Part 3 (Revised. Duplicate will reappear in a page or so)
Barbara awoke to a dreadful commotion outside. Siss was still there, but of Mrs Evans there was no sign.
Screams that made her blood curdle. What on earth were they doing to those poor maids?
She grabbed her robe and went to the window, from which she recoiled in horror.
Roxie and Blaire were tied to posts, and they had got a couple of weals each to show for. But it was not them who were screaming, nor were they, at that moment, being thrashed. In fact, they were twisting round against their bonds, trying to watch what was happening.
The whip lay, useless, on the ground. The owner of the whip, Mrs Evans, was in deep, deep trouble.
Barbara watched, aghast, as Mrs Evans, naked, was held down on a cross by the footmen, Bull and Gunner. Nearby, a plentiful supply of fresh crosses lay waiting.
Paulson, the butler, was also naked, and was being nailed to yet another cross. His screams joined those of the housekeeper as nails penetrated his wrists and heels.
“Siss! My God! It’s like a scene from Hell!”
The screams multiplied in intensity as Mrs Evans felt the first nail.
Siss joined her at the window, wrapping herself in a sheet. “What on earth….”
There was urgent knocking on the door, then it was unlocked and Tanda came in.
“Milady, quick! Oh, begging your pardon Milady, Mrs Cruz!” She curtsied.
“Tanda! What are they doing?”
“The house is under attack, milady! Mr Tree has brought about a hundred thugs, I think he wants to crucify all of us on the front lawn!”
“What the hell does he want to do that for?”
“I don’t understand him, milady, he keeps on about ‘Victory to the Working Classes’ and ‘Death to the Aristocracy’”
“But…but… Paulson and Mrs Evans aren’t aristocracy!”
“He calls them ‘collaborators’, Milady…..hurry! I need to get you out the back way!”
“What? Dressed like this?”
“Milady, NOW! There’s no…..”
But it was too late. Four men burst into the room.
“Oh, what have we here? Lady Barbara, I believe? Well Lady Barbara, guess what? We’ve got a lovely cross, just for you, and you can hang there and watch your grotesque house burn to the ground!”
Barbara was furious. “How dare you? How DARE you burst in here like this. GET OUT!!!! NOWWW!!!”
“I’m afraid milady, you’re no longer the one giving orders! Your class is finished! This is happenin’ at big piles like this all across England!”
He advanced towards Barbara, but Tanda blocked his way. “Leave her alone! She’s done nothing to you! Do as she says, and go!”
“Now then, darlin’, this is not your fight. You’re one of the oppressed majority, you are! You’re free! Now run along and enjoy your freedom!”
“No! I won’t leave her, I won’t! She’s always been fair and good to me!”
“It’s your choice, darlin’ – but look out there, and see what’s comin’ if you make the wrong one.”
From the window came the sound of a hammer on steel, and Mrs Evans’ cries of tortured agony.
“Tanda, go! It’s not worth it!” Barbara had tears in her eyes.
“No, Milady!” Tanda clung to her. “I don’t care what they do to me, I’m staying with you!”
“Fine. Take them down!”
“Not me, you don’t!” said Siss. “I’ve got dual Brazilian / US nationality!”
From outside the window came more sounds of hammers striking nails. More screams, too – a man.
“Brazilian? There’s a coincidence! That’s what he said, too!”
Siss stared in horror through the window as TC’s cross dropped into its socket. “TC! Christ! He’s the Brazilian Ambassador, you idiots! Do you want a war with Brazil?”
“He looks like a toff, he smells like a toff, and he screams like a toff!” the man grinned. “Therefore he IS a toff! Come on, no time to stand around chattin’, let’s get you down there to keep him company!”
Siss shuddered. This was a long way from the fake crucifixions at the club and in the woods. It seemed Mr Tree had decided to do it for real this time. She wondered how much it would hurt. A lot, judging by the din being made by the ones so far crucified.
They pushed Lady Barbara, in her silk dressing gown, down the great staircase, across the great hall, and out through the front door. Everybody was gathered in front of the house. Her parents and sisters, still in their nightclothes, each held by a mean looking thug.
There was a terrible ripping sound as Princess Yupar’s nightdress was torn off by Gunner. Prince Shevak was being forced to watch. The Earl was furious. “That is the heir and heiress to the throne of Yuwait! Release them!” He was silenced by a punch in the face from his guard.
Shevak struggled with his captors, swearing at them in the kind of Arabic that it would be difficult to translate, but it was all to no avail, as Gunner dragged her to her cross. She screamed and struggled, which made him all the more violent. Barbara resolved to be as passive as possible if….when… it happened to her.
Yupar was now stretched out on her cross. Barbara watched in horrified fascination. At the same time, Shevak’s guards were stripping him. Barbara was stunned to see that he, too was erect. How could he be aroused at a time like this, facing his own torture and death?
God! The size of those nails! Yupar’s wrists were slender, she, too, was petite, how could such slim wrists take such huge nails? Barbara thought of Erin, slim pretty Erin, also watching in horror….
Yupar bellowed in agony and outrage as Tree drove that awful piece of ironmongery through her wrist and deep into the wood of the cross with his first blow.
Barbara felt tears on her face. This could not be happening! She tried pinching herself, as she has done in the woods, to wake herself up, but this was a real, living nightmare. The blood, the screams of the crucified, the curses and wails of those awaiting their fate, the cheers of Tree’s henchmen, and the clanging of the hammer on the nail as it rose and fell, rose and fell; a dreadful cacophony of sights and sounds that tied Barbara’s stomach in knots. And this was shortly going to happen to her!
Barbara turned aside, and vomited. Her guard deftly stepped out of the way.
As she turned to look again, Yupar’s cross was being raised. It crashed into its socket, and Yupar’s tortured body thrashed like a rag doll with the violence of the cross slamming into the ground. She howled piteously. Her eyes opened, and she looked into Barbara’s face: “Help me! Barbara! It hurts! It hurts sooooo much!”
They began to push the naked Shevak towards his cross. “No!” Said Tree. He pointed at Barbara. “She’s next!”
Not that I want to bring the mood down...but Blaire and Roxie are getting very cold in that cellar...
