Ruled by the Rod (12 page)

No matter,
even the stormiest sea is crossed at last, and Charlotte came to
the end of her treatment eventually. Now that urgent responsiveness
to a loving touch, that she had enjoyed all too frequently before,
to her undoing and distress, had sunk to mere recognition that a
friendly finger pressed on the bud. Though she could gain relief
eventually by urgent circling at its base, with a fingertip pressed
firmly home, but the fine and careless rapture was no more.

Despite
Charlotte's rather serious loss, and our own lesser diminution of
sensation, we all three regained our wellbeing and our feelings of
security and place in the hands of our guardians. Both the doctor
and the judge were frequent visitors to our table, bringing with
them the news of the outside world they held such responsible
office in, though we might miss them for a few days when affairs of
scientific or legal import took them to London, Paris or
beyond.

It was on his
return from one such journey, to hear some learned papers on the
new theories of magnetism and the electric flux, that Dr Boucher
made a further suggestion for the improvement of our health by the
application of the best of modern scientific and medical
discoveries. It seemed that after attending certain seminars at the
Sorbonne in Paris, Dr Boucher had visited his colleague, and fellow
worker in the field of female sexual disorders, Dr Dubois of that
city. Dr Dubois was very eminent in the field. Indeed, he had
probably done more to promote the benefits of clitoredectomy for
the control and management of unruly and dangerous females, than
any other, so our own worthy and trusted physician was always
willing to give credence to his ideas.

Arising from
the discussion on magnetism, and linking it to the current theories
on the menace of 'active' sexuality in the human female, he had
evolved the idea that the malignant emanations from the female,
which so disturbed men and caused them so much distress, the higher
functions of the male being disturbed by the lower functions of the
female, these emanations he held, were magnetic, or perhaps,
electrical in some sense, and might be contained by similar methods
to those used by physicists working in the field today. His
suggestion was that conductive rings, placed as near as possible to
the prime sources of female energy, would trap the flux and
neutralise it, so that the woman would cease to be a danger to the
men that were exposed to her. Or at any rate, the danger might be
mitigated.

The company
discussed the idea over more than one dinner, while we listened
with interest, not knowing exactly what was planned. And eventually
it was agreed to make trial of the devices. After much discussion
they settled that the first and foremost source of female energy
was those same nerve centres that they had recently curbed and
modified in us. A ring should be put in the hood, in such a way
that it hung and encircled the trouble spot, and thereby contained
the energy. Since the vagina was the next obvious site,
communicating as it did directly with the womb, the introit of that
passage should be closed by a ring through the labia minora,
trapping any emanations taking that route. It was objected that
this would hamper a bridegroom, but the doctor pointed out that
upon marriage the one ring could be removed, and new rings put in
the holes in each lip. The effect might not be so complete, but a
young husband must expect to take some risks. Finally they argued
that the female principle also had its seat in the breasts. Rings
for each nipple were prescribed, circling as much as possible of
each teat and capturing those lines of magnetic flux that had their
origin in the mammaries.

Since our
breasts, as well as our lower bodies, were to be included in the
experiment, we were for the first time to appear before our
guardians fully in a state of nature. This was a cause of some
embarrassment at first; papa had seen us after our morning dunkings
at the pump, to be sure, but not the other gentlemen. Our
reservations were brushed aside, however, and additional stripes
awarded for questioning our superior's judgement, it being pointed
out to us once again that our guardians were all professional men
and, as such, above the usual restrictions of modesty. We felt very
foolish at our ignorance, and humbly submitted ourselves to the
biting rod in expiation.

The doctor in
fact upbraided himself for being so neglectful as to omit our upper
bodies from the periodic inspections he made of us, and took the
opportunity to examine each pair of breasts thoroughly, checking
them for size and weight, feeling their texture and testing the
sensitivity of the nipples. How erectile, how easily stimulated,
how closely connected to the lower organs, testing the connection
by manipulating a teat with one hand while resting the other on our
lower bellies, feeling for the first trembling of spasm, a
fingertip within the furrow below waiting to feel the onset of
lubricity.

When the good
doctor was satisfied that he had the measure of our mammary
physiology and response, we moved to the next stage. Each in turn
was made to stand, her hands behind her neck, looking upward and
thrusting her breasts steadily forward. The doctor took a strong
needle, set in a wooden handle, and a piece of cork. Placing the
cork against one side of a nipple, he selected the position for the
entry hole on the other side, lining the needle up carefully so
that the traverse might be true and level. When he was satisfied
with the alignment he drove the needle through the teat, into the
waiting cork, thrusting firmly through with a short unhurried
motion. It hurt intensely, but even worse was the feeling as the
flesh gave way before the rising pressure on the needle. For the
nipple is a surprisingly tough and gristly organ, quite hard to
penetrate from side to side, until the tissue gives way with an
almost audible rupture, the sensation of which makes any woman's
belly churn.

I said it hurt
intensely, but only for an instant, though it took rather longer
and dragged more whimpers and groans when the split gold rings were
forced through the newly pierced flesh. Once done, however, there
was but bearable pain. Much the same could be said of our rings in
hood and vaginal opening. In some ways the piercing was easier for,
though it pained us rather more, and each whined as the needle
worked its way through the membranes, there was no comparable
sensation of gristle bursting that had so affected us when the
needle had transfixed our teats.

