Annie was in charge! She had been a little lonely these past three weeks. Joanne was still suspended in the cage, purging her guilt rather painfully, and dieting rather severely at the same time. Francesca had gone off to the nearest village to arrange for the camp to be provisioned and try to recruit a few lusty and brave local wenches to the cause. Annie had been in charge for three days now and was making the most of her time in control.

Rosie was seeing to the prisoner once daily. The acting Commander was too busy with her responsibilities. Fran might be gone for weeks. Rosie had reported that Joanne had needed to be reminded several times of the need to show respect and bear herself bravely. Annie had been disappointed to hear that her friend still displayed these signs of weakness. It did not bode well for Joanne's future!

Josephine was a great help, of course, but that was all the proper support she had, since Francesca had taken Frieda off with her to the village. Lucky pair! It seemed such a long time before Jo was due to be back. Silly Joanne!  Brave and honourable, but silly and not very considerate, leaving poor Annie all alone at nights! It was still very cold at night.

This particular day she had roused all the girls a little before dawn and taken them on a ten mile run down into the densely wooded valley. It was becoming a little warmer by this time, at least at these lower altitudes, and the entire party were soon sweating. The undergrowth, containing briars and sundry other thorny vegetation, had played havoc with  everyone’s bodies. There was not one of the young women who did not sport a myriad of scratches, many bleeding, by the time the run was half finished.

Annie called a temporary halt as they reached a forest clearing. The exhausted girls flopped onto the grass, panting and inwardly cursing this diminutive  Tartar.

“My feet hurt and I’m cut all over” moaned one of them.

“On your lazy feet, you” stormed Annie at the lady in question. “Come over here!”

The unfortunate complainer did as she was told. Annie drew herself up to her full height and stuck out her firm determined chin.

“Of course your feet hurt - you stupid girl! You aren’t wearing shoes - idiot! What do you expect - HALF-WIT! We all have sore feet. And of course you’re scratched. You don’t have any clothes on and the wood‘s full of thorns. We are all scratched, but WE don’t beef about it. And another thing! On the way back we run through a forest of nettles, so by the time we get back to camp we’ll all be stung as well! Now get back into line and the rest of you MOVE!”

Annie pretended not to hear, later on,  as the screaming and protesting moaner was picked up by half a dozen of her fellows and cast bodily into the nettles, not once, but several times to everyone's huge amusement,  ensuring she was stung over her whole body and not just her legs.

When they were back at the camp, Annie dismissed the rest but called Annette, the unhappy sore footed lady over to her. She directed her to a level area covered with many razor sharp stones.

“Now! Mark time where you stand! Come on LEFT_RIGHT LEFT RIGHT! Get those knees up chest high and DRIVE those feet onto the ground HARD. HARDER!! You’ll know all about sore feet after a few hours of that!”

She left an impressed Josephine to see that the poor girl was kept hard at it and went to organise the rest of the women.

Later on Annie rested after overseeing the digging of some latrines. Later, there would be another  forced march.  Those girls really had to be watched every second if they were to kept hard at it! Anybody would think this was some of Girl Guide camp, the way they behaved. There was a war to fight and an army to train, and  some of these airheads thought that it was all a joke and an adventure.

And then, as she was about to get back to work, there was this tall, bronzed and bearded youth toiling up the hillside towards her! As soon as she had seen who he was, Annie had forgotten her newly conferred importance and scampered down the hill towards her long lost and almost forgotten boyfriend, rushing up to him and, on tiptoe, putting her arms around him , bestowing kiss after frenzied kiss on that handsome and excitingly bearded face!

“Oh, Darling, darling, darling Eric! It’s so lovely to see you again! And what a surprise, all the way down here! You look so gorgeous! I love that beard, Eric!  I still recognised you, though! It’s been such a long time, my love!  Just think of all the things we’ve got to talk about!  To say nothing of the things we have to do!”

They went into Annie’s lonely tent - lonely no more! - and settled down together. She admired the muscularity of his bare arms and shoulders. It had been a long climb and, despite the coolness of the Spring morning, he had been heated by the exercise, removing his coat and shirt.

“You’ve really filled in a lot, Eric! That’s an impressive load of muscle you’ve built up. I could eat you, Eric! I really could, you gorgeous heap of man!”

