Chapter 12: Acts of Defiance

There comes a time in every student's readjustment when they either regret the consent given at the start of the programme or begin to feel that their experiences with me will continue indefinitely. At such a point it is common for some act of rebellion or defiance to manifest itself.

Both Amanda and Estelle had, to their credit, applied themselves well to their programme of activities and had presented little more than token resistance to the various indignities and impositions that I had heaped upon them. They had submissively accepted the treatment that they had received at the hands of Gordon Beckwith and they had placidly accepted the measures devised by myself, Giacomo Baptista and Madame Genoux. While, no doubt, this was as a result of the fantasies they both entertained prior to my taking them into my charge, it had done much to increase my opinion of at least some members of the younger generation.

Looking back, the point at which the twin's resistance was aroused was when they realised that it was my firm intention to assign them to a husband without their least involvement.

It was during one of the sessions that I hold each afternoon during which I encourage the girls to talk of matters that are of concern to them.

"When, Sir," Amanda enquired respectfully from her position kneeling on the floor, hands on head, in the middle of my study, "will we get to meet with our likely suitors?"

Estelle joined in. "Yes, Sir. My sister and I are most anxious to have the chance to see them."

I anticipated that my reply would not be to their liking. "Why, at the wedding ceremony, of course. There should be no need for any earlier contact. You can rely on your guardian and me to arrange everything quite satisfactorily."

"Satisfactorily for whom?" Estelle enquired acidly. "For you, I suppose, but what about us? We have the right to meet our proposed husbands. We have the right to satisfy ourselves that they are suitable."

"Rights?" I responded, knowing that the girls' remarks were simply symptoms of a deeper lack of acceptance of their circumstances. "I do not believe that in your agreement with me there was any mention of rights. Of duties, yes. Of obligations, yes. But of rights? I think not."

The girls saw this as an inflammatory response and leapt to their feet to harangue me. Amanda began pummelling at my arm with her fists, screaming that it was not to be as I wished. Estelle was as vocal in her protests, too. It occurred to me for a moment that the two girls might even be attempting to free themselves of their contractual arrangements with me and I was certainly not prepared to countenance that.

Fortunately I always keep close to hand a pair of lockable restraints which can be easily snapped about the wrists of a recalcitrant student. In this case I gripped Amanda cruelly by the hair and span her around by it. Her yelps of pain were even louder than her earlier protestations but they did nothing to prevent me slipping the cuffs first around one wrist then sliding the other around one of the pipes that convey hot water from the boiler in my basement to the cast iron heating ducts around the house. With Amanda securely fixed I could turn my attention to Estelle.

As the more physically developed of the two, Estelle did not present such an easy proposition. More agile than her sister and stronger, she struggled naked in my grasp until I had her pressed face down against the carpet with myself kneeling astride her back wrenching her arms up behind her. "Oww," she yelped, evidently surprised by the strength and dexterity that I had been able to bring to bear in subduing her. I may have the look of an aesthete but I can still hold a young women's wrists secure in the grip of my right hand alone and it was with her held, thus, that I dragged her to her feet and took her towards the cellar.

"I won't go back in the cage," she yelled defiantly. "Nor will Amanda."

"You will do as you are told," I said. "That is our agreement but if you are to behave in this lunatic manner you shall be treated as one."

Beside the door from my study is a large wooden chest. Here I had access to something that would be of great help. Among the other graduates from the Fritz Freleng College practicing in London is Doctor Aristides Poloi. He specialises in the treatment of deeply disturbed young ladies. He uses, by coincidence, a similar electrostatic generator to that which I employ but arranging it so that shocks are received in the brain itself. I had in passing mentioned that occasionally my students become distressed and he had kindly provided me with two items of restraint that he felt might be of service.

In the face of Amanda's and Estelle's rebellion, I determined to use them. They seemed entirely appropriate to the girls' deranged actions.

Aristides referred to them as restraint coats. They were made of heavy canvas, fastened with straps behind the wearer and with closed sleeves arranged so that the arms were crossed over in front of the body and then strapped tightly, again fastened behind so that the wearer was held quite tightly and securely in their own, well-strapped embrace.

Estelle was so intent on haranguing me with every possible insult and term of abuse that I am not sure she realised what I was doing until I had forced her into the jacket and begun fastening the straps. Once the closed sleeves were wrapped around her body and fastened with their own straps there was little she could do to prevent me tightening the others. With the buckling of the final straps across her throat and between her legs she realised that she was indeed helpless.

Amanda watched in resigned acceptance as I approached her with the jacket that I intended to put upon her. Seeing how easily I had subdued her stronger sister she did nothing to resist and was soon equally helpless in her own restraint coat.