[This story contains a good deal of content relating to bodily functions. If that offends you, please read no further. All characters are well over 18. ]
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Plans proceeded for Eleanor and Annette to be married. Because of her previous notoriety, Eleanor did prefer to keep her activities out of the public sphere, as did Annette, who recognized that her career as a correctional officer would not be helped by any kind of publicity for her personal life, especially with Eleanor.
However, the intrepid reporter for the Women's Republic Transcript had a note in her diary to check up on what was becoming of Eleanor. She decided to contact Janet, Eleanor's mentor at Goose Cookers, the highly successful women's clothing and products company where Eleanor had been succeeding with creative energy applied to coming up with new products.
Janet was well-connected to the highest levels of the women's republic government and private sector. She was very restrained when telephoned by Anne-Marie Criswell, the reporter who had covered Eleanor's trial and subsequent developments. When asked about Eleanor, Janet restricted herself to laudatory remarks about how many terrific products Eleanor had created for the company and how successful both she and the company were.
The reporter asked about Eleanor's personal life and Janet merely confirmed that she was married to Jackson, who had brought her to this second city of the republic where Goose Cookers happened to be located. She refused to discuss Eleanor's affairs beyond that. Anne-Marie sensed from the tone of her response that there was something else but she politely thanked Janet, not wanting to get on her bad side, and concluded her call.
She then took a chance and telephoned Jackson. He was home from work and answered the phone quickly. It happened that he was not in a happy frame of mind because he had become annoyed by Eleanor's having had Annette give him a caning merely to establish her position in the household.
Marriages between women were now legal in the republic and if a woman were already married to a man, the new wife became the primary spouse in the now three-party marriage. This meant that if the head of household—in this case, Eleanor—gave her assent, the new wife would have disciplinary authority over the husband; she might also have a sexual relationship with him if Eleanor allowed that.
Jackson had borne up fairly well in his new more subordinate position, but he was not a happy camper. Anne-Marie said she was working on a feature about Eleanor's successful career and asked him gently how life was with her. Forgetting Eleanor's aim to stay below the radar, Jackson blurted out that she was going to take Annette as primary spouse and that this was causing a strain on his relationship.
Anne-Marie asked a few more innocuous questions but realized she had a nice scoop for her next article, which would be about the marriage more than Eleanor's career. The next day, the Transcript had a feature article on its front page:
"Woman Who Had Been Punished Severely
Now to Wed Her Correctional Officer
"By Anne-Marie Criswell
"The woman who was wrongfully and severely punished for a crime she did not commit has been putting her life together in our second city and achieved significant success as a creative spirit at the well-known Goose Cookers women's products company. Now she is marrying her correctional officer, who had been involved in the proceedings that resulted in her punishment.
"Eleanor had been convicted of adultery in District Court here and sentenced by a three-judge panel to be infibulated for a year. After the punishment had been imposed and she had served the full term, it came to light that the prosecutrix, Gail, had not been married to the co-respondent, Graham, and thus there had been no crime committed.
"Subsequent proceedings had resulted in Eleanor's conviction being quashed and expunged. Gail and her counsel, Rose, had petitioned for further punishment of Eleanor prior to all becoming aware of the facts that upset the original conviction. Both Gail and Rose were disciplined by order of the court.
"It has been rumored that the three judges were sufficiently contrite in their willingness to make amends to Eleanor that they subjected themselves to being disciplined and that the discipline had been carried out by Senior Correctional Officer Annette, who now is the fiancée of Eleanor.
"This will thus be a three-person marriage, with Eleanor now taking Annette as a wife to join her and her husband, Jackson. Neither Eleanor nor Annette were available to comment, and the executive vice president of Goose Cookers, Janet, declined to discuss the matter."
When he saw the story, Jackson realized the result of his indiscretion. He knew Eleanor would be furious. The last time she lost her temper with him, he had been dispatched for a two-week program for men at the Men's Re-Education Camp, which he had found highly humiliating. Since then, Eleanor and he had been reconciled but he had feared that things would turn bad with the addition of Annette to their marriage.
Eleanor saw the story and looked at Jackson that morning over breakfast.
"Did you speak to this reporter?" she asked calmly.
Jackson then confessed and admitted that he had and that she had caught him at a bad moment when he was not feeling good about things.
"I hope you are sorry for causing this unnecessary attention to be focused on me and which will maintain my notoriety in the Republic," she said firmly.
Jackson hastened to apologize and tell her that he did love her, was getting used to Annette being in their household, and would do whatever he could to make this right.
"Well," Eleanor said, as she tried to cool down, knowing that getting upset would not make matters better. "You should be pleased that I will not send you back to the Re-Education Camp," she responded.
Jackson let himself take a deep breath but maintained a straight face and did thank Eleanor for being so understanding.
"I'm actually not so understanding," she snapped, "and you should know that I'm mightily angered about this."
"Normally, I might discipline you myself," Eleanor continued, "but this is a serious matter and you know it. And I won't have Annette punish you because you injured me the most by your carelessness."
Eleanor said nothing for a minute while Jackson pleaded for mercy and said he would do everything possible to make up for this misbehavior.