I first came across Miss Prince in her first year as a teacher at my school in my fourth year when I was in her accountancy class. Miss Prince rose through the ranks at the school very quickly and by the time I left she was the Headmistress but I had been taught by her each year for either accountancy or economics. I have always had a strong respect for Miss Prince and this has almost become a mild affection by the end of my time at school. My respect stemmed from the fact that of all my teachers Miss Prince had been the one to show me the most support and she had always pushed me the hardest to better myself and it was solely due to her efforts that I managed to get an unconditional offer for my second choice university as I was in my final year at school. Given my nature this was probably just about the worst thing that could have happened to me because it allowed my inherent academic laziness to come to the fore after receiving this offer. I was very good at giving the impression of working hard though and this meant that I kept myself clear of all trouble at school but my performance in my final exams was certainly not what it should have been and although the results were good they weren’t quite good enough to match the offer made by my first choice university which was Lancaster. Lancaster University happened to be Miss Prince’s alma mater and this was one of the reasons why it was my first choice.
Unbeknownst to me Miss Prince had written a letter to the Dean of the Management School at the university, which was the school I hoped to be in, outlining all of my qualities and promising that she would ensure that my academic performance would not slip below the standards the school expected. Miss Prince had a very good reputation within the school having been one of the best students of her year and her support led to me being accepted onto my course. I was exceptionally grateful when Miss Prince told me about the letter she had written although she didn’t tell me about the promise to ensure that my academic performance would be up to the required standards immediately. I was canny enough however to realise that there would be a price to pay for this support and I was about to find out what this was.
‘Of course I will be kept fully appraised of your academic performance and now that you are not at school I will be able to use different methods to motivate you, methods which had I been able to use them at school would almost certainly have made the letter unnecessary. I will be setting targets for you, although you will not know what these are, and if you fail to meet these then I will cane you each vacation when you are at home. I presume that you agree with this course of action?’
‘Yes Miss Prince I agree with your course of action and thank you once again for writing the letter and supporting me. I will try my hardest not to let you down’ I answered immediately as I have never been able to defy Miss Prince like I could the other teachers. Miss Prince also knew that once I agreed to something that I would carry it through.
I was filled with very good intentions as I set off for university and managed to keep them up for all of a week before the temptations offered by the college bar, the rugby league team and a number of very pretty young women derailed me. I still attended all of my classes but my note taking and background reading left a lot to be desired. Just like at school I left all of my assignments to the last possible minute and relied on my natural intelligence to get through them. As I got each assignment back I knew that the marks were definitely good enough to get me into the second year of my degree which is where things started to count so this satisfied me. Even though I didn’t know the targets Miss Prince had set for me I knew that these marks would certainly not meet them and I wondered what the consequences of this would be.
As I was on the train home at the end of term my mobile rang and it displayed a number that I did not recognise. When I answered the call however I recognised the voice immediately as it was Miss Prince.
‘I will be waiting for you at the railway station as we have something to talk about’.
I knew that this conversation would be more a case of me being talked at rather than actually taking an active part in the conversation. I phoned my parents immediately after this call and told them that I would not need a lift home from the station immediately as I am meeting Miss Prince first. My mother knew who Miss Prince was and she didn’t say anything to me about this change in plans. Miss Prince was the first person that I saw when I stepped off of the train and it was the first time that I had ever seen her out of school when she normally wore very smart suits. Seeing her in a pair of jeans and boots with a lovely black coat on was therefore something of a shock to me but I had to admit that she looked stunningly attractive. It wasn’t a long walk to Miss Prince’s house and there was not a lot of conversation between us. On my part this was because of a real nervousness as I had never been caned before so had no idea what to expect. As soon as we were inside the house Miss Prince led me through to a large lounge and the first thing I saw was the cane sitting inertly on the coffee table. Inert it may have been at that moment but it seemed to taunt me all the same because I knew that soon enough it would not be inert.
‘I know all about your academic performance Ken and I have to tell you that I am very disappointed in you but not at all surprised. I will give you an opportunity to explain yourself in a moment or two although I am sure that I can guess at the excuses that you will come out with. Knowing that these will be excuses I have decided that I am going to give you twelve strokes of the cane in the somewhat forlorn hope that it will provide you with the necessary motivation for next term. So please tell me why I should not cane you Ken’ Miss Prince said.
