Concluding Chapters Part 2

Naked and frozen Roberta lay semi conscious on the little island’s white sandy beach after her swim in icy cold water. She lay there for nearly an hour, more dead than alive, until feeling slowly started to come back into her numbed body, beginning at the tips of her fingers and toes and hurting terribly, but showing her that she was still alive.

As soon as she was able, she got to her feet and walked towards the centre of the island. This spot was high enough for Roberta to see the Palace and into the courtyard. It was evening now and three defaulting Golden Guards were being led to the whipping post to receive whatever award their carelessness had earned them today. She felt a lump in her throat and tears in her eyes at this reminder of a life that she was still exiled from. Why was she not lined up with all the rest to watch a fellow Guard being whipped. Come to that, why was she not being whipped herself. Anything was better than being out in the cold as she was. Then a soft warm hand touched her thick and sinewy upper arm.

She looked round and saw Celestine standing just behind her. The young witch looked so utterly lovely that Roberta went down on her knees and kissed her pretty delicate feet. Celestine patted her head gently and told her to get up.

“It is I who should be kneeling, Roberta! Strong Roberta, brave Roberta and darling Roberta!”

“Where is Amy? Still swimming around the island to keep intruders away?” asked Roberta, about ten minutes later, as she briefly drew back her head from a long and utterly wonderful kiss. She had never imagined, until meeting these two witches, that mouths and tongues could be so soft and so warm or that their waters could be so intoxicatingly  sweet to the taste.

“Yes! Now go on kissing me! Hold me tight, my darling and kiss and kiss and kiss me!” said Celestine with a mixture of the imperious and the pleading. Roberta obeyed for a minute longer and then pushed the eager, open mouthed Celestine away with extreme gentleness but very firmly.

“Who are the three Golden Guards being punished tonight, my sweet Celestine? Upon what errant backs is the lash falling with such terrible force? It is too far away for me to see clearly.”

“One is Bertha, your former lover and your betrayer, who was given twelve lashes - far less than the stupid cow deserves. The  other two are new since you left. They are Rachel and Frances. Today is a great day for them! They are getting thirty apiece and it is their first punishment since joining. For three months they have not made a single mistake and now the inevitable has happened! They will neither of them find it easy to keep quiet today! For it is the strong armed and merciless Felicity who had been appointed to tear into their delicate flesh. You remember your first flogging at Felicity‘s hands, I’m sure!  Good, isn‘t she?”

There was sisterly pride in Celestine’s voice.

“I’ll never forget my first whipping as long as I live! Instead of a dozen or two, I was given nearly two hundred and I almost died that night!”

The two eager, hungry mouths might not be joined in a kiss of love and passion, though they were close enough for each to feel the other’s breath upon her face, but Celestine’s slender arms had not relaxed their grip. The young witch might be slightly built but was still far stronger than Roberta if she cared to exercise her witch’s powers.  Roberta knew that she would find it hard to escape her clutch even  if she wished to - which she decidedly did NOT!

“Is Felicity due to be flogging Bertha tonight, Celestine my darling?”

“No, valiant Roberta - my heroine and my love! One of the smaller women is doing the honours on the bitch! And she has been “encouraged” to go easy on her. Now let us sleep together,  but only after several hours of the wildest and most abandoned love! Give yourself to me! Come, Roberta! Let us rest on the mound that tops this enchanted isle!”

When Roberta opened her eyes it was to see Amy standing over her and the still sleeping Celestine. Amy looked decidedly annoyed to have missed all the fun! She kicked Celestine hard in the ribs and the young witch woke up. She looked somewhat guilty to see her sister! Up until now the two had done pretty well everything together.

Amy’s voice betrayed as much fury as the vicious kick she had just administered to her sister.

“While I swam round and round the island in that fucking icy lake, you had Roberta all to yourself!” raged Amy. “You cow! You fucking sneaky selfish cow! You bitch! You know Roberta loves me more than you. I want the best for her and you only want to enslave the precious darling girl! Get up and fight me for her!  Or are you a filthy little coward as well as a bitch?”