Eric and Annie took a while to renew their acquaintanceship and exchange stories. Eric had gone over to the rebels after Annie’s arrest. He had partly been shamed into it.  If that little girl was a rebel, then so would he be and maybe one day rescue her from wherever the State had put her, or avenge her if she had died.

Finally he remembered why he had been sent here.

“Where is Joanne Esterhazy? Your leader, Annie! I have some messages for her from general Anderson. “

“Oh. Joanne’s hanging about somewhere” giggled Annie with callous humour! Gosh! But it was good to have Eric around again! Not very bright, but a real hunk of a man!

“She can’t see anyone, I’m afraid Eric. It’s a long story, but Francesca’s in charge - the new Duke’s missing daughter! And Fran’s away for a few weeks so I’m the boss for the time being. You can give me your messages and I‘ll see Joanne gets them if needed.”

Eric supposed that would have to suffice. He emphasised that the general wanted a reply soon. He was most anxious to have Joanne’s opinions about several things, now that the State was under new and more aggressive management.

“How’s Angela?” asked Annie after they had made love for about the seventh time. She had never really taken to her, especially after all that time spent on the beach with a raw back, but felt it only polite to express an interest.

“In the guardroom, Annie and she’s due to stay there for a long time to come. She made a pretty bad mistake and got a lot of good men killed because she was so careless.  She was flogged before the whole regiment and permanently reduced to the ranks. I’d say she was silly not to stay with you.”

“I’m glad she didn’t!” replied Annie. “She was a bit generous with her strict punishments for my liking!  Not that it hasn’t taught us all a thing or two about discipline. I’ve been whipped quite a bit, Eric. Take a look!  And she was pretty brutal to Joanne, although I admit she was fair according to her upbringing and training. Can you stay a few days, Eric, darling? In the evenings I get a bit lonely nowadays. I can guarantee you‘ll have a great time!”

“Yes, I heard about her temporary command and the reason for it! You certainly know how to be hard on each other! And, yes, Annie I can stay a while.  The general seemed to think it would be good for us both!”

Annie took Eric to look around the camp.

“That girl being punished?” he asked, pointing at the wretched Annette, well into her third hour of marking time and looking ready to fall over with pain and exhaustion.

“No, Eric! She loves doing that all day long! What do you think!”

Eric reddened at this and Annie apologised for her sarcasm. He looked at his girl and saw how much she had changed from the sweet innocent he had known a few months ago. He like what he saw, though,  and was proud of her.

“How long can you stay, Eric?” she asked.

“Well - I think about thirty days.”

“Good! You must promise not to cover up that lovely hairy chest until you leave us!  I'm afraid Joanne still won't be available then, Eric. There's unfinished business left over from the Island. But it will be great to have you around. Francesca will be back before you leave, though and you can give her your messages. The girls need a boost to their morale and so do I!  And you can‘t just hang about in my tent all the time waiting for me to come home after a hard day‘s work! I have lot‘s of things for a big strong man to do around here! We can‘t let those lovely muscles go to seed, can we darling!”

FRIEDA AND FRANCESCA

“I like this village, Freddy! Reminds me of a place Daddy took me too once, years ago, just after Mummy died. We were so close at that time, and he had never yet laid a hand on me. After that things just went downhill!”

“Shut up Fran! I hate it when you talk and talk! Let’s make love, not talk!”

Francesca Moroni, daughter of the latest despot, obeyed her lover’s command and ceased prattling. Once they had finished their pleasant antics, both of them fell asleep. Frieda was the first to wake up. She prodded Francesca in the ribs. Francesca woke up abruptly.

“I could have you whipped for that! Trouble is, you’d most likely enjoy it!  I know I would, as long as you were doing it!”

“You bet, Fran!  Let‘s try it, one day! We‘ve tried everything else by this time!” giggled Frieda.  "Not as much fun as both of us being whipped together though! Lucky old Joanne gets all the decent whipping around here! You'd think she could spare a couple of dozen lashes apiece for us!"

Francesca shrieked with laughter.

"And she'd still have hundreds left for herself!"

Frieda tried stuffing a bit of the bedsheet into her mouth to stop herself laughing but it was no use. Her whole body was shaking uncontrollably. She managed at length to gasp. "That girl might not get to do much fighting, stuck up there, but she sure as hell must hold some kind of record for being punished, and it's all voluntary, the daft bitch!"

