by Jon Thorn
After such a lovely Christmas it was rather depressing to have to go back to school. But that initial feeling quickly faded and I was soon back into the swing of things. The weather was cold but clear and it was hard to feel glum on such beautiful sunny days. I missed Tom like mad but there were other distractions to keep me occupied.
One of the privileges of being Head Girl was that after lessons and at weekends I was allowed to go down into the village of Little Westland, just a short walk away from the school gates. It was a privilege that Claire shared and often we would go and take a tea in a pretty teashop by the bridge. For other pupils the village was strictly out of bounds, so it was a special pleasure to have a little sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of school life.
We had just finished our tea when looking out of the window Claire spotted someone. In fact she spotted two people, both from Westland Hall.
"Isn't that Henry Marchbank and Justine Simmonds?" she said, pointing them out to me.
"You're right it is!" I exclaimed. Henry was in Lower Sixth and Justine was in our year. "Claire, can you settle the bill while I go after them? - they'd better have a good excuse!"
Leaving Claire in the teashop I hurried out of the door. They were strolling along, oblivious to anyone else, neither were in school uniform which was a further indication that they were out of bounds. Occasionally pupils were granted special permission to go to the village but a requirement was always that they went in school uniform. They turned as I caught them up, suddenly aware of my footsteps behind them.
"Shit!" exclaimed Henry as he saw me. "We're for it now!"
"Indeed you are Marchbank... and you Miss Simmonds," I said sternly, surprising myself with my authoritative tone (I had obviously learnt something from Tom!). "Have either of you permission to be out of school?"
Justine glumly shook her head. She was a pretty thing with big brown eyes and shoulder length dark hair. Henry shook his head too. "No... no we haven't. Look Pippa, couldn't you overlook it just this once?"
Claire had joined us by now and it was her who replied. "No Henry Marchbank, she can't. We both promised to uphold the rules when we took on these roles and it's very clear what we must do. Pippa can't just let you off and neither can I!"
"Indeed," I nodded my head. "What house are you in Henry?"
"Grogan's," he said miserably.
"Then I shall write a note to the Head Boy telling him where to find you. No doubt you will hear from this evening or tomorrow morning. Now I suggest you get back to school the way you came, as quickly as you can."
We waited until he had set off, at pace, along the riverbank towards school. The pair of them had sensibly avoided coming via the main gates and had taken the long way round via the boathouse. I turned to Justine.
"You can come with us Justine."
The three of us walked in silence back to school and up to my rooms. Claire and I sat in the armchairs by the fire, leaving Justine standing between us.
"Let's hear your side of the story then Justine," I said
"There's not much to tell," she replied. "Henry and I just wanted a bit of time away from this place. A bit of time on our own that's all. We weren't doing any harm and we would have been back before Prep. And anyway lots of people come down here - especially if there's a boy that they like." She tossed her head defiantly but I could see that she was worried.
It made perfect sense and in some ways she had my sympathy. I had treasured the moments alone that I had had with Tom, we had just been fortunate that his rooms were very private and cut off from the rest of the house. Others didn't have that luxury and the only option for being together was to find somewhere away from school. They had just been unlucky that Claire and I had been down in the village at the same time. Nevertheless, Justine had broken a school rule and must therefore be punished.
"I'm sorry Justine, but you know the rules as well as I do," I told her. "You were out of bounds and whatever your reasons for being so the fact remains that you didn't have permission to be in the village."
"What are you going to do?" Justine asked anxiously.
"I am going to punish you," I said simply. "Claire, would you please fetch me the slipper?"
Justine's big eyes widened but she made no protest. Like most girls she had never had corporal punishment but she was sensible enough to know that if she protested then she would be sent to Mrs Thompson and that her relationship with Henry was sure to be discovered.
Claire brought me the slipper. I tapped it in my hand as I stood up.
"Right Justine. Lower your knickers please. I'm going to give you six smacks on your bare bottom."
Justine bit her lip, but put her hands up inside her skirt and slipped her knickers down to her knees. They certainly weren't schoolwear! The school outfitters didn't stock black silk as far as I could recall. I had a funny feeling that they had been for Henry's benefit and wondered quite how far this relationship had got! I saw Claire look at them too, but like me she made no comment.
"Lift your skirt and bend over, grab your ankles."
Justine swallowed hard but did as she was told, first lifting the back of her gymslip skirt and then bending right over, her hands gripping her legs just above her ankles. I moved around behind her. She had a large bottom, very full and womanly, and very white.
I took careful aim, drew my arm back and then smacked the slipper down hard on Justine's bare bottom. She gave a truncated gasp of pain. Where I had struck her coloured up very quickly, leaving a red oval mark. I gave her a second smack on the same cheek and then after a few moments a third. I knew from my own experience not to rush things. The sting of any spanking takes a few moments to build and I wanted to make sure I did a good job. Now Justine's bottom looked quite funny, one red cheek and one white! I lifted the slipper again and started to even things up. I had no doubt that after six smacks Justine's bottom was really smarting quite a lot but to her credit she maintained her position and did not make much noise apart from a little gasp with each smack.
"Stand up and pull up your knickers," I said.
