LADIES' LODGE:
A STORY OF SEVERAL NUDE LADIES
by Harry
November 12th - continued
Jeremy kept the girls chatting for hours before they finally were able to get upstairs to bed. His earlier attentions to Gwendoline's handsome buttocks had apparently sated his designs on those battered glories, (not that Gwen had had nearly enough) and he behaved as though the presence of three naked ladies in his house was the kind of thing that happened too often to be remarkable.
When they were finally ushered to their room, Harriet and Gwendoline decided to share one bed and Jessica was left on the other. The temperature in the bedroom was appreciably lower than that in the warm rooms below and Jessica ruefully prepared for a none too comfortable night as she heard Gwen encouraging Harry not to be worried about the next day.
"You'll be fine, darling Harriet - you've had the best teacher anyone ever had! You give her a demonstration of how good I am. Don't let me down my love: make sure you give her a real thumping! And now wrap those lovely strong arms and gorgeous powerful thighs around me and keep me warm. Night girls!"
During the ensuing night, Gwen was the warmest of the three since Harry was lying on top of her and obediently wrapping her arms and legs around her, with her back exposed to the cool air. Harry was next warmest and poor Jessica kept waking up and shivering throughout the night. By the time morning came she was more determined than ever that she was going to teach this girl who had come between her and her childhood friend a lesson she would never forget. Gwen was aware of this and was torn between her relish at the thought of seeing two other girls fighting over her and sorrow that either one of them was going to be hurt - perhaps I'll forbid it at the last minute was her last thought before falling asleep - enfolded by Harriet's strong arms and legs and with her powerful warm body pressing down on her.
November 13th
As the girls sat over their early morning meal and waited for the sun to rise, Jeremy made a few suggestions relating to the forthcoming duel between Jess and Harry. His suggestion of dividing the action into three rounds of four minutes with two minute intervals was accepted. It was agreed that there would be no referee - both girls being trusted to observe the minimal rules that had been agreed to. Jeremy offered to second Jessica and Gwen happily agreed to look after Harriet.
Three hours later, Gwen was bathing Harriet's bruised face with cold water and commiserating with her on her injuries.
"Never mind, Gwen at least I stayed on my feet all through - she didn't put me down once."
Gwen smiled at the memory of the contest. The adrenalin had fairly pumped through her at the sounds and sight of blows raining down on her two friends. They had both held absolutely nothing back and it was a wonder that neither had sustained any serious injury. Jessica had emerged as the winner, but Harriet had every reason to be proud of her performance and both girls had shaken hands and embraced warmly when it was all over.
This time it had been Gwen who was cold in the morning chill and Jessica and Harry had been pink both with exertion and the impact of the blows they were landing so regularly and heavily on each other. By the time it was over, they were sweating profusely and steam was rising from their bodies as well as their breath.
Jessica came into the bathroom and again congratulated Harry on putting up a wonderful performance. Gwendoline left them together to continue their welcome reconciliation and went downstairs to see Jeremy about something.
When the two former opponents came down, Jeremy was nowhere to be seen and Gwen was standing by the window and looking into the distance.
"Golly, Gwen! That arse looks as red as ever this morning. I'd have thought it might have cooled off a bit over night," said Harry.
"It did - but good old Jeremy's just freshened it up a bit. Very stimulating! He used his belt this time. He's pretty strong, considering how thin he is."
Her two friends came and stood one on either side of her. Harry patted her rump and Gwen squealed delightedly, asking her to slap her again only much harder. Jessica felt sick as she heard Harry complying vigorously.
"What's happening to you, Gwen?" she moaned. "Try to control yourself and don't you encourage her, Harry. And what ever is Jim going to think when he sees you tonight? Those bruises will take a week to go down."
"Oh, I'll think of something to tell him, and we aren't going to see him today. Jerry has arranged for us to stay with Victor's owner tonight. You'll be glad to see him again - Jess! So we can stay here all day and go over there this evening. Hope you don't mind too much, but I agreed we'd do another race this afternoon. Don't worry, Harry! Jessie will go easy on you this time! I only agreed to it because I so very much want to be getting it on the arse again from good old Jerry!"
"Are you two sure your feet will be up to going over that stony drive again so soon?" asked Jessica who was really more worried about enduring another two hours freezing while the other two kept warm.
Harry and Gwen assured her that they would be fine, which indeed they were. After the race was over, again the three went up for a shower, but this time Jessica was spared the horrors of the previous day. Gwen was beginning to feel that perhaps the repeat was not quite as enjoyable as the first race, to her acute disappointment. Their host had proved slightly squeamish this time and belaboured her rear a little less vigorously. In truth the sight of Gwen's bruised and swollen arse was rather less appetising than that of her smooth and untouched one had been. Even so - he had landed a lot of really stinging and satisfying smacks and she was fairly happy, if not quite as ecstatic as before.
"You look a really nasty mess, Gwen," said Jessica as she looked at her friend in the shower. "You've got such a lovely body - much nicer than mine. Why do you let that man abuse it like that? It makes me terribly sad to see you getting hooked on something so sick."
"I think your bum looks nicer when it's its normal colour and shape, myself," said Harriet. "It looked really good last night, all nice and red after the races, but after what he's done to it today it's getting really yucky. Best give it a rest for a week or two. When it's back to normal, Jessie and I will both love to kiss it, but the way it looks now quite turns the stomach."
Gwendoline looked shamefaced and realised her friends were in the right. It was hurting all the time and the exhilaration was fading fast. The thought of how she must look sobered her up a bit too. Jessica was dead right about Jim - she would have an awful lot of explaining to do!
It would never do to go through the rest of her life dominated by this particular fetish. She MUST do something to cure herself and she had a pretty firm notion as to what that would be.
After cooking the three girls another superb dinner Jeremy drove them over to his friend's house and Jessica was reunited with a boisterous and delighted Victor.
The friend turned out to be just as eccentric as Jeremy, except that his attention was directed more at Harriet - somewhat to that young lady's concern, as she had absolutely no wish whatsoever to submit her shapely and unsullied rear to the rough treatment that Gwen loved so much!
"I see old Jerry has been having a bit of fun with you my dear!" he said as he contemplated Gwendoline's flaming bottom.
"It was very much a mutual pleasure, Gavin," replied Gwen. "We each have what the other wants; I have a delightful bum and he has something to hit it with! But, I should warn you that my two friends are very much off limits - and I am resting."
"Quite so. I can see you all need a bit of R&R! Your friends both look a little battered - especially this lovely redhead and your delightful posterior has done great and valiant service to my good friend Jerry and deserves a medal!"
