Katherine knew that her status had changed. Long before Daddy had become infirmed, he had to go to the county courthouse to register as her nearest and oldest male relative. He paid a tidy sum to do so, in an effort to keep her as safe as possible, even signing the document that changed her name from his mother's name, Katherine Marie, to Prima, the preferred name for a first or only daughter. She had been sent to re-education classes daily for three months afterwards, to which Daddy had to drive her so that she could be certified as 're-educated.' She had argued with him every night about it, even to the point of earning herself a couple of hard strappings, but Mr. Cassidy had been firm. He was looking towards what there was of her future, and he didn't like what he saw at all.
Dean Cassidy would do everything he could to help his daughter survive – if not survive well – after he was gone. And he had a dreadful feeling, considering the pains in his gut that kept him awake all night with their severity, that it might not be too long before that came to pass. He'd even made her go through the humiliation of being certified by the State as a virgin.
But Katherine had never been exposed to what she saw in McDonough's store that day: well dressed, well-to-do men smoking cigars, carrying gold watches and wearing thick leather belts from which a 'walkabout' small wooden or leather paddle would hang. A woman on whom that no-nonsense paddle was used frequently and as casually as one would bat a fly more often than not, followed around each man meekly. She wore a bedraggled dress that either made a horrendous display of whatever charms she possessed – blatantly advertising her availability for the right price – or one with holes that was much too lightweight for the temperature, and either no shoes or holey shoes that were held onto the woman's foot with rubber bands or laces. Most of the women looked dirty, and a large percentage of them sported bruises of some sort, maybe on their face, or arm. One poor lady had noticeable fresh stripes from a switch on the backs of her calves.
Only one or two of them had babies or children, which the men were only too happy to show off, with exclamations if the child was a boy and explanations if it happened to be a girl child, and thus less desirable.
Only the boys and men looked well taken care of. Little boys got everything, and were taught from their first breath that they had dominion over any woman, including their mothers and sisters. A mother could not discipline her own son. Indeed, it was much more likely to be the other way around.
When Joseph left, Prima followed mindlessly, her brain trying to wrap itself around what she'd seen and fit it into her view of the world. Their next stop was what passed for a bank in the area, then they went to the general store, which had replaced those huge gourmet supermarkets that had grown up around the Yuppie culture like weeds. She only half-heartedly watched what Joseph bought, knowing he was using her painstakingly made list of cooking necessities to gather the groceries she would need to make his meals for the next month.
Then he drifted over to the gardening aisle, such as it was, and loaded up on gardening utensils, seeds, fertilizers, etc. Joseph looked at her thoughtfully and asked, "Is there anything I've missed for you to put in a vegetable garden next spring?"
Katherine was floored and completely delighted. She adored gardening and had a prodigious green thumb. After making a cursory inspection of the supplies he'd piled into the cart, she answered, "No, I think that's everything." Prima took a step closer to him tentatively. "Thank you, Sir."
Joseph smiled down on her. "You're welcome. I expect to taste some of these veggies in your cooking next summer."
Her smile was blinding. "Oh, you will, Sir! You will!"
They stood at the counter, and Joseph paid for his purchases as Katherine became distracted by the sounds of a woman being punished several aisles over. Apparently, her owner had decided to get a new implement for the correction of his woman, and he was trying several of them out on her bare bottom before he decided which one to buy. Joseph, Katherine thanked God, had bypassed that aisle entirely.
Finally, everyone in the store heard a tremendous smack of leather on flesh, and a horridly loud, distressed shriek. And then, the appearance, seconds