And now we had
four gleaming gold rings apiece, one in each nipple, depending
gracefully on our breasts, one above our bud, enclosing that member
like an encircling halo, and the last astride our vaginal openings,
like a guardian at the gate. I must admit that, as I regarded these
elegant additions to my body, for so their permanence seemed to
create them, my thoughts were less on their scientific and medical
worth than on the beauty of their appearance. It seems the others
were aware of similar sensations. Marion and I had long discussions
on whether we were obliged to confess this secret vanity to papa
and earn ourselves extra stripes. Eventually I agreed with her
that, though it might be, in strict terms, our duty, it would
distract from the high scientific purpose for which the insertions
had been made, and we should not disturb the gentlemen with such
frivolous feminine matters.

Now that we
had appeared before the gentlemen once in a state of full undress
we found it easier to repeat, which was just as well, for amongst
other ideas of the most up to date sort that the doctor had brought
back from his studies in foreign parts, he now offered the
suggestion that we would fare better if we were to let the air
circulate on our skins as much as possible. Of course we already
did so each morning in the stable yard, as we stripped to stand
under the pump and, since the introduction of our fetters at the
knee, we had worn no drawers, so some air could circulate around
our lower bodies and between our thighs.

During the
day, when women from the village were present and the groom was on
the premises, anything more was not possible for reasons of
modesty, but now we were enjoined, once the servants had left of an
evening, to remove everything but our stays, stockings and shoes.
And it was in this condition that we now waited on our guardians at
their nightly dinners together, for most nights of the week we
received at least one of our visiting benefactors.

Our breasts,
resting on the half cups of our corsets, proudly displayed their
rosy nipples, each teat bearing its golden ring. Our high collars,
buffed until the dark leather glowed, held our heads proudly aloft,
while the burnished chains at knee and crotch added their own
sparkle to our appearance, the fetters regulating our gait to
becoming femininity, and the crotch chains failing to hide two more
gold rings, which, though covered were not concealed. Below the
fetters our black silk hose was gartered at the knee, and on our
feet we wore glossy leather boots; black, with heels quite three
inches high, tight laced to halfway up our calves. The judge, a man
of infallible taste in all matters pertaining to female dress and
deportment, had chosen them for us himself, another in the
multitudinous evidences of the care they took for us.

If you think
we were guilty in some degree of feminine vanity, that awful vice
that afflicts most members of our sex from time to time, you may be
right, but remember, we paid fully for our vices, nor did we grudge
the cost. Moreover, our guilt was mitigated if not quite
extinguished, by the knowledge that we were kept so close
controlled, and meticulously managed, that we posed no danger to
the superior sex, unlike those women allowed to run free, their
vanity a danger and a menace to all around them.

We were happy.
We were protected and controlled, we were cared for and corrected,
we were useful and busy. How could women in our position fail to be
happy? Our guardians took every care for our wellbeing, mental and
physical.

They regulated
our lives for us, they ordered our dress, they gave us stern
discipline, without which womankind runs amok to its own sorrow,
and the destruction of God's superior creation, man.

They corrected
us when we strayed from those strict limits of discipline, and
controlled us with purple stripes. They kept us busy with household
tasks so that we had no time to be bored and contemplate mischief,
as women are ever prone to. They allowed us to wait on them at
table, and shared their food with us, even letting us drink from
their own glasses. And they gave us the joy of being allowed to
serve them by drawing the poison from their bodies, that sometimes
seemed to overwhelm them.

And do not
think we were confined, or saw nothing of the world. Our guardians
took us on many expeditions, some educational, some for pleasure,
all enjoyable in some degree or other, and improving to our minds.
On one occasion the judge came very early, we were still drying
ourselves after our dawn rendezvous with the stable pump, to take
the six of us in his carriage, to see the antique judicial
punishments, still surviving in rural parts of the county, to which
he had adumbrated after dinner that evening, some weeks before.

It was,
indeed, a somewhat remote village to which we came first, one of
those small communities dominated by the Great House, or Manor, and
existing mainly to provide service to the gentry who were the
proprietors of the land. It seems that the lord of this manor, a
man of middle years and used to command, the district magistrate by
virtue of his holdings had, but two months gone, taken to himself a
bride from a wealthy London family. The lady, being town bred, or
at least grown accustomed to the manners and ways of metropolitan
society, was finding it difficult to adapt to the more autocratic
ways of the country gentry with their womenfolk. In the city great
respect was paid to women and their wishes; here the opposite held,
and females were expected to show a proper deference to their
menfolk. This was her first visit to her new husband's rural
retreat, and she was still not come to terms with her status here.
She had, apparently, already been warned that her behaviour lacked
proper respect, and then she had overstepped the mark
completely.

In these
country areas, it was an accepted fact that the gentry might tumble
the wenches of their households, and nothing thought of it. Milady,
it seems, had refused to abide by the local ethos, and had not only
upbraided her groom in front of the servants, when she had caught
him with his britches down, pumping a rosy kitchen maid in the
stables, but had, when he laughed off the matter, so far forgotten
herself as to strike him with her crop.

Such an
assault could not, of course, be overlooked, however new a bride
she was, or high her station. Her fault was heinous and doublefold,
for she had struck both a husband and a magistrate.

In the
interests of good order in the district he resolved that no favour
should be shown, and a public example made, to 'encourage' other
females of all stations, by showing that not even the highest was
exempt. In any case, it were kinder to check her early, lest she
stray even further from the path of a proper wife and become a mere
termagant, a misery to herself and all around her.

Accordingly we
arrived on the village green, the dew still on the ground, to find
a small crowd already gathered to see the lady whipped.

Under a
spreading tree, in the middle of the green outside the church gate,
there stood a tall stout post, adorned about its apex, some six
feet from the ground, by a pair of iron manacles. To either side,
at its foot, shorter posts, only half a foot high, were set in the
ground, and each carried a large iron staple.