Justine stood, giving her red bottom a good rub before reaching down and pulling up those black silk knicks.
She continued to rub through her skirt. "Will you be reporting me to Mrs Thompson?" she asked anxiously.
"I will tell Mrs Thompson that we caught a boy and a girl in the village and that they have been punished. I'm sure that she will be satisfied with that. There's no need for her to know anything else."
Justine managed a brave smile. "Thank you. Can I go now?"
"You can," I said, "And well done for taking that bravely."
When she had gone I rejoined Claire by the fire.
"Well what did you make of that?" I asked.
Claire giggled. "Well there's certainly something going on between her and Henry. Those black silk knicks weren't for her own benefit were they?! I think Mr Marchbank is probably a very lucky boy; she's a pretty girl isn't she?"
"She is," I agreed. "It just leaves us with a bit of a dilemma about what we should or shouldn't do about it"
"Let them have their fun for now," Claire said, "If they're silly enough to get caught then you'll have to deal with them."
"What do you think they should get if they were to get caught?" I asked, curious to know Claire's opinion.
"Maximum punishment," she declared without hesitation. "To tell you the truth I hope we do catch them, I'm dying to see you use that cane!"
Pippa recounted the story to me in her next few letters. It was amusing to hear what an enthusiastic exponent of the cane Claire Deschamps had become. I wondered what she would have thought of what Pippa and I had got up to? Would she be shocked or would she have been fascinated? I was starting to think it might be the latter.
The cane did get used. But it wasn't Justine Simmonds who was on the receiving end.
I first got an inkling of it when Pippa wrote to me asking for some advice. As always I recognized the writing on the envelope. I was at home, the Oxford term having already finished. I opened the letter eagerly, keen to hear what Pippa had to tell me.
Dear Tom
I need your advice. Claire has just been to tell me that she thinks we have some rather nasty bullying going on. She found one of the new girls, Katie Rathbone, in tears this afternoon. Katie said that someone, one of the other girls was being beastly to her but that she was too scared to name her. She showed Claire some bruises on her arms where she had been punched.
I'm not quite sure what to do. Katie won't tell me or Claire any more and she pleaded with us not to tell Mrs Thompson, but I can't let someone get away with something like this. What would you have done?
As ever I am missing you like mad. Last night I sat in that same chair that you once sat in when you put me over your knee for the very first time and thought about all the lovely times we've had together. Wish you were here with me.
All my love
Pippa
I too remembered sitting in that chair very clearly and spanking her with the slipper for the very first time. I smiled as I brought the image to mind. I could have sat and enjoyed those memories all morning, but daydreaming wasn't going to help Pippa catch her bully. I gave it some thought and then put pen to paper.
I got Tom's reply first thing the next morning. I went and found Claire and showed her what he had suggested. She agreed that it seemed a sensible suggestion so we found Katie Rathbone and told her what we had in mind. At first she wasn't keen but Claire persuaded her in the end by telling her that if she didn't agree to the plan then we would be compelled to place the whole matter into Mrs Thompson's hands.
So it was that after supper Claire and I made our way down to the boathouse. It was early evening, but of course in March it is dusk by six o'clock so we had to tread carefully along the slippery river bank in the dark. The boathouse was deserted and silent. We slipped in by the side door and found a good hiding place behind a bank of upturned boats. There we waited.
We didn't have to wait for long. Our eyes had adjusted to the gloom and the person who came in was not difficult to recognize. I have to say I was very surprised. I had been trying to guess who the bully would be and Jane Waterfield was the last person I would have suspected. She was a quiet girl, rather studious; a pretty thing with striking auburn hair, she always looked rather young for her age. She had always been very pleasant to me and I had never heard her say a nasty thing about anyone. I looked at Claire and saw her raise her eyebrows, she was surprised too.
Katie arrived just half a minute later. She pushed open the door of the boathouse and stepped inside. "Jane?" she whispered urgently.
Jane had moved very quickly and quietly in the dark. She pounced on Katie and grabbed her by the wrist, twisting her arm up behind her back.
"Owww!" Katie gasped. "Stop it... you're hurting me!"
"That's good because I meant to hurt you," Jane said softly, only just loud enough for us to hear. "And I'm going to go on hurting you until you agree to do it. You've had long enough to think about it."
"Please Jane... don't make me... I'll get caught... I nearly did last time... I don't want to get into trouble." She gasped as her arm was twisted further up her back.
"You won't get caught if you're careful. And if you do then it will be your own fault. I've nearly finished the last packet you got me, I want some more and you're going to go down to the village and get them for me."
Suddenly it all made sense. If Jane looked young for her age then the reverse was true about her victim. Out of school uniform Katie could easily have passed for twenty. She was being used by her tormentor to buy cigarettes for her at the village shop.
I looked at Claire and she nodded, we had heard enough. We sprang from our hiding place and leaped upon Jane. We took her totally by surprise but she tried to put up a fight, landing a slap on Claire before we managed to pinion her arms.
"Stop struggling Waterfield!" I told her sharply, "You'll only make things worse for yourself than they are already."
She recognized my voice and the bullying tone she had taken with Katie changed immediately to a wheedling one.
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