Mississippi Raider (11 page)

Just before the outstretched
hands could reach her, Belle sprang into the air, putting to use
the agility she had acquired in the course of her active life.
Acting as if engaged in a game of leapfrog, placing her hands on
top of the unsecured mass of red hair as an aid to what she was
doing, she passed over her amazed opponent
’s head. On descending, to the
accompaniment of surprised yet delighted utterances from the
spectators that turned to laughter, she pivoted and delivered a
kick to Roxanne’s thinly covered, plumply well-rounded rump. Driven
onward with little control over her movements, such was the
surprise she had received, the redhead was brought to a halt by the
post in the corner her opponent had left so speedily. Spluttering a
profanity that was justifiable under the circumstances, she turned
around in a defensive posture as she was expecting to be
attacked.

Finding that the girl was standing with feet
spread apart and arms akimbo in the center of the ring, contriving
to exude an annoying suggestion of satisfaction in spite of the
mask concealing her facial expression, Roxanne rushed forward. Once
again, her attempt to come into contact failed. Moving aside before
a hand could be laid upon her, Belle snapped a horizontal side kick
that took the passing redhead in the pit of the stomach. Because
the speed of the movement robbed the attack of much of its potency,
its recipient gave a gasp more of frustration and anger than pain.
Although not seriously hurt, the redhead was unable to prevent
herself from starting to fold at the waist. On doing so, having
inadvertently offered the target, she received another kick to the
rump and was sent back to the corner she had been assigned. Once
again, the padded sack saved her from going farther. Spluttering
more angry exclamations, she twisted around and discovered that the
girl had once again halted instead of following her to make the
most of the advantage that had been gained.

Instinctively starting to move
forward with the same speed as before, the redhead watched Belle
adopt what—although
she did not know it—was the left fighting stance of savate.
Body erect, with most of her weight equally distributed on the
balls of her feet, she had the left toes pointing forward, the
center of the right at about shoulder width apart, and the knees
slightly bent. This caused her to be standing slightly sideways so
as to offer less of her torso as a target for hostile action. Her
head was up, eyes directed at her opponent’s chest. With her elbows
pointing down, she kept them close to her sides, and her
forearms—the hands clenched into fists—were vertical to the ground
so the left was just below eye level and the right gave cover for
her solar plexus.

Despite never having come into
contact with such a posture and knowing nothing of the lessons that
had been given to the Irish girl, de-Farge wanting to avoid any
chance of even an unintended disclosure of the way Andrea was being
trained, Roxanne accepted that she was up against a very competent
opponent in the slender and beautiful Southron. The supposition was
given support by Belle, who, instead of waiting for the redhead to
come to her, darted forward and sent her left foot in a
chasse
croise
kick
similar to the one used with the front entrance of the house as a
target on the day of her first visit. Fortunately for Roxanne, once
more the speed of delivery reduced the force and the bottom of her
chin was caught with much less force than caused the door to
respond so violently. In spite of this, she found herself being
propelled backward until once again she was brought into
contact—her shoulders making it this time—with the padded cover of
the corner post.

On the point of advancing to deliver what
she believed would prove to be a coup de grace, the redhead clearly
having no conception of how to cope with attacks by savate, Belle
realized what achieving victory in such an easy fashion would do.
From what de-Farge had said, Roxanne was a regular competitor in
such bouts and had never been beaten. He also claimed that this
allowed her to keep the other women under a control that was
beneficial to the smooth running of his establishment and that she
received extra pay for doing so. Belle suddenly became aware that
suffering defeat in such an easy fashion would result in her losing
authority over the other female members of the staff, and she had
no wish for this to happen.

Apart from the first incivility, for which
Belle had received an apology and agreed with the motivation after
learning what had caused the reception—as she, too, had a healthy
distaste for the kind of sexual deviation she was thought to be
seeking— Roxanne had treated her with courtesy on all their
encounters, while not behaving in a subservient fashion. Certainly
nothing had happened to make the girl feel her opponent deserved to
be treated in a fashion that would cause her humiliation and the
loss of the position in the establishment that she held in a most
satisfactory fashion, according to the gambler. The only problem
facing Belle was whether she could allow the redhead such an
opportunity to fight back without becoming the loser and being
compelled by the rules to have her mask removed, since there were
at least half a dozen of the men crowding the room who would
recognize her.

Never one to worry about what
might happen, the girl darted forward and grabbed Roxanne by the
hair. Although slightly affected by the
chasse croise
kick, the redhead was not too
dazed to appreciate the chance she was being offered. In fact, she
was relieved that something much more effective and painful was not
being inflicted by the obviously capable young Southron over whom
she had expected to obtain an easy victory. Just as she was about
to respond in kind, she received a surprise.

“
Are
you able to go on struggling, Roxanne? If not, what can I do to
help you?”

Suddenly realizing what was
implied by the words, which were pitched so low that not even Hi
slop—who she knew would keep well clear unless the
far-from-comprehensive rules were being infringed—could hear, the
redhead understood what was implied by them.
It was obvious to her that the
girl was wanting to know whether she was capable of continuing the
bout, and she instinctively guessed that this was not due to
wanting to continue the humiliating treatment. Sending her fingers
into Belle’s black locks, she gave an equally
sotto voce
answer in the
affirmative.

“
Good!” Belle breathed, still just loud enough for her
opponent to hear. “Let’s give them a
show!”