Roberta had never seen two women, let alone two lovely witches, so infatuated with her before , let alone so obsessed that they were willing to shed each others’ blood and punch each others’ noses for the privilege of possessing her! It was quite a morale booster, to say the least!

“Are you going to accept Amy’s challenge” whispered Roberta into Celestine’s shell like ear. “Say you will! Make me proud of you, darling!”

“Yes. I’ll fight the cow! Try stopping me, Roberta! I want you for my Slave. I want you for ever and ever to love and to own. You want it too - admit it! Amy is my darling sister, but I will kill her to make you mine.”

Roberta looked into her black eyes and had doubts. Was it right of her to stir her lover up in this way? Did she want to see this face bruised and bleeding? No! This impending fight must not take place.

“Hang on! You are both too sweet to fight each other, my sweet and darling Celestine. Fighting does nothing for the appearance! Look at me and be warned! Believe it or not, I was quite pretty once!  I would really hate it if  either of you harmed a hair of each others’ heads. Take another look at me, girls! I’m a big, big woman! There’s plenty of me for both of you to enjoy! Dive in, the pair of you,  and get some of me!”

Amy seemed to see the point of this and launched herself on the still recumbent Roberta in an extremely athletic leap, her legs straddling Roberta’s head. Roberta stuck her tongue into the young witch’s opened and fragrant pussy, savouring once again the flavour of those juices, seemingly a distillation of the Nectar of the Gods. Celestine worked energetically away at Roberta’s other end, lapping and slurping  at her generous vagina. There was a magic in the way Celestine‘s lips and tongue stimulated Roberta‘s secret places so that her whole body began to writhe in an ecstasy she had never experienced before. Amy, meanwhile, forced Roberta‘s head ever more firmly between her perfect witch‘s thighs with their smooth skin and amazing strength. The Golden Guard knew that, until both witches had entirely slaked their lusts upon her, she would not be free to move a muscle. Not that she was complaining - far from it! This sure beat breaking rocks on Hell Island!

It was two whole days before Roberta was allowed to rise from the grassy mound, on which she had originally gone to bed with just one of the two sweet and sex starved witches. By the time the orgy was over she had long since lost count of the times the two had switched ends, first it would be Amy sucking the juices out of Roberta‘s cunt, while Celestine held her head in a grip that even the strongest of the Golden Guard could not break, and then the position would be reversed with such unearthly speed that Roberta had no time to move before the other pair of thighs had her in an equally vice like grip and another tongue/lips combination was arousing her to yet more heights of ecstasy, causing yet more sweet essences to flow.

Finally the pair saw that Roberta, even with her strength and stamina, could not take much more of this. They would have been more than happy to carry on for days and days more, but realised that mere mortals have their limitations. So they left her to sleep it off for a couple of hours while they went to the lake to find a few nice tasty fishes for their breakfast. They were both ravenous after fucking Roberta non-stop for forty eight hours! When Roberta woke up she could get her own food!

As they ate they sat looking down at the exhausted girl. There certainly was a lot of her and it was all totally, but totally, delicious! They knelt on either side of the sleeping Amazon and bit hard on her rock like biceps. Roberta slept on. She was totally shagged out!

“It was silly to fight each other, Amy!” said Celestine. “Mother would be annoyed if she knew of our quarrel!”

“Mother IS annoyed, you silly girls!

They looked up to see Mother Felicity standing a few yards away. Both young witches looked appropriately abashed.

“Sorry, Mummy!” they both said. And then they both looked back at Roberta and experienced a return of their rivalry. However willing the big girl might be to share her favours equally, each wanted this hunk of womanhood for herself!

“How is our step-sister, Felicity?” asked Amy.

“Well. She knows what she needs to know. She can do Roberta’s job for her of exposing the real traitor. If you wish, Roberta can be yours for ever and not see the Palace again.  What is your decision?”