With this he knelt down behind Gwendoline and kissed her bruised and battered arse with great tenderness and reverence. The other two girls giggled hysterically.
Gwen asked their new host if he had any strange ideas as to how they might entertain him on the morrow and he laughingly excused them from any further exertions.
"You all need a rest, as Jerry has explained to me. I really applaud your vision. I see a worldwide network of women who will be there for each other, whenever any of their number is in need. You have my whole hearted approval for what you are doing. I shall be thinking of you all during these closing days of your mission and willing you to come through with flying colours!"
* * *
"I'm sure you will," said the other two in unison.
Indeed Jessica seemed to have altered so much since meeting Andy and it seemed to Gwen and Harry that if the idea of a female masonry were to endure after this business was over, it would be they who would have to provide the driving force to get the thing off the ground. The two separately resolved that they would - somehow they both instinctively realised that their lives might one day depend upon it.
"What will you do, my darling Gwendoline?" asked Jessica.
"I know one thing I'll be doing as little as possible - if at all."
The others looked enquiringly.
"I don't want ever to wear clothes again - not as long as I live. I love being naked - I'm so grateful to old Harold back in September. He has set me free and I bless his name forever!"
"You'll have to wear something to marry Jim," said Jessica.
"That's the only fly in the ointment, but I like the guy and I have to produce an heir - so I'll have to go through with it."
"You only LIKE him - is that a basis for a lifetime together?" asked Jessica.
"It's how our kind have always lived, Jessie," explained Harriet, "marriages of convenience. The sad thing is that poor old Jim probably hasn't got the message."
"Oh, I love the darling fellow OK. In fact I'm totally crazy about him. I was only teasing. But the Lady Masons will always have first call on my loyalty - That's what I promised darling Harry last night and I repeat the same solemn promise to both of you today. We must all fifty of us have an oath-taking ceremony just as soon as possible after this is over. I loved what Harriet said when she first joined us - 'all for one and one for all'. Let's all three of us pledge to that now and sign our names in blood. What a shame all Harry's copiously flowing blood was washed down the drain yesterday - it would have come in useful."
November 13th - continued
The three girls were very tired. It had been a strenuous day for all of them in a variety of ways.
Harriet and Jessica had fought each with much fire and fury in the morning and both were badly bruised, especially Harriet who had only managed to land one blow to every two or three that the vengeful Jessica had so skilfully landed on her. Jessica's kicks and punches had all been expertly timed and shrewdly delivered, rocking the other girl back on her heels time and again. Harriet's lovely delicate face had been a bloody mess by the time it was all over, mainly owing to a blow to the nose that had landed very early on. Only Harry's superior strength had kept her from being knocked down many times and enabled her to stay in the contest right up to the end.
Gwen kept recalling the punishment that the red-head had taken and hearing again and again the sounds of Jessica's feet and fists hitting her almost at will. She was half ashamed of herself for the erotic excitement this memory still caused her. I'm developing into a rather nasty person, she thought. Still, she had helped Harry clean herself up afterwards and been mightily relieved to find the damage to that exquisite face to be only superficial. She more fiercely admired Harriet than ever after yesterday, and looked forward to the coming night when she would be able to fondle and caress her lovely brave friend, feeling the strength of that lithe, powerful and wounded body beside her and on top of her.
In the afternoon after the fight, Gwen and Harry had once again participated in Jeremy's second favourite activity and pulled the two rickshaws in a strenuous and fiercely contested race around the estate, inflicting yet more pain and damage to their sore feet, and giving Jeremy the chance to indulge his far and away most favourite activity for the second time that day and complete his methodical devastation of Gwen's battered but still bewitching bottom, to her continuing deep satisfaction. Gwen had quite easily won this time because Harry had still not recovered from the mauling she had received from Jessica, who had happily lost the animosity she had been harbouring for the past days. Jessie abstained from using the riding crop on Harriet - in fact she threw it away after they had only gone a few yards and Harry gratefully did her very best to secure victory for them both but was just too worn out to be able to beat a Gwendoline whose adrenalin was pumping incredibly powerfully under the twin stimuli of the competition and the beautiful, if somewhat diminished, beating her sweet aristocratic buttocks were receiving from the eccentric Jeremy.
The two rickshaw girls spent much of the rest of the afternoon massaging and extracting bits of grit from the soles of their feet and soaking the said feet in a hot footbath provided by the concerned Jeremy. After a few hours of this recuperative therapy they both felt they were able resume the journey, although they might need to tread a tad carefully for a few days yet. They both agreed, albeit for differing reasons, that it had been well worth it. Harry had furthered her reconciliation with Jessica, and Gwendoline had continued her bizarre voyage of self-discovery. Both girls had exercised their bodies to an extent that had lifted them to new levels of exhausted and pleasurable exaltation.
Their new host, Gavin did not keep them talking all night like the loquacious Jeremy and they were able to retire early. Their room contained one large bed and all three were able to sleep together. Gwen took up the middle position and after a long and affectionate French kiss to Jessica who promptly fell asleep, she turned to Harriet and began to caress that strong but battered body - as she had been longing to all day.
"I'm so proud of you, my lovely dear Harry. I'll never know how you stayed on your feet through that colossal pounding Jessie gave you - but I'd never have forgiven you if you hadn't. We're two of a kind - my sweet darling Harry. I never give up and nor do you. I love you so much, so very, very much! You'll always be able to rely on me if you're in trouble. I swear it! Nothing and nobody will ever stop me coming to help you."
Harriet winced as Gwen hugged her bruised ribcage, but told her not to stop, just squeeze even harder. Being loved by her two role models was worth all the pain and humiliation they had both put her through. She finally fell asleep and Gwen lay awake wondering where they would all be in a year's time.
Happily for her own peace of mind she did not know that in a few weeks her own life would be changed for ever by the death of her father and that she would soon be catapulted into managing his estates and various companies and being henceforth known as the Countess of Bembridge. As it was, she looked forward to her marriage to a rising artist and starting a family while at the same contriving somehow to keep in very physical touch with Jessica and Harriet - especially dear brave Harry with her gorgeously developing physique!
Harriet dreamed as she drifted into a deep slumber of her recently formed ambition. She wanted to become a manual labourer and do the kind of work that strong, rough and tough men did and do it as well or even better than they. She wanted backbreakingly hard work to be her lot from dawn until dusk, doing all the heaviest and most exhausting tasks that were there to be done. She wanted to develop the body of a female Goliath! If dear old Bill didn't like the idea of a wife with bulging muscles and a hard six pack stomach then dear old Bill could go and get fucked. She saw her way ahead very clearly and and the vision caused her pussy to become as wet as Gwen's had after her delightful arse-whipping.
