From the Top Shelf - A Master of Discipline, part 2

Today I have for your amusement the second installment of A Master of Discipline. You may remember that last time, two students were caught smoking in the girls' shower, and were sentenced to be caned. Let us assume our positions outside the study door and watch, shall we?

Ruth nodded. So both pupils were to receive the cane. Despite her antipathy to the man, she could not fault Fullerton's decision. Corporal punishment was used infrequently at the school but smoking, aggravated by rudeness to a member of staff, more than justified the punishment under Educorp-West's guidelines. It was a condition of admission to the school that all parents signed a waiver which allowed their offspring to be given such punishment if the guidelines were breached. Since the reputation of the school was extremely high, most parents signed willingly enough, trusting the staff to use their powers responsibly.

"I shall deal with Henderson directly," Mr. Fullerton continued. "Miss Greeves absence today is most inconvenient. In the circumstances, as her senior assistant, you will have to deal with Miss Shaw. I must insist that you administer a severe punishment."

"Me? But I have never used a cane before. I'm not qualified." Ruth was horrified. She knew it was customary, on the rare occasions a girl was given corporal punishment, that it was administered by a female member of staff, but it was a duty she had so far not been called upon to perform.

"I shall give the boy six of the best for his impudence and the girl must take at least four. Do you understand? I really must insist." Fullerton looked at Ruth, challenging her to argue. Ruth said nothing for a moment, thinking over the problem.

Nicky is not a bad girl at heart, but that shouldn't get her any favouritism, Ruth mused to herself. You know how you detest the smell of tobacco smoke yourself and, besides, if that fool Fullerton wasn't such a pompous prude, he'd probably have found out that Nicky and Robin had been up to a lot more than just smoking! For the good of the school, justice had to be seen to be done, and there was no doubt that the youngsters were caught dead to rights, in breach of the rules, and deserved what they were about to get.

"Very well," she said to the waiting Fullerton, "when do you want to carry this out?"

"No time like the present. Do you know what to do?"

"Yes, I think so." Ruth steeled herself for what had to be done.

"I suggest that you use Miss Greeves's room. At least four strokes and well laid on, remember!" His voice suddenly rose an octave and Ruth wondered if this was really such a good idea.

A few minutes later, Ruth found herself behind Lillian Greeves's desk listening to the sounds coming from the deputy headmaster's room, which was next door. Coral had been sent to find both the unfortunate teenagers and had delivered Robin Henderson to Edward Fullerton's office before searching for Nicky Shaw. Ruth, waiting in her absent boss's office, heard a voice raised in anger, followed by a quieter voice, apparently protesting.

There was a tap at the door and Coral ushered in Nicky Shaw , who was looking very neat and tidy in the uniform of a North Cliff sixth-former; a considerable transformation from her dishevelled state of an hour before.

"Come in, Nicky. Thank you, Coral. I will call you if I need you." Ruth waited until the secretary had closed the door behind her before speaking again. She eyed the girl standing on the other side of the desk. She guessed that Nicky was about five feet seven inches tall, and she was certainly developing into a very pretty young lady. The fairly plain uniform specified by the school rules did not hide her ripening breasts and full hips. Her long, golden hair, pinned up demurely at present, shone brightly. Ruth knew that her pupil possessed strikingly beautiful tresses.

"Well, Nicky, what have you got to say for yourself?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Jamieson. I wasn't rude. Neither was Robin, at least not much. Mr. Fullerton was really nasty - he said some really awful things about us. He shouldn't have said them, Miss." The normally mature and sensible girl seemed ready to brazen things out. Ruth felt firstly embarrassed and then angry. It was one disadvantage of having risen so fast in her profession. She really would find situations like this easier to deal with when she had a few more years on her.

"That's all very well, but you had also been smoking. That's true, isn't it?"

"Yes, Miss." Nicky stared at the floor.

"Well, Nicky, I can see you're upset, but I can't help that, and you know the rules about smoking, don't you?"

"Yes, Miss."

The sound of voices from the next-door office became louder for a moment and then died away, as if an argument had reached its climax and then been settled. Nicky had obviously recognised one of the voices as that of her boyfriend and fellow miscreant.

"Mr. Fullerton is going to punish Robin Henderson very severely for his rudeness and for smoking, do you know that?"

"I suppose we shouldn't have been smoking. Robin knew that as well, so I suppose he will expect to get punished." Nicky spoke as if she was proud of her boyfriend's ability to take his punishment bravely.

"Do you realise he is going to get caned? Very severely indeed if I know Mr. Fullerton. He'll be lucky if he gets away with just six of the best." As if to confirm her observation, the unmistakable sound of a cane striking taut flesh filtered through the thin partition wall from the adjoining office.

