Notebooks of the Young Wife (23 page)

Lou and Bel restored their clothing to its proper place and embellished the thanks required for the punishment with an exaggerated formality. With each bare midriff adorned by a thong emerging from hipster jeans they made a fetching sight, and were plainly not the airheads I had first supposed. The father drew his offspring to him, and they seemed happy enough to accept an arm on the shoulder as he explained to me that a birthday was approaching.

‘They have been raised under a curfew for as long as I can recall, and it was for a breach of that in my absence that they’ve now paid. However, less than a month hence these young ladies reach the age of majority and will be free to come and go as they choose. In addition, I have undertaken from that date to forgo the right to impose discipline as I see fit. As it happens, Dr Greene, the date coincides with that of the tableau we are to commemorate, so there will be cause for celebration indeed.’

First one twin and then the other had dropped into a squatting position beside the paterfamilias during his little speech. When he finished, Lou pouted up at him.

‘Now, Daddy, do we get a promise you won’t go for overkill in the final weeks?’

‘Too right, sister,’ Bel chipped in quickly. ‘We could be facing a new policy to max the whacks before it’s too late.’ As the father looked down at them, shaking his head indulgently, my suspicion was growing that there was more to the trio than a Victorian father ruling with a rod of iron, and it came back to me that the estimable Mrs Beaton had said as much.

‘And that’s not all, Bel. Can we be sure that the heavy hand really does a vanishing trick on the 15th? Ka-boom, puff of smoke, never to be seen again.’

‘Good question, Lou, and I got another one. If – and we are totally in the if-ness here – the paddles disappear—’

‘And the canes, Bel.’

‘And the canes, then I don’t know about you, but I might, just might, even just a tiny bit, start to miss them.’ By now the mock seriousness of the discussion had given way to giggles and I had the uncomfortable feeling of eavesdropping on the reputed family business that was none of mine. So I mumbled a quick excuse and made for the door, though I couldn’t help hearing the Master declare that what he would give up was a
right
, so he would still, of course, be open to
invitation
. Then, as I closed it, I couldn’t help seeing that the paternal trousers were flaunting a quite substantial bulge only inches from the faces of the daughters that seemed, to my – by that stage – rather fevered eye, to be turning purposefully in that very direction.

Monday morning, early, we returned to London. There was little that could be done while the transcripts were being prepared and the boy was reportedly content to sit in on the process until the following weekend.

‘Ambient okay with you, guv?’ said Tamsin, and I grunted vague approval to avoid showing my ignorance. The car’s speakers began to pour out a slow, cocooning pulse and I was happy to sink into a reverie while she negotiated the motorway traffic with an easy flair.

Back at the BL the first few days passed in a whirl. While Dominic had held the fort admirably as usual, there was still a mound of paperwork and a string of rescheduled meetings, at which I was obliged to disguise myself in a suit either to argue our corner for a slice of funding or defend it from unwelcome restrictions. Then on Wednesday night I returned from a well-earned glass or three of cold beer to find a message that had been switched through to the machine in my flat on the top floor.

Hi, Dr Greene, this is Lou. We thought you oughta know Daddy’s headed your way to see the books. More to settle was the drift and I guess you already know his way of getting things settled. He’s been practicing, too. So you better watch your – er – back.
Sorry!

There was a burst of giggling cut off by the click of the receiver, and the home taped voice telling me that was the lot. I went to the cupboard and poured out a nightcap. Was the patriarch on the warpath? Or was there a joke I wasn’t getting? Or both? I would find out soon enough and it was difficult to take the warning seriously with the amber liquid so agreeably tickling the throat.

As soon as the doors opened the next day I left instructions at the main desk that a tall Texan in his later years asking for Rare Books or me should be sent straight over. He would not give a name let alone offer credentials, but I was prepared to vouch for him. Then I briefed Dominic that he was to keep the man waiting while he buzzed me down below in the half-basement where our collections were stored. There I planned to lurk amongst the new acquisitions, whose loss to the house was apparently still rankling its master.

It was an hour before I made it downstairs, where Rachel was putting stuff into the computer database from a notepad filled with tiny neat writing. Her main work was across the road, but permitted secondments to us from time to time when a need arose. She had short dark hair with appealing hazel eyes kept hidden behind thick lenses and, I’d had occasion to notice, was quietly interested in some of our documented ‘deviations’. Open on the desk beside her was a copy of
The Model Household
, of 1853, and I tapped on the illustration of a mistress birching her maid.

‘The way it’s been drawn, you’d think the thing was a broom she picked up from the corner.’

‘Yes, it’s a bit comical really. That doesn’t look like it would do much.’

‘No, the proper thing, I’m told, is made of a small number of slim switches. Very whippy.’

‘Ouch.’ She smiled shyly. ‘Well, I’m only supposing. I never...’

‘Oh yes, it’s the very devil. Feels like the skin’s being flayed right off. But actually it soon mends.’ My authoritative pronouncement had rather given the game away, but Rachel looked suitably impressed and I decided it was as well she knew our department was no ivory tower.

‘I’m afraid I’ve led a very sheltered life.’

‘There are remedies, you know. Now I keep a list out here...’ I’d gone through the connecting door still speaking, but what I found brought me up short. A figure huge in silhouette against the window moved forward without speaking and laid a cane on the desk between us. After the initial shock I saw it was no more – and no less – than the visitor I’d been expecting. He must have come down the back stair and that implement was very like one that lived in a stand in the office. And that meant that Dominic...

By that time Rachel appeared in the doorway, wide eyes moving from the Master to me to the crook-handled length of rattan. Still he was saying nothing so I broke the silence.

‘Rachel, I’m going to need a few minutes here in private. If you’ve got plenty to carry on with for now...’

