Chapter Eight.
The campaign had made its way through the bordering lands without a mishap. The officers of the townships sat astride their mounts enjoying the late heat before the rains came at the end of the year. They marched for twenty miles and then made camp. The East India Officers settled around their fires and those with money to spend on a night's entertainment their servants, or 'batmen' to the rear of the column and would the prettiest whores of the camp followers, and bring them to their masters. Camp followers, a rag-tag collection of the wives of the common soldiers, and non-commissioned officers including Mara. The newly promoted sergeant had installed his beautiful wife in a tent on the edge of the camp and ordered a loyal corporal to stand guard whilst he ministered to his officer. The English Officer, now fully immersed in the pleasures of the Indian woman seemed to possess an unendingly deep purse, which Ghadnar dipped into as he always took a commission for the whores that graced his bed, but also seemingly insatiable. Night after night, a whore was procured and escorted through the camp, her head covered with her saree and deposited within the officer's tent. As the column, moving at a leisurely pace, progressed Ghadnar began to notice that the whores would demand more money to service his officer but also would complain about his treatment of them. She escorted another fresh whore from the officer's tent, the whore winced as she walked,
"I will not visit that English devil again. Do not call upon me!" She complained. Ghadnar usually ignores the whinging of whores but as he reached the edge of the enclosure and across the brush palisade, he could stop his curiosity,
"What are you complaining about? You have been paid and I doubt his prick is bigger than other men's!" Ghadnar's barb caused a shocking reaction.
"Your English devil has gone too far this time! My dirty hole will be sore for days and I will not be beaten like a poor field hand!" The whore hurried away and Ghadnar tutted to himself. The Englishman had become quite perverted of late, he had begun to be more violent and now indulged himself by beating the women, whom he paid, and using their holes without a care or a warning. Now, he was completely barred from the camp whores and now Ghadnar feared that other female camp followers would be his next pool for seemingly never-ending hunger for woman flesh. As he walked, he considered which wives could be either coerced or bribed to share the Englishman's bed and which his officer would consider pretty enough to be a potential for his desires.
"My loyal corporal has a prettyish wife, and he is hungry for gold. I'll be seeing him soon!" He smiled ruefully, "At least we shall be under fire soon maybe the enemy will solve all my problems by killing him or killing me!" he was horrified at the thought of either outcome but he made his way home to his beloved Mara.
In the two weeks that followed, the army of the East India Company allies made slow progress and more worryingly made no contact with the forces of the Rani. Not even a scouting party had been detected. The columns moved at a snail's pace and ennui set in. The private soldiers became fractious, the non-commissioned officers punished, carelessly the infractions of the private soldiers and the white English officers were less concerned with their men's welfare and only their own amusement. The officers, often second or third sons of minor nobility wore the shoulder boards of bought commissions and regarded the Indian people as mere playthings and lacking in greatness.
Their attitudes would soon bring dismay to the column.
