The following morning Mabel was awakened by Bridget who was taking her breakfast up to her room. She stretched lazily, grunted and glanced at the clock. Then she sat up angrily.
"Eight o'clock! But are you mad? I had ordered my chocolate for half past ten. Is this the way you are carrying out my orders?"
Bridget put the breakfast plate on the table, without batting an eyelid.
"I'm sorry, Miss, but I only obeyed the governess's orders. She told me to wake you up at eight o'clock."
"The governess indeed! I won't have anything to do with the governess! Are you under her orders or mine? You must obey me, understand? I'll tell my uncle about this. You silly girl, you deserve to be slapped!"
Mabel was less furious at being awakened before time than at the thought of that governess, whom she hated beforehand, daring to rearrange her schedule.
"We'll see who is the master here, the governess or I, "Mabel said, "now go and prepare my bath!"
She got up, being too much aroused to stay in bed. She hurried over her dressing, boiling inwardly and Impatient to have an explanation with this unknown woman who wanted to play tyrant with her.
An how later, droned in a ravishing dishabille of silk and lace, Mabel, sitting in front of her dressing-table, was putting some red stuff on her finger-nails and thinking of all the words she would tell the blasted governess, words that would hurt and sting, when suddenly she was startled by the noise of the door opening. Furious that one should dare enter her room without knocking, Mabel raised her eyes and remained for a moment speechless with surprise: there stood a woman before her, and she guessed that she was the unknown governess. 'But she was quite different from what she had imagined her to be. Instead of an elderly woman with her hair made up in a bun and a frosty look, this governess was an elegant woman, as beautiful as a goddess, and she was looking at her despisingly and coldly from under her tortoise-shell spectacles.
Dorothea von Berner was wearing a white silk blouse which clung narrowly to the curves of her breasts, a black hobble-skirt which made her powerful hips stand out. Black silk stockings and high-heeled shoes completed the picture.
Mabel was astounded. So this was the young and pretty woman who had the cheek to want to regulate her private life! Dorothea von Berner, your educator. Your name is Mabel, isn't it?
The pretty English girl shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't have to give you any account of myself, nor to tell you my name. I have accepted from my uncle a companion, but by no means a governess or an "educator, as you say. And henceforth, I want you to mind your own business and to stop giving my maid orders contrary to mine."
Dorothea did not answer. She just smiled ironically and, sitting near Mabel, she scrutinized her with her hard look. There was such a flame in these steel-like eyes that the young girl could not help blushing. It seemed to her that this feminine look was undressing her, touching her body, and it made her flesh shiver under her light dressing-gown.
"Eighteen years old," Dorothea at last spoke in a slow voice, eighteen and already so unbearingly proud! You are lucky, Mabel, that I know you so little, or else I would have punished you — for your insolence. I can see through you — a stupid spoiled girl, imbued with her rank and for tune, coquettish and profligate, in a word, badly brought up. But all that is going to change, my dear, I'll see to that. Now that you are under my command you will become more than submissive and obedient to my orders. I shall tame you, Mabel. You don't know yet how, but you will soon see! A girl like you should have a new education right from scratch, and I'll take care of it. You will soon fear me and yet love me at the same time, you'll see 1"
While with rage, Miss Sunway had stood up, looking squarely into the face of the governess.
"Pending the realization of your predictions," she hissed, "you will please get the hell oat of here! As for me, I won't stay one hour more in this confounded castle. At what time does the next train for London leave? I'm going to be on it, and away from your comedies and grimaces."
Dorothea burst out laughing.
"So you would fly away, would you? Don't you know that leaving the domicile of your guardian before you are of age would deprive you by law of all your fortune? And what would you do, all on your own, without money, I ask you? Anyway, I'd better warn you that the gate is locked and that the wall is fifteen feet high, which is a bit too much for a little creature like you. And, last but not least, what about the scandal? A young aristocrat escaping from her guardian's house, what a shame! You wouldn't dare face anyone of your rank ever again."
Seeing that Mabel found no reply to her arguments, the governess stood up and went away towards he door.
"Come, little girl, be reasonable, it will be better for you. And wait at least till your uncle comes back before taking a decision. Meanwhile, get dressed-you're almost naked!"
"I don't mind getting dressed," Mabel said with repressed anger, "but don't expect me to obey you I Never, do you hear, never!"
"We shall see," Dorothea answered calmly.
She went out of the room, taking the key with her to prevent Mabel from locking herself in.
Alone in her room, poor Mabel was about to give way to sorrow. But she was energetic and courageous so she drew back her tears, made up with care and got dressed. An hour later she was ready and she looked wonderful in a white dress drawn tight by a red leather belt, and elegant white buckskin shoes.
