From the Top Shelf - The Key that Unlocks, Part 2

Today I have the second in a series of letters published in Janus magazine over 30 years ago.  it was supposedly written by a lady named Janice, who recalls what happened after she got married at the age of 21.

Where should I start? When it first happened I suppose which was right after I got married. A very nasty shock indeed, at 21 and of course never having had the cane before. And then, out of the blue, to get it from your father-in-law.

But I'd better start before that and give you some background. We were both working-class families, Kevin's and mine, but there the similarity ends. My parents had always been easy-going with us; to tell the truth I suppose I was a bit spoilt and used to my Mum doing everything for me. Whereas Kevin's family, well, his father was definitely a strict disciplinarian. Spare the rod and spoil the child, that kind of thing. And there was no doubt that his children weren't spoiled; not Kevin or his two younger sisters.

Naturally I had known about Kevin's dad's attitudes in general terms before we got married. Known that he was a disciplinarian but that was all, nothing specific. But now I was bound to find it all out because we were going to have to live with them for at least a while as there was no chance of us getting a place of our own for some time.

It wasn't me that first time, it was the younger daughter. Both of the girls were still unmarried and living at home although they were pretty much grown up. Liz was 18 and Susan 19. They were both pretty girls - or I should say young women really, both, well, you know, well-developed. But that didn't make any difference to their dad.

Anyway, that evening some sort of argument had developed between Liz and her mother. We were all there in the lounge, except my father-in-law; then he unexpectedly came in. Liz stopped arguing at once but apparently not before he had heard her.

"Cheeking your mother?" he said. "That's one thing we don't allow in this house!"

And then, before my amazed eyes, he went to a cupboard and took out this cane.

Liz went very red in the face and started to protest - mainly because I was present. But he said,"Don't you worry about Janice. She's one of the family now." And he just went ahead and caned her. Made her bend over the arm of a chair, pulled up her skirt and slip, then caned her across the seat of her tight, brief knickers. Six strokes. Then he ordered her up to her room.

That night in bed Kevin told me their father had caned the two girls ever since they were 16. According to him it was the only way to keep teenage girls in line and stop them running wild with boys. They always got the cane if they were out later than an agreed time, and I had the evidence of my own eyes three days later when the elder girl, Susan, came back in late after being out with her boyfriend.

She got the same treatment as her sister, bent over the arm of that chair, except that this time he took her knickers down. Six with that cane across her bare backside. Kevin said afterwards that they normally got it with their knickers down but the previous occasion his father probably hadn't taken them down because I was there for the first time. Well I can tell you it took my breath away just to watch. That cane splatting down on her bare bottom, leaving a bright red stripe each time. It shocked me but I have to admit there was also a tingle of excitement, watching it.

Kevin himself, apparently, had been caned when he was younger, but his father had stopped doing it at about the same age he started with the girls.

Anyway that was the situation. That was the family I was now part of, but it just didn't occur to me that I could be treated in the same way. If it had I suppose I would have made a bit of an effort, although as I say I had been pretty well spoiled by my Mum and I just wasn't used to doing anything except please myself.

I didn't have a job. I had gone through the motions of trying to get one though I didn't have much in the way of qualifications, but I don't suppose I really tried very hard anyway. All I wanted to do was go to bed with Kevin, get up late, and after a leisurely breakfast wander down into town in my sharpest outfit to window shop, or have a coffee. As all of Kevin's family had jobs, including his mother, I suppose it should have been obvious that my behaviour was going to cause trouble.

It happened about three weeks after Kevin and I moved in with them. Three weeks after getting back from our honeymoon and a week after I had witnessed Liz being caned. It was a Monday morning. Kevin had gone off to work at his normal time, about 8 o'clock, and it was now 9:30 and I was thinking of getting up and getting some breakfast. At that time of the morning everyone else was out at work, but this day was different for the bedroom door opened and my father-in-law walked in.

He said he was going to be home all week (which was news to me) and he had taken a week out of his holidays. He said he thought that was timely as I obviously needed taking in hand.

Then his hand came out from behind his back and I saw he was holding the cane.

Well, as I say, it came completely out of the blue - the thought that I could be treated the same as his daughters. I just stared goggle-eyed. "Get up!" he said. "Any girl in this house who's still in bed at half-past nine gets a dose of the cane and no questions asked!"

