by Susan Thomas
"Yes Sir."
"The problem is I am not very convinced you are responsible. You didn't seem to be intoxicated when you left us and yet a few minutes later you are incapable of finding the right floor or of standing up properly. I think Patricia has something to do with this."
Now this was a poser. If I admitted it was Patricia she would be in serious trouble and then there was art school. Also if I admitted I had lied and tried to trick him I'd probably get a caning anyway. I thought quickly.
"General, let me give you a hypothetical situation if I may." He nodded. "Let us imagine Patricia somehow or other had broken the vase while doing something else that she should not be doing." He nodded again. "If in that situation I covered it up do you not think I would have very good reasons for doing so especially if I was to be punished?" He nodded. "If that happened would not Patricia's punishment be to know that I, who was innocent, was taking the punishment for her, and wouldn't that be far more likely to correct whatever her fault was, more than thrashing her?"
"Be warned Helen, I have in mind eighteen with the cane for this behaviour." I went white and he laughed. "Not all at once you silly thing. Six now and six each on your next two visits."
"I take full responsibility Sir."
"Very well, then you must take the consequences. Please prepare."
I had dressed for the cane, a loose skirt which I could lift, no pantyhose or stockings, just a pair of panties and plain ones at that. I lifted my skirt and pulled my panties down. I had been going to leave them at the knees or somewhere like that but I remembered that Patricia had simply taken hers off at the end of her caning so I did the same. I began to experience the same feelings I had with Dr Croft - that utter fear of the pain I was going to experience, but fascination with the whole ritual of being punished. I bent over, pulled my skirt right up clear of my bottom and touched my toes with the straightest legs and fingers I could.
There was a slight tap on my bottom with the hard cold cane and I braced myself. Then there came a burst of movement behind me. A formidable blow hit me which seemed to bury itself right into my bottom. It was horrendous and I took an enormous gasp as if sucking all the air out of the room, then the pain hit. How Patricia took it as well as she did I can't say, but I wanted to scream, and the temptation to stand was huge but although I jolted with the blow I did stay still.
I suppose because I didn't move he just launched the next stroke which again seemed to go right deep down into me and felt as if it was cutting me in two. This made me cry out. It was so hard and I sort of rocked forward and partly up unconsciously intending to grasp my bottom, but I steadied myself and tried to get back. This time I could sense the General waiting. The good thing about being beaten by him was the wait. He let you deal with it before hitting you again.
When the third finally hit me I wanted to scream and I know I made some ghastly sound or other but it was awful, truly awful. He caned far harder than Dr Croft or even Crispin. This time I jerked forward a lot and had to step forward to stop myself losing balance. I stood up in order to step back and slowly resumed my position my bottom throbbing and burning with the welts on it.
I was reaching the limit of my ability to take punishment without fuss and the fourth stroke was so hard that once again I simply lost balance, cried out with the pain of it and had to partly stand to get back into position. I could feel my right leg twitching but couldn't stop it.
The fifth stroke made me cry out really quite loudly and I actually apologised. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to fuss." But suddenly I couldn't see the floor properly and knew tears were blinding me even though I wasn't crying in the normal sense of the word.
Then I grew frightened because I vaguely knew this was number six and it would be a diagonal and delivered more fiercely than the others. I clamped my teeth together and braced and when it came it was monstrous, the pain was beyond bearing. I started to shout and I think I did while I just stood up without caring whether it was acceptable or not. I wanted to hold my bottom but was terrified of touching it and stood helplessly, my hands simply twitching. That man caned so hard. At that point I rebelled. Patricia had bent back down again after her six was over because she had stood without permission but I thought blow it I am an adult and this hurts, I'm not doing it. To my surprise the General said nothing.
He gave me a handkerchief as he had before and I made myself reasonably presentable but honestly my bottom just pulsed with pain the whole time. I put the handkerchief down on the desk and he stood uncertainly and then I reached out and he gave me a hug.
Patricia grabbed me the moment she saw me and was horrified. She hadn't expected me to be punished. "Why did you let him cane you? It wasn't you." I explained simply what it might have meant for her - not only a ferocious punishment for all the things she had done wrong but perhaps art school withdrawn. She cried all over me and I used the situation to make her promise she would do nothing like that again at least without discussing things with me first.
We walked out of my room to find Crispin but found the General first. Suddenly Patricia started loudly telling him off. "You shouldn't have caned Helen."
"Why not?" He looked dangerous to me and I was anxious to shut her up.