Then Dorothea came in again without knocking, Mabel walked back to the far wall, and her fists were closed in balls and her lips were a couple of white lines, so angry she was.
"Bravo!" the governess said with a smile. ''You look pretty like this Why don't you speak? I'll soon make you answer me when I talk to you, you'll see."
With calm, she sat down on an armchair, drawing up her skirt above her knees and revealing perfectly shaped legs.
"My dear child," she said, "you must take the habit of considering yourself as a mere little child in front of me. I command and you obey. That is your role… You aren't very talkative, are you? From now on, you will have to tell me how your are dressed, in detail, every morning. Let's see. What are you wearing under your skirt? A slip? A bra? A pair of silk panties? And how about your stockings, how are they fixed? Answer, Mabel, I'm listening!"
A long silence succeeded her words, Miss Sunway contented herself with shrugging her shoulders with contempt.
"You still persist in not answering, do you?" the educator went on, "So, I shell have to give you a more direct order: lift up your skirt with your hands to show me what you are wearing underneath!"
Of course, Mabel did not move. So Dorothea stood up and walked up to her. Her steely eyes were glistening with anger under her spectacles and her pretty face was white and taut.
"This is to teach you to be more obedient!" she said, and she delivered a really smacking slap on the cheek of the girl who reeled under the shock and remained a few seconds speechless and too astounded to react.
When Mabel had recovered the momentary shock her eyes sparkled and all her pride surged up in her.
"You brute! Wicked woman! You'll pay for that!" she said.
Miss von Berner shrugged her shoulders and said, between thin lips:
"The only person who will pay is you, little fool, or rather it will be your behind! But I am prepared to be forgiving. I'm going to leave this room for five minutes. When I return I want to see you with your skirt up to your waist, do you hear? And if you don't do as I say, I won't answer for the consequences!"
Without leaving any time for Mabel to answer she got out of the room, locking the door behind her.
Locked up and powerless, the young English girl could no longer master her rage. She threw herself on the bed, kicking and pounding the-pillow with her fists and sobbing uncontrollably.
When the door opened a few moments later and the governess appeared, Mabel got up, pale but defiant.
"Well, what about that skirt?" Dorothea asked calmly.
"I'll never lift this skirt, do you hear?" the girl cried out, "You're a wicked creature, an abominable rascal, and I'll drag you before the courts! For the last time, I demand that you let me leave at once!"
The governess smiled sardonically.
"Very well, Miss Mabel Sunway, since you won't obey of your own free will, I'll make you obey by means of the whip!"
"The whip?"
"That's right — the whip on your bare behind! I'm going to whip you like a baby, for all your eighteen years!"
She went towards the door and called out:
"Bridget! Bring the silk cords and the dog whip!"
On hearing those words, Mabel became very pale. She no longer doubted now the awful reality, as she saw the servant enter, and she guessed that she had been standing for quite a while behind the door.
"Now, Bridget," the governess went on, "you're going to help me master this girl. We're going to tie her up and make her submit to the punishment!"
The two women threw themselves on the unfortunate girl who did her best to fight, but Bridget was big and robust; as for Dorothea von Berner she was uncommonly strong, so both of them had little difficulty in reducing the English girl to impotence and they dragged her to the feet of a chair in spite of her cries of rage and her insults which she showered at her skirted executioners.
Mabel was laid on her stomach across the chair, her breasts on the seating part. They tied her hands to the legs on one side and her thighs to the legs on the other side of the chair. Her knees were on the floor but the upper part of her body was entirely tied to the chair, allowing no possibility of movements.
"Cowards! Brutes! Dirty cowards!" Mabel howled, "let me go at once! I forbid you to treat me in this way!"
Dorothea, calm and ironical got near the girl, so near that her perfumed skirt caressed her face.
"This is where disobedience has led you, Mabel!" she said. "Do you understand now that you are at my mercy and that I can do exactly what I please with you?"
And while she was speaking, she tugged violently at Mabel's ears and even tried to fondle her face as if to a dog, but the English girl, at the apex of rage, tried to bite her hand, so Dorothea went to the other side of the seat.
"You see," she said, "what you were reduced to show me of your own free will, you'll have to let me see it now. Now, do you feel the hands that are lifting up your skirt, do you feel them?"
At the same time she seized Mabel's dress and drew it back up to her waist, revealing the fat and magnificent behind of the girl, offering itself insolently, as it were, from its vantage position. It was clothed in a pair of pink silk panties decorated by fine lace.
