <br> <br> <br> 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. <br> <br> 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.<br> <br> "TWENTY SEVEN"<br> <br> FUCK YOU FELICITY! YOU FUCKING COW!<br> 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.<br> <br> "TWENTY EIGHT"<br> <br> FUCK YOU, YOU CUNT! YOU FUCKING ARSEHOLE!<br> 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!<br> <br> "TWENTY NINE"<br> <br> SHIT, SHIT, FUCKING SHIT! <br> 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!<br> <br> "THIRTY"<br> <br> OW!!! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU FOR THAT ONE! FUCKING FELICITY!<br> That one had got her down the entire length of her spine. Fucking wicked bitch!<br> <br> 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!<br> <br> "THIRTY ONE"<br> <br> HELL'S FUCKING BELLS! <br> 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.<br> <br> "THIRTY TWO"<br> <br> SHIT AND FUCKING ARSEHOLES! <br> 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! <br> <br> 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!<br> <br> 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!! <br> <br> 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!<br> <br> 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!<br> <br> ******************************<br> <br> PAULA<br> <br> 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.<br> <br> 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?<br> <br> "THIRTY THREE” - CRACK!<br> <br> 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?<br> <br> "THIRTY FOUR” - CRACK<br> <br> 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!<br> <br> "THIRTY FIVE” - CRACK<br> <br> 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?<br> <br> "THIRTY SIX” - CRACK"<br> <br> 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!<br> <br> *****************************************<br> <br> ROWENA<br> <br> 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. <br> <br> 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.<br> <br> "THIRTY SEVEN"<br> <br> "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!<br> <br> "THIRTY EIGHT!"<br> <br> "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!"<br> <br> "THIRTY NINE"<br> <br> " 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.<br> <br> "FORTY"<br> <br> "It's best not to let too many into a secret. The only true secret is one that only one person is privy to!"<br> <br> "FORTY ONE!"<br> <br> "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!"<br> <br> "FORTY TWO"<br> <br> "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!"<br> <br> ROBERTA<br> <br> <br> "FORTY THREE"<br> (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!)<br> <br> 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.<br> <br> "Madam Commandant! I recognise two rebels. See! Over there by the pillar!"<br> <br> 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.<br> <br> "FORTY FOUR"<br> <br> 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!<br> <br> "FORTY FIVE"<br> <br> That Great Assembly still worried her! Roberta knew in her bones that some new and potent danger was associated with that ceremony. If only she could avoid being punished so often! Her mind needed to be clear and her ever present pain was no aid to thought!<br> <br> "FORTY SIX"<br> <br> At least tonight's flogging was no two hundred affair. It had been all but impossible to perform her duties to the high standards she set herself when in such crippling agony as she had been on those two occasions and for days after. She was glad she was getting a lesser punishment, not only for herself but because she wanted to be fully alert in the coming weeks. She knew something was brewing and nobody would listen to her. Even the King dismissed her fears as stemming from an over zealous imagination.<br> <br> PAULA<br> <br> The new maid tried to sleep, but it was no use.<br> <br> "FORTY SEVEN"<br> <br> That woman, Felicity, was tireless! It was inhuman the way her arm rose and fell in answer to the Commandant's remorseless counting. It was no use! She had to watch! The window was open these days now that the weather was so sultry. Paula saw the ranks of tall, fair haired and naked women lined up to watch the evening punishments. Roberta was the third and last defaulter tonight. Bertha had received ten for a dirty foot and Rosemary had been given twelve. Roberta should be so lucky! Why did they pick on her? She wasn’t that bad - except for last night! And she was brave, cool-headed and capable. Her lapses were trivial when set beside her achievements and her total loyalty. Paula sensed something gravely amiss. She wondered what Roberta was thinking - if she could think under Felicity’s ferocious onslaught.<br> <br> "FORTY EIGHT"<br> <br> Roberta certainly knew how to take her punishment! She hadn't moved a muscle so far! All the other defaulters twitched and jerked around, but not her Roberta!