The Carrot and the Stick (26 page)

‘Well...' Beth murmured.

‘You know it's true,' he said, as in the background the doorbell rang. ‘And I'm about to prove it to you. Helen, perhaps you would answer the door.'

The three girls and Richard remained silent, listening to muffled voices in the hall. Then the sitting room door swung open and Helen ushered in three men: T.J. Kearns, Chester Hampton, and Peregrine Merchant.

Beth felt her jaw drop and noticed that Celeste and Natasha had gone pale. Richard was an effusive host, seating the men and bidding Helen to make some tea. He thanked his guests for coming, saying that he was sure they would think it worthwhile, and asked them about their journey until Helen returned with a tray. Not once did the men acknowledge the girls and, Beth noticed, on the tea tray there were only five cups. There would be no tea for the girls.

When the pleasantries were over with, and everyone was settled, Richard addressed the newcomers. ‘I gather you gentlemen have grievances about the working practices of Cross, Carstairs and Denton, for which I am indirectly responsible. I take my responsibilities seriously; hence I have invited you here today to try to iron out the problems and to try and make amends. First I think we should hear the charges against the girls and then we should try to concur on the consequences. Is that agreeable?'

The men nodded and Richard invited T.J. Kearns to start.

T.J. stood up and approached Celeste, staring straight at her. ‘This girl was planted in my company as an agent of one of your staff,' he started. ‘She took indelicate photographs at a sensitive moment and she has tried to blackmail me with them.'

Celeste was shocked. ‘It was nothing like...!'

‘Is it true - yes or no?' Richard demanded.

‘Well, yes, but...'

‘Yes,' said Richard, cutting her off and nodding to Peregrine Merchant.

Merchant remained seated but looked fixedly at Natasha. ‘That girl may have an innocent look, but while working with a member of your staff she rifled my briefcase intending to steal private papers.'

Natasha hung her head and mumbled, ‘It's true, but I have already paid...'

Again Richard cut in and indicated that Chester Hampton should speak. He got up from his chair and crossed the room to Beth. Placing his hand on her shoulder, he said, ‘I accuse Beth Forrester of deception. She arranged a very private affair for me with a third party and then pretended to be someone she was not in an attempt to inveigle me into signing a contract with your company.'

Beth dropped her eyes, but said nothing.

Richard held the floor again. ‘The case is proven, I think. Guilty, all three of them. Now we must consider the question of penalties.

‘To win your trust, and perhaps your business,' he added with a slight smile, ‘I suggest they should be severe. I am sure, gentlemen, that you have ideas of your own and perhaps you would like to consider them in the next hour or so.'

‘But, don't we get a say in any of this?' Beth piped up.

‘No,' Richard said shortly, ‘unless of course you want to leave, but leave now and you'll be leaving my employment. Your careers, or your putative careers, in advertising will end instantly.'

He turned away as if sure of their answer and continued talking to the other men. ‘While you are thinking, Helen has an idea to get the ball rolling. I don't suppose the girls will like it but they are hardly in a position to object. The offences for which they have been found guilty, and which they have not denied, are grounds for dismissal at the very least, and possibly for prosecution. If they are wise they will go with Helen now and do as they are told...'

The girls filed out silently behind Richard's wife. ‘You may not realise it, but the central part of this house was once a convent,' Beth heard him telling the men. ‘In the seventeenth century, the nuns were subjected to severe discipline...'

 

On a cue from Helen, Richard led the men into the library, directed them to armchairs and poured for them early evening aperitifs. The far end of the room was curtained off and from behind the curtains came the soft but distinctive sound of plainchant.

When the men were comfortable and each had a drink, the curtains drew back, pulled by an unseen hand and revealing what looked like a simple chapel, a wooden altar rail with a screen behind it. Kneeling in front of the rail with her back to the room was Helen Cross, wearing a black nun's habit. When she stood up her face was obscured by a white wimple. Three nuns, wearing grey habits and also wimples, filed in.

The first girl knelt down in front of the taller woman and kissed her hand. ‘Bless me, for I have sinned,' she said in a clear voice. ‘I have had carnal thoughts and I have practiced deception. I need to be scourged.'

‘Genuflect,' said the ‘mother superior', indicating the altar rail. The girl walked to it and knelt, with her back to those watching.

The second girl went through the same process of kissing hands. ‘Bless me, for I have sinned. I have touched myself in an unseemly way and have practiced extortion. My flesh should be made to pay for my sins.' She took her place at the rail alongside the first girl.

Then it was the third girl's turn. ‘Bless me, for I have sinned,' she murmured. ‘I have lusted after your body and I have contemplated theft. The lash will purify my soul.'

