by Jacqueline Scott
It was an unremarkable house in an unremarkable road. It was a respectable enough area in the university town, and walking down the road you wouldn't give the house a second glance, but if you'd peeked in at one of the front windows you might have seen a lady in her fifties sitting in a chair, knitting. It was that sort of area - unremarkable. If, however, on another occasion, you risked your reputation by peeking into the same window, you would have seen a very remarkable sight. The lady with her knitting would still be there, but she would have company ... two girls in the same room; perhaps young ladies might be a better description, although what I am about to tell you might make you think that 'ladies' is not the correct description. For the truly remarkable thing was that the two young women would be bare naked from the waist down and their bottoms bright red... a colour that could surely only have come from a good hard spanking! And what is more, each of them would have their nose almost touching the wall that they were facing. What a remarkable sight in such an unremarkable street!
It was September 1963 and Carol Munday was a mixture of excitement and nerves. The 19 year old was a few weeks away from leaving home for the first time to go to university. What's more her best friend, Philippa Braithwaite had just phoned to say that she was going to the same place! Carol had always been brighter than Phil and there was never much doubt that she would gain entrance to the college of her choice, but Philippa was far more marginal and hadn't initially been accepted. She had gained a place at another university, but it meant that the two would be something like 200 miles apart. It was a wonderful surprise for both girls, therefore, when Phil had received a telephone call from the establishment to say that due to some students being unable to take up their places there was now a place for her after all.
Carol's mother, Jane, was less excited and more nervous than her daughter. In Jane's view, Carol was really quite immature to go off on her own. She knew that it had to happen sometime but she thought the whole thing was going to be a real challenge for her daughter. With that in mind she had recently written to her sister, who happened to live in the same city as Carol's university, enquiring if it might be possible for her daughter to rent a room from her. While one might think that an aunt would surely never charge her niece to stay in such circumstances, Jane remained in awe of her older sister and would never dream of asking her for free board and lodgings for Carol.
In fact when the reply came by return of post it read:
Dear Jane
I would be delighted to put Carol up while she is at university. I have plenty of room here and there would be no question of her paying anything. My only stipulation would be that she accepts my rules for the house. I don't think that is unreasonable, and you will have a good idea what the rules are.
Please let me know if this will be acceptable and, if so, when she will arrive.
Your loving sister,
Sally
Jane smiled as she read the letter. Nothing seemed to change with Sally. For a long time now Jane had regarded her as 'a professional spinster' who thought herself as one of the few ladies nowadays who maintained standards; in other words who expected things to be done the way they always had been! Deep down she was sure that Sally was a good person ... she was simply a bit of an anachronism in the 1960s. As for the rules, she knew very well the sort of things they would encompass, which was exactly why she had contacted her sister in the first place.
Sally was almost ten years older than Jane - there were three brothers in between them - and when their mother died unexpectedly while they were all still relatively young, it had been Sally who had helped their father by taking over the running of the household. This included disciplining Jane when needed, which meant that Jane had spent rather a lot of time across her sister's lap having her bare bottom spanked hard! Jane had never done the same with Carol but she knew that Sally would do so if she thought it necessary, and Jane didn't think that would do Miss Carol any harm at all!
Carol was a bit disappointed when Jane told her the arrangements. She was looking forward to living in a Hall of Residence with other girls of her own age, but what her mother had agreed with her aunt made some sort of sense. She had only met her Aunt Sally a few times very briefly, and had an image of a tall, rather stern lady, rather in the image of somebody that might have appeared in a Jane Austen novel. Anyway, she thought, it was likely that when she didn't have classes she would be out with Phil most of the time ... it was really only bed and breakfast that she needed.
However, her mother's words before they left to drive to Aunt Sally's did not reassure Carol much.
"Now darling, Aunt Sally is a bit old fashioned so you need to be very good when you are with her. It will be just like home in some ways; she will expect you to be prompt for meals, keep your room tidy ... things like that. However I suspect that you will find your aunt to be a bit stricter than I have been recently. That will not necessarily be a bad thing, Carol. As you strike out on your own you must start developing good habits. Aunt Sally is a good-hearted woman but she can seem a bit strange. Remember she is quite a lot older than I am. That makes a difference you know ... and of course she never married ... that hasn't helped. She will have rules for you, and some of them might seem a bit restrictive. However, if you behave yourself you will come to no harm, I promise you. After all, that's important isn't it? We don't want you to come to any harm in this big adventure, do we?"