<br> <br> "FORTY NINE"<br> <br> Yes! Her Roberta! For she had fallen hopelessly in love with the tallest of the Golden Guards on that crisp day in late Winter. And Roberta had confided to her that she had been strangely affected at the time by the look in Paula's eyes as she ran past, her feet hurting and her back still on fire from her first ever flogging. And last night they had taken advantage of a ten minute break in Roberta's duties to make love. And the Commandant had burst in on them and ordered Paula out of the room. She wondered how many lashes Roberta had been awarded. No one seemed to know. She had heard that Roberta had immediately apologised for her lapse and supposed she would avoid Paula in future.<br> <br> "FIFTY"<br> <br> Maybe that was the last lash?<br> <br> "FIFTY ONE"<br> <br> Damn! That meant at least ten more. All Roberta's awards were in multiples of ten. She knew that much. Despite herself she was finding this scene quite fascinating! The whole Inner Guard was out there to see Roberta - her Roberta - pay her dues for stepping out of line. And they were a wonderful sight. And Stoic bloody backed Roberta was the bravest of them all. Everyone said that of her first female lover. She was afraid of nothing.<br> <br> Paula watched with increasing admiration as Roberta received twenty more lashes on that strong back. With a shock she realised that she was becoming very sexually aroused! She wondered if Roberta was also getting off on her flogging. Could that be why she courted trouble so recklessly? Maybe she liked it! Paula felt an orgasm coming on, her hand went to her cunt and worked at it feverishly. The young maid was lost for many seconds of sheer ecstasy.<br> <br> ROWENA<br> <br> Rowena had seen off her three confederates and was coming back into the Palace yard. She wondered if that bitch Roberta were still getting it. She certainly hoped so! As she stepped into the yard she heard a lash crack out loud and clear as it landed on Roberta’s naked back.<br> <br> "EIGHTY"<br> <br> <br> Good, thought the malicious traitress. They will give her at least a hundred. Almost certainly more for fucking another woman, and in the King's own apartments. How disgusting! One of those brutal and predatory butch Guards corrupting a sweet young maid. She'd flog the cow to death if she had her way! She listened to the eightieth lash, expecting the entertainment to continue for a while yet.<br> <br> "PUNISHMENT COMPLETE"<br> <br> Rowena almost spat with rage! Only eighty? What the fuck was happening? She saw Felicity apply salt to the raw back. Roberta smiled and shook hands with the sweating Senior Guardswoman, who had just whipped her. She replaced her sword belt, etc., saluted the Commandant and marched smartly away to resume her duties. She had to hand it to that bitch! She was one tough cow!<br> <br> She went to her bed in a foul mood. It would have rounded off her day very nicely to have seen Roberta get two hundred plus. Eighty wouldn't be nearly enough to slow that Amazon down. She'd hardly have noticed so few! No wonder she had smiled at the end!<br> <br> Because of a crack down by the Army and the cursed vigilance of that bitch Roberta the plans had been put back yet again and Rowena had many more weeks as a maid in the Queen's apartments. What a bitch the Queen was! Nag, nag nag! She understood why the King liked to have a pair of naked young blondes about the place all day, even if they were a pair of inveterate dykes, one of whom had a back that looked like raw meat most of the time! But she could see that the Queen was less happy at Anna and Roberta seeing more of the King than she did. And he got to see everything of them - the dirty old man! After the Revolution women’s bodies would never again be exploited like this. No more Golden Guard in tomorrow's bright new world!<br> <br> THE KING<br> <br> It was His Majesty who had very firmly ordered Roberta to receive only a quarter of the lashes the Commandant had wanted for the persistently re-offending young Inner Guard. He saw little, if anything, wrong with what Roberta had done this time. He laughed whenever he thought about it! Paula was a dainty and sweet little girl who worshipped the blonde muscle goddess and Roberta seemed to return her affection with something more and better than pure lust. He knew that pretty well all of the Golden Guard were far keener on their own sex than on men. Roberta was a healthy young woman - and how! - and needed an outlet for her lust and passion. <br> <br> He had decided that Paula must be assigned to Roberta on an official basis. It might help his favourite Guard get herself on an even keel and stop getting all these massive punishments. He doubted, sadly, that the high spirited and rather wayward Roberta would stay unflogged for long. Once that madam had discovered that she could withstand her whippings she had no more fear of them and would be satisfied to earn herself plenty more in pursuit of her pleasures. But the floggings might be