Chapter 27: Punishment

The time passed slowly and took its toll on her nerves. She realised fully what she had not noticed before, that there were no windows in the study. That meant that there was no indication of the passing of time from the sun. She put a finger to her throat to check the time passing by her heart-beat, which she knew should be something a little faster than sixty beats per minute. That idea she discarded quite soon as she found that her heart was beating wildly at times, and that she could not do the necessary mental arithmetic to keep time and keep counting simultaneously.

Eventually nature asserted itself with a call and she went into the bathroom to use the toilet. The eunuchs made no move to prevent this, and the bath girls offered to help her as usual. They were treating her as if she were simply waiting for the Emir to join her. This added to her mental anguish, because she assumed, wrongly, that they often had to keep an eye on miscreants waiting for punishment.

Their instructions had been quite explicit, and given before the trial started; she was to be treated as a guest, but not allowed to leave the Emir's apartments. None of her questions were to be answered and no indication was to be given of the time.

After what seemed to Sharon to be at least a dozen hours, but was, in fact, exactly three hours to the minute from her entry into the study, the Emir strode in to the room.

"In here," he said, indicating the bedroom, "There is a whipping bench here, as you know."

In the bedroom, still fully dressed, she stared at the bench, which was pulled well away from the wall and which sat on large metal tray. Clearly they expected her to lose control of herself and did not want the carpet spoiled.

"If you keep your clothes on for the whipping, they will undoubtedly be ruined, and the material torn, and some of the stray strands will get into the wounds. Although you were not sentenced to be flogged naked, I would strongly recommend it," he said.

Quickly she took off the jacket, blouse and brassière. Then she looked at him questioningly.

"The blows may well not all fall above the waist."

He could see that she was having a hard time controlling herself as she took off her skirt and underwear, and had gone very pale. He smiled in appreciation at the titillating nature of the garter belt and stockings which were carefully removed after the knickers. He considered that a few more turns of the screw on her mental state and she would be ready for his coup de grace; when she was not actually harmed she would have a stupendous orgasm in the relief from the tension which had been building over the last three days, and more especially the last three hours.

"Perhaps we should begin by showing you the equipment we have available for judicial whippings."

She just stared at him.

"First of all we could use the human hand. This is most often applied to any of the softer parts of the body for very minor offences and does not really hurt very much at all. That would be most inappropriate in this case."

He might have been lecturing to a class of trainee disciplinarians for all the emotion there was in his voice. She did not for one moment realise that he was enjoying torturing her mentally far more than he would enjoy whipping her.

"The next level of punishment is one of these, a paddle."

He offered her an implement rather like a table-tennis bat, but a little softer.

"Go on, examine it closely," he encouraged her, "You will see that the surfaces are not symmetrical. The rough side is made of much harder rubber than the smooth side and inflicts much more pain, particularly if it is dragged across the skin slightly as it strikes the buttock," he paused for a moment, then added, "or breast."

Taking the paddle back from her nearly nerveless hands he scraped it very gently across the outer curve of one breast, making her jump.

"The next level of punishment is the strap. This is often simply a belt, used because it is readily to hand when impromptu punishment is called for."

He reached into a drawer beside him and came up with an object she recognised, a riding-crop.

"Many heads of households use a riding crop on their recalcitrant family or servants as well as to encourage their horses. It marks quite well and hurts a good deal if it is applied properly. Even some days later, long after the pain has subsided, the marks remind the recipient of the punishment received."

Putting it away he reached a hand towards one of the eunuchs and was given the short whip which they all wore tucked in to their belts.

"This is a eunuch's whip, sometimes called a dog whip. A whip designed to cause pain but not leave permanent marks. A whip to punish but not reduce the value of precious merchandise. It is seldom used in the more formal circumstances of judicial punishment, except to prolong the agony of being flogged to death. The victim lasts much longer when one of these lighter whips is used."

He swung the dog whip through the air with a 'whish' sound before handing it back to the eunuch. He took another whip from the drawer and continued his emotionless lecture. Sharon could hardly think at this point, much less appreciate the expertise of his exposition.

"This is the most frequently used whip for judicial purposes, As you can see it is heavier than the dog whip and the single thong is made from hide which is only partially cured, limiting the flexibility so that the effect is stronger than a softer leather would impart. Note also that one edge is smooth while the other is serrated. An expert using this whip can vary which edge strikes the flesh, and the serrated edge, pulled as it strikes, can tear the skin and the flesh below it quite effectively."