November 14th Nine days and counting!
"What will you do, Harry, my angel, after this is all over?" asked Gwen as she offered to share her toast with the bruised redhead. "Off back to your hedonistic round of parties and bonking with Bill I suppose!"
Harry swallowed the saliva-soaked bit of toast and smiled. "I want to find something hard and physical to do. The harder the better. This journey has changed me in all sorts of ways and I feel I have discovered my body for the first time. I want to let it take over my life for a while and see just what challenges it can meet. What about you two?"
Jessica laughed and said she just wanted to be a good wife and hopefully a good mother as well.
* * *
November 14th Continued
Gwendoline borrowed a clean and sharp razor blade from Gavin and performed the task of cutting the ear lobes of all three. The blood dripped rather more freely than they might have wished into a bowl provided by their generous host and they were all able to sign a solemn pledge of perpetual loyalty one to another in their mingled blood. Although Jessica had been inclined to ridicule this idea, she was amazed to find herself shedding tears as the simple but solemn ceremony was completed.
"Do you think our ears will ever be the same again after that?" she asked.
"I should hope not!"
Gwen uttered this, but Harriet nodded her agreement and spoke, quietly but passionately, a few heartfelt words of her own.
"Love needs its scars! I intend no profanity whatever, but we must all be willing to suffer if we are to know true love and what we three have just done is a beautiful demonstration of that. We are all bound together in ways that our forthcoming marriages and relationships, excellent though they will be, will never supersede. Let's face it, girls - that's what this journey has been all about. That's why I have willingly been through hell and back to earn your respect and friendship - it's because I love you both so much. Every bruise and every hardship has been so well worth it. I love you two forever."
The rest of the morning was spent lazing around and recovering. Harriet and Jessica gently rubbed healing ointments into Gwendoline's battered and misshapen posterior and tut-tutted over the fearful damage it had suffered. Gwen smirked in a self-satisfied way as their ministrations only served to inflict yet more wonderful lovely pain to her super-sensitive rump!
"Gwen, sweetheart - did you really enjoy being beaten by Richard in that awful house. Is that why you were so brave? You really loved it, didn't you?" asked Jessica.
Gwen laughed at this.
"I absolutely fucking hated it at the time. I so awfully wanted to cry out for mercy but something stopped me. And I hate it even more now, but only for a different reason. I remember it and it sexually turns me on in retrospect. I was changed by that and not by any means for the better - I realise that much. It was only when I was asked to whip poor old Mr O'Toole that the idea of sadomasochism really got a compulsive grip on me. It's a grip that gets stronger all the time and I hate myself for it and at the same time it makes me come gloriously alive! But let's talk about something nice, shall we?"
And the matter was not raised again until the mission was over, at which time Gwen asked Harry to do her a very special favour. More of this later.
Before they left the house of quiet Gavin, they watched the weather forecast on the television and were heartened to learn that the wind had moved to the South and unseasonably warm weather could be expected for the next few days.
"Just as well, girls. No one to stay with within fifty miles of here," said Gwen. "Mind you, I was looking forward to a few really hard cold nights with that wonderful Harry to enfold me with her lovely strong physique. I think redheads have such scrumptious body odour. Someone should bottle it and put it on the market - they would make a fortune!"
The other two girls exchanged knowing glances. Poor old Gwen was really flipping her lid! In spite of this, they knew that she was the one to lead them to the goal. Even if she was becoming ever more unstable and unpredictable, she was still far and away the most delightful and charismatic human being either of them ever had or ever would know.
* * *
November 14th - Continued
Jim was horrified at the sight of the three girls when he met them late in the evening to deliver food and drink. He had imagined that they had been enjoying a couple of days of rest and here they were looking as if they had been in a battle. Gwen saw little point in lying to him and gave a full account of their experiences. His face lengthened when he saw how her eyes came alive and sparkling as she told of her voluntary and enjoyable beatings at the hands of Jeremy.
"I never you thought you were into all that kind of thing, my darling girl. I hope you never ask me to lay a hand on you - I simply couldn't bear to hurt you, even if you do like it. As for Jessica and Harriet, I hope you two won't do anything like that to each other again. You're both far too lovely to go around suffering and inflicting that kind of injury - you don't want to end up like some ex-pugilists I know, believe you me."
All three tried to look suitably abashed and shame-faced, although inwardly they were still full of pride. Harry dearly hoped that her many bruises, which she had sustained at Jessica's hands and feet would not fade away too quickly.
Gwen kept proudly fondling her bottom and hoped IT would not heal too quickly either. I wish I had a mirror to look at it properly, she thought.
He took Gwen aside and they made love for the first time in days. The others listened to the sounds of their passionate copulation and their minds turned respectively to thoughts of Andy and Bill. In the absence of these two they decided to make do with each other and continued their reconciliation until, finally, Gwen rejoined them and Jim drove away.
"How nice to see you two such good friends again," said a delighted Gwendoline, the after-effects of her recent love-making still trickling warmly down her thighs. "I hope these last few days will be the very best of the whole enterprise. I have a good feeling about it. If you've finished with Harry, Jessica, can I have her for a while? Pass her over to me! Come here sweetheart."
And with this she proceeded to cover Harriet with caresses which were gentle at first and then increasingly rough and passionate. She kissed both sets of lips in turn with a hungry wildness that pretty soon had the redhead moaning and writhing in ecstasy and coming inexorably to the only orgasm of her young life that had not involved either Bill or her cousin.
"Come on Jessie," Gwendolione gasped as she finally rolled off a panting and sweating Harriet. "Come and get your share - there's enough of her to go around. Plenty for both of us. I'll take the pussy and get that all juicy again and you look after those lovely tits and wonderful mouth and tongue!"
"No thanks, darling. I find it quite entertaining enough just watching you perform - you are amazing, Gwen."
"Come on Jessie," pleaded Harriet. "Do as Gwen says. I can take it, believe me. This is incredible being loved by one of you after the other - now both of you darling girls can have me at once - please!"
November 15th
After the sexual gymnastics of the previous night all three girls slept until well after sunrise. It had been a mild night with the temperature never falling below fifty and these three weather-hardened Amazons hardly needed each other to keep warm - although they had all been very closely entwined all night, after finally falling into an exhausted and blissful slumber. It would be hard to say exactly where the love-making ended and sleep began. Love was certainly resumed as soon as they woke up and continued until nearly mid-day as the temperature rose to near spring like levels and the sweat began to pour off their writhing and twisting bodies. Finally they all fell asleep again and it was late afternoon when they finally made a move onwards.
"Golly, but I never thought I'd enjoy that sort of thing so much. It just wasn't real! Remember when I first joined up with you I kept telling you to lay off me? If only I'd known then what I was missing!"