‘I cannot give you a reason why you should not cane me Miss Prince. I know that I spent far too much time in the college bar with a number of very pretty young women and also drank far too much after the rugby matches that I played. I did however attend all of my classes and my marks are good enough to get me into the second year’.
‘Well that is refreshing Ken. I expected you to try and excuse your behaviour and avoid the caning. At least you appear to know your failings and while it is true that your marks will get you into the second year of your degree they are a long way short of the targets that I have set for you. These targets are based on my knowledge of just what you would be capable of if you apply yourself properly. You will therefore bare your bottom and bend over gripping the sides of the table with your hands. You will retain this position until I tell you otherwise’.
Miss Prince’s voice was very authoritative and I obeyed her instruction without hesitation for fear of disappointing her further. My experience of the cane came from reading about it and this told me that it was something to fear and fear was what I was feeling as I bent over waiting for the moment of truth to arrive. Miss Prince seemed to be in no particular hurry to commence the punishment and stood there looking at me for a couple of minutes before she walked over and picked up the cane. I then felt her rest the thin wand of wood across both of my cheeks as if letting it become acquainted with its target. I felt it being drawn away from my bottom and then I heard it descending with a swish and suddenly the swish was replaced by a crack indicating that the cane had met its target.
A very sharp sting in my bottom was the other thing that told me that the cane had made contact.
‘Fuck’ I said under my breath but obviously this expletive was not far enough under my breath as it was met with the following comment.
‘That will be three more strokes Ken’.
Miss Prince worked methodically through the remaining strokes with the cracks of the cane landing every ten seconds or so on my bottom. Each of these seemed to markedly increase the pain that I was feeling but I didn’t make the mistake of swearing again. After the twelfth stroke Miss Prince paused for longer and ran her long fingers over the stripes on my bottom.
‘But for your outburst that would have been your punishment over. I hope that these three strokes will teach you to keep control of your tongue in the future’.
The first of these strokes was soon upon me and before my brain had registered the pain the second and third strokes had landed which meant that the sting was absolutely phenomenal and I really struggled not to take my hands from the table and rub my bottom. Miss Prince could see this and left me in position for a minute or two just to see if I would disobey her instruction to stay in position until told otherwise. I didn’t disobey her because I knew that extra strokes would have been the consequence and I wanted to avoid that if I could because my bottom felt like I had sat on a patch of nettles and been stung repeatedly.
‘You may now pull up your pants and trousers Ken. I hope that this has taught you a salutory lesson Ken’ Miss Prince says with a rather disbelieving tone in her voice.
‘I will try and do better next term Miss Prince’ I respond with a slight quiver in my voice.
Miss Prince gives me a lift home and I have to try very hard not to betray my discomfort to my parents as I sit down at the dinner table that evening. Early the following afternoon Miss Prince calls in to my house to see my mother.
‘I have agreed to provide Ken with some additional tuition to help him with his university work. Would you mind if I take him to my house this afternoon for another lesson?’
‘No I would be absolutely delighted. While he was at school you were the only teacher that he ever talked about and you were also the only teacher who was able to get him to do his work so I’m sure any help you can give him will be very beneficial’.
With that I was led out of the house and took the short drive to Miss Prince’s house. I guessed that this was because I’d said the wrong thing yesterday afternoon in using the word ‘try’ instead of something like ‘will’ or ‘promise’ when talking about doing better.
‘You will get yourself back over the table Ken. I am going to give you another twelve strokes so that you WILL do much better next term’.
I am still feeling very tender from yesterday afternoon and from the first of these strokes I was yelping but my language remained polite somehow although my thoughts were far from polite at that moment. When I eventually got home my mother turned to me and said, ‘I’m so glad that Miss Prince is continuing to take an interest in your education’ and I only smiled at her because I couldn’t give her an indication of the nature of the help that Miss Prince was providing. Deep down I knew that there would be another visit to Miss Prince before the start of the new term and it came on the day before I travelled back to Lancaster.
‘I know that you have promised to try harder Ken but I am far from convinced that the memory of the earlier canings is fresh enough for it to work correctly. Therefore I am going to give you twenty four strokes now and if that still does not work then there will be more during the Easter vacation and these will be delivered with a much heavier cane’.