The Baltimore Bitch

He laughed and said scornfully, "Bon!! Now would you please step over here monsieur." He gestured toward a corner of the room. It was as far away from the gun as I could stand and still remain in his direct line of sight.

Then he turned to Suzy, who for the entire interchange had been hunched over in front of Doublemetre in that classic embarrassed woman's pose with one arm over her breasts and the other hand covering her privates. Her alabaster body was a study in perfection, like a statue of a Greek goddess.

He said playfully, "Now my little dove, you will enjoy the ultimate delight of being fucked by Doublemetre."

I knew that this wasn't my fault. Still, I was gripped by an agonizing wave of sadness. I'd tried to prevent it and I'd failed. But why should I have expected success? I was just a kid. Not a man as worldly, or lethal as King.

I said softly, "I'm sorry my love." She said, almost matter of fact, "Don't be. This changes nothing for us."

Doublemetre added tauntingly, "Except, now you'll know that I'm the better man, n'est-ce pas?"

He made an elaborate gesture using the arm that wasn't holding the Sten and said with mocking formality, "If you would Mademoiselle." Then he put his hand on Suzy's shoulder, and pushed her down to her hands and knees on the floor. He continued to train the Sten on Suzy as he roughly kicked her knees apart. He knew he was safe as long as the gun was on her.

I should have been gibbering with panic. But the creature had turned ice cold. It was assessing every nuance and angle of attack, choosing, evaluating, and discarding options at a fantastic rate.

I knew I'd never get to the gun in time. But Doublemetre hadn't noticed the brass knuckles. If I could slip one off, I might be able to distract him for a vital second by throwing one at him. The beast was pleased. That might actually work, especially if Doublemetre was in an awkward position when I did it.

Doublemetre had Suzy facing me, her head was hanging between her arms in shame, totally defeated. All I could see was a thick mop of curly brown hair and the tips of her full breasts. All I heard was her sobbing. That was her only emotion. There was no passion.

Doublemetre had hoisted her small round naked butt so he could enter her and still maintain his line of site on me. The enjoyment would be in the violation, not the sex. That was what was turning him on. I could see it in his eyes.

He shifted the gun to point at me, as he lowered himself to half kneel behind Suzy. Good!! That was exactly where I wanted him - in an awkward position. She was staring at me intently, willing me to understand. She didn't need to do that. I could see what was about to occur. It was an act of aggression, not intimacy.

Once Doublemetre was nicely positioned between Suzy's spread legs, he said with an oily laugh, "You will watch while I enjoy her sweet cunt. I hear some men find that stimulating"

I had to be smart. He had to be preoccupied in order for my plan to work. So, I put on my best totally beaten face and said, "Do you REALLY think she wants this? This is wrong."

Doublemetre laughed and said, "Do you think I care? I've been planning to stick my cock in this woman since I first saw her.

He had fumbled it out of his pants and was lining up on Suzy's utterly exposed opening. Naturally, Suzy wasn't even close to ready to receive him. So, Doublemetre had to look down and do a little fumbling in order to push into her. And for a fraction of a second his eyes wavered off me.

I had removed the left-hand knuckle during the time that we had been talking. It was reassuringly thick, flat, and heavy. As Doublemetre glanced down to finish shoving his cock into Suzy, I flicked the heavy brass object at him.

Three things happened almost simultaneously. First, Suzy gave a loud "Uggghhhh!!" as Doublemetre slid into her. At the same time, against all odds, I actually hit him in the face, which caused him to squeeze the trigger.

Then the unavoidable happened. Stens are light, nothing more than a pipe and a receiver, and thus they have a ferocious pull. You have to counteract it by either holding tightly onto the barrel, or as most shooters do - the side mounted magazine. When Doublemetre reflexively squeezed the trigger, the gun ripped off a sustained burst that jerked it away from me, up and back toward the ceiling.

As soon as that happened, he was mine. Doublemetre was on one knee, inserted into Suzy and basically helpless. I took two quick strides and brought an uppercut off the floor. It was powered by all the ferocious hatred I felt for the man.

Doublemetre had an instant to see it coming. Just long enough for the fear to appear in his eyes. Then the right knuckle detonated on his jaw. He gave a ghastly cry of agony, and his lower face exploded in a welter of blood and flying teeth.