"We've corrupted dear old Harry," laughed Gwen. "I hope you are ashamed of yourself. You can see I am! First we corrupt each other and then her. What a naughty pair we are for sure!"
Jessica did not answer but tightened her grip on her two friends' waists as they strode three abreast with Jessica in the middle across the deserted moors making for their next rendezvous with Jim. They had wasted so much time that they broke into a run for the final ten miles, giving more painful punishment to Gwen's and Harry's feet which were still terribly sore after the Rickshaw races. The surface was grassy in parts but the soil was very thin and many sharp flinty stones and pieces of rock showed through it and they did not have time to negotiate their way around them.
Jim had been waiting for about twenty minutes when they finally arrived, full of apologies and gasping for breath. Gwen in particular looked astoundingly attractive with her chest alternately expanding and contracting and her stomach heaving in and out after the exertion. Beads of sweat stood out on her forehead and upper lip and her body glistened all over. Jim had never seen her looking so utterly captivatingly lovely and he knew that he would forgive this marvellous creature anything, just as long as she stayed with him.
"Any objections to me staying the night with you three?" He asked. "I can't bear to be away from you Gwen. I think I'm falling in love all over again - I thought I was insane about you before, but I don't believe what I'm feeling right now. Please let me stay."
"As long as you take all your clothes off and don't put them on until you leave in the morning and give a good account of yourself - I mean no falling asleep when you should be shafting me till I beg you to stop (fat chance of my ever doing that) - I'd love to have you. Let's find a spot where the others can't see us. Have a lovely night girls - sorry I can't join you for this one!"
They found a spot under a spindly looking bush and lay down side by side. Jim shivered a little.
"Poor darling," whispered Gwendoline in his ear. "Never mind, my sweet. I'll pretty soon warm you up and here's how..."
Gwen was as good as her word and by the time a drained and weary Jim fell asleep beside his still wakeful loved one, he was sweating. She looked lovingly at him for a while and after bending over him and tenderly kissing his penis, she lay down beside him, enfolded him in her arms and slept like a log herself.
* * *
November 15th - early
Jim and Gwendoline resumed their frenzied love-making as soon as it was light and they were both fully awake.
"I suppose we could have slept on the back seat of your car," said Gwen lazily as she tenderly stroked Jim's back with the tips of her fingers. "It would have been inside the rules. But then we couldn't have used it again and I have plans for the last night which include it! Anyway it was lovely lying all night under the stars next to you, feeling your warmth against me and listening to you breathing so peacefully."
Jim agreed it had not been as cold as he had feared and said he would treasure the memory for as long as he lived. Gwen promised lots and lots more memories, each one even better than the last, and the two kissed and parted until the evening.
Gwen walked over to where the other two had settled down and roughly pulled a semi-comatose Harriet away from Jessica immediately launching herself with a sustained eagerness into a repeat performance of the night before. Jessica was so tired that she slept through it all and the two bodies went through all manner of frenetic and enthusiastic contortions, both girls crying out, groaning and screaming with pleasure by turns. Both were dripping with sweat and love by the time exhaustion overcame them.
"You really go at it don't you, Gwendoline," moaned an admiring but totally shattered Harriet, when she was finally released from Gwen's frantic attentions. "I can't imagine where the energy comes from. I'm supposed to be the muscle goddess around here but you're a lot stronger than me, even if you don't look it!"
"Have a nice rest Harry. I think it's Jessica's turn for a bit of activity. Come and join in when you've recovered."
Jessica, who had felt left out of Gwen's life recently, responded eagerly to her ferocious and undiminished energy and soon she was as exhausted as Harry. Gwen sat and looked smilingly down at their two sleeping bodies, occasionally digging her pretty big toe in to one or the other's ribs so that they would wake up, cursing Gwen for a stupid, annoying, mad bitch before going back to sleep.
Finally she rose to her feet and aimed two mighty kicks one to each of her friends, taking special care to aim directly at Harriet's most bruised rib, and told them to get up and be on their way. Harry rubbed her battered side and complied grumblingly, saying that not everyone was like Gwen - some people were just made of flesh and blood. Little did she know that the time would come when she was to be put through the most awful hardships, and these last days of their initiation would seem like a Paradise, the memory of which would help to sustain her in her time of trial.
"Did you have to kick me there, Gwen? You must have known it would hurt like hell!"
"Sorry, old thing. I guess I've a sadistic streak a mile wide. You can kick my bum if you like, as hard and often as you want."
"Yes. But you'd LIKE that, you bloody sweet and lovely pervert! Any way - here goes."
"OH! More, Harry! More, please!"
And Harry, laughing hysterically along with Gwen kept bringing her hand down on to that lovely red bottom for the rest of the day. Not too hard, but enough to make the countryside resound to the cracking of her palm against her best and dearest friend's buttocks.
Jessica looked on disapprovingly. It was a bad mistake to encourage the girl, she thought. She had a serious psychological problem and Harry was wrong to treat it as a joke. She had to admit that the horseplay was making her friend very happy indeed - she had rarely heard Gwendoline laughing with such abandon and merriment and the infection of it finally overcame even her bad humour.
Gwen noticed her favourable change of mood and called out.
"Come and take over the other side, Jessie. Harry's getting tired having to slap both cheeks - go on - don't worry, I won't break."
Jessica smilingly declined and Harry thereupon decided enough was enough and the three walked on in silence for the rest of the day until they saw the familiar form of Jim standing by his vehicle and watching out for his beloved's arrival.
"I wonder what he would think if he knew what you were getting up to with us after he left today?" asked Harry.
"I hope he'd be proud of my stamina. He's going to have to accept that you are both a precious part of my life. He'll just have to share me with you two! At least until the end of the journey - then I'll be totally his - well almost!"
Jim explained that he was forced to go down to Town for a couple of days and had arranged for the girls to stay with two friends of his, who had rather reluctantly agreed to put the naked trio up in their places. One had a flat over the garage and the other a cabin in the garden. They would not be able to enter the houses in question and would have to use outside washing and toilet facilities, but at least there would be food, drink and shelter from the elements.
"Sorry I can't come up with anything better, my darlings, but people can be funny about the human body, even when they are as utterly divine as your three. I will see you in a day or two - terribly sorry, Gwendoline, but there's no time for making love (Or shagging as you so charmingly prefer to call it) tonight. I must dash. I hope your two friends can give you a bit of comfort!"
"We will, Jimmy!" yelled Harriet as he drove off after a quick kiss for Gwen and a wave to the others.
"I think he knows about us," said Jessica, "and he doesn't seem to mind."