Up to that point, Nicky had not appeared to be unduly worried about her situation. Ruth had the distinct impression that the pretty sixth-former had not taken the interview very seriously, believing she would get off with a stern lecture and detention. Now, both Ruth and her pupil held their breath, Ruth counting silently as she did so. She had reached ten when another sharp report rang out. Nicky let out her breath with an audible gasp. Ruth began her count again and had reached fifteen before the third stroke punctuated the suspense. This time the sound of the blow was followed by an agonised yell.

"Oh no! That's cruel - poor Robin." For the first time in the conversation, Nicky showed some real concern.

Ruth could see the effect of these sounds was disturbing her pretty young charge, who was looking a lot less self-assured now than she had done a few minutes earlier. Well, so be it. The silly girl shouldn't have been caught smoking. Getting a sore bottom wouldn't be the end of the world for her and, if Ruth didn't do a proper job, Fullerton would only find out somehow and make her life even worse with his sneaky little innuendos and sarcasm.

"Painful, Nicky, it undoubtedly is." She looked sternly at her pupil. "But cruel? No, I don't think so. Well merited would be more accurate. We have a policy of equality in this school, Nicky, as you know. Even if I ignore rudeness, which I can't comment on because I wasn't there, I can't ignore the smoking, which you have admitted to me. So I am going to have to cane you too. You know you deserve it, don't you?"

For the first time the girl's composure was severely shaken. Her face was flushed pink . "I-I suppose so, Miss. I don't know, I've never had the cane before." She was staring at the floor now, trembling slightly.

Well that makes us even, Ruth thought to herself as she opened the tall cupboard at the side of the room. I've never given a caning either. She surveyed the selection of weapons which she found hanging in the cupboard. Which one do I choose? There seem to be so many.

She fingered a thin bamboo rod, but rejected it as too thin. It looked as if it could cut like a knife. If I strike too hard and draw blood, that would be terrible, she thought. Alongside the bamboo was a thicker cane, darker in colour and equipped with a traditional curved handle. That looked as if it would be more suitable. She picked it up. It was surprisingly light and, as she discovered by flexing it in her hands, very flexible and whippy. She supposed that this might have something to do with the frequency of knots in the wood, which seemed to be quite closely spaced- every six inches or so.

"Very well then, Nicky, let's get this over with, shall we?"

The teenager swallowed hard, then stuck out her hand, her palm uppermost and closed her eyes, screwing them up tightly. She flinched visibly as another yell from next door signified that young Henderson had received his fourth stroke.

Ruth stared at her young pupil in the rigid pose and couldn't resist a malicious grin.

"Oh no, Nicky, I'm afraid you're not getting it like that. Bend over the desk with your skirt right up at the back."

Nicky looked in shocked horror at her teacher.

"What? Oh please, Miss, you can't mean...?" The sentence tailed off unfinished as the girl shivered.

"Indeed I do. As I am sure you can hear, young Henderson is taking his punishment across his bottom, and I see no reason why you should be any different!"

Although not an expert in such matters, Ruth would have placed a bet that young Henderson was taking his punishment not merely on the rear but with his bottom bare. The sharp crack as the sixth and final blow landed, accompanied by the loudest yell yet, seemed to confirm her suspicion. The hapless, now clearly frightened, Nicky did as she was told and bent forward across the desk top. Ruth had every justification, in view of the seriousness of the offence, in taking the girl's knickers down too but decided that she would spare Nicky that indignity. After all she was normally a model pupil.

As if reading Ruth's mind, the teenager flipped her skirt up, revealing a well-rounded bottom just about decently covered by a skimpy pair of wispy panties.

The feel of the cane in her hands stiffened Ruth's resolve. She took a firm grip on the girl's dress with her free hand and pulled it up as far as it would go, so that the hem was almost to Nicky's shoulders. She took a piece of adhesive tape from the dispenser on the desk and used it to fasten the garment in position. Taking a deep breath, she stood back from the desk.

The girl certainly has good legs, she thought; stretched out straight behind her at the moment, bare from the calves up, slender thighs tapering to the crease where her plump bottom cheeks peeked out from under the frills of her panties.

"I am going to give you four strokes, Nicky, and I hope you will learn a lesson from them." Ruth was still unsure just how severe she should be in administering the punishment. She did not want to do the girl serious harm - just teach her a lasting lesson which might do her some good in the long run.

Ruth studied the posterior of her pupil carefully. Wryly she wondered if she herself would present such a pretty picture, were their roles reversed. Reluctantly she decided not. She was quite comfortable with her own body, but she knew that her own figure could never compete with the classic shapely beauty of her pupil.

"Don't move until I tell you that you can rise." Ruth warned sternly.

