Ruled by the Rod

by

Ruled by the
Rod first published in 2000 by Chimera Publishing. Published as an
eBook in 2012 by Chimera eBooks.

Smashwords
Edition

ISBN
9781907753381

www.chimerabooks.co.uk

Chimera (
ki-mir'a,
ki-
) a creation of the imagination, a wild
fantasy.

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This work is
sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or
otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated
without the publisher's prior written consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and
without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent
purchaser. The author asserts that all characters and situations
depicted in this work are entirely imaginary and bear no relation
to any real person or actual happening.

Copyright Sara
Rawlings. The right of Sara Rawlings to be identified as author of
this book has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of
the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This novel is
fiction - in real life practice safe sex.

I remember
that Marion felt it should be she that went up to papa after
supper.

'After all,'
she said, 'I am the eldest, and responsible for keeping house. It
is not as though papa's complaint is of some specific fault, the
onus for which we could decide between the three of us, but a
declaration that an example should be made to ensure a devout
attention to our duties in future.'

'But Marion,'
exclaimed Charlotte; the middle sister at twenty-four, three years
younger than Marion and four years older than myself, and very
tender towards us both, 'your buttocks were well thrashed only two
days past. I dare say you are still sore in your drawers, he beat
you so.'

'Charlotte, I
blush to hear you speak thus,' Marion replied. 'In any case, we do
not customarily display the results of our corrections, and you
would not have been aware of the state of mine, if you had not
slipped into my room when my mind was on other things.'

'That I can
well imagine,' Charlotte said, 'since you were lying across your
bed with your skirts up, and your drawers down to cool your burning
bottom. I only came in because papa had spent so long over you, and
Annabel and I were worried for you.'

'I know, and I
am grateful for your concern, and it was a great help that you
could staunch the bleeding for me with cold compresses. Papa's rod
is sometimes hard to bear.'

'All the more
reason why one of us should go up this evening,' I put in. 'Your
bottom is not yet recovered enough to receive it again.'

'I shall come
to no harm,' Marion replied. 'Has not papa assured us many times
that providence, which made woman the weaker vessel and prone to
give shelter to all manner of evil, also endowed her with the
wherewithal to receive correction in full measure without risking
injury to health? I will steel myself to do my duty, and attend
papa's study at seven, as he requires.'

She paused
momentarily. 'I would make one request of you though, my dear
sisters. Perhaps you would be so good as to see that the supper
things are properly cleared away, and the house secured for the
night. I doubt not that, after my interview with papa, I would
prefer to remain in my room, and seek to learn how best to profit
from the lesson he will have taught me.'

After supper,
which we took alone, papa preferring to have his brought to him on
a tray, where he was preparing his sermon or other uplifting text,
Marion kissed us both warmly, then gathered her skirts to ascend
the stairs to papa's room, moving a little stiffly, for her bruises
still troubled her.

She was a long
while gone.

We heard just a trace of papa's loud rumble through the heavy
oak door. He seemed to have considerable matter to impart. Then
there came the faint
snick
we all dreaded so much. We remained in the
kitchen, so did not catch them all, but it seemed a fearful count.
Towards the end we heard several sharp cries accompanying the
snicks, then Marion screamed, her cry answered by a bark from papa.
The rhythm of the correction paused, them resumed. Another few
beats and Marion screamed again. Our hearts stood still, our
bellies quaked. Marion was very brave, but papa seemed to have
penetrated her defences. In the silence that followed we waited to
hear her leave the dreadful chamber, but the door stayed shut.
After a few minutes we could hear, dimly but distinct through the
heavy wood, a regular thump, punctuated by groans from our dear
sister. Finally all was quiet.

Several
minutes later we heard the door open and shut, and Marion's
footsteps, dislocated as if she was limping or walking with stiff
and parted legs, dragged across the landing to her room. We looked
at each other but did not voice our unspoken thoughts. She had
asked to be allowed to recover herself in private, meditating on
her correction, and we would respect her wishes, and turned to
clear the room and secure the house for the night, as we had
promised her.

Marion did
not, however, keep her room that night. You may imagine our
astonishment when, a bare half-hour later, the door opened, and
there was Marion, clinging to the frame. She shuffled across to us
with an awkward gait, then, instead of joining us at the table,
where we sat, dropped to her knees at the end of it, her bowed head
on her arms. We jumped up and ran to her side, endeavouring to
raise her and set her in a chair, but she resisted.

'No,' she
said, her face lined with pain, 'let me be. Papa beat me most
severely, and I cannot manage to sit.'

We urged her
to let us assist her to her bed, but again she refused.

'Before he
beat me, papa lectured me on the shortcomings of the household, and
what he deemed should be done for the improvement of our souls,
through the mortification of our bodies. He specifically desired me
to acquaint you with the gist of his argument, though the details
will have to await another occasion as, not only did he spend some
time giving me examples of our shortcomings and what means we
should adopt to correct them, but he made it quite clear that these
were but by way of example, and that he would be expanding and
expounding his thesis continuously.'

