Chapter Twenty-Four: Quitting The Manor

by Carl E. Mullin ©2020

Dagny Mark pulled aside one of the Queen’s Guards who were abuzz with animated conversation. “Private Wright is it? Please make ready two horses, mine and one for Cadet Bell. We leave in one hour.”

Torunn stared, “Cadet Bell? What’s with her, Dagny? I never saw such violence in her before.”

“A new assignment for a thoughtless firefly.”

“Have a care, Dagny dear. She has promise, that I can assure you.”

“A wasted promise. And the Queen’s favorite. Damn it!”

After a hurried lunch, Dagny mounted Polly and tugged her gauntlets on as Torunn held the reins. “Regrets that you couldn’t tarry with us, dear,” she said.

Dagny popped open her watch. “Duty before pleasure, dear Torunn. It would be sporting, I’m sure. A pity that our happiness couldn’t be prolonged.”

“That seems to be a habit between us, Commander. A pity.”

“Aye.” She peeked at her watch again and huffed. “Well. Since I can’t be bothered to wait for Cadet Bell, I shall be off then.”

“Where?”

“To London.”

A door slammed open and hurried steps raced down the steps. Dagny looked back to see Gwen in her Sandhurst gray out of breath as she carried her load. “Sorry, sir!”

“Cadet Bell! I gave you one hour. One hour! Not at the very last minute! Have you learned nothing at Sandhurst?”

“Sorry, sorry! Took me time to pack and to find my gray and-”

“And always have your Sandhurst dress at ready! Expect the unexpected!”

“Yes, sir! And I haven’t grasped my riding requirements. I-”

“Enough! Pack your gear and be quick about it!”

“Yessirsorrysir!”

Lovewood bent close to Gwen as she helped her pack. “Keep cool, Gwenevere,” she hissed. “You’re on a very poor footing with her already.”

“Don’t I know it? You’re such a dear.” They made a quick kiss goodbye.

“Five minutes!”

Gwen froze. “My letter!” She started patting herself in frenzy.

“It’s inside your flap, love,” Lovewood said.

“Oh. Oh! Yes, it’s here. Thank you!” Another kiss.

Dagny shook her head and spurned Polly off. Gwen grunted as she mounted her horse as a lunch bag was handed to her. “Thanks, love.” She kicked her horse off to a trot and waved.

Ahead, Dagny looked back at her charge. “Where’s your field service cap?”

“I have it here, sir.” With a sigh she fixed it to her hair with a pin. She trotted a short burst until she aligned with Dagny’s and gave a smart salute. “Reporting for duty, sir.”

She looked over her. “Your sidearm’s unbuttoned.”

“Oh! Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

“Cadet Bell…”

“Sir?” she hurried to ask.

“Hush your tongue and inspect yourself before reporting for duty. If you are to have a future in the Service.”

She shut her mouth with her cheeks a deep crimson blush. It was going to be a long and awkward journey.

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In the early morning, Gwen’s butt was sore and so her eyes brightened at the first sighting of London’s towers. She kept her mouth shut as the Commander had been eyeing her with a steady disapproval, watching for any sign of unfitness. She found none. Yet.

“Is something the matter, Cadet Bell?”

“No, sir.”

“Keep it up, then. And maintain a proper face. You’re wiggling like you have a saddle sore.”

“Yes, sir,” she answered and she wondered how that the Commander showed no sign of discomfort.

After a long trek toward the city and then underground, they finally sighted the sacred fire of the White Tower. They made their sign with a deep reverence. Then Gwen grew excited at the sight of construction in the sport arena. “Look, sir! They’re already preparing for the sacred games!” she burbled and regretted her words as soon as she said it.

But Dagny’s answer was calm and measured, “Yes. And we will not be here for the august games.”

Her heart leaped with a bit of hope. “A pity, sir.”

“A great pity, aye. Let us continue.”

As they passed the White Tower, Gwen made a prayer, “Holy Lady of Hearth, please preserve my folks. Especially Mum.”

Dagny heard but kept her peace.

After reaching the hotel, the shieldmaiden and cadet rode the lift to their floor. Gwen frowned when the Commander pressed another button five stories below their destination right before they would pass it. She shrugged and followed her up the stairs.

The noise of celebration was clear once they reached their floor and approached the suite. They stopped as the doors opened. Gwen’s eyes rounded as a laughing couple exited with rubbery legs as their wine danced and splat the floor. Dagny pushed aside the ajar doors with Gwen in tow.

