A little over two weeks after the wedding, Obadiah Hakeswill was sitting in his old tent in camp making out new duty rosters. He'd removed most of his belongings from the tent, bringing them to the home he now shared with Anna, but his old cot and a blanket and pillow remained. He'd also found a desk and chair, which he'd set up in the tent and now considered the tent to be his office.
Just before he was finished with the roster, he heard a knock on the tent pole.
"Sarge?" a voice outside said hesitantly.
"Come in, I haven't got all bleedin' day, I don't," Hakeswill called out irritably after a moment's hesitation.
The tent flap parted to admit Private Robinson, who looked around nervously as he stood in front of Hakeswill's desk.
Hakeswill looked up sourly at the soldier, who looked as if he wanted to swallow his tongue. "What is it, Robinson?" he demanded, his face twitching, when the young private did not speak. "Don't be wasting my time and yours."
"I came to ask your permission to get m-married," Robinson finally choked out, gulping several times. "It's one of Mrs Gore's maids."
"Permission denied," Hakeswill immediately told him, the corners of his lips turned up.
"Can I ask why?" Robinson said, bewildered. "There's room on the strength now that Mullins' wife died. I waited a couple of weeks to ask, you know, out of respect for the dead."
"Well, you're too bloody late!" Hakeswill cackled gleefully. "There's been another marriage, so there's no room on the strength, there ain't." Now grinning malevolently, the scrawny sergeant added, "Even if there was an opening, I'd say no. Man as young as you has no business wastin' it on just one woman. You needs to be spreadin' it around to every woman you can find, just like God intended it. Says so in the scriptures, it does."
"Who got married?" Robinson asked, scratching his head. "None of the men I know did."
"It was me," Hakeswill told him, still chortling. "I got married. Did it right after Mullins' wife died, too. Early bird gets the worm, it does." Indicating the paperwork on his desk, he continued, "You go on now about your business, 'cos I have to finish next week's duty roster." Looking up at the young private, he concluded. "Take my advice, Robinson. Go find you a sweet little bibbi to take care of your itches, and forget about getting married. Privates young as you shouldn't be married - makes them bad soldiers, it does."
Samuel Robinson was fuming as he left Hakeswill's tent. He had counted on being able to marry Rachel and now he didn't know what he was going to tell her. It figured that the bastard Hakeswill would ruin his plans.
With a dejected look on his face, he walked by where several other privates were cleaning their muskets.
"So, did Hakeswill give you permission to marry Rachel?" Private Jones called out as Robinson approached.
"No," Robinson said miserably. "He said there was no room on the strength for another wife."
"What?" Private Taylor exclaimed incredulously. "Ain't none of us got married since Mullins' wife died, God rest her soul."
"None of us but Hakeswill, that is," Robinson said darkly. "The bastard told me that he got married right after Mullins' wife died."
"No wonder he took off from camp like a bat out of hell and had me take the work detail that day," Grimsby told the group. "He told me he had business to take care of when he gave me the work detail." After a pause, he added, "He never hinted that he was getting married, though. Man never tells me any of his personal business."
"He must have been on his way to get married when we saw him with that ugly bint," Private Miller guessed.
"I think you're right," Taylor said. "Now that I think of it, I don't think I ever saw Hakeswill looking as clean as he did on that day. His uniform looked almost new, which is something he'd not bother with unless we were on parade."
"I just thought the slag was one of Naig's whores that Hakeswill had used and was taking back to Naig," Jones said. "I never thought that the bastard would be the marrying type."
"That one was probably a whore before Hakeswill took up with her," Robinson sneered. "He'll have to keep a ready supply of mercury from now on for the both of them as they'll likely keep passing the clap back and forth to each other. And knowing what scum he is, he'll probably rent her out to make some extra money. Though I can't see any soldier wanting to roger her knowing that Hakeswill's been inside of her."
Robinson had not noticed the other soldiers backing away in bug-eyed fear, but kept nattering on about what a slattern Hakeswill's bride was. Much too late, it registered on him that the other men had gone mysteriously silent. He turned to find himself face to face with an angry Obadiah Hakeswill.
"What's that you just said, boy?" Hakeswill demanded harshly, poking him hard on the chest with his index finger. "Did I just hear you call my sweet wife a whore?"
"N-nothing, Sarge!" he finally managed to choke out.
"Don't lie to me, you filthy piece of scum," Hakeswill said in a menacing tone. "There's nothing more I hates than when one of my men lies to me."
Robinson didn't say anything, knowing he was in for it now.
"So, you think my wife is a whore, do you?" Hakeswill continued, with a slight twitch. "She ain't no whore; she's an officer's daughter, which is more than I can say for the trull you wanted to marry. I should know, 'cos I lifted the skirts of that one, I did, and didn't have to pay nothin', neither, for riding her."
