Take up your position

‘Ken you have been stripped of your trousers and pants and placed before that horse for a reason. Don’t just look at the horse bend over it and take your position’ Justine says to Ken and there is a real needle between the pair of them.

‘Since I beat you to the Presidency of this College you have caused me nothing but trouble and while I was prepared to let the majority of it pass without comment or action when you start to question my integrity and probity that is not something that I am prepared to let go. Arranged around this room are the members of the Senior Common Room who have extensively investigated the allegations that you have made finding them to be utterly baseless and malicious in the extreme and it was there suggestion that I administer this punishment as opposed to you being expelled from the College. Also in this room are the Officers of the Students Union who have seen the report provided by the Senior Common Room and they have agreed to this course of action and finally there is a nurse from the University Medical Service to provide medical support should it prove necessary. All of this is a case of sour grapes and at the end of the punishment you will be expected to apologise to me and to the audience for your behaviour. Do you understand me Ken?’ Justine continues and Ken can’t dispute anything that has been said as it is true that jealousy had overtaken him when Justine had been overwhelmingly voted into the position of College President against him.

‘Yes Justine I understand’ Ken answers before taking his position over the horse still not knowing what it is that is going to happen to him having been escorted to the room initially by the two College Vice-Presidents who had stripped Ken of his trousers and underpants before taking up a position in the audience to watch and no doubt offer further assistance if required. It is Justine herself who steps forward and taking her time she calmly clips Ken’s ankles and wrists into cuffs that have already been secured to the legs of the horse.

‘By the time I have finished caning you Ken you are going to regret every single word you have spoken against me’ Justine whispers in Ken’s ear as she is attaching his left wrist.

‘The members of the Senior Common Room have agreed a sentence of eighteen strokes of the cane and I shall now carry out this sentence’ Justine announces at last letting Ken know what he is facing and when Justine starts to tap the cane against Ken’s bottom the fear that he had been feeling jumped up several notches. Justine taps the cane a couple of times before there is a pause and then Ken hears the cane cutting down through the air before landing with a crack on his bottom. Ken sucks in a deep draught of air through clenched teeth and after what seemed like both seconds and hours the second stroke was cutting through the air, landing with an even louder crack. Ken again sucks in air and this is the pattern for the next ten strokes before Justine takes a longer pause during which Ken can feel someone rubbing some liquid over his bottom and he guessed that it was the nurse applying some antiseptic. The last six strokes were harder and each of these brought a cry from Ken and he was really feeling the strokes and after the eighteenth had been delivered he gave a particularly loud cry. After Justine had released Ken’s wrists and ankles she instructed him to stand up and make his apologies and there was a pause so that Ken could get some breath and steadiness into his voice but this was misinterpreted.

‘If you do not apologise immediately Ken you will receive a further six strokes of the cane’ the Head of the Senior Common Room announces.

‘I am very sorry for the trouble that I have caused you Justine and for questioning your integrity, it was done out of jealousy and has no basis in fact and I apologise for the amount of effort that the Senior Common Room have had to put into investigating these claims’ Ken says with a faltering voice.

It’s too late for that now

Ken has had the pleasure of serving as Sally-Anne’s slave for a number of years after they had had a chat about how to cope with the changes in circumstances that arose from Sally-Anne’s promotion to a senior position in the company she worked for which came about the same time that Ken was made redundant from his own job. There had always been a Dominant and submissive dynamic in the relationship between Ken and Sally-Anne and on the occasions when they’d been on holiday for a full 2 weeks together they had lived out the Mistress/slave relationship but it was still quite a step to move to living it fully so they agreed upon a trial period of 6 months which was the amount of salary that Ken got as a redundancy payment so he didn’t need to look for a job during this period anyway. Within 3 months of the trial both Ken and Sally-Anne knew that it was what they both wanted so it became a permanent fixture and Ken didn’t even consider looking for a job as all of his focus was on keeping the house, and Sally-Anne’s personal affairs in perfect order.

Keeping the house in perfect order was Ken’s main priority and this included always having a meal and drink ready for Sally-Anne when she got in from work, ensuring that the house was spotless and that an outfit was waiting in the bedroom for Sally-Anne to change into. Following the meal Ken ran Sally-Anne a bath and he knelt by the bath in case Sally-Anne wanted him to assist in bathing her which she did sometimes but mainly he was there to act as a listening ear for Sally-Anne who talked through her day in detail and asked Ken questions about things that were going on. The remainder of the evening was completely unstructured and revolved around Ken serving Sally-Anne’s desires whatever they were and without any prompting Ken would happily admit that he’d never been as happy and contented as he was now.

It was very rare for Sally-Anne to have to punish Ken for any failure but Ken was well aware what would happen should punishment be required because the play sessions that Sally-Anne put Ken through were intense enough and regularly took him to places he never thought it possible to reach. One time though Ken did make a serious error in double booking Sally-Anne for an evening out with two different sets of friends which left her with the embarrassing situation of having to apologise to one set of people and in the end she cancelled both events and came home to find Ken working away on cleaning the kitchen.

Sally-Anne didn’t have to say anything as her anger was clear from the look on her face and she walked straight over to the stand of implements that resided in one corner of the lounge. By the time that Sally-Anne had selected her chosen whip Ken had prostrated himself on his knees on the floor in the centre of the lounge with his head on the carpet between his outstretched arms leaving his back and bottom completely exposed.

‘It’s too late for that to save you now Ken but it is good to see that you recognise that I am very angry with you and are trying to atone for your error’ Sally-Anne says as she is standing over Ken holding the whip ominously, ‘your error was to double book me for this evening and I had to embarrass myself in apologising to my girlfriends and as you know I do not like being embarrassed in any situation so I decided that as opposed to remaining with the group that I had met I chose to come home and deal with you. I know that it was a genuine mistake but I need to ensure that you take more care from now on’ Sally-Anne continues before lashing the whip down onto Ken’s back.

