Chapter 18

When Anna entered the room, she saw the Colonel seated behind a solid-looking table. Feeling cold and vulnerable in her pyjamas, she felt a frisson of fear as she saw the slim, hook-handled school cane lying on the polished surface of the table-top. She knew at once how much that beastly cane would hurt through thin cotton pyjamas.

“Sit down, Anna.”

The Colonel indicated the wooden school desk in front of the table.

His eyes glinted lustfully as he watched the pyjama-clad young woman ease her long legs under the desk.

“I have seen the work you have been doing. It looks very comprehensive to me. Would you say you have learnt a lot while you have been here?”

“Oh yes, Sir, a great deal.” By God, I have too, reflected Anna. Twice as much as she had learnt during her years as a teenager at school.

"Well, the rod is a great stimulus to learning,” said the Colonel with a little smile. He laid his hand over the cane on the desk. “I am going to test you on some of the subjects in which you have been instructed by Miss Beeton. I hope for your sake you have retained a lot of the knowledge that has been inculcated into you.” Again the Colonel laid a hand over the cane on his desk.

He just can’t wait to use it, thought Anna. What a sadistic old lecher he was! Still, she had been caned with worse canes than that ... and they had also been wielded by stronger arms. So, painful and humiliating as it would be, it could not be as bad as some of her experiences in the past. Thus Anna tried to comfort herself to some degree.

“I must tell you, Anna, that if your behaviour does not measure up to my requirements during this afternoon’s lessons, I shall deal with you severely.”

Anna’s heart sank like a stone in a pond. Surely ... surely ... he could not be so cruel!

“I ... u-understand ..., S-Sir ...” she whispered.

“Good,” said the Colonel. “We will get on with your examination.”

Anna braced herself, heart fluttering. Now she had to be more careful than ever. Respectful, obedient, submissive ... to the ‘nth degree’!

“I shall begin with oral questions,” said the Colonel. “Later on this afternoon, you will have a number of written tests.”

“I ... I shall try my very best, Sir,” said Anna earnestly.

“You’d better,” said the Colonel, with evident relish, “Because, for every mistake
you make, this cane will be laid across your bottom, young lady! Understood?”

Anna gulped. “Yes, Sir,” she replied.

The afternoon ahead was beginning to look exceedingly unpleasant.

“From what poem do the following lines come, Anna? Hope springs eternal in the human breast?”

Anna’s brain raced. The subject was English Literature, at which she wasn’t too bad, but the range of it was so wide. Her brain clicked. Got it!

“Essay on Man, Sir” she answered.

“Correct,” nodded the Colonel. “Author?”

“Alexander Pope, Sir.”

“Correct.”

Another hurdle cleared. But how long could she keep up the pace? She had answered the first half dozen questions correctly. Of course, it couldn’t last for ever.

“Who wrote the words ‘Oh daughter of Death and Priapus, our Lady of Pain?” asked the Colonel.

Lucky again! It was an obscure line that had stuck in her mind, on account of the phrase Lady of Pain, no doubt.

“Swinburne, Sir.”

The Colonel raised his eyebrows. “Correct. You have become well read while you have been here, Anna.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“Now some Shakespeare. In which of his plays do the characters Benedick and Beatrice appear?”

Anna thought hard. Shakespeare’s plays teemed with people. It was so easy to go wrong. And she did.

“Measure For Measure, Sir.”

“Wrong,” said the Colonel with some satisfaction. He made a note on his pad beside him. “Much Ado About Nothing is the answer. We will continue with the Bard.”

Anna concentrated her mind. However, with such a broad subject, it was impossible not to make some mistakes. Of the next dozen questions, Anna got five wrong. Each time, the error was noted on the pad.

“Right,” said the Colonel at length, “I think that will do for English Literature, Anna. You have, I think it fair to say, done quite well. Yes ... quite well. However, there were some errors and you must pay for them. It’s the only way to try and ensure you don’t make the same errors in the future, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Sir.” answered Anna meekly. It was better to know that what the Colonel had just said was true. Was this not the method Miss Beeton had employed? And had not Anna learnt vastly under her tuition? Miserably she watched as the Colonel stood up and removed his black jacket. Oh how unfair it was!

“Come out here.” The supple cane tapped the polished top of the table, lightly but insistently, as Anna got up from her desk and went forward. The Colonel came slowly round in front of the table. “Now bend over and touch your toes, girl,” he ordered. His cold eyes brightened with cruel lechery as he watched his young victim obey. Her ample pyjama-clad bottom thrust roundly at him as Anna bent over and reached for her toes.

“You will, of course, remain touching your toes...”

“Yes, Sir ...”

Anna gritted her teeth fiercely. She had had worse... far worse... she told herself as she felt the light tap of the tip of the cane on her waiting flesh.

SSwweepppttt!

The familiar burning, electric-wire pain of the biting cane. Encircling, searing; the tip most searing of all. Anna gasped between clenched teeth. Oh God, no matter how much one had had of it, one could never get acclimatised to the pain. Always it was that bit worse than she expected ... or hoped.

Sswweepppttt!

The next cut came a little lower down that taut curve of her bottom. Equally painful,. A thin streak of blazing fire as the flexible willow cracked across the soft flesh ... then a deep-searing burn ... followed by only a fractional ebbing of the immediate pain. Then one was ready for the next.

