Chapter 4

"I think I have the answer" said an excited Mrs Bottomley to the Girl and Mr Fitch early next day. The Girl - still naked, as she was to be for so many long months - stood massaging her sore, scarlet rear - her guess as to the unlikelihood of her work satisfying the Mistress last night had been very much correct - about twenty times, and well laid on, correct!

"We will go to your garden shed, Fitch and inspect the contents. I know what this lice ridden creature needs!"

They all proceeded as directed and Dorothy examined the various containers of pesticides. Finally she uttered a cry of delight.

"Malathion! That's the stuff! Go and get that tub hanging outside the kitchen - Slave! Bring it over here and RUN. Do you think I've all day to be seeing to you?"

As soon as the zinc bath had been brought over to the shed, the panting Girl was directed to fill it with cold water from the free standing outdoor tap. Dorothy then emptied the contents of the pesticide container into the water and, with a suddenness that took her and still more, the Girl, by surprise, picked her up and dropped that startled armful of naked loveliness into the freezing cold bath. Before the astonished Girl had time to so much as gasp, Mrs Bottomley's strong arm had pushed her below the surface - head, hair and all. Only when on the point of expiry did she find herself being allowed up for a deep breath of air and then back under she went!

This horrible procedure was repeated time and again until the poor Girl lost count of the times she was almost drowned. At last, the ruthless Mistress was satisfied.

"That should have done it! But you must now have another hosing down to wash away the chemical before it does you any harm. FITCH!! More hosing! I've got some friends round for coffee in a little while, so take her where she can't be seen. Give her a good few hours solid treatment - let her have it full force again! We don't want her to come to any harm - do we?"

Mrs Bottomley went inside the Castle and prepared to greet a bevy of ladies from the more well-to-do houses in the vicinity. She was so happy to be getting into the good books of local Society! As she went, she adjusted herself into proper genteel mode, and the flush of exertion after her cleansing and delousing of the Girl faded, to be replaced by a seemly and ladylike pallor.

The Girl, meanwhile, was marched around to the other side of the Castle and told to stand facing the delighted Fitch. He attached the hose to the standpipe and turned it full on, directing the jet straight at her middle, aiming straight for that sweet little navel. The Girl gasped as the jet hit her full in the stomach. She folded up in agony. It was like being kicked in the gut by a mule. She heard the gardener laugh and tell her to straighten up smartish if she knew what was good for her and that sweet little bottom of hers.

Since she kept staggering, no matter how hard she tried not to, under the impact of the powerful jet, the gardener reluctantly reduced the pressure somewhat. She relaxed a little and felt the water in her face and the stinging in her eyes from the powerful chemical began to go away. Although she had kept them tightly closed when under the water, the horrible stuff had still got into them and given her agonies.

She knew that it was useless to protest or ask for the man to stop. He had his orders and was clearly enjoying obeying them to the letter. She concentrated on trying to control her convulsive shivering as the dousing went remorselessly on and on and on, the jet moving steadily up and down her body. She was directed to turn around from time to time so that her back might get its share and Mr Fitch have a sight of her bruised, battered, but still firm and shapely, rump. The gardener began to feel his hand itch as it lusted to fold itself around those succulent mounds!

"How are you coping with the servant problem, Dorothy" asked Mrs Merridew, the Rector's wife as she munched greedily on one of Dorothy's Garibaldi biscuits.

"Quaite setisfactorily, thenks." Dorothy replied, trying without too much success to ape the diction of her betters.

"I have an excellent cook and a splendid butler and the garden is looking more lovely by the day under the hand of good old Fitch. Also, I have decided to give work to that filthy beggar girl. One has one's duty to the less fortunate, does one not, to give them a helping hand?"

There was a murmur of approval from the assembled ladies.

"I hope you have got her out of those stinking rags and given her a good clean down" offered Miss Parradine, the Chief Librarian and County Archivist.

"Oh, yes! Those revolting stinking clothes have been burnt and I got Fitch to hose her down. She spent the night sleeping on the lawn. I completed her cleansing with a severe and thorough de-lousing earlier on today and Fitch is giving her the final touches - a splendid old fellow, that!"

"Can we see this amazing transformation, Mrs Bottomley?" asked Miss Hardiman, a Magistrate and a very Great Lady indeed, in every sense of the word!

Dorothy hesitated. She gulped nervously and shuffled her feet uneasily. Finally she found her voice.

"Er, well. I haven't actually got any clothes for her, as yet and I won't as long as she works for me. She is as naked as the day she was born. I can't explain why, but I feel it is a just punishment of her for allowing her clothes to become so foul. She must learn to keep her body clean and suffer the indignity of its being open to the gaze of others no matter how great her shame. She must be made to ponder, at great length, the error of her ways before she wears anything again."

The shocked silence among the good ladies was palpable. Then Miss Berriman, a retired headmistress nodded her grey head sagely - a gleam on her hatchet-like features that any of her former pupils would have recognised with renewed fear, even many years after leaving school!

"Good for you, Dorothy! Cleanliness is next to godliness. You have to be cruel to be kind."

At this, the rest of the ladies indicated their concurrence. Like their hostess, they were to spend many years wondering how they ever were so possessed as to come to go along with such appalling mistreatment of a poor young woman, but they also were being moved by forces beyond their control and the fate of the Girl was sealed. There was to be nobody who would lift a finger to help her or interfere in Mrs Bottomley's increasingly cruel tyranny in the months ahead.