Whether it was Sally-Anne’s anger or Ken’s disappointment at having made her angry the lash seemed to have a much deeper bite than normal but Ken remains silent. The second lash soon arrives and again it is directed at his back but the next half dozen lashes are directed at his bottom and these start to bring moans from Ken as it wasn’t that long since Sally-Anne had caned him and these marks were still evident. Apart from the crack as the whip landed on Ken’s back or bottom and his moans there was absolute silence in the room which was one of the ways that Sally-Anne made it obvious that this was a punishment as generally she spoke to Ken throughout their play sessions.

‘Your punishment is over Ken I trust that you will take more care over managing my diary from now on. Now you will kiss the hand that has just whipped you and return the whip to its rightful place before resuming your current position’ Sally-Anne says.

The oppressor and the oppressed

I have recently taken up a position as a manager within a private company that was owned by Miss Stewart who ran it along the lines of a very strict private school with managers expected to keep the staff in line with the aid of the paddle, strap and cane. This is a new situation for me and one that I’m not completely comfortable with and throughout my probationary period I don’t make any use of it so it’s a little bit of a surprise when I get through my final review without any mention being made of it although I’ve proved that I can maintain discipline and performance in my team without using it.

I am working on a policy document in my office one afternoon when I’m called to a meeting with Miss Stewart and as I’m waiting with her PA I feel like I’m back at school waiting to see the Headmistress. Momentarily all of my professional confidence disappeared and I was transported back to my own school days when a visit to the Headmistress’ office always resulted in a very sore bottom. I chuckled to myself when I realised what had happened and I hoped that it was not going to happen this time even though I knew that I’d done nothing wrong but the reality turns out to be much worse.

‘I have just caught three of the junior staff from your team shopping in the city which is very surprising as they had all called in sick this morning and they have all agreed to being punished with twelve strokes of the cane instead of a one week loss of pay and I have decided that you, as their team leader, are going to administer this punishment’ Miss Stewart says calmly.

‘I am sure you know very well that I have not used corporal punishment on any member of my team so why are you asking me to do this?’ I ask.

‘Yes I am aware of your antipathy towards the use of corporal punishment on your team however you will be well aware that it is part of your contract of employment that you will carry out such punishments as are necessary when instructed to do so by myself so are you actively refusing this obligation’ Miss Stewart responds and I can tell that if I am refusing then it will signal the end of my career within the company.

‘No Miss Stewart I am not refusing however I still think it would be more appropriate for another member of staff to administer the punishment’ I answer still hoping to get out of this responsibility.

‘No Mr Williams your antipathy towards this form of punishment makes you the most appropriate person because all of the ladies who are waiting to be punished know of your feelings so it will spell out clearly to them how seriously I view their offence when they see that you are going to cane them for it and you had better not take any stupid notions of letting them off lightly because I have instructed all of the ladies to report back to me and if the punishment has not been adequately carried out then I will double the number of strokes that the girls receive and apply them myself. Do I make myself clear Mr Williams?’ Miss Stewart says.

‘Yes Miss Stewart’ I answer realising that I have little choice other than to do what she has instructed.

‘You will find Fay, Morag and Paula waiting for you in the punishment room’ Miss Stewart says as she is handing me a cane. I have to say that I wasn’t particularly surprised when I heard the three names as they are all high-spirited young ladies and they are preparing for Paula’s wedding with Fay and Morag being the two bridesmaids. I walked to the punishment room quickly keen to get this deed over as quickly as I possibly could. All three of them looked anxious standing outside of the room but this anxiety turned to shock when they saw who it was that was going to be punishing them.

‘I thought that you didn’t agree with the use of corporal punishment Mr Williams?’ Fay asks after I had led them into the punishment room itself. This question didn’t surprise me as Fay has always been the most confident of the three of them.

‘You are correct Fay I do not agree with corporal punishment however Miss Stewart has selected me to carry out the punishment and she has made it clear to me that it is part of my contract of employment to do it so here I am’ I answer.

‘We wouldn’t want to lose you as a boss as you are so good to work for so you must do as Miss Stewart wishes and you must do it properly even though it will be difficult for you’ Fay answers before going to bend over the horse having already bared her bottom. It was obvious from the design of the bench that it could be used to hold the victim in an exposed state but I didn’t want to increase the humiliation any further so I instructed Fay to bring her legs together which she did. Although I didn’t agree with corporal punishment in this setting I do have experience of using the cane from my personal life although more naturally I am on the receiving end of it so I know what I am doing as I step forward. I tap the cane against Fay’s bottom a couple of times to get my distance before delivering a firm first stroke that leaves a red line across the centre of her bottom. I wait a couple of seconds before delivering the second stroke just as hard as the first whose line had darkened nicely. By the time I had delivered the twelfth stroke of Fay’s punishment she was struggling to contain her cries and tears were rolling down her cheeks which at least should convince Miss Stewart that the punishment hadn’t been carried out properly.

Paula is next to bend over the block having bared her bottom for me and she copies the position that Fay had been in. Although I do not cane Paula any harder than I had Fay the marks on her bottom are much more vivid and she doesn’t even try to stifle her cries with each stroke which makes me feel terrible but with the threat from Miss Stewart to double the punishment and carry it out herself I dare not let Paula off any easier. Morag is the most delicate looking of the three girls and her bottom is the smallest target but she specifically warns me not to let her off any more lightly because of this. I made sure that I didn’t go easy on Morag but she didn’t make any sound during the punishment and her face was clear of tears when she stood up. I made a final check on all three bottoms before sending the girls to Miss Stewart I was confident that none of them would face the extra punishment although I feared that this would see her putting me down for more of these formal punishments.

I hated what I’d had to do to the three ladies that afternoon and I was very down on myself for not standing up to Miss Stewart and refusing to carry out the punishment even though I knew that it really wasn’t an option if I wanted to stay in the company. Knowing that I would probably be asked to carry out similar punishments in the future made me consider my position and whether I could face the prospect of staying at the school after the end of this year. In the early evening there is a knock at my door and I open it to find Fay, Morag and Paula standing there. They looked happy and radiant as if nothing had happened that afternoon which surprised me as I had no doubt that they would still be feeling the after effects of the caning. I invite all three of them in and take them through to the lounge where there is a bottle of wine open on the dinner table. All three of the ladies look longingly at the wine so I go and open another bottle before pouring them a glass and wait to find out the reason why they are here.