The din-filled suite was mobbed with various people, from finely suited aristocrats and their ladies wearing their latest Minoan topless dresses to the bespoken artists and poets to the priests of a sterner type with a number of priestesses in their Aphrodisiacal cultic habits. Music and gossip and laughter mixed together in an ever-rising roar. In the center of all was Hannah in her filmy silk bathrobe straining to cover her bare assets. She was belting out a bawdy song about a farmer’s daughter facing a shotgun wedding as she danced atop a sofa to her adoring audience as she held her glass of spilling wine.

Dagny walked up to her and stood still in the front of the laughing and singing crowd. “Thank you! Thank you!” Hannah cried to the applause as her song ended, “You’re all such a dear!” Then her face brightened when she noticed Dagny. “Heeey,” she drawled. “Dagny Mark! You’re just in time! The party’s just getting to be really good.”

Dagny looked around at the disheveled people standing on their unsteady feet and then back to Hannah: “Out.”

She stared and then chuckled, “W-what?”

“Gone. All of them.”

“But the party’s just started!”

“And half-finished by the look of things.”

“Dagny dearest! Look, look, aren’t these boys the cutest? Nothing but the best for us, war heroines.”

“Gone. All of them.”

“B-but they just got here! Look at their arms. Aren’t they the darling packages of meat? They worked so hard to meet the sternest of our tests.”

“High praises.”

“And?” she asked with a bright hope.

“Dismiss them. We have business to attend to.”

Her face fell. With a grunt, she stuck her finger and thumb in her mouth and whistled a hard note. “Hey! The party’s over!” Groans rose. “Out! Out! I know, I know, we just started. Time flies! Out, you! Run along!”

Gwen stood by the doors, her eyes wide at the commotion of the strange and the famed.

“Shoo! Shoo! Later!” Hannah slapped away the eager boys out the doors. With her back, she shut the doors and puffed out her hanging forelock. “Dagny, Dagny, dearest, what’s with you? Those boys are the prime ribs!”

“Not interested. Pack your gear.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” She chased her to the bedroom. “Who says we have to go? That old boy promised us a free run of this lovely suite for-ev-er as long as we bring in the gawkers and the patriots. Good business all around. Everyone’s happy. And – oh! – the wines! I could just bathe in those glorious libations.”

Dagny paused in her plucking of dresses. “Nothing to do with it.” She resumed her activity and carried one bag out to the living room.

She followed. “Well, that’s a relief.” She then noticed Gwen and took a second look. She thumbed at her, “Who’s that kid?”

Gwen saluted and offered her hand with great eagerness, “Cadet Gwenevere Bell, sir. Fifth Year, Sandhurst.”

Hannah blanched, “Dagny, since when have you started bringing home the strays?”

“Not a stray.”

Hannah turned to Gwen, “You followed her home, kid? Isn’t there a school bus with your name on it?”

“Oh, uh, no, sir. I have a letter of service, sir. Uh, I’m sorry but I’m not sure of your rank, sir.”

“Lieutenant. Aren’t you a bit young for a duty?”

“Oh, no, sir! I’m assigned to a new voidship Damona.”

“A voidship?”

“Under Commander Mark, sir,” she answered with a great pride.

“Dagny Mark!” She stormed into her room. “What’s this shit about you and a voidship?”

“A new mission we’re going on, Hannah.”

“Whoa! What do you mean ‘we’?”

“You and I.”

“Waitaminute, whatever gives you the idea I’m coming along?”

“I won’t be here. You’ll have to leave.”

“But…but…” She raced into the living room and grasped a stack of cards, “Look at those invitations! We got the movers and shakers biding for our presence at their fancy parties! The wines, the dances. Rich boys too, mustn’t forget them. The greybeards’re okay too, depending the size of their packets and the purses.” She breathed deep the scent of the cards. “Mmm. Wonder what perfume they used on the cards. Must be so pricey. Oh, the cakes, the rich food, the rings on our fingers. Servants at our beck and call. The resort’s ours for the asking. No more grub. Glorious days ahead. Eek!”

“Gambling too, I presume.”

“Oh, yes, that’s what the rich boys’re for,” she grinned as she fanned her face with the cards.

“Nice dreams.”

“And?”

“You’re coming.”

“Don’t I have anything to say?”

“No.” Dagny plopped the fat files onto the coffee table and sat down to pull some papers.

Hannah looked at the pile as if it was a skunk. “What’s this?”

“Our mission.”