“I want to take Roberta away to the quarries to be my hard working slave by day and my lover by night!!” said Celestine enthusiastically.

“I want her to go back to her old life. I could not bear for her to be unhappy. Even with one of us to share her bed, she would long for her life as a Golden Guard. Let her go home to the life she loves.” said Amy.

“Can Roberta decide?” asked both beautiful young witches at once. So long as Roberta made the correct decision both were happy to leave it to her!

“No. You two must decide between you. I am waiting for you to make your minds up, girls!”

Roberta started to wake up. She was still a resilient girl and hadn’t eaten for over two days. She was tired but hungry. What a shame her bow and arrows had been taken from her, but she would work something out.

And maybe Amy or Celestine would catch something for her - though she doubted it somehow. These two were happy to use her, but possibly not quite so willing to look after her.

She opened her eyes, saw all three witches standing above her, looked at  the love bites on her arms and smiled. But there was tension in the air! Something seemed to be upsetting them. Amy and her sister looked straight into Roberta’s eyes.

Celestine spoke first.

“I wish to take you to work for me  in the quarries that my Mother has given me as a coming of age present. You will be fed, but not paid a penny and be my property. You will toil in the heat of the desert sun for eighteen hours a day and be my lover at night. The ruthless Taskmistress will make you work even harder than you have worked in these last two years of punishment, flight and more punishment. You will be whipped for the slightest offence and never be given a day off for the next seventy years.

But you will not age in that time, Roberta. You will look as young in seventy years from now as you do today. Even after all those long and painful years during which your back will be horribly punished each and every day, my body at night will be as sweet to the taste and touch as it is now. And it will be yours! My silly sentimental sister wishes you to go back to your old life where you will most likely die a glorious death in battle within a year. We have to decide between us which future it is to be for you. It could well be that there’ll be a bit of a punch-up between the two of us to settle this! Exciting, isn’t it!”

“If I do not unmask the true traitor, my beloved King will still be in danger. I have a duty to His Majesty!” said Roberta.

“That’s all taken care of, Roberta. Felicity, our mortal step-sister, has been told all that needs to be known. The true culprit will be unmasked and the King’s life saved. So your task is done whatever we decide between us. And your reputation will be restored. Your family, whom you have not seen for so long, will be given a nice fat pension and lump sum. What do you wish for, my lovely one? Not that you have any say in all this!”

“Will I wear leg-irons in the quarries and be whipped until I bleed by one as strong as I?” asked Roberta.

“Yes. You will be loaded with heavy clanking chains except when I remove them at night. And the woman who punishes your inevitable laziness will be as strong as the two who whipped you the other night. Stronger!”

“That’s OK, then! Make up your minds by whatever means you decide on.  Either way, I’m perfectly happy! At least I‘ll have a steady job! And it‘s always good to have a sweet body to fuck at the end of a hard day‘s work!”

The three witches left Roberta to catch up on some much needed sleep. They retreated to confer.




*****************

Twenty minutes later Roberta was awake again and refreshed, ready to face whatever was in store, either a lifetime of Slavery by day and sweeter than sweet love by night or a return to the life she loved. Both had much to recommend them. She knew that her future was a whole lot rosier than when she had been stuck on that horrible Hell Island.

The three witches came out from behind the screen of bushes. Roberta looked at the two beauteous rivals for possession of her body. Determination and resolve were writ large upon those exquisite faces.

She saw that both young witches had oiled up their supple young bodies and were wearing strips of leather around their tiny delicate hands. They were going to settle this dispute with their fists! How primitive! How brutal! How bloody! How wonderful! Bring it on!

Even so, Roberta was more used to fighting that watching others fight and , at first, she found this spectator position hard to take. She was a warrior, not a watcher. And a fighter was what she would never be again if Celestine won! She let out a cheer.

“Come on Amy! Moider the bitch! Kill her, Amy! Kick her fuckin‘ ass!”