‘I know that you will be feeling absolutely awful at what you had to do to us this afternoon because of your aversion towards applying corporal punishment to your team and the three of us talked about this and think that we have come up with a plan that should make you feel better about yourself. You have told us all that you feel that the use of corporal punishment in this setting is a form of bullying and is counterproductive to establishing a good working relationship between boss and staff. We prefer to look at this from the point of view of the oppressor and the oppressed since you as our manager are in a position of authority and power and can use this to oppress the staff and the use of corporal punishment is a direct physical sanction to suppress the staff just like colonial powers used to use on their subjects. Regardless of whether we look at this in terms of bullying or oppression there is no denying that ultimately in every situation the oppressed minority will rise up and challenge the oppressor. You played the role of our oppressor this afternoon, effectively even if it was unwillingly, and our plan is to show you just how the oppressed will rise up and challenge the oppression’ Fay explains as Morag has taken a heavy looking tawse from her bag.

‘That is a very powerful and cogent argument Fay and I accept the validity of it. I could continue to play the part of the oppressor and refuse to accept your position but I will not do so. Instead I will place myself at your mercy and accept whatever punishment you feel is necessary to wipe the slate clean’ I answer

‘Thank you Mr Williams. Resistance would have been futile anyway as it is 3 against 1. Your punishment will be twelve strokes with this tawse from each of us to match what you did to us as we are fair and will not take advantage of your inner anguish since that would be little better than becoming the oppressor ourselves’ Fay continues, ‘you will bare your bottom and take up position over the table for your punishment’ she concludes. I obey and even before the punishment begins I feel like a weight has been taken off of my shoulders although I am nervous at the same time because it is some time since I was last punished.

Morag is still holding the tawse and she steps forward resting it against my bottom for a second or two before swinging it down with a surprising amount of force and no little skill. It lands with a loud splat and I feel the instant heat in my bottom. A couple of seconds later the second stroke arrives and it is just as hard but the inexperience shows through in the aim as it has landed at the top of my thighs. Morag works through her strokes quickly and then hands the tawse over to Paula who doesn’t have the same weight of stroke almost as if she didn’t really feel it was right what she was doing. This certainly couldn’t be said of Fay who delivered a very hard first stroke and this brought a clench of my bottom showing just how much that I had felt it. As Fay continued to punish me this hard my guilt at having punished them started to slip away because I was getting it back but it has also reawakened my love of receiving corporal punishment. There are tears in my eyes by the time Fay has delivered her twelfth and final stroke but they are almost tears of relief rather than pain. Morag and Paula leave the house almost as soon as the final stroke has landed but Fay remains and she is still holding the tawse. Fay pulls me upright and turns me to face her before gently brushing away the tears from my face with her fingertips.

‘Are you okay?’ Fay asks.

‘Yes I am okay’ I answer although it sounds unconvincing even to me.

‘Now I want the real answer Ken’ Fay says as she is looking deep into my eyes. There was something in those eyes that made me crumble and tell her everything even though I didn’t want to burden her with my problems.

‘From an early stage of my sexual development I have been aware that I have had different feelings from most men but it was only about five years ago that I realised what these differences truly were. I was going out with a girl at university at the time and one night she spanked me and then made me serve her sexually all night before spanking me again in the morning because I had failed to satisfy her. It wasn’t a serious relationship so it didn’t last that long but it made me aware that I wanted to be submissive towards a woman but I tried to ignore it and hide it particularly when I got engaged a couple of years ago to a girl on my postgraduate course. Eventually I couldn’t hide the feelings from Jo but when I told her that I wanted her to spank and cane me she reacted very badly and broke off the engagement. That was eighteen months ago and I have come to terms with my own feelings but until now I haven’t admitted them to anyone else for fear of another rejection and as I know I can’t live a lie I haven’t been able to commit to a serious relationship since then’ I explain quietly.

‘I know what you mean’ Fay says at the end and even though she is younger than me I realised that she was genuinely saying it, ‘my feelings are the opposite too yours because ever since I started to play with myself all of my fantasies have been about situations where I am in control of people and can do what I want to them because they are my slaves. I have imagined tying them up, caning them, using them sexually and being served by them. I was very uncomfortable with these fantasies particularly when they got harder but I came across a copy of a magazine earlier this year that had an article on SM and another on Dom/sub relationships both of which chimed with what I wanted and reassured me that I wasn’t alone in what I wanted. I haven’t experienced the outright rejection that you have because I have never had a proper boyfriend but I do know that I can’t talk about this with any of my girlfriends because I left the article lying around in our staff room and the most positive comment was ‘that’s disgusting’ and everyone who spoke really meant it’ Fay explained as we had both sat down on the sofa looking at each other.

‘I have lots of books, magazines and websites bookmarked on my laptop that you are welcome to look at if you want to learn more about any of your interests’ I say to Fay but she has other more direct ideas.

‘Reading and looking at things on the web is good Ken but I think I am ready to explore things on a more practical level and it sounds like you have already explored at a surface level but want to go deeper so we are in the perfect position to come to terms with our mutual desires through play and experimentation’ Fay says confidently.

‘While it would be absolutely wonderful to explore these feelings with you Fay I don’t think we can do it because of the fact that I am your boss and if we are caught then no-one will believe that I am not taking advantage of you even though you are the dominant party and in any case Miss Stewart does not allow relationships within the staff’ I answer.

‘I am sure that we can both be careful enough not to get caught and in any case I am already looking to leave the company as I need more responsibility than I will ever get there and I reckon that you will be leaving this summer as well because Miss Stewart will know just how effective your caning was so she will get you to administer more of them and you will find that very difficult to do’ Fay comments and the last bit was almost as if she had been reading my mind earlier in the evening. I wasn’t entirely sure that we would be able to hide a relationship very well as I imagined that it would become very powerful very quickly but I get carried away when Fay stands up and drops her jeans before showing me the still livid marks that were decorating her bottom.