"He minds plenty," said Gwen. "I think I'd better sleep apart from you two from now on." She thought for a moment. "Hell - I'd catch cold if I did that. Let's get started as soon as we've eaten. You and Jessie can share me tonight, Harry. Really give me the going over of a lifetime. Do you remember in 'Blue Velvet' when Isabella Rossellini asked that kid to hurt her? Don't be afraid to hurt me. I'll be angry with you if you don't."
And with these words she burst out crying and sobbed uncontrollably until the others became dreadfully anxious for her. Harry put her arm around her and she pushed her away. Finally she calmed down and went over to a stone wall and curled up against it as so many times before in these last few weeks and fell asleep. The others joined her, one on either side, and tried to get some rest themselves. It was happily another very mild night and Gwen did not suffer from the unaccustomed absence of a soft warm body pressing against her any more than did the other two.
November 16th
Gwendoline dreamt of Jim all night and thus awoke happy in the morning. She carefully avoided disturbing the other two and went off for a quiet walk on her own. The shame she had felt at betraying her future husband and playing around so shamelessly and disgustingly with Harriet and Jessica, who both had relationships of their own which she had caused them to betray, was less strong now. She realised that there were some problems which time alone would sort out. The best course of action was sometimes inaction - to go with the flow and not ask too many deep and ultimately imponderable questions.
Jim still loved her - that was obvious. And she loved him and Jessie and Harry. She'd even contemplated making Jessica her lifetime partner for a while until the impossibility of it became obvious and Andy made his providential appearance. She still ached for her sweet touch. Love was too big a thing to confine and regiment. It was big enough to enfold her darling future husband and her dear lovely friends at one and the same time. Jim was an intelligent and sensitive man who had seen a lot more of life than a callow eighteen year old girl like her. He understood all of what she was going through. Of that she now felt utterly certain. His parting kiss last night might have been brief, but something about it had imparted to her much more meaning than a million words could have conveyed. She was safe with him and this knowledge restored her spirits. She made her way back to the other two and lay beside them, her arms wrapped lovingly around them and fell asleep again for a while.
Although sleeping, the others instinctively moved closer to their troubled friend and when all three awoke they were almost as entwined as on a previous occasion.
Harry drowsily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and then kissed Gwen tenderly on the lips.
"Don't blame yourself for what happened. We both loved it just as much as you did and we all have to take responsibility. I don't give a shit what Bill thinks of what you two -especially you Gwen - did to me and with me. It was beautiful and pure love. Men don't have any idea about some things. I love Bill and you two love Jim and Andy. Why can't we all love each other as well - I mean physically as well as spiritually and mentally? I say we've earned it these last few weeks. What we have built up between ourselves is precious and something to be very proud of - not ashamed."
"She does go on, dosn't she?" muttered Jessica with a smile. "I agree with her one hundred percent all the same. You shouldn't be ashamed of anything Gwen. I bet Jim agrees with me on that. It says in the Marriage Service, 'forsaking all others', but we aren't married yet and we have our freedom still. Let's enjoy it while we still have it. That make sense Gwen?"
"Pretty good sense, Jessie. I was up and about for a while earlier on and came to similar conclusions. I still want to lay off all the heavy physical stuff for a while if you don't mind. My cunt belongs to Jim from now on - keep your distance from it. Look but don't touch!"
"You don't think he'd like to lend it to us for a while?" asked a pouting Harry. "First of all you introduce me to all these adorable delights then you put them off limits. Women! Give me men any time!"
After a period of silence, Harriet spoke again.
"Your body belongs to you and you alone, Gwen until you give it to Jim at the proper time, and even that I have my doubts about. It's too much like slavery to me. A modern marriage has to have a bit of flexibility in my view. We live a different world even to the one our parents lived in."
"OK girls, you've talked me into it, but we've a long hike ahead of us to reach Jim's semi-hospitable buddy. You can both lick my pussy tonight, if that's what you really want you disgusting pair! And now, let's walk!"
* * *
Jim's friend Bernard James was waiting by the gate of his cottage as the trio approached, relieved that the coast was clear of nosy neighbours. He smiled pleasantly at them as they all filed into the garden.
"Don't I know you from somewhere?" asked Jessica.
The man looked slightly embarrassed. He had recognised Gwen and Jessica when they were a long way off and had he known these were the eccentric friends Jim had spoken of he would have made his excuses rather than get involved.
"I remember perfectly where I saw this gentleman! He was in the audience at that illegal prize-fight where we did so well - especially you, Jessie!"
Jessica looked again and recollected that he had been standing near the back of the crowd and had looked very happy to see the two sacrificial victims led on to be slaughtered and rather less so when they did so well. Most of the crowd had been on their side from almost the start, but he and a few others had remained sour-faced as first Gwen and then Jessica had despatched the seven pugilists. She hoped he was not connected with that awful man who had put Harriet in a cage and left her hanging all night in the rain - not that such an experience would be so much of an ordeal to any of them after what they had since been through since.
"So you're a friend of my fiancee! I wonder if he knows about your tastes in entertainment?"
The man blushed and laughed and offered the girls a room in the house proper rather than over the garage, as an obvious way of bribing Gwendoline not to expose him to Jim. This seemed a fair arrangement and they all trooped up to the bathroom to freshen up after a hard day's walking. When they came down again, he was waiting at the bottom of the stairs and asking what they would like to eat and explaining what a rotten cook he was.
This was the cue for Harriet to offer to put her culinary skills at his service, an offer which was eagerly accepted.
Over the meal the discussion soon centred on fighting and Jessica explained how she and Harry came to be so battered and bruised. Bernard James looked at Harriet and assured her she would improve dramatically if she kept up her training.
"You've got the build for it, my sweet. You really have. Really solid."
He then turned to the evening when Gwen and Jessica had performed as bare knuckle prize fighters.
"You could have taken out all seven on your own," he said to Gwendoline. "The first three were the only ones who were any good. The rest were a total pushover."
"I was out on my feet by the time I'd dealt with those three - no way could I have gone on any longer. I was just standing there waiting to be despatched when that guy chivalrously refused to fight me and they brought on Jessie instead."
The man shook his head and smiled.
"You underestimate yourself, my dear. You'd have pulled something out of the bag. They might have made a nasty mess of that lovely face, but you'd have won in the end. I was looking forward to seeing you do it, I really was."
Gwen was unconvinced. She remembered all too well just how terrible she had felt at the time. But this guy seemed so sure of himself. She determined that she would enter some such event again and see just how far she could go. The thought set her heart racing madly and she had butterflies in her stomach. Yes! She would test herself to destruction and see just how much value there was in this man's judgment.
