Our story began here.

Katherine made a bug-eyed gape into the wall that was beyond horror. For once the heat rising to her face surpassed any she had ever felt in her bottom and in that moment she learned something about the very nature of the universe. She learned that her sense of self was stronger than she ever thought possible. She learned how very far she had come and could see now everything that Alice was teaching her. Above all she learned that it was not truly possible to die of embarrassment. If it was then she would be stone cold dead.

Mary fared no better when it came to feeling the shame, but deep down she felt she deserved it somehow. Such an embarrassing punishment is this would go long way to making up all her shortcomings and she hoped, prove to Alice that she could take it.

“Y-you’re pretty strict ma’am,” the delivery man spluttered as Alice handed him a coffee. “Are these your sisters?” He tried not to stare, but both young women were like something out of a magazine.

“You know, they are,” Alice said with a sudden burst of pride.

The man looked up again and risk appraising the two bare bottoms before him. From the colour of their bottoms they had been spanked by and expert and by the looks of it, both of them long, long and hard. Not that it was the first time he had seen older girls and young women in such a predicament. His mother had handled his sisters much the same way and he recalled the time his sister-in-law had run afoul of grandma. He had seen her spanked good on the bare bottom and it hadn’t done her any harm. But they were all kin and he was a married man.

“I had better go,” he said gulping down his drink.

“More coffee,” Alice said pleasantly. She revelled in both acute schadenfreude and wholesome pride at her girls.

“No ma’am, have a nice day,” the delivery man said hastily and backed out of the door.

“Say goodbye girls,” Alice tried not to smirk.

“Goodbye sir, they both chirruped miserably.

Once he had gone Alice turned to regard both women and then gave them both a short burst of gentle applause. “Ladies, my work here is done,” she giggled, then after a moment both Katherine and Mary began to laugh too.

“Does this mean we won’t get punished now?” Mary said hopefully.

“Katherine?” Alice said crisply.

“Ma’am?” the older girl replied.

“What do you think?” Alice asked her.

“I guess you won’t let us off one sizzling blister ma’am,” Katherine said ruefully.

“Do you agree Mary?” Alice pressed the other girl.

“Yes ma’am,” Mary sighed dejectedly.

*

Still brimming with pride Alice contemplated the two bare-bottomed before her. Both were bent over the saw horse in the woodshed, both with heels together neatly presenting their hind ends for worthy correction.

The birch rods were already steeping in brine ready for that afternoon’s grand finale and fresh switches had been cut ready for little livener before then. But first Katherine and Mary would suffer a good old fashioned licking from a belt. Tender is as tender does, Alice told herself. It was something that Mrs Baxter would say and until that moment she had never known what it meant.

“We’re ready Miss Bowman,” Mary offered nervously.

“I can see that Mary,” the governess agreed. “Are you in a hurry?”

“No ma’am,” the girl quickly replied.

“Quite right, no need to rush these things, before that I want you to contemplate what is to come and how much you deserve it. After all you will have all week to rue this day.” Alice cast her eyes over the two still red bare bottoms and pondered their differences.

“Ma’am?” Katherine asked; the panic was touching her voice. A week, she thought they would be done today?

“Naturally,” Alice said casually, “After today you sure won’t be sitting down for a week.”

Katherine relaxed a touch. Oh that, she thought. That was a given. We are so cooked.

“Now no more chatter, let us sear those seats for you,” Alice said cheerfully and took up the strap. She fancied she could hear one of the girls gulp.

In expectation Katherine adopted an elegant posture and lifted her bottom at the same time as thrusting it backwards. Alice smiled, but she thought the submissive gesture was one more likely of Mary. No doubt the more confident and dominant girl had hidden depths of submission.

Mary too stuck her bottom out, but her demeanour was like a little bird and Alice didn’t have to guess who had gulped.

Alice swung into the stroke and rewarded Katherine’s superior posture with a blazing thwack of the strap. The girl merely grunted and barely moved. For this dignified defiance Alice award five more strokes of the leather and only at the last did Katherine’s grunt sound strained. By then her bottom was more vividly red and held visible whitish blisters.