‘You put those there Ken so it is only fair that you now kiss them better for me’ Fay says pushing her bottom into my face as she was finishing the sentence. I place my hands on her hips and kiss my way gently along each of the welts before I trace the tip of my tongue along them. Both actions bring a shiver and a moan from Fay. I gently spread the cheeks of her bottom apart and start to bathe Fay’s delicate sex in kisses and long, lapping strokes of my tongue. Fay pushes back harder against my face indicating her desire for me to continue and I did until she experienced what was a very violent climax that covered my face in her hot, sweet juices. Fay wobbled as the climax overtook her so I wrapped my arms around her waist and helped her gently down onto the sofa where she looked absolutely shattered.

‘How do you feel?’ I ask having pulled Fay back so that her head is resting on my chest and she is looking up at me.

‘I don’t quite know how to describe what I am feeling. That is the most intense sensation I have ever experienced and it is the very first orgasm I’ve had where someone else has been involved. I am going to love having you as my sexual servant in a few months time and you are going to be the one to take my virginity but we are definitely going to have to wait until after one of us leaves the company to play together because there is no way that I could hide my desire for more if we start now’ Fay says, ‘but I will still come round regularly so that I can read your books and look at these web sites’ Fay continues thinking out loud almost.

We were able to stay very restrained with each other until after Fay handed her resignation in and as she had predicted I had also handed in my resignation because Miss Stewart had made me carry out another couple of canings. These factors meant that there was absolutely no restriction on Fay and me playing with each other and developing a deeply satisfying relationship.

Caught smoking

Our school realised that it had a problem when six senior pupils were caught smoking in three separate incidents within thirty minutes of each other. All six of us were waiting outside the Headmistress’ office as she had hastily convened a meeting of her senior staff to discuss the situation and we all feared the worst, particularly as the wait lengthened. The first action though was for a search of every senior pupil and every senior common room to be carried out to find evidence of smoking. This added a couple of people to the line outside of her office including one real surprise in Emma-Jane, the deputy Headgirl. All eight of us were herded into the Headmistress’ office together which suggested a public punishment which would be very humiliating for all of us as the group was evenly split between boys and girls.

‘I am sure that I do not need to tell any of you that smoking is expressly forbidden in the school rules yet you have all either been caught in the act or caught with smoking materials in your direct possession. Given the scale of the problem we have decided that punishing you in the traditional manner will not be much use so instead we are going to send all of you away to a private clinic for one week in the hope of curing you of this filthy habit before it really takes hold of you. You will find that a bag has already been packed for each of you and your week will start immediately. Should any of you still persist in smoking after this treatment then I can assure you that the punishment you will receive will be exemplary for you and everyone else in the school as it will be a full public spectacle’ the Headmistress says calmly and despite this last warning I know that I breathed a sigh of relief at having avoided what I’d considered an almost inevitable caning.

We were all led out to the school minibus and noticed that on top of our bags were a full packet of cigarettes which amazed me, and the others to judge from the looks on their faces. It was a good couple of hours drive before we arrived at a very remote country house overlooking beautiful mountains and a loch but somehow what should have been a very picturesque scene actually felt very desolate. We were escorted into the house by a couple of youngish women and were then taken straight to our rooms which were equally desolate feeling as they only contained a single bed, a chair and a wardrobe. The rooms weren’t even en-suite which meant that we couldn’t have a fly cigarette in the bathroom.

‘The room is fully air conditioned so the window cannot be opened so don’t even bother trying’ I was told while unpacking under close supervision by a member of staff thereby removing a further escape route for any cigarette smoke. Once I had finished unpacking I was instructed to pick up my cigarettes and follow the staff member down to a large room where a couple of the others were already waiting. Standing at the head of the room were two older women and very worryingly one of them was holding a very thick looking cane in her hands while the other was holding an even more evil looking tawse. Both were toying with these implements in their hands just to raise the tension even more.

‘Welcome to the addiction breaking centre. We are the program leaders for your stay here with us. You will hand over your packet of cigarettes so that we can check how many are in the packet’ the woman holding the cane said and each of our escorts stepped forward to take the cigarettes from us. All of the packets were unopened ones of twenty.

‘We employ a tough regime to break the filthy habit of smoking which will test your willpower to its limits thereby strengthening it. For each cigarette that you have you will receive one stroke of the tawse on the bare bottom in front of the group. Your cigarettes will then be returned to your possession but throughout the week long program they will be checked at regular, and random, intervals to ensure that the same numbers remain. Should this not be the case then you will receive the initial punishment plus the number you have smoked multiplied by twenty. What this means is that one cigarette will earn you forty strokes of punishment while twenty would earn you four hundred and twenty strokes. Do you have any questions on what I have just said?’ the woman asks and we were all too frightened to speak so were called forward individually and fortunately or unfortunately, I couldn’t decide which it was, I was the first to have to step forward.

‘You will bare your bottom and then bend over the horse’ I was ordered and I just stood still for a couple of seconds unable to believe that this was actually happening.

‘Failure to obey my instruction will only increase your punishment and this is your first and final warning. Bare your bottom and bend over the horse’ was the sharper command and this time I did it fearful of an increase in the punishment. Two of the escorts stepped forward to take hold of my hands holding me down while the woman tapped the tawse against my bottom and this really worried me so what it did to those watching I don’t know. It wasn’t that long since I’d been tawsed on the bottom at school but as soon as the first stroke cannons into my bottom I know that this is going to be many times worse than what happened at school. The slap as the leather connected with my skin was very loud and it felt like it had pushed right through my bottom to come out the other side. I was far too taken aback to make a sound and as I was trying to work out how I was going to get through the remaining strokes the second one landed even harder it seemed. By the time we were at the end of the punishment tears were rolling down my face and this would probably frighten the others even more because it was the first time it had ever happened to me.