He flipped backward out of Suzy, which caused her to make a sharp cry as his cock was pulled violently out and she was thrust forward. I pounced on Doublemetre and was ready to launch another roundhouse, when I saw that I'd be wasting my time. Blood was gurgling out of the devastation of his lower face, as he sighed his last breath.

The creature was delighted. The job was done. It withdrew into my subconscious, patiently awaiting its next call, while I reverted back to my civilized self. The call might never come. Yet, it was reassuring, or maybe the proper term is frightening, to know that I had that capacity within me.

Then King and Bernadette burst into the room, thank God!! Bernadette ran to Suzy, who was lying face-first on the floor. She gathered Suzy in her arms and rocked her while she cried. The conversation was all in French, but I got the gist. Bernadette was telling Suzy that it was over, and that everything would be all right.

I had the instinct to rush over to console Suzy. But she was naked and had just been raped. So instead I dragged the quilt off the bed and handed it to Bernadette. I said, "I'll be out there when she needs me."

Then King and I walked into the main room. King was studying me. He knew that I was coming to the realization that I'd just killed a man with my bare hands. So, he gave my shoulder a squeeze, nearly fracturing my clavicle in the process, and said, "A man has to do what needs to be done Jed. You don't love 'em if you aren't willing to do whatever it takes." His words meant more to me than any preacher's advice about absolution.

*****

It took less than a month for the Allies to push off the invasion beaches east of Toulon and up to our area. But those weeks were improbably idyllic.

The month of August passed with King and Bernadette, Suzy, me, and the girls in a comfy old hunting lodge in a fairy-tale Alpine forest. We had all the supplies we'd ever need. It was sunny, the temperatures were mild and for those three weeks, the Third Reich faded into the background.

King and Bernadette spent most of the time by themselves. It wasn't that they were avoiding us. It was just that they were only interested in or needed each other. They were pleasant and friendly when we were together. But it was like their day-to-day life took place in some kind of binary universe where only the two of them existed. Suzy told me that she found it, "Très romantique."

Suzy herself had come a very long way in a very short time. There was no trivializing the horror of what she'd endured. Weaker women would have been broken by it. But Suzy was the strongest person I knew. So, for the sake of the girls and me, she almost visibly wrestled her memories into a padlocked cell and buried them deep in her psyche.

Of course, she had Bernadette to help her, and Bernadette was as strong as King. Suzy and Bernadette spent hours alone, just talking. I don't speak French. But the tone of voice and body language was informative and eloquent.

Even so, it was Suzy alone who pulled herself out of the dark place and back out into the sunlight. Suzy loved the girls and their simple purity and high spirits were a perfect antidote to Doublemetre's toxin. It was another proof of Suzy's inherent humanity. And by this point there was no doubt that she was my love.

We were tentative at first. It wasn't my violent behavior that created the distance. It was my presence at Suzy's humiliation. For a while, she was so mortified that she couldn't even bear to look at me. I, on the other hand, wasn't going to raise any specters until Suzy did. I knew that she would come to me when she was eventually ready to talk.

So, we danced around each other for a week. It happened one night, after we had put the girls to bed. Suzy always tucked in Edith and Charlotte, and I spent bedtime with Josette. The older girls shared a room. Naturally, it was off limits to adults.

I'd had to kiss Josette good night about ten times. At the advanced age of five, she had me wrapped around her little finger- and she knew it. So, Suzy was already standing, waiting for me by the big stone fireplace when I came out of my room. Her eyes were different, less guarded, more open, shining with excitement. She said, "Let's take a little walk in the moonlight." Then she added, "My love."

My heart soared. That was the first time Suzy had outright used the "L" word. I followed her out of the lodge, each of us locked in our own heads. It was finally time to talk. We came to a meadow just past the tree-line of the woods.

Suzy stopped and sat down among a raft of purple gentian. There were all of the busy sounds of a hot summer night around us. The smell was woods and earth. The full moon lit the surrounding forest in an unearthly light.

Suzy was wearing a simple white dress. It was like the one she wore when I dug her out of the armoire. Except this one was clean and pressed. Her gorgeous slim legs were extended in front of her and she was barefoot again. With her perfect face and huge dark eyes, she looked like a classical wood nymph.

