Gynecocracy

CHAPTER 7

It was resolved, in the course of that evening, partly to my consternation, partly to my delight, that I was next day to accompany Lady Alfred Ridlington home to Ridlington Court, in order to be thoroughly subjected to a woman who was utterly unscrupulous, and to undergo that discipline which Lady Alfred Ridlington convinced Mademoiselle was impossible at Downlands Hall amidst my cousins.

I knew that she was a volcano of sexual passion, and I well remembered her assertion that, if she became possessed of me, I should spend the greater part of my time between her legs. To this, notwithstanding what I had experienced in the morning, I did not object. It was the other features of the programme that troubled me.

It appeared that the real Lord Alfred was an old fogey twice his wife's age, who, for reasons best known to himself, had married a frisky girl; and she, of course, was overjoyed at the proposal of having a youth at her beck and call for some ten days or a fortnight.

She explained that her husband's niece, whom she called Ellen, acted as her principal maid, and she told Mademoiselle I should have to act as her assistant. She said that Ellen was a sprightly, vivacious, charming girl, and would take charge of me when she herself was otherwise engaged, and that there was not the slightest danger of discovery.

Mademoiselle consented, after some hesitation, to a ten days' visit. Elise was directed to put away for me such apparel as would suit the role I was to play.

We dined together as we had lunched. Fortunately the three girls were in disgrace and consequently easily disposed of.

The question then arose as to where I was to sleep that night. I had a secret wish that I might spend it with Mademoiselle and I flatter myself there was a corresponding desire on Mademoiselle's part; but hospitality towards her guest induced her to give me up to Alice, whose airs of proprietorship were at once exasperating and delicious.

I hoped, fatigued as I was, she would let me sleep that night. Otherwise I felt certain I should cut a poor figure upon the morrow.

All she did that night was to introduce me to my mistress of the next ten days, as agreed. Her mode of doing so may be guessed. It was merely to make me kiss her where I believe ladies always prefer to be kissed if they could only be induced to own it.

Mademoiselle had said something about a nettle petticoat on the morrow or a thistle or two hung round my waist; but Alice had declared that it would spoil our drive and the first day.

We breakfasted early. Mademoiselle kissed me and bade me be a good child and hoped she would have a good account of me, saying, that, when I returned, I should in all probability find my mamma there, meaning Gertrude Stormont; and finally, gave me a slight slap on my cheek to remember her by. I did not see any of my cousins.

I was dressed in a plain black gown, fitting closely to my figure, and Lady Alfred Ridlington was in a tailor-made costume, which did not in my opinion become her mignon style; though she could not be described as short, she was not tall, and the severity of the gown, amp;c, did not suit her voluptuous character.

Of course she drove herself. All the luggage had been sent on in a couple of carts. And about eleven, on a beautiful, bright, exhilarating morning, we started, Alice managing her prancing bays with great address, I seated beside her.

Ridlington Court was between sixteen and twenty miles distant. A groom had been sent for in the morning and the individual's presence at the back embarrassed me.

To Alice's surprise, my high spirits seemed to be blown away by the morning breeze. I confess that my remarks were monosyllabic, that I was awkward and preoccupied. I understood that I was to be in a sort of menial position as her maid, and already felt the bonds rivetted upon me.

I admit that I did not like the idea, but there were many counterpoising considerations. In what intimacy with this charming woman I should spend the time! Had she not declared it would be passed principally between her own legs? What, after all, did the rest matter?

And Ellen-I wondered what she would be like; whether she would be a termagant. Her husband's niece! How could a Duke's granddaughter be lady's maid to her uncle's wife? But then, I recollected, she might be the niece of a sister-in-law in uncertain circumstances.

Here, however, was Ridlington Court at last, a very substantial reality, and I was glad to sweep up its spacious avenue under the old elms, the sycamores, and limes, in the carriage of its mistress.

She was not sufficiently romantic to suit the scene, but possibly her very want of sentimentality and her breezy, matter-of-fact air, and the absence of womanliness she affected, formed an inspiriting contest.

The undulating glades of the park dotted with clumps of oak, and here and there with single great trees in the shade of which the fallow deer browsed and lay, presented a charming picture of rural peace and plenty.

At some distance I saw the sea spread out like a cool sheet of silver in the sunshine, its surface occasionally ruffled by the movement and scream of the water hens and other waterfowl.

