Yes - offer the forfeit

"Yes. I admit defeat," Alice whispers.

"What was that?" Barnes asks, laughing.

"I lost the bet, Private Barnes."

"I think you should call me 'sir.'"

"...I lost the bet, sir."

"So shall I take the forfeit?"

"...Yes, sir."

"Ah, specifically. What shall I do?"

Alice swallows hard. "P...paddle me, sir."

Barnes chortles. "Well, you heard the little slut. Make her ready, girls." Alice feels Mary pull her skirts up to her waist, and the cool air of the barn coursing over her thighs and buttocks. She chokes back a sob and flushes deep red as she feels a cold, smooth wooden paddle run gently over her rump, and hears the cheers and whistles of the watching men. She's enormously - heinously - exposed to them!

"Of course, I'll not touch a fine young lady such as you directly," Barnes says mockingly. "Deirdre - sample her cunt, eh?" Alice gasps as she feels the Irish girl bend down and lick her cunt, slowly pushing her tongue into Alice's folds. "Well, how is she?"

Deirdre straightens. "She tastes sweet, master. And she is still wet..."

"Haha! I knew it. I have an excellent eye for eager pussy. Well, prepare yourself, Miss Foxhaven. Ten blows should do it, I think. Deirdre, you hold her; Mary, give her a little pleasure. I want her to remember this vividly..."

Deirdre holds Alice fast while Mary reaches down, scooping her hand between Alice's legs, and begins to gently stimulate her clitoris. Alice gasps as a tingling pleasure begins to build in her loins, but the sensation is cut through with a terrifying anticipation as Barnes says, "If you would, Miss Foxhaven, I'd have you help me by counting the blows and making sure I don't give you too many. Now then...here we go."

There's a swish and a *smack*, and Alice yelps and jumps as the paddle hits her ass. It hurts, but she jumps from the shock as much as anything else - no one has ever dared to paddle her before! Mary, who had paused to move her hand, starts rubbing her again.

"How many was that, Miss Foxhaven?" Barnes asks, getting a chuckle from the watching men.

"Uh...o-one."

"One, what?"

Alice swallows, angry. "One...sir." She stifles a moan as Mary continues to gently work her clit.

"Very good. Let's continue."

Alice yelps again as his second blow lands on her ass. For what seems like minutes - though in reality it must be only a few seconds - he paddles her. By the time she shrieks out, "Ten! Sir!" she's shaking, whether from the stinging feeling in her buttocks or from Mary's stimulation she's not entirely sure. Her whole body is quivering, and she feels like her knees will buckle if she tries to stand. She hears cheering from the men watching her humiliation, now that it's complete. "Well done!" "Good show!" "That's how you treat an uppity slut!"

"Has she cum, Mary?" Barnes asks idly. It sounds like he's left her side, presumably to return the paddle. Deirdre is loosening her grip.

"No, sir. Shall I make her?"

"Of course not. She's paid her forfeit; let her up. You've more urgent things to attend to."

"Yes, sir." Deirdre lets Alice go and she goes limp on the table, still shaking, as Mary gently pulls her skirts back down to cover her. Alice hears a blur of conversation and laughter as she lays on the table, recovering, and then the sound of slapping flesh. Straightening slowly, she turns to see more or less what she expected: the aroused soldiers are putting their bond girls to use, with each girl pinned between two or three men. As she watches one of the men spurt his thick, white seed over Mary's gasping mouth while another one plows into the girl's ass, she shudders.

"It's the use of all women," a voice says by her elbow, and Alice nearly jumps out of her skin. Barnes is standing next to her, watching her with a wicked smirk. Alice swallows.

"May I...may I leave, please?" she asks, not wanting to move by him.

"But of course," he says with a grin, not moving. "You're free to go any time. I just wanted to make sure you were all right...now that you know what you are."

Alice swallows and scowls at him as bravely as she can. "You don't know what I am."

"So you say. But I think I'll be looking down at you as you choke on my cock one of these days." Barnes gives her an incongruous bow as he finishes his threat. "Good night, Miss Foxhaven. If you'll excuse me, I need to go unload in Deirdre's ass."

Alice slowly creeps past him, then darts away, stumbling slightly, once she's in the clear. Pulling the barn door open, she staggers into the cool air of the yard and slams it shut behind her, collapsing against the wall of the barn. For a moment she just rests there, recovering. Then the sounds of the orgy inside the barn begin to penetrate her consciousness: the slaps of flesh, the grunts of the men, a shriek from one of the girls - is that Deirdre, shrieking as Barnes puts himself up her ass? Alice's hand drifts subconsciously down to her still-tingling nethers as she imagines the blond man reaming his redheaded slut...

Then she shakes her head to snap herself out of it. My God, what did he do to me? She shudders. I'm lucky that it was only a paddling...these rough soldiers could have done so much worse. Still, even as she hurries toward the main house and the bright lights of the party, she can't help but worry about what might happen thanks to this night. Soldiers talk, after all...

Back inside the party, Esther holds her punch cup idly as she stands at the periphery of the dance floor, looking over the dancers, bored. She so _hates _this kind of thing...all the flirting, the loud laughter, the gaiety. She'd just as soon be home with a book...Just as she thinks that, though, she spots Annalise across the room, and her mood brightens instantly. As she sets her punch cup down on a tray of empties and starts to move toward her friend, though, the other girl moves off - chatting animatedly with a young man with a poof of brown hair and a thin, elegant goatee. Annalise hasn't noticed Esther, and the two of them are moving out of the ballroom. Determined to enjoy at least part of the evening (and happy enough to be getting out of the main social whirl), Esther follows them.

When she emerges into the hallway next to the ballroom, Esther spies an open door and moves toward it. Entering what she recognizes as Mr. Bellington's study, she finds Annalise and the gentlemen standing close together, in conference.

"...which is why we must - oh! Esther!" Annalise says with surprised delight. She detaches herself from the young man - whom she was really standing far too close to for Esther's liking - and moves over to Esther, taking the other girl's hands warmly. "I'm so delighted to finally get the chance to introduce you - and not surprised that you, too, got sick of that stuffy ballroom. Esther, this is my distant relation that I mentioned to you before, Percival Winthrop. Percy, this is my dear friend Esther Foxhaven."

Percy, who wears a slight smirk beneath his goatee, steps forward. "Charmed, I'm sure, Miss Foxhaven. I've heard so much about you...{if Percy-Peggy > 0}and I believe I met your sister Peggy earlier this evening. A lovely girl.{endif}"

"{if Percy-Peggy > 0}She is, sir," Esther says with a slightly strained smile. "{endif}I'm delighted to make your acquaintance." Esther drops a little curtsy.

"Ah, my dear Miss Foxhaven. Have you never been outside Britain?"

Esther raises an eyebrow, confused. "I must admit I have not, sir."

"Well, then." Percy steps close to her, rather closer than Esther would like, gazing into her eyes levelly and with a slight smirk. "Let me show you how greetings are exchanged on the Continent, these days."

Esther jumps slightly as he puts a hand on her waist. She glances at Annalise, but the other girl just shrugs with a smile. Should she allow this...? It might well be true, but she's not sure she likes the way this Percy is looking at her...