"Gosh!" Dorothea mocked, "what pretty panties! Not tight enough to my liking, but we shall remedy that later. For the moment, I want to see your bare behind, your big buttocks which are going to be whipped so thoroughly!"
So saying, she undid the two buttons which tied the knickers round the girl's waist Then she drew them down to her feet and threw them away in a corner of the room.
As Mabel had not put on any stockings, she had no neither garments left and she was now offering to the mocking looks of her executioners her nudity. Her fat and white buttocks, with a skin smooth and flawless, were convulsively drawn together. Mabel whined with the shame of feeling the air caress the most intimate part of her anatomy.
"A fine behind indeed, fit to be whipped!" the governess said. "I'll show you that, for a girl like you, discipline is to be administered almost exclusively on that side of your person."
"You wont dare," cried Mabel, "you won't dare touch me!"
"I won't dare? You'll see if I won't!"
The governess grasped a heavy dog-whip, with its lash of plaited leather. She placed herself conveniently at some distance from her victim, then, with all her strength, she gave one lash on Mabel's buttocks.
A long red weal could now be seen plainly on the wounded flesh.
Mabel had let out a shriek of pain and anger mixed with shame. She tried her best to move and nearly upset the chair on which she was tied.
"Bridget," the governess ordered, "go and sit down on Mabel's back — to prevent her from moving! But sit near her neck, so that there should be no risk of my hitting you with the whip."
Bridget obeyed with joy. Her vulgar soul cruelly enjoyed humiliating that proud aristocrat who had been her mistress only yesterday. She sat down heavily, weighing down on Mabel's delicate breasts which crushed against the scat. Bridget was big and tall and weighed about thirteen stone. Under the weight of her enormous rump the young girl was half suffocating.
Then, with calm, Dorothea resumed the punishment. She lashed with all her strength and with a refined art that was the result of a long practice. Lifting her arm high up, she brought it down furiously and the end of the whip bit the flesh with a smacking sound. With her free hand the governess held tip her own skirt up to her knees, to allow for a freer movement. With her pinched lips and her eyes sparkling with an evil glee, she seemed to derive a real physical enjoyment from the torture she was inflicting.
Ten lashes had left their trace on the behind of the girl who, stifled though she was under Bridget's weight, still managed to howl and sob her head off.
Suddenly, Miss von Berner stopped and drew up her own skirt. Her voluminous rump was clothed with panties of pink silk stockinet drawn tight without a single fold against her skin and go tight that it seemed it was engulfed into the cavern in the centre.
She took off these pants with some difficulty as they Were tightly drawn against her buttocks, then she walked towards Mabel and stood in front of her. She bent down in order to be face to face with her and told her:
"You're so noisy that I'm going to gag you with my panties. And you can consider it a great honour for a girl like you to have her face wrapped in the material used as a rule for my behind!"
Mabel was feeling with disgust the perfumed breath of the attractive governess on her tear-stained face. Then she was blinded and stifled with the pink panties which Dorothea fixed against her face with a string. The material was still warm with the feminine flesh and gave off such an odour that the English girl's heart missed a beat.
Then the whipping was resumed. Dorothea was now striking with more rapid and violent movements. Mabel felt as if she would die. Her buttocks were afire and waited for the next lash that would bite and sting. She felt above her the weight and warmth of Bridget whose heavy buttocks nailed her to the seat, and when she wanted to howl, she was prevented from doing so by the beautiful governess's panties which entered her mouth, stifling and blinding her abjectly.
Dorothea stopped only when her victim's flesh started bleeding. She then threw away the whip took off Mabel's gag and put it on with calm, wicked laugh. She was holding in her hand a while the English girl, half unconscious, was whining dully.
"Mabel Sunway, she said in a slow voice, "do you recognize that I am your all-powerful governess, and do you accept to submit to my authority? Answer!"
The young girl's pride gave her a little strength, enough to answer:
"Never never! You're a monster and I despise you!"
"Very well, I'll take good note of it," Dorothea said calmly. "Bridget, help me carry this revolted creature down to the cellar. We shall tie her to the rack which I prepared yesterday".
The two young women untied the fetters of the unfortunate girl and carried her — or rather helped her to walk, so weak she was — through the dark passages of the castle.
In a small damp and cold cellar there stood a rack, near the air vent. It was a curious instrument, consisting of a horizontal beam with four legs something like a wooden horse with no head. Mabel was placed astride on it, and the wooden beam's cutting edge hurt her flesh. She wag forced to lie down on it full-length and they tied her body to the beam so that her bust was resting hard on it-Then they tied her four limbs to the legs of the instrument This very painful position drew cries of pain from the girl. But Dorothea was not moved in the least. She addressed her victim in a dry despising voice.