The house itself was large, low, and appeared to cover an immense expanse of ground, but it had no architectural pretensions of any sort. It looked comfortable but ugly, in fact like a great overgrown farmhouse with too many windows. In the pleasure grounds some fountains and statues alone redeemed its character. I noticed with a qualm the presence of a few silver birches, peculiarly a lady's tree-but a rare one in these parts.

When we arrived we went straight up to Lady Alfred Ridlington's apartments and into her bedroom.

As she took off her things, I was introduced to Ellen.

The manservants in the hall, the silvery haired butler, the three or four stately footmen, and my Lord's man in plain clothes, who gave Alice a message from her husband as she passed up the stairs with me, gave me a totally different impression from that which I had received upon my entry to Downlands, where, in the house, there were no menservants at all.

The men looked at me and I felt uncomfortable, but soon found myself lifted out of the life of the house, and entirely confined to milady's portion of it. In fact, my very existence there might have been, and except for my passage through the hall probably was, unknown to everyone in the establishment except to its mistress and to Ellen.

Ellen was a gipsy like girl with very dark eyes and smooth blue-black hair, thin, and of dark complexion, observant but reticent, with hot temper and very little good humour. Her laugh was cold and not hearty, and I dreaded her.

She possessed an utterly unsympathetic nature, and while no one could be more punctilious or attentive in her duties, she remained always closely wrapt in herself. There was an inner Ellen, to which no one penetrated or seemed to care to penetrate. I concluded she had been crossed or disappointed in love. Her nature had evidently been originally a warm-hearted and affectionate one, which some hard black frost had congealed into thick-set ice that nothing could break up.

Now, although I wore a very plain black dress, my underclothing was of the richest descriptions.

When I had been introduced to Ellen, Alice made me lift up my skirts, to shew her my heavily laced drawers; there were triple rows of lace round the knees, and a long frill of it up the back of the legs.

Ellen had glanced at me in a very equivocal fashion when she first saw me. When I coyly displayed my garments to her, and attitudinised with first one shapely leg and then the other, her eyes became thoughtful and flashed.

"You must let me see better for myself," she said, leading me to a sofa upon which she threw me backwards. Her hand very soon set her doubts at rest. "So he is a boy," she exclaimed to Lady Alice who was nonchalantly arranging her hair at the glass.

The manner in which she had felt me was so cold and passionless that it had not aroused the least excitement.

"Yes," answered Alice, "he is a boy to be broken in to petticoats. He is to attend to me, to be my maid during his visit, and under you-under your orders."

"I understand," answered Ellen grimly, giving me a stern look which made me feel very uncomfortable.

Alice presently went down to lunch and left me with Ellen. I helped her to unpack Lady Alfred's things and she gave me various dresses to brush and boots and shoes to clean. She showed me our workroom, where, she told me, we should also have our meals-a very plainly furnished apartment, but with a pleasant view across the park.

Our bedroom was a good-sized one, with two small beds in it. She had, besides, a small sitting room of her own, in which were some books, and flowers, and canaries, who plainly, from the glance she gave them, were the pets that possessed all the softness which yet lingered about her.

I did not at all like being ordered about as I was, but very quickly discovered that Ellen would stand no nonsense.

The thought of the two beds in the same room also filled me with consternation.

"I cannot allow you to wear such drawers. Come with me into my bedroom. I shall take them off; they are a great deal too fine for a maid. In fact, at present, I shall not permit you to wear any drawers at all; and I do not approve of this dress, it makes you look too dignified and stately for your place. You must wear a frock, with a low neck and no sleeves; and I think, too, that as you appear anything but respectful and submissive, it will be just as well at once to correct and improve your disposition. My lady had not told you that I am Scots in great measure, and a firm believer, consequently, in corporal punishment. I can see plainly that severe chastisement periodically administered will greatly benefit you.".

"Oh, Ellen!" I exclaimed, turning all manner of colours.

She walked to her room bidding me follow her; and when I had entered, she shut the door behind me.

"Take off your drawers and hand them to me, if you please," she ordered, dryly and peremptorily.

I looked at her, I looked up, and I looked down, and she steadily looked at me, not repeating her command, but waiting for its execution and evidently wondering how long I was going to keep her waiting.

Some magnetic force impelled me. To my astonishment I found my arms under my skirts, loosening the bands of my beautiful baby drawers of which I was proud and very reluctant to part with.

"Bring them here," said Ellen.

And I obeyed.

"Thank you. Now take off your dress, your petticoat bodice, and your petticoats, and be quicker about it."

