By Governess
liviaarbuthnot1@gmail.com
Copyright 2024 by Governess, all rights reserved
[2,803 words]´
* * * * *Chapter 66
Cordelia sat quietly in her study. Again, she looked at the framed quotation above her desk.
A
boy must swallow the bitter pill of submission, whose healing
properties are released only when he is truly broken and contrite in
spirit.
And how true that was! And how a boy struggled
against swallowing that bitter pill! And just as caring for the sick
was an act of mercy, so was chastising a child. She had left William
standing against the wall awaiting a further dose of this essential and
healing medication. Rising she went to fetch the cane from its hook in
the hall. She drew the smooth, hard, yet immensely flexible length of
rattan appreciatively through her hand; and swished it through the air,
listening to its threatening whoosh and knowing that William, too,
would have heard it as he stood face to the wall in the living room.
She swished it again.
William held his breath, shivering at the prospect of the further punishment. Then, he sensed his mother entering the room.
“Turn around, William.”
Slowly, reluctantly, he did so. He bit his lip, looking down, desperate
to be anywhere other than where he was, facing the torture of further
punishment.
“William, you seem to consider it your right to
choose whether to obey my word or not. You need to learn that when I
give you a rule or instruction, all that is required of you is to obey.
If I tell you not to lie on the bed in your clothes, then you do not
lie on the bed in your clothes. And the same with any other
instruction. You obey it and do so immediately and without argument. If
not, you will be punished.”
She led him to the chaise longue
lifting him sobbing over the end and secured him with the restraining
strap . She felt a slight constriction in her throat as she looked at
his small round bottom already marked by his previous discipline. She
swished the rattan through the air. And then she caned him. Three dozen
strokes. She took her time, both for the pleasure in disciplining him
and to impress upon him the sovereignty of her will.
Before
she had finished, the door opened, and Samuel and Elizabeth came
noisily into the room. At the sight of William over the end of the
chaise longue, they stood watching, saying nothing. When the final six
strokes had been laid across their brother’s red and wealed bottom,
their mother turned, and held the cane out to Samuel.
“Hang this back on its hook, please Samuel.”
As he took it, he gave a shiver knowing that soon it might be swished
across his own bottom. As he turned, William came out of the room,
sobbing quietly, his face aflame, and clutching at himself. Samuel
watched, as he tumbled up the stairs to his bedroom.
Back in
the drawing room, his mother was straightening the chaise longue, and
Elizabeth was asking what William had done to be punished with the cane.
“It is really none of your business, Elizabeth Lavington,; but he
disobeyed a clear instruction when we arrived home from town. Before
that he had been rude and disobedient and even misbehaved in the shop
where we had gone to buy a new tawse for the school”.
She smiled.
“So, I asked the lady in the shop to provide the necessary discipline.”
Elizabeth’s eyes were round and her face tense with curiosity.
“And did she?”
“Yes, Elizabeth. She did. First, she spanked him with a leather paddle,
and then she strapped his spanked bottom with a heavy tawse.”
“W . . . what is a paddle, Mother?”
“Well, if you look on the table over there you will see the very paddle
that Mrs Crampton used Why don’t you fetch it and bring it to me.”
Elizabeth, flushing, picked it up and handed it to her mother who smacked it across her palm.”
She smiled.
“As you are so curious, Elizabeth, perhaps you would like to feel how painful a paddle like this can be?”
“No, please, Mother.”
“Well, in view of your pertness and curiosity about a matter that is
really no concern of yours, I think otherwise. Hold out your hands. One
over the other as you’ve been taught.”
“Reluctantly, she
stretched out her hands, biting her lip. She watched as the paddle was
raised and then brought speeding down to impact heavily across her
waiting palm. She gave a gasp and snatched her hand away, shaking the
small trembling extremity, before hugging it tightly under her armpit.”
“Was that painful, Elizabeth?”
“Ye . . . yes, Mother.”
“And now the other hand.”
“No, no. Please, Mother.”
“How dare you argue. Hold out your hand. ”
Elizabeth stood defiantly, shaking her head.
“Samuel, fetch the cane please. And you Elizabeth over to the chaise longue.”
The girl’s eyes narrowed, and after a small hesitation did as she had been told.
“Lift your dress and lower your knickers.”
She took the cane from Samuel and swished it through the air with a loud whoosh.
“And over the end, please, Ellizabeth.”
Cordelia studied the fulness of the girl’s round bottom, and after
swishing the cane several more times through the air,, brought it
speeding down, with a devastating twist of the wrist, towards its
target. Elixabeth’s whole body shuddered as the cane cut into the soft
flesh; and her mother experienced a corresponding shiver of
satisfaction as a stripe was raised on the taut yet resilient surface.
