CHAPTER 1
Astrid Cane adjusted the folds of her blue velvet gown and gazed curiously around her as she descended from her carriage assisted by a footman who had hastened down the broad stone steps of the country manor. Never before had Astrid made a social call on her own, but this first sight of Hardcastle-as the manor was called-pleased her. Its stone walls, latticed by Nature with ivy, had long mellowed with age, as if to avow their proud permanence in the county of Buckinghamshire. Glittering in the afternoon sunlight, the trellised windows offered their discreet greeting.
Unaccustomed to hurrying, the aristocratic young lady slowly ascended the steps, where a housemaid awaited her.
'Lady Tingle waits in the drawing room to welcome you, Miss'.
'Very well, you may show me through', replied Astrid languidly, dangling a small, blue parasol from her wrist.
The house was cool, smelling pleasantly of lavender and wood polish. The fragrance of newly baked bread wafted through from some distant kitchen, making Astrid's finely cut nostrils twitch agreeably. Opening two inner doors-since Society will oddly have it that it is impolite for servants to knock before entering drawing rooms-the maid announced Astrid briefly and then left her to be welcomed by her hostess.
Lady Tingle, who had just entered her fortieth year, was a woman of imposing figure. A little above medium height, she bore herself like a queen. She was attired in a black gown whose sombreness was relieved by a subtle patterning of silvery threads interwoven in the material. Her auburn hair was bunched high, her swan-like neck adorned with a black-velvet choker set in the middle with a single diamond. Her bust, being prominent, announced a rich firmness of flesh beneath, as did the arrogant thrusting of her derriere.
'You are most welcome, my dear', Lady Tingle said in a voice as soft as a dove's feathers. Without seeming to, her eyes drank in the svelte curves which the clinging of Astrid's dress accentuated. Slender, and of equal stature to her hostess, Astrid was in her twenty-third year. Her complexion was marble smooth and clear, with a pretty hint of pink in her face that was enhanced by the noble lines of her cheekbones. Her mouth was full, her lower lip being particularly voluptuous. An aquiline nose, neither long nor short, large hazel eyes, and an abundance of soft, dark hair completed the most pleasing nubile curves of her figure.'I fear that I know little enough of the purpose of my visit, save what Mama wrote to me', Astrid said.
'We must have tea and talk', Julie Tingle answered comfortably, and motioned her guest to a chair. 'You need experience no embarrassment, my dear, at the fact that we have not previously been introduced. Your dear Mama is in Switzerland, of course, and, I gather, may remain there for some time. She has naturally been concerned as to your future. You are, after all, the oldest of her daughters and the one whom she cherishes the most. Ah, here is the tea!'.
The afternoon comforts of the well-to-do having been served, and the Indian tea being of the finest, Astrid was set a little more at ease, though not a wrinkle of her clear brow betrayed the uncertainty she felt at journeying to make this visit as her mother had requested.
'I know not how long I can stay', Astrid said, failing no more than her hostess to drink in all that she saw, whether of Lady Tingle herself or of the superbly appointed drawing room with its glittering chandelier, its grey and blue silks, and the numerous pretty ornaments that lay everywhere. In particular, the eyes of her hostess attracted her glances, for they seemed to glitter with hidden lights.
'It will depend on your progress, my dear. From the little I have seen of you up to this moment, I would say that a month would suffice-perhaps less. You are here to be introduced to a world of disciplinary experiences all of which will benefit you as much as your dear Mama intends they shall'.
At this, Astrid's mouth dropped, for she could not believe that she had heard what she thought she had, all of Lady Tingle's words being uttered in the most casual fashion.
'I fear I do not quite understand', she responded.
'You have a fine, proud look, Astrid-I am pleased with that. You will not succumb easily, but then it is for the best if you do not, as will come clear to you. Those who do, often prove useless'. Rising, Julia placed her hand beneath Astrid's chin and lifted it. 'Marie, the maid, will show you to your room', she added.
Appearing at first lost for words, Astrid returned her gaze with total wonderment. 'I... I fail to understand, Lady Tingle. I cannot possibly stay more than a day or two. Papa expects...'.