"Mabel Sunway, I repeat again that I intend to have upon you a complete authority. You shall submit to it willy-nilly. I shall leave you here without eating or drinking until you have decided to recognize to punish you. She will start with then stokes of a birch twig, next it will, be a cane, then the horsewhip, then, if need be, the knout and the stick.
As soon as you have decided to obey me like a slave you will tell Bridget so and she will deliver you. Until then I won't hear from you!"
Having spoken, the governess went out, rolling her powerful hips and Bridget followed her.
Mabel remained alone, trembling with cold and fear, shaken now and the by pitiful sobs. She had no strength left to think nor to realize what was happening to her. All the events of the morning appeared to her like an, awful nightmare. She recalled confusedly her past life, her young yearn of a free and happy girl, wealthy and triumphant with youth and beauty. Then, nearly at once the vision of Dorothea von Berner superimposed itself on the other thoughts, cancelling them out. Was that young and beautiful woman a demon, a fiend in human shape? What would become of her, helpless creature, in the claws of this odious creature?
Her buttocks were giving her a lot of pain, and go did the cords that were tying her and the edge of the wooden beam that was cutting into the flesh of her breasts and sex. Was it really her, Mabel Sunway, being inflicted such treatments? She who, a few hours earlier, was still a laughing and carefree girl, with her body clad in silk lingerie and smart dresses, and with her heart full of songs and laughter?
The entrance of Bridget pulled her abruptly out of her reverie. The maid, made up like a prostitute, was drawing towards her with a birch twig.
With her hands akimbo, she stood in front of her victim, mocking:
"Well, Mabel, how are you, ducks? You're not very proud now, are you? Not now that your big rump is bleeding you wouldn't dare order me about like you did last night, with your lah-de-dah airs, eh? You, with your "my maid, "my orders, "do this, do that, you little bitch! Now everything's changed and your buttocks will pay for your insolence."
Pale with rage and humiliation the girl listened to this degrading speech. Her silence exasperated the maid.
"You see," she went on mockingly, "how you are at my mercy, you fair damsel! I can do what I please, and there's nothing you can do about it you know what? I'm going to spit on you, it'll make me feel good!"
She beat down and spat out three times on Mabel's face. Her Saliva, mixed with lipstick, ran slowly down the wane cheeks of the girl and even soiled her mouth and eyes.
"Brute, dirty brute! You appalling creature!" whined Mabel. "I despise you! I hate you!"
"Well if that is so, as I don't want to hear your whining and cursing, I'm going to gag you, just as my mistress did a while ago! Tea, my dear, I'll do you the great honour of putting your nose into my panties! And I even peed in them to humiliate you still more!"
So saying, the pretty maid had dipped her hands underneath her dress and untied her pale blue panties which she picked up from the, floor. She folded up carefully into a gag which she applied vigorously against Mabel's mouth and nose. The damp panties gave off a powerful smell. The English girl gave a horrified start But already Bridget was fixing the improvised gag firmly by means of a leather belt Then she took hold of the birch twig, or rather several twigs bound together and started whipping Mabel's buttocks with it.
The twigs bruised the bleeding behind, but this time humiliation was still greater than pain. Mabel felt the many wooden twigs break on her flesh with dry cracking sounds. It seemed to her as if she were being pricked with a thousand needles, and the damp panties of the maid, pressing hard against her mouth, prevented her from crying out.
Bridget really whipped with a vengeance and gave more strokes than she bad been ordered to.
But finally she left, disdainful, not without having gratified Mabel with a pair of hard slaps on top of her gag. Purposely, she forgot to undo the gag, so that the girl, had, to have this, unclean material against her face for the next two hours.
When these two hours were over, another whipping with twigs took place. Mabel's rumps were in a pitiful state. But the proud English girl was not yet ready to capitulate. As Bridget asked her if she was willing to submit, she answered by shaking her head proudly.
The third beating was administered with a supple cane, which dug bloody furrows into the martyred buttocks. Mabel's cries were stifled by the gag.
And thus she received two more whippings with the stick. At last, Bridget, mockingly announced that night was coming that that she promised her twenty strokes with a horse-whip for breakfast the next morning.
It would be impossible to describe Mabel's night. She really suffered a lot, as can be imagined: abandoned in the cold damp cellar, with her buttocks aflame, her body immobilised in a painful position and her face in contact with the soiled piece of clothes of the maid, she despaired and called for death rather than to endure such torture. Her sufferings had a terrible effect on her nerves, so overwrought and tired. During the long hours of the night she meditated on her situation. What could she do if not accept the bondage that was required of her?
Dawn found her vanquished and weakened. She was also beginning to feel deeply the pangs of thirst and hunger.
