First thing next morning it poured with rain. Not the fairly gentle rain such as we normally have in England, but hard, heavy stair-rods of water that flattened everything in their path. It only lasted a little over an hour and then the sun came out but for most of the morning the atmosphere was hot and sticky. It made the sores on my back and bottom itch but I knew better than to scratch them. Sumala’s did too and several times I caught him surreptitiously trying to rub his back. I reprimanded him and received the Yes ma’am salute and a broad smile.

Riku and a number of the IT staff didn’t come into work until it was all over and things had begun to dry up so for the first couple of hours we almost had the office to ourselves with only the overnight staff remaining on duty. Everyone treated it as a normal occurrence for the time of year. The main rainy season finished in mid-April but we get these little rains storms from time to time, one told me. We’re okay up here, its those that live in the valleys that have to worry as they get the run-off from this plateau.”

“That was a little rain storm? The man smiled and nodded, In the wet season it could last all day. I soon noticed the road below the window that had been awash, was rapidly drying up and after another hour there was little to show of the downpour.

Muniba was late coming too. We’d decided she was giving us a miss that day and were at work when she entered the office. For a few moments she looked at what we were doing and then, in front of everyone, made us undress and proceeded to examine us. Knowing we were being watched still embarrassed me a little even though all of staff present had seen me naked. Perhaps it was the way Muniba was drawing attention to my sorest places by touching and commenting on them. A flash went off during my examination and when I turned, Sumala had the camera in his hand and was grinning. You’re taking your job too seriously, I yelled at him but that only drew laughter from the others and the Yes ma’am salute from him. I got my own back when he was examined and I held the camera.

The nurse seemed satisfied with our progress and then dropped a minor bombshell. We need to start you doing some exercises to work your back and arse muscles a bit. Many of the staff watched with a morbid fascination at the sight of our bruised bodies although, when I looked in the mirror earlier I thought the purple colour had faded a little but I still walked slightly bent over and with slower steps than normal. The exercises were like a slow motion gym class. Lifting arms sideways, upwards, frontwards and bending from the waist and the knees. Several times I was forced to cry out but she made me continue and several times I heard Sumala groan. Roger, as we expected, cried out loudly until the whole office including Riku laughed at him. The exercises made my tits wobble and I guessed that excited the men. Sumala got an erection, which the nurse flicked painfully a couple of times, causing him to groan but it went down. We don’t need that getting in the way, she grinned. Some of the girls sniggered and I thought, That’s worth remembering if Roger starts getting out of hand, but when I looked round I noticed that several of the men in the office had the front of their shorts pushed forward. Seeing that it was work time, they couldn’t do anything about it. None of the girls were fazed by the sight and completely ignored it.

I certainly didn’t feel any better for the exercises but I suppose they did some good. At least I now knew that I could move my arms more than I had without doing any damage to my back, even if it was painful. Worse was to come. At lunchtime I want you to walk around the Market Square and back. I’m sure Riku will understand if you have a long lunch hour. You’re working for an English magazine anyway and can call it research or something.”

“You want us to walk there and back…? That’s a mile or more! I can hardly get from our room to here!”

She laughed at my expression of horror. Well I suppose I could ask a couple of the guards to march you there at bayonet point.”

“You’re cruel!”

“No, you might even enjoy it. I could hear her chuckling as she headed for the door and then she turned, And don’t forget to dress properly! The rest of the staff were all highly amused and Riku had to remind them to get back to work.

She proved right again. We did enjoy it and after the first two or three hundred yards walking became easier and even Roger stopped complaining. As we neared the square our progress slowed when people recognising our white skin, stopped to talk with us. Many of them had witnessed our whipping and frequently showed concern for our welfare, particularly Sumala’s and mine. Roger though, was pointedly ignored I did feel sorry for the way they shunned him. I really couldn’t understand the way their minds worked. A few days previously they had no doubt cheered when the whipping master laid the cane across our bodies and yet now they were concerned for our welfare. To my mind it didn’t make sense but I came to the conclusion that they believed the punishment was necessary but once it was over, everything should be done to minimise its effect.