‘Fetch the scourges and take your place at the rail,' the mother superior said to her. The girl disappeared momentarily and reappeared carrying a cane, a riding crop and a birch, before kneeling alongside the other two.

The mother superior approached the first girl and turned up her robes, revealing that she was naked underneath. ‘Choose your instrument of purification and who should administer it,' she said.

‘The cane please, administered by one of the guests.'

She turned up the second girl's robe, revealing another pink bottom. ‘The riding whip please, from one of the guests,' the girl said.

The third girl was visibly shaking as her robe was turned up as well. ‘The birch please, administered by a guest and by you,' she said quietly.

Helen Cross then picked up the cane and handed it to Chester Hampton. ‘Scourge the flesh of my first novitiate so that her soul remains pure,' she directed.

Hampton took his place alongside Beth, as it was she who was the first of the novitiates, and swung the cane in the air as if trying to find a rhythm. Without a word, he started to cane the girl with hard, measured strokes. After five she cried out and slumped back on her heels, so Helen Cross stepped forward and helped her back into position with her hips supported by the altar rail, and the caning resumed. Twelve times he slashed the unprotected bottom, and each crack of impact was followed by a despairing wail and the sound of sobbing. Eventually Hampton dropped the cane on the floor and resumed his seat, panting slightly.

Helen Cross, the ‘mother superior', handed the riding crop to T.J. Kearns. ‘Perhaps you would deal with the flesh and the soul of my second wayward girl,' she offered.

Kearns took his place alongside Celeste with a grim, determined look on his face. ‘Strip,' he demanded. The girl stood up, removed her wimple and pulled the robe over her head. Naked, she knelt down again, supporting her body on the rail. Without further ado, Kearns started to whip her mercilessly on her bottom and upper thighs. The beating lasted so long that Celeste, who had vowed to herself to remain silent at all costs, cried out for mercy. After five more strokes he was gasping for breath, and he too dropped the whip and returned to his seat.

The mother superior handed the birch to Peregrine Merchant. ‘Punish the flesh of my third nun and drive out her sins.'

Eagerly, Merchant grasped the birch and strode quickly across the room to his quivering victim. He arranged her over the rail with her legs slightly open, and began to birch her bottom, making sure that the extremities of the birch twigs reached around buttock and thigh to the most intimate regions. Natasha yelped but made no attempt to move, so he continued until the floor around her was strewn with the brittle ends of birch broken by the force of his blows, and then handed it back to Helen Cross.

She threw off her wimple and robe, and the watching men caught their collective breath, for she was a magnificent sight, naked apart from a white satin corset, skimpy satin knickers, stockings, and high heels. Her eyes blazed like an Amazon contemplating war. She grasped the birch, still warm from Merchant's grip, and slashed two quick strokes across Natasha's already ridged and discoloured buttocks. ‘You'll get no mercy from me, my child, despite what you may have thought,' she vowed, birching the girl for a third and fourth time. Natasha yelled again, but four more strokes fell before Helen was satisfied.

Then she ordered Beth and Natasha to disrobe like Celeste, and made all three girls remain as they were, naked and kneeling with their punished bottoms on full display for the delectation of the very appreciative guests.

 

 

 

A week after the meeting in the country house, Cross, Carstairs and Denton issued a press release. It said that following the acquisition of the Rybix contract, the company was pleased to announce it had signed long-term advertising deals with two giant corporations, Internat and Eastern Light. At the foot of the press release, there was another announcement that received little attention at the time. It was to the effect that Cross, Carstairs and Denton were creating a subsidiary company to be known as C.N.B. Holdings Ltd to handle the new contracts and to seek new clients for the parent organisation.

A year on, and the new company is doing well, so well that it may soon be floated on the stock exchange. There is no shortage of potential new clients; senior businessmen seem to enjoy going personally to the offices of C.N.B. Holdings Ltd. There is no shortage either of potential staff, even though they are all females aged between eighteen and thirty. The working hours are long and irregular and the duties are punishing, but the opportunities are limitless.

Helen Cross is the chairperson of C.N.B. Holdings, and Beth Forrester the managing director. Natasha Perry is the director of human resources, and as such she reports directly, and very frequently, to Helen Cross alone. Celeste Hampton, the wife of the reclusive Internat billionaire, is an executive director and enjoys attending all board meetings and personally interviewing all new members of staff.

C.N.B. Holdings was named after Celeste, Natasha and Beth, but the girls know a secret, a secret shared with an ever-expanding group of very select and intimate friends. It really stands for: Cane Naughty Bottoms. Look out for it in the city; it's there.

 

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