<!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 4</title> </head> <body> <big style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: times new roman,times,serif;">Chapter 4<br> <br> </span></big> <br> "What are you doing in this dreadful place, Paula?"<br> <br> Roberta could hardly believe it was her darling Paula who had just loomed up out of the gloom., She had a vague memory of having last seen her when she was watching her being flogged to death - or so the subsequently disappointed Commandant had hoped - almost exactly one year ago.<br> <br> "I have been sent here by the King for a few weeks. I did him a favour and asked that I be allowed to see you. I shall be staying in one of the apartments in the Castle mostly, although I can come and see you as long as I don't make love to you. He will increase your whippings as a kind of payment for seeing me. My company will perhaps make things easier for you, so you must pay by having your conditions made worse in other ways. He is only doing this for me, Roberta - not for you. He still considers you to be a traitor. Do you agree to having seventy lashes in future, once every month instead of fifty every three months? This will be for keeps, Roberta - not just for a month or two, but for the rest of your life. It's for you to decide."<br> <br> "I don't care how many extra lashes I get. It's just so wonderful to see you. How long will you be here for?"<br> <br> "A few weeks. No longer. His Majesty likes to see me around the place these days - especially now the poor Queen is so ill."<br> <br> "You seem to have done pretty well for yourself, darling! I am glad for you! And a few more lashes are neither here nor there. I don't enjoy my whippings like I used to in the good old days, but I still have no fear of pain."<br> <br> "Good. You may leave us alone for a while, Raymond! We have a lot to talk about after a year apart. You know how we women are!"<br> <br> As soon as they were alone, tears started flowing down Roberta's face and she started shaking and sobbing.<br> <br> SLAP! SLAP!! SLAP!!<br> <br> Paula amazed the prisoner by slapping and punching her hard on the face many times making it red and even bleed. The sobs ceased.<br> <br> "That's better! I was so ashamed of you! Crying like a baby! Really Roberta! What ever became of the bravest and best of the Golden Guard?<br> <br> "That nice guard, Raymond was telling me how quiet you are these days. He knows of your brave exploits, Roberta and can hardly believe someone like you can be so broken spirited. Why are you still like this? It's been a year, Roberta! You've had plenty of time to get over all that!"<br> <br> "A year! It might seem a long time for you Paula, but for me it's just the start of a very long road. I may live this life that is no life for forty or even fifty more years. I, who was born and trained to fight hard and to die young and gloriously in battle! You have no idea what it is to rot here and know yourself to be a traitor like me - full of shame and self hate!"<br> <br> "Traitor - rubbish. You are no traitor, Roberta! I have spent the last six months and more, a considerable part of it with my face stuck not entirely unwillingly up Bertha's large and exceedingly juicy cunt, proving it to my complete satisfaction. You were drugged, Roberta. Something was put into your evening meal. I know who supplied the potion and I know who put it into your drink that night. And you must go back to the Palace and unmask her! Then go and get your glorious death - if that's what you really want! Speaking for myself I'd opt for the glory without the death!"<br> <br> "And how do you propose that I do that? Are you going to put me in your trunk and take me back on the boat with you in a few weeks? I hardly think they will take too kindly to that! These people weren't born fucking yesterday, Paula!"<br> <br> "No. You must swim back to the mainland. It's not that far. You can easily see the land from here. You CAN swim, I hope?"<br> <br> "Very well indeed. We were trained to excel in all forms of physical activity. I was the best of my intake at everything - especially swimming. But that stretch of sea is impossible even for the strongest swimmer. You should know. Your family come from the coast opposite. How many corpses have been washed up of idiots who thought they could make it? Dozens. And how many succeeded. Fucking nobody!"<br> <br> "Not impossible for you, my dear! Remember this. Don't fight the current. Use it to carry you away from the island and try gradually to edge yourself towards land. I estimate that you will come ashore twenty miles north west of my Uncle's cottage. You'll be tired and need a day to rest up.