The two calmed down by degrees. Francesca dived between Frieda's legs and licked away hungrily. Her tongue was busy for some time, as was Frieda's with Francesca!

"All that talk of floggings has made us both pretty horny, Fran!" said Frieda, raising her head briefly "You're lovely down there!"

"You too, darling." said Francesca, smacking her lips. "Yummy!!"

Frieda had an idea. It was so brilliant that the force of it made her see stars.

"Why don't you hand over to Annie, Fran? She's going places, that girl. In a few months, once the fighting gets going for real, she'll be a general or something - always provided she doesn't get herself killed. Then you could get yourself busted back to Private and given some lovely lashes and I can be implicated in whatever you have done and we can be flogged side by side just like that other time! Wouldn't that be great?"

"As long as we got the same quota of lashes, Frieda. Just think how jealous you'd be if you got less than me and had to listen to me still getting it long after your back had cooled off!"

"It's a risk we'll have to take, I suppose. It is a good idea, though Fran - admit it! We'd be able to sleep together every night and never need to pretend to be different again!"

"And if you were an officer, we could share officer's quarters and have a bit of privacy, not having a whole barrack room full of jealous girls listen to us make love every night!"

"It would be fun to be flogged again though."

Francesca agreed. After that experience of being punished side by side with her darling, nothing had measured up in terms of sheer excitement. And paying someone would not be the same. It had to be a genuine punishment from which there was no escape or it wouldn't be half the fun! Then she took her mind back to Frieda's poke in the ribs.

"Why did you wake me, sweetheart?"
 
“I woke you because I think there are visitors who wish to speak to us.”

“Visitors” turned out to be a delegation from the village. Three young and naked girls stood behind the village elders. The mayor waited until the two rebel girls came out to meet them.

“We have delegated these three to be our contribution to the Amazon rebels. Don’t worry! They are all eager volunteers.  They can’t wait to start fighting. Two of them lost brothers and one her boy friend - arrested and shot for talking out of turn on a visit to the Castle.  They have burnt their clothes and swear never to wear any more until we are free.  They will carry the provisions up to the camp and report for duty at the same time.”

Both Francesca and Frieda warned the three volunteers that discipline was strict in their elite corps. Even the slightest offences were punishable either by whipping, staking out or confinement to a tiny cage - possibly a combination of all three. Training was hard and tiring and the coming battle would see many dead and even the survivors might well be maimed for the rest of their days.

All three agreed to abide by all this and insisted that nothing would stop them playing their part.

Francesca thanked the mayor and directed the three girls to report to Annie. They then went back to bed. As they lay side by side they  relived the excitement of their joint whipping at Angela’s behest on the island. They agreed that they must experience that thrill again and soon! What fun they were having as they lay together, warm and snug. Poor Joanne, cold and hungry in her  resumed penitence was far from their thoughts!

Later that day they set off for the next village, further down the valley.  This part of the country seemed a fertile recruiting ground. By the time their leader was free to join them, they hoped to have doubled the size of their group. This should be the kind of optimum number agreed with Joanne before she had been left to continue her penance.

In the meantime,  Annie had sadly bid adieu to Eric after he had been persuaded to extend his visit by  fourteen days.  Eric was a sweet boy and so strong now, but Jo was nicer and more interesting to talk to! Boys were better, though!

Annie decided to read the general's messages herself. They were mostly about the coming campaign, for which they had  a month to prepare. Joanne would not be ready, stuck up the mountain. It would be up to Annie to get the women ready and she knew she could do it! Eric returned to the general with Annie's reply.

"Looks like Miss Esterhazy is a broken reed, my boy." the general toild Eric. "I know she felt guilty about what happened on the island, but she should be able to put that behind her. While the rest of us fight, she has to go on her guilt trip. Let her rot up in that cage, that's what I say!"

………………………………................................................................................................................
JOANNE

Joanne was weak and in constant pain after having been in the cage for sixteen long and cold weeks. She had  lost many pounds in weight, what with the meagre diet. The weather was still cold and at that height the night times had been worse than on the island.

During the last few days she had been increasingly desperate for all this to be over and had been counting the seconds in her anguished yearning for freedom and the chance to stretch her limbs again. Another day of this and she would go out of her mind. Annie was coming up the slope, together with Rosie whose had been the only face she had seen in all that time.

