by DJ Black
Princess Christina scowled at the gathering storm as if it were a personal affront, although that was not the only thing to keep her from the hunt. Her so-called tutor, Dr Gaius Ghent, had cancelled her day's deerstalking on account of recent raids by the Tamarinds, as if she were some nobody who was afraid of raiders.
Dr Ghent had been a captain in her father's latest wars and must be at least 30, the 19-year-old Christina fumed, resenting as she did an old man having charge of her. Well she would show him.
She looked at her velvet riding habit, which was the usual attire for one of her class and then at the soft tight suede breeks that she had been forbidden to wear since she had been deemed a woman. Who does the deeming around here anyway, she thought bitterly.
"In for a penny, in for a pound," she chuckled as she grabbed the breeks.
She had grown since she had last worn them, so she opted for putting them over her bare skin. Then, snatching up her bow, she hurtled down the stairs to the lodge and out to the stables. In minutes she was racing through the forest. She even took to the western edge in defiance of any Tamarinds that may be lurking.
Gaius reached the stable yard just in time to see his charge ride off with a whoop.
"That girl will be the death of you sir," the head groom said lightly.
"She will be the death of herself if she goes that way," Gaius growled. "Better saddle my horse and alert the outriders to be extra vigilant."
Christina got into the high country before she found fresh spore from her prey.
"Gotcha," she said excitedly.
"I certainly have your highness," came an answer.
Christina turned angrily only to be confronted by her tutor, Dr Ghent.
"Oh it's you. I can't say I am happy to see you. Well, since you are here, keep quiet."
"I'm sorry ma'am, but we must return to the lodge."
"What, on account of raiders?"
"Well that would be reason enough, but we have received word that the Tamarind have broken the treaty. It's war, ma'am."
"Well as soon as I have my stag," Christina said absently, certain her quarry was near.
"To hell with your stag, don't you realise that half the garrison is out looking for you. That means that most of the border villages don't have any protection."
"Don't you curse at me, you... peasant," Christina said.
"I am a gentleman scholar and officer of the royal guard. It is not polite to call me a peasant," Gaius said with an edge to his voice.
"Peasant," Christina spat.
"Put up your bow, your highness, and let's be getting back," Gaius said wearily.
"I told you. Not until I have my stag," Christina said defiantly.
"If you don't get back on your horse this minute I am going to tan your royal backside," Gaius said insistently.
"Pah," Christina gasped in surprise, taken aback by the sheer effrontery of her tutor's threat. All the same she felt a frisson. The same thrill she got whenever her whipping girl was thrashed in her stead.
Gaius folded his arms and held her with a determined stare.
"Get out of my way," she said imperiously, moving to go deeper into the woods.
"If you take one more step I am going to spank you raw and then cut a switch," Gaius growled.
"You wouldn't..." Christina was suddenly unsure of herself.
"Your father empowered me to take whatever steps I thought necessary in my guidance of your person," Gaius said in one last attempt at reason. "For god's sake, since your brother's illness you are more important than ever. This is no game. You may one day be queen. Please ma'am, be reasonable."
"When I have my stag we can return to the lodge and I'll be sure to send Katrina my whipping girl if you still want to carry out your ridiculous threat. I might even watch," Christina said smugly.
"Very well ma'am," Gaius said, finally resigned.
"I knew you would see it my way," Christina said triumphantly.
A triumph that was short lived. Her tutor seized her and dragged her as she berated him over to a fallen log. Once there, he turned her over his knee and prepared to spank her.
"Get your hands off me. You can't treat me like this," she said frantically.
Looking down at her thick suede riding breeks he decided that he agreed. Loosening the lacing at her hip he quickly shucked her breeks down to her knees. Only then did he realise that she was nude beneath.
"Oh my god, how dare you?" Christina shrieked. "I'll have you executed, I'll have you..."
But Gaius wasn't listening and brought the flat of his hand down with a smart splat.
"Yeowch," Christina yelped.
There was a bright red hand-print on the girl's royal white bottom, and for a moment it dawned on him what he was doing. He hoped his friend King Gustav didn't mind being taken at his word where his daughter was concerned.
The spanking that followed was a decent affair, every bit as educational as any he had applied to his sisters or their maid's bare bottoms before now. From the game-scaring howls that the royal princess expressed, it was certain that she thought so. Within moments, the fast spanking had turned her bottom from white through pink to a good solid red.
"You bastard, you traitor, you ruffian," Christina berated.
"You forgot peasant again," Gaius chuckled.
"You are beneath a peasant, you yeoman scum," she spat angrily.
The jibe was well aimed; Gaius's forbears were of yeoman stock, although he liked to think of them as petty gentry. Still a cut above peasant, he smiled, he had been remiss in her education it seemed.
