Chapter 23 - Wendy's Whipping
Burnside almost immediately achieved her main goal with Wendy, to get her thought patterns away from what they had been over the past year. Wendy ceased to think about gambling. Her suicide fantasies totally vanished from her mind. Instead her life and thoughts consisted of pleasing her mistress, her correspondence classes, and her art. Wendy did not have time to think about anything else. Burnside forced her to focus her time and her energies. Wendy learned to appreciate her life. She learned to cherish the few free moments available to her and use them to their fullest. In a strange way she was happier then she had been in a long time. Wendy's life was very structured, with very clear rules and expectations. As cruel as Burnside may have been, she deeply cared for Wendy, and Wendy knew it.
Burnside punished Wendy much less frequently than the student had anticipated when she began her period of servitude. Partly this was because Wendy adapted well to serving her. However, it also partly was because of Burnside's attitude about punishment. Burnside believed that physical punishment loses its effectiveness if given too frequently. The victim becomes used to it and eventually becomes less afraid of being punished. There also is the fact that the body compensates for punishments given too frequently.
Burnside never punished Wendy over an area that had not completely healed from the previous punishment. She wanted to avoid toughening Wendy's body, but at the same time she wanted to avoid injuring her. For example, during the second week Wendy broke a glass pan lid while cooking. She immediate confessed to Burnside about the lid, kneeling and holding the two largest pieces in front of her. Wendy's confession resulted in a lighter punishment, 20 strokes across the fronts of her thighs with a riding crop. Wendy's bottom and shoulders were still marked from the first switching, and for Burnside would remain off-limits until the marks were gone. The only unmarked part of Wendy's body suitable for punishment at that time were the fronts of Wendy's thighs.
Burnside wanted her servant to fear each punishment as much as she feared the first one, which was another reason Wendy never received a severe punishment more than once every three or four weeks. Burnside never used the same implement twice. She forced Wendy to assume different positions.
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At age 41, Ruth Burnside had an insatiable sexual appetite. About half the nights Wendy was with her, Burnside had a lover over. In all Wendy counted a total of 16 lovers; 13 men and 3 women. Some came over only once, others came over several times. The majority of the lovers seemed to be in their 30's, although there were a couple of guys who appeared to be in their 50's, and one young woman who seemed not much older than Wendy. Burnside's lovers included two Blacks, a couple of Hispanics, a guy from Mainland China, and a young man who appeared to be from the Middle East.
The discipline sessions all followed the same general pattern, but there were variations. For example, the young woman seemed particularly embarrassed at having to undress in front of Wendy. Burnside forced her to focus on her submission by ordering her to spend a long time standing under the spotlight with her hands behind her head, while Wendy walked around her and carefully studied her body. When the guy from Mainland China came over, it was Wendy who issued Burnside's commands to him in Chinese. The Chinese guy spoke good English, but hearing the orders spoken to him in his native language added to his humiliation and sense of vulnerability.
Wendy never participated in anything beyond the initial part of Burnside's discipline sessions. She came out to take the submissive's clothing and serve the wine, and then was dismissed. When Burnside was entertaining, she allowed her servant to close her bedroom door. Wendy's reward from Burnside for participating in the sessions was that she could work on her art instead of studying. However, the sessions fascinated Wendy and she gladly would have participated even without the incentive of not having to spend the night doing her coursework.
Burnside made the rules very clear to both Wendy and her guests. Wendy was expected to perform her role in Burnside's discipline ritual and serve wine. She owed the guests nothing else. The guests were to respect the servant and not attempt to flirt with her or engage her in any conversation.
"If anyone who comes over here is ever disrespectful to you, let me know immediately. I want you to understand that to disrespect you is to disrespect me, and there will be hell to pay for anyone who tries it."
Burnside invariably punished her lovers. Wendy often heard the CRACK!...CRACK!...CRACK!... of a punishment coming from Burnside's bedroom once the living room portion of the punishment was over. Sometimes she heard crying or screams.
Wendy was under the impression that Burnside cared little for most of her lovers. They came over, gave up their clothes, had their wine, received a punishment, had sex, and were gone after a few hours.
During January Burnside entertained lovers about a half of the nights Wendy lived with her. During many of the nights that Burnside was not with guests she ordered Wendy to be with her. When it came to sex, Burnside was extremely demanding and often very cruel to her servant. Occasionally Burnside used sex as a means to punish Wendy instead of the constant whippings she had expected prior to coming over.
Burnside totally dominated Wendy's sexuality during the first month of her servitude. During their first few nights together the professor learned the physical vulnerabilities of the student's body, and then used those vulnerabilities to completely control her. It was through sex, much more than the physical punishments, that Burnside forced Wendy to become truly submissive to her.
