Lady Kathryn’s Punishment

Synopsis

Found guilty of theft and lewd behaviour, Lady Kathryn is publicly whipped and demoted to servant status for a year whilst Margaret, her maid, is elevated to take her place.

Lady Kathryn’s Punishment

by obohobo

Warnings

Please take note!

The text in this story contains erotic material and is expressly written for adults only.

MF Whipping

If you are underage or offended by such material, or if viewing this file is illegal in your locality, then leave, close or delete this file-story now.

This is a work of fiction, any resemblance to persons living, dead or otherwise is purely coincidental. The ideas and thoughts that follow are pure fantasies. In real life, at the very least they would be unpleasant and probably illegal. Fantasies are like that; daydreams where we can contemplate and imagine the sensations without suffering or inflicting the pain, despair or humiliation.

© obohobo 2008

Sentenced

“Lady Kathryn Jane Rathcliffe, you have been found guilty and convicted of stealing a large sum of money, namely 53 sovereigns from the home of your father, Lord George Rathcliffe. Further you have been convicted on many counts of lewd and unseemly behaviour and accepting money in return for intercourse…” Judge Martin Reynolds droned on at great length on the impropriety of Lady Kathryn’s behaviour. I sat at the back of the courtroom waiting, like many others, to hear the judge pronounce his sentence but he appeared in no hurry to do so. I allowed my mind to wander over the events of the last eighteen years

All of my life, at least until she ran away two months ago, I’ve lived with Lady Kathryn Rathcliffe in Hallenhope Manor, the home of Lord George Rathcliffe and his wife, Lady Edwina. I have no idea who my mother is but I suspect I am the bastard child of Lord Rathcliffe although no one will ever say and no one appears to have any idea of the identity of my mother. They christened me simply, Margaret Smith. Being only three months older than Kathryn and living in the same house, we naturally grew up together but she was always the mistress and I, the servant. She had title, position and power whilst I had none. However, being her companion meant participating in her schooling and in this I excelled and, under the tutelage of the best governesses they could afford, I quickly learned to read, write and do arithmetic. Kathryn, on the other hand, hated schooling and hated the way I enjoyed it and played spiteful tricks on me that many times resulted in my unfairly receiving a strapping.

At the age of fourteen we began to develop as young women and Kathryn took a precocious interest in boys and men. By then I’d been officially appointed as her maid and several times she forced me to keep watch while she allowed a boy, or even an older man, to take liberties with her. Inevitably, we were caught by one of the older cook assistants and taken to cook herself, a stern, no nonsense woman who lectured us severely for many minutes on the dangers of allowing boys to have their way with us. To my surprise the lecture didn’t end with a strapping but a demand that we each took a glass of her liquor each morning to prevent pregnancy.

As I grew older, my duties as a general maid increased but Kathryn still demanded my services and often when I helped with her toilet in the morning, she regaled me with stories of her exploits in bed with whoever was her beau at the time.

I wasn’t a virgin by then either. Like most maids, guests and senior staff requested I warm their bed and with the guests, I usually had a few extra coins in my pocket afterwards. I didn’t make a point of flirting with the men like some maids but if they requested my services, I rarely refused.

The judge droned on but I could tell his sermon was about to end and looked again at Kathryn standing in the dock looking downcast. The wait must have been far worse for her. I perked up and turned my attention back to the judge and listened with interest. “Lady Kathryn Jane Rathcliffe, for your crimes, it is in my power to order the death sentence, the ignominy of death by hanging on the gallows in the market square outside this courthouse. I could also order that you serve the remainder of your life as a convict in one of our colonies but despite how you have acted against his interests and besmirched his good name, your father has pleaded against those options.”

“She going to get off again,” I muttered to myself, “The master has paid him a few gold coins.”

“That is not to say that you are going to get off lightly for I must set an example to other criminals who commit theft and wanton behaviour, thus you will be treated like any other felon. Lady Kathryn Jane Rathcliffe at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning you will be taken from Maddingthorpe Prison where you are now residing, to the market square. There you will be stripped of all your finery and transported in an open cart in full view of the citizens of this village, to the four ancient trees marking the boundary of the village. At each you will be soundly whipped, back and front by a person of good standing appointed by the sheriff. Ten strokes to the back and buttocks and three to each of the womanly parts you have brazenly flaunted, your breasts, mound and between your thighs. The flogging of your back is punishment for the theft of your father’s money and that of your front, to deter you for many weeks from enticing a man or boy to sample your charms. You will then return to the market square for a final whipping.”