<br> There is a cape that juts out like two fingers. On the shore to the east of it is a simple fisherman's hut, full of nets and other gear. It's been deserted for years. I have left clothes and food for you there. You are big for a woman so I have left men's clothes. I know it will pain you to cover that noble and hardy body but it is for the King and his safety. For he is still in danger, Roberta and you must save him. You are his Chief Protectress still!"<br> <br> "I am under observation all the time, Paula. I may not be watched too closely at night these days because after eighteen hours work I only wish to sleep and am fit for nothing else. I can hardly keep my eyes open as it is, even with the pleasure of being with you again so unexpectedly. As soon as it is light they will be here to rouse me and put me to work. I work very hard!"<br> <br> "I know how hard you work, Roberta! I have been watching you all day. It must be pretty grim for you in this heat! I felt tired and very thirsty just watching!"<br> "I can take it, Paula. A Golden Guard is trained to endure infinitely worse hardship than this!"<br> <br> "I'm sure! One thing I noticed. The other women seem to really hate you. Why is this"?<br> <br> "They are all rebels, Paula. As a Golden Guard, even a disgraced one, they would be bound to hate me. At first some of them were willing to be friendly. But as soon as I made clear to them my total remorse at what I had done and my continuing love for the King, they turned against me to a woman!"<br> <br> "Well, next time one of them throws a stone at you, throw one back. And as for remorse! Remorse for what! You did nothing wrong, Roberta. Don't take that shit from then any more! Even if they punish you, you mustn't let them treat you like that without fighting back!<br> <br> "I am serious, Roberta! You are totally innocent of all the charges they made. That evil bitch Rowena lied about you when she made that dying accusation. You've simply got to start believing in yourself again. And you start as of now!"<br> <br> "I lost my weapons, Paula. There can be no doubt about that!"<br> <br> "Because your food and drink had been poisoned, Roberta. You are a very light sleeper. I, who slept so happily by your side for those wonderful weeks know just how light! Nobody could have disarmed you if you had not been deeply drugged. What do you remember of that night?<br> <br> "Very little, Paula. I was due to join Anna on duty in the Queen's apartment. We were to overlap for four hours and I was to escort the King and Queen to their bedchamber and be on duty outside all night. I had my supper.<br> <br> Next thing I recall was that I was being dragged down to the cellars by a half dozen of the Guard and given over to the Chief Torturer. Charming man! Good to his wife and family and kind to animals! He wasn't kind to me, though!<br> <br> I was tortured for a long time. But all appeared to be happening such a long way away. Even when they were dipping me into the cold water and nearly drowning me it seemed like it was someone else they were doing it to."<br> <br> "When did you start to feel more connected to reality, Roberta?"<br> <br> "When they hung me upside down and started whipping me. I knew I was in the deepest possible disgrace to be punished like that. I felt total despair at that moment. Then I remember nothing until I was conscious again and told I was to be imprisoned here for the rest of my life."<br> <br> "And all these months you have continued to believe yourself guilty? When you must have known all along that you did no wrong? Well, you had better start believing differently from now on! I haven't come to this arsehole of the universe for the sake of my health, Roberta!"<br> <br> "Please leave me for now, Paula. I need to sleep. Tomorrow is the longest day of the year. I shall be nearly nineteen hours at work and I need rest. And I need to think. My mind is in quite a state after what you have said. Are you sure about what all this? You're not just trying to make me feel better. You have proof?"<br> <br> "I have enough proof to satisfy me. And you must produce the proof that will satisfy the King and everyone else. Good night my darling!"<br> <br> Paula went up to her quarters, guided by Raymond, who tried his best to ignore the fact that this guest, here by permission of the King himself, was very naked and very pretty. He kept his hands off that luscious flesh but only after a massive exercise of self restraint. He only got to look at one other naked woman these days and that was Roberta, who did not attract him as powerfully as Paula did.<br> <br> Paula was small and flawless in every way, but Roberta had been wounded several times. There was an ugly scar on her right thigh and one across her stomach, both souvenirs of deadly fighting as a Golden Guard. Her back was a ghastly mess after all her floggings in the past eighteen months. And there were the burn scars on her chest where the torturers had branded her so horribly painfully a year ago. She might be strong and have a.wonderful physique, but she was hardly a beauty these days, although her face was still lovely as well as her golden hair which once more reached almost to her waist.