She kept the cane low and drew it back, cocking her wrist as she did so. She remembered watching her father, many years before, fishing by the riverside. He had seemingly just flicked his wrist and his rod had curved almost double before whipping his float yards out onto the water. She tried to emulate that long forgotten action, and the cane flicked across the girl's tightly stretched panties. The sound was nothing like as impressive as that generated in the next-door office, but the blow had clearly stung. Nicky jerked upright, clutching at her bottom as she did so.

"If you do that once more I'll add extra strokes!" Ruth pressed her free hand firmly onto the girl's shoulders, pushing her down again. The wrist flick seemed to be quite successful, so she repeated the action, aiming as best she could at the same spot on the girl's taut knickers. Perhaps she was a little overconfident and maybe, with the benefit of hindsight, she did put a little more force into the second stroke, but the vehemence of the girl's reaction took Ruth by surprise.

"Ow! Christ, you bitch, that really hurt!" This was not the demure Miss Shaw who normally sat so coyly at the back of her class.

"I assure you, young lady, it was supposed to," she responded sharply. "Now get back into position and wait for the rest of your punishment." For a moment she thought she was going to be defied. "If you don't bend over at once, I shall call Mr.Fullerton in to cane you while I hold you down." Ruth had no intention of carrying out the threat, and was quite relieved when Nicky reluctantly resumed her position across the desk.

Suddenly the frustrations and irritations of Ruth's day welled up inside her and she was overtaken by anger. Bitch, am I? Ruth's alter ego prompted, stoking up her adrenaline. We'll see about that!

"I promised you extra if you moved, and on top of that your outburst was inexcusable! Those two strokes therefore do not count. You still have four to come!" Ruth placed the cane down on the desk with a sharp rap, which made Nicky turn her head sharply towards the sound.

"And while we are about it, Nicky, just what do you think these are?" Ruth put a finger in the waistband of the panties and twanged the elastic sharply against the girl's bare skin. "These are not school regulation, are they, young lady?"

"No, Miss. But I didn't think it would matter. I mean, no one sees them, do they?"

"I can see you didn't think, Nicky. Yet another example of defying regulations. Well,they're going to come off!". Ruth's passion and anger was getting the better of her professional judgment.

There was a horrified cry of 'Oh nooooo, Miss!"

Having once made up her mind, Ruth was going to show no mercy. She had the upper hand now and this young lady was going to pay for putting Ruth to so much trouble on a bad day! Nicky's modesty was going to be the least of her worries. She inserted both hands in the waistband of the sheer garment and swiftly yanked it down over the girl's bottom and thighs. Nicky let out a squeal of embarrassment and frantically reached behind her to try and stop the downward motion of her panties. Ruth grasped the girl's wrist and slapped her hand back on the desk-top.

She picked up the cane and laid it gently across her pupil's bottom. Carefully, she concentrated on aiming squarely across both cheeks, noting that the first two strokes had left only faint pink lines edged by a tinge of rosy blush across the otherwise flawless buttocks. She pursed her lips in annoyance that the lines were not exactly parallel but formed a shallow St. Andrews Cross, the centre of which had been lost in the deep cleavage between the plump bottom cheeks. Ruth rubbed the cane firmly backwards and forwards across her chosen target. The firm pressure of the cane left a clear white line across the slightly pink central curve of the girl's bottom.

Even if nature has given you perfect padding, Ruth thought, you are going to be one sore young lady who will not sit comfortably for a while.

The touch of the hard, polished wood on her soft cheeks focused Nicky's attention and she tensed in anticipation. Ruth did not take her eyes off the target she had marked for an instant, as the girl's bottom clenched. The cane bent back in an arc then swished down, with the full strength of her arm propelling it. As if in slow motion, the centre portion of the implement made first contact with the apex of Nicky's left buttock, then the momentum of the swing seemed to bend the cane across the taut muscles of the girl's bottom and curve it around the right hip as if moulding itself to her plump curves.

To Ruth, still concentrating on her chosen target, it seemed as if the cane was burying itself deep in the girl's flesh. The twin hillocks of Nicky's bottom. which had seemed so firm a moment ago, distorted under the impact. The sound of the blow, sharp as a pistol shot, startled even Ruth. A white line, instantly changing to an angry red, appeared exactly on the spot she had first marked as her target.

Nicky Shaw yelped. Her body jerked upward and her hands flew back to protect her injured rear end. Ruth allowed her a few seconds of frantic rubbing before she tapped the girl's knuckles with the tip of the cane, and said sharply, "I am warning you, Nicky, you have already earned two extra strokes because of your behaviour. You better believe this. If you don't take your hands away right now - and keep them out of the way while I give you the next three - I shall call in Mr. Fullerton, despite the fact that your bottom is bare, and we will start the entire punishment from the beginning. Now make up your mind, which is it to be?"