reduced to something more acceptable. He had seen for himself how hard even she found it to cope when suffering from the after effects of a two hundred lash punishment. And the three hundred and fifty the Commandant had wished to give for her dalliance with Paula would most likely have killed her - certainly put her out of action for weeks. Even Roberta had limits to her endurance. <br> <br> He wondered whether the Commandant was jealous! According to rumour, she was a notoriously predatory dyke with an appetite to (almost) rival Roberta's! Perhaps she had been seeking Paula with a view to seducing her when she found to her extreme annoyance that the much younger and much stronger Roberta had got there first! Roberta had a magnificent physique and her many scars, both those acquired in battle and those received at the whipping post were quite a turn on for many impressionable young things - like Paula, for instance! And the Commandant had enjoyed a fairly easy rise to the top, being wounded only once and slightly at that. And Madam Commandant was sagging these days! Her tits and belly grew flabbier by the week! And as for her thighs! They wobbled where Roberta's rippled! In five years she would retire and that day could not come soon enough for the King!<br> <br> If he could replace the Commandant today he would - with Roberta! Roberta would lead by example, always at the point of maximum danger in a battle. She would inspire the rest in the way the present incumbent never could. And she’d not dish out too many heavy floggings. She’d be fair and tolerant as far as minor offences were concerned, whilst showing no mercy to Guardswomen who really fell down on the job. There’d be less spit and polish under Roberta, but a lot more sharpness in battle. And with the responsibility she would stop fooling around. Command would be the making of her.<br> <br> But his grandfather, in setting up the founding charter of the Golden Guard, had given much power to the Commandant of the day. It was not easy to replace her. Even the King could not always do as he wished. And in five years time the brave and reckless Roberta would almost certainly have long since fallen in battle.<br> <br> So he called the still bleeding Roberta and the still sleepless Paula into his private office. He asked Paula to be seated. Roberta, who had been hoping for a few hours of rest, was ordered to remain standing to attention and to keep perfectly still if she knew what was good for her. She obeyed!<br> <br> "How would you two like to see more of each other? Without having to sneak away for a quick bit of illicit love when you think no one is looking - which, alas for Roberta, they were last night! I am willing to sanction your sleeping together. You will have to sleep on cold stone, Paula, and with no covering for your body either in winter or summer. What do you say?"<br> <br> "I love Roberta, Your Majesty. I would be proud to share the same hardships as she."<br> <br> "Very well. I also expect you to assist my best Guard in maintaining her equipment and being always immaculately turned out. Keep her smart and up to the mark and she will be flogged less often - if at all. I hate to hear her being punished as much as she has been lately and I am sure you do. You are both free to go. Enjoy your first night together!"<br> <br> Paula got to her feet. Roberta saluted smartly, did an about turn, and marched out of the room. Once outside they embraced, hardly able to credit their good fortune. Roberta felt only happiness and all the pain from her wounds had gone. Paula left her clothes in her own room. Soon they were in Roberta’s small and bare cell. Paula lay on her back and the much larger Golden Guard lay on top of her. The stone floor was cold to her skin but the soft bulk of her muscular lover soon warmed her.<br> <br> An hour before dawn Paula woke up and went to fill a bucket with water. She was still naked and wondered whether she was to stay this way all the time. She washed the now waking Roberta, making sure she was spotless for the morning inspection when she and Anna were given an appraisal far more probing than the rest of the Golden Guard. She dressed her in her few bits of equipment and saw that not one item was the slightest bit out of place. Then she kissed the long scar on the statuesque Roberta’s massive right thigh. The wound went from just above her knee to her buttock.<br> <br> “How did you get that wound, my darling?”<br> <br> “I’ll tell you the full story tonight. And now you’d best go and see about getting dressed. Unless you want to be naked like me all the time? Come to think of it you may have to be!”<br> <br> “I would love to be as bare as you all day! But will the King allow it?”<br> <br> “I think the question you should be asking is ‘will the King allow me not to be nude!’ You are attached to the Golden Guard now, as my assistant, Paula! No more clothes for you is my guess!”