‘You will replace your pants and trousers before taking your place in the line to watch the remainder of the punishments as witnessing your friends suffering will drive home the point to you that smoking is a vile habit’ I was told. They were right it was almost as bad watching everyone else receiving their punishment as it had been to receive it and without exception everyone was left in tears by the tawsing.

‘All of the punishments that you receive at the addiction breaking centre will be given at that level of severity so you would all be advised not to give in to the temptation to smoke a cigarette. In addition to the punishments we will be interviewing you extensively to find out your individual reasons for smoking and we will then devise a program to eradicate this reason or reasons’ we were told and although they didn’t tell us the method of eradication we could all have a pretty good guess and I know that I didn’t want to think about it.

There was one exception to the feeling of it being worse watching the others being punished and that was the fact that I’d witnessed Emma-Jane’s punishment and I’m fairly sure that this held true for all of the others as well. Emma-Jane seemed to feel this herself as she was visibly seething at the fact that her punishment had been witnessed by us because at school she treated each and every one of us as if we weren’t good enough for her. Because of this Emma-Jane was easily the most disliked girl in the school so to have seen her bawling her eyes out under the ruthless tawse was a real delight as it would be difficult for her to maintain her haughty arrogance with us now.

Even I didn’t count on Emma-Jane’s cruelty though. I caught her stealing and smoking one of my cigarettes during the evening but I didn’t confront her at the time. Instead I told the others and we decided to take our revenge that night after lights out as the rooms were not locked. Before that though there was a spot check on our cigarettes and I was the only one to be found one short. A very long lecture was delivered to me, designed to frighten the others as much as me, before the instruction came to bare my bottom and get over the horse. I didn’t hesitate this time as I knew that the punishment was going to be double what I had received earlier and this thought was frightening enough.

Again I was held down as the other program leader stepped forward with her cane. I was soon whimpering with the pain and then pleading for an end to the punishment but it had absolutely no effect as it carried on remorselessly until all forty strokes had been delivered. I felt that my bottom must have been cut to ribbons by the caning and I felt that I would never sit comfortably again. To add insult to my injury I caught sight of a very evil grin on Emma-Jane’s face as I stood up at the end of the punishment and this really made my blood boil as it was clear now that she’d done it just to see me beaten as opposed to actually wanting the cigarette.

Shortly after lights out the seven of us silently left our rooms and made our way along the corridor to Emma-Jane’s room where we found her half-asleep face down on top of her bed with her bare bottom on display. She went to scream as she saw us surrounding the bed but one of the other girls was too quick for her and stuffed a pair of knickers into her mouth.

‘You are an evil bitch Emma-Jane. I saw you stealing the cigarette that I was thrashed for and then grinning at the end of the caning because you did it just to have the pleasure of seeing me beaten. Well now it is time for you to pay for this cruelty’ I say quietly and calmly which surprised me as I was still livid with what she’d done. Each of us spanked Emma-Jane for a full five minutes with me at the end of the line and by the time I got my chance her bottom was already scarlet and her tears were flowing into the pillow but the pain in my own bottom meant that I didn’t have a shred of sympathy for her. My hand crashed down into her bottom hundreds of times but this was the easy part of our revenge because we each then took a cigarette from her packet and smoked it in her room. This meant that we would all get to see Emma-Jane suffering through a one hundred and sixty stroke thrashing the next day and she knew it as well. The gag was removed and we left Emma-Jane sobbing into her pillows. They were random in their checks of the cigarettes because I would have expected one as soon as we were woken in the morning but it didn’t happen.

‘I’m sorry for yesterday Ken. I’m also sorry for treating you all like something that the cat dragged in. Can we call a truce please?’ a very piteous looking Emma-Jane asked us as she came to the breakfast table. As I had been the person to suffer most everyone else looked at me for the reaction to this plea which I certainly felt was genuine.

‘Yes Emma-Jane we can call a truce’ I answered before extending my hand towards Emma-Jane who took it and everyone else nodded in her direction indicating that they had accepted her apology.  It was immediately after breakfast when the next spot check was carried out and this time it was only Emma-Jane who was found to be short of cigarettes in her packet. Emma-Jane listened to her lecture and when asked at the end if she had smoked all of the cigarettes herself she replied that she had confirming the sincerity of her apology. Emma-Jane then took up the familiar position over the horse but this time instead of being held down both her ankles and wrists were fitted into tight leather restraints which were fixed to the horse giving an indication of the severity of the ordeal facing her. The first eighty strokes of the punishment were given with a small but very hard leather paddle and these reddened up all of her bottom bringing tears from her but no sounds. This was about to change though as the next forty strokes were given with the tawse and by the end of it the bruising was already visible on her bottom but she still had the caning to come and I had some idea of how bad it was going to be and wouldn’t have swapped places with her for any amount of money so this was probably what convinced me to stop smoking more than anything else.

Emma-Jane’s composure deserted her with the first stroke of the cane as it was followed by a loud cry and then just as I had she started to plead with them but it didn’t do her any good. I almost couldn’t watch the caning but the remaining staff watched us closely to make sure that we did watch. I certainly felt genuine sorrow and pity for Emma-Jane by the time that the punishment was over and realised that we had been very harsh to sentence her to this punishment, a punishment which had extracted a very heavy price from her bottom including a number of cuts across its surface. She managed to make it back into the line and was standing next to me which meant that I could see just how unsteady she was on her feet and I moved up next to her so that she could lean her body against mine which was what she did.

At the end of the ensuing lecture we were dismissed for an hour and I led Emma-Jane up to her room and laid her face down on the bed. One of the staff gave me some soothing cream and I spent the next hour gently massaging lots of this into Emma-Jane’s bottom to try and relieve some of the agony that she was feeling. Emma-Jane and I ended up spending a lot of time together over the next week because our reasons for smoking were identical. We thought that it was cool and we could were our reasons. I got to know the real Emma-Jane during this week and saw that the haughty arrogance she’d displayed were actually masking a deep insecurity and fear of rejection. She was taking the approach of rejecting everyone first so that they couldn’t reject her later on. Having seen this I realised that there was a chance of building something with her because she was close to my physical ideal being tall and curvy but what really did it for me was the mane of red hair that she had.

