and wondered at what she had done.
Then she stood and walked over to the girl in the corner, the girl who was not her, and whispered into her ear. ‘In one week’s time you will come to our house. It is my Ben’s birthday. You will come dressed as you were tonight, and you will do what you are told when you arrive. Do you understand?’
Her voice was gentle, like honey in warm summer woods.
Ali nodded.
‘Good girl.’
Marie kissed her shoulder gently, took her bag and left.
When she had gone, Ali walked stiffly to her room. She stood for several minutes staring in the mirror at her bruised and swollen bottom. She stroked it with her head to one side, a gentle hand where before there had been only pain.
Is this how it is? she wondered. Is this how it is to be punished? She sighed. ‘I thought there would be more.’ But more of what, she could not, or would not, think.
* * *
Marie finished telling her side of the story to Ben, not once daring to turn around and look at him, like a successful Orpheus.
‘I am beginning to understand now,’ said Ben, bringing Marie back to the present. ‘It would have been a good idea to talk to me about this in advance, don’t you think?’
‘I know,’ she said to the rug, ‘that this is a bit unusual, but you’ve been in charge of me for years, and I have been spanked so often and in so many ways that I wanted to know how it felt. I wanted to show you. I wanted –’ she struggled with the final bit of truth ‘– I wanted to kiss her, like you kiss me. I wanted to share that with you.’
She paused, and the silence rang in her ears.
‘Did I screw up?’ she asked at last.
The room was heavy with waiting. All the power she had felt while she recounted the story dissipated and flew like a butterfly to Ben’s finger while she waited for his verdict.
‘I can’t believe that you did all of this without asking me, and, more importantly, without really thinking through the effect it would have on Ali.’
His displeasure made her sit up and search for a way to make it better.
‘But I did, we talked about it, I just didn’t tell you everything because I didn’t want you to know about the surprise. It’s supposed to be a happy thing. Ali has always liked you, ever since she met you at the Christmas party three years ago. She thinks you’re gorgeous, and she told me. I do too. Two women who think you’re gorgeous, what’s not to love about that?’
Marie finished with a smile, and Ben tapped the edge of the chair with his fingers.
‘OK,’ he said.
‘OK? Really? So it’s all good?’
‘Oh.’ He looked down at the brown-haired girl, still under his hand. ‘No, not yet. I wasn’t really talking to you. Get your hairbrush and come back here.’
She started to speak.
‘Now.’
Flustered at his curt interruption, she dashed off to do as instructed. Her skirt flew up as she ran, and he smiled a little at the flash of stockings and black silk knickers.
Marie returned with hairbrush and excuses in hand. ‘Ben, I spent ages getting ready. I tried really hard to do whatever I … oh.’
He sat just pointing at his lap. They watched each other for a moment and Marie lost. She folded herself over his thighs without a word, and lifted up her bum so he could pull her knickers down.
‘Jesus!’ she called out as he unleashed the hairbrush with force over her pale cheeks. ‘Ben!’ She tried desperately to get away but his arm clamped her tightly. ‘You haven’t warmed me up and it really hurts!’
He responded with a totally unfazed and unaltered assault on her bum. She tried to crawl away using the edge of the sofa for purchase but he held her still with his non-spanking arm and went to work with tenacity over all her bottom and thighs.
She heard it stop before she felt it. Her bottom burned and Marie groaned with relief, then realised Ben was speaking to her and resolved to listen to him dutifully.
‘Right, listen very carefully to this, Marie. You don’t know what you are doing, do you? I know you. You feel all of this, you don’t think it. You have taken this girl somewhere. Why? What did you want? What did you think about her and how she felt? And did you think about who is in charge of all this? Did you?’ He punctuated each syllable of the last two questions with a hard swat of the brush that made her cry out each time.
The doorbell rang. He paused, the brush in mid-air, and she waited, eyes squeezed tight shut for a number of reasons, none of them that she dared consider.
‘Get up.’
She scrambled to readjust her clothes, trying to look dignified and normal for their guest.
He looked at her with stern bemusement. ‘What are you doing?’ He did not wait for an answer. ‘Get into the corner, knickers down, skirt up, and don’t even think about moving before I tell you to.’
The confidence the man had in his authority was such that he did not wait to see her carry out his orders, but went straight to the front door and then ushered Ali to the kitchen.
After only a few minutes, Marie started to feel a little less fear, and leaned backwards to try to hear what was being said. It was unkind and inconsiderate of him to put her into the corner when Ali arrived. He showed no respect at all for her position.
She could hear only muffled voices from the kitchen, and felt ignored and bypassed. Why couldn’t they discuss it with her? Why didn’t her feelings count? She was the one who had orchestrated this, after all.
It will be so confusing and bewildering for Ali, Marie thought, and it would be fairer for everyone if I put myself to rights and joined them, like a normal person.
Then she heard footsteps approaching and recognised Ben’s steady tread, and almost slammed her nose into the wall in her haste to get back into position.
Ben stood right behind her, his fingers carelessly stroking her exposed and still sore bum as he spoke. His voice sounded deep and certain in her ear, and in another situation it would have turned her on, listening to him speak so deeply and so close to her, but right then she was too frantic about Ali being there for that to happen.
‘I have had a conversation with Ali. She and I have spoken about how she feels and what she wants. I also know what I want. Pull your knickers up and come out of the corner. Sit on this.’ He plonked a chair in the middle of the floor. ‘Right. Spank her. Let’s see how you do.’
Marie had pulled her knickers up before he finished that fragment of his sentence but she stood still, looking from the chair to him and then to Ali. Her stomach fell and she did not know why. This is what she wanted all along, but in front of him it felt stupid all of a sudden, as if she were a child playing at a silly game.
‘If you need me to show you how it’s
