The schoolgirl is wearing a gymslip of such a dark shade of blue it appears almost black. She is bending forward and stretching across a small table that boasts a cover of purple chenille, resting the flattened palms of her hands on the hard surface and pressing one side of her flushed face between them. The back of her skirt as been folded up to her waist and her white cotton knickers have been lowered to mid-thigh. The tutor stands behind her. She is a thin-faced woman in a white blouse and black skirt; hair combed back and fastened behind her head in a severe style. In one hand she wields a well-worn rubber soled plimsoll which she strokes playfully across the girl's naked bottom.
Meagre fingers of gauzy sunlight penetrate the room through tall windows draped with thick serge hangings. Dark portraits gaze down from dim blue flocked-velvet walls upon ponderous Victorian furniture made of mahogany so dark it looks black in the gloomy light. Nearby the even beat of a clock ticking on a carved mantle shelf seems to take on the role of heartbeat to a life-sized terra cotta statue of a Greek Adonis standing adjacent to the bleached oak fireplace. Beyond the window the windswept Yorkshire fells, dun-coloured, bleak and forbidding pose as a backdrop to a garden where winter lingers, moist and cold, the beech trees stripped of leaves and the grass of the lawn standing stiff and dry.
"How many did we say?" asks the woman.
The girl's eyes flicker fearfully. She is eighteen but her eyes are as bright and clear as any less mature juvenile and she is blessed with an exceedingly soft, sensual mouth, dimpled each side. She nervously glances up over one shoulder. "Oh er, please Miss, s-six."
"Um, you'll need to keep count for me in case I forget. Up on your toes, show me how brave you are."
Taking a step to the side the woman carefully gauges the distance between herself and the girls defenceless posterior, waiting while the unhappy young lady pushes up on her toes to present her nicely rounded target before raising the gym-shoe and bringing it down in a calculated arc.
SMACK! A sharp noise as rubber meets flesh, and the girl utters a choking sob as a swathe of tender skin on the under curve of her unprotected buttocks rapidly turns red.
"I didn't hear you count. You can count, can't you?" the woman remarks icily.
The young buttocks squirm, and then settle. "Y-yes, Miss Hancock. S-sorry. One, Miss."
"Too late, we'll have to start again," the woman's voice snaps with irritation, "Up on your toes - push it out."
CRACK! "Ooouf! One, oooh, ooh!" SMACK! "Aaah, aaah! Two. Ooh , my bum!" The buttocks jerk left to right as if pre-empting the next stroke and already trying to dodge it.
"Oh, do keep still you silly thing." The shoe sizzles through the air to deliver another stinging blow. WALLOP! Feet turn inward as two bare knees almost cave in.
"Oow! Thr-three Miss. Oh, it stings, Miss."
"Of course it hurts a little bit; I'd be wasting my time with you if it didn't."
On the edge of the table a phone trills and with a tut of annoyance the woman reaches out for it and signals the girl to stand. "Don't wander away, I haven't finished with you yet." she remarks coldly as she lifts the handset. A syncopated smile replaces her scowl as she speaks into it.
"Fairyfield Grange, headmistress speaking."
She listens for a moment then her voice oozes charm. "Yes, of course I remember, I mailed you our prospectus last week. I'm so pleased our academy for young ladies appears to suit your needs..."
Under the watchful, intimidating glare of the woman's stare the girl stands silently at the end of the table squeezing her knees together in an attempt to prevent her knickers from sliding further down her legs. Her mouth contorts as she tries to suppress the raw, sore feeling of her backside and she spends a moment screwing the hem of her skirt around in her fingers before furtively reaching the back of it to ease her discomfort. The movement is instantly challenged. The woman clamps the receiver with her hand and hisses.
"For heavens sake leave yourself alone."
Startled, the girls hands return to where they can be seen, while quite unbidden her knickers slither to the tops of her knees.
"No, no," continued the woman to her caller, "It's vital they attend here directly they are eighteen. I like to have them early. It makes things that much easier and the instruction more permanent. Of course - the new term will begin in May. I prefer new-starters to arrive on the first weekend ... Yes, yes ... I'll look forward to meeting you."
Dropping the telephone back into its cradle the woman stares absently at it for a moment before her eyes flick back to the girl. "Now where were we?"
The girls mouth quivers and she looks up with large damp eyes. "You've done three, Miss."