Contriving to look as if the
pulling they were doing was far more painful than was the case, the
combatants went in a
twirlin rush toward the center of the ring. Then,
entangling their legs, they fell to the padded surface of the ring
to commence a wild yet harmless struggling mill that took them over
and over in what appeared to be the primitively instinctive manner
of women without training when engaged in physical conflict. Among
the screeches and squeals that both were emitting, without letting
the words be heard by anybody other than Belle, the redhead
contrived to thank her for her consideration and began to give
suggestions of how they should continue the action for the benefit
of the audience.

Considering that the girl had
never indulged in anything of the kind, although the redhead
admitted later that the majority of her bouts against the other
female members of the establishment were carried out in such a
fashion, they contrived to put on what appeared to be a vigorously
conducted struggle that the audience clearly never suspected was
other than genuine.
^viii
Nevertheless, there was one aspect of
the supposed conflict that Belle found disconcerting, since she had
not been warned by de-Farge that it might happen. In the course of
the mill on the floor, without letting it be seen she was doing so,
Roxanne had contrived to rip open the front of her flimsy bodice so
her big and firmly jutting bosom was brought into view.

When asked in the same
surreptitious fashion whether she wanted to call off the struggling
until the damage could be corrected, she replied that having it
occur was an accepted part of the action and that its subsequent
removal was all the loss of attire that would take place. Realizing
that the perspiration she was already shedding freely must have
rendered her own garments as sodden as and even more revealing than
the redhead
’s attire, and having no feelings of false modesty in
consideration of the way she was already behaving, Belle said she
was willing to be stripped to the waist if this too would be
accepted, and this was done in a suitably realistic and supposedly
unexpected fashion.

Although Belle would be forced
into physical conflict
against other women more than once, there would be
only two occasions in the future when she was compelled by
circumstances to indulge in such less-than-serious conflict.
^ix
However, despite this being the first
time she had done anything of the kind and there having been no
suggestion of it happening before the bout commenced, given support
by the much more experienced redhead—who was not averse to carrying
out the usual kind of simulated fighting after the effective way in
which the opening moves were made against her—the girl was able to
put on a most convincing performance. Putting to use the latent
histrionic ability that would serve her so well in her future
career, Belle was able to simulate all the emotions that were
required, whether suggesting delight at success, frustration when
some move she was making was thwarted, or the appropriate response
when she was subjected to some form of gently applied suffering.
The latter was shown to good advantage when, having whispered that
such was expected by the spectators, Roxanne grabbed and appeared
to be subjecting her bare breasts to a grinding and twisting that
looked much more painful than was the case. The kick she sent
between the redhead’s thighs to bring about the release from the
hold appeared equally hurtful without being so.

Continuing to be guided by
Roxanne without any of the spectators realizing this was taking
place, Belle put all her best efforts into helping produce a
clearly well-enjoyed simulation of fighting. Having learned that
such was always considered amusing by the audience, the redhead was
pretending to remove the girl
’s mask without having attained the requisite
victory. On the referee trying to stop this happening, they turned
upon him and, taking him to the floor with them, appeared to be
subjecting him to a mauling instead of each other.

Leaving Hislop behind after a
few seconds, which was greeted by amused comments from the
onlookers, the combatants rolled away in their still well-simulated
basic feminine conflict. Doing so inadvertently took them under the
lowest rope, so they carried on their supposed fighting outside
the
ring.
This lasted for a few seconds before the nearest spectators, one of
whom was an acquaintance of Belle but gave not the slightest
suggestion of recognizing her—which was not surprising due to the
mask, the change made to the color of her hair as an aid to
avoiding her identity being disclosed, and her skimpily dressed
condition—as she screeched out protests in a more coarse-sounding
voice than was her usual tone, combined to separate and return them
to the ring. Once there, with Hislop keeping well clear once more,
they resumed their efforts with vim and vigor.

Watching what was taking place in the ring,
de-Farge quickly began to lose the concern and even twinges of
conscience he had experienced over having allowed himself to be
persuaded by Belle to let her be a participant in the bout. Despite
having seen how capably she could perform savate, he had wondered
whether she could put her knowledge to serious use against another
woman. What was more, he was aware of how competent Roxanne was in
such events and had no wish to see the Southron girl—for whom he
had developed a great admiration during their comparatively short
acquaintance—sustain injury because of inexperience. Once the
action commenced, he had soon concluded that he had nothing to fear
on either account. However, he had grown less certain when Belle
began to indulge in the kind of struggling that he believed would
be more in the favor of the redhead.

So skillfully had the faking of the fighting
been done, it had taken the gambler several seconds to become aware
that the combatants were not engaged in serious and determined
conflict. However, as it was continued with vigor and what appeared
to be authenticity—apart from having qualms when Belle joined the
redhead in being bared to the waist until he realized that, like
everything else now happening between them, it had been done
deliberately at her instigation—he found himself growing
increasingly satisfied by what was taking place. Not one of the
spectators was giving the slightest indication of suspecting other
than genuine action. Furthermore, obviously by mutual consent, the
pair took turns in becoming dominant in the action to the point
where defeat for one seemed imminent until being averted by the
other apparently turning the tables and briefly gaining the upper
hand.

Such supposed fluctuations on
behalf of the combatants were beneficial to the wagering that was
taking place, enough bets being placed with de-Farge or his
employees for him to be able to foresee a profitable evening.
However, as he was thinking with some satisfaction on those lines,
he realized that there was one snag that neither he nor, he
suspected, the pair in the ring had taken into account. The reason
for having had Belle
’s hair dyed blond and her face concealed by the mask,
which the redhead on two occasions appeared to be trying to remove
until prevented by Hislop in accordance with the instructions he
had been given, was to prevent her from being recognized. However,
under the terms announced for the bout, the covering would be taken
off in the event of her losing.