Day Fourteen

Meanwhile, Francesca had reported back to Angela and was helping to build the raft. It was a pretty ramshackle affair, but would serve its purpose.  It consisted of a number of variously sized and shaped bits of tree, driftwood and furniture salvaged from the wreck. A professional job it was very definitely not! By noon it was ready and by three in the afternoon, the last of the cases was ashore.  There had been many anxious moments as the extraordinary contraption had made its uncertain way back and forth, with the swimming Frieda and Francesca guiding it on its lumbering and uncertain way.

The cases, once landed,  were opened in the same way as the first. Francesca told Angela that this had originally been Joanne’s idea.  Anything to do the absent leader’s reputation a bit of good! You never knew, she reasoned. Even that bitch must have a heart somewhere under all that steel!

One incident occurred in the course of the transfer.  They were both under water and preparing to surface when Angela snagged her foot. It was quite trapped in a part of the wreckage and the girl was panicking.  Francesca, used to all the nooks and crannies of this wreck by now, was able to free her with minimal damage to the foot.

It was a simple thing to get Angela loose - child‘s play, but when they got ashore, the older woman was all over Francesca with her gratitude.

“You think very quickly, Moroni. For a spoilt little rich girl and the daughter of a Senator, you’ve come on fast. Is there anything I can do by way of a favour? I owe you my life.”

“I suppose letting Joanne or Annie go a bit early, or reducing or even cancelling Joanne’s final beating would be too much to ask?”

“Sorry, Moroni. Those are things I cannot and will not do. I want to do something for you and you alone.”

Francesca’s eyes were aflame with rage. “They are my dearest friends. They saved my life and they are suffering so badly. All I think about is how they’re doing.  Any way, forget it. What I did for you, I’d have done for anybody - Commander, Ma‘am.  May I be excused, please?”

Angela excused her, repeating yet again how indebted she was to Francesca. Francesca did not trust herself to keep her tongue in order and took herself off for a vigorous walk into the hills.  She was a very angry Francesca. Like Annie, she had not chosen to be part of this rebel army. She had been willing to serve under Joanne because she had liked the girl and she had shared her leader’s love for sweet little Annie. How she wished she could help them, but Joanne  had insisted on submitting herself to all this and loyalty seemed to demand that she went along with it. It was all very confusing and this only added to her anger at Angela.

“Spoilt little rich girl indeed!” she fumed to herself. She had seen things in her childhood that would make Angela’s hair curl! Her father had been a big wheel in the Government, in charge of the prison system for a while and he had  made sure his daughter knew what happened to enemies of the State  by taking her around an interrogation centre more than once. She had early on known what it was to have the screams of the tortured ringing in her ears.

And how dare Angela call her spoilt. It was no freak of nature that Francesca had withstood her recent beating so well, since her stern father had always been very free and easy when it came to chastising his rebellious daughter. It had been like being back at home as Angela’s whip had hissed through the air on its journey to her back. Well - her father hadn’t broken her and nor would this repulsive Angela whom she loathed more deeply every day.  There must be something better in the world than a stark choice between her past and this set-up!

She knew Joanne had done a terrible thing, although her weakness after her beating by the Inspectors had had a lot to do with it and should have been taken into account in mitigation. She had mentioned this to Angela a couple of times but to no effect. “She was a leader, Moroni. Leaders must never be weak.” was that inflexible lady’s reply.  She thought of explaining that it hadn’t been that sort of rigid organisation, just three friends together with one who took most decisions, and then she remembered that Joanne had been a keen disciplinarian herself.

Another thought came to her. What if Angela refused to yield back the command when Joanne was freed! Quite a few of the girls were already talking as if the whipped and disgraced captive were already history and acclimatising themselves to Angela’s harsher regime.  It had been a mistake of the leader to put herself in Angela’s hands like that. She knew why she had done it and fully appreciated the inner torment and corrosive guilt that had driven her to exchange mental  for physical pain.  But where did that leave her and Annie?  Annie had accepted Joanne’s  consignment of her to the cage with a little fear, but no complaint. And because of Joanne’s self indulgent guilt trip the poor little thing had been given a penalty more than three times as severe. As for Jo - would they ever see her back with them again? Fran doubted it, somehow, not sharing Annie’s faith.
 

She continued walking, noticing subconsciously how hard her feet were getting after a sore start to this life of nakedness.  There were many sharp stones where she was walking, but she hardly felt a thing.

She realised that she was in a part of the island she had never visited before and made her way up the hill in front of her and found herself looking down on to the beach a little below where the helicopter stood.  Well, well! This was a way to get off the island any time she felt like it, bypassing the by now well trodden path between the two sites! Now that Angela knew that Francesca could pilot the craft, she was mightily impressed once her anger  at her concealment had worn itself out on her back.

ANGELA
 

Angela was unable to decide on whether to authorise Francesca’s daring plan of deception to refuel the chopper. She had almost come to the conclusion that she would have to consult Joanne when she came to be freed. She had already begun to toy with the idea of keeping the top job herself, while relying on the more resourceful and intelligent former leader for advice.

