by James Simpson
This is the story of Annie Stevens, and the memorable years of her post-war life.
Life certainly didn't start out well on the cessation of hostilities; she had lost her dear husband in the weeks after D-Day in the fighting around Caen, and although he had left her financially secure, she and her daughter were finding it almost impossible to come to terms with their loss and grief.
John had been a junior partner in a re-insurance agency in Lloyds of London, and earned a generous salary, but spent most of the week either working or commuting from our home in Guildford. If he had a fault it was that he lived to work rather than worked to live, and his passion for cricket overwhelmed all other leisure pursuits. Annie seemed to spend most weekend summer afternoons making teas for twenty-two hungry men. During the war she was busy with voluntary war work, but when this ceased the loss was almost unbearable.
After a miserable post-war year in Surrey, she and her daughter, Jenny, decided that a clean break was best and, after discussing finances with her late husband's partners, who assured her that she had no need to work, she decided that she couldn't live like that. When her daughter finished her O levels they went on holiday to South Devon and, while motoring around, saw a charming general store and post-office in a large coastal village with a For Sale board up. Her curiosity aroused, Annie did a little spying and research, and made an appointment to view. The couple assured her that the business was very sound, had no debts, and they were very anxious to make a new life in the Channel Islands now the Germans had left.
Her researches suggested the lady had been extremely friendly with the Quartermaster Sergeant of the now departed US Army, and it was possible they had been a conduit through which US Army stores had leaked into British retail shops, giving rise to a considerable amount of unbankable cash. This suspicion was later given considerable credence by the later discovery of a hidden storeroom containing a large quantity of bourbon, cigarettes, beer, stockings and other items all marked US Army issue.
The shop was very attractive and had an added attraction of excellent residential space, a large garden with a barn, stables and paddock and beautiful views to the back. Although Annie could easily have afforded a country cottage and spent her time gardening, she didn't think it would be easy to make friends and she might be a lonely widow; if she bought the shop she could work in it when she wished and get to know the other villagers. The couple were willing to do a very generous deal to a quick cash buyer such as Annie, so with her daughter's complete agreement she bought it. The business was excellent and even with the difficulties of post-war rationing it made a good profit, enabling her to leave her existing finances invested in the excellent hands of a couple of her ate husband's chums.
They settled in very quickly, although in such a rural area it took a couple of years to be fully accepted, and even then they were called 'the new people'. Annie was fortunate in that she inherited an excellent assistant, Mary, in her forties who knew all the suppliers and helped immensely. Additionally, her sister-in-law, Molly, the policeman's wife, would step in if needed as would many of Jenny's friends, so it was not an all-consuming occupation.
Her daughter, Jenny, settled in well, and found the much stricter discipline of her new grammar school brought out her academic excellence. The school was in the next large town, Axford, and involved a train journey. On this journey she met a boy called David from the boy's grammar who caught the same train, and they soon became an inseparable item.
David was a year older and chose to do a short service commission rather than do his National Service in the ranks. They made plans to marry after University.
Much to Annie's delight, Jenny gained excellent A levels, due partly she suspected to a couple of judicious canings which had put her on the straight and narrow and, after attaining excellent A level passes, she decided to attempt the Oxford entrance exam, which entailed an extra couple of terms of intensive tutorials.
About six weeks in and just having passed her nineteenth birthday, Jenny became disenchanted with her studies, all her best friends having gone to red brick universities or jobs, and was showing signs of losing interest. This resulted in a difficult interview with Miss Katherine Simpson MA, (aka Kate the Cane). Jenny was told in no uncertain terms that unless she buckled down she was wasting everyone's time, and she had half-term to consider her options, which were either to leave and take up her place at London next year, or report for a wake-up call (an elegant euphemism for a severe caning) next Friday morning.
Jenny was not surprisingly somewhat distant and moody during half-term; her Mum thought she was missing David, who was floating around the Atlantic in a destroyer on his first naval exercises as a Dartmouth trainee officer. Eventually, Annie's patience snapped and one evening at tea she let loose at Jenny, reminding her in no uncertain terms that she was no stranger to loss or grief.
Much to Annie's surprise, Jenny assured her mum that she was perfectly capable of surviving without David for a few weeks and that it was her academic career that was causing her so much introspection. She said that she had nearly decided to forgo the Oxford exam and just go to London instead. Annie was devastated, and begged Jenny to reconsider and at least take the exam, saying that she would always wonder if she had done the right thing if she didn't at least try. After a long talk, Jenny blurted out that if she wanted to stay on, the headmistress expected her to take a "wake-up caning" to apologise for her poor attitude up to now, put her back on the right track and show her tutors that she really meant it.