'What your Papa expects and what he receives are possibly two different things, Astrid. Do, please, call me Julia. Your clothes will have been wardrobed by now and you will naturally wish to change after your journey. We have much to talk of. There are few enough young men and young women who are sent to me for whom I have any true affection. In your case, I believe I find immediately a charming exception. Ah, Marie- yes, come in. Escort Miss Cane to her room'.
'Yes, Ma'am'.
The maid had entered so silently that Astrid started and then gazed all about her as though in a dream.
'I cannot believe that Mama had any intentions other than that I should make a social call upon you', she said stiffly.
'An extremely social call, yes', Julia laughed, 'but perhaps rather more prolonged than you anticipated and certainly of a nature that you least expected. Marie, I think you had best call Tom. The young lady appears unwilling to rise. You will both assist her upstairs'.
'Madam-no!', gasped Astrid, rising quickly and utterly bewildered. 'I believe you fail to understand who I am. If you will be so kind as to have my carriage recalled, I shall leave'.
'Your carriage has long left, my dear. There is no way that you are going to leave until I judge you fit to do so. Now, Marie and Tom, take her up!'.
'How dare you! No!', screamed Astrid, who in that moment found herself in the close presence of a burly male servant and Marie. Unheard of as it was to be touched by mere servants, she felt the outrage of having her wrists seized and drawn behind her by Tom, whose grip she could find no way of escaping from without utter indignity. At the same tune, Marie took her elbow.
'To be bathed, Ma'am?', Marie asked her mistress.
'Yes, you and Amy will see to it. Have me called when it is done', Julia replied to screams from Astrid who was being propelled towards the double doors of the drawing room. Hustled into the great hallway, Astrid fought bitterly against the hands that, as she felt then, were impelling her to her doom.
'Release me! Ah, you beasts, how dare you lay hands on me!', she screeched to no avail. Bundled slowly upstairs, her feet kicked frantically until Tom wheeled her about and, with no more effort than it would take to lift a kitten, slung her over his shoulder. 'No! No! No!', moaned Astrid, beating with her fists upon his broad back the while that he reached the first landing, with Marie following. He then bore her towards a bedroom.
Meanwhile Lady Tingle languidly lit a Turkish cigarette and took from a small chest of drawers a letter which bore a Swiss stamp and which she had already perused several tunes. Astrid's cries reached her but faintly as she unfolded the delicately scented pages and regained her seat to engage herself anew in the message.
'My dearest Julia', she read, 'I write to you with a purpose that you have for several years wished and which we have not infrequently discussed. My sojourn here will be considerably extended, for the air and all about suits me as well as does that engaging rascal, Rudolph, for whose sake I have put England behind me. He and I are of mutual mind, as you well know, and thoroughly enjoy what you are occasionally pleased to call our "sporting activities" together. He is as thorough, my dear, with the strap, the cane, and the crop as ever you were, though his own sturdy buttocks are put to such in turn when I am so minded.
'His daughters, Amanda and Rose, are perfect darlings, the former being now nineteen and her sister just attaining her sixteenth year. The little devils have been well bottom-trained, I can tell you. 'Tis a pure delight to unveil their lovely round derrieres and apply the strap or birch or what you will to their refulgent cheeks. Rose is naturally a trifle more hesitant than her sister and occasionally must be held. In such matters your frequent counsels to me are well taken. "An air of mystery should attend all , I hear you saying. For this purpose an upper room of the house is set aside, all daylight being excluded by thick drapes. How delightfully the soft glow of but three oil lamps casts its subdued glimmerings over their naughty bottoms!
'Rose is not yet broken in. I would have it so in a few weeks time upon her sixteenth birthday. As yet the dear girl knows only the occasional brushing of my lips over her heated nether cheeks when the birch has swished across them a full dozen times. In coddling her afterwards, I have naturally soothed her blubberings by moving my mouth lightly upon her own. Her eyes in that mysterious gloom beseech a little more, but 'tis best to keep her for the nonce on tenterhooks. I have but flirted my fingers about her moist cunny once. How ardently her hips writhed, though naturally this sensuous movement was unspokenly understood to be solely the result of her birching!
