Maude Cameron And Her Guardian

Chapter Three

Charles Cameron felt the blood pounding in his veins and that exquisitely indescribable feeling which always is the prelude to carnal adventure as he tiptoed down the hall to Maude’ s bedroom. In preparation for what he fully anticipated would be required- which is to say, the very first chastisement of his beautiful young ward at his hands under his own roof- he had pot into the pocket of his dressing gown a flexible, stingy metal leafcutter which had hitherto been used to cut the pages of newly issued French novels which his London book agent frequently purchased for him, since Charles Cameron read French as fluently as he did his native tongue. He stood before Maude’ s door, made certain that his gown was belted and that he observed- at least at the outset- the strictest propriety of demeanor. Suitably, he adopted a stern expression on his handsome face and then knocked at the door.

Listening intently, he could at once detect that Maude was flustered by his unexpected visit, for he heard movements, a little gasp, and then after a few moments a quavering gasp, “ Who is it?”

The sly little minx, he told himself with a grin. She intends to play Miss Innocent to the very hilt. So much the better! “ It is I, Charles Cameron,” he called sternly. “ Open the door at once.”

“ Yes, Mr. Cameron. I- I was just going to bed.” He heard the stammered and obviously frightened reply, closer to the door this time. He waited, standing patiently and erect as befitted a mature guardian of so tender a ward, until at last he heard the bolt slip back and the door opened.

Maude was absolutely breathtaking, as she stood there blushingly, her eyes big and round as saucers. Over her nightgown she had hurriedly drawn a robe of rather dull grey cotton twill and had belted it circumspectly. Her golden hair was tousled, indicating that she had gotten out of bed in a hurry.

“ Whatever is it, Mr. Cameron?” she ingenuously demanded.

“ I am sorry to see that on your very first day in my house, my dear, you have seen fit to disobey me,” was the stern rejoinder.

“ But I don’ t understand what you’ re saying, Mr. Cameron!” the lovely blue- eyed face expressed wonder and not a little apprehension. “ I read a little bit, and I was just now going to bed when you knocked.”

“ I am quite certain that is true, my dear, but you remember that I expressly forbade you the use of books which are far beyond your years and which are kept under lock and key in a particular space in my library.”

“ Oh, I remember that you said that, Mr. Cameron, and I took pains not to disobey you, truly I did,” she hastened to explain. “ I was reading a novel by Bertha Southworth. I brought it off to bed with me- perhaps I shouldn’ t have and I’ m sorry.”

“ It is not with that book I am concerned, Maude. Let me see for myself.” With this lie walked toward the bed, and Maude hastened after him, wringing her soft little hands, her brows arched and her rosy mouth a delicious circle of adolescent apprehension.

“ But I am telling you the truth, Mr. Cameron,” her voice nervously persisted. “ I- I put the book under my pillow, you see.”

“ I told you that I am not concerned with that innocuous piece of trash. But one of my other books is missing, and I have reason to suspect it may be concealed somewhere in this room,” and with this he reached under the two fluffed- up pillows and drew out the book to which his ward had referred.

“ There! You see?” she triumphantly exclaimed.

“ Yes, I see the one but not the other. Let us have a more extensive look, if you don’ t object, Maude,” he retorted, and he began to thrust his hands down beneath the covers which she had drawn up almost to the pillows. Maude bit her lip and stared at him with growing alarm. He felt a bulge over to the side of the bed, and his fingers at last encountered the volume and drew it forth.

“ And what do you say to this, pray?” he confronted her, holding up the telltale book in his right hand.

Maude was speechless in her fright at having been found out both in deception and a lie. “ My gracious,” she tried her best to recover her aplomb. “ I must have brought that along and never noticed. Truly, that’ s how it happened.”

“ I should be inclined to believe that, Maude, if it had not been necessary for you to obtain that book by taking down the key, opened the bookcase, and selected it from among the various shelves and their contents,” he said deliberately. “ And I daresay that you took pains to glance through the other books, all of which were forbidden to you. This is a fine way to repay my kindness in taking you in as my ward, you know.”

The lovely blonde was very nearly in tears, and with clasped hands before her, her lips trembling, she stammered an almost inarticulate explanation which he impatiently silenced with a wave of his hand: “ Do not try to add to the seriousness of your offense by inventing implausible explanations, my dear. I can see exactly what you have done, against my express request. I am afraid I shall have to punish you, Maude. If I am to be your guardian and have every authority over you, you must allow me to regulate your conduct as I see fit, being many years your elder. Now, to temper the enormity of your fault with your confession, which might lead me to leniency with you, I will ask you if it is not true that you took my remark about the forbidden case as a kind of challenge and decided you would see if you could get away with it. Isn’ t that so?”