Mother Felicity scowled horribly. Who did this impudent fucking cow think she was? If only she hadn’t promised the bitch that the recent flogging had been her last! She’d like nothing more, right now, than to see Roberta given a whipping to end all whippings! Then she remembered that if Celestine won the upcoming fight, Roberta would get lots more scrumptious, lovely lashings - seventy fucking lovely  years of them! She started looking around for a form of words to get herself off the hook!

This was not too hard. She had once been a politician before deciding that sorcery was an even more corrupt occupation. Before that she had been a lawyer. There wasn’t one dirty trick, not one incredible piece of malodorously dishonest mental gymnastics, that she didn’t know!

“When I said that your recent lashing was your last, Roberta, I meant the last this week. And that was last week! So if you don’t shut that mouth, I’ll flay you myself. Shut the fuck up, Roberta and let my  two darling young lovelies punch away at each other! Sit back and enjoy it, Roberta! I intend to! Stupid pair of bitches, beating each others’ brains out over a cow like you!”

“Sorry, Mother Felicity! I thought it sounded too good to be true about getting no more lashes!”

Roberta settled down to watch the fun.  And there was plenty of fun to watch! High class fun! She was amazed that two such sweet girls should have acquired so many fighting skills in the course of their brief lives! Both of them had totally unmarked faces and flawless  bodies and yet it was obvious from the outset that both knew how to fight.

Because of the skill each young sorceress possessed it was some time before either could land a fist on the other. It was Amy who struck the first real blow. It had a solid meaty sound to it and Celestine’s ivory skinned face had a red spot all of a sudden. Celestine uttered a horrible curse and a branch fell off a tree, almost braining Amy. Amy swore back, even more diabolically, and a fissure opened up in the ground between Celestine’s legs. Celestine jumped clear, her eyes blazing with hate. Why did fucking Amy always come up with the best tricks?

Roberta was enraged at all this rather unsporting behaviour! She wanted her body to be won by the victorious  girl as the outcome of a fair and hard contest. This was not her idea of the correct way to fight for her! Especially as seventy years hard labour without parole might be involved!

“That’s enough of that, you two! Fight fair. Lets have a good clean fight from now on. No telekinesis, no gouging, no holding , no low blows and you break when I say “break“. Fight on!”

She was standing between them now, towering over the two of them,  and clearly in no mood to see any more flashy dirty tricks from either fighter. Mother Felicity held her peace.

Obeying referee Roberta’s order, both naked oiled up witches put up their lethally wrapped fists and began circling around each other, looking for an opening. Both of them had a punch that could smash concrete and both were quick on their feet. Not many blows were likely to land, but those that did would hurt a lot and do great damage. Shamed by Roberta’s stern admonition, and anxious to retain her respect, neither of the two lovelorn fighters stepped out of line again and Roberta had little to do, except marvel at the skill these two were displaying as they parried and lunged, dancing in and out and gradually making each other look a lot less pretty.

It took a long time for the two to hurt each other, but hurt each other they did and ribs began to crack, noses to crunch and stomachs to ache under the thrust of deadly blows from hardened fists. As the fight progressed, caution was abandoned and punches exchanged with no attempt to evade. A war of attrition had clearly been tacitly agreed on and two sweet faces were being pulped and two delicate bodies bruised.

But, as with the whipping of Roberta the other day, these two showed no sign of tiring or slowing up. The little island echoed to the sound of thuds, gasps and cracking of fist upon bone. It was all pretty horrible and Roberta knew she ought to be disgusted, rather than excited, at all this carnage. But was the damage that real or that permanent?

Roberta guessed that any injuries they did to each other would soon enough heal. Those black eyes and bloody noses would look totally unmarked next day. These two were not mortal fighters, but witches. Some of that damage looked pretty bad, though, and it was real blood they were shedding and real screams they were occasionally emitting as a particularly good shot landed!