'Amanda is quite other. We are as sisters of occasion. Her pleasure in being bound tightly, attired in a short chemise, stockings, and shoes, and with her drawers lowered just sufficiently to display the pretty muff of her pubis, is quite delightful. Thus secured, I bring her to lie upon the bed in the selfsame room of mystery, and, having kissed her once or twice upon her ruby lips, I leave her to her anticipations, frequently for a full hour or more. Her waist is slender, as are her calves and ankles, but she is otherwise plumpish, which pleases me, for she beds well thus under a male. Her nipples are thick and conical, her mouth sultry, her titties exceedingly full and firm. You would find it a rare pleasure to possess her.
'But before I am lost in such diverting details, I hasten to the matter of my darling Astrid, whose education in all these respects has been too long neglected. I need scarcely repeat what I have so often said, that my husband, Ralph, is a weakling and totally unimaginative in all matters as concern you and me intimately. Can you conceive, Julia, that, unlike his sterner brethren, he has never once put the girls to the birch? In all such respects they are complete muffs who know not the lingering pleasures that bind the more knowing of us together. As to Astrid herself, she has the core of strength that you will not fail to recognise and must take her place among such womanly ranks as you and I realise to be the only ones worthy of attainment.
'Take her, train her, my love, as you yourself once trained me in my state of unknowing. To no other could I entrust such a mission. She will emerge from the fire well tempered and perfectly understanding of the future delights to which you will have awoken her. Judging the moment as you will, you may then return her home. I expect not to hear from her until then, by which time she will surely be among the chosen, as imperious to give as she is willing to receive. That you will privately apprise me of her progress I doubt not. For the moment I must attend to that of Amanda and Rose. Deprived of the prick for a full week, Amanda's mouth has a deliciously sulky look. Her bottom must be attended to with the martinet before she receives again the manly weapon. As to Rose, I shall leave it to her papa to spank her, for he truly adores bouncing his palm off those resilient cheeks. Once he has concluded that entertaining chore, he will be in a fine, stiff condition to perform his next!
'Au 'voir, my darling Julia. I wait breathlessly upon your first report'.
Your ever adoring,
Cynthia
Bringing the perfumed pages to her lips in a token salute, Julia smiled reminiscently. It was she indeed who more than twenty years before had first put Lady Cynthia Cane's bottom to the crop before it received its first libation of sperm. Ever before Julia's eyes was the sight of Cynthia's red-streaked bottom, her howls and cries resounding through the stable to which she had been taken. Wrists bound-'to prevent any nonsense', as Julia put it-Cynthia had been hauled over a bale of straw, drawers at the ankles, and her skirts piled well up above her hips.
'No, Julia, no-oh my God, you cannot!', Cynthia had screeched to no avail whatever while a silent housemaid held her down and the first slicing cut of the crop swished across her bared cheeks. 'AAAARGH!', had come Cynthia's agonised shriek, though each swish was controlled with such moderation as marked but did not otherwise harm the luscious moon which her naked bottom presented. Bucking, sobbing, and protesting, Cynthia had received the full dozen before the rubicund knob of a prick was urged between her heated, throbbing cheeks, the possessor of that initiating penis being none other than Julia's older brother, Henry, who had become totally subservient to her whims.
Tight as the entry was, he had effected it until Cynthia's scorched bottom was held rammed to his stomach. The maid was then dismissed and Julia held and coaxed her friend, whose tear-streaked face swung from side to side as she endeavoured to contain the throbbing weapon.
'Forty strokes, Henry', Julia had then commanded crisply, holding her left hand clamped down firmly over the nape of Cynthia's neck. Groaning at the sheer bliss of being so tightly ensconced in a bottom he had often eyed but had never seen unveiled before, Henry had commenced his duty, ramming his fiery shaft slowly back and forth within Cynthia's clinging orifice while Julia-beholding all with an expression of great calm- failed not to count each forward plunge as silently as he.
Well-rewarded for her silence upon the matter, the housemaid had thereafter attended frequently upon Cynthia's training. She took such a taste for it that within a month she had bedded with the two friends and become the object of their lascivious toyings. By then Cynthia had brought herself more willingly to all that Julia had taught her to suffer and enjoy, and had been so frequently spermed by all the subservient males of the household, that she could, as Julia of times said, have bathed her in the throbbing liquor, had been preserved.
Now from her musings of the past, Julia rose and smoothed her faultless coiffure. Astrid's cries still came from above, as she had expected. It was time for her first lesson.