At last, she started as she heard steps, soon followed by Bridget's voice:
"Well slave have you deckled to submit to your mistress?"
The word "slave" set up a reaction of revolt in the mind of proud Mabel. She had enough strength left to shake her head in refusal.
The maid laughed and Mabel suddenly felt the lash of a horsewhip on her buttocks. The girl had never been horsewhipped before. Perhaps because it was striking already wounded flesh, the horsewhip made her suffer still more than, the dog-whip, the birch twig or the cane.
Bridget horsewhipped her with all her strength. Mabel wanted to scream and beg for mercy but she was prevented from doing so by her gag and she had to endure the terrible punishment till the end. At last, Bridget stopped and asked:
"And now, what have you decided?"
At the end of her physical resistance the girl nodded her head in submission, whereupon the maid delivered her from the underskirt and the panties that were imprisoning her head and, like a dream, Mabel at long last saw the light, and the first thing she saw was the vulgarly made up face of Bridget who was looking at her with contempt.
"Slave," the maid said, "have you decided to submit entirely to your governess Miss von Berner?"
"I submit," whispered Mabel, "but please don't beat me! Mercy!"
Bridget shrugged her shoulders and unhurriedly untied the cords that were holding the girl against the rack. Then she stood her up and had to hold her up a few seconds for the girl's legs were like cottonwood.
"Come, follow me!" she ordered.
Behind the maid who was holding her hand as a baby, Mabel painfully walked up the steps and along passages up to Dorothea von Berner's door, who lived next to her own room, Bridget knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" the governess asked.
"It's Mabel, Miss, she's come to submit and I'm bringing her in."
"All right, let her in!"
Trembling, Miss Sun way went into her mistress's room. It was a vast room, luxuriously furnished and cluttered with precious gewgaws. Silk dresses and underclothes were scattered on some pieces of furniture. Dorothea von Berner, sitting in front of her dressing-gown of black lace under which could be seen some patches of white flesh. She was not wearing any glasses and Mabel could not help noticing how beautiful she was.
"On her, Bridget!" Miss von Berner said at last.
"Make her kneel in a corner and keep an eye. I shall deal with her in a while. For the moment, I have my make up to attend to."
During a long; quarter of an hour, Mabel had to wait on her knees, under the severe look of Bridget, until the governess deigned to give her her attention. At last Dorothea stood up and walked up to her victim with a flow and voluptuous step.
"Well, have you decided to be submissive and obedient?"
"Yes."
"Have you understood that your revolts would be of no use and that you are now under my discipline, and that you are but a naughty girl atoning for her past and being re-educated?"
"Yes."
Mabel kept her head down, not daring look up into the face of the governess. She saw only her small feet shod in dainty shoes, and the hem of her perfumed dressing-gown which was caressing her face.
"To-morrow," the governess went on, "your first day of discipline will begin, but before that I shall give you a whole night in order to recuperate your forces. You will be locked up in your room and Bridget will bring you a hearty meal. Ton will have a bat hand cure your behind with some salve which you will find on your bed-table, and you will sleep. To-morrow we shall see if your obedience is genuine and your submission total. Take her away, Bridget!"
Very humiliated, Mabel got up and followed the maid up to her own sleeping-room. Bridget brought up to her a tray containing a copious meal and withdrew after having locked up the door giving on to the passage, as well as the one which communicated with the room of the governess. Dazed with weariness and suffering and with her brain completely empty of thoughts the girl went, to the bathroom, where she took a warm perfumed bath that acted like a balm.
Back in her room, she examined in a mirror her behind and nearly uttered a cry of horror when she saw its state — it was all crimson and streaked with red and bleeding lashes, and bluish with bruises in some ports. Alas, where was her pretty behind of yesterday which was her pride, so white, soft and plump? The girl almost cried at the sight of such a disaster. It took her more than an hour to apply salve with care and rub it in smoothly, and it relieved her pain a lot.
As she was looking for pyjamas, she saw that nearly all her clothes had been removed from the cupboards and that her room had been cleared of all its unnecessary objects — the gewgaws, her gramophone, her cigarettes, the handbag into which she put her money, all that had disappeared. As for the cupboards and dressers containing her dresses and skirts, they were locked.
She managed to find a pyjama in pink silk and a pair of panties which she padded with cotton wool. It made her behind look oddly bumpy. Having donned her pyjamas, she ate voraciously the meal that had been prepared for her and at last, broken up by sleep and suffering, she went to bed.
In her bed, she wept in big sobs like a child, then weariness had the better of her and she sank into a deep sleep, agitated now and then by long nervous shudders.