Downstairs Rules

by Sullivan Clarke

  “If he must do this, have him do it in private!” she pleaded with her husband. “Can’t you at least spare her the humiliation?”

  “A little dose of humiliation is exactly what such a disobedient young lady needs,” Lord Baxter said. “And as you watch this - and you will watch, Ann, - just remind yourself that were it not for your instructions, she would not be over York’s knee.”

  That’s where Ella found herself now, sobbing and pleading as he pulled her across his lap. York had positioned Ella at least, so that her bottom was facing away from the couple for decorum’s sake, but still when he lifted her skirt it was obvious that he was planning to bare her bottom for the punishment.

  “This is too cruel!” she heard Lady Baxter tearfully protest as York pulled down her pantalets.

  “Oh, sir, please don’t!” Ella sobbed the words, knowing that York would not heed them.

  The sound of the first smack resounded through the room along with Ella’s cry plaintive wail. Across the room, Lady Baxter tried to bury her face in her hands as her maid was punished, but her husband held her hands and pointed at the scene.

  “You will watch every smack, and hear every cry,” he said.

  “He’s hurting her!”

  “He’s teaching her a lesson, Ann. And afterwards you will be taught one as well.”

  His wife paled at the comment as, across the room, Ella was sure if she was going to die of pain, humiliation or both. York was right; what he’d done the night before was nothing to the relentless cascade of heavy smacks that he rained down over and over on her rapidly reddening bottom. She tried to move away from his hand, but he dwarfed her in size and strength and finally there was nothing she could do but succumb completely and endure what seemed like an endless and painful humiliation. York tipped Ella forward, delivering the last ten smacks especially hard on the very bottom of her buttocks just above the thigh. Ella screamed with each blow and when it was over she just lay there, wracked with sobs, as he rearranged her undergarments and skirt with great care.

  He stood her up as he had done the night before and ordered her to look at him. Ella did, tears streaming down her face.

  “Ella Carter, will you do as you are told now?”

  She could only nod, hyperventilating too hard to answer.

  York looked to his employer, whose curt nod indicated that he was satisfied that the girl had indeed gotten a proper comeuppance.

  Beside Lord Baxter, his wife was crying, and now he sat down on another sofa and pulled her across his lap.

  “No…not in front of the servants!”

  “I can leave,” York said. “And I can take Ella.”

  “No,” Lord Baxter said. “I think it is important for both these young ladies to endure this together. Perhaps if they won’t act in their own best interest, they will act out of concern for the other’s.”

  Ella tried to turn away when Lord Baxter pulled his wife’s gown up. She’d seen her lady naked when she helped with her bath, but not like this. It was heart-wrenching, and when Lord Baxter produced a small rod and raised it up in preparation to strike, Ella pleaded with York to help her. But York turned Ella around and held her by the shoulders, forcing her to watch as Lord Baxter thrashed her bottom until it was welted and his wife’s face was red and streaked with tears.

  “I’ll see my wife to her room,” Lord Baxter said when he was finished, and Ella’s heart was broken when her dejected lady could not even meet her gaze from the shame. When they were out of the room, Ella broke down and began to sob. It was a few moments before she realized that she was sobbing into York’s chest. His arms were around her, his large hand soothing her back.

  “Breathe now,” he said. “Breathe…”

  “It’s not fair!” she cried.

  “Fair has nothing to do with it, little one.”

  Ella pushed away from him and stepped back. “How can you be so cruel to me one moment and kind to me the next? Don’t you hate this? Don’t you hate betraying your own kind on the whim of another?”

  “I’m not betraying you, Ella,” he said. “And I don’t see such a division between us and the people we serve. My father served here, and I served here. They are as much my family as my own blood. We function as a whole. If Lord Baxter is the head, then we are the heart. I know it is hard for you to understand, but if they - if…I…- did not care about you, then you would not be corrected, but dismissed.” He produced another handkerchief and handed it to her. “I would never see you dismissed.”

  “William…he went through my things… I have no privacy, Mr. York. I have no say. I’m treated like a child.”

