The woman turned to face the man. She looked to be in her 40s. A good decade or so older than the man. She wore a wedding ring. He didn't. They kissed...and held each other. Suddenly I felt awkward. They were no longer fucking, but this felt like a more intimate moment. I stepped out of the bath, hung my clothes up and donned a soft white bathrobe. Without saying a word I slipped out of the wetroom and onto the landing. So where was the pic room, and more to the point; where was Heather?I turned. "Well, Fifty, the cane! Have you been caned before? I think not?" No, Gaspazha." Pardon?" Ylena's tone is indignant."Nyet spaseeba Gaspazha." Better. This is not a good time to forget what I have taught you, is it?" Nyet, Gaspazha." Nyet! So, I think I shall start with six of this light cane."She takes up a position behind me."Are you ready moi slooga?" Da, Gaspazha, I think." Time to learn a new word, moi slooga. You know the word for 'please'? It's 'pazh'alsta'." Pazh'alsta?"Before the word. “Okay.”She kissed me and got up to go to the bathroom. Harper rolled back against me and flung an arm and leg across me, murmuring in happy little tones.Which is why, when Hannah got back, she got into bed on the other side of her daughter and pulling the sheet over us all before turning out the light.I should have let her drain the swamp before I went to sleep. Not because I had a hard time getting to sleep. I didn’t.I should have let her drain the swamp because if she had, I might not have. The boots that were now soaked and smothered in mud – and would never take a shine again. He, a married man had been taught how to dress the army way, go to the toilet the army way, kill another man the army way. A man in his squad had died during the training, he had been buried in the local churchyard in Wales even before his widow had arrived. She did not have the funds to pay for the body to be transported home so she went away by herself — the Sergeant had explained that the army was his.