Olivia
Part Two
Olivia's mother reveals her secret
Mum came to collect me for half term and we girls bade each other good bye for ten days. October was on us and the nights were drawing in. Mum had prepared a lovely dinner and she sat attentively as I told her how much I was enjoying The College.
"Are you learning to be a nice young lady?' Mum wanted to know. 'Miss Kent has her own special methods of discipline to ensure your good behaviour. Has she made good on her promise that if necessary, she would apply those on you, or hasn't there been much need?'
'Well,' I started, 'she does threaten us with punishment but she hasn't done anything yet to alarm me.' I hedged. 'I'm very happy to return at the end of half term, if that's what you are wondering about.'
'It's quite a commitment, you know, Olivia.' Mum commented. 'It's still October, and the full three-term course will take you all the way through to June. Are you sure you want to commit yourself to everything Miss Kent plans to put you through?'
That was indeed quite a thought, knowing that I had already built up my accumulation of the tawse to twelve. I guess she was right. It should encourage better behaviour. Imagine being sent for every two weeks. By the end of the term I'd be getting dozens of strokes on every visit to her chamber.
'Yes, mum. I'm sure I am up to the challenge. I am learning a lot of wonderful things; dancing, riding, self-defence, etiquette, all sorts of stuff about food, cooking and dining manners and they are even teaching us about finance and how to plan our financial futures. It's really great. I truly want to continue being there.'
Mum looked at me inquiringly. She asked the direct question.
'Have you been punished yet?'
I gulped a bit and took a swig of my wine. Mum and I enjoyed sharing a bottle over dinner when we could, and it was almost finished, so perhaps my tongue was looser than it might have been otherwise.
'Yes, mum. Twice. She gave me six strokes of the tawse for each misdemeanour. It wasn't so bad. As far as I was concerned, it didn't hurt too much.'
'Twice!' retorted mum. 'Tell me, did you just get six the second time, or did she follow the old rule of adding the previous punishment first? That's her usual method. It's what happened at our old school and she told me she intended to continue the ritual when she set up The College.'
This was embarrassing. Mum was subjected to the same kind of regime as she had now entered me into? She seems to know more than she is saying.
'Yes. I got twelve the second time. And it will be eighteen next time.' I confessed
'And yet you insist that you truly want to continue your attendance there? You don't object to the discipline, knowing there will be more to come?'
New territory with my mum. But she had been through it herself.
'Mum, you told me you spent a full year under the same style of school. You met Miss Kent there and here she is now dishing out the same kind of discipline that you got. What am I missing? Did she like it so much, or so little, that she has become the giver now, not the receiver? And you told me a while back that you frequently visit her. I really would like to know.'
I was beginning to put this together. 'You go to her for punishment, don't you, mum?'
'Oh, darling. Not just beautiful, but clever too. Yes. It's true. She and I were best friends at our school and after we left, we kept in touch. We had both been rebels and often found ourselves reporting to Miss McKay, the headmistress in our day. We both found out that the punishments were easily tolerable. The numbers quickly added up, but Miss McKay was getting old and didn't have the strength to beat us very hard. After we graduated, we parted ways for a while but I found that I missed being punished.'
This was a huge revelation and I was astonished. Do I have the same gene as my mum? It was less than a week since my last meeting with the tawse and already I was working on reasons to earn punishment when I got back to College.
I could guess what was coming. 'So, you got back in touch with Miss Kent and the topic came up in conversation?'
'That's right, darling. It was actually about five years later and you were already born. Your father had left by then and I was missing adult company. I called her and she invited me to her new school which she had established. She called it The College. I went the next week and it was lovely to see her again. She had always been the dominant one of the two of us and when I reminisced about the punishments we had taken together, she asked how badly I missed my time there and if I wanted to relive those days.' Mum gazed off into the distance.
'We were both about twenty-five at that time. Still young. She asked me which of the punishment instruments I would most want to receive if I were to be beaten again. I told her it was the cane. That was the one which woke my basest feelings. I had watched her being caned sometimes, and she had watched as I had submitted to it. I told her Miss McKay had never beaten me hard enough to make me cry and I had always wondered what that would feel like, to take a really hard caning.'