Seeing the young private struggling to control himself, he grinned malevolently, then said, "And I'm not the only one, neither, who had her. She encouraged all us sergeants to come and push it up in her, right up to the hilt. Told us that Colonel Gore's wife ain't paying her enough, so she decided to do some whorin' on the side, she did." Cackling, he went on, "See, she let me have it for free whenever I wanted, 'cos I was finding men for her to sell it to. I told her if she did good making money for me, I'd introduce her to Naig, where she could make even more."
Robinson's face had turned purple by this time and a vein pulsed on the side of his head, as he struggled mightily to keep from hitting Hakeswill.
"And look at you, you friggin' pansy," Hakeswill goaded. "A real man would take up for his woman, he would, but you're just standing there like dumb mule while I tell everyone what a bleedin' poxy whore she is."
That was it. Robinson couldn't stand the taunting any longer. Before he realized what he was doing, his fist shot out and connected with Hakeswill's jaw, knocking the smaller man onto his arse in the dirt.
Hakeswill came up grinning, rasping out, "I've got you now, you bleedin' sod," before lighting into him with flying fists. The scrawny sergeant was not a large man, but he was a scrapper, having had to fight to defend himself and his mother since boyhood. Even after he had the private on the ground, bleeding from the nose and from cuts on his face, Hakeswill didn't let up, but kicked him several times with his heavy boots.
Once his ire was thoroughly spent, Hakeswill turned to the other privates who looked on in horror, then said, "Any time any of you miserable buggers get a mind to insult my wife, you'll get the same as him, mark my words, along with the flogging he's going to get in the morning, you will."
As the privates scattered, Hakeswill turned to Grimsby, twitching slightly. "Confine this bugger to his tent and have a guard posted. He'll be flogged in the morning for striking his superior, he will."
After Grimsby carted Robinson off, Hakeswill watched in satisfaction for a moment before going about his own business.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Several weeks later, Anna Hakeswill took a walk to the market to get some fresh fruit for her and Obadiah to have as a snack after dinner. Though she was now entitled to go eat in the sergeants' mess along with her husband, she generally preferred the privacy of eating at home. She still had not yet learned to cook and relied on Obadiah to bring food home from the mess tent, but she hoped to one day learn to cook for them both.
It was beastly hot as she left the house, but Anna didn't mind. The midwife had told her it was good for her to get a bit of exercise every day and had also told her that the fresh fruit would help the baby growing inside her.
As she neared the bustling marketplace, she thought she might get some cloth to make another gown, because her expanding pregnant belly was making the gowns she had rather tight and she'd already let them out as far as they would go. Obadiah had told her to get something nice for herself now and then and had given her a sufficient allowance to do so, but so far she'd resisted. But after looking down at her belly straining against the now ill-fitting gown, she knew she couldn't put it off any longer. Anna would buy some cloth to make a new gown and if enough was left over, would try to find a book to read as well, remembering that she'd seen a vendor selling used books at one time.
She found the cloth she needed in fairly short order selling for a reasonable price. It was sage green linen, which complemented Anna's skin tone and would wear well in the humid Indian climate. As she left the small shop, which opened into the main marketplace, she met Mrs Stokes outside, approaching the shop.
Anna drew herself up stiffly, then curtly said, "Excuse me."
Mrs Stokes moved to block her path, narrowing her eyes as she noticed Anna's pregnant belly straining against the too-small gown.
"Well!" the older woman sniffed haughtily. "I might have known! I'm not surprised to see you breeding another bastard. I knew you were irredeemable; your kind never changes." Glaring down her nose at the young woman, she added, "By the looks of you, you had to have conceived that bastard while still living under my roof."
"My child will not be born a bastard, if it's any of your business," Anna said proudly. Holding up her left hand to show off her wedding ring, she added, "I'll have you know that I'm now a properly married woman and no longer any of your concern."
"Well, I never!" Mrs Stokes said.
"Perhaps you should have!" Anna snapped back waspishly. "Maybe if Major Stokes hadn't been firing blanks all these years, you'd have children of your own and your jealousy wouldn't cause you act so unkindly to those of us who are able to have children!"
"I have never been so insulted so crudely in all my life!" Mrs Stokes huffed as she stalked off in high dudgeon, having completely forgotten about her errand.
As the woman moved out of earshot, Anna was suddenly aware of a pair of hands clapping slowly. She looked to her left to see a no-nonsense red-haired woman a few years her senior smiling broadly at her.
"Good for you, for putting the old witch in her place!" Carrie Norris said, grinning widely "It was about time that someone did. That woman is insufferable!"
"You know Mrs Stokes?" Anna said, smiling back at the other woman, who had a little boy about three years old standing with her.