I again looked at her involuntarily; I suppose with the view of ascertaining what possibility there existed of successfully rebelling. Ellen very calmly and determinedly returned the gaze. Neither of us spoke.

I proceeded to divest myself of my dress, amp;c, as directed, and stood in my corset, chemise, and stockings before my mistress.

"You will not require those things again; fold them and put them away in this drawer." She went to a walnut chest of drawers and opening one, left it open, and said: "Put your clothes in there."

Under the power of her eye, I, with reluctance, in spite of myself, put my dress and petticoats in.

"Now shut the drawer."

I pushed it with my knees.

"Now you will inform me how you have been accustomed to be punished. Have you had a governess or a tutor?"

"A governess," I stammered out, hanging my head.

I am sure it was not my imagination that Ellen's form dilated at this reply. A keener light came into her eyes and a more set look into her countenance.

"I am glad to hear it. And pray, has she punished you?"

"Yes."

"Often?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"In various ways."

"Has she whipped your bottom?" asked Ellen, looking full at me.

"Yes, she has."

"With a birch, I suppose?"

"Yes."

"Across her knee?"

"No, on a bench, or across an ottoman."

"A fine thing for a big boy like you to be whipped by a girl," exclaimed Ellen scornfully, "and your bottom too!"

I blushed.

She walked to a drawer in an old-fashioned escritoire, opened it, and took out a black leather strap, four or five inches broad and about thirty inches long; its end was sliced into a number of thin strips about six inches long.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

"Yes, I have," I answered, very pale.

"What is it?"

"It is a tawse."

"Yes, it is, and there is nothing I enjoy so much as using it. Every morning and every evening as long as you are here, I shall beat you severely with this," she said resolutely.

"Oh, Ellen, not today!"

"Yes, we may as well begin directly-at once."

"You will not be severe-oh, please!"

"I shall beat you until I am absolutely satisfied, until you are reduced to the most abject, the most grovelling subjection, until you beg and implore, and pray for pardon."

Ellen then walked up to me. Why it was that I could not resist her, I do not know, but I could not. She put me face downwards on a low, broad ottoman, evidently the top of a box for dresses; lifting the skirt of her dress, she held my head between her thighs outside her petticoats, but under her gown, and fastened my hands behind me. Then she lifted my chemise as much as the corset permitted and I could feel her contemplating my legs. I was already sobbing; her grip was ruthless, escape from it was hopeless. She then lifted her arm, continued to lash my bottom and thighs with blows, and commenced to lash me with her heavy leather tawse.

The pain was frightful. I writhed and struggled. She let go my head, pushing me down with her blows well-delivered from the shoulder.

She appeared to be possessed by some demon, to be in a frenzy. Mute with agony I rolled on to the floor, where, spurning me with her pointed shoes, she continued to rain blows upon me.

At last I shrieked and prayed and begged for pardon and mercy, as if my very life depended on it. My supplications appeared to give her intense gratification.

"Will you acknowledge me as your mistress? Will you acknowledge that you are the absolute slave of the petticoat? Will you worship the ground on which I tread? Will you-will you-will you?" she demanded, in a fury.

"Yes, oh, yes! Oh, Ellen! I beg, I implore! Oh, oh, stop! Oh, I will! Oh, I acknowledge I am absolutely subdued, absolutely conquered, absolutely your slave!"

"Then kiss my feet; take off my shoes and kiss them."

I obeyed and she placed them roughly on my mouth as I lay on the floor beside myself with pain.

"You must come with me to my lady's boudoir now."

"Like this?" I exclaimed.

"Yes," she answered.

Lady Alfred was dozing in a light summer toilette over a novel. A short frock disclosed her pretty ankles in pink silk stockings, so short indeed, that I could see up to her knees.

She looked pleased and amused at my appearance.

"I have been obliged to deprive him of his dress, drawers, and petticoats already and have just beaten him, milady, soundly."

"Very good, Ellen, let me see. Lie across my lap, Sir. You can leave him with me till tea time."

"He has had no lunch."

"Then he can go without. Lie across my lap. Upon my word, she has beaten you! What a pretty bottom! How red, black, and blue! Is it very tender?" asked Lady Alfred touching it and exciting herself voluptuously. "Ah, here is something to tell me all about it!" she exclaimed, grasping me in front.

And then rising, she seated herself in a broad, low armchair, the back of which made a very obtuse angle with the seat.

"Lie between my legs. Put it in. Now, Julian, how do you like having your bottom flogged by a girl-by my maid?"

