Wow.. thank you for the reviews. I do appreciate them and the encouragement you've shown me.

This chapter is very angsty and twice the length of my previous chapters. Perhaps I tried to stuff too much into it, so if you feel that way, or have any suggestions, again, it will be very much appreciated.

This chapter gives you a little bit more of Bates' backstory...what attracted him to Vera. There is some sexual imagery.. but nothing smutty. So I think a T is still the right rating. If you think different, again, drop me a line.

John had his leave all planned out in his head… not that it was the slightest bit complicated. Once home, the remainder of the week would be spent in bed, with his wife, with only the obligatory breaks for sustenance and the loo. He justified his single-mindedness towards a marital bed marathon as a way to maintain his fitness level for his future South African mission. Why he was being downright patriotic!

"If only all of my future physical training would be as enjoyable," he thought, feeling a huge grin beginning to spread across his face.

His plan was indeed very, very simple. He'd leave the Sandhurst depot at 6:30, arrive at Kings Cross station around 8:30am, then a short walk to their home and straight into the loving arms of his breathtaking Vera.

"Longest 2 ½ hours of my life", he muttered to himself. Bates couldn't help but chuckle at the irony. He hadn't seen his Vera in over a year and there he was brooding about just a few more hours delay. She was always a late sleeper, he recalled. Perhaps he'd catch her while she was still in bed.

John shook his head to clear away the mental image of Vera lying in bed gloriously naked with a sated smile upon her face.

"Get back to packing man, or you'll miss the train." Bates stated out loud in an attempt to snap out of his reverie. "Back to the task at hand, you bloody fool!" He had less than a half hour to catch the train.

XXXXX

John had decided to forgo wearing his uniform while on leave. He was very aware that this war was losing the support of the British public. While on board the train, he didn't want to take the chance of having to engage in a debate over the pros and cons of Britain's desire to turn the Boer Republics into British colonies.

He'd heard all the arguments, including the most plausible one which was that it was the politicians' lust for the gold fields found in the Transvaal and the Free Orange State that was the true and less than noble driving force behind the war.

John wanted to believe that they were fighting to liberate the indigenous populace from slavery and that their cause was a just one. He'd also heard the rumors about some concentration camps the British had put up to contain the captured leaders of the rebellion and that a few acres of Afrikaners crops had been burned. But he hadn't seen signs of either when he was at the front with Robert.

"No", he huffed to himself. It was all just a bloody bunch of lies and propaganda put out by the South African sympathizers or those blasted pacifists and their soft, unpatriotic message that no war is a just war. He wasn't going to be put in a foul mood debating the war with those idiots and traitors. Not wearing his uniform was a wise choice.

He yawned and stretched his long legs out into the aisle of the 3rd Class train car. Just less than an hour left. The gentle swaying of the compartment made him a little drowsy and he fell into a light sleep. He was barely aware of the sound of the train as it chugged forward, bringing him nearer and nearer to his home and his wife.

His wife… My God, how he missed her. Theirs had been a tempestuous and short courtship. They had met at a pub one chilly winter's eve, the end of which found him in her bed that night.

Vera inflamed his soul and body like no other woman had before. She possessed nearly grey eyes that grew dark when in love's passionate throes, and her large, full breasts, were more than a handful for even his massive paws. Then there were her strong thighs, that he sometimes thought were capable of squeezing the life out of him. And finally, the sound of her voice as she alternated between screaming his name out loud at her release, to whispering it softly as in a prayer while running her fingers through his hair in the afterglow…all this added up to a woman that John had to have in his life. While he sought to possess her he found himself enjoying equally every moment when their roles would be reversed and she'd be the possessor and have her way with him. John wasn't sure if it was truly "love" he felt for her. But, it definitely was Lust which at the time was good enough.

The key thing to their relationship that John knew, but couldn't explain, was that for some unfathomable reason, he felt protective of her. He prided himself at his ability to see beneath the brash and outrageous masquerade she showed to the outside world. Only he, John Bates could see the real Vera.

Inside, he saw the emotionally fragile and frightened young woman that was looking for a knight to take her away from all of the defeats and brutality that she had experienced in her young life. Yes, he found himself attracted to her most of all, because she needed him. Sometimes he felt her very survival depended upon him and the protection from life's blows that he afforded her

She must have felt and needed it too, he reasoned. Because, when he proposed a few months after their first meeting, she immediately accepted.

They had only been wed 18 months before he volunteered to join the army. It seemed like the right decision at the time.