"Unfortunately, I do," Carrie grumbled. "She's taken it upon herself to come down to visit the wives of the army camp, mainly to natter at us about how to treat our men, raise our children, and run our lives in general, along with her Bible classes. Says it's her Christian duty to the less fortunate, so she does."
Anna rolled her eyes at this. "I've had the same speech from her, I'm afraid."
Snorting in derision, the other woman continued, "It's not bloody likely that I'll take advice from the likes of her on how to treat my man or raising my boy, considering that Major Stokes is a regular customer of Nasty Naig, and that she's never raised no young ones of her own, so she hasn't. I raised my eight younger brothers and sisters after my mum died when I was twelve, so I don't think I need any advice on how to raise my own, especially from the likes of that one."
"Amen to that," Anna agreed fervently.
"I haven't seen you around before," the other woman said. "I'm Carrie Norris, and my husband is Sergeant Norris. I expect you're an officer's wife, considering how well-spoken you are."
"Oh, no," Anna demurred, blushing. "My husband is a sergeant, too. I'm Anna Hakeswill."
"Obadiah Hakeswill's wife?" Carrie said, surprised. "I had no idea that he'd taken himself a wife. At least my Billy never mentioned it to me, but that's not surprising, as men care little for such as that."
Carrie had heard the stories about Obadiah Hakeswill from her husband and around camp; that he was a tough, malevolent bastard, but she didn't hold it against the pleasant young woman standing before her. Hakeswill had never given her nor her husband any trouble, so it didn't matter to her that Anna was married to him.
"Yes, Obadiah and I got married a few months ago," she said. "It was a quiet wedding, as neither of us wanted to make a fuss," After a moment, she added, "We have our own rooms away from camp, so that's why we've not met before."
"But you talk like a lady," Carrie persisted. "You don't sound like no ranker's wife at all. I'm wondering how you and Sergeant Hakeswill got together."
"Well, I, err…" Anna stammered, feeling decidedly uncomfortable. Here was a woman who had the potential to be her first female friend since arriving in India and Anna did not know what to say about her past, for fear of being rejected.
"Oh, come on, honey," Carrie encouraged, putting a gentle hand on your arm. "It couldn't be that bad. I made my living on my back, so I did, before Billy came along to marry me and take me away from all that. I can't lie and say my life is easy in camp getting along with the other wives, because it hasn't. But I know I did what I had to do to help feed my Da's little ones, so I just hold my head high and know I'm just as good as any of them. Billy doesn't mind, and that's all that matters. But I surely could use another woman to be friends with, so I could."
"Well," Anna said slowly, after a long bit of hesitation. "I'm thinking you've probably heard of me. My father is Captain Perkins and he disowned me after I was taken advantage of by a sepoy and ended up conceiving a child from that. Major and Mrs Stokes took me in as 'their Christian duty' and I endured months of hell being reminded every day of what a sinner I was until I met Obadiah. I had a beautiful baby boy, but he died not too long after Obadiah and I started seeing one another."
"I'm so sorry," Carrie said quietly. "It must have been terrible having to live with that woman and then to lose your baby on top of that. I lost one myself, not long after Billy and I first got together."
"It was," Anna said. "She treated me like a slave"
"So, how did you meet your sergeant, then?" Carrie asked softly.
"I used to sneak out of the house fairly often just to get away from Mrs Stokes for awhile and to spend some private time with my baby," she vaguely, not wanting to reveal that Obadiah had hidden loot in the stable. She knew he had several other hiding places such as this in other places around the town. "There was a place I liked to go sit where it was shady and I met Obadiah one day when he was passing by. He thought I looked lonely sitting there all by myself, so he stopped to talk to me. We met several times that way, and one thing simply led to another." After a pause, she smiled shyly and confided, "I'm so glad I met him - he treats me like a queen."
"I'm happy with my Billy, too," Carrie said. "So, do you have enough clothes for your new baby?"
"I think so," Anna said, "I spend most of the day sewing after I've tidied our rooms. But I'm afraid I don't know how to cook yet, as I never had to do it as a girl."
"I can teach you," Carried offered confidently. "I took over my mum's job after she died, so I know all about good cooking."
"Oh, that's so kind of you!" Anna said. "I don't know how I could repay you."
"You can be my friend," Carrie told her. "Us sergeants' wives need to stick together, so we do. And if you have a mind, you might could help me with my reading, so I can teach little Billy here when he gets older. I can read some, but not real good."
"Oh, I'd be more than happy to," Anna said warmly. "Why don't you come by tomorrow after the men have gone on duty."
"Sounds good to me," Carrie said. "It will be good to get away from camp for awhile."
"Until then," Anna said, after giving the other woman directions to the former stable.
"I'll look forward to it," the other woman said.
Anna smiled happily as she made her way home a few minutes later, looking forward to seeing her husband after a long day and then spending time with a new friend tomorrow. Life was good at last.
'