Slowly Nicky took her hands away, revealing an angry red weal. She wiped a tear from her eye before stretching forward to grip the far edge of the desk. "Oh please, Miss, I beg you. Don't send for Mr. Fullerton! I'll try to hold on but, oh please, it hurts so much!"

"It is meant to hurt, young lady, and I hope you appreciate just why you are getting this punishment. This is going to remind you every time you sit down for the next few days."

Giving the girl no chance to reply, Ruth applied the cane vigorously across the upturned bottom, adding another weal just a little below the first. Nicky shrieked in pain, but did not let go the edge of the desk.

Ruth paused for a moment. Nicky was shifting her weight from one foot to the other, obviously trying to alleviate the pain. Her bottom was now very clearly marked, the two strokes standing out as red tramlines on the softer pink blush which the two gentle swipes across her panties had left. Where the knots in the rattan had made contact, the weals took on a slightly bluer colour. Ruth decided that perhaps she had laid it on a little too hard, and mercifully reverted to the wristy flick action with which she had begun the punishment.

She changed the target and the dark brown rattan flicked in almost horizontally, biting into the lower curves of the gluteal fold, the crease where bottom meets thigh.

"Eeeeeooowww! Ooooo you fucking bitch, that really hurt!" Nicky shot bolt upright, both hands clasped to her bottom, and whirled to face Ruth, her face a picture of outrage. As she did so, the office door flew open and Edward Fullerton stood framed in the doorway.

"I heard that!" His voice was high-pitched and had a clear note of triumph. Thinking about it later, Ruth was sure he had been listening, or worse, spying, through the keyhole. "Miss Jamieson, what is the meaning of that disgraceful outburst? It seems that your disciplinary control has totally broken down!"

"It is quite all right, thank you, Mr. Fullerton. I can manage. Nicky, get back in position at once. You still have one more to come."

"It is clearly NOT all right, Miss Jamieson, and I will not tolerate language like that from a pupil at my school!" Fullerton was clearly seeking to impress both pupil and teacher with his authority. "Give me the cane, if you please, Miss Jamieson, and you, girl, resume the correct posture for punishment. Miss Jamieson, take her hands and ensure that she remains in position."

Ruth's anger boiled. She still felt that Fullerton's intervention was unnecessary, but she knew that to argue would make an ugly scene even worse. Nicky must also have realised that to resist would only postpone the inevitable, because she quickly bent herself across the desk and stretched out her arms in supplication without another sound.

Ruth handed the cane to Fullerton and stepped round to the other side of the desk. She sat in Miss Greeves 's chair and reached forward to take Nicky's hands in hers. They were hot and sweaty, slippery to the touch. Nicky raised her head slightly as Ruth tightened her grip, and their eyes met. The girl's face was streaked with tears.

Looking over Nicky's shoulder, Ruth saw Fullerton take up his position and lay the cane across the target area in much the same way as she herself had done a little earlier. Nicky's eyes widened with fear at the touch and Ruth felt a pang of sympathy for her pupil.

"One more to come, I think you said, Miss Jamieson?" Ruth nodded. "Well, as I can see that you have applied the first part of the punishment fairly severely, I will add only two more strokes on top of her allotment, for the disgraceful behaviour I have just witnessed."

Ruth saw Nicky's mouth drop open as if she was about to protest, and she wondered if she should raise an objection on her pupil's behalf. An extra two strokes would make a total of eight; very severe punishment for what had begun as a fairly minor incident. Even if she had wanted to protest there was no time. Fullerton swung the cane back over his shoulder and brought it down, hard and swiftly, with a crack which must have been audible in the next town.

Nicky screamed hysterically, then screamed again as the savage blow was swiftly repeated. Her legs kicked out with no heed for her modesty and her long blonde hair flew in all directions. Fullerton waited patiently until the kicking had ceased and the girls head hung down. Then the rattan lashed through the air for the final time, the sound of its impact drowned by Nicky's frantic scream, which subsided to a series of wracking sobs as Ruth released her hands.

"There, Miss Jamieson, THAT is how to administer a proper caning." Fullerton's voice was full of venom. "I trust you will learn from that for next time." He put the cane on the desk beside the prostrate Nicky and left the room. Ruth got up and went round the desk to help the sobbing girl back to her feet. The previously pristine buttocks were criss-crossed with six fiery weals, and there was no doubt at all that sitting down, in any form, was not on the agenda for Nicky Shaw for some hours to come.

Fullerton really is a man who takes his obligations seriously, as we will no doubt see in the future.