<br> <br> He was tremendously impressed by Roberta, though. Her strength was more than just physical. He knew of her incredible record in her first year as a Reserve Guard and that she had been marked for a high position, eventually succeeding the Commandant. Then she had started to go completely off the rails, being awarded several incredible floggings before seemingly abandoning her wild behaviour for a time and then betraying her King and her colleague Anna, who had been left to die, fighting against seven intruders that she, Roberta, had let into the Queen's apartments by some kind of arrangement with a maid called Rowena.<br> <br> He still found Roberta's treachery hard to fathom out and was more than half inclined to wonder if a mistake had not been made. He kept these doubts to himself.<br> Paula sensed that Raymond might be sympathetic to Roberta. It might be useful to get to know him a little better. And his uniform was very tight fitting about the groin area. She saw that Raymond was very well endowed there. Here might be an opportunity both to broaden her experience and see if he might be willing to help get Roberta off the island. She guessed he would be unable to do much, but it was worth trying.<br> <br> "Feel like a chat before going to your room, Raymond? I kept you waiting while I caught up with Roberta's sad story this last year. Maybe I can make up for that!"<br> <br> The pair talked for hours until Raymond finally went to his own rather bare room, leaving Paula to snatch a few hours sleep.<br> <br> One of the things Raymond had said was that Roberta was to be whipped the day after tomorrow. If her friend took her advice and retaliated next time a stone was tossed in the general direction of her head, this would mean extra lashes. Raymond said twenty extra.<br> <br> "Ninety lovely lashes!" moaned Paula as she writhed on her bed, feverishly massaging her cunt. "I can <br> hardly wait!"<br> <br> ROBERTA<br> <br> Her mind seethed with all manner of thoughts. Was Paula being serious? She remembered eating a meal brought up from the kitchens by one of the servants on that horrible night. Had Paula not been visiting her uncle, she would have fetched the meal. Who had brought it to her? It was just far too long ago to remember. And the turmoil she had been plunged into only a few hours later had caused all the events of that day to be confused inextricably in her mind.<br> <br> But she was Roberta! She was the cleverest of all the Golden Guard. Must concentrate. But she was too tired to think. If she got tired during the day, they would punish her. So Roberta put all thoughts out of her mind and slept.<br> <br> PAULA<br> <br> "Do you wish to speak with Roberta again today?" asked Raymond in the morning.<br> <br> He and Paula were sitting in the dining hall, being waited on by a couple of the more privileged prisoners.<br> <br> "I think I'd like to see around the island first. We mustn't interfere with the work the convicts do!"<br> <br> Later on she was escorted around the island. It was certainly a grim place! There seemed to be hardly a blade of grass or a green shoot anywhere in the entire area. It was just a bare rock rising up out of the sea. In the fierce summer heat the ground under her bare feet was scorching hot. Paula could not think of a more desolate place to work for even a few months, let alone live in servitude for the rest of one's life.<br> <br> Raymond showed her the well from which the water supply was raised. he told her that the winch was operated at night in the very early hours, by a team of three prisoners, who then transported the water tanks to the cellars in time for the coming day. Apparently this nocturnal duty was one that prisoners vied with each other for, being extremely light in comparison to the work in the quarry. Quarrying work was back-breaking. The quarry was easily the worst place to be sent. Roberta had been in the quarry since Day One and would never work anywhere else even if she lived to be a hundred.<br> <br> It was quickly apparent to the observant Paula that nobody could possibly hope to get to the port and board a boat without being seen and stopped. The tiny jetty was only accessible through a narrow gap in the rocks and was covered by several dozen soldiers, all of whom looked to be extremely vigilant. Raymond told her they were instructed to shoot to kill if any prisoner tried to reach the port.<br> <br> "Has anyone ever tried" asked Paula.<br> <br> "Yes. People get pretty desperate after a year or two here! They'll try anything to get away! Even the staff are glad to be finished with their tours of duty! I'm going home in five months and believe me, it can't be soon enough!"<br> <br> "Do you have a girl on the mainland, Raymond?"