When we returned to the school we were all minus the cigarettes as they had been kept at the addiction breaking centre and I know that the last thing I was going to do was buy any more so it had worked. I continued to spend a lot of time with Emma-Jane when we got back to the school and everyone thought I’d gone mad but I didn’t mind what they thought because I’d grown too really like her and managed to get her to go out with me a few times. She needed lots of reassurance to begin with as she couldn’t quite believe that I wasn’t only interested in her because of her position in the school or for her name. Gradually though I got through this and she saw that I genuinely did care for her and when this happened she began to trust me and she then opened up with others in the school and this surprised them. I had persevered through the difficult times because I had realised that this was the first relationship which had actually meant something to me and Emma-Jane saw this as well so when we left school we got engaged and we never did smoke again.

Another new school

My parents have just been transferred to another branch of their company and as the transfer happened during the summer before I started the final two years of my schooling they decided that it would be best if I came with them. I wasn’t too happy with this because I’d made some really good friends in my last school and because the teachers tended to indulge me a bit as I was intelligent but lazy. Neither of these were good enough reasons to convince my parents to let me stay with my grandparents and remain in this school and nor was the fact that I was likely to be named captain of the rugby team so in the end I gave up the argument and moved down to England. Our new address placed me in the catchment area for ‘The Academy’ which had been recommended as the best school in the town by colleagues of my parents and they went to see the Headmistress to check out the school for themselves. I was not taken to this meeting but full details of my previous schooling went with them which would reveal my failings academically and I had no doubt that these would have been noted and will be acted upon at the start of the year.

‘We are very happy with the school and that is where you will be going and the Headmistress has told us that they do have a very good rugby team that you will be welcome to try out for’ my mum says trying to soften my discontent slightly.

I am still unhappy with the situation so I am very grumpy on the morning that I am starting at my new school and the fact that I have to visit the Headmistress first off does not help this one little bit. Miss Hood is the Headmistress and I try to get a feel for her in the first few moments of this meeting to see if I am going to be able to get the same sort of treatment here as I had in my previous school. Miss Hood looked to be in her early forties, she was very elegantly dressed in a suit, and although quite short in stature her natural authority and control came through the moment she started to speak to me about my record at my previous school.

‘Definitely could do better’ was how Miss Hood started the conversation and I knew that it was true but I didn’t want to admit it to her so sat quietly waiting for her to continue.

‘The Academy has a strong and justifiable reputation for academic excellent, strict discipline and sporting success all of which will clearly be of benefit to you. Your marks in exams show your intelligence but equally your coursework marks show your laziness, a trait that I personally find abhorrent in my pupils, so you can be sure that we will be challenging your intelligence and keeping a very close eye on your application and dedication. Your behaviour will be tightly controlled at all times and I can assure you that you will not be indulged by me, or any of my teachers, as you were at your previous school where you seemed to think you could walk on water. Am I making myself clear?’ Miss Hood asks at the end of her statement which had confirmed my worst fears about the school.

‘Yes Miss Hood you have made yourself perfectly clear’ I answer sullenly.

‘Stand up and bend over my desk’ Miss Hood responds acidly and I look at her questioningly but am simply met by a steely, unblinking gaze that inspires obedience in me. I watch as Miss Hood picks up a cane from the side of her bookcase and walks round the desk to stand behind me. Corporal punishment had been a very rare event in my previous school and I certainly had never experienced it so this was going to be a horrible new experience for me it appeared. I felt Miss Hood tapping the cane against my bottom a couple of times before I hear a horrible ‘Swish’ followed moments later by a sharp ‘Crack’ as the cane lands across the very centre of my trousers. I let out a yelp of both surprise and pain at the line of fire that has been left across my bottom by the cane. Miss Hood walks back to the other side of the desk and resumes her place in the chair before speaking to me again.

‘Stand up and look at me. If you have the misfortune to be in this office in the future then it will be for punishment and that punishment will be a minimum of six strokes, and probably more, of that weight on your bare bottom so I would think very carefully about your behaviour and your work ethic. Do I make myself clear?’ Miss Hood asks.

‘Yes Miss Hood’ I answer much more meekly this time.

‘You will now accompany the Headgirl who will show you round the school and give you an introduction to the rules that you will obey’ Miss Hood says and seconds later there is a knock at her door.

‘Headgirl this is a new pupil to the senior school so would you be so kind as to give him a tour of the school and introduce him to the rules before taking him to his first class after the morning break’ Miss Hood says.

‘It would be my pleasure Headmistress’ the Headgirl answers and even just from these words I got the feeling that she was the epitome of an efficient and effective Headgirl who would take great pleasure in overseeing the rules outside of the classroom. I am led out of the room by the Headgirl who introduces herself to me as Tamsin and as she is taking me round the school she is talking to me all the way mainly about the rules, which seem very strict and all-encompassing, and the way that punishments are administered.

‘Ken, I’m sure that Miss Hood said to you that your behaviour will be constantly monitored in this school and let me tell you that details of your record have already been passed to all the Prefects so we will also be keeping a very close eye on you. A first offence in a class will result in a verbal warning from the teacher and any subsequent offence will be punished with six strokes of the slipper on your bare bottom in front of the class. Every punishment and verbal warning that you receive will be entered on your record and this will be reviewed weekly by me, the Headmistress, and the Headboy. If you have been tawsed more than once in the week then you will definitely have to attend an interview with the Headmistress on the Friday afternoon when as you are no doubt aware you will be caned. Outside of the classroom Prefects are in control and we will take a note of any offence and pass it on to your form teacher for whatever sanction they feel is necessary and appropriate’ Tamsin explains making me even more grumpy with the school.