Murmurs broke out in the courtroom. Judge Reynolds certainly wasn’t dealing with her lightly. Few hardened criminals received such a harsh sentence. Kathryn leant on the front of the dock and wept and tried to plead but a vigorous hammering of the judge’s gavel brought silence to the room again.

“I haven’t finished my judgement and sentence.” We all looked at him, wondering what further punishment a woman could expect after such a sound thrashing. I wondered if she’d even survive it. “Lady Kathryn Jane Rathcliffe, after the whipping in the market square, you will be taken to your home at Hallenhope Manor and for one year and one day you will relinquish your title and become a servant like any other in the house. For that period you will lose all rights and privileges that become a lady of title. You will work as an indentured servant, doing whatever jobs you are set by the staff there. After a satisfactory completion of that period you will return to this court and I will reinstate your position. Should the period not be completed satisfactorily, your position as a servant will continue indefinitely.”

Tears filled my eyes as we stood while the judge left and bailiffs escorted Kathryn back to the prison. Her sentence was harsh, extremely harsh and much as I disliked the woman for the pain she’d caused me, I didn’t wish a punishment of this severity upon her. I did agree with the judge that a year as a servant might help her understand the reality of life as a maid, and if it humiliated her a little, so much to the good, but when I thought further, I wondered how it would affect my position at the manor. If Kathryn no longer required a maid and would do my work, would I be cast out?

My fears grew when his Lordship sent for me on my return. He’d been in the front of the court so knew of the sentence and my thoughts on being sent away returned. To my surprise, after I bobbed my usual curtsey he asked me to sit and face him. His face looked sad and drawn and I felt he was near to tears. “Margaret, I expected a severe sentence but not one as harsh and this. I know others have been whipped at the boundary markers but mostly it has been on the back and buttocks only, not frontally, and not between the legs. Judge Reynolds appeared to want to make her suffer more than usual.”

“Lady Kathryn made a fool of his son, M’lord.”

His lordship nodded as if he knew and went on, “Margaret, I know the prison is a most unpleasant and malodorous place and you have every right to refuse this request, and if you do, I will not hold it against you. Margaret, will you spend the night with her and do what you can to comfort her before her ordeal? Will you take a cloak with you and try to get her to shed her clothing so that at the market square she only has to undo the clasp and not struggle out of her petticoats and stuff in front of the jeering hoards? Nichols will go with you and give the keepers the necessary coins to ensure your wellbeing and I’ve paid for her to have a cell on her own. Remember Margaret, you are now her equal; no, you are her superior. The judge removed her title for the coming year and she is plain Kathryn now or maybe only Kathy. Do not let her bully you, she has no authority over you and must begin to realise what it is like to be a servant.” From the way he spoke, it seemed as if this was some kind of test of my character and also that he still cared for his daughter but wasn’t going to let her get away without receiving her due punishment, a punishment the populace had to witness in order to prevent allegations of favouritism to the wealthy. I agreed to do this for him but I wondered how she would treat my presence.

Cook gave me good advice when I asked for a little food to take to Kathryn. “Go in and act like you are that governess you had years ago. Give her orders like you are his lordship or the mistress, Maggie, don’t ask her or make requests.”

Punished

“What do you want bitch!” Kathryn’s first words of greeting didn’t enamour me to her and I resolved to take Cook’s advice.

“Sit down Kathy, I’m here to give you what little comfort and help I can but what I or your father can do, is very limited. At the moment, I’m the only friend you have in this place, most everyone else want to see you get your comeuppance and will rejoice in seeing the blood flow down your body on the morrow.” My stern words shocked her and she slumped on the low straw mattress that served as her bed. For the remainder of the night I alternately sat and held her whilst she cried or I listened to a tirade of abuse. At one point I stood ready to call the guard to let me out, but my determination not to let his Lordship down, prevented me. By morning, neither of us had slept and she reduced herself to a sobbing wretch knowing her whipping ordeal was growing ever closer. I fed her a little of the food and helped her out of her dress and to don the cloak before the guard announced it was time for us to leave. We walked out in bright sunshine to the jeers and shouts of the crowd. Two constables half carried her by the arms while I walked a few paces behind.