Mary was much more vocal as she took six and her bottom squirmed as she whimpered. She coloured up nicely too, although her skin took to grazing a little rather than blisters. I’ll soon change that, Alice vowed and without respite awarded Mary another six.

And so in sixes back and forth between the two bottoms the strapping continued until all brave had been driven from them and they both sobbed for their by then very sore bottoms.

*

Neither girl could sit down to make up the birch rods, and even Alice wondered if either girl could take what was coming next. But one would have thought they were at an art and craft fare once they got to work and both women became totally absorbed in making the best rods for their own bottoms. No doubt in the intensity of the industry the latter use was temporarily forgotten.

“Remember girls, weight and length are important, but so is flexibility. Also padding out the withes more loosely can make a rod look intimidating but have less impact for the more delicate or inexperienced bare bottom,” Alice explained.

Mary bit her lip in concentration and Katherine nodded sagely, her brow furrowed as she fixed her attention on the rod in her hands.

“In this case though I want these tight and swishy, think governess birch with menace rather than judicial flogging,” Alice continued cheerfully.

Katherine looked up and actually smiled. Nothing, however, could break through Mary’s dour demeanour.

It took a while but after an hour or so both rods were made and steeping once again in an old iron enamelled bucket.

“Back to the corner girls and think about what comes next,” the governess capped her hands.

Mary looked sick, but even the sanguine Katherine had woeful eyes. “It is for our own good I suppose,” she sighed.

Alice offered a sad sympathetic smile and wished now she had not been so severe in her pronouncement.

The immediate swelling of the young women’s bottoms had abated, although both look very red and sore. Alice felt a little pang of pride; she had remembered her training and kept both girls on the edge and the right side of discipline rather than something darker.

This thought took her somewhere else. Alice blushed and remembered a couple of encounters with Mrs Baxter when she had over done it with her charges as a trainee. She remembered Mrs Baxter showing her the abyss and how a soul could be lost in depravity from either side of the whip, so to speak. There had been a couple of occasions… Alice felt tight at the throat and elsewhere and snatched a glance of guilty pleasure at the two humbled women in her care.

For a second she considered brining the punishment to an end. What would Mrs Baxter do? No compromise. Alice hardened her heart and thought about both these women as women and not merely bottoms. They were on the last leg of their induction, if they did not know it. Alice would not have respected a light hand, nor would they. No another half an hour in the corner and then they would both get a stiff 36 stroke birching for their edification.

Alice relaxed again, she was on firm ground.

*

For the birching Alice decided to take them one at a time. While one remained in the corner listening but not seeing, her compatriot would be soundly birched until she rued the day she was ever born with a bottom. Then while she recovered, her friend would go next.

“Now ladies, if you think you have sore sitters now, wait until we are done,” Alice said sharply.

Katherine tensed and Mary shifted uneasily.

“Yes ma’am,” Katherine said. There was still a hint of pride in her voice.

“I will take Mary first,” Alice announced.

Mary turned not quite knowing what to do, but as she did so she saw the temporary trestle Alice had placed in the middle of the room.

“Oh my,” she whispered.

“Over you go,” Alice ordered.

Mary licked her lips and then steeled herself. “Yes ma’am,” she said and then straightening up she strode forward and bent over the upright of the trestle.

Alice drew a breath. The girl’s bottom was now tight and uppermost and almost improper. Focus girl, she chided herself as she took up a rod.

Lining herself up with Mary’s bare bottom she thought about the operation before her. Six sets of six, well laid on and not too fast. She took up a stance.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yes ma’am,” Mary said, but she sounded uncertain.

The swish-crash of the stroke was loud and the impact was sharp. Mary absorbed it with a sigh and almost dismissed it as not as bad as she thought. Then the fire ignited and she screamed.

Alice gave her no time and struck again and then even before Mary could stop twisting about again. For each Mary screamed, always after a short pause, but the paused were getting shorter and the pain more searing and continuous.

At six Alice stopped leaving Mary to pant hard and ride the considerable burn.

In the corner Katherine appeared unmoved.

“Good girl, only another 30 to go,” Alice said brightly.

Mary blinked back tears in dismay. God, let this please be over, she prayed and braced herself for the next set.

To be continued...