He stared at her levelly, until her blushes spread down to her lovely rounded throat, and he watched her nod silently. By that nod, of course, she was delivering herself up to his tender mercies, and nothing could have suited him more at this moment. The robe did not quite conceal the provocative dishabille of her thin, clinging, lawn nightgown. It seemed to him that her bosom almost boldly thrust out into the nightgown, making her beauty even more tempting than if she had been naked. As a voluptuary, he savored both her scanty attire and her mounting distress at the thought of being punished, particularly the uncertainty of what form that punishment was going to take. And a moment late she confirmed his suspicion in this regard by stammering, “ Oh, truly I did not intend to disobey you, Mr. Cameron. Won’ t you please say you forgive me if I promise very sincerely never to do it again? Oh- oh- how are you going to punish me? When you look at me that way, I am so afraid, Mr. Cameron.” He did not answer her question directly, but countered with a question in turn: “ Do you agree that you deserve chastisement for disobeying me, your guardian?” The enchanting young blonde bit her lips nervously, then ruefully nodded.

“ Very well, then, Maude, you must be aware that you have committed several very naughty acts, the very first of which was going against my wishes and opening the forbidden bookcase. Then you had the temerity to lie to me by letting me believe that you were reading a novel by Bertha Southworth. And finally, although you have not yet admitted it, you decided that you would test my good nature by promptly doing what I had expressly forbidden you to do- three quite serious faults. The question remains, therefore, only to settle your punishment. And I think, since this is your first occasion to test my authority, that I shall be lenient.”

“ Oh, thank you, Mr. Cameron,” the golden- haired girl gasped with relief.

“ I think, Maude,” he resumed, deliberately choosing his words and maintaining constantly his stem demeanor for the purpose of dominating this lovely prize, “ I shall punish you for pilfering, and since those soft little hands of yours were the guilty offenders, opening the forbidden bookcase and taking out one of the books you were not meant to read, I shall direct that chastisement to them. Come stand in the center of the room and hold out your left hand.”

With this he moved away and waited for her to approach. His eyes devoured her delicious shrinking figure as she slowly moved towards him, discerning the mouthwatering curves of her bosom and hips through the robe and the nightgown beneath. Her pretty little feet were bare, and he did not overlook their chiseled loveliness and perfection of form, with dainty, straight little toes and elegant and patrician arch and gently rounded heel.

“ Now, then, Maude,” he decreed, “ hold out your left hand with the palm out toward me and put your other hand behind your back and do not dare to take your other hand away until I say you may.” With this, he drew from the pocket of his dressing gown the flexible leafcutter and grasped it by the point. Maude’ s large blue eyes widened with alarm at the sight of this wicked little implement and she uttered a stifled little gasp.

“ Oh, what- what are you going to do, Mr. Cameron?”

“ I shall give each of your hands a good dozen smacks with this leafcutter, Maude,” he informed her. “ You are not to flinch or move your hand away until the punishment is over, under penalty of a much more serious chastisement. Now, are you ready?”

The young girl’ s cheeks were flaming with virginal blushes, and Charles Cameron felt the fires of desire beginning to ignite within his loins. Her utter femininity in this dishabille and her tremulous voice and plaintive, almost tearful look thoroughly inflamed his virile nature. But he knew precisely how to play the role of authoritative disciplinarian so as to lead this toothsome morsel ultimately to his bed.

Slowly lifting up the leafcutter, he delivered the first smack directly against the soft little palm. Maude uttered a little cry and promptly drew back her hand. “ Put it back at once,” he sternly rebuked her. “ Just for that, the first smack will not count at all, and you still have your dozen to endure. That’ s it- spread the fingers widely now. If it hurts, Maude, you have only to remind yourself that you should have known better than to flout the one rule which I set forth upon your entering my household. Now then, are you ready?”

His golden- haired ward nodded, her dilated eyes humid with unshed tears, and he observed how her little hand trembled when she held it out to him, palm upward. The first stroke of the metal leafcutter had left a bright outline of its stingy kiss on that tender, soft flesh. His face impassive, he raised the implement again then delivered a crisp smack. Maude’ s rosy lips formed a delicious O of pain, and she grimaced and flexed her fingers, but this time she did not dare to take the offending hand away.

“ That is one. And now you have eleven left.”

“ It stings so, Mr. Cameron. I really can’ t bear very much pain. And I am truly sorry I was so naughty. Won’ t you forgive me?” she archly inquired, stealing up a look at him from under those long, thick lashes in the most beguiling way.

“ You shall not be forgiven until you have had the punishment I have set for your naughtiness, my girl,” was his inflexible reply as he brought the leafcutter down even harder this time. A plaintive little squeal announced the stinging impact of the metal instrument on the tender young flesh, and this time Maude partly drew her hand back.