“How is the prisoner?” asked Annie, looking directly at the pale and anguished face of her closest friend.  She saw with a spasm of shock that her hair had many white streaks after so many weeks suffering.

“Not well, Annie. Not at all well.”

“I am in command now, Prisoner! You should address me as Ma’am. And you look well enough to me. I don't like complainers who can't take their punishment cheefully. You aren't coming out just yet!” Joanne felt her insides turn to jelly and her heart sank. Panic rose inside her at the thought that the long imprisonment was still not over. She saw how pointless and counter productive a plea for mercy would be, so she stifled her instincts and kept silent.

Annie turned to Rosie.

“Has the prisoner been of good behaviour during her captivity?”

“Not at all times, Acting Commander. She three times failed to address me with sufficient respect. I think we agreed that I was to be addressed as “Guard” at all times.”

“Any other matters to report to me?”

Rosie nodded. “She complained about the food we gave her on six occasions. I have a note of all the times.”

Annie looked at Joanne. “Is all this true, Prisoner?”

Joanne nodded .

“I expect a spoken answer, Prisoner.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“And you still intend to abolish the whip and the cage when you resume command?”

“I do.”

“I have decided that they must  be retained and this is the view of the entire group. We are a hardened and disciplined force now, Prisoner Esterhazy. We have already been in battle against the enemy and have lost two dead and several more were wounded. We can't afford to be soft, not now the war is beginning in earnest. You will stay where you are until you agree to accept our decision. Will you agree now?”

Joanne pushed feebly against the bars, desperate to be free. Knowing that the great struggle was already under way made her frustration almost too painful to bear. She had been here too long to have any thought other than being able once more to move. It was almost more than she could stand to see the longed for release cruelly postponed. But she had her principles. She shook her head.

“Very well. You remain here. I shall be back to see you in twenty days. You will not attempt to speak to your guard at any time until then and your rations will be reduced. Failure to serve yout punishment cheerfully and obediently will be penalised.”
 
 
 
 

………………………………...........................................................................................................

ANNIE, FRANCESCA AND FRIEDA

“Annie?”

“Yes, Fran?”

“I want to make a suggestion that might surprise you. I have been watching you these past weeks when Joanne has been away. You have changed a lot, Annie. Gone is the sweet little girl who got into this by accident. You have become hard and ruthless and in many ways not very nice to know. I think you should be the leader. The women would follow you anywhere after that last fight and so would I! How about it?”

“And what role to you intend for yourself, not to mention Joanne?”

“I’ll be at your disposal. Frankly, I am so devoted to Frieda and she to me that we only want to be the same rank, whatever it is.”

“OK Fran. I’ll promote her to Lieutenant. And I must ask you both to be discreet about your affair. It’s not good for discipline!”

Francesca  looked relieved and she smiled. “And what about Joanne?” She’s served her twenty extra days tomorrow. What if she agrees to our continued use of the whip and the cage? Will you hand back command to her?”

“I suppose so, Fran, although it will be a mistake. I agree that she will play a  leading part in the new country after victory and will be a good leader, full of ideas for restoring civilisation .But  I doubt that she is tough enough mentally to take all the brutal decisions we’ll need to in the war ahead. This business of wanting to purge her guilt and all that. It's nonsense, Fran! She should just have kept her mouth shut in the first place, but she's weak - too weak to lead in battle. It makes me sad to say that of such a dear friend, but that's how I feel now.”

Francesca nodded. Although she still remembered Joanne’s saving her life after the wreck,it was a while since she has seen her and the thought of being led by Annie was too attractive for her to want the original leader back.
 

JOANNE

“Have you decided, Prisoner Esterhazy? Will you accept that we keep the whip and the cage as instruments of discipline?”

“I accept, Acting Commander.” What the Hell! All Joanne wanted was to get out of this horrible tiny cage and be free to move her arms and legs again. Where was the key? Surely there couldn't be yet more delay. Could they not see she was almost done for?

“Good. And now we come to the matter of the nine offences reported by your guard when we last met. Also there are  two instances of insubordination to me. I award ten extra days for each of your nine acts of indiscipline in the presenceof the guard. As for your failure to address me properly, I award you twenty extra days for each offence. I further order that your final whipping be increased to three hundred lashes and that you be removed from all position of command in this unit thereafter. Do you have anything to say?”