She patted the grass next to her and I sat down. Except I'm a guy. So, I plopped clumsily instead of landing light and gracefully. I gave her an apologetic grin and she smiled.

Suzy said, "We need to come to an understanding."

I didn't like the sound of that. I said warily, "Understanding? About what?"

She looked at me like I was an idiot and said simply, "Our future."

I must have continued to look bewildered even though my heart was doing a happy dance. I had known Suzy for a month. She had been my mainstay during that time. I knew that she was beautiful, wealthy, and a highly sophisticated Parisian woman; no matter what the situation might have been when I'd first stumbled on her. So, excuuuuse me! If I didn't have a firm set of plans in place for our future.

Suzy said gently, "I know that your circumstances will change when you finally get in touch with the American army. I also know that you were disastrously betrayed by the woman you planned to marry. But I am not that woman and I want to know how you see our prospective life working out."

The door was wide open, or at least as open as it would ever be, and I knew a couple of things for sure. First, there would never be another woman in my life but Suzy. She was the whole package, smart, beautiful, and tough, a true lifetime companion. Of course, that, in-and-of-itself, constituted a risk. Since it meant that she was likewise a catch for every other fellow looking for a partner.

I also knew that I wouldn't find two Suzies in this world. She chose to step-up when other members of her social class just ran away. I mean seriously!! She could have bought herself a villa in sunny Spain and spent the war sipping champagne on a veranda. Instead, she bought an orphanage to hide Jewish children. And because of that commitment, she had been hunted by the Nazis and raped. Still, it was obvious that she had no regrets.

Now, she wanted to talk about how to fit our lives together!! I couldn't believe how lucky I was and how much I wanted this woman. But there were a million things I didn't understand. So, I told her the truth.

I said, "Any man would be privileged to spend his life with you. But I'm worried that your feelings for me are an artifact of the present circumstance, and things will be different the minute you've returned to the world that you knew before the war."

Her eyes flashed. She said with simmering anger in her voice, "That's the most insulting thing anybody has ever said to me. Are you implying that a poor little French girl isn't capable of making an intelligent choice. Do you think I'm so stupid that I can't see what kind of man you are? Or are you telling me that you don't find me attractive? If that is the case, then we have no future to discuss, salopard!!"

What a mouth!! From hanging around with King I knew that she had just called me an asshole.

She stood up in a huff. I said, "Wait!!" She must have sensed the anguish in my voice because she hesitated and sat back down, hugging her knees. She looked at me, with dark forces moving around behind her eyes and said peremptorily, "Well??!!"

I said, "You have to understand. I'm a kid from a small town in the back of nowhere. It's a nothing place full of nobody people. My whole life's experience is that town and the Army Air Corps. So, basically, I'm a 22-year-old country bumpkin whose entire love life comprises one high school sweetheart who dumped him. "

I added meekly, "I hadn't even talked to another woman until I stumbled on you and you are so utterly alien that you might as well have been born on Mars."

Her deep intelligent eyes widened as I added, "I know that we've connected over the girls. How couldn't we? But seriously, I'm not rich, I'm not cultured, I'm not some sophisticated Parisian Lothario. How could you find me worth spending your life with? A lifetime commitment's what we're talking about, aren't we?"

Then I paused, looked at her with as much significance as I could muster, and said, "I don't want to talk about future with any woman who isn't in it for the long haul, for better, or for worse. When I marry it is going to be forever."

Suzy's eyes were luminous. She laughed and said tenderly, "So insecure - but then again, how could you be otherwise. You are laboring under the mistaken impression that my love is based on your place in the herd."

She paused and said, almost like she hadn't thought of it, "Is your former lover like that? Did she go with the biggest bull? If so, she's a fool and her life will be nothing but desolation and unhappiness."

Suzy's face softened and she said, "I CHOSE to love you because you are a kind and caring man who has a wonderful capacity to devote yourself to somebody other than yourself. I see that every night when you put Josette to bed."

Then she added with a coquettish smile, "You are also brave, resourceful and I might add good looking. That's why I chose you. The only thing that would change my decision would be if I discovered that you are not as you appear to be, and I am certain that isn't the case."