Tamsin seems delighted by the fact that she has worried me with her description of the way that punishments are administered and I am quickly introduced to the slipper in my first class at the school. It was mathematics and this has never been my favourite subject even though I am generally good with numbers. It was Miss Innes who took this class and although she is quite a young teacher this didn’t make her a pushover as the slippering that she gave me was very firm. Having to bare my bottom in front of the class of boys and girls was quite humiliating and by the sixth stroke I was close to tears when I was sent back to my desk to continue with the lesson. I was soon to discover that almost everyone was in the same state by the end of a slippering as it was a regular sanction in each class. I immediately developed a hatred for the school and had a moan at my parents when I got home that evening.

‘Well you will just have to learn to behave properly to avoid the punishment then’ was the rather unsympathetic response from my father. I couldn’t do it quickly enough though and received two more slipperings during that first week and at lunchtime Tamsin came and found me.

‘You will report to the Headmistress at 3pm this afternoon’ was all she said but the smile on her face told me just how much pleasure she took in this statement. I found myself standing at the end of a line of five pupils and was the last to be called into the room. I almost wished that I was deaf at that moment because listening to the sounds of the other four being punished was a torture in itself for me. After each stroke there was a cry of pain and when each of them stepped out of the room they were clutching their bottoms and had tears streaming down their faces. I was called into the Headmistress’ office and my eyes immediately focused on the cane that was lying passively on Miss Hood’s desk. It looked longer and thicker than the one Miss Hood had used on me on Monday but this might have been my eyes and fear playing tricks on me.

Miss Hood was sitting behind her desk but she was not the only person in the room because her secretary was sitting on a stool by the fireplace which seemed strange to me. Miss Hood called me to stand in front of her desk and she questioned me extensively and stringently on why I had been punished three times during this first week. My answers to her questions obviously didn’t please Miss Hood or give her the feeling that I had listened to her warning earlier in the week so it was no great surprise when I was sentenced to twelve strokes of the cane. I watched Miss Hood’s secretary standing up from the stool and I was ordered to remove my trousers and then stand in front of the stool facing the fireplace.

‘As this is your first time under formal punishment I will explain the procedure to you and this will be followed on each occasion that you are in this room for punishment’ Miss Hood says, ‘you will remove your pants and hand them to my secretary before bending over the stool with your feet on the outside of its legs. You will grip the lowest of the brass rails that you can reach at the front of the fireplace. You will retain this position until I instruct you to move and any failure to do so will result in the punishment starting again from the beginning’ Miss Hood says as she is picking up the cane and swishing it through the air. I obeyed the instructions to the letter and once I’d handed over my pants the secretary moved behind me presumably to get a better view of the punishment that was about to be administered. This position over the stool made me feel even more exposed and vulnerable than I’d felt in my life and then the first stroke landed with a fearsome crack. It was far worse than the stroke on Monday and I immediately wondered how I was going to get through the remaining eleven strokes.

I heard the secretary counting off the stroke number and only after it had been counted did the next stroke arrive. This second stroke was even worse than the first one and I only just caught the yell in my throat. Miss Hood’s secretary counted off the strokes in her own sweet time sometimes very quickly and sometimes leaving what felt like minutes. This unpredictability made the punishment seem even worse and I was soon crying out just as everyone before me had and by the time I was finally dismissed from the room I was glad that it was the end of the day because I didn’t think I could have sat comfortably at any school desk. I wasn’t even sure that my bed or the soft sofa at home would be comfortable but at least I had come through the ordeal. I won a place on the rugby team which at least provided me with some relief and I was generally popular with the pupils as well particularly because my sharp tongue often got me into trouble taking the attention away from them.

During my first year in the school I started to go out with Anna, one of the girls who was also in her fifth year, even though we both knew that relationships other than friendships were strictly forbidden by the school rules and we were certainly more than just friends. Anna was elected to the role of Prefect for the sixth year which meant that we had to be even more careful to conceal the relationship from everyone as the consequences for Anna would have been much worse due to the abuse of her position this would represent. Once a fortnight Anna has a day when she is not on duty in the dining hall so we independently walked to a spot out of the school grounds, another breach of the rules, where we started to kiss. We thought we had been very careful and avoided getting caught but this was not the case. Immediately after lunch I was summoned from my class and instructed to make my way to Miss Hood’s office. I was no stranger to this office but Miss Hood seemed to be in a particularly antsy mood this afternoon.

‘Ken not content with being seen out of bounds this lunchtime you were also seen kissing a girl from this school’ Miss Hood says and I realised that she didn’t know who it was I’d been kissing otherwise the girl would have been named or even be here already.

‘Yes that is correct Miss Hood’ I answer.

‘I would advise you not to play games with me Ken. If you tell me who you were kissing then you will receive two dozen strokes of the cane but if you do not you will receive two dozen with both the cane and the birch. How does four dozen strike you?’ Miss Hood asks.

‘Forty-eight times’ I answer and even I was shocked by my impertinence and there is a look of surprise on Miss Hood’s face as well.

‘For that wisecrack your punishment will now be four dozen and should you fail to tell me the name of the girl it will be doubled’ Miss Hood says quietly and just like my mother it was when she spoke so quietly and calmly that you knew you were in real trouble.

‘I will not tell you who I was kissing’ I answer because I am not prepared to drop Anna in the mire.

‘You are being very stupid Ken so I will give you five minutes to reconsider your position’ Miss Hood says but I still refuse to give her the name when I am given the second chance to do so.

‘You have been very stupid Ken because I will find out who it was eventually and you could have saved yourself a lot of pain because in addition to the four dozen with the cane and the birch you will now be in a one hour detention each evening for the next two weeks and I need not remind you that a slippering tops and tails each detention’ Miss Hood says. Miss Hood calls her secretary into the room and I take up the required position over the stool by the fireplace while Miss Hood herself is testing each cane that she has in her collection as if trying to determine which of them will be the most punitive. It is a frightening sound but I try not to betray my fear as I know that it will only bring a further comment on my stupidity. Miss Hood taps the cane across my bottom and then the first stroke is on its way down. It lands with a very sharp report almost like a pistol shot and the sting is fearsome. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a hard first stroke from Miss Hood which indicated her anger with me perfectly. Miss Hood’s secretary called off the stroke quickly and she did this for the first four strokes so that I had little recovery time and had gasped with each.