As the first stroke of the church clock struck ten, John Bridges, the sheriff’s appointed whip man, unfastened the clasp to her cloak and gave it to me and pulled down the drawers she refused to let me take earlier. He added to her humiliation by waving them at the crowd before handing them to me. Tears filled my eyes as I saw her white skin, skin that would shortly be welted and raw. Cheers and jeers greeted the sight especially when John tied her hands, hoisted her onto the tumbrel and fastened them so she was forced to stand and display herself on the short journey to the first marker tree. Like everyone else, I followed. I know in some villages, miscreants are made to walk behind the cart and are whipped while making the journey but we cart the person to each marker and whip them there. Usually the number of strokes is limited to ten at each. Kathryn would have nearly double that and on her most sensitive parts.

A rope had been thrown over a bough ready for our arrival and, although she resisted and cursed, men quickly had her off the cart and strung up. It took several minutes for the constables to move the crowd back far enough for John Bridges to swing the whip but all too soon, he uncoiled a six feet long horsewhip. The crowd grew silent and above the sound of the wind rustling the leaves we heard the hiss as the whip hurtled it way before abruptly stopping and leaving a painful red line across Kathryn’s shoulders and curling around to catch her right breast. She let out a most horrific scream and swore like a common peasant but that only resulted in more laughter. Imperturbably John laid a second line of pain a little lower across her back, again bringing forth a tremendous howl. Inexorably and with precision, stroke after stroke made its mark across her back buttocks and thighs. Obviously he enjoyed his job and took a pride in inflicting the utmost pain without breaking the skin and drawing blood. I wept, not because I liked the girl, but she had been my companion and mistress for many years.

After a short delay, John picked another whip, a shorter, many-tailed one, and walked around her. Unhurriedly and with considerable force, the tails struck and flattened her breasts. Three times she suffered the excruciating pain before he moved to her lower belly and upper thighs. Her screams faded to hoarse groans but she stayed conscious. “Open your legs woman, like you do for your lovers,” John ordered and when she didn’t comply, he nodded to two constables who pulled her legs far wider than I thought possible. I watched in horror as the tails bit into her tender slit and curled up and over her bottom, crossing the welts already there. The poor girl slumped and hung by her wrists.

Two men lifted her on the cart and we followed as it trundled along the lane for a mile to the next boundary marker. On the way we stopped at a stream and a constable drew a pail of water and threw it over her. It revived her senses a little but she still had to be carried to the tree and held upright while they fastened her to the rope. This time John took the whip in his left hand and applied it with the same dexterity her right side so the tail curled into her other breast. For a while her screaming renewed but as soon as he started on her front, so her voice went and again she slumped down and only the rope kept her upright.

At the next two markers, she was barely conscious and we could see John wasn’t hitting with his full force, nevertheless, her lovely young body was scarred from neck to knees with a terrible tracery of welts and I wondered if she would survive the final thrashing in the market square. I prayed that John would continue to hit less forcibly. It was not to be. Judge Reynolds stood by the scaffold that served the duel purpose of a gallows for hanging and for trussing vagrants for whipping.

“Whip her strongly Mr. Bridges, make her remember these last ones. We can well do without this thief and whore in the village.” It sounded as if he would be pleased if she died under the lash. John was obliged to resume using the full force of his arm or lose his job and, although she passed out three times during the final flogging, he waited each time until she’d been revived. The pompous judge wasn’t done though. Stepping on to the platform he loudly addressed Kathryn and the crowd, “Lady Kathryn Jane Rathcliffe, you have sinned against God and your fellow citizens and have been soundly chastised and will now relinquish all claims to the title of ‘Lady’ for at least one year and one day. Until then you will be indentured as a maid to work on the estate of Lord George Rathcliffe and, given a satisfactory conclusion to your indentureship, he may appeal to the court to restore your position in society.” As usual he continued at some length before the constables could untie Kathryn and allow me to fasten the cloak around her. Two men helped her down and Nichols and I with the assistance of two bystanders, managed to get her into the trap and home. Fortunately she wasn’t awake to know much of the journey.