"I doubt very much that you are right, but there's one way to find out and that is for me to go through it again on my own and see how I do. Would you arrange that, please? If not the same people then a comparable bunch in your estimation. About a month from now would do nicely. I've got this journey to finish and a couple of other things to do and then I have to spend time with Mummy and Daddy who must be missing me as much as I miss them."
"Don't be crazy, Gwen," cried Jessica. "I saw you that night and you were totally finished. A mere tap would have laid you out cold. For Heaven's sake don't even think about it."
Harriet looked at her friend closely.
"I think you should do it, Gwen. And I'm sure Mr James here is right. Can I come along and cheer you on?"
The fellow agreed to see what he could do. He stressed that this would be an illicit event and Gwen could find herself liable to prosecution, especially if she caused any serious injury to anybody, but she brushed this warning aside and it was settled. She felt tremendously excited to have this new challenge to face so soon after the current one and was quite beside herself - a wonderful heady mixture of fear and anticipation.
Jessica shook her head sadly but said no more. She prayed that her dearest friend would not come to serious harm - or worse.
Harriet was thrilled at the thought of seeing Gwendoline in action and absolutely certain that she would triumph. How could this girl ever fail at anything she set her hand to?
"Let me clear up, Mr James," said Harry after the meal, "and if you have any jobs about the house or garden, I'd love to do them. I adore lots of hard work."
"Call me Bernard, my dear. All this formality is getting to me! It's too dark now, but I have some bags of cement I'd like carried down to the bottom of the garden. They're pretty heavy, I warn you. And there's a lot of garden furniture I've been meaning to rearrange for ages but been too lazy to get round to. If you think you can manage it, I'd be grateful. You look pretty strong, I must say. Let's see."
And he felt her arms, legs and shoulders with the air of a man who has sized up a good few fighters in his time. He grunted appreciatively.
"Yes - that's real muscle you've got there. It doesn't usually show up so well on a woman because of the subcutaneous fat, but you could give many a man a run for his money. You're quite some chick!"
"Thanks, Bernard. Anything else?"
"Yes. I'd like you to sleep with me tonight. I admire strong women and I think I could assure you of an entertaining night."
"Sorry, old chap, but I have a boyfriend I utterly adore and he'll be waiting for me in a few days. Otherwise I'd have jumped at the idea, believe me."
This was true, for Harriet had immediately been attracted to this odd fellow with his blend of educated speech and physical ruggedness. He was so very obviously a man who had been around and taken a good few very hard knocks in his time and given out a great many more. Harriet knew that his naked body would bear all over it the scars of many a fierce fight and she longed to see and touch it. She was terribly tempted.
"Only for tonight, Bernard. Don't ever try to contact me again. You must promise first. And we have this rule about no bedclothes - prepare to shiver a bit."
"I promise, but you may change your mind. I think you'll find a real man far superior to a boy, however charming. Shall we make our excuses to the others and get on with it?"
Although appalled at the man's arrogance, she had no thought of turning back and with a few words of farewell to Gwen and Jessica she followed Bernard upstairs. He did not disappoint her and professed himself well satisfied with Harriet's abilities as a lover.
His body was indeed battered and scarred. Heaven only knew what fearsome fights with all manner of sharp weapons he must have been involved in. He was lean and muscular with not a dram of surplus fat. The sight of his flat muscular belly caused her to melt inwardly and go weak at the knees. He threw himself full length on the bed and she came and lay beside him running her hands over his scars.
"I bet there is a pretty amazing story behind every one of these lovely marks. Will you tell me about them all?"
"One night would be too short my darling, believe me. And you'd need a strong stomach to take some of my tales. Let's not turn off the light. I like to be able to see a girl when I fuck her. Gaze into the whites of her eyes and all that."
"Please don't be gentle with me Bernard."
"I won't."
November 17th
Gwendoline and Jessica awoke to find themselves alone together for the first time in weeks. They embraced tenderly and lay in each other arms appreciating the familiar scents of their bodies. Gwen was the first to make a move and after kissing her friend with something of their old passion she leapt up and made for the bathroom, where Jessica soon joined her.
They got under the shower together and continued to fondle each other.
"I wonder how Harry got on. Not my kind of guy," said Jessica.
"I think I know what she sees in him. I saw it myself. He's a man with quite a past and I'd guess not a very creditable past at that. I'd have been tempted if he'd picked on me, in fact I'm almost jealous he didn't. How does he come to be a friend of Jim, I wonder. He could eat my poor dear old Jim for breakfast. I bet he didn't fall asleep on the job last night. Lucky old Harry. He'd have kept her going all night long. There'll be rings under her eyes this morning!"
This last prediction proved to be wildly inaccurate as a radiant Harry accompanied Bernard down to breakfast. He had not dressed following Harry's insistence that he remain naked until they had all departed later in the day. She wanted to show him off to her two friends and they were suitably impressed.
"He's going to be my lover, girls. Isn't that marvellous? You should have heard the stories he told me about all the knife fights he's been in. Fists, knives, guns, knuckledusters - he's been gone over by them all and never lost or walked away from a fight in his life. I love him and poor old Bill is history."
Bernard smiled at this. He was clearly still taken with Harry, but Gwen could see he was a man who would never settle down and certainly not with a mere child, which was all any of the three were. She hoped Harry would have the sense to move on and not look back at him later in the day. The thought of that girl being hurt horrified her. She might have enjoyed watching her fighting Jessie and being pummelled by her, but that sort of injury healed quickly. Mental scars took much longer as she had found out herself.
Harriet was taken out to the garden to be shown the tasks she was to carry out and spent a lovely morning rearranging the heavy seats and stone tables and carrying all the cement down to the garden shed. She was perspiring all over in the unusually warm weather and covered with dust when she had finished. Bernard thanked her and took her upstairs for a final high speed bit of love-making and the three set out to stay with Jim's other friend.
"I wonder what he'll be like," said Gwendoline.
"Another school friend of Jim's. That's all Bernie would tell me," replied Harriet still with stars in her eyes. "I can't get over the night I've just had. Bill's going to seem a bit tame after him."
"A few hours ago Bill was history," reminded Jessica.
"A few hours ago Bernie hadn't given me the brush-off," laughed Harriet. "I'll always have a place in my heart for him, though. Maybe our paths will cross again."
* * *
November 17th - Continued
"Do I spot just a few bruises you didn't have yesterday, Harry?"
"Maybe, Gwen. He was pretty rough with me last night. I told him not to be gentle and he certainly wasn't, but I don't think he meant to go too far. He only gave me a couple of slaps - trouble is he slaps pretty hard. Doesn't know his own strength."