Before the fifth stroke landed even I heard the sound from outside Miss Hood’s office and she went to investigate pulling Anna and another Prefect, Katie, into the room both of whom had been eavesdropping on the punishment. I turn my head away when I see Anna because I knew that if I saw her I would give the game away.

‘What has Ken been up to this time?’ Anna asks.

‘Never mind what Ken has been up to what were the two of you doing outside my office door?’ Miss Hood asks.

‘We were walking past the office to get to our class when we heard the cane landing and we stopped to listen’ Katie answers for both of them.

‘Well since you are so interested you can watch the punishment but then you will not mind Ken watching you receiving two dozen with the cane will you?’ Miss Hood asks rhetorically.

‘No Miss Hood’ they both answer knowing better than to argue.

‘Ken is being punished because he was out of bounds and he was seen kissing a girl from this school but foolishly he has repeatedly refused to give me the name of the girl and he made a wisecrack so his punishment is now going to be four dozen with the cane and four dozen with the birch’ Miss Hood explains and I am praying that Anna will keep her mouth shut for her own sake and she does. Having an audience seems to have two effects at the resumption of the caning. Firstly it spurs Miss Hood on to make the punishment even more severe and secondly it makes me try to keep my resolve for as long as possible.

There was only ever going to be one winner in this unequal fight and that was the cane which drew a cry from me when it was delivered low down on my bottom. I’ve given up even listening to the count from Miss Hood’s secretary because it doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere near the end so it just makes me feel worse. Unlike the normal Friday punishments I’ve experienced there is a defined rhythm to this punishment with flashes of agony arriving every five seconds or so until I become aware of a longer pause which I surmise means the end of the caning.

‘I’m sure that you two girls have heard the saying curiosity killed the cat well take a close look at Ken’s bottom because while your curiosity will not kill you it will certainly earn you a bottom that looks very similar to this one’ Miss Hood says to Anna and Katie. I had no idea what my bottom looked like but I knew that it felt like you could boil a kettle with the heat in it and it felt very sore as well.

I feel the birch being rested on my bottom and I feel small trickles of water running down my bottom from it. I have only been birched once in the school and it was only a dozen strokes which had been bad enough so the thought of four times this filled me with terror. Miss Hood swished the first stroke down and the pause made it even more painful  and she worked remorselessly over the centre and lower part of my bottom with almost complete overlap between the strokes until all that was coming out of my mouth were a long series of moans. At times I could hear gasps coming from Anna and Katie. This worried me and there was a particularly sharp gasp when Miss Hood selected a different birch for the final dozen strokes. This second birch was a much leaner implement almost like four canes tied together and I knew the difference as soon as the first stroke landed because it was much sharper and felt like it was tearing into my bottom. Eventually I am instructed to stand up from the stool and turn to face Miss Hood.

‘Are you now prepared to tell me the name of the girl you were kissing and save yourself from two weeks of detention’ Miss Hood asks.

‘No I am not going to give you the name of the girl I was kissing’ I answer hoping that Anna will have the sense to keep her mouth shut but she doesn’t.

‘Miss Hood it was me who kissed Ken’ Anna says nervously.

‘Is this true Ken?’ Miss Hood demands.

‘Yes Miss Hood but it was me that initiated the kiss’ I answered.

‘I really don’t care which of you kissed the other one. You both know the rules and as a Prefect you really should have known better Anna. You will both now receive two weeks of detention and Anna you will receive the full punishment that Ken has just received. Katie since your only offence is the eavesdropping you will now take up your position over the stool’ Miss Hood says and she does it. We both watch the twenty four strokes landing and each of them was very hard leaving deep red lines on Katie’s bottom.

‘You may go Katie but Ken you will remain and watch me punishing your girlfriend’ Miss Hood says at the end of Katie’s punishment.

‘Surely it is not fair that Anna receives four dozen with the birch because she had no part in my wisecrack’ I say fearfully.

‘No you are correct Ken, Anna had no influence over your wisecrack so the punishment should be two dozen with the cane and the birch plus of course the two dozen with the cane for eavesdropping’ Miss Hood says before proceeding to deliver the caning which leaves Anna’s bottom an angry red mass of stripes some of which were very close to splitting where they had crossed and I feared what the birch would do to them. A different birch was used for Anna’s punishment because the one that had been used on me would need to be disinfected before it was used again as even I could see the redness on the withes. Anna had taken the caning really well but a cry left her throat with the first stroke of the birch and hearing these cries was almost worse than the pain in my own bottom. As the cries got shriller so the torment got worse for me and I almost went over to the fireplace to take hold of Anna’s hands but I knew that if I did that we would both be whipped to a pulp so I stayed in my place but dropped my head as I couldn’t bear to see the blood slowly trickling down Anna’s bottom.

‘In addition to the detentions that you will both take together for the next two weeks Anna you will be stripped of the role of Prefect since you can clearly not be trusted to uphold the rules of the school and set an example to all of the other pupils’ Miss Hood says calmly and I watch Anna taking off her blazer and handing it over since her status was denoted by the broad stripe that is sewn around each cuff, ‘you will now get back to your classes but I will be keeping a very close eye on you and if there is even the hint of any repeat then your punishment will be much worse and it will be carried out in front of the whole school’ Miss Hood concludes.

Anna and I are scheduled to be in the same English class at that time and there was general interest in our arrival in the class because it is obvious that we have both recently been punished and are really feeling the effects of it. Our winces when we sit down were obvious to all sitting around us but thankfully Mr Smith the teacher decides not to punish us for the disruption to his class. When people find out the reason behind our punishment many of them get very nervous and wear looks that say ‘there but for the grace of god go I’ because we were by no means the only relationship in the school. Anna and I were very careful thereafter at school but as soon as we were out of uniform we could be as open as we wanted because there was absolutely nothing that Miss Hood could do about it even if she saw us as she did and she knew it.