“ That is two! Remember, if you draw your hand away, the stroke will not count. So if you wish to terminate your punishment quickly, you had best make up your mind to be brave and endure it,” he warned her.

Typically, Charles Cameron prolonged the intervals between the stinging smacks of the metal leafcutter so as to enervate the lovely golden haired victim. By the tenth, Maude snatched away her left hand and burst into tears, imploring him to spare her any more. “ You shall have your just due, Maude,” he chided her, “ and since you drew your hand away, the count is only nine, with three left for that naughty little hand. Put it right back out again, if you please!” She gave him an imploring look from under those beguiling lashes, which he noted glinted with pearly tears, and the quickened rise and fall of he magnificent young bosom added to his mounting excitement in believing himself to be in full possession of this mouthwateringly enticing young creature.

Reluctantly, Maude put out her left hand and with fingers trembling and piteously trying to dose, but he took hold of her wrist with his own left hand and ordered her to stretch out her fingers and spread them as before, while he resumed the inexorable, slowly spaced, stinging cuts of the implement until the full dozen was meted out.

“ Now you may have a respite for a moment, my dear, and then it will be the turn of your other hand.”

Maude hastily drew her reddened, smarting hand behind her back and surreptitiously rubbed it against her rounded hip in an effort to allay the exacerbating throbbing heat which the smacking had engendered. He took full advantage of this pause to appraise her tearful and yet totally submissive attitude, which embellished her tempting loveliness to an almost intolerable quality as regards his own eager wish to savor the pleasure of having a young defenseless girl at his mercy alone in this rustic setting. Presently he sternly ordered her to put out her right hand, and when the young girl stammered a plea for mercy, he moved beside her, quickly loosened her robe, and compelled her to draw her right arm out of it, thus exposing her in her thin lawn nightgown. His eyes blazed with ill- concealed joy at the delineation of her plentifully endowed forms, and the rondure of her firm young breasts excited him enormously. Maude uttered a startled gasp, her cheeks burning with maidenly modesty at this partial disrobing.

“ Oh! I am- I am so ashamed, Mr. C- Cameron,” she quavered, rolling her eyes and quivering with enervation.

“ Then you would have done well to have reflected on your naughtiness before committing it, my girl,” was his straightforward retort. “ Now put out your right palm in the same way for the dozen which will be meted out to the offender!”

So saying, he took hold of her right elbow with his left hand, so that they were standing close together, and obliged her to extend her hand in the air with the fingers spread and straight. Then slowly he lifted up the leafcutter and applied a wicked cut. Maude squealed with pain and tried to snatch her hand away, her bosom heaving violently. “ That hurts so!”

“ The leafcutter does make a noisy sound, doesn’ t it?” he capriciously enquired.

“ Oh dear,” Maude complained. “ It isn’ t the sound- it’ s the feel of it that’ s so awful. Please won’ t you forgive me now and let me off any more.”

The smell of her hair and of her young virginal flesh augmented Charles Cameron’ s ardor. “ I shall not let you off for your naughtiness,” he replied, “ because that would be to condone it and to encourage you further in your rebelliousness against my role as your guardian. No, you must learn from the very start, Maude, that I mean to be obeyed in everything.”

He gave her a significant look and the golden haired young girl again lowered her eyes, the blushes flooding from her cheeks down to her throat and forehead. He was certain that despite her youth, his young ward was far from being so innocent as she pretended, and the evidence of her choice of literature for nocturnal and clandestine reading seemed to confirm this.

His fingers glided along from her elbow to her wrist until he had firm hold of that slender and gracefully molded limb, and his eyes fixed on the agitated upheaval of her round young breasts through the thin stuff of her nightgown as he slowly raised the leafcutter and delivered another smack. Maude squirmed against him, and the contact of their bodies added fuel to the fire. But as a connoisseur and a voluptuary, Charles Cameron was a master of self- control and knew precisely the route along which he intended to lead this charming captive until she would at last succumb to his carnal urges.

“ Keep your hand well out,” he coldly declared as he applied still another smack. A piteous little cry announced the smarting sting of that noisy impact of metal against tender girl- flesh, and Maude clenched her hand and looked imploringly at him as she sobbed, “ I will be very good and promise never to disobey you again if you will only stop. My hand is so sore already, and I don’ t think I can bear the full dozen.”

“ But you must. Now open your hand at once or I shall double the count. Or perhaps you would prefer a good smack somewhere else, such as here?” he rejoined, and to her consternation, turning slightly towards her, applied the springy surface of the leafcutter just over the top of her beautifully rounded left breast. Maude uttered a shrill squeal of pain and grabbed for the wounded place with her swollen left hand, staring at him incredulously as if she could not believe the evidence of her senses in his audacity in inflicting pain in so intimate a region of her person. “ Oh, not there, for Heaven’ s sake, Mr. Cameron. It is awful there!”