Burnside especially loved to torment her servant by bringing her close to orgasm but not allowing her to climax. Wendy spent countless hours with her wrists and ankles attached to her bed-posts and her eyes covered while Burnside played with her body. For hours on end she pulled desperately at her restraints and groaned while Burnside lightly teased her between the legs with her fingertips and tongue. When Wendy was almost insane from arousal, Burnside unhooked her cuffs and led her back to the master bedroom by the wrist. Sometimes she threw herself on top of Wendy and pressed her pelvis against Wendy's. Sometimes she forced Wendy's face between her legs. Sometimes she ordered Wendy to arouse her with her fingertips. Sometimes she shoved her fingers up Wendy's bottom or vagina. Sometimes she forced Wendy to use her fingers on her. Occasionally she was merciful to Wendy and allowed her to climax.
During that time Wendy was desperate to draw. The urge to draw burned inside her, to the point that she often sacrificed sleep to create drawings. By the middle of February she had a sizable collection of top-quality artwork in her desk drawer. The drawings became Wendy's outlet for the responsibilities and torments she was enduring. The drawings themselves had changed from the ones she created over the summer. Besides intense suffering, the newest works also reflected intense pleasure.
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Wendy's work on her classes was one important part of her life while she stayed with the professor. Each morning, right after breakfast, Wendy knelt at Burnside's desk and held her correspondence work in front of her for the professor to review. She watched nervously as Burnside looked over her assignments. Burnside never corrected anything, but if she did not think that Wendy had done good work, she brusquely handed the papers back with the comment "This won't work. Re-do it." It was up to Wendy to figure out what needed to be corrected. Burnside was determined that her servant strive to do her best in her studies, and more importantly, to learn to solve as many problems as possible on her own. However, Burnside was not so cruel as to leave Wendy with no guidance with her studies. Wendy soon learned that during their breakfast or dinner conversations Burnside dropped hints about her work and how she could find the answers to her assignments. Wendy learned to listen carefully to the professor for any hints or tips that Burnside might be willing to give her.
Wendy learned the hard way not to try to slip anything past her mistress. At the end of January she needed to do a report for her independent study. She showed the report to Burnside along with some other papers. Burnside thrust the paper back in Wendy's face with the comment "Don't even think about turning this in! You will re-do it, and there will be no drawing until you have this report properly done!"
Wendy's drawing was her only outlet, so she desperately needed to get the paper out of the way and get back to her art. At that point she made a big mistake. She made a few corrections and e-mailed the paper to her accounting professor. The next day she received a response, a C+ on the paper. Then Wendy made another mistake, saying nothing to Burnside. She did not realize that Burnside had set her home Internet account to automatically copy all incoming and outgoing e-mail messages to her home and send the copied messages to her computer at work. From her office Burnside was able to review the entire correspondence between Wendy and her accounting professor. She downloaded and copied the paper and returned home with it in the afternoon.
Burnside said nothing to Wendy, but took out a whip and some wrist cuffs that were attached to chains. The implement was a thin buggy-style whip. The blows would sting, but the whip was not heavy and there was little risk of breaking Wendy's skin. Burnside would be able to hit Wendy many times with it, and even cross the welts, without much concern about injury. She laid the items on her dresser. This would be a long punishment, since Wendy had attempted to lie to Burnside by not telling her about her C+. However, Burnside was not planning to whip Wendy that night. Waiting would be part of her punishment.
It was significant that Burnside was not planning to do the one thing that truly would hurt Wendy; take away her art supplies. Burnside knew the importance of Wendy's art as part of her therapy. The loss of her art supplies truly would be a severe punishment to Wendy, but one, thought Burnside, that ultimately would not help her. Wendy would suffer for the correspondence course paper and not telling her what happened, but the suffering would be physical. Wendy's art was off-limits.
While Wendy was preparing dinner Burnside quietly slipped in her room and placed the downloaded paper on her servant's desk. Wendy would discover it after dinner and then would have to approach the professor about it. Burnside was pleasant during dinner and allowed her servant to sit with her. Wendy was cheerful, thinking she had outwitted the professor. After the meal Burnside sat down at her computer to work on an article for a professional journal she contributed to, while Wendy cleaned up from dinner. Wendy knelt at the bathroom door, as usual, for Burnside to take her collar off for her bath. She came out, knelt again for Burnside to put the collar back on, and then was dismissed.
Wendy's heart stopped when she went in her room and saw what was on her desk. Her hands shook as she picked up the paper. She looked out her door at her mistress, typing away at her article. Wendy stood immobilized in terror for a moment, but finally could not wait anymore. Shaking, she walked out and knelt next to Burnside's desk.
"Dr. Burnside...I...I...request...per...permission to...sp...speak."
Burnside said nothing. She was in the middle of a paragraph and typing furiously, not wanting to lose her train of thought. Wendy waited until she finished with the paragraph. Still ignoring her servant, Burnside said nothing. She thumbed through a book, found the quote she was looking for, copied it to the article and typed the reference footnote, and started the next paragraph. Wendy became more and more nervous.
"D...Dr. Burnside...I...re...request...permission to...sp...speak."
Burnside did not look up. She kept her eyes focused on her computer screen and with a cold, flat voice, responded, "I heard you the first time. Your problems are not the only thing I have to worry about in my life. I will finish this article, send it out, and then we will discuss your paper."