“We’ve put a cot with extra bedding in your room Margaret,” Mrs. Hughes the head housekeeper said when Nichols and a footman carried her through the door. We laid her down but there was no way she could lie in any comfort. “How do you intend to treat her? It seems as if it will be your job to look after her until she’d fit enough to work.”

“With advice from you and Cook, Mrs. Hughes. I thought to bathe her first and them put on some of the salve that Cook makes and give her a dose of the datura medicine.” She only added that I should add chamomile flowers to the water. Lord Rathcliffe arrived during our discussion. “No woman should be whipped like that whatever her crime. That judge is just being vindictive. Treat her the same as you would any other maid, ease her pain as much as you are able and get her working soon even if it is only dusting jobs. The sooner she starts to use her muscles again, the sooner she’ll heal. As Mrs. Hughes said, Margaret, you are in charge of getting her well again.”

Janet, another maid, helped me wash her and apply the salve. One of us held her in the bowl of warm water while the other carefully washed the soil off the welts from where she’d fallen to the ground. Mostly I did the washing and perhaps the most embarrassing part was cleaning her pubic mound and the inside of her womanhood and applying the salve there. I knew the games some ladies played with each other but I’d never been that way inclined and Kathy certainly wasn’t in any condition to enjoy it. She could hardly suffer us to touch the lips of her womanly purse let alone clean inside, as we had to do.

Four days later, Kathy regained some of her strength and the pain had diminished but this led to her rebelliousness coming to the fore. She could walk wide legged if she wanted to but was content to lie on her side and bemoan her life. I decided it was time for her to start work and ordered her to stand. This provoked an outburst with her vehemently saying she wasn’t taking orders from a jumped-up maid like me.

“Kathy…”

“Don’t call me that. I’m Kathryn to you even if you have to leave off the lady part now. I’ll be a proper lady again in a year’s time.”

“Not if you don’t learn to behave Kathy,” I deliberately used her diminutive name, “If you do not have your maid’s dress on in five minutes, you will be forcibly dressed and taken for a walk outside. You need to keep your muscles moving. You’ll suffer a lot more if we dress you and you resist.” Despite the warning she made no attempt to dress and yelled when we did so. Two of the men half carried her to the lawn outside for me. “We’re walking around the grounds whether you like it or not. It will do you good and then you can have another rest,” I cajoled a little. Still rebelling, she clasped a shrub and refused to walk a single step. I was about to go in and get some help when I saw a boy fitting one of the carriage horses ready for to take the trap out. I spoke with him and, after much hesitation he brought the horse over and I fastened the trace to Kathy’s wrists. “Walk her slowly,” I instructed the boy. At first she tried to hold back but this only caused extreme pain and slowly she made the circuit of the ground, and she did so in front of the gardeners who stopped and smiled as we went by. I’d made my authority plain to her, even if she resented my doing it.

“Get all the staff together in the hall, lined up in proper order, the groundsmen as well as the inside staff. Have them ready for me to inspect by the time the clock strikes 2:30. In their working clothes but clean and tidy.” His Lordship’s visit caught me completely unawares.

Mrs. Hughes was a little put-out because she thought it was her job to organise things like that, but he’d specifically given me the orders. I managed it with a few minutes to spare. Three rows of staff, ladies in the front with the housekeeper and Cook on the right and Kathy as the lowliest servant, on the left, the butler on the right behind them with the men in descending order of seniority down to the boot boy. To the rear the gardeners, standing in their socks so as not to spoil the polished wood floor, again in descending order with the head gardener on the right. They rarely entered the hall. When all was ready I told the master and shuffled into a place a little below halfway along the ladies line. He went slowly down the line without speaking; the ladies curtseyed as he passed and looked them over, the male staff bowed and the gardeners touched their forelock. We were all mightily puzzled as to why this performance but didn’t dare ask. He spent longer looking at Kathy than the rest of us. “Father?” she uttered, “Please…”

“You have no father here girl,” he abruptly stopped any further appeals.