Joanne could hardly believe her ears! After one hundred and twenty four days of sheer hell, which she had pretty well volunteered for, here was her best friend sentencing her to remain here for one hundred and thirty  more, to be followed by a ferocious and quite likely fatal beating. What had come over this sweet young thing?

“I accept your punishment, Ma‘am  With respect, I should tell you that I shall be dead long before my extra days have been served.”

“If you are tough enough, you will survive. If you are not, then you are of no use to us.  And be careful not to commit any further offences, or you will stay there for ever.”

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

FRANCESCA AND FRIEDA

It was seven weeks since Joanne had been given the dreadful news that, far from being about to be freed, she was only halfway through her ordeal. Much had happened since then. Francesca and Frieda were now Lieutenants and had led sveral successful attacks. They had still hankered after another whipping, though,  and decided to provoke one, after both had been a little tipsy one night.

And now here  they were,  tied to adjacent wooden frames, their arms and legs stretched wide apart. Their feet were  not able to touch the ground. It was obvious to an observer that they had both been there for some time. Both victims' long hair was tied up leaving the two backs, one slim and tapering and the other small and compact, free to receive unprotected the searing flail of the lash. That lash had been making their lives painful for a while now.

As both agony stricken women knew,  they were due to be here for much, much longer. They also knew that it would be useless to plead with Annie.  Annie was known by now to mean what she said and never go back on her word. Their long wished for whipping had hardly started and already they were bitterly regretting their stupidity! When they heard her pronounce sentence they had half opened their mouths to protest but a look from that heartless young madam had shut them up again.

"Wise of you, for a very welcome change!  Any protest and you'd have got even more. Take them away!"

That had been half an hour ago and, already it seemd like for ever. Their first whipping, at Angela's behest,  had been fifteen lashes, but this was due to be eight hundred. No one had ever heard of a punishment on this scale. Neither girl could walk to the whipping frame to receive their punishment; their legs had turned to jelly and they had needed to be half dragged and half carried. Those of the battalion who had not been co-opted to wield the whips on the foolish couple stood around expectantly. When the two smooth backs had received their first lash, trickles of blood had appeared. Now both girls were shedding blood copiously and their torment had scarcely begun.
 

"One hundred and Twenty"sang out Josephine, who was in charge of the punishment.
 

Two whips hissed angrily through the air yet again, each on to a very sore back. A team of three pairs of strong Amazons were lined up behind Francesca and Frieda, both broken to Private. They had allowed their infatuation for each other and the open abandonment of their love-making to offend Annie once too often. As a result they were getting their wish and getting it in spades! The pair who had given them their last twenty lashes handed the whips to the next team. Fran took advantage of the slight intermission to whisper to Frieda.

"OK my sweet?"

"Piece of cake, darling. Love you!"

Annie never missed a trick.

"Stop talking! Aren't you two disgusting perverts in enough trouble as it is? You each get fifty more for that!"

"One hundred and twenty one" barked Josephine, trying not to look too hard at the bloody backs as they suffered yet more lacerating blows. She had warned and pleaded with that idiot pair not to push their luck, but they took no notice! Maybe this would make them see sense!

"One hundred and twenty two"

Both girls jerked under the impact of the resumed flogging. Each bit her already chewed-up lip and contrived to remain silent. This was far more than either had bargained for and they were beginning to wish they had been more discreet and gone and found someone in the village to beat them. They had deliberately brought this on themselves but had never imagined the sentence would be this severe.  Neither had uttered a sound so far, except for their overheard conversation. Francesca found she could still get some pleasure from the combined thrill of hearing Frieda being flogged beside her and feeling the leather cut deeper into her own back, but the pleasure was wearing off fast and would be replaced shortly by nothing but pain. She recalled the sight, both back on the Island and later here, of Joanne's tortured young body being sliced by the lash, exposing her ribs. She knew that this was what was happening to her. After today, neither of the two lovers were to step out of line again and none of the other women, seeing how merciless Annie was being to her two best friends, would risk a fate as terrible as this.

Another change-over. Another all too brief respite. This time both girls held their peace. They did not even dare dare turn their heads towards each other to give a bit of encouragement, having been warned to face straight ahead at all times. The whipping went on and on.

"One hundred and forty one."