‘Of course, yes. I’ll do that.’ After an anxious glance at the intruder she was gone and the closing door made a reassuringly solid sound.

‘I took the liberty of asking for a loan of the rod from the young man. I have to admit that the qualities of these articles become more and more evident with use.’ Wondering quite how all this ‘use’ was being achieved, I was briefly diverted by an image of the staff at Ardingley End being summoned to the study one by one, with Mrs Jencks herself perhaps being saved until last. However, he was now in my domain and I needed to take charge of the situation.

‘Am I to assume, sir, that you plan to extend your experience with the borrowed instrument?’

‘I do; that is, if you agree there is cause.’

‘Cause?’ If submitting to a demonstration of his new prowess would secure a blessing on the books residing where they were, then I was game. But first, he would have to spell it out.

‘Do you not own to being unscrupulous in removing the collection?’

‘It is my job to secure what items I can for the Library. In my position you would surely have acted in the same way. And it is done: you were too late for negotiation.’ The silence that followed told of his reluctance to accept what I was saying, so I made a bid to cut the knot. ‘I’ll be blunt, sir. Nothing technically wrong was done in clearing the books from the house. However, you have hard feelings that you would like to take out on somebody. Well, here I am, at your disposal.’

There was a longer silence but at the end of it he said, ‘Thank you, Dr Greene.’ Then he cleared his throat and for the first time in our acquaintance I detected diffidence. ‘There is one more thing you might clarify for me about these English practices.’

‘Ask away, please.’

‘I have found mention of the way in which a master in your old public schools might, ah, make free with a boy’s rear end after he had striped it.’

‘Not exactly a
practice
, I have to say, but it did happen. Prefects, even, were known so to indulge themselves.’ If he wasn’t going to name names nor was I, but my poker face was threatening to crack at his euphemistic turn of phrase. So I rummaged in a drawer for a packet, took from it a small capsule and passed it over, after which I felt able to continue in an appropriately serious tone. ‘I am happy to oblige, though I would suggest you insert this right at the start to achieve adequate lubrication for the finale. Now, sir, when the business is finished, can I count on that also being the end of the matter of the books?’

‘You have my word.’ I took him at it, lowered my jeans and stretched out over the desk. He parted my buttocks with a grunt of approval and pushed the pessary home. Given my rather spare appearance, he was no doubt agreeably surprised by the meatiness of the area I’d uncovered. It was a pleasing thought but short-lived, as the situation I’d talked myself into so gaily began to hit home. There I was, face down and arse up for patriarchal displeasure to be vented thereon. It was now a matter of honour – as with Madame – to stay the course, only this time I didn’t yet know what that course was. Nor did I know how proficient the southpaw had become, though what he was equipped with could impart a wicked lick and I feared the worst.

There wasn’t long to wait. One touch of the cool wood was all the aim taken, and the first blow was delivered to the exact mark. There is a moment following an accurate and forceful cane stroke that is quite literally breathtaking: one stops breathing as the body struggles to assimilate the jolt of pain. Repeated assaults may lose the sheer shock of the first, but the space to recuperate between seems to shrink. Thus after six full-blooded cuts I found myself gasping between clenched teeth, ‘You’re hurting me, sir.’

‘That is my intention. We’ve done six and I’m of a mind to do the same again. And then once more for good measure.’ There was a quiet relish in the words that chilled me into silence. I could have walked out at any time, but it was out of the question to admit defeat on my own ground.

And take it I did – just. The final three were the hardest of all on flesh that was achingly tender. I writhed speechlessly until firm hands took charge of my hips and there was a hard nosing at the hole between my buttocks. He was wet and the jelly had done its work so there was no friction to impede his entry. But he was big, both thick and long, and I was distended beyond all prior experience.

To cap it all, he was given to an energetic thrusting that soon had me hanging on with the same grim determination necessary to survive the cane. It was a mercy that its use seemed to have so excited him that ejaculation took place almost at once, and I was allowed to slump on the unyielding surface while he disappeared to wash up. When he returned I struggled to my feet, clutching at my dropped jeans, and pushed him through the door. Rachel’s capable hands could take charge while I took five minutes to restore myself in the bathroom. But I was rallying well and had to admit that now the thing was done it was certainly one for the book.

The two of them were huddled over a manuscript when I emerged, making an effort not to walk as if I’d spent an unaccustomed day in the saddle.

‘The young lady has been showing me how it will all be set out,’ he waved an arm at the half-filled shelves put by for the new collection, ‘and it rather pleases me that other enthusiasts will have the opportunity to benefit from these fine books. I expect to return myself if the invitation still stands.’ He was graciousness itself and I decided my throbbing bum had been a price well worth paying.

‘Of course, though perhaps the next time you’ll not feel the need to take such vigorous exercise on your arrival.’ The Master laughed and wished us farewell before making his way back up the stairs. Rachel was looking at me curiously.

‘Did you really let him cane you? I was trying not to listen, but...’

‘Yes, my dear, and I am sore. But he’s been made sweet, which is what matters. Now if you want to stick a very cautious toe in the water there’s an Irish girl in Soho I know who will hold your hand. I’ll email her right now, tell her to get back to you here and then you can take it from there. Right?’

‘You are telling me you thought it was what I really wanted?’

‘Well, I was reading between the lines.’

‘You thought I wanted to be flung over a desk and assaulted with two vicious weapons? That’s how you see me, is it? Just begging for it, can’t get enough, so we’ll set the big Texan on her?’ I was working up a good head of steam that had Dominic looking a little surprised. But it was really no more than a variation on a scene we’d played before and he fell in with it without objection. In short order he was the one over the desk with trousers and underpants round his ankles.