Bates was smart, strong, resourceful and self-educated. What he lacked in formal schooling he more than made up by way of his voracious reading on all matter of subjects and a unique ability to remember effortlessly what he'd just read.

He also possessed another valuable, unteachable trait. He had street smarts. He knew how to get along in the rough backstreets of London. And his inquisitive mind and love of reading afforded him the opportunity to learn about the manners and culture of a more refined society. It was one that he learned to admire and respect and hopelessly wanted to be part of.

The military offered him a chance to make a better life for Vera and himself, by advancing through the non-com ranks. John's goal was to become a Regimental Sergeant Major, the "first among equals". Bates knew it would take years to get there, but he was sure he could do it, having reached the position of Staff Sergeant at a relatively young age. Volunteering for the spy mission, he assumed, would also help his cause and make his dream of becoming an RSM a reality that much sooner.

The brakes screeched and the passenger car shook as the train slowed down its approach to the Kings Cross station.

"It won't be long now," John said to no one in particular. He gathered up his fairly new leather clothes bag and stood anxiously next to the exit waiting for the porter to open the door and then stand aside to let the footrace begin out of the 3rd Class car.

Finally the door swung open and Bates jumped out of the car and walked towards the station's exit gates. He squeezed through them along with the other passengers and then took off at a gentle trot towards his home and Vera.

About 15 minutes after he left the station, John found himself standing in front of his house. It stood right in the middle of a line of 5 nondescript brick townhouses. He could feel his heart race faster and faster the closer he got to his front door.

His plan was to just walk in unannounced, totally surprising her. He opened the door slowly, hoping that the hinges didn't need oiling. Bates slipped in quietly and gently placed his bag upon the living room floor. Around the corner, in the kitchen he could hear Vera softly humming a somewhat sad melody. She was probably up and making some breakfast. John tiptoed towards the direction of her singing, hoping she was at the sink so she wouldn't be able to see him when he entered the room.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that her back was towards him. He continued to move stealthily towards her, admiring her shapely body, which he could see through the sheer nightgown she was wearing. She looked a bit broader in the hips than he remembered, but that just meant there was more to love he counseled himself. He was within six inches when Vera felt his breath upon her neck. But before she could scream…or even turn around, John revealed himself as her stalker.

"Vera, my sweet." John whispered into her neck as his hands wrapped around her chest, pulling her closer to him in a second.

"J-J-John…?" she gasped, as she felt his hands and lips all around her. Hands kneading her breasts as his lips peppered her cheek and shoulders with quick wet kisses.

John's reaction to having his wife back in his arms was stronger than even he expected. He was mad for her and gradually let his hands wander down her torso. He loved to ghost his fingers over her body… just skimming the surface, making the goose bumps rise on her skin and hear her moan for deeper and even more intimate touches…

AS he began to slowly inch his way down, he heard Vera's breath hitch.

"J-J-John.. wait…!" Vera sounded frantic.

The feel of her full rounded breasts and hardened nipples had all of John's attention so he didn't hear the distress in her voice at first.

"John… no… stop!" Now, it almost sounded like a wail… and as such got his attention. He let go, confused and unsure of what just happened.

Slowly Vera turned to face John. And what he saw shocked him. Her eyes were sunken, missing that spark of fire that initially attracted him to her. They were rimmed red, as though she had been crying for quite some time. Her nose was red also. He finally saw, as the morning light outside seeped more and more into the kitchen, that the nightgown she wore was tattered and torn, nothing like the clean and pretty nightclothes Vera liked to sleep in.

"Vera, my sweet… What's wrong…what's happened to you?" John's throat tightened up as he gazed upon her forlorn features.

"Vera, tell me please, my darling."

"Oh, John" Vera sobbed rather than said his name…She threw herself at him and buried her face in his chest… "Six months… six months ago…" She started to blubber, "I was attacked and assaulted by a man."

At hearing those words, John felt as though his heart had leapt out of his chest and onto the floor. His mind spun out of control as her words sunk into his brain. Attacked… assaulted.. he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Why didn't she let him know when it happened. His parents were supposed to be checking in on her, did they know…why didn't they tell him? Questions and thoughts were careening inside his brain, crashing into each other, so nothing coherent was coming out.

"John.. there's more…" she whispered.

Her words were barely registering over the thundering noise that was roaring through his head. More… what more could there be? Does she know who attacked her. Does he know him?

"Tell me who's done this to you?" John's voice shook as he asked. "Do, I know him or did you?

"No, John." Vera shook her head sadly. "I …we don't know the man who did it. But please let me finish." .