<br> <br> He looked for the hundredth time at that trim body. He did have a girl on the mainland, but she was nothing like Paula. She was over thirty and somewhat obese.<br> <br> "Yes. I am married, Paula."<br> <br> "I am single, Raymond. As an auxiliary to the Golden Guard, I only have the bodies of other women to comfort me. Sometimes I regret this. Like now, for instance!"<br> <br> Paula giggled and moved closer to her escort. She looked down at his tunic and smiled inwardly. He was obviously one very frustrated young man!<br> <br> "Let's go and see Roberta working, shall we? I think she might be slacking today. Just a feeling. We can't have the most evil of the King's enemies getting it easy!"<br> <br> Raymond once more assisted Paula over the rough ground, putting his arm around that exciting naked body at one stage. His had felt the touch of her breast, firm and warm against it. More excitement!<br> <br> "Golly, Raymond! Something's growing down there!!" tittered Paula. Paula was getting slightly excited herself. But her excitement was caused by the prospect of seeing Roberta sweating as she did a job most men would find killing. She was determined to get her Mistress out of here, but the thought of watching her slaving away and being whipped later on was giving her a near orgasm already!<br> <br> She stood, with Raymond keeping his arm around her and watched Roberta raising and lowering the heavy pick axe. Apparently she kept up this rhythm for four hours at a time. Paula knew Roberta would be aware of her watching and also aware that Raymond was busily groping her! She would have good reason to dislike Raymond after today!<br> <br> Other convicts were shovelling the rubble away and still others putting it into barrows to be wheeled away to the harbour, where much of it was merely thrown into the sea. The chief aim of all this hot, dusty work was to keep the women busy. Then one of the women threw a rock at Roberta, hitting her on her side and drawing blood. Paula froze. Would her friend retaliate?<br> <br> She did. Roberta calmly picked up a large stone and threw it at her tormentor. It struck the woman on the head and she dropped to the ground, stunned.<br> <br> "Did you see that, Raymond?" asked Paula. "I though you said Roberta was a gentle and repentant prisoner? She didn't look too gentle to me! I suppose you will tell the Prison Commander?"<br> <br> "No, Paula. The other women have been asking for something like that. Serve the bitch right!"<br> <br> "I wish to speak with her again, Raymond. I wish you to be with us. Keep silent but mark well what is said."<br> <br> Roberta came to the end of her four hour shift and Raymond called her aside.<br> <br> "Paula wishes to speak with you. I am to hear all that is said."<br> <br> Paula spoke.<br> <br> "When did your troubles start Roberta? When were you first whipped?"<br> <br> "Not long before you first saw me, Paula. I put on my sword belt wrongly and later in the day I flinched on duty when stung by a wasp."<br> <br> "A wasp!" sneered Paula. "In February? Who ever heard of wasps being about so soon in the year. Did you not wonder at the time?"<br> <br> "I know what a wasp sting feels like, Paula! Once when being trained I had to pick up a wasp's nest and carry it out of the camp and throw into a lake. I had many chances to learn what it was to be stung on that day. I was in agony for long afterwards!"<br> <br> "That is as may be!" said Paula. "Where on your body, were you stung - if stung you were?"<br> <br> "On the back. Just between the shoulder blades."<br> <br> "And you were standing on one side of the Great Door. You would have been facing your fellow Guard. Who was your fellow Guard on that day?"<br> <br> "It was Bertha!"<br> <br> "I knew it!" shouted Paula triumphantly. "She got you into trouble earlier. And she saw someone use maybe a blow pipe to fire a dart at your back. She wanted you whipped, Roberta. It was she and one other who got you into such trouble on that day. But they picked the wrong girl! Because you thrived on pain and won the King's favour. Even so, they thought to use your position to discredit you. And you helped them by being such a fool as to keep on and on getting into trouble. But you are no traitor, Roberta. Are you listening to all this, Raymond?"<br> <br> Raymond nodded. He had never really believed Roberta to be guilty. He knew the area she came from. It was probably the most loyal region in the Kingdom. He had always been amazed that anyone from such a fanatically loyal region should be a traitor.<br> <br> "When they whipped you," continued Paula, " the mark on your back would have been whipped away, along with much of your skin. And you never had a chance to examine the mark because you were obliged to report for punishment as soon as you came off duty. I know what the poison was that they used to make you think you had been stung. A mere trace was all it took to hurt like being set on fire! Any more than a trace and you would have died."