Frieda heard a gasp from Francesca. She herself, hard as she was,  was beginning to crack and the floggers were not even a quarter of the way done with them yet!  Not wishing Fran to be left alone to face the inevitable penalty for making a noise, she uttered a similar gasp herself and both got fifty more from the sharp-eared Annie. The pair fainted three times during the interminable course of their punishment and were revived with cold water. At one point, Annie saw that the teams were tiring and called over some other women to take the place of the most exhausted. These two were going to be taught a lesson they would never forget and she was to make sure that each lash was as merciless as the last, right up to the end.

Finally.

"Nine Hundred!  Punishment complete, Ma'am."

Annie strode up to them, her hard bare feet squelching through the blood on the ground. She looked sternly at the two semi conscious women.

"Next time you two perverts think of using me to gratify some pathetic kinky fantasy, maybe you'll think again! Do you think I'm stupid or something. DO YOU??  ANSWER ME UNLESS YOU WANT SOME MORE!!"

"No, Ma'am." said Francesca. "We were the stupid ones!"

Frieda nodded her assent to this. She was consumed with guilt to think that it had been her crazy idea in the first place and she had brought this on her beloved Francesca. There was a fear in her heart that she might have lost her love.

When they were cut down they folded into a motionless heap on the ground, lying in a pool of their mingled blood. As they were taken away to recover, Frieda opened her eyes for a second and saw  Fran  grin weakly at her. "Love you for ever, my darling." she whispered faintly and passed out. Frieda knew Fran was still hers and shed a tear of gratitude.

They were in the makeshift  infirmary for seven weeks after that, lying side by side on their stomachs and delirious for much of the time. With use of the remaining supply of ointment forbidden by Annie, they healed only slowly and suffered many more agonies before they were better. Both would bear the marks for years afterwards. Although their love had only been deepened by passing side by side through such horror, from then on they were to remember that they were soldiers first and lovers a very distant second. They would both hate Annie for the rest of their days. Annie knew this but did not care

As far as Annie was concerned, Frieda was a real soldier who had been led astray by that spoiled rich kid Francesca and Francesca was responsible for leading Frieda astray. They both richly deserved what had happened to them. She was forced to admit, though,  that both had been incredibly brave and this was something she set great store by - hence her growing contempt for Joanne. In due course both were reinstated as officers.

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

“How is she today, Lieutenant Moroni?”

Joanne had finally served her time in the cage.

“Improving, Commander. She’s still a bit bent over, but she’s getting the stiffness out of her joints. We had a lady from the village up here to look at her, yesterday, when you were away. She worked on her for hours, rubbing all kinds of foul smelling things into her and going up and down her spine, bashing away at her.  Jo said she felt miles better afterwards, although it looked pretty painful to me

“Bring her to see me, please.”

 Joanne, under guard,  was  marched in to Annie’s tent. She was still very weak after more than ten month’s confinement. Thirty more days had been added to her sentence.  Rosie had seen her crying one morning a few days after being told she had much longer still to serve. Annie had been summoned and given her the extra time for being a coward. After fifty long terrible days of living in fear of committing further offences, Joanne had found dull resignation  take over and  come to accept her position. By the time she was released it was all the same to her whether they let her out or not.

“Any better, Prisoner Esterhazy?”

“A lot better, thank you Commander.  I guess I’ll be fine and straightened up to get my last three hundred lashes nine days from now!”

“That’s what I like to hear, Prisoner. That will be all. Dismissed!”

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

“Two Hundred and Ninety”

Joanne was almost through the final stage of her long and painful expiation. Once more, her back was raw and bleeding and a pool of blood was forming at her feet. This time she had avoided making a sound until well into the third hundred, but after the two  hundred and fiftieth lash had descended, wielded by a fresh and strong girl who had been longing for this chance to punish the woman who had defeated Angela, for whom she still felt great loyalty, she could contain herself no longer and began to scream. Now there only ten more to come.

“The prisoner will stop that noise! I am getting sick of it. Start again at two hundred and fifty when that cowardly whining started.” shouted Annie. “This time I do not expect to hear a sound.”

Joanne controlled herself after that and received three hundred and forty lashes that day. When the ordeal was over, Annie addressed the women.