Cordelia despised the “traditional” six of the best. Six strokes were
insufficient to provide that essential horror of a punishment
stretching out and passing beyond the limits of endurance. But on this
occasion, she considered a dozen strokes more than sufficient All that
Elizabeth had done was to express a natural curiosity although with an
impertinence that was certainly reprehensible.
At that moment the doorbell rang. Cordelia placed the cane on the seat of the chaise longue and went to answer it.
“Diana, come it. But where is James?”
“I’m afraid he has been called to an urgent meeting with the trustees and sends his apologies.”
She raised her eyebrows at the sight of Elizabeth.
“I’m sorry, Cordelia. I seem to have disturbed you in the middle of your disciplining Elizabeth.”
“Not at all, Diana. I have just finished. Elizabeth, you will go to
your room, and you’ll remain there until called. And you, too, Samuel.
And, on the way, please hang the cane back on its hook. I have an
important matter to discuss privately with Mrs Fairclough.”
“And what had Elizabeth done to deserve the cane, Cordelia?”
“A rather impertinent curiosity in questioning me about punishing
William. When she returned from morning school she found him, as you
found Elizabeth, across the end of the chaise longue.”
“So, what had he done?”
And she relayed to her the events of the morning.
“And after the efforts of Mrs Crampton, he still needed a further paddling and a trip over the end of your chaise longue?”
“Yes, Diana. It was absolutely necessary. The boy had got into a
pattern of disobedience, an almost wilful refusal to listen to
instructions and obey them. And as we both know, the only place where
that can be remedied is a bare bottom. And there the lesson will be
taught.. However long it takes.”
Diana nodded.
“Well
said, Cordelia. If there is one thing a mother needs, it’s staying
power. Children have an inner defiance, an understandable need to
affirm themselves against others, but when that comes into conflict
with our will, it has to be resisted. A word in season may sometimes be
enough but, in my experience, rarely is. Verbal correction almost
always needs to be reinforced with a spanking at the very least. And a
boy like Willliam needs to know that such a lesson will be repeated,
again and again, until he surrenders. And that lesson needs to be
increased in severity and in duration with each repetition.”
“We share such a similar outlook., Diana. It’s something I truly value.”
Diana smiled.
“But enough of the children. Tell me more about the outcome of your
visit as it concerns the flogging you are to give those two boys
tomorrow. I have to say that James is still very resistant to its being
given with any implement other than a stout birch rod. He already has
two bound up.”
Cordelia frowned.
“I thought we’d agreed that only after my visit to Crampton’s would he take a view of what implement should be used.”
She gave a sigh.
“Frankly, Diana, I just don’t understand his obsession with the birch
over anything else. As I said before, I have seen an extra heavy weight
tawse used to flog a young teenage boy, and believe me, it’s utterly
devastating.”
Diana gave a little grimace.
“Let me explain, Cordelia.”
“Please do, Diana.”
“As I think you know, James was expelled from his prep school having
been falsely accused of stealing from another boy. He must have felt
utterly betrayed when his parents believed the school’s account rather
than his own. Not only did he lose all his schoolfriends, but he was
banished from the house and sent to live with a governess in a cottage
on the family estate. Miss Ravenscourt had been appointed with the
intention of licking him into shape and imposing strict and
uncompromising discipline. I have seen the advert to which Miss
Ravenscourt responded. I can remember it almost word for word.
Governess
required for eight-year-old boy. High academic qualifications required
with the ability to coach to common entrance. Responsible for both his
academic and moral welfare. Willingness to impose strict discipline
essential.
“And I assume she more than measured up to those requirements?”
“Yes, she did, Cordelia. She had studied classic at Oxford, at Lady
Margaret Hall, which is my old college. She was unwilling to accept any
excuse for failure, and believed the only effective discipline for an
eight-year-old boy was to birch him for his shortcoming, whether in
lessons or in his behaviour. James found Latin particularly
challenging, and he probably suffered more from his failure to construe
Vergil than for anything else.”
“Was he completely unfamiliar with the birch, or had it been used at his prep school?”
“Yes, it was used, but administered only by the headmaster. Punishments
in the house were given by his housemaster with the cane. But a school
punishment is different. It is a shared experience. There is a
camaraderie in suffering, and the need to show you are as brave as the
next boy. But for James the whole of Miss Ravenscourt’s disciplinary
zeal bore down on him and on him alone.”
“So how would you describe their relationship, Diana?”
She smiled.