I made sure that we took a wide detour around the whipping post but no one was being punished, even so, just the sight of it and the surrounding stands, made my blood run cold. We dallied, or at least I did, at the colourful market stalls and I bought a few small items. Fortunately one of the girls in the office reminded me to take some money and before leaving England we had obtained 200 worth of Malawian kwacha, which were valid in Tumali although they also had their own version of the currency, rather like Scotland has its own British pound notes. We hadn’t worked long enough in the IT office to be paid for our supposedly civil service jobs. They worked on the old British system that paid you for the first week when you had worked the second but Shelumba had given us an advance payment so with that and what we’d bought from home, we were comparatively rich and could have probably bought the entire contents of the stall and still had some change. I wondered if we would be expected to haggle over the prices like in many middle-eastern countries but Sumala said, no. It seems honesty extended to market traders and the price they asked was always a fair one.

Almost as we left the square and started the return journey a woman stopped in front of me. It’s good to see you’re able to get about again, she said. The voice and the face were vaguely familiar and then it came to me. She was the kind woman who gave me a drink and the cushion and held me while Roger was being caned. I burst into tears and gave her a hug while the others looked on with bemused expressions. I of course thanked her profusely and assured her that I would look for her when we came to the market again. In turn she invited me to her home and pointed in a direction that was away from the way we’d come. Another day, I told her. Sumala seemed to delight in being in charge of my camera and took photos of us.

“What was all that about with Wyche? Sumala asked when we were on the way again. I told him and asked about her. She’s been barren all her life but in her way she is as good at healing as Muniba is. Uses herbs and potions she collects from the forests and many prefer her methods to the modern ones.

Over an hour late we returned to the office and received a good deal of ribbing as to why we were so late but it was all very friendly. Did Suma take you into the forest? Were you arrested for having white tits? Can we ask the nurse to order us to walk our stiffness off at lunchtime? and so it went on.

“Can I ask the flogging master to stripe your backs to match mine? I laughed in reply but Riku soon had us working again. I did indeed feel better for the walk, mentally perhaps more than physically. My body ached but I felt more alive than I had done since our arrival. Physically too, I was beginning to feel the redness where the sun caught my face and the exposed parts of my tits and wondered what to do about it. I would have to ask one of the girls what sort of cream to get but maybe they wouldn’t know because they wouldn’t need any on their dark skin.

We worked steadily after that until it was almost time to leave. Roger downloaded the pictures from the camera and recharged the batteries. Generally Sumala had done a good job and I was particularly pleased with the ones of Wyche, but there were some failures and Roger tried to show him what to do in future. At least he was becoming more like his old self now that he was doing a job that he knew and could do well. I’d tried to get Sumala to record details of his life on my recorder but he pressed the wrong button and when we checked he hadn’t recorded anything.

With a few minutes to go before everyone except the two night duty staff left the office, I sent Roger to fetch Riku. In a voice just loud enough for most people to hear I asked, Would you like to borrow Roger for the night Riku? Her face showed her disbelief at the question and Roger’s went from shock to panic to pleasure in bewildered random cycles.

“You can’t let him out of your sight can you? Riku stuttered, The Major

“The Major gave me permission last night. He imposed conditions of course. I can only loan him out three nights a week and whoever I loan him to must keep him on the same chain that I used and he has to be back in time for breakfast. If you can obey those conditions then you are welcome to take him with you tonight.”

“You’re telling me the truth? You’re not joking with me? I don’t want to end up at the whipping post.”

“Check with Shelumba. I daresay the Major told her. Riku went to a phone and spoke for a few minutes and came back. Are you sure you don’t mind Ellie?”

“No, I’m taking Suma to bed with me tonight. There were knowing grins from the others and Sumala looked pleased too.

“Don’t I get asked about this, Roger half-heartedly objected. No! Riku and I said together and laughed, as did everyone else.

