Chapter 4: The Punishment

Eric

"May, would you mind loaning me one of your slippers please? Louise, remove your skirt and knickers please." May's face was still very swollen and one welt in particular, looked angry and raw and had me worried but she insisted it would get better soon.

"Oh no. Please let me keep my knickers on. They won't make much difference will they?"

"Louise, you were told it was to be a bare bum hiding when you signed the indenture form and that is what you are going to get. End of argument! Bare your bum or we will do it for you." Reluctantly she removed the offending garment and laid herself across my lap when I indicated. I noticed a couple of nasty bruises on her thighs but when I asked about them she only said, "Some girls kicked me." I had to guess from what Ernie had told me that it was the prostitutes she'd been arrested with.

The previous hour had been a very tearful one for Louise, her defiant attitude swept aside by the knowledge that she was helpless and neither of the choices she had to make appealed to her. In many ways I felt sorry for the girl. Her life as she known it for many years was about to drastically change for the worse and, although she begged and pleaded to be allowed to return home with promises as to her behaviour that we knew would only last days or weeks at the most, we resolutely refused to allow it. In Ernie's office, he and I went over the terms of the indenture again and finally she agreed to them. "You know I've no real choice, not that there's much to choose between prison or being your slave."

"I'm sure you'll get far better treatment with Eric than you will in prison," Ernie commented, "And you won't have a criminal record afterwards. In any case the contract is only for two months whereas I suspect your prison term would be very much longer especially when the judge sees the state of your mother's face. Afterwards I'm sure Eric will help you find a job." Eventually we came and sat in my kitchen with May for the signing and witnessing of the contract. It was only later that I found out that her fear of prison had more to do with her experience with the prostitutes and their pimp than her actual fear of prison life. I did catch the look of horror on Louise's face when she saw the terrible bruise colours that now adorned May's distorted face but she quickly turned her head away without any apology. Her face looked far worse now than when it happened but she said it the pain was not too bad except when she tried to eat and she could more or less open her eyes. I wasn't convinced but went along with her reassurances.

May's size 6 slipper, an el-cheapo of Indonesian manufacture with fleecy uppers and man-made 'rubber' soles now somewhat worn and roughened with use, proved ideal for the purpose. May sat with her head cupped in her hands and her elbows propped on my kitchen table, and murmured, "Her father ought to have done this years ago."

Ernie decided, that as a policeman he ought not to witness the actual physical violence I was going to inflict, but said he would come back later to see how it all went. He left the handcuffs, which surprised me. He explained they were not standard police issue but were left at by the roadside many years ago and never claimed, perhaps for obvious reasons. Luckily he'd been able to find a key that fitted the lock.

I knew this was the make or break point. At the end of the next few minutes I would either have established my authority or she would have won. Her blouse had worked down partially covering her arse so I pulled it back and gripped her firmly around the waist. Holding the slipper by the heel I laid four hard swats to her bottom, two to each cheek in rapid succession. For a second or two there seemed no response but by the time two more had landed Louise screamed loudly and tried to push herself off my lap. Her hands flew back to cover her rear.

"Louise," I said, "One of the things you must learn during your period with me is CONTROL. Control over your tongue, control over your temper, control over your actions. Now control your body and lie still." She didn't seem to hear amidst her crying and screaming and continued to flail about.

"Right then, I'm not going to gag you because you might choke but I am going to restrain you. May, please pass me the cuffs."

Despite her struggles I fastened one cuff around her wrist, passed the other around the back leg of the chair before clipping it to the other wrist. I then trapped her legs between mine so she was now bent over my left leg and held with the right. Realising now that she could not move to any great extent, Louise's shouting increased in volume until I made it clear the more she yelled the more she would get walloped. Without counting the number of strokes, I applied the slipper as hard as I dared and it rose and fell in a steady rhythm until her arse was bright red and it certainly felt on fire when I rubbed here cheeks with my hand. Inevitably her writhing against my crotch gave me an erection, which I did my best to hide from May, but I think she just chose to ignore it.

"Pass me the bamboo cane please, May."

"You don't think she has had enough Eric?"

"The slippering was to punish her for all the times she has hit you, given you black eyes and bruises. How many times has that been? I guess the slippering fell far short of the pain you received from her. The cane is for the marks she made on your face the other day and I think six strokes on the arse is still less than the equivalent to two on the face."