“For her cowardice in crying out, I award the prisoner two hundred more days in the cage, to be followed by five hundred lashes.  The cage will be brought down from the mountain and placed in the middle of the encampment for all to see how cowardice is punished. Take her up the hill and put her inside. She will be brought down in the morning.”

Francesca and Frieda saw this and wandered away from the rest of the women.

"We still hold the record for the biggest single whipping then." whispered Frieda. "And we didn't scream like she did. You let out a gasp of course and I joined you, but we never screamed like that. I'm so proud of us both!"

"Me too" replied Francesca, loking at her lover's seamed back and rubbing her own equally terrible scars. It had been a terrible experience but they had come through it and were still together. "Mind you, Joanne has a bigger total already than us and after her last five hundred, she'll be a hard act for anyone to follow! I think I'm happy for her  record to stand!"

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

A month after this the group, now highly trained and deadly in combat,  were sent out on a dangerous mission. Joanne was left behind with only a couple of guards for company. After ten days, the fighters returned. Several were missing., among them Frieda. Francesca was badly wounded and scarcely able to stand. Annie had been hit by one bullet which had passed through her thigh,  chipping the bone and another which had made a terrible mess of her shoulder. She had led from the front throughout, keeping  up the others’ fighting spirit when all seemed hopeless.  Annie had walked every step of the way back, carrying her rifle, despite the pain from her wounds and the loss of blood.

Joanne watched this heroic group from her confinement and bitterly regretted that her own moral weaknesses had prevented her from leading a battalion that had been partly her own inspiration. Annie must have had some similar thought. She made sure that the wounded were being cared for and comforted the distraught Francesca. After this she came limping over to Joanne.

“We won a great victory against the Government, Jo. I hope you’re proud of us. After all, this army would never have been formed had it not been for you. I would  release you if I followed my instincts. Of course I can't do that, but  I'm sure there will still be plenty of fighting for you to do after we let you go.”

Joanne served the rest of her time without committing any further offences.  She survived the terrible flogging, whose marks she would carry for the rest of her life, and uttered not a sound from start to finish.  After  her release she was involved in many actions against the enemy. She showed herself to be a brave and resourceful soldier and was finally commissioned by Annie, who was  now a many times wounded and much decorated Brigadier. Joanne stood proudly to attention as her naked former protégé placed the Lieutenant’s badge in her greying hair.

As the rebel campaign began to drive the government further and further back, Joanne was invited by the Rebel Council to take up a leading role in the provisional government. She left the group that she had helped to form,  and the new leader, Annie.  Until the end of the war, as the representative on the council of the Naked Amazons she was to remain unclothed herself.

Two years later, after victory had been won, Joanne, now a senior Minister in the new government bumped into the splendidly uniformed Annie at a reception in the liberated Castle. She gasped at the sight of this once frail and sweet person, now a proud General. Annie, too, was greying and her face was lined prematurely. Saddest  of all was the sight of one empty sleeve pinned to her side. How tragic that the poor girl should have lost not only her youth but an arm as well. All those medals, including the very highest awards for bravery the State could confer, were no substitute for what had been lost.

Annie must have been thinking something similar about Joanne.

"You needn't have spent all those months in that cage, Joanne. Did you ever regret putting yourself at Angela's mercy and then mine?"

The newly appointed Minister shook her head. Her hair might be quite white and her shoulders might sag, but her calm grey eyes were as clear and beautiful as ever.

"No, Annie. I made a mistake. Mistakes cost lives and have to be paid for. I got off lightly. I can see now that once our group had been formed it was for others to lead it. I had plenty of time to think of the future during those sixteen months captivity. It taught me patience and never to give up hope. I'm so sorry you lost that arm. When did it happen?"

"During the final assault, Jo. Maybe it could have been saved in the old days when there were clever doctors with all sorts of equipment and drugs, but there was no choice but to hack it off just above the elbow. It hurt, Jo - worse than anything I've ever known. But I didn't cry out once. I'm a soldier."

"Do you know how Francesca is?  I have not seen her for months." asked Joanne.

"Living with her darling Frieda" replied Annie.

Frieda had not been killed in action but wounded and captured. They had rescued her from prison more dead than alive.

" She nursed her back to health and they are going away together for a long holiday. Fran is very rich, you know."

Joanne knew very well just how rich Francesca was. Her father had been shot on the first day after the victory and all his estates had been awarded to his gallant daughter.