Finally Mother Felicity had had enough. For one thing she was bored out of her skull, and for another she was getting tired of seeing her daughters rough each other up. So unladylike and unwitchlike! What a terrible example to be setting in front of a mortal.

“STOP!” she shouted. “Referee Roberta is to pronounce one of you the winner.”

Bruised and bleeding but not breathless, the two stepped back and looked expectantly at the Referee. It was not an easy choice to make and Roberta took a minute or two to reprise the whole contest before announcing her verdict.

“You both fought well. There was an abundance of skill and courage on both sides! I congratulate you both on a truly magnificent display!” Both witches smiled painfully. It hurt both Celestine and Amy to move even one tiny facial muscle after all the hard punches they had dished out and taken. Roberta continued.

 “But it looks like I go to your quarry, Celestine. You had a slight edge. Pity! I want to go back to the Palace, now it’s all over! But I’m all yours to do with as you wish. I wouldn’t try to escape even if I could! I mean to say, the nights are going to be fantastic, even if the days are going to be a bit of a pain in the arse!”

Amy looked none too disappointed at the verdict. She had expected it, having been aware that Celestine was gradually getting the upper hand.  She smiled at Roberta through her bloodstained face and wished her good luck.

“You’ll need it in those quarries, Roberta! Over the next seventy years your body will be worked and your back scourged as they have never been before! It makes my blood run cold to think of the working over you are going to get! But my sister will be true to her word. The days will be hell on earth, but the nights will be like Heaven and she’ll always be there to welcome you to her bed. And I’ll find a lover to replace you. I shall grieve over you for a while, but someone will come along. Maybe a man this time! Men aren’t all bad. Not quite all!”

Amy and Felicity went away and Roberta was left with Celestine, who ordered her to place her hands behind her back before disappearing herself. Roberta stood like this for several hours, all alone on the grassy knoll, still covered with Amy and Celestine’s blood. Finally Celestine returned with a rope and some shackles.

 She bound  Roberta’s hands tightly together and placed irons on her ankles. Although Roberta was well used to this by now, she still felt a great thrill of excitement run through her. It would be seventy years before these leg irons came off!  A five feet long chain was attached to the irons.

“Come to the boat, Slave! You will not have to swim back to the shore, but after the boat trip is over, there is a long walk for you to the quarries! I shall ride a fine horse, Slave!”

“When do we make love again, Celestine?” asked Roberta. She could hardly believe it when she heard Celestine’s icy reply.

“Talk to me even one more time without permission and I will whip  you once more. And you know how painful that is! This time I will not allow you to faint way! You will feel such pain as even you could not endure without crying out loud  for a mercy that is not forthcoming. Believe me, Slave! Such pain exists and I can inflict it!”

Shocked at the severity in her lover/mistress’s voice, Roberta obeyed. Once they had reached the shore and Roberta had carried Celestine through the shallow water, a horse was waiting. Roberta was ordered to kneel and Celestine placed her bare feet on her strong and whip scarred back, vaulting nimbly into the saddle.

The young witch seemed utterly oblivious to the difficulty a chained Roberta might have in running beside the trotting horse, not deigning to look down once at the toiling Slave beside her.

They stopped that night at the clearing where the flogging had taken place. The whipping post was where it had been before, as was the tent. Roberta was chained to the post and Celestine went inside the tent. In the morning she was handed her bow and arrow and ordered to kill and cook Celestine’s breakfast. She shot a rabbit and Celestine wolfed it down. For a delicate looking girl she could certainly eat as vigorously as she could fight!

The witch tossed the bones to Roberta to gnaw. This was clearly all the food she was getting for now! Roberta looked at her Mistress and saw that her face was as bruised as ever.

“It should have healed a bit by now, Mistress.” she said.

“Are you deaf, Slave?“ asked Celestine in a reptilian voice with a snake like smile.