A few of the other girls were already beginning to assume that this would happen, although she knew that Josephine, Francesca and Annie were loyal - as almost certainly were Frieda and a couple of others. Then her sense of honour would kick in. She knew deep down that she simply didn’t have the imagination to lead the group. She was brave under fire and heroic under torture, but she needed to be led. Already the strain of having to make decisions on her own initiative was showing up her deficiencies. So Francesca’s fears might ultimately prove to be groundless.

Although she would never admit it, her thoughts kept turning to that broken and abased girl in the cage. Whatever her offence - and it was very serious - she had shown great courage both in owning up and submitting herself to her mercies, and later in taking that terrible whipping without so much as a murmur. Not only that, but she had walked all the way up to the cage. Angela had gone up to see her tall predecessor put inside that terribly confined space and still remembered the calm look on her face as she took one last look at her before turning away. No. Joanne was quite a girl - a fine and noble person who was paying dearly for one moment of weakness.

Acting Commander Landsberg knew she might not be in the same league as Joanne, but she would not have fallen asleep on duty. Never! And if she had she would have accepted her fate. Joanne must continue to pay for her offence. Angela kept repeating this to herself.  Time after time she tried to put the girl out of her mind and leave her to her punishment, which she thought fair. Then she would recall when the other girl had risked her life to release her from that cage for a few precious hours every night and she wondered if she were not being terribly ungrateful in leaving her in that hell twenty four hours a day for eighty four days.

Twenty eight of those days were for Joanne’s interruption, of course, as well as the extra lashes. Perhaps she might think about some relaxation there. And then she hardened her heart. No! She would serve all her sentence under the same rigour and that was the last time she would allow herself to think about the wretched woman.  Time to concentrate on training this motley crew of girls.  She would drill them into a disciplined and fearless force to take over to the mainland and the wider struggle in due course!

The mainland. That brought up the matter of the helicopter. That Francesca Moroni was a sly bitch. She hadn’t even told Joanne she could fly it!  Probably thinking of getting away on her own at some stage. Well, who could blame her? This girl had been trying to get as far away from this crazy country as she could until that shipwreck - as with Annie, this wasn’t really her struggle, just something she’d stumbled into. Oh, yes! Annie Schwarz, Esterhazy’s little lover girl!

Eight days was maybe a tad excessive for her. How much longer did she have to serve? Time was flying past at present, although most likely not for her, poor little mite! No! Eight days she had stipulated and eight days Annie would serve. She feared to admit to a mistake. It would be seen as weakness, and she had a thing about weakness - she despised it, and those two had been weak in their two separate ways - forget them!

Shaking herself free of her thoughts, she looked around for Francesca, still walking off her foul temper in the hills. Before she had a chance to become too concerned, Angela saw her slim figure hurrying back towards her.  She motioned in a friendly way to the girl to come over to her. Francesca came up and saluted, as Angela had trained the girls to do by now.

“Ma’am?”

“Moroni. I want you to take Brown out to the wreck tomorrow and make a thorough search of it and the sea bed to see what more you can find.  You are getting able to stay  under water for quite some time by now and Brown is even better. That girl loves the water, as you may have seen! Take her with you for the next five days. I am appointing you acting Lieutenant for the remainder of my command. I don’t know how you feel, but I think some badge of rank must be devised that won’t conflict with our code of nudity!”

“Maybe if I put some sort of ribbon in my hair? We’ve salvaged a few yards of material from the ship and I reckon we can fashion something for ourselves, you and I. Ma’am!”

“OK Francesca! You see to that, but for now get some rest. It’s getting dark and I want you to make a start at first light tomorrow. I leave it to you now you are my second in command to organise the feeding of the prisoners, with no change to the regime, of course.”

“OK, Commander, but does it have to be bread all the time? As long as they get no more than the essentials, can’t we vary it a bit?  And I think some fresh fruit is essential for the prisoner Esterhazy in view of the time she will be there. She’ll get scurvy and very likely die otherwise. One cup of fruit juice every couple of days would be sufficient.”

“As you wish, Lieutenant. I don’t want her to suffer permanent harm.   When you have finished your present task, you may inspect prisoner Esterhazy and exchange a few words with her.”

"Commander?"

"Yes, Lieutenant Moroni?"

"You mentioned extentions to the prisoner's punishment if she bore herself in a cowardly way or was disrespectful to her captors. Did you have a scale of penalties in mind, and ought we not to make the prisoner aware of them?"

"I think an extra ten days for disrespect to other ranks and twenty for disrespect to an officer. Incidents of cowardliness will attract thirty more days. All offences will carry a penalty of ten lashes to be added to her closing whipping.  Do you think that fair?"

Francesca swallowed hard. This woman was a veritable sadist. Discipline was one thing, but such harshness was unbelievable!

"As you say, Commander. I will acquaint the prisoner with the position. I think her behaviour has been exemplary so far."
 

Francesca hastily informed the rest of the women of her new position and organised a duty roster for the feeding of the prisoners, at the same time working out some kind of diet sheet for the girl she now happily thought of as Prisoner Esterhazy. Power does the oddest things, but Francesca was not corrupted by it, merely determined to do her duty according to rules she hoped to see scrapped when Joanne returned to the helm. She never ceased to pray for this day to come soon and was sure that long before the eighty four days were done, Joanne would be free again and the nightmare reign of Angela over for ever!