  “You’re not treated as a child. You have a great responsibility. But it is Lord Baxter’s firm belief that a good spanking is effective for a woman as it is for a little girl, and far less damaging than being cast aside.”

  But Ella wasn’t so sure. She was devastated to have witnessed Lady Baxter’s punishment. A maid, she believed, should never see her lady humiliated so. It wasn’t right. Now whenever Lady Baxter saw her, she would think on what Ella had seen. It would change things between them.

  Ella asked York if she could go to her room.

  “I was going to send you there anyway,” he said. “I’d like you to spend the day thinking on what has transpired.

  But Ella decided she had no reason to think. She wiped away tears as she penned her letter of resignation. She held it for some time, trying to summon the courage to give it to York, but decided that she could not deal with another confrontation. She would simply leave. She waited until the staff was busy with dinner arrangements and - being careful to avoid detection - slipped out the back door. It was a cool evening, but the moon was full. Ella figured if she walked through the night she’d reach the village and could telegraph her father from there. How would Malcolm Carter react to his daughter’s decision? She decided she would not tell him what had happened. She had disobeyed, after all, and would hope that if Lady Ann Baxter had any influence at all, she would wield it to convince her husband to at least give Ella a reference.

  Ella decided to keep close to the hedgerows, and then take the path by the garden cottage to the main road. It would take her through a small wooded area, but would keep her from being seen from the windows.

  As she walked towards the cottage, she heard the sound of a twig snapping. She stopped.

  “Hello…is anyone there?”

  Her answer was met only with silence.

  “Hello….?”

  She walked on, telling herself that what she’d heard was just an animal. But then she felt a hand cover her mouth and a strong arm clamp across the front of her body like a vice. She cried out against the hand, and pulled helplessly against the arm as she was pulled into the garden shed. Her suitcase fell on the ground, its contents scattering.

  Ella did not have to guess who’d abducted her. William slammed the door as he pushed her aside. She stood there, wondering what to do as he lit a lamp, keeping the flame low enough to provide the bare minimum of light.

  “Well, well, well…If it isn’t our little anarchist.”

  “You,” Ella said. “You stole from me.”

  “I only stole that which shouldn’t have been taken,” William said. “And the whole household knows you got your wee bottom beaten for it. Some are speculating that maybe you like it.” He touched her face as he spoke and Ella slapped him. She’d never hit anyone, and she was surprised at how her hand stung from impacting the footman’s smooth cheek.

  And she instantly regretted it when William grabbed her and pulled her up against his body. He was lean and muscular, and Ella’s heart fluttered like a frightened bird in her chest. She opened her mouth to beg him not to hurt her, but the words would not come.

  “You’ll pay for that, lass,” he said. “You’ve left service. I snuck up to your room and got the note.” He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. “They’ll think you took to the road without so much as a by your leave. Fancy that..You we
re given this great opportunity and you just threw it back in their face.” He paused. “You’re a pretty thing, so you could get married, but who will have you once you’re disgraced?”

  “I’m not disgraced,” Ella said.

  “No? He raised his eyebrows. “You’re about to be.”

  His hands went to the buttons of Ella’s coat and he undid them with remarkable proficiency as she struggled against him. Ella felt the coat fall away and then his hands were everywhere, sliding down her back, squeezing her still-sore bottom, roaming her waist. William laughed throatily as she tried to escape him. Ella tried to kick him, but her foot missed and connected with something hard behind him. Pain shot through her ankle.

  “I’m going to enjoy this, I reckon,” he said. “You’ve been an uppity little thing since the first day. But York didn’t know the proper way to put a little upstart like you in her place. It takes a real man to settle a spirited woman.”

  He pushed her over to the garden table, and Ella felt herself laid back and her legs lifted. She could feel William’s cock against her leg, feel his breath on her ear as he told her what he was going to do. Ella whimpered in fear, tears sliding down her face.

  “I will not beg for mercy,” she said, not from him.

  She felt her undergarments rip and closed her eyes, but almost at the same moment she heard a crash and felt William’s weight lifted off of her. There was another crash and she looked up to see the footman crumpled against a far wall, dazed.