The suggested idea, the position, soon enabled me to express to Alice several times how I appreciated my bondage and its cruel discipline.

As she said, I was the greater part of the ten days between her legs. Naturally, I became tired, fatigued, perhaps I should say, exhausted; but upon those occasions Ellen was requisitioned to lash me with her tawse until I fully satisfied her mistress; and I had some periods of rest when her social duties took Lady Alfred away.

One evening she went to a ball, or, to speak more correctly, to a dinner party, a dance.

I had to sit up to undress her; and when she came in about two o'clock in the morning in all the pride and splendour of her beauty and dress, it appeared that nothing would satisfy her. The champagne at supper was the wrong brand; the chicken was overdone, the salad was not fresh, and whoever heard of a salad at two in the morning. She abused the butler who came up with the tray and the man who carried it; she berated Ellen and she smacked my face.

Ellen took things very quietly while Lady Alfred was fretting and fuming and not knowing what she wanted.

Ellen asked whether she should punish me as I had been very lazy and indolent all the evening.

"Certainly," cried Lady Alfred, "the very thing."

So Ellen took me across her lap.

Lady Alfred then discovered a remedy for her perturbation of feeling. The spanking was no good. She made Ellen go for a birch and stripped me naked and then flogged me mercilessly. It restored her to a good humour. When I was in ribbons held by Ellen, and Lady Alfred had gloated over me to her heart's content, she put me underneath her on the sofa.

I tickled her a few moments with my tongue, exciting her to the highest pitch.

In a transport she removed her leg from across me. "He must come to my bed; and Ellen, you must come too."

She took hold of me, not by the ear, but by my instrument, which she seized very tightly with her right hand, making me jump with the vigour of the grasp.

"Come with me!" she ordered. "Ellen, put out the lights and follow."

Absolutely naked, with a flat silver candlestick in her hand, she marched me off to her bedroom, in all the glory of her evening dress, her face flushed, her eyes wild, her hair loosened, and tugging every now and then like a Maenad at my testicles.

When we reached the bedroom Alice threw me on the bed and bade me wait. She tore off her clothes and flew to me.

Turning down the bedclothes she forced my head between her legs, and, putting my feet on the pillow, drew my virile organ to her mouth with her hands upon it. She bit and pulled it as though bent upon making a meal of it.

I returned the compliment, catching her own fury. It was soon as impossible for me to restrain myself as it was for her. I returned her what she gave me, but I was exhausted before she was.

She made Ellen get into the same bed. When she had satisfied herself somewhat, and in the full glare of the lights, she made Ellen have me, while she kept her own hand upon my engine, seeming to derive intense satisfaction from the emotions, the throbs, the convulsions, she occasioned and felt.

At last, exhausted and drowsy, she told Ellen to get out of bed and turn down the lamps and made me sleep between her and her maid.

It must have been nearly eleven when we awoke. I woke first, but, not daring to move, I could only contemplate my two fair tormentors, naked on each side of me, in all the abandon of slumber.

Then Ellen awoke, and pinched and pulled and slapped me. She got up, threw on a dressing gown, and left the room.

"Where is Ellen?" asked Alice, presently awaking, and fondling me.

"She got up about half an hour ago."

"Ring," said Alice; "or stay, Julian, just once before you ring," and she played with me, looked at me in the most ravishing manner, and asked: "Can you once, Julian, can you? You must put this fellow into me-into this wet, burning, insatiable flesh of mine. I must have your flesh."

I had been dosed with champagne the evening before and I was anxious to get up for a certain purpose.

As Alice clung to me I craved a moment's excuse.

"No, I shall not let you," she retorted with charming presumptuousness.

"You must put him in there, whatever happens, at once."

A few moments later there was a knock at the door and Ellen entered with the chocolate.

The windows were opened; we took loose garments and breakfasted.

Afterwards, Alice amused herself by making me try on all sorts of stockings and petticoats, drawers and chemises, and finally deciding on a bizarre, fantastic, but pre-eminently feminine costume, made me dress her as I wore it.

First, I had to bathe her, and then to rub her delicate flesh, as she lay on an eiderdown of crimson silk, all with my hands.

When Lady Alfred was dressed and had gone, the inexorable Ellen came to give me the matutinal beating which I bore as best I could. Afterwards, dressed in plain clothes and in coarser linen than I liked, there were Alice's shoes to clean, her dress to brush, her things to put away, and the thousand-and-one little duties of a maid to perform.

So the ten days passed. And she returned me to Downlands Hall considerably tamed and very much effeminatised.