She huffed and snapped her fingers at Gwen, “Hey, kid. Fix me a drink.” She plucked up a few files and started skimming through a few paragraphs and exploded. “The Seedbearer Imperative? Interstellar mission?! Dagny dearest, take it from me, it’s a suicidal mission. You’re not cut out for this shit. Tell them thanks, but no thanks. Tell ‘em Auntie Hannie said no.”

“Can’t”

She slapped her papers against her standing legs, “Why the Hel not?”

“Queen’s orders.”

“Oh, the Queen. You’re sure?”

“Direct from her lips.”

“And you’re going? Dagny, that’s crazy.”

“Duty.”

“Oh, fuck that duty shit, girl. Have you ever commanded a voidship?”

“Have some training.”

“At Sandhurst? That was years ago and you’re in the Army now.”

“I am committed. And I want you as my XO.”

“Me?” she pointed at herself. Upon a nod, she shook her head. “No. I’m not stupid,” she said as she sat on the sofa.

“Which compliments you. Despite your proclivities for being overly dramatic you have shown sound instincts. I want you by my side.”

She scoffed and took a drink from Gwen and downed it in one gulp. Brushing away a stray lock from her eyes, she sighed, “Dagny, you are the dearest, but I am a dragon rider. I ride to fight, not to sit at a desk. I mean, I hate those paper pushers who can suck blood from a fucking rock for missing a line item on the hundredth form in triplicates. It’s just not me. Give me a dragon and a target, give me a fresh pack of cards and a stake and I’ll be the happiest little doll alive. Please, don’t punish me like this.”

“Precisely why I want you, dear. I need my XO to have quick wits and a common touch. I’ve seen you. You have a firm manner and a honeyed tongue to ease one’s unenviable burden, to ease our way to a more certain success.”

“No.”

“Hannah…”

“No! You have my love, but this? You’re crazy.”

“You have some training.”

“Only because I have to. I have to cross-train on an aeroplane and on a voidship if I want to ride a dragon. I’m staying right here.” She sat back with crossed arms and crossed legs on the table.

“Hannah…”

“No! I’m a good time girl. Dagny, this command and I, we’re like oil and water, we just don’t mix! We just don’t. I don’t give orders, I take orders. That’s what I’m good at. I’ll mess it up for you. Find another one because I’m all wrong for you.” She shut her eyes.

“Hannah…”

“No.”

“Hannah…”

“No! Not. Go-ing,” she huffed.

“You’ll be a colonel.”

She said nothing. She opened her eyes and raised her head and looked at her with a mixture of skepticism and interest. “A colonel?”

“With commensurate pay.”

She bit her lower lip. “A colonel.”

“Yes.”

“A colonel?”

“Under me and no one else. You’ll do well. I have faith in you.”

She groaned and gnashed her teeth as she struggled. She looked at her again. “I can’t change your mind?”

“No.”

She rested her head on the sofa and closed her eyes with a groan, “Fuck.” With a sigh she looked at her again, “What are your orders, sir?”

“Pack up. We’ll relocate to my flat.”

Hannah made a little space between her finger and thumb. “A little teeny-bit farewell party first?” she asked with a forlorn hope.

“Nice try. Two hours. You’ll need a new uniform befitting your newfound rank. Take Cadet Bell. She needs to trade her Sandhurst gray for proper red. Order one for myself. Cadet Bell, go help Colonel with her packing.”

“Yes, sir! On it!”

Hannah peeked over her shoulder and then back at Dagny. “Commander, what’s the deal with the kid? Does she know what she’s getting into?”

“No,” she answered with a sour face. “She’s eager but naive. If I dismiss her without a just cause I risk a royal displeasure. “

She looked over her shoulder again and back at her. “She glommed on to us.”

“Like a fly trap.”

Hannah frowned at her words but shrugged. “Any more instructions, sir?”

“Carry on, XO.”

Hannah stood and saluted. As she walked for a shower, she muttered, “Sweet Asherah, blessed Mother of the Gods, I do hope she doesn’t get us killed. That would ruin the mood.”

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Hannah plucked out her cigar from her duty corset as she walked the streets of London with Gwen at her side. As she lit it, she said, “Gymnastics, huh? What’s your story, kid? Flap those cute lips of yours, solider. Momma wanna know.”

“My…story, sir?”

“Yes, what’s your gig?”

“Gig? Oh! Oh, yes. Uh, I’m not sure where to start, sir.”

“Didn’t I see you before?”

“I was the Queen’s swordbearer, sir.”

