Authors Note.
Inspired by the story of the 'Boudicca of India'- Lakshmi Bai who led an armed resistance against the hated East India Company and brought freedom for a time- to her people.
This is a fictional tale of the personalities that she encountered and the love she lost and a new love she found before the British overran her forces and killed her in her final charge against her enemy.
The Jezebel of India.
Chapter One.
In the audience room of the Palace of Rani, Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi- the beautiful young wife of the late Rai, sat cross-legged and waited with serene patience as her visitor strode into her palace and bowed curtly. Even his bow was an insult, borne of pompous self-importance but she smiled patiently and listened to the Sepoy. He was their voice and she had little choice but to receive him.
"It is most auspicious that you have given us your favour, Lakshmi Bai, with your help, we shall retake our land from the hated English Company," He shifted uncomfortably in his newly won boots, taken from the Colonel Commandant of the garrison, attempting to read the woman who sat opposite.
Upon a carved gilded high throne, the throne of her late husband, sat Lakshmi Bai, a formidable if young woman who ruled justly and peacefully, bedside her adopted son and at the rear a handsome Horse Master, his narrow eyes ever watchful and his hand upon his sabre, dressed in traditional Indian garb, complete with turban and riding jodhpurs.
The Sepoy 'General', a newly self-promoted former Captain of the 12
th
Bengal Native infantry regiment stood before Lakshmi, the Warrior Princess. She allowed him this audience as the tumult of the period and the lack of time to prepare for the unexpected mutiny and rebellion in her province. The Sepoy General smiled, full of self-import, stood in his dirty uniform and bore the curved tulwar that he bore in the actions against the East India Company Jhansi garrison and had personally killed a variety of European officers including the hated English garrison commander. He then sexually abused the dead officer's attractive middle-aged wife and then heaped further insults on them by penetrating the spoiled teenage daughter, in the commandant's bedroom before killing them both afterwards.
Captain Ghadnar Labbi Singh was a cruel man and, worse, an envious one. Leaving his little village in the rural parts of the Jhansi region, at 13 years old, he joined up with the Bengal Infantry and took to army life and initially enjoyed the adventure and rewards of fighting the East India Company's enemies and taking whatever loot he could. Of course, he spent much of it on the whores that followed the soldier's columns in the baggage train and serviced soldiers in the darkness, when not on duty. He soon found that the sexual act was enhanced when the woman struggled and then submitted to his perverse desires. As he rose in the ranks, he felt the restraining hand of his English masters, preventing his rise from becoming too rapid. He had sat boiling in resentment at the white English officers and their haughty wives and he lusted to spill their milk white flesh and feel them tremble beneath him as he would take them roughly.
After ascending to the Captaincy, his rise was now halted completely. No English soldier would tolerate a 'coal-faced baboon' giving him orders. Singh stewed in his captaincy, with no further prospect for advancement and grew more and more sullen as a rich English officer In the early months of 1857, he had been the first to hear the whispers of a mutiny and rebellion would purchase a commission and then order him about. His sullenness grew to a deep and abiding hatred. He embraced the idea of overturning the East Indian Company garrison and seizing the stolen treasury of the Company and, even more importantly, the well-stocked magazine. It's a wealth of cannon, shot and black powder.
With the powder, the garrison would be able to operate as a little kingdom of its own and Ghadnar Labbi Singh would be at its head. He would command and gather support from the old kingdoms and Maharajas of the country and throw off the English yoke.
Then in June 1857, the simmering poison in his heart was given vent, as the sepoy garrison turned on their European officers and attacked them savagely. The overwhelming numbers of the sepoy regiment then sieged the garrison walls and soon overcame the defenders.
'General' Ghandar Labbi Singh promised the beleaguered defenders clemency and promised all the occupiers safe conduct if they surrendered the fort swiftly. With no choice and no chance of relief from East India forces, the commander agreed to the 'General's' merciful declaration and opened the gates.
Then the Sepoys fell upon them, killing all within the walls, men, women and even children.
But not before Ghandar Labbi Singh vented his vile hatred and sexual frustrations upon the Commander and his women.
Within minutes of surrender, and the hapless defenders lay down their arms, the rampage began. Leading a loyal band of rapacious men, handpicked by Ghandar himself, he ran with tudwal drawn across the open compound and burst into the white-painted houses set to one side of the fort for military officer families. Spying the large house, he sped up the four steps and kicked down the door, knocking over the loyal old 'batman', who fell to his blade with one vicious stroke and then with blood dripping her found the slanted wooden door of the bedroom as he had broken through the dark wooden door of the garrison commander's bedroom. The Commander turned, with blade in hand but fell to a well-aimed musket ball from Singh's pistol, which he tugged from his red sash. The wife and daughter screamed, which only served to excite and arouse Singh further.
"Leave us be! Please don't..." The Commander's handsome wife, Lady Caroline, attempted to prevent Singh from approaching but was struck hard across her face, sent sprawling, and fell upon the poster bed.
