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“Close your mouth, Lucille, you are not a fish,” Anna said.
Lucy snapped her mouth shut, her face flushing at the chastisement but was suddenly far more concerned when her buttocks reflexively clenched the moment the black leather tawse was rubbed across her bared flesh.
Anna said firmly, “Lucille, I can sit here all day because I assure you, you will not be let up until you ask me for and have received a tawsing.”
Lucy gritted her teeth at the threat but decided that if the housekeeper could sit all day, she could simply do even better. She allowed herself to relax her muscles until she was draped like a boneless rag doll over the woman’s knee. She didn’t exactly know where to place her hands but she finally tucked them at her chin in order to keep them off the floor, determined not to support even an ounce of her weight.
“Comfy?”
A bit surprised to hear the question, Lucy squirmed before catching herself. Hanging upside down was not exactly conducive to comfort, but she’d die before admitting any such thing. “Yes, thank you. And you? I’m not too heavy for you am I, Mrs. Bremmer?”
The servant actually chuckled. “Not at all, Lucille. After all, you’re not the first young woman to be over my lap. Not counting your sister, I’ve raised five daughters of my own.”
Lucy was surprised yet again. Turning her head, she looked up at the woman. “Really?”
“I don’t tell fibs, Lucille,” Anna said, her tone indicating she was a bit offended.
“I just mean… I’ve never seen you with any children.”
“My daughters are all grown women with husbands of their own. My grandchildren are being raised as all little ones should to best prepare them for life. Learning to respect their elders and to behave in order not to be in the position you find yourself, missy.” As if to emphasize exactly what that position might be, Anna continued to rub the tawse all over Lucy’s upturned bottom.
Lucy turned back again, furious at herself for being caught up in a conversation in the first place when she was supposedly proving a point. She was also a bit angry that no matter how she tried, she simply could not seem to refrain from shuddering as the tawse moved over her skin and then moved down to rub against the very sensitive creases where her bottom met her thighs. Reaching up, she rubbed her fingertips across her forehead where a bit of a headache was beginning as the blood rushed to her head.
Several minutes passed before Lucy became aware of another presence in the room. She lifted her head briefly to see Molly had returned. Her maid’s arms were full of clothing.
“Thank you, Molly,” Anna said. “Just hang them in the wardrobe if you please.”
Molly nodded and was soon placing identically styled dresses into the wardrobe. After she finished, she began to open the empty drawers in her dresser to place folded undershirts and new bloomers into them. As she bent to fill the last drawer with several pairs of stockings, she glanced over at Lucy. Lucy flushed and looked away. Instead of a member of a highly respected household, she suddenly felt ridiculous and very childish turned over a lap, her bottom bared in the time-honored position of a disobedient child about to be spanked. She wiggled a bit and took several deep breaths, not quite understanding how exactly she’d wound up in this situation, but quite desperate to remove herself from it. She was extremely aware of every movement of the implement on her bottom and her color deepened. With a final sigh, she conceded.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Bremmer. I… I just don’t understand. I… I didn’t mean to disrespect you,” Lucy said in a soft voice. When the housekeeper didn’t respond, Lucy sighed and tried again, willing to offer apologies for what the older woman must have considered some type of slight. “I won’t speak to you in that way again. It was just a misunderstanding. There is no need to… um… to sp… spank me.”
Anna continued to stroke Lucy’s bottom with the tawse as if she hadn’t even heard Lucy’s confession. Lucy had no idea what the woman wanted but knew her head was really beginning to pound. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. If it makes you feel better, I admit I was wrong. But you can let me up now as I’ve learned my lesson.”
Despite her second attempt, it wasn’t Mrs. Bremmer who spoke next, it was Molly.
“If there is nothing else, Mrs. Bremmer, shall I go help the other girls pack Miss Lucy’s trunks?” she asked.
“Yes, Molly, you may,” Anna answered. “But first, ask Cook to go ahead with the service as there’s no reason everyone in the household be made to wait to break their fast. If you see his lordship, please inform him that I am waiting for Lucille to decide exactly how long she wishes to remain over my knee, her bloomers lowered to bare her little bottom before making her request for a proper tawsing.”
Lucy flushed yet again and saw Molly giving her a look that seemed to convey that as sorry as she was for her mistress, she was very glad not to be forced to remain to witness seeing Lucy get her bum reddened.
“Yes, ma’am,” Molly said, giving a quick curtsy before leaving the room.
Angry at having her apologies totally ignored, Lucy was even more determined to win this ridiculous war. Her mum had always said one had to pick one’s battles and she was picking this one. Hell itself could freeze over before she’d surrender. The sound of voices had her lifting her head, tilting it in order to hear what was being said outside the door Molly had forgotten to pull closed behind her. Gritting her teeth, she prepared herself to ignore whichever servant entered her room. If a bit of embarrassment at having yet another person see her bare bottom was the cost of victory, so be it. Lowering her face to allow the witness anonymity, her head jerked up again when she realized that one of the voices she heard quite distinctly did not belong to any servant.
“I see, thank you, Molly.”
Those words were said in a voice she’d recognize anywhere and in a tone that had her buttocks quivering. Swallowing her pride, she said, “Please, Mrs. Bremmer, I… I accept now that you must have the authority to sp… spank me. Please, just this once… please forgive me. I… I promise never to speak to you with such rudeness again.”
“Child, that is not what you were instructed to do now was it?”
It wasn’t what she wished to hear, but at least the woman was speaking to her. Lucy felt her heart racing and swore she could hear every footfall of Edward’s boots on the floor of the hall and quickly answered, “No, but I’ve learned my lesson. I-I don’t need a span… spanking.”
“You were instructed to request your tawsing, young lady. You’ll find a bottom that has been attended to by an expertly applied tawse feels very different from one given a simple spanking,” Anna informed her. The leather continued to move and stroke Lucy’s bottom. “Try again, Lucille, as every moment you are making me wait to attend to your naughty bottom will make your coming chastisement harder to accept. I’m afraid your poor bottom is in for quite the lesson already. Do you really wish it to be extended?”
Lucy hung her head, all thoughts of pleading for mercy draining from her body. Despite the past weeks of being perfectly behaved, it seemed nothing would stop this punishment. She might have thought she had been within her rights to question the removal of her belongings, but it was now quite obvious that Mrs. Bremmer considered her to have been defiant and disrespectful. And Lucy was all too familiar with what happened to little girls who were considered naughty. They paid the price for that naughtiness with any one of several horrid implements being applied to their bare bottoms.
“Please… oh, please, Mrs. Bremmer,” she begged, her voice cracking as the first sob escaped her. “I’m so sorry… I… oh, God, please don’t do this. I-I just didn’t want to wear Louisa’s clothes and be a little girl. It… it isn’t fair… it isn’t right for him to require this of me. I’m… I’m a grown woman,” Lucy said, her voice breaking.