"He knows all right. He meant to hurt you! You make me feel so bloody envious. If only Jim would knock me around a bit! Not that I wouldn't hit him back - mind you! Such a namby-pamby perfect gentleman. He'll let me walk all over him when what I really need is a man who will keep me in order like Bernard would do to you and all the rest of the women he's had and is going to have. I'm sure there's no future for you and Bernard, but I hope I'm wrong, because life would never be dull for you with him, even if he is a reprehensible, very shady character."
The two were walking a little behind Jessica, who was chafing at the slow pace the others were making, because their feet had still not recovered fully from the gruelling races of a few days ago. Gwen paused, raised her leg and turned her foot over so she could see the sole. Harriet followed suit.
"What do you think, Gwen? Can't see any broken skin - just bruising."
"Same here. I suppose if we force ourselves to keep up with Jess and just put up with a bit of pain we'll work our way through it. Let's catch her up. Come on Harry! Let's run and never mind the pain!"
After a couple of hours Harry put her arm over Gwen's shoulder.
"I think I'm going the same way as you. Pain can give you such a hell of a boost somehow. At least you know you're alive if you're really hurting."
"I'm not sure if I ought to want to make any converts to my kinky ways! But it is great to have you on my side."
"Can I come and cheer you on when Bernie arranges that contest for you? He told me it would be no problem to fix it up and with the same guys. Then I could see him again."
"Be nice to see them again. And of course you can come along. You can take what's left of me home afterwards."
"Rubbish, Gwen. You'll demolish them all. Bernard thinks so and he's a good judge of these things - at least that what he claims."
"I rather think and fear that I've chosen a very uncomfortable way of proving him wrong! But we'll see - I can't wait to find out, either way. It's something I've got to know about myself. I just hope I don't lose my looks. I'm terribly vain and inordinately proud of them!"
Harry looked at Gwen's face and a stab of fear passed through her heart at the thought of any permanent damage to that perfect beauty. But she quickly reassured her.
"Don't worry, darling. Any way you'll always be the loveliest person I know - no matter what they do to you!"
It had started drizzling by the time they reached Jim's second friend's house and it was a wet and chilly few minutes as they hid and paused to work out how best to approach it as it was near several other dwellings. They had to work their way around to the rear and climb over the fence to avoid being seen. Gwen tapped on the back door and a small child opened the door. He turned round and shouted back into the house with all the embarrassing frankness of the very young,
"Mummy! It's Daddy's three shameless nude tarts! Shall I show them to the shed?"
There was movement inside the house and a good-looking and rather red-faced woman appeared and invited them to come inside. She apologised to them for her son's rudeness and assured them that the sentiments he had parroted were not hers but her husband's who had been unexpectedly called away that morning for a couple of days on business. They were very welcome to use the bathroom and get themselves cleaned up and join her for coffee and a chat whenever they were ready. She told them how marvellously pretty and extraordinarily healthy and weatherbeaten they all looked and could hardly take her eyes off Gwendoline, whose smooth golden-skinned and lustrously gleaming shoulders she put an arm around as she led them upstairs and showed them where everything was. The little boy was forced to apologise and the three laughingly forgave him, each in turn bestowing a kiss to the top of his head.
They all sat around in the kitchen and passed several hours away while they told Janet Meares all about their recent adventures. She listened wide-eyed and finally said she wished she could have done something as unusual and challenging when she was their age. The little boy, Arthur was put to bed at eight o'clock and the remaining four later sat down to a dinner that owed much to Harriet's genius.
"I don't really envy you over the next few days, girls. The weather is set to change and the winds are coming from the South West. Wet and windy is the forecast. I hope you feel up to it."
The three assured her that a bit of rain held absolutely no terrors for them. As long as it stayed well above freezing they had no fear of a night-long soaking.
After dinner Janet excused herself after showing her naked guests into the sitting room and left them. When she reappeared she was as naked as the others!
"Well girls, what's the verdict?"
She was an older woman - in her early thirties. But she had clearly looked after herself and her body was hard and taut like that of an athlete and despite the fact that her tan was fading, it was obvious she loved to sunbathe nude as there were no tan lines on her body. She had a belly which compared extremely favourably to those of Jess, Gwen and Harry and possessed a richly exuberant growth of fair pubic and under-arm hair of which she was clearly unashamed. She sat next to Gwen on the sofa and flung out her arms, casually easing one behind the eighteen year old in a gesture which was missed by the others but immediately appreciated by Gwendoline who felt her juices begin to run and her heart begin to pound.
"I'll make a mess on your furniture if you don't back off," she whispered very softly so the others would not hear. "Later - OK!"
Janet took the hint and made an excuse to go out of the room for something, When she came back, she sat across the room from Gwen who avoided eye contact for the rest of the evening - she knew what would happen otherwise. It was a Herculean effort to keep her body under control as it was. This woman was something else!
Janet assured the girls that there was no need for them to sleep in the garden shed, which was a nasty draughty place and not fit to house a dog. She led them upstairs and showed them their rooms. One room had a double bed and the other smaller room only a single camp bed. Harry told the other two to take the double and went along to her own little room.
She had hardly settled herself on to the bed when the door opened and Janet came in. She motioned Gwen to follow her and took her to her own bedroom.
"I suppose you gather we can't have any form of bodily covering on this jaunt of ours. Do you think you can survive a night without bedclothes?"
"What you and I are going to do will have us both sweating like pigs after five minutes - maybe sooner. And you know that as well as I! Like my stomach, Gwen? Hard isn't it? Give it a really good punch - go on."
Gwen complied and the lady didn't flinch. She looked excitedly at Gwen.
"How tough is yours, darling? Care to find out?"
"Yes. OH, Yes. Please!"
Janet thereupon drove her fist hard into Gwen's belly and the youngster felt as if every last ounce of breath had been driven from her lungs, but she still managed to keep upright and moved not a muscle.
"That hurt you my darling?"
"Didn't feel a thing."
"Bloody liar - let's exchange a few more and see how long you can take it for!"
By the time Janet and Gwen had traded a few dozen more heavy punches Gwendoline was still standing, both women were covered in sweat and their bellies were scarlet red. They collapsed onto the bed together, wrapped in each others arms and whispered endearments one to another between kisses.
"You're a hard bitch for a mere child," murmured Janet at one point.
"Nicest thing anyone's said to me in ages," breathed Gwen before transferring her attention to Janet's nether regions, sinking her tongue deep into that lovely pussy and writhing delightedly as Janet did the same to her.
When they resumed their original position, Gwen turned to face her new lover and her lips brushed lightly against Janet's. She murmured into the other's mouth. "Last night it was Harriet who had a rough time and now it's my lovely turn."