<br> <br> And so it proved. Paula’s small but comfortable room was locked and she was told that she would share Roberta’s quarters from now on and be for ever naked like her new Mistress. She was assured that she would never be flogged upon her back - only caned on her dainty little buttocks in extreme cases of misconduct. This came as a relief! <br> <br> Paula might thrill with pride and sensual delight as she witnessed Roberta’s courage whilst being punished. It had excited her last night to think that her lover was going through all that on her account. But she knew the same experience would kill her.<br> <br> That night, before they fell asleep, Roberta told Paula of the fight in which she had received the wound to her thigh. Paula was thrilled and snuggled as close as she could, biting in her excitement on Roberta’s hard nipple until sharply told to stop!<br> <br> “It was in the mountain territory about two hundred miles away, Paula. I had been sent out with three others to check on reports of rebel activity. We were ambushed and two of us were killed in the first seconds. The remaining two of us cut down three of the bastards and then Ellen, my surviving comrade, was also killed. That left me against seven others. I was in a good position, Paula, with my back shielded by the rocks. Only two of them could get at me at once and I gradually cut them down one by one until finally I was standing there surrounded by dead bodies, three of them my dear comrades. But I had been hurt and when I limped into our camp hours later I fainted.”<br> <br> “I still can’t believe you love me, Roberta! A super heroine like you! I just can’t believe my luck in having the bravest ever Golden Guard as my Mistress and lover. I’ll always be true to you, Roberta!”<br> <br> “And I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have found you, Paula. If I last until I retire, we’ll spend the rest of our days living together. But that’s highly unlikely. I may not even live the year out! I’ve been pretty lucky to last this long.”<br> <br> “You all take so many risks, Roberta!”<br> <br> “It’s our job. None of us care for our own lives, Paula. We are here to preserve the King and we know how dangerous that can be. But we will never allow harm to come to him. Not if it means all of us dying!”<br> <br> In her room, the spiteful, Left Wing Republican Rowena was planning just such a universally fatal outcome. All the Guards dead and a very dead King - and his bitch of a wife!<br> <br> <br> <br> ROBERTA AND PAULA<br> <br> Roberta escaped all further punishment for seven long and very happy weeks. She accompanied the King on a trip to the troubled Northern province and was involved in several minor scuffles, being wounded again in her shoulder. The King had given her command of all fifty Guards who accompanied him. <br> <br> As he had correctly forecast, Roberta led by example and from the front. She would make sure she was always where the fighting was thickest and hardest. If only he could find a way of placing her in full command of the entire Golden Guard. But the Commandant was immovable. <br> <br> Paula had pleaded to be allowed to go with her beloved Mistress and her request had finally been granted. She proved to be invaluable as a general help to all the Guards, cooking, cleaning and repairing damaged equipment. And at night, when Roberta was free, she was enfolded by those massively strong arms. Although she was so strong, Roberta was incredibly gentle when she embraced Paula. It thrilled the little girl to think that the hands that caressed her so gently had squeezed the life out of so many of the King's enemies!<br> <br> “Why do they let me treat your wound, Roberta?” she asked her one evening as she was applying a herbal salve to her Mistress’s shoulder. “Yet when you were whipped you were denied treatment?”<br> <br> “This is a wound of honour, Paula. But when I am whipped it is another matter! Part of the punishment is that those wounds get absolutely no treatment at all - apart from the salt they rub in! It‘s so good to be honourably wounded for a change after so many wounds of dishonour! I‘ll never go out of my way to be whipped again, Paula. You‘re looking at a reformed character!”<br> <br> “So you did like it, Roberta! At least you sort of liked it. I wondered! I sort of liked it, too - seeing you being punished. Made me go all wet! Sick - eh?”<br> <br> <br> “Maybe, Paula! But my spell as a chronic defaulter is over! And, as you say, it might have hurt like hell but in a way it was fun while it lasted!”<br> <br> By the time the tour was over, no Guards had been killed. Only Roberta had been wounded and thirty rebels were slain. Rowena cursed the fair Roberta and she cursed this little naked maid who had so providentially come to Roberta’s rescue, giving her the emotional stability she needed to rise to the very top.<br> <br> Something must be done to get that cow out of the way - permanently!<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> </body> </html>