Carol wasn't sure she liked the sound of all that, but it was too late to do anything about it now. She thought that if it was just too overpowering she could probably get a place in a Hall of Residence.
At last the car was packed with everything Carol might need and off they went. It was a long drive and she couldn't help noticing that her mother seemed so spend much of it emphasising the need for her to be well-behaved ... so much so that although Carol was glad when they arrived, she was now also very nervous.
Aunt Sally welcomed them at the door. To Carol she appeared even taller than she remembered and now had sort of steel-coloured grey hair which she wore in a bun. She smiled at Carol and allowed her to kiss her cheek but her brown eyes seemed to gaze at her in a penetrating way as if she was assessing her niece at the same time as welcoming her. Once indoors Carol was shown to her room which turned out to be surprisingly spacious and had a window looking over to a park. Once she had put all her stuff in the room, Carol returned to the living room to join her mother and aunt. Tea was made and they sat making polite conversation while taking tea and eating a piece of chocolate cake which Aunt Sally said she had baked specially for them.
Eventually it was time for Jane to leave; she was taking the opportunity of staying over at Jack's house which was around an hour's drive from Aunt Sally. Jack was the second oldest of the children and Carol had always had fun when he came to visit.
Jane hugged and kissed her daughter before she left and whispered, "Now, remember, be a good girl and keep in touch with me regularly." Then she was off.
When Carol came back into the living room she found her aunt sitting in her armchair holding a piece of stiff card. She smiled at the girl and told her to sit down, saying, "Let's get one or two things established before we go any further, Carol. I'm sure your mother has told you that I am a person who has certain standards. That is correct, and it is wise I think, to make sure you know what is expected of you during your stay here. That way we both know where we stand and there should be no misunderstandings. I've prepared this list for you. If you keep to the rules listed you should have no worries about your home life, if I may put it like that, interfering with your studies." She handed Carol the card she was holding and the young woman read it with mounting dismay.
Rules:
- Keep your room tidy with the floor always clear to allow for vacuuming.
- At weekends you will be expected to help with household chores as required.
- Breakfast will be at 8am weekdays and 9am at weekends; Dinner will be at 6:30pm every day; Lunch will be at 1pm at weekends. You will be expected to keep to that timetable unless you seek permission to be absent.
- Keep healthy hours, including being in bed by 11pm unless you have permission to be up later.
- No smoking, drinking alcohol etc in the house.
- No friends of either sex in the house without permission.
- You must keep Aunt Sally up to date with the progress of your studies including when assignments have to be completed and the results of all assignments/tests/examinations.
- Failure to keep all or any of these rules will result in punishment as deemed appropriate by Aunt Sally.
Having read the list Carol didn't know what to say. It just seemed so restrictive. She sat gazing at the card until her aunt spoke.
"Do you have any questions, Carol?"
Carol's mind was racing but eventually she summoned up the courage to ask, "Umm ... well ... does my mother know about these rules?"
Aunt Sally smiled thinly. "Not the exact detail my dear, but she does know the principles involved. There is nothing on the list that will surprise her. Is there anything in particular that concerns you?"
Again Carol took a while to answer but eventually she said, "Well, I mean ... it sort of ... well ... sort of sounds as if you expect me to be here virtually the whole time!" The last part of the sentence came out in a rush and with rather more force than she had intended.
Her aunt frowned and made a sort of 'tsk' sound before replying, "Goodness me child, absolutely not! You haven't read the rules properly. All it means is that I want to know when you are going to be here if I have to provide a meal. I have given you times for breakfast, lunch and dinner and if you don't want to be here for any of them, all you have to do is tell me. Although I expect you to be at breakfast every day of course! But if I am going to cook an evening meal for you I want to know that you will be here for it. I can't abide wasted food, Carol."
Carol could see the force of that argument and decided to leave it at that.
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