"Oh! Old Bernard - a fit companion for that filthy ignorant pig of a husband of mine. What your Jim sees in either of them I can't imagine."
With a terrible shock, Gwen realised that this woman could cause her a lot of trouble if she breathed a word of this to her future husband. What a fool not to think of that before. How could she have been so stupid?
As if reading her thoughts, Janet kissed her and smiled.
"Don't worry my pet! Let this night be our lovely little secret. My husband would cripple me if he knew about this, and I mean cripple me. I just hope Arthur doesn't say anything - but he's a good little boy and loves his mother! Even if he does I don't care - I haven't had love with a woman in years until today. This has been worth everything he does to me."
November 18th
"What ever have you two been doing to each other, Gwendoline, using each other for punch bag training? We could hear you thumping each other through the wall, it was so loud, and that stomach looks as bad as your arse. You get worse and worse."
"As long they both of them got a kick out of it, what the hell, Jessie. Gwen's a big strong girl and anyway she could do with a bit of hardening up down there in advance of her next fight."
"You two are both as bad as the other. It's fun being with you though, even if my Gwen is changing and I'm not."
The three had left Janet's house at noon. Arthur had been packed off to his play group and Janet and Gwen had then spent a few more hours together. Jessie and Harry had consoled themselves for the temporary loss of their leader's affections to another by lovingly exploring each other's bodies until it was time to go.
The drizzle had persisted throughout the night and the ground was slippery and wet. It was not easy for their bare feet to keep from slipping. Jessica's dark body hair was soaked by the water and gathered into tufts of darkness on her legs and thighs. All three looked rainswept and saturated. Visibility was down to a few hundred yards and the gloom seeped into the spirits of all of them.
Gwen looked forward to seeing Jim again. Harry wasn't quite sure whom she looked forward to seeing and Jessica dreamt of a nice comfortable middle class life with Andy.
* * *
November 18th continued
Jim was relieved to be re-united with his darling Gwendoline and she sank blissfully into his arms, thinking how much variety she was getting nowadays and how he was absolutely the very nicest of all her lovers, followed by Harry and then Jessica, with Janet in a special kinky category of her own. She felt she had not seen or felt the last of Janet and her rock hard tummy and pounding fists; she dearly hoped not.
They all got into the back of Jim's car to eat their meal and he drove away as soon as they had finished, wishing them well for the night.
They looked around for some shelter in those wild uplands and found a few bushes under which there was a little shelter from the wind but absolutely none from the rain which poured over them all night, despite which they slept reasonably soundly.
November 19th
Gwendoline woke to find the rain coming down in sheets and her hair plastered to her head and back. She was shivering and realised they had to get some blood flowing or they would all be done for. Rousing the others she insisted they move on and do so at a run, despite the fact that it was still not quite light. A few minutes of this restored some life, but it was obvious they must get out of this terrible downpour which was becoming colder all the time.
"The wind's changed overnight," said Gwendoline. "It's coming from the North and that could mean this will likely turn to snow. What I feared all along. Damn! If only it could have held for a few more days."
"We're better now we've warmed ourselves up a bit, Gwen," said Harry.
"That's right," said Jessie. "We've a few hours before it gets really desperate. Surely we'll find something in that time."
"Jim will be looking out for us along the day's route and he'll take us home with him if the worst comes to the worst, but that would be end of our dream. Just be quiet for a few minutes and give me a chance to think. Both of you stand close and keep ourselves warm."
Gendoline stood, her eyes closed in concentration for a while and then her face brightened.
"There's a farm marked on the map about four miles from here to the north-west. If we can find an outbuilding to shelter in we would have a respite for today at least. Let's make a move."
"You mean you remember that much detail, Gwen?" asked an admiring Harriet.
"Sometimes I can visualise something I've seen even without having tried to memorize it. It's been useful to me a lot before now. Let's hope I didn't get it wrong this time."
Gwendoline's photographic memory had not failed her and a bedraggled trio finally pushed their way through the broken hinged door of a decaying old barn.
"I wonder if lighting that oil heater would count as theft," asked Harriet. "If I light it I can take the blame and you two won't have to worry."
"What fucking oil heater?" asked a shivering Jessica.
"The one on the shelf," said Gwen. "Trouble is what do we use to light it?"
No way was found to get around this and they huddled together and gradually thawed themselves out. Once they were all dry their spirits began to lift and Gwen went to look out of the door.
"It's still absolutely pissing down out there. We could be here all day and night. Pity we don't have a pack of cards or something."
"We've got each other, Gwen," said Harry and Jessie in unison.
"I suppose you think we're not kinky enough for you after Janet - well try this for size," and Harriet aimed hay-maker of a kick right into Gwen's already sore stomach and doubled her up in pain and laughter. She straightened up and rubbed herself ruefully.
"Not bad, Harry old thing. Not bad at all. Let's continue your training and my practice now we've a bit of spare time. You and Jessie against me. Or are you both chicken?"
"Two of us afraid of you? Of all the bloody impertinence!" laughed Jessica, "Let's murder her Harry!"
Jessie had to admit as the practice session progressed and increasingly turned into a deadly serious fight with Gwen dancing around both other girls, aiming lightning like blows at both in turn and keeping herself well out of danger, that maybe her friend might not fare too badly in her forthcoming challenge. She seemed a different girl altogether to the one she had unwillingly fought in order to please Harriet all those long days ago.
"You two are so bloody slow," she said after half an hour. "And so very out of condition. Gasping away like a couple of grampuses. Time you both went beddie-byes."
With this she aimed a flurry of punches and kicks at both, which sent them sprawling to the straw covered floor.
She stood over their prone bodies and tried to work out which one to place her foot on in triumph. They were too far apart for her to be able to stand on both. Next time she must drop them a little more skilfully! She decided on Harry and placed her pretty tanned right foot on the redhead's gently rising and falling stomach and raised her arms high over her head in a lonely gesture of triumph.
She was startled to hear several people applaud and shout their approval and whirled round in horror to see a group of men who had just come in out of the rain.
Harriet was the first to come round and she crawled painfully over to Jessie and bent over her. The other girl groaned and began to sit up. Both of them felt like death and were not at all amused at their friend for doing this to them. Not only this, but they were ashamed and Jessie was also amazed to think how much Gwen's inferior they each of them were. She had despatched both of them with such contemptuous ease. They looked around to congratulate her, but she was nowhere to be seen.
"What can that crazy bitch be playing at now?" said Jessica. "She surely can't have gone back out into that storm on her own."
"Well, she sure as hell is nowhere around here, my old darling," replied Harry, rubbing her jaw and trying to shake the wooziness out of her still singing head.