“You’d like to go though, wouldn’t you Roger? He nodded. Well there is one condition for you too. You have to do a written report on your experiences. A detailed unexpurgated report. We want to know how you lost your virginity. You saw how I lost mine so I want a textual picture of your initiation into manhood. Take your camera and use it so we can see some of the things you get up to. Remember, you are chained to Riku just like you were to me. I took the cuffs from my bag and fastened one to Roger’s right wrist and the other end of the chain to his mistress for the night. I know it’s not really locked but you have to keep it on all the time. I know Roger might try and lie to me in the morning but I know you won’t Riku. You can take it off only for the few minutes it takes to remove your blouse and his shirt.”

“I mustn’t take it off even when I have to use the Riku surprised me by looking so flabbergasted.

“No. I hadn’t realised that, although Tumali women were very free about having sex, they were much more reserved about their bodily functions.

Sumala wanted to fuck me as soon as we were in the shower but I suggested that we went to the cafeteria first and then we could do it and not have to leave the room again until breakfast. He could have insisted that we fuck in the shower but he acquiesced. Like me he wanted this first time to be something special. We’d already had to wait for several days for the ban to be lifted so another hour wouldn’t make much difference.

“Suma, I want to try it the proper way again like the Major did the first time, I said when we were again undressed. Since the caning, I’ve had to bend over the bed and he did it from the back but after the walk and sitting on a chair in the cafeteria, I’d like to see if I can lie on my back and feel you close to me. As long as you’re not too rough and rub my scabs off, it should be okay. He seemed uncertain but helped me on the bed. It was the first time since my whipping that I had laid down that way. There was some pain but the mattress was soft and I was determined to go through with it.

Sumala didn’t rush things either. He played with my tits and kissed my lips and then kissed and licked my cunt until I was almost screaming for him to stop and fuck me properly. I spread my legs when I saw him climb on the bed with his hard, black rod jutting from his body. Only a few days ago I would have been scared shitless (and I would never have used a phrase like that) at the thought of taking it inside my body. Now I wanted it; now I craved it. My whole attitude to sex and men had undergone a complete metamorphosis. Had I become the whore, the slut, that Roger deemed me to be? I didn’t believe so. I had become a woman, and probably already a pregnant one if the Major’s sperm had taken. I would have to worry about that at some time but for now, I wanted Sumala’s prick.

“Put it in me Suma, put it in. Fuck me, I cried out. Slowly he entered, all the time watching my face for signs of pain. Fuck me, I cried out again and tried to lift my loins a little. That was painful and I had to lower myself back on to the bed. Quite gently at first, Sumala started fucking me but as his fervour increased so did his thrusts but I too was beyond caring. Yes, there were complaints from my arse, my back and my shoulders, but in my passion, I ignored them. I knew too that Sumala’s back was causing him problems but like me he was ignoring them. Soon I was in the throws of a heady climax. I cried out but the prick continued to pound the very depths of my cunt until I felt it pause and jerk a little and I knew then he was sending another parcel of sperm in search of an unfertilised egg if, by then, there was one.

He collapsed on me but his weight caused me more pain and I cried out. Immediately Sumala lifted up and apologised. In he heat of the moment he’d forgotten everything except fucking me. He’d even forgotten the strain of keeping his own body above mine and the exercises he’d performed were far more strenuous than those of this morning.

“I know what I am supposed to do now Suma but give me a moment to recover please.”

“Ellie, I need a few moments too and then we’ll have to check what damage we’ve done.”

We lay recovering alongside each other for perhaps ten minutes. My back and arse were sore but I was afraid to move and turn over to look at what a mess I had made of them. I saw some of Sumala’s scabs had come off or were loose but perhaps they were ready to fall off anyway; others, probably the deeper ones, were still firmly in place. The welts underneath still looked raw. Come Ellie, turn over. Let me look at you. I winced when I raised my body and felt him carefully touch my sorest places. We’d better shower again, it will wash off the loose bits and then we can see what things are really like. The welts seem to be healing quite well but Muniba might get annoyed in the morning though.”

“Suma, I must do as a Tumali woman would first. He understood that I felt obliged to do what was expected in this country and knelt where I could take his flaccid prick in my mouth and give it a loving suck.