“Well at first it was very much that between a small boy and a
governess who disciplines him. James was an adventurous boy with a
strong will, and a week rarely went by without a birching. Like any
boy, he had a strong aversion to pain, and Miss Ravenscourt’s floggings
were not something he relished. He roared profusely under the rod and
was chided for it and often received additional strokes for his vocal
resistance. At first, he attempted to fight her, twisting about and
putting his hands back . But that only meant he was secured over a low
stool and the strokes doubled for his lack of compliance.”
“So how do you think James felt about that?”
“He resented it of course. But slowly he came to accept that academic
and moral failure meant a birching and he recognised that Miss
Ravenscourt had a real concern for his welfare. She was strong,
determined and completely unsentimental, and had no compunction in
lovingly applying the rod to bare flesh. Just as we do to our own
children, Cordelia. But despite her obvious affection, she always
insisted that he address her as Miss Ravenscourt or as Ma’am.”
“So how often was he birched, Diana?”
“Whenever she judged it necessary.”
“So, how often was that?”
“Well, given the strictness of her rule and her high expectations,
certainly once a week, and sometimes more than that. He says that his
bottom was rarely free of the evidence of a recent flogging. And in the
schoolroom, several rods was always steeping in a bucket ready for use.”
She smiled.
“So, over time, the birch became not just an expression of her
commitment to his discipline, but of her love. However harsh it may
have been, it came from a really warm and compassionate nature. She was
physical not only in her discipline but also in her affection. If he
was struggling with a piece of work she would put her arm around him as
she helped him see what was required. And there was always a story and
prayers before she tucked him into bed. He still remembers the soft
lingering warmth of her goodnight kiss on his lips.
So, when
this woman, who loved him with a steady love he had never experienced
from his own mother, birched him for his failure, his desperate sobbing
was not just a response to the pain, but driven, too, by the fear that
by his own behaviour he had put at risk the only source of love in his
life. But then, miraculously, the birching which threatened that love
became the very means by which love was restored.”
She paused.
“So, you can see how the birch assumed an enduring importance in his
life: an image of the power of love and indeed the means by which love
in all its ambiguity is expressed.”
She smiled.
“But bound up with the birch was his relationship with Laura Ravenscourt and that explains much else.”
“In what way, Diana?”
“Well, haven’t you noticed how James takes particular pleasure in your
administering punishment. Don’t you remember how you spanked that boy
who had fallen out of a tree and abused the hospitality of the
infirmary. And how James watched as you spanked him. And now you are
invited to flog Clough and Graham tomorrow. Isn’t it obvious that he
sees you as the embodiment of Miss Ravenscourt.”
Cordelia looked startled
“You know, Diana, that thought didn’t occur to me. But that’s probably true.”
“I’m sure it is, Cordelia,”
“Then how does he see you?”
Diana laughed.
“Oh, in the same way, of course. When our first boy was first given a
proper spanking around the age of two, it was obvious that James took a
particular pleasure in seeing me turn him over my knee and apply the
back of my hairbrush to his bare bottom. Of course, we discussed it,
and the influence of Laura Ravenscourt on his development became
quickly apparent. And from then on, he preferred to watch me, as the
main, if not the sole, disciplinarian,.”
“So how did you feel about that, Diana?”
“Well, to be honest, Cordelia, I was perfectly comfortable with it.. I
was very happy that all the boy’s’ discipline should be left to me.”
“You mean that James never punished them himself? “
“I wouldn’t say never. But it was very seldom. ”
“And didn’t you find it strange, that he should only want to watch?”
“Perhaps, I did at first. But I soon came to accept it. After all,
watching, rather than doing, is perfectly normal in other walks of
life. We enjoy watching a tennis match, and that offers a quite
different pleasure and excitement to playing ourselves. I have no
particular wish to go on the stage, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy
an evening at the theatre.”
“Yes, Diana, I can see that. But
given all that you have told me about James’s relationship with Laura
Ravenscourt, I don’t see why that necessarily precluded his choosing to
spank or flog a boy himself. You might think that his admiration for
Laura might equally have inclined him to assume the mantle of
disciplinarian himself. And that still leaves open the question of why
you are happy spanking a boy while he is content only to watch.
“Goodness, Cordelia, that’s an almost impossible question. I feel like
saying that’s just the way it is. We are all different. Some are
cerebral, other practical; some like Beethoven while others prefer New
Orleans Jazz. And I get a deep satisfaction from taking the back of a
hairbrush to a boy’s bare bottom, while James experiences an equal
pleasure from seeing me do so.”
“Yes, I can see that many of
our likes and dislikes are not easily explained. But perhaps I haven’t
completely grasped the nature of the influence Laura had and how it
shaped him.”.
“Yes, Cordelia. I think that is right.”