<br> <br> "I don't know what to say!" Roberta gasped. "But Bertha was so upset about the trouble she had got me into. She was terribly upset. You should have seen her tears."<br> <br> "Maybe she was - at the time. Perhaps she was not yet in all that deep. Bertha is weak, Roberta. She would be an ideal person to work on and encourage to betray. My guess is that someone knew something to her discredit and was blackmailng her. And I know who it was. The person who fired the dart at you. I know the sorceress who sold her the poison and also the poison they used to drug your meal. And I know where you can find your sword and other equipment."<br> <br> "She won't find them on this island, Paula" said Raymond. "And there's no way she gets to leave. I'm inclined to believe you both, but I have a job and it's to keep Roberta here. You must be the one to restore your friend's good name, Paula. Go back to the Palace and convince the King. Until then, Roberta stays where she is being very, very busy! Will you stay to see the whipping tomorrow, Paula? I imagine it may be less painful for you if you left before."<br> <br> "I shal stay for another day. The King wishes me to make sure her life here is as hard as it can be. Who will whip her in the morning?"<br> <br> " Ethelberta will do the job. She did very well last time. It was horribly bloody. I'm sure you'd sooner not see!"<br> <br> Paula laughed merrily. "You know neither of us that well, Raymond. I love to watch a good whipping, even if it is of my dearest friend. Especially her! And Roberta quite likes getting it - or did before they broke her spirit."<br> <br> ROBERTA, PAULA, ETHELBERTA AND A WHIP<br> <br> Paula was up early next morning. She had been more than a little concerned at the looks Raymond had been giving her and decided to wear some clothes for a change. There was no compulsion in her nudity these days and she had recently been given a very beautiful gown to wear by her most fervent admirer. She wore a pair of shoes with turned up toes and a necklace made of some of the finest jewels the gold and emerald mines had ever yielded up from their dark and dangerous depths.<br> <br> Roberta was also up early, but she always was - or else! This morning she was told that her quarterly punishment was scheduled for ten o'clock and that she must work on the treadmill for five hours until it was time for Ethelberta to flay her.<br> <br> Ethelberta was up early. As a fanatic opponent of the King she couldn't wait to get stuck into Roberta again! Like the late Rowena - a distant cousin - she had lost a brother to the Golden Guard and was full of hate for Roberta. Ethelberta had been practising ever since the last time she had given the hated Golden Guard fifty lashes, finally getting through that thick hide after thirty lashes and making the blood run down her thereafter until a puddle formed beneath her suspended feet. This time she was due to give the bitch seventy and she couldn't wait!<br> <br> All the other women, some seventy in number, were also up early. Like Ethelberta they were rabid enemies of the State in general and the King in particular. They couldn't wait to see Roberta punished again.<br> <br> Raymond was also an early riser. He had not had a good night's sleep. In the morning the lovely Paula was due to leave, cutting short a stay that had originally been scheduled to last another twenty days. And he was to supervise Roberta's routine flogging. He hated the idea of punishing an innocent woman. He was utterly convinced that Roberta was no traitor, but the victim of a terrible injustice. And Paula, despite her professed love for Roberta, was looking forward to seeing her whipped!<br> <br> Raymond was a normal sort of person and found Paula's obvious depravity appalling, especially in in one so young and lovely. He had also noticed that Roberta had seemed far from anxious about her coming ordeal - far from it! Roberta's eye's had positively sparkled when Paula had announced that she wanted a ringside seat!<br> <br> Roberta gave a slight start of surprise as Paula, looking quite a great lady, came and sat a few feet away from her. As they secured her to the frame, she saw Paula slip out of her gown and kick her shoes away. She heard her explain to Raymond.<br> <br> "I don't want Roberta's blood over this nice new dress!" she said in a voice loud enough for the unfortunate soon to be flogged Roberta to hear. Roberta allowed herself a smile as she waited for the seven foot long leather thong to fall on her for the first of seventy times.<br> <br> Then Ethelberta was escorted into the courtyard. There was a great cheer for her from the assembled prisoners who couldn't wait to see Roberta suffer once again.<br> Ethelberta took the whip from the guard and swished it a few times. Paula wiped her brow. It was getting no cooler! She looked at Ethelberta. That strong young woman was sweating already and she hadn't started yet! By the time she had delivered seventy lashes onto Roberta's waiting back, she would be in almost as bad a state as her victim - worse, most likely!