She snapped her fingers, “Ah ha! I knew I had seen you before.” She puffed. “Kid, from what I have heard, you have to have ten years under your belt before they would even consider you for the Queen’s Guard. How did you swing that?”

“Uh…”

“And how tall are you anyway?”

“Uh, five-three, sir.”

“You’re pretty small for a Queen’s Guardmaiden and I’m only five myself. Height doesn’t count in dragon-riding, keeping your wits and your dragon in love with you does. And mine’s forty. F-cup, kid.”

“Sorry, sir?”

“I know you’re checking me out, kid. It doesn’t bother me. We girls, we have to inspect our competition, right? I would be worrying if you didn’t at your age, kid.”

“Oh. Righty-o, sir.”

“So…?”

“Huh? Oh, uh, yes, sir. The Commandant at Sandhurst recommended me. Seems that a Guardmaiden became pregnant and requested a reassignment. So I rather innocently asked what I needed to qualify.”

“You asked? Cheeky!”

“It was just a question, sir!”

“And a good one, kid. Here let’s hop onto the streetcar. Looks like rain.”

As they stood on the packed car, Gwen noticed two young dappers on the opposite side eyeing the Colonel and herself. They tipped their hats with a broad smile. She felt bashful all of a sudden and tried to hide her face and small breasts. Hannah then noticed and smiled at them with a lascivious look. They smiled back. She put on a show of licking her lip slow. Their smiles broadened into a grin. Her eyes still on the boys, she told Gwen, “Whatever you’re doing, kid, don’t stop.”

She looked up, “Sir?”

“They like shy girls too.”

Her blush grew a deeper red. “R-really, sir?”

She puffed out her smokes as she flirted with the dappers, “Really, kid. They like to feel strong and protective, especially of someone as sweet and cute as you are.”

“Oh,” she grew redder.

“That’s the spirit, kid.”

“I – I’m not even trying, sir.”

“Could have fooled me. You’re redder than a beet. And they’re eyeing your tokhes.”

She puzzled at the word and then she grew redder. “Oh, gee.”

The dappers grinned and got off at the their stop with a tip of their hats. Hannah smiled bright and then looked at Gwen, “You’re a Fifth Year and it wasn’t an act? Kid, don’t they teach you seduction tactics already at Sandhurst?”

“Uh, in the Sixth Year.”

“From what I heard, you work out nude every morning at Sandhurst after the Spartan manner, boys and girls, and you still blush? Good grief, either you’re a natural ingenue or you’re the one for shyness.”

“I-I’ll try, sir.”

“No excuse. Nakedness is part of war and intelligence gathering. You should be used to that by now. Still, that little shy act, that can work well for someone with your assets. You do have nice tokhes and a terrific figure. Your breasts?”

“Uh…thirty-three. A-cup, sir. Sir? Don’t they…kinda…hurt?”

“Deadlift, kid. Deadlift. Does your back as good as your belly. And one’s tokhes, too. I love kettlebells. Those big, hairy Greeks have the right idea. They help with my brusts. You know, kid, those uniforms aren’t just to make us functional and pretty. They also bring out our irresistible charm to lure those poor boys into our induction centers. Heh. Anything for Gods and Queen. So where’re you from, kid?”

“Bristol.”

“Your parents?”

“Still there, sir.”

“What they do?”

“They’re librarians, sir.”

“Ack! You kid me.”

“No, sir,” she smiled in a sheepish manner.

“A gymnast and a would-be shieldmaiden from the loins of two bookworms? Will wonders never cease? Sandhurst’s a very hard school to get into. You must have really impressed somebody.”

“Yes,” she answered with downcast eyes. There was a sadness in her that puzzled Hannah. Was that regret? Then Gwen recollected herself and forced a bright smile. “Yes, sir, I have impressed some good people in the society, sir.”

The Colonel studied her face. This crazy mission has just become more interesting. “Your parents must be proud.”

“Oh, yes, they are, sir.”

The Colonel thought she saw a fleeting hint of doubt in those big blue eyes. Disapproval? She reached out and brushed away a large and loose lock of hair from her eyes and smiled, “You are cute, you know? The way that you have that hair hanging over your left eye, that gives you an elfish look, kid. If you weren’t so shy, I’ld almost say you’re a shameless flirt.”

“Me, sir? I-I’m not, sir.”

“It’s a good look, kid. Don’t waste it.”

She stood up straighter. “Yes, sir.”

Hannah looked at her. Then she watched the heavy water running down the windows of the streetcar. Whatever it is that darkened her face, it will come out sooner or later. Hope that won’t mess things up.