We waited while he composed himself in front of us and I think we all anticipated an announcement about Kathryn but it wasn’t what we expected, least of all, me. Without any preliminaries, he spoke quietly but clearly enough for us to hear, “You know that I have lost my daughter because of her transgressions and most of you know my wife, Lady Edwina, is very sickly and I fear may not last to the winter. This will leave me bereft of having any woman in my family capable of running the house. Mrs. Hughes and Cook are doing a fine job but I feel the need for someone to confide in on a more personal level, someone able to take over the duties, the household duties, Lady Edwina performed until the consumptive illness overcame her. Since the court ruling I have thought long and hard on the problem and I have decided, if she agrees, to adopt Margaret as my daughter. Will you agree Margaret? Would you be willing to be my daughter?” Speechless, I could only nod my agreement. He took my hand and led me to the front of the gathering, “It may take a little while before this is all notarised and legal, but as of now, in this household, you are Lady Margaret Rathcliffe and,” he turned to the staff, “Everyone will address my new daughter as Lady Margaret, just as if she were born to my wife. She will have full authority and power over you and you will obey her, just as you do me.” He abruptly turned and with, “Dismiss them when you are ready Lady Margaret and then perhaps you will come to my study and we can discuss your role and future here.

Bewildered, I made a stuttered speech asking for their help and cooperation but I was as confused as they, perhaps more so. Kathy glared at me as though I had planned this but I left her to go about whatever work, Cook gave her.

“Why me, M’lord?” I asked when I was seated in his study.

“You read and write well and you already check the accounts when the staff have difficulties, you know the ways of this house and I know how unfairly Kathryn has treated you from childhood. I’ve also noticed how you have maintained your authority during these difficult days. This morning’s episode amused and finally decided me.”

The rest of the afternoon was a whirlwind of activity. I moved out of the little room in the attic into Kathy’s room and changed from my maid’s uniform into a fairly plain but neat dress of Kathy’s. I visited Lady Edwina and got her views on my new role. To my surprise she wasn’t averse to me taking over from her daughter and I gather the master had talked with her about it.

From then on my life changed. I ate with his Lordship and any guests that stayed and I visited other houses with him. Few, apart from Kathy, challenged my authority at least not after I ordered one lad to the whipping bench. In his cheeky way, he called me Maggie and grinned when I reprimanded him. The second time was within earshot of two maids. I asked one to get James, the senior footman and instructed him to give the lad ten strokes of the strap. The boy of course, pleaded with me but I remembered all the times I pleaded in vain for a reduction in the punishment and I knew that ten with the strap was not severe and could be justified for the offence.

Kathy still resented me, indeed it seemed her resentment grew although I did what I could to see she was treated properly and no one took advantage of the fact that she was now a servant to get their revenge for past punishments. Her body healed only slowly and I feared she would show the scars, particularly those from the horsewhip on her back, for a long while. After a month, the bruising on her front faded but her back remained a kaleidoscope of colour. At first I thought to ease her workload by taking her as my personal maid but I feared seeing me in my finery would add to her dislike of me. I took Janet instead.

Much to my surprise, only five weeks after her whipping, a guest, an older man, asked to take her to his bed and she agreed. She’d bedded him before. I had too, and remembered him as being quiet and considerate but firm in his beliefs and ways. When it happened several times, I suspected she used him in an effort to get away from Hallenhope Manor. I was right but according to Janet who heard it from one of the other girls, Kathy wasn’t having things all her own way. He was the incentive for her to work more conscientiously until the court reinstated her title and she was free to leave and set up home with him, first as his mistress and then as his wife. They only had two servants but at least Kathy didn’t have to do all the wifely chores herself.

As Lord Rathcliffe’s daughter I didn’t get so many offers to bed the guests but Douglas Hunt, the son of a wealthy business man, visited several times and I more or less seduced him. For a while his visits became more and more frequent and our coupling ever more passionate and I expected to marry him but an unfortunate shipping accident took his life. For a while I was inconsolable but gradually I got on with my life as mistress of the house, a role I took on fully when Lady Edwina died.

Finis