<br> <br> "ONE" shouted the head guard.<br> <br> WHOOSH! Went the whip through the air, hissing angrily on its busy way to that gloriously inviting expanse of bare skin!<br> <br> CRACK! went the whip as it landed, leaving a red line that cut into Roberta across her shoulders. The former Golden Guard did not move a muscle. As ever she showed no sign of the anger and pain she must be feeling at the continued injustices she was being subjected to.<br> <br> "TWO"<br> <br> Once again Roberta was immobile. The second lash got her across the small of the back. Paula guessed that Ethelberta's aim was none too good.<br> <br> "THREE"<br> Just as I thought, said Paula to herself. The woman was raising her arm and slashing away with no notion of directing her blows in any sort of methodical pattern. That third lash had almost missed its target, nicking Roberta's shoulder and coming down mainly on the frame to which she was tied. Paula yawned noisily!<br> <br> "THIRTY SEVEN"<br> <br> Blood was beginning to seep from a few of Ethelberta's better directed cuts. But Paula still had no flecks of red on her skin. And the sun was very strong by now. Poor Ethelberta was visibly wilting, and she was only just over half way through!<br> <br> FIFTY FOUR"<br> <br> Paula was getting a few spots of blood on her by now. Her vulva was throbbing away like mad and she was going seriously wet. She hoped that Roberta appreciated just how grateful she was to her for providing this superb entertainment! The brave girl was still immovable as the whip began to seriously cut her up. And to think she still had to do the better part of a full day's work ahead of her when this was over. Sadly, Paula would be sailing back to the mainland soon and would not see the poor young woman toiling in the merciless heat, thirsty and tired with a sore back.<br> <br> And then Ethelberta fainted. SHIT!<br> <br> PAULA - DEPARTING<br> <br> "Well, Raymond! Thanks for showing me around and generally looking after me. Maybe we'll meet again sometime over in civilisation."<br> <br> "I hope so Paula. I'm glad you enjoyed this morning's entertainment!" <br> There was sacrcasm in Raymond's vice as he spoke these last words!<br> <br> "It was pretty good. Especially after that silly girl fainted and they put a fresh woman on to her. She really did some damage! I bet Roberta will be sore for weeks after that. Then she'll be having to think about the next one! Poor girl. But she's strong. I bet she does as much work as ever today!"<br> <br> Raymond waved goodbye to the departing Paula and watched until the boat was almost out of sight. Paula was wearing her gown again. She had washed the flecks of blood from her naked body after Roberta's punishment. Paula looked so sweet and demure. But this delightful girl had just watched her best friend being tortured and obviously hugely enjoyed it. And Roberta had looked to be enjoying the experience herself.<br> <br> Roberta was back at work as her friend was being escorted to the boat and she continued to sweat and toil until nightfall. This night, though, she did not fall asleep.<br> <br> She took the packet Paula had left in the hut and crept towards the well. After throwing the contents into the deep well she made for the cliff edge and jumped thirty feet into the sea.<br> <br> At five thirty in the morning they came to wake her up and found the hut empty. A search was organised and no trace was found of her anywhere on the island. But no one had reached the port. All three boats currentlymoored to the jetty were searched and Roberta was not on any of them.<br> <br> Then at about six o'clock prisoners and guards alike began to feel tired. By six thirty everyone on the island was fast asleep. Not until late in the afternoon did people start to wake up. By this time Roberta was dragging herself ashore, more or less at the spot that Paula had calculated. She found the fisherman's hut and collapsed on the earthen floor. She was a strong swimmer but even her strength had almost failed her in the course of that long swim.<br> <br> When she woke up Paula was standing looking down at her.<br> <br> "At last. You've been asleep for a whole day and two nights! We've things to do, Roberta!"<br> <br> "What are you doing here, Paula? You didn't say anything about being here waiting for me! Won't you be missed at the Palace?"<br> <br> "They will know by this time that I helped you, Roberta. We are both fugitives now! When will you be strong enough to make a move? We have no time to lose. We must be at the Palace by nightfall if possible!"<br> <br> "I suppose we don't even have time to make love?" asked Roberta who had her arm around Paula by now.<br> <br> "There's always time for that, my angel!"<br> <br> </body> </html>