“ In that case, open your hand and take the rest of what is due you, my girl,” he commanded.

Once again, grasping her right wrist firmly with his left hand and standing very dose to the girl, Charles Cameron inflicted the remainder of the punishment. When the last of the dozen was counted out, Maude was in tears and he himself was wildly roused by the sight of her tearstained, contorted face and the erotic rise and fall of her beautifully rounded bosom. Also, in her agitation she squirmed and swayed against him, and this further added a kind of aphrodisiacal stimulus to his inflamed lust for his beautiful young ward.

“ There, now. It is all over,” he soothed, as he put the leafcutter back in the pocket of his robe. “ I did not mean to be so harsh with you, but you deserved it, you know. Come and sit on my lap and I will try to console you and we shall be friends again.”

With an arm about her waist, he led the sniffling golden haired beauty to a deep armchair in which he first seated himself and then gently drew her down upon his lap. Maude kept flexing her fingers and blowing on her reddened palms, while the tears ran unchecked down her flushed cheeks as she bowed her head before him. The pressure of her round, firm bottom on his lap was still another torment and exacerbation for the hero bachelor, and the sensations of feeling himself in full mastery over this ravishing young creature, the youngest female for whom he had to this moment felt carnal desire, was like drinking a heady wine.

Slyly he encircled her supple waist with his left arm and then, turning up her chin, murmured, “ Now that it is over, will you give me the kiss of peace?”

“ You- you will forgive me, then, and not punish me any more like that, Mr. Cameron?”

“ I will always punish naughtiness in a girl, my dear, and you had best get used to that. But if you mind my orders and do as I wish, it is quite likely I will not have to make you weep any more as now. Kiss me, then, and say you forgive me, and I in turn will forgive you,” he said somewhat hoarsely in view of his understandable emotions.

With a sobbing little sigh, lovely young Maude flung her arms about his neck and put her rosy young mouth to his. She gave him a quick kiss, and his left arm tightened around her waist to hold her pinioned to him in that delicious embrace, which he prolonged by caressing her softly rounded neck with his right hand and slightly parting his lips, he intimated to her that he did not wish to terminate the kiss quite so quickly.

By now, he had managed to slip down her robe to her waist, leaving her clad only in the thin nightgown, and Maude became aware of her immodest revelation before a man, even though he was her guardian. With a gasp, she tried to put her arms back into the robe, but he restrained her.

“ Do you promise to be very good henceforth and obey me in everything, Maude dear?”

“ Oh yes, Mr. Cameron, I do promise.”

“ Then kiss me again, more slowly and sweetly this time, my dear little girl,” he murmured.

Maude smiled wistfully through her tears and promptly obeyed. In trying to put back on her robe, she had squirmed about so that her voluptuous bottom had rubbed back and forth over his lap, rousing him to an intolerable state of agitation. And though the punishment had been innocuous, he had derived sufficient excitement from its application so that he took advantage of her docility and apparent submissiveness rather more quickly than he had originally intended. Once more his hand caressed the back of her neck and prolonged the kiss by parting his lips so that he could taste the moist, palpitating rosebud petals of her virginal mouth, and he at last ended the kiss and stared at her compellingly.

“ Now we are friends again, aren’ t we, my dear?”

Maude dutifully nodded, and her tremulous little smile was once again exhibited, together with deepening blushes as she once more strove to thrust her arms into the sleeves of her robe and thus conceal her scantily clad self from his eager eyes.

“ And you have promised to obey me faithfully,” he pursued.

“ Oh, yes, and I will, Mr. Cameron.”

“ Very well.” His left arm tightened its hold on her supple waist. “ Then I want you to invite me to bed with you, Maude dear.”

She started convulsively, stared up at him, her eyes dilating enormously. Then with an indignant gasp and with cheeks aflame, she sprang from his lap, shook her lovely head until her golden cascade danced in the air, and indignantly exclaimed, “ Oh no. That I shan’ t do! You have no right to ask me such a dreadful thing!”

He rose from the chair and walked to the door, while she hastily drew back on the robe and scrambled quickly into bed, drawing the covers over her.

“ Very well,” he said quietly. “ I shall not force myself upon you. But I promise you that you will regret your rude and hasty answer. The next time I have occasion to punish you, my girl, it will be on a far more tender and private part of your charming person, and with something a good deal more severe than a leafcutter. And now goodnight, and I trust you will think over your sauciness and impertinence in so replying to me.”

Having taken the forbidden book in his hands, he gave her a last stem look and left the room, closing the door behind him. Maude Rivers stared after him, her face scarlet with embarrassment, but in her blue eyes was a look of apprehension, caused by the dire prediction of his words.