"Peasants are but villains and serfs," he scolded. "As land-holders, yeoman are set above them, surely you know that."
The impromptu lecture was delivered with another volley of spanks.
"Please stop you... gentleman scholar," she amended as she began to show signs of distress.
Gaius looked down on her by now very red bottom and decided that the approach he had taken had been a sound one.
"First I want your promise that you will apologise to the captain of the garrison and the town's alderman for all the trouble you have caused."
"Go to hell you..." she spat angrily.
"I see," he said darkly, renewing his efforts.
"You pig-dog bastard son of a poxy whore," she raged angrily.
"Such language," he tut-tutted. "Perhaps this spanking has been long overdue."
"I'll be damned if I'll apologise," she growled.
"OK, if it is to be, then it is to be," he sighed, dropping her to the floor.
She immediately clamped her hands to her glowing bottom and tried in vain to pull the tight suede over her swollen red nates.
"Leave them be, I am not done with you," he ordered.
She looked up in horror and saw him begin to cut a switch from a nearby branch.
"Look, maybe I should have come back when you said, and I'm sorry I called you a peasant, but I won't apologise to those commoner scum at the lodge," she said, taking a bargaining tone.
"Peasant is it? You think that a greater insult than... what was it... pig-dog and calling my mother a harlot? Perhaps we should ask King Gustav that; I wonder if he would agree."
"I-I... look, I said I'd come back alright." Christina was well aware that she was out of her depth.
The ex-soldier moved the princess easily and draped her still struggling over the fallen log.
"Now I am going to teach you a lesson you will never forget," Gaius said with feeling, adding, "Ma'am."
In a swishing-whisp the switch struck Christina's exposed bottom with a line of fire and she growled angrily.
I won't cry, I won't, she promised herself under her breath.
Over the next 10 minutes, Gaius was to test that promise and by the time his charge's bottom was criss-crossed with many dozen vivid welts he was to find it lacking. First, she began to gasp and then she growled at each impact. Then, finally, she began to yell out tearfully and began to beg.
"Are we done here?"
"Yes oh god please," Christina sobbed.
"Now I am really going to curb your pride," he scolded. With that, he hauled her to her feet and threw her face down over her saddle so that her welted bare bottom was pointing at the forest canopy. "Let's see how proud you are after I lead you back to the lodge like this."
"No... no... no... please, you can't do this, please... I'm sorry, I'll do anything." This was bad, she decided. It had taken her years to prove that she was a power in the land and a princess grown; oh why had she been so stubborn, she berated herself.
It took more than an hour to get to the rise and all the while she prayed that he would give her one more chance. Then from her extra-humble position she saw the smoke.
"What's that?"
"It looks like you have a few less peasants your highness. The Tamarind have struck, no doubt while the garrison was out looking for you."
"Oh god no." She began to cry again. "Please, you have to let me down, please Dr Ghent I am truly sorry."
"If only I believed you, ma'am," Gaius said dryly, "what a day that would be."
"Dr Ghent, I crave a noble boon," she said formally. "All I ask is that you listen. If you still want to punish me this way after you hear me out then so be it."
She could not believe what she was saying, but suddenly something had changed. She could not be a spanked brat.
"I'm listening."
"Please allow me to dismount. Please, Dr Ghent."
He helped her down and then, without repairing her dress, she knelt before him.
"Gaius Ghent, if you will forgive me and allow me to keep my dignity on this day then I, Christina Harland, Princess Royal of Scandia, will grant you a royal boon. In that you, Dr Gaius Ghent, will have the right to spank or chastise me in any way you see fit from this day on, when you deem my behaviour warrants it."
Gaius had not expected this. It certainly removed any lingering doubt that he had overstepped the mark. It would also be churlish to refuse a royal boon. Not that he imagined that he would ever take advantage of it.
"Very well, repair your clothes, we must ride hard."
They gained the town in half an hour and were surprised to see more than just garrison troops waiting.
Lord General Genic was there in person and as they rode up he knelt.
"The town, was it attacked?" Christina asked frantically.
"We arrived in time, but your majesty, I have grave news."
"Your majesty? Oh no, please no." Tears sprang to Christina's eyes.
"I must inform you that three days after his son died peacefully in his sleep, King Gustav also went to glory. Your majesty, the King is dead," General Genic intoned, then after a long pause he screamed with the enthusiasm of a fanatic, "Long live the Queen."
Gaius looked at his stricken queen and felt as sick as she looked. It did not escape his notice that he had just spanked a queen, but that seemed so long ago now and almost unimportant.
"I must ride to the capital at once. Dr Ghent, Sir Gaius as you will be known, you will take charge here. Your days as my tutor are over I fear." She offered him a tight smile.
Not to be reposted, reproduced or distributed, in part or whole.