“Not deaf, Mistress. Just forgetful. Please forgive me!“

“Forgiveness is a mortal concept. Forgiveness is for weaklings like you!  I am no weakling!  You know my strength, Slave. You have felt it on your back before and are about to feel it again. Get a whip out of the tent. The best and longest!”

Roberta did as she was told. She doubted Celestine’s power to make her howl for mercy. But she knew she was in for a great deal of pain. Why had she not kept her big mouth shut? Because she had not really believed Celestine’s promise, of course. She would know better in future! She picked a good, strong whip with a twenty foot length of hide that tapered from the width of her forearm to a thin tip which would slice even her leathery back open with the first lash! She took it to the stone-faced Celestine, who secured her firmly and stood well back, raising the whip and bringing it whistling through the air.

“I did warn you, Slave!” Celestine hissed as the first lash fell. A hideous shriek rent the air. “Please, Mistress! No more. It was just a silly mistake. I won’t step out of line again.”

Roberta had never pleaded for mercy before. But she had never felt such pain before.

The whip fell a second time and Roberta howled in agony. She pleaded again for mercy. Again Celestine ignored her and brought the whip down upon her bleeding back a third time, then a fourth and a fifth and a sixth and the horrible shrieks continued.

Celestine had spoken the truth about her ability to make even the stoic and brave Roberta rend the air with her frenzied pleas for mercy. And she had been right about the said mercy not materialising! Seventy times the lash fell upon Roberta and seventy times she shrieked in an extremity of agony such as she had never even imagined before, let alone experienced. In all the long years that lay ahead, a broken and totally chastened Slave never spoke out of turn again!

Whenever Celestine said “jump”, Roberta’s only answer would be, “How high, Mistress?”

By the time the two had reached Celestine’s quarry, Roberta and she had both healed.  Along the course of the long journey the young witch had many times more than made up for the horrors of that cruellest of punishments. But Roberta would never forget it. She knew who was the boss, alright!

At night they were equals and lovers, but by day Roberta was nothing. Less than nothing. A worm whom her mistress might crush at any time.

******************************

The long whiplash curled spitefully through the air looking almost leisurely as it gracefully landed on the Slave’s back. The Taskmistress was a fly fisher in her spare time, and it showed in her flawless technique! The lazy and rapidly tiring Roberta swung her pick with more vigour. She’d said it before and she would say it again (silently, of course. Speech was forbidden from dawn until dusk) There was nothing like the Taskmistress’s leather whip on her back to re energise her!

She didn’t want too many more cuts like that today, even if her skin was as hard as leather after sixty nine years, eleven months and thirty days of hard work and harder punishment. Today would see the end of her seventy years in the quarry and she wondered what lay ahead for her.

She would certainly not miss labouring in this arid and hellishly hot spot. It was not the hard work that got to her these days, so much as the fucking horrible deadly boredom. Roberta wanted some more constructive uses to put her enormous strength to.

Because that strength had increased vastly over seventy years!  Roberta calculated that it had doubled about every decade or so. She wasn’t a mathematician, but knew that she was pretty damned strong by now, and she had been hardly a weakling to start with! It  was not so much that Roberta looked more muscular and powerfully built than ever, although she certainly did. Paula’s jaw would hit the floor if she could see her now!    What gave her the phenomenal strength she now possessed  was the fact that  each individual sinew had many times more power in it than ever.  

Back at that road with the fallen trees, she would be able to lift all three at once and with only one hand!   She was a power house on two feet and she craved for things to do with this power. Roberta wanted to launch herself on a world that needed strong champions to right wrongs and rescue the oppressed from evildoers.

There remained little stone still to be extracted from the quarry by now. What had been a fair-sized hill was now a low depression and Roberta was breaking up the last few blocks of marble, prior to the site being turned into a housing estate for low paid elderly peasants - or some such thing.  (Though why anyone would wish to end their days in a rainless part of the world like this was hard for Roberta to fathom).

