Starved Beast. Part 5

"Why were the soldiers going to rape you?" I repeated, munching reflectively upon the remains of the insect. "Soldiers always have a propensity to rape a beautiful woman. It's one of the reasons that an honorable man from a respectable family might choose a military career, but there must be an opportunity to do it: a war, a crime, a betrayal, something that makes the woman accessible. So what have we here? What am I missing? And if they find you, what then? That's a nice thought, one to be savored, to imagine the humiliating, obscene things that they might do with your body."

I spoke aloud, describing at length what I imagined that a mob of ill disciplined soldiers might do with a rich lady, how they would hold her down and strip her naked, beat her with rods and repeatedly rape her. As my imaginings unfurled, I heard Christine softly weeping from her hiding place, her rasping breath echoing through the tunnels and caves, disembodied and unworldly.

"Please don't tortur