And that's what I got. He yanked the bed covers back and pulled me out of bed, then made me bend over, kneeling at the side of the bed. I had on a shorty nightie which didn't reach much further than my waist, and I wasn't wearing the panties which went with it so my bottom was bare, ready and waiting. He gave me six; six cuts with that awful cane that really had me gasping for breath. The pain was really bad, it hurt like hell, but on top of that was the embarrassing situation - kneeling there with my bare bottom right up while my father-in-law caned me.

When he'd finished he pulled me to my feet and made me look at him. He said I was to get dressed immediately and then there were all the breakfast things waiting downstairs to be washed up. After that there was a lot of vacuuming that needed doing. He said he was going to the shop and when he came back, in half an hour, all that washing up better be done and a good start made on the cleaning, otherwise he'd have my knickers down and give me six more.

He went out and well, I just cried. The shock and pain of the caning as well as the fact that it was clear life was not going to be the same for me any more. But while I was crying I was also getting dressed because I knew by now my father-in-law was not a man to be trifled with, and if I didn't want an immediate repeat dose of that cane...

I got the washing-up done and had at least started on the cleaning by the time he came back. He checked what I'd done then slapped me on the bottom and said "That's a bit more like it, Janice." Then he told me to make a pot of tea when I'd finished and bring it into the lounge because we were going to have a serious talk.

In the lounge, after I had poured the tea, he said, "Well, Janice, what are we going to do with you?"

I didn't answer. Then he said, "If you want to live here you're going to be treated the same as my girls. You're hardly any older than them anyway. You haven't got a job but at least you are going to pull your weight in the house. If you don't I shall give you the cane, just the same as them."

I still didn't say anything; there wasn't much I could say. He said I could agree to this or go back home to my mother, it was up to me. Well I could hardly do that and reluctantly I mumbled that, yes, I agreed.

He said, "It's your pride that hurts more than anything else, isn't it?" And that was true of course. At 21 to be caned like that on my bare bottom, when no one had ever laid a finger on me before. I felt tears coming to my eyes. Tears of self pity.

There was one thing else though. Stuttering a bit, I asked if I had to have it could he do it without the others knowing. Because the thought of the rest of the family knowing - or worse, watching - was just too much. He looked at me a bit owlishly and then said perhaps it could be arranged.

And so that was it. I said nothing to Kevin - it would have been too humiliating - and no one else said anything. But all of a sudden I was a changed person. All of a sudden I was helping my mother-in-law, and even asking her if there were any chores I could do. And I also started looking more seriously for a job, although I wasn't able to get one for some months.

Of course, I wasn't perfect, the same way that Kevin's sisters weren't perfect, and I got the cane, once a week or even more I suppose. But at least he arranged to do it with no one else watching; it was usually in his shed at the bottom of the garden. And no one else knew - or at least thats what I thought.

But then, I suppose a month later, one night when we were in bed Kevin said something about the fact that I seemed a changed person. Then he chuckled and said "Of course a sore bum works wonders!" I suddenly felt a chill go down my spine.

I couldn't leave it alone of course. I had to find out what he knew and eventually he told me. A couple of days before my first caning, the three of them, Kevin and his mum and dad, had a sort of a conference. With me and my behaviour as the subject. Kevin's mum said it was obvious I was not going to take any notice of  'our Kevin' , and Kevin's dad was going to have to take some action. I don't suppose he was too reluctant to be told this! Kevin apparently had gone along with the idea. He would bow to his parents' decisions anyway and I suppose he felt I needed it anyway. And so the next day - that Monday morning!

Well it was a bombshell, to think that all that time Kevin and his mother had known what was going on. Had known that out in the garden shed I was having to bend over my father-in-law's workbench, and was having my knickers pulled down and getting that scalding cane on my bare behind. The only redeeming factor was that, at least, Kevin's sisters apparently didn't know.

Anyway, after the shock I just had to accept it. In fact Kevin and I had a good laugh then he said, jokingly, that he'd better start caning me as well. I told him if he bloody well tried it, I'd make his life hell. Because Kevin is not the man his father is - not in that respect anyway.

After that? Well more of the same. Kevin's dad still deals with me in private. And actually I'm sure that suits him. Because the fact is he rather fancies me. Soon after it all started he began not only caning me but spanking me as well. Over his lap with my knickers down. He doesn't do that to his daughters, and I'm pretty sure he's never told his wife that he does it to me.

Why haven't I complained? Because I like it. It turns me on something rotten being over his lap and having him spank my bare bum. I wriggle about more than I need to, to be honest, just to feel him get a hard-on. Caning turns me on too, though of course it hurts a lot more.

Truth or fiction?