My heart sank
and my knees trembled at this dire news. Our father had brought us
up to fear God, and more particularly, God's surrogate on earth,
himself as head of the family. I should perhaps explain at this
point that, though we called him papa, and treated him in all
respects as if he had indeed been our progenitor, this was by way
of a courtesy title, albeit one so engrained in us that we never
considered it. He was not in fact a blood relative, being the
husband of our late mother's childhood friend, who had accompanied
our parents on their ill-fated trip to Paris and perished with them
when the packet to Dover foundered in a gale. Her relict took us
in, and we were cared for by his austere housekeeper, until Marion
had reached an age when she could take over the duty, and relieve
our benefactor of the expense. Since our parents' death in my
infancy, we had known no other source of knowledge, guidance and
discipline. There were not even servants in the vicarage since
Marion attained the age of sixteen years and was put in charge of
the housekeeping, with Charlotte and myself undertaking more and
more domestic duties as we grew older.

We had of
course, daily women from the village to do the rough work in
laundry and scullery, and even assist with periodical major
cleaning and refurbishment, but we were expressly forbidden to
engage in any but the most necessary conversation with these women,
who were, in any case, too hard-driven to be communicative, and
returned to their homes as soon as their allotted tasks were done.
We had, besides, a groom and a gardener, but neither lived in, and
both were directly employed by papa, and we scarcely saw or spoke
to either.

Our regime was
already one of stern and biblical patriarchy, and, if this was
judged too lax and in need of additional discipline, then our
failings must be lamentable, and the necessary correction vigorous
and searching, and Marion's brief digest of what our stern guardian
proposed for us did not fall short, nor did we expect it to, for we
knew he would never shrink from his duty to curb the evil which the
bible, and the church, teach us is inherent in all women and,
especially it seemed, in the women of his household.

When Marion
had explained the impossibility of her sitting at table, Charlotte
had run to fetch a cushion from the drawing room, and now she knelt
on it as on a hassock, in the attitude of prayer, her elbows on the
table but her head lifted so as to address us.

'It would
seem,' she began, 'that our father is conscious of a certain
undesirable element within the household, an evil effusion of the
feminine. As he has so often taught us, the Holy Book, St Paul, the
ancient Fathers of the Church from St. Augustine onward, are all
agreed that we women are sinks of iniquity and vessels of
unrighteousness. It is not enough that we try not to sin, hopeless
though that task may be for our sex, but we must actively mortify
our flesh and discipline our minds, so that our feminine emanations
do not disturb the meditations and prayers of a man of God, such as
he.

'Naturally, he
intends to help us all he can by increasing the frequency and
severity of the corporal corrections to which we are subject, in
the hope that we might derive some benefit therefrom, as my
flogging tonight was intended to demonstrate, but he feels that
mere fustigation in itself will not be enough to enable us to drive
down those dark forces within us, which are a snare for men,
dragging them down into the pit of hell, for which we women are
already irredeemably destined.'

'But what new
disciplines must we be subjected to?' I cried. 'We already accept
his every ordinance as befits dutiful daughters, conscious as we
are of the obedience we owe our father, and all other members of
the superior sex. How may we serve him further?'

'You are
right, dearest Annabel,' my sister replied, 'we do owe him absolute
obedience and, I believe, we make what poor effort we can to
deliver it. But we are but poor weak women, prone to stray from the
strait path of virtue at every turn, and we need to reinforce our
resolve by submitting ourselves to a harsh discipline to rein in
our naturally wayward ways, and teach us virtue. Papa is drawing up
a comprehensive list of the penances and disciplines we must impose
on ourselves and, when he graciously presents it to us we will
receive it with gratitude, thanking him for his care on our
behalf.

'At this
time,' she continued, 'he has only vouchsafed to us his first
suggestion for our spiritual health. He requires that we are to
give up the sinful luxury of hot water for washing our bodies.'

'Does he
intend that we should go unwashed then?' asked Charlotte, in
amazement. 'I fear there would soon be very tangible feminine
emanations, especially when our monthlies are on us.'

Charlotte was
always the least proper of us, and Marion corrected her
sharply.

'That smacks
of frivolity, Charlotte, if not worse,' she said, 'and makes me
even more convinced that father is right, and that we really do
have need of a sterner regime than we have enjoyed heretofore. In
answer to your question, however, it is his intention that, winter
and summer, we should strip and wash under the pump in the stable
yard, at first dawn, before the groom arrives to take up his
duties, since it would be scandalous for a male to see us in a
state of nature.' She sighed. 'Now I am truly tired, and my wounded
rear is paining me. I will try and give you a better idea of papa's
thinking on our behalf tomorrow but now I would be grateful if you
would assist me to my room, for I fear I cannot walk unaided.'

We helped her
to her room, and out of her clothes.

'Kneel and
rest your head on your arms, Marion dear,' I said, and carefully
eased down her drawers, over one knee at a time, telling her to
stay in that position until I had applied a soothing salve. She was
in some doubt, since she felt it might not be showing proper duty
to do anything that might mitigate the pain that had been inflicted
for her own good, but I persuaded her it was as much to promote
healthy healing, so that she could submit to proper correction the
sooner, and she seemed satisfied with this.