Suzy had just used the same yardstick that I applied to her. She was a truly beautiful woman. But that was the least of her qualities. It was her dedication to others, her strength and courage, her integrity, and her moral principles, plus her obvious devotion to me. Those were the things that made her special.

I said simply, "Till death do we part then?"

The intensity of her gaze was daunting as she whispered, "Till death do we part." At that point we sort of came together.

The sexual tension had been building for what felt like eons. It finally surfaced in a spontaneous kiss. Suzy moaned plastered herself to me and her mouth opened wide while our tongues dueled. We kissed like that for what seemed like an eternity, melding against each other like we were trying to make one four-legged human.

Then we rolled apart, both of us astonished at the colossal wave of passion that we had unleashed. I looked at Suzy and her eyes were wild with yearning. We went back to kissing. But this time I rolled on top of her. Suzy hyperventilated, her legs spread wide, knees raised feet dangling.

Maybe she did it. Maybe I did. All I know is that the final connection was made without me having the slightest memory of how it happened, and then we were one with each other.

I found, to my utter astonishment, how easy it was to drop all internal barriers if you are making love to the right person. I was always aware of my surroundings when I was fucking Betty. But I was lost in some kind of fleeting otherworldly paradise with Suzy.

Suzy is tiny and exquisite, much smaller than I am. But her body is almost voluptuous in proportion to her size. On a larger woman, her breasts wouldn't appear as big as they are. Yet, on Suzy they were two huge, perfect round hills. Her waist was so small that I was close to spanning it with two hands and her hips and flanks were hard and muscular. But her legs were her crowning glory. Suzy's legs were long, slim, and muscular, so perfectly sculptured that they belonged in the Louvre.

Her dress was around her waist and her panties had somehow disappeared. The sensation was wet, hot and pheromones. I was inserted in Suzy to the hilt, not moving, holding myself on my arms and staring into my love's fathomless dark brown eyes.

Her eyes were glowing with a profound, female spirit. Her loyalty, and her devotion were on display, along with her promise of fidelity. I was assuring her that I was hers eternally and that I would die to avoid hurting her.

Still, the spiritual link had to inevitably give way to something a lot more basic. Suzy moaned, her eyes rolled into her head and she emitted a groan that originated in the depths of her soul.

It all happened very fast. Suzy's head rocked back, and she slammed her legs around my butt. Her hands slapped on my back and her hips shot up to seat me as far inside herself as she could get. I was not even close to rational at that point. So, I don't recollect the love making in detail; and it was love, not sex. But I do recall the Suzy was insanely enthusiastic, taking and giving in equal measure.

There wasn't anything remotely tentative, or even subtle about the mating. It was two young people vigorously bridging a spiritual gap between themselves, by way of an intimate physical connection. We both knew this would be a historic milestone in our lives. From this day forward it would just be her and me together against the world.

We did the dance of love for an indeterminate period of time and then Suzy began to move restlessly underneath me. Her legs started to relentlessly shake, and her hips commenced to undulate. That finally culminated in a loud sigh. Then the rhythmic clenching of her inner self began.

She set off on a bout of uncontrollable quivering and she started muttered over and over in French. I didn't need a translator to recognize that she was urging me to not stop. When my moment arrived, it was like a window opened to a true understanding of the important things in life. and I finally saw what King and Bernadette shared.

We lay there side by side gasping. I finally got enough awareness to take her little hand and she squeezed mine. I was never going to let her go. I said, "There will not be another woman in my life. I would die without you." There were tears in her voice as she said, "That's all I ever want to be. We will have a long time together."

*****

King arranged to meet the U.S. invasion force via shortwave. Ironically, we had to walk as a group along the same path we'd followed blowing the dam. There, we hooked up with an Allied unit that was laying a Valentine bridge over the same roadway we'd destroyed a month ago.

It was a Brit company. They'd come all the way down from the D-Day beaches. But by that point the Heinies had retreated across the Rhine leaving France Hun-free for the first time since June of '40. The Brit Colonel contacted his counterpart up the chain of command and a jeep with a staff officer and a driver eventually showed up at Génissiat to take me back to 45th Division HQ.