[Author's note: This story was originally posted in "Lesbian Sex", but due to the heavy sadomasochistic themes of the series, I have moved it to "BDSM".]
*****
-Dr Isabella Pacetti's Notes:
To recap: Sophie Burton has started a new job as assistant to a novelist, Marie Alderney. She has moved into the author's house and befriended her maid, Katy. After a few weeks she learns that Katy willing submits to domination and brutal punishment from her employer. When Sophie threatens to leave, and Katy begs her to stay, Sophie is able to indulge her own sadistic impulses with the maid. She decides she will ask Mrs Alderney for a say in Katy's treatment.
Once again I remind you that all the participants in these acts of sadism and submission are consenting adult women.
-Sophie's Statement:
All of the heat and emotion had drained from the afternoon and now I was sitting across the desk from Mrs Alderney. We were talking in cool and familiar tones and I had poured each of us a glass of white wine. We seemed the most civilized, ordinary acquaintances, if you ignored our extraordinary conversation. I had been right to approach the whole subject in cold and businesslike terms, to discuss clearly and in full what went on between her and Katy. She had responded openly.
I decided to take a moment to recap a few of the specific points we had discussed. On the desk between us, apart from the wine, were three implements. The first was the cane which I had seen earlier; second was a long, black riding crop encased in plaited leather, which flared at its tip; third was a sort of flogger made of softer brown leather in six fat strands about a foot long and with a stocky handle of about the same length. I pointed to each in turn.
"The cane for lessons of behaviour and conduct. The crop for training, like deportment and manual tasks? And this thing just for punishment." My hand hovered over the flogger.
"Sometimes she knows she has done wrong. It's in her eyes, the longing to have it acknowledged." Mrs Alderney looked gentle as she spoke, a faint smile on her lips. "The flogger doesn't mark so much and doesn't hurt her so badly. But it can be made to last and it fulfils her need."
I turned the item on the desk, then sat back and watched my employer carefully. During the conversation I had convinced myself she was about forty. I seemed to enjoy playing this guessing game. But this made her clothes and demeanour ever more anachronistic. Of course, it all fit with the role she assumed, but that implied she was playing a fetishist game with Katy. Neither seemed willing to admit to any such thing, but I couldn't see it any other way. And where had she got hold of the whips?
"Do you spank her?"
"Occasionally. Perhaps if she has behaved childishly and done nothing more serious. I would put her over my knee and only stop when she cried. Not from pain, but remorse. Last night and today she cried from remorse, not pain. Sometimes I spank her until she stops crying. You understand?"
I nodded. It made a lot of sense but was a little chilling: the girl seemed genuinely to need the dominance. She seemed to relish the role of a child. I had no interest in mothering Katy - my friend - so that would have to change. I worked through my mental list of questions, although I was confident of the answers. I felt more like I was priming the other woman, building up to more contentious issues.
"Do you beat her? I mean with hard or heavy implements?"
"Certainly not. That would be brutal."
I smiled. "Burn her? Give her electric shocks? Kick her, choke her..."
"Miss Burton!" She was flushed, not angry but upset. "Please try to forget your idea that I'm some sort of sadist! Nothing could be further from the truth!"
I held up a soothing hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything," I said, sincerely, although I couldn't stop smiling. "I just wanted to understand your boundaries. Okay, is anything else off limits?"
Mrs Alderney relaxed and sank into her chair. "Face, hands and feet, beyond the gentlest slaps. For safety and practical purposes."
I nodded and fingered my glass, resolving to push the definition of 'gentlest' at my first opportunity. "And you tie her up?"
"It's a more interesting approach and it can linger in her memory. But that generally takes up too much of my time. I can't let her out of my sight for any duration when she's bound."
I looked at her questioningly. "She suggested you would leave her alone for a long time. That seemed to be part of the point."
Mrs Alderney smiled, almost shyly. "That is the point. If she can't see me or hear me she thinks she's alone. But I never go far. I am responsible for her, after all." I found this oddly touching and was at a loss for a moment, but she continued. "And what about you? You say you want a part of that responsibility? What exactly do you want?"
"To observe. To have a say in her... discipline. To take a hand in it perhaps."
She nodded slowly and thought for a while. She spoke softly. "Katy likes you, you know. She was desperate for you to stay. I think she has a crush on you. That's the reason for the vulgar nonsense at the window: it was her clumsy attempt to... offer herself, I suppose. She was deeply ashamed, that's why she needed such hard caning."
I shifted uncomfortably. I had been keenly aware of Katy's infatuation with her employer, but I had missed this. "Is that a problem? The crush, I mean."
Mrs Alderney slowly shook her head, then counted on her fingers, one, two, three: "I want her to be happy, and well-behaved, and safe." She hesitated. "You will have noticed... sometimes she is sullen... sulky. Defiant. I hate that, and so does she. She wants to be better, she yearns for... and then with discipline she comes to life: sweet, attentive and intelligent, in her own way. Yes?"
She looked up sharply and I nodded and smiled. I found this all rather charming.
"You see how precious that is?"
I nodded again. "I agree completely."
"In that case, here is my proposal: I will hand her over to your care. You may do with Katy whatever you think suitable but I will observe and take a hand where I see fit. Those three conditions are all that matter: happy, obedient, safe." She sipped her wine and looked at me silently.
"I didn't want full control of her. That's not what I asked."