"Does Francesca still hate you, Annie?"

"Yes. I think it was more for what I did to Frieda, though. I don't doubt that she would forgive me if she had been the only one to get whipped. But I knew what a weird pair they were, Joanne. We had a war on and those two were obsessed with each other and it was getting to infect the whole company. That's why I had them both flogged in front of everyone. I didn't enjoy it, but you don't expect to enjoy yourself when in command - and it was Francesca who stood aside in my favour."

"I bet she's regretted it ever since that day!" said Joanne, who was recalling to mind the way she herself had been humbled and tortured because of this once so sweet little thing!

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FRANCESCA AND FRIEDA

"Not even a teeny weeny whipping, Frieda, darling?"

The couple were reclining on a white sanded beach beside a blue sea on an island owned by Francesca and once the property of her late father. Both girls were in better shape now. Francesca had got her hands on a supply of the ointment  and they had been treating each others horribly marked backs for some days. Already the scar tissue was begining to give way to skin. The trouble was that the process involved an enormous amount of itching and both girls were beside themselves, scratching away at each other to relieve the symptoms!

"Not even that, Francesca my adorable love! Not even a little tap. I'm cured of that particular fetish. Well and truly cured."

"You don't mean that. I mean you can't!" Francesca pouted. "Admit it, Frieda. After the first six hundred you quite liked it really."

"Mad bitch!  Don't stop scratching, Fran! It's the only thing stopping me going mad!"

"Frieda, sweetheart?"

"What Fran my love?"

"How many lashes did Joanne get altogether?"

"I don't know. I was away from you all for a while. You tell me!"

"Four hundred on the island. Six hundred and forty while you were still with us and five hundred when she came out of the cage for the last time. Plus another two hundred in tens and twenties for various minor offences after that. Annie was on to her for the least little thing!  Then she got her commission and after that she left us. That's seventeen hundred and forty, Frieda! And all we got was a pesky nine hundred and fifteen. Don't you feel ashamed? Don't you want to at least  get level with her? To do that, we need to get another eight hundred and forty. What do you say?"

"If it made you happy, Fran, then I'd go along!  But nine hundred of ours was in one go. And we never squealed except for one measly little grunt which was neither here nor there. She screamed and blubbed like a little girl. We beat her Fran."

Fran could see that Frieda was not really convinced. Both girls felt a stirring of excited anticipation as they imagined themdelves tied to yet another whipping frame stripped and ready to be whipped until the blood ran. Their vulvas started throbbing and filling with juices. Soon they were licking and sucking each other in a frenzy of lust. When they finally lay back, panting with joyful exhaustion, their minds were made up.

"How do we set about it, Fran, darling?  Get someone and pay him I suppose. Do we get them all at once or in little stages?"

"We rejoin the Army, Frieda my sweet. And we take our beatings where and when we can provoke them to whip us. It'll start off easy I suppose and we'll get heavier punishments as our records get more appalling! With that cow Annie in charge,  discipline is more ferocious than ever. I suggest we sign up for a couple of years and be really bad girls. I reckon we can get twice Joanne's total in that time! Admit it, Frieda. We're not ready to retire just yet awhile! And you liked the Army before I met you!"

"I still do, Francesca. But how do we know we'll be kept together and whipped together?"

"It's all arranged Frieda! I have influence! Money buys a lot of things even in the brave idealistic world of today! Once we are posted to the North, where there are still pockets of resistance, we are on our own, but we'll be kept together. We'll be on the same unit and stay there for our entire service. There'll be patrols and the occasional skirmish. No major campaigns are planned - we're going to wait and let the remnants gradually give up. And it's an elite unit, Frieda. We'll be with the Naked Amazons up in the North where it's frosty and cold for much of the year and only the toughest of the Amazons can live and function out on patrol in all weathers. That's us, Frieda. The toughest of them all and the most whipped of them all - or we will be!"

They both drank to their shared and painful future. Next day they were at the recruiting office. After a week they were in their new camp, being read the usual lecture by the CO. "Play fair by me and I'll play fair by you. Step out of line and you'll be sorry. This is a crack unit and discipline is tough. Cary on girls!"

"Discipline tough, eh! Good. Some things never change do they.?"

They went into the barrack room and a few other women moved menacingly in their direction.
 
 

THE END