"Because if Helen was drunk it was your fault, you were serving the drinks."
He looked quite shocked as if he had not thought of this, and why should he, because of course I wasn't. "Well Helen concealed it very well and she is an adult and must take responsibility for her actions as must we all."
"But eighteen Daddy, it's a bit over the top isn't it?"
He stood looking at her for quite a while before saying, "You two are as thick as thieves aren't you. I suppose I am never going to know exactly what happened. Right Helen I'll make it just six more, unless you'd like to take the six Patricia?"
I was quick, firm and decisive and not even the General argued back, "No it is my responsibility, Patricia is not responsible it is me. However, I'd rather take the next six on the next visit if it is all the same to you."
He laughed and left while I extracted more promises of good behaviour from Patricia. By now the pain of my caning had eased and become that strange pleasure-pain that I find so hard to describe. I found Crispin and we went off together and I began feeling the tingles more and more which he must have sensed. "There is a summer house where we could go, it's not that warm but we can keep each other warm."
"What about babies?"
He patted his jacket pocket. "Not a problem."
Soon I was sitting on a table in the summerhouse, my skirt right up and my sore bottom being ground into the table. Whether it was the strange pain of having my welts treated like that while he gave pleasure elsewhere or perhaps the thrill that we might be discovered I can't tell, but I did not stifle my screams of pleasure.
On my next visit Crispin wasn't there and I spent the whole of Friday at the house dreading what lay ahead of me so when I got there I asked the General if we could just get it over with before dinner. Some men might have let me off or gone easy but not the General and I didn't expect it. He laid those six on just as hard as he could. Afterwards with my bottom pulsing once again with the pain of his beating I made myself decent again and this time without prompting he hugged me.
On the Saturday I asked to see him privately. The first issue I raised was the restrictions on Patricia. It wasn't easy but he did agree to relax quite a few of them. I then raised with him my rudeness to Rupert Mostyn-Giles. He looked puzzled. "That was dealt with." I then explained how my lack of diplomacy had been a failing when I was at Lady Alice though not about my canings there. "My mother," I explained, "had a word with me just Thursday as I was a bit pert with someone. I do find it difficult to be diplomatic and when they say something offensive or whatever I find it hard to use the rapier and not the tank brigade."
He smiled. "Yes well you're young and doubtless it is unfair but a young man is almost expected not to be diplomatic but a young woman most certainly
is, particularly the wife of a minister of the crown."
To help with my diplomacy issue the General came up with the idea of a book, a sort of small diary. I have to keep it honestly but Crispin also gets to make entries and my mother. She wasn't told what the consequences were of doing something inappropriate but I could tell by the look on her face she knew full well. She promised though that she wouldn't hesitate to write in it. I see him every week and I anything I do wrong is dealt with in the usual way. I have reported five times. Twice I got congratulations, twice spanked, and once caned. The last though was for two errors for which I got four each making eight in all. It was very hard to take.
So, you have my caning story up to a point - four canings, one birching and three spankings. Crispin and I get married in six months, and in the meanwhile I continue to work for the government. Patricia and two of my very young girl cousins will be my bridesmaids. Suzanne rather expected she would be but was sadly mistaken. I shall not pursue a career in Parliament which my mother would like. Crispin and I are going to work together and I shall do the traditional support my husband thing. He has the makings of a good leader for this country and I have many ideas which he finds exciting. We would like to see a country built not on failing people and excluding many but success and inclusiveness; all have a value and can contribute in some way. We waste far too much talent in this country thanks to idiots like Rupert Mostyn-Giles.
Also by Susan Thomas...
Erin's Visit
When Helen takes a job as a secretary at the prestigious Lady Alice school she is shocked and intrigued to discover that the headmaster, Dr Croft, canes the upper sixth girls. As her fascination with corporal punishment grows, she manages to get the headmaster to punish her for her own misdeeds - to their mutual satisfaction.
When a lucrative job offer comes up in government, Helen takes it, and makes the acquaintance of eligible bachelor, Crispin. The two become close, and Helen soon finds that Crispin canes far harder than Dr Croft ever did! It is not long before she becomes a regular visitor at Crispin's family home. The wealthy upper class family is headed by Crispin's father, the General, who takes discipline in the family very seriously, and does not hesitate to punish unacceptable behaviour.
Helen experiences two hard canings and a painful birching at the hands of the General. Yet in spite of the discipline, she feels more welcomed and loved by Crispin's family than by her own. As her relationship with Crispin deepens, a wedding is on the cards...