Annie was amazed. At her husband's insistence, Jenny had been sent to a private progressive school in Surrey where corporal punishment was the last resort, and even when used was more of a humiliation than a painful ordeal. In his words, he didn't want his little angel to be brutally beaten, although Annie herself was in favour of strict discipline. She asked Jenny what she would get, and could not believe it when Jen said she expected ten or twelve strokes on the bare bum. In fact she was appalled, but Jen calmly said that she wasn't scared of it; she had been caned by Miss Simpson on several occasions, and although it hurt like hell, she had soon gotten over it. Annie was astonished and asked why she had never told her, to which Jen replied that all her new friends had been caned throughout their school life and she realised it was the norm at Axford, and she actually realised it made her work harder rather just go with the flow like she had done in Surrey. Much to her astonishment she approved of the strict discipline at Axford and was quite prepared to accept it.
Annie then poured them both a whisky and said to Jenny, "Well I agree that you're now an adult and it is entirely your decision. I don't know how I would feel, but I would just love to have the opportunity to experience Oxford." They hugged and went to bed, both glad they had cleared the air.
Next morning, Jenny told her mother over breakfast that she had decided to take Kate the Cane's wake-up call. Annie said that she thought it was the right decision and hoped that she would be brave enough to do the same thing if it were her.
Later that morning, Jenny phoned Miss Simpson and told her of her decision; an appointment was made for twelve noon on Friday - the last day of half term, which would allow Jenny the weekend to recover. Annie insisted on driving Jenny, saying she couldn't possibly catch the train home. Jenny laughed and said, "What do you think I did the previous times then, Mum?"
Her mum replied that it must have been very uncomfortable, to which Jenny agreed and added that it was even worse with all your mates joking about it, and if the boys from Ashford Grammar found out, which they usually did, it was much, much worse. (That is until you and your boyfriend found a quiet spot on the walk from the station where he could massage your bum better, and vice-versa if he had been caned, which was the more common occurrence, but she didn't tell her mum that.)
The fateful Friday dawned, a glorious autumn morning, and Annie decided she would get the Wolseley out for the journey, as it didn't seem right to use the delivery van; also it had much more comfortable seats. Promptly at eleven, mum and daughter set off for Axford Ladies High, a very pleasant journey of about a dozen miles, and arrived at the staff car park outside the school at about eleven forty-five. Jenny was now silent and nervous in anticipation of her painful appointment. At ten to, she kissed and hugged her mum and walked to the Head's office. Her mum looked on at her and thought how brave she was, and wished she could take her forthcoming flogging, realising how lucky she had been to have only experienced a couple of fairly desultory slipperings in her life.
Jenny knocked on the headmistress's door, and the usual strident command of "Come!" was issued; she opened the solid oak door and entered the study. She immediately saw the 'flogging block', as it was called, in the centre of the room, with a cane leaning against it. She felt the usual strange nervous tingle from between her legs and along her spine, a type of cold shiver. Bugger it, she thought, she'll have got the caretaker to get the block out, which means 'Lenny the lecher' will be lasciviously lurking around. A caning was bad enough without knowing he would be 'working' within earshot, hoping to hear the proceedings and then slimily offering his condolences and "to rub it better if the poor girl wanted."
Miss Katherine Simpson then spoke sharply. "I haven't got all day and I am extremely busy; let's get this unpleasant chore out of the way as soon as possible." Jenny reluctantly agreed and, as usual, was instructed to use the Head's bathroom to prepare herself and present herself dressed appropriately. Jenny used the bathroom, undressed to her bra, and selected an appropriately sized surgical gown from the assortment. She then took a clean towel, thinking just how well organised the procedure was. She had never previously taken much notice of the attention to detail of having various sizes of freshly laundered white surgical gowns and towels ready for canings, just accepting it as the norm, which of course it wasn't.
She entered the study, went straight to the block, laid the towel over it, and then bent over. The block was a beautifully made piece of finely crafted furniture, a trestle with a well padded soft leather top, like a gym pommel horse. At the front was a steel gripping bar, and just above that there was a cross piece that ingeniously opened out to form a stock-shaped apparatus with padded holes to keep ankles and wrists in position. Jenny grasped the bar, and the Head snapped the stocks closed and clipped them in position, then carefully undid the gown, leaving Jenny's bottom completely bare.
Jenny could hear the cane being given a few practice swishes (a horrible sound), and became aware of the Head taking up position on her backhand side. Oh shit! Jenny said to herself, that means more than six - as I thought.
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