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“I asked you not to enter the room, never mind touch the contents of the wardrobe. If you had stayed out, then you would not have made the mistake. Your disobedience led you here, not your ignorance.”
She scrambled to find a response to his statement, running a hand through a lock of hair. “If you’d shown me the room…”
“Alice! I have made my decision. Go to the bedroom, get undressed and wait for me there.” He spoke with a flat tone of voice and it signalled finality.
Alice slipped past him, closing the door quietly and dashed down the corridor to the master bedroom. Shutting the door behind her, she burst into tears. She wiped her tears away with the back of her hand and opted to prepare herself for his chastisement. She removed her blue gown. Normally Primrose would assist in her undressing if Edmund chose not to do it himself, but in the maid’s absence, she would have to manage on her own.
With still no sign of her husband, she continued to strip. With shaking hands, she peeled off each of her layers of undergarment until she reached the chemise. Hesitating, she understood its significance to him. To remove it in the bedroom would show her compliance to his request for her to be naked—another stipulation she could ill afford to ignore in the current circumstances. She slipped it off over her head. Wrapping her arms around her chest, she hovered uncertain as to what he would expect from her.
Should she sit on the bed, or perhaps bend over the edge? Her legs shook and it helped with her decision. Bending her
knees, she lowered herself on to the floor and rested there on her folded legs.
As she waited for Edmund to appear, Alice pondered her situation. Another spanking! Would he take her over his lap again and hold her down? She didn’t want to resist this time, as much as she disliked his intention to punish her, she would rather not grapple with him. A pointless exercise—his strength would quickly overpower her. She decided that outwardly she would do as he wished, but in her head, she would remain defiant and refuse to be humiliated. She proudly lifted up her chin to show her readiness, then thought better of it and dropped her head. The door opened and Edmund entered the bedroom.
She risked peeking at him. His cravat had been loosened and his jacket unbuttoned. In his steady hand, a leather scabbard, swordless, plain and thick. He signalled for her to rise. Alice quickly clambered to her feet.
“I am disheartened by your thoughtlessness,” said Edmund, gripping the scabbard in both hands. “But I know you are too. It is for this reason your punishment will be brief. Nor do I wish to attract the servants. You will lie on the bed and I will whip you six times with this scabbard. You must be as quiet as possible.”
Alice nodded and did as he asked, lowering herself onto the bed.
“Put your hands above your head,” he said approaching the side of the four-poster.
His hand rested on the small of her back and the other raised the scabbard and brought it down with a whack. Alice kicked her legs up and her teeth bit down, suppressing a cry. It hurt far more than she had imagined. Six was a small number, but he didn’t hold back with the force of his sweeping arm.
The next came a few seconds later, slicing through the air with a swish and landing with a thud, and with it came her tears. So much for defiant thoughts, she felt only his disappointment in her. His hand rubbed about the raw pain, tracing his fingers over the rising welt. Each blow was an equal to the previous one. By the end, her tears had wet the bedcovers and her bottom throbbed with an intense burning. The scabbard had left a row of blistering hot lines on her behind.
Edmund tossed the scabbard aside and drew the sobbing Alice into his arms. She curled up on his lap, crying into his chest.
“Alice,” he said calmly, brushing the hair away from her face with his fingers. “Alice, it is over. Please stop crying.”
“I am so sorry, Edmund,” she said sniffing. “I never meant to be disrespectful to your father’s memory. I have been insensitive.”
“No, you didn’t know. I should have explained to you why that room is special to me,” said Edmund with a sigh. “It wasn’t your curiosity that mars your behaviour, it was that you went against my specific instruction not to go in there. It is your defiance, Alice, which causes us strife.”
“I am mindful of its attendance throughout my life,” agreed Alice, faintly aware of his steading heartbeat next to her ear.
“It is not that I wish you to be dull, my dear, or lacking in inquisitiveness, it is the act of snooping and prying that I despise. When I take you into the company of others, people of good standing and rank, you must learn to contain your gossiping nature.” He tilted her chin up and lowered his mouth, kissing her sweetly.
“So you do like my wit, my ability to enchant you?” she enquired with a modicum of humour.
“I,” Edmund paused a fraction, “love it in the right circumstances and in its correct place.”
“Love my wit or love me?” She ventured. He seemed to be happy once again, full of sweet mannerisms and tenderness. Such a contrary man and she speculated it would become increasingly hard to resist his controlling manner if he continued to exact his will while tempering it with his loving ways.
“It would seem I cannot have one without the other,” he chuckled and then with a swift twist of his body, pushed her back on the bed. Looming above her, she waited, breathless and certain his forthcoming actions would both enthral and tantalise long into the evening.
Chapter Seven
The day of the dance had arrived. Alice spent it in a state of feverish excitement, trying on numerous gowns without making a decision. Primrose liked them all, which didn’t help Alice. The chosen gown, pale green in colour, demonstrated the latest fashions with its lacy frills at the edges, a daring décolletage, which lowered her neck line and a similar lower waistline below her bosom; each feature was met with Edmund’s approval. Alice selected a golden brown, velvet pelisse to wear on their return, a turban bonnet and long gloves.
The previous week, Edmund had finally escorted Alice into town for visits. Her husband had provided her with pin money, an allowance to spend as she saw fit. One trip took them to shop at a haberdashery to buy more threads and needles for her embroidery, another at a seamstress, to commission further gowns and the third visit to walk about the streets upon his arm. Each adventure into Buxton served a purpose in introducing Alice to society. She had been immensely relieved to be out and no longer hidden away.
She had been especially careful with her behaviour since he had spanked her with the scabbard, but she occasionally struggled to keep her insolent tongue at bay.
“Of course when we have our ball, I shall insist on you wearing your uniform again. I cannot imagine you parading around without it.” She announced on the way to the Assembly Rooms in the closed carriage.
Edmund flicked a moth away. “My uniform days are over. I will wear something appropriate to my position in society.”