But she would miss her nights of love with the ever more succulent Celestine, whose youth had lasted as miraculously as had Roberta’s. It wasn’t that she was in love with the eternally youthful witch. She was too mortally afraid of her after that merciless whipping seventy years ago to feel love. But she did lust for her with more hunger than ever. Bodies like hers weren’t exactly ten a penny! She might know every last crevice of Celestine’s body and she may  have explored all the fragrant nuances of flavour in those honey sweet juices, but each night was as exciting and wonderful  as the first had been, seventy years ago when she had first come to Celestine’s bed, hot, sweaty, bloody backed  and dusty after that first terrible day of servitude.

Her lover had kissed away all the hurt in her body, restoring it so that it might receive more pain and do more hard work next day. Then she had bathed her, making her clean and sweet smelling. After these delightful preliminaries the Loving had begun! Those heavenly six hours had passed like six seconds.

The nights might have all passed with bewildering speed but the days had dragged. How they had dragged! It always seemed to be flaming hot around here. In seventy years not a drop of cool refreshing rain had fallen on the ever thirsty Roberta‘s burning nakedness. In all that time there had not been a single cloud in the sky. In all those years Roberta had known no shade from the sun’s fearsome rays.

On her first day, the wicked Taskmistress had used her whip on her a dozen times before the all too brief mid day meal and mug of water. The afternoon had been even worse and Roberta had been taken to Celestine’s room more dead than alive. But the night had restored her vitality and next day she was ready for more hard work.

“Do you regret awarding the fight to me, darling Roberta?” she had asked on that first night, shortly after kissing her long and hard on the mouth.

“I did until tonight! Now I wouldn’t be anywhere else!” she replied. “I’d work a thousand days like the one that has just ended for just an hour with you, my sweet!”

“That’s really a very nice thing to say, Roberta. But you are a nice girl, aren’t you? The nicest! I thought Amy had won, actually. She was just a bit sharper than I was - or so I thought!”

“It was desperately close, darling Celestine. If I had thought she had won, I would have said so.  I really would have preferred to go back to my old life as a Golden Guard, doomed to die gloriously in battle before I was twenty  five. And I still worry about things at the Palace.”

“No need to worry, brave Roberta! All has been taken care of and the wicked conspirators have been put to death, after a suitable amount of truly ghastly, stomach churningly, horrible torture, of course!”

“And I never got to give that message to the Chief Torturer!”

“What message, darling!”

“The one from the Town Tormentor at Rockwell Green! It doesn’t really matter - not important.”

“I could see your message got passed on, Roberta. If it was important.”

“It was just asking me to remember him. Quite trivial.”


“You were still an unbeliever in those days, Roberta. My mother and my sister and I grieved over you for your sceptical ways. It took so much pain and so much hard and degrading work to beat it out of you. It was worth it, though, wasn’t it darling?”

“Well worth it, sweet love!”


Roberta was recalled to the present time by getting her second lash in as many minutes. She really wasn’t concentrating today! And the fact that it was her last day was no excuse to slack! All this residue of seventy long years hard work had got to be disposed of by nightfall. She put all her thoughts to one side and worked harder than she ever had before. So hard did she work that all was finished two hours before her day was officially done.

Roberta was told that Celestine would not be in her room until the usual hour and was obliged to remain in the sun as its rays gradually became less hot and the red rim set below the horizon. Wherever she was due to go after today, she hoped it was a bit greener and cooler than this!

Finally the hour for the last night of love arrived and the pair were together again. Celestine washed her lover’s strong body and bathed her wounds for the last time.

Six hours passed and Roberta awoke wondering what came next.

“Seventy years soon pass, do they not, my love.” whispered Celestine gently.

“Too soon, Mistress. Are we still to be lovers?”

“That is up to you, Roberta. Now that you are stronger than ever, there are great things for you to do. Put this on!”

“This” was a blindfold. Roberta, unchained at last, was led to the horse and walked, not knowing where, for three weeks. When she was finally allowed to see where she was, she gasped in total amazement.