The Training School - chapter 4

On the way out to the garden, the girls went by a wall to wall bookcase and Lucille stopped to look.

“We are allowed to borrow the books,” Pammi told her. “as long as we return them to their same position. Nicholas has them all in a special order.”

An avid reader, Lucille was grateful to have something to divert her mind and she selected two books and took them out to the garden. The other girls seemed more interested in the magazines they had brought down with them from the bedroom. Lucille quickly became absorbed in re-reading ‘Anna Karenina’, one of her favourite books at university.

In the middle of the afternoon, completely absorbed in the story, she was oblivious when Nicholas stood at the double door leading out the garden quietly observing them. He coughed to announce his presence and she immediately looked up.

He should have been pleased with what he saw. In front of his eyes were three quiet girls, sitting as they had been instructed, with their bare bottoms directly on the garden seats. He came towards them and instinctively all three girls straightened themselves up as if to project the best image of themselves for him that they could. There was something about Nicholas that people responded to; not just the girls that were sent to him but all the people who entered his orbit. His high standards were projected in everything he said and did. People tended to react to this by behaving in a way that was pleasing to him.

“Girls, Susan has arrived. Please follow me to the study now.”

When the three girls entered the study their first sight was of a rather tall, lean girl, with long, wavy, red hair cascading down her back. She was standing in the corner closest to Nicholas’ desk with her face to the wall and her hands on the back of her head. The hem of her skirt had been hitched up into the waist band of her skirt and her round, bare bottom showed signs of having recently been soundly smacked.

“Sit,” he said to the three of them, and they sat down on the upholstered seats as they knew to do, all looking sorry for the girl who could not see them. It amazed Lucille how in a matter of hours, this new and incredibly humiliating way of sitting down was already beginning to feel almost natural to her. It was strangely stirring to her, though she would deny it of course if quizzed about it.

When they were all settled, Nicholas said to the girl in the corner, “Susan, are you ready to behave?”

There was no answer but Lucille knew she was very angry. She could clearly here her laboured breathing and the air she snorted through her nostrils, not to mention the fact that her shoulders and neck moved up and down in concert with her breathing.

The three girls watched as Nicholas walked to an umbrella stand by his desk and took from it a black riding crop. He lifted it into the air and brought it down on the chair closest to Susan, as if the chair’s seat were a substitute for her bottom. If she had any sense at all, Lucille thought, the girl would start co-operating around about now.

“Susan, are you ready to behave?” he asked her again as calmly as he had the first time.

“Yes, Sir.”

She sounded completely contrite; a different person.

“Turn around.”

Susan turned around, her hands still on her head. It was a deeply embarrassing moment for her, of course and Lucille tried not to look at her so as not to make it any more difficult.

“Have you anything to say, Susan?”

“I am sorry I was rude, Sir.”

She was a feisty one. Lucille could clearly see that. But, all girls were the same really. Their self-preservation skills kicked in when confronted with a nasty black riding crop in the hand of a man with resolve.

“Very well. You may take you hands down from your head and come and meet the other girls.”

Susan came towards them, her skirt still hitched into her waist band.

“Susan, I would like you to meet Lucille, Sherri and Pammi.

The girls said hello to Susan and she said hello back.

“Sit down, Susan, as you know to do.”

It seemed that Susan was well aware of what Nicholas wanted and she performed the move well. Perhaps they had already gone over this when alone and this was what the trouble had been about. Lucille could only hazard a guess.

“Very well,” Nicholas began. “Listen carefully, girls. I will only say this once. Whilst you are here at my school you are to follow my instructions. Listen carefully for commands and respond immediately.”

He paused, allowing them to drink in his words.

“You must always be honest with me. I will listen to what you have to say, so long as you say it politely. I have no interest in disagreeable girls and your best manners are always expected. Is that understood?”

Nicholas looked at each of them individually and one by one they said, “Yes, Sir.”

“Your owners have provided me with a list of goals for you and whilst there are daily routines that you will all do together, I will often be working with one girl separately. At those times, the rest of you will have chores to do and tasks to perform. You may ask questions so long as you do so politely. Now, are there any questions?”

Lucille had a burning desire to understand what on earth she was doing here. It had all been so sudden and it still felt surreal to her; that at any moment she would wake up and discover the day had simply been a figment of her imagination. She needed something very tangible to hold onto; something that would make sense to her.

“Sir, may I ask...could you please tell me...why are we here? What is the purpose of our time here?”

“Training, Lucille. You are here to be trained. That is what your owner wants – for you to be well trained before you return to him.”

She wanted to say, “but, trained how and for what purpose?” but she was worried this might come out as sounding impolite and so she simply said, “I see.”

“Any other questions?”

The girls shook their heads quietly.

“Very well. Now, Lucille, you will stay here with me for a tutorial. Sherri, Pammi and Susan, the three of you are to report to Mrs. MacNeice in the kitchen. You will be assisting her with food preparation and any other chores she has for you. Off you go and make yourselves useful. ”

The three girls left the room silently whilst Lucille watched them go, Susan's bare spanked bottom being the last sight she had of them. In one sense, the thought of preparing dinner never seemed quite as appealing as it did right at that moment and yet she was incredibly curious as to what this man could teach her.