  “My dear girl.” York lifted her up as if she were a broken doll. He tilted her face up. Ella could say nothing.

  “Did he…?”

  “Would you respect me any less if he had?” she asked, a tear sliding down her face.

  “Wait here.”

  York turned. William was not a small man, and was younger, but York had the advantage of size, strength and the rage to fuel it. He picked William up by the back of his coat and pants and literally threw him out the door. Ella heard the younger man scream. A hedge of brambles grew by the door of the shed; she was sure that was where William was now lodged, judging by his curses and cries of pain.

  The bulter came back in.

  “How did you know I was here?”

  “I sent Mrs. Pilcher up to check. You weren’t there. She said there was no note. No good maid leaves a house, not even permanently, without letting someone know. It’s just not how we are bred. And you are a good maid, and no mistake. One of the other maids had seen William on the stairs. I was sure he’d been to your room, and if he knew you’d gone then I was sure he’d followed. I’ve never liked the way he looks at you. If he had…”

  His voice died away, the words choking.

  “He didn’t Mr. York…”

  “He will pay for what he has done,” York said. Ella tried to take a step towards him but cried out.

  “I think I hurt my ankle,” she said. “I tried to escape and kicked something. I don’t know what, but it hurts.”

  York picked her up as if she weighed nothing.

  “Hang on,” he said. “We’ll get you looked after.”

  Ella did not argue. She could feel York’s concern as he bore her back in the house and called for a doctor. The other servants peeked from around corners until he admonished them to mind their own business, sending them scattering except for Mrs. Pilcher who had once been a nurse.

  “It looks sprained,” she said. “But we’ll need it looked at. I don’t think it’s broken..” She looked at York. “William?”

  York nodded. “I blame myself…”

  He picked Ella up again. She’d been sitting in a chair and now he took her up to her room. By the time he’d gotten her settled in bed, it was apparent that word had spread and Lord Baxter came into the room. All the servants stood.

  “What happened..?”

  “Can we speak outside the room?”

  Ella heard raised voices. Was Lord Baxter angry with her? Was he angry with York? A few moments later the butler came back in.

  “Am I in more trouble?”

  “No,” he said, giving her a small smile. “You’re in no trouble. I should not have left you alone in such a state. I never would have, if I’d thought you were going to leave.”

  “I was just so upset,” she said. “I did leave a letter explaining it all.” She sighed. “William read it.”

  “He’ll say nothing if he knows what’s good for him,” York fumed.

  The door opened and Lady Baxter rushed in, Lord Baxter behind her.

  “You were leaving me?” She looked stricken. “Please don’t go!”

  “I didn’t think you would want to see me again,” Ella said. “I thought you’d be too embarrassed after what I saw.”

  “You thought that because you saw me punished? My dear, there are worse humiliations. You saw them with Lady Chatworth. My husband does love me, even if he is too stern..” She glanced at her husband. “I can bear punishment, especially when I know I could have avoided it. But I could not bear losing my new maid. I want you by my side for a very long time.”

  Ella smiled, blinking back tears.

  “Please indulge my wife,” Lord Baxter said. “She does dote on you. Odd thing, for a lady to dote on a maid, but I would make her happy.”

  “Would you allow her a bit more freedom, My Lord?” Ella asked timidly. “I understand there are rules, but I would not lie for her if I did not have to. And if you would just trust her a bit more, perhaps everyone would be easier…”

  York looked at Lord Baxter and raised an eyebrow.

  “I can’t guarantee anything,” he said. “But I will promise to think about it.”

  The women smiled at one another.

  “Let’s leave these two alone,” Lord Baxter said, and he and York left the room.

  “York likes you,” Lady Baxter said, and laughed. “I’ve never known him to like anyone. You must have magic in you.”

  “He’s older than I am,” Ella said.

  “Alastair is older, too,” Lady Baxter said. “It can work, if there’s something there. Do you think there is?”

  Ella blushed. “I don’t know. But since we’ll be working together we have plenty of time to find out, don’t we?”

  “We certainly do, Ella,” the lady said. “We certainly do…”

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