Anna felt her buttocks clench involuntarily.

Sswweeepppptt!

Anna’s fingers lifted a few inches off her toes as the third stroke cut across the so-tender overhang of her buttocks. And this time a louder gasp came from between her teeth. Quickly she re-touched her toes and straightened her long limbs. Three to go.

The Colonel was putting everything he had got into each stroke, marvelling at Anna’s stubbornness and fortitude. The delight of caning the bottom of such a luscious 28-year-old woman was beyond description. And to cane her just as hard as he liked! Still, the afternoon’s only just beginning, he said to himself. Before it’s over, I’ll have her squirming and yelling with pain ... and pleading with him for mercy!

Sswweeppptttt!

What a wonderful sound... what a wonderful sight!

This time, the Colonel saw Anna’s curvaceous bottom give a sudden juddering squirm as she absorbed the pain. Good ... there were limits even to this young woman’s stoicism.

Ssswweeeepppttt!

The fifth stroke bit again into Anna’s overhang ... and the blonde head jerked up momentarily and once again the fingertips left the toes. There was a sobbing intake of breath as Anna bent over fully again.

“Ooofff!”

So that’s where it hurts her most, the Colonel thought, and aimed the sixth stroke at precisely the same area.

Sswweeeppptttt!

The Colonel’s aim was inexpert and he caught Anna full across the centre of her bottom. The girl took it with no more than a shudder and a whimper ... and remained bending over.

Six long weals smarted and throbbed and burned, especially where the last inch or two of the cane had bitten. Anna choked back the gall in her throat and blinked away the hint of tears that pricked her eyes. Those weals hurt.

Oh yes, they hurt quite enough!

“Alright girl, you may stand straight,” Anna winced as she came erect; the skin over her bottom seemed to have shrunk. It always felt like that after a caning. “Now go back to your desk.”

Meekly, Anna obeyed, watching the Colonel move back to his chair.

“Right, Anna, we will turn to another subject. French Grammar, I think.”

Anna’s heart sank. Certainly not one of her better subjects ... though Arithmetic was perhaps her worst.

“Define the future of the verb Alder” said the Colonel.

Once again Anna cleared the decks of her mind for action ... and began.

Just think of that cane biting for every mistake, she said to herself severely.

And that thought certainly did seem to stimulate her mental powers to quite a remarkable degree!

However, as is self-evident, no-one can possibly be perfect in one subject, let alone several. Anna certainly would not have claimed to be ... nor would the Colonel have expected it. The whole thing was a kind of charade which both ‘pupil’ and ‘teacher’ played out ... simply for the latter’s sadistic amusement.

After English Literature ...

French Grammar ...

Followed by History ...

Followed by Arithmetic ...

... after four subjects, poor Anna’s bottom carried over thirty throbbing-burning weals. Such was the pain she was suffering, she could scarcely sit down on the wooden seat of her school desk.

Oh God, how much longer was this long drawn-out inhumanity going on?

There was just one tiny crumb of hope. Anna felt that the Colonel’s arm was definitely beginning to weaken ... Biting her lips, she watched as he seated himself again and took up yet another paper.

“Geography ...” he announced.

“P-Please ... Sir ... h-haven’t I had enough ... f-for one afternoon?” Anna heard herself making the plea despite the fact that she knew the futility of it. She knew he wanted her broken, made to grovel and plead… Why add to his enjoyment? All the same, it was something that came bubbling out of her in sheer desperation.

“I don’t understand,” said the Colonel flatly. “Had enough? What is enough, young lady?”

“Sir ... please ... Sir ... you’ve caned me ... s-so much ... I ... I ... just can’t think straight any m-more ...”

“Really? Too bad for you, my dear. We will proceed with Geography ... and exactly the same penalties apply.”

A deep shuddering sob came from Anna and, for a brief moment, she buried her head in her hands. Then she forced herself erect again and tried to think calmly. She must ... absolutely must

“I’m ready, Sir,” she said.

“What,” enquired the Colonel, “is the capital of Malawi?”

Anna’s brains felt like scramble eggs. Malawi? That was one of those new African states. She could never remember about them.

“Mogadishu ...” she said tentatively.

“Wrong,” said the Colonel emphatically. And another note went down on his pad.

A big tear ran down Anna’s cheek. Already, for that simple mistake, she could feel the cane making her squirm with pain.

“Next question,” said the Colonel relentlessly. “What is the average annual export of coffee from Brazil?”

Anna’s mind became a complete blank. She began to sob helplessly.

“Ten questions ... and not a single answer right,” said the Colonel. “I’m shocked at this failure. You deserve the caning you’re going to get.”

“Sir ... please ... Sir ... my b-brain seems to have gone dead ... I don’t know why ... ooohh, please ... I ... I’m s-so ... t-tired ...”

“Come out here, girl. I know a way of making your brain come to life again!”

“No, Sir ... please it won’t ... it c-can’t!” Anna’s voice was high-pitched and wailing. All the same, she got up out of the desk and moved to the front of the Colonel’s table yet once more.

“Bend over ... touch your toes ...”

“Please ... please ... no more ... I’ve tried ... I’ve tried so h-hard ...”

“Bend over, my little beauty!”

The cane was being flexed. ... He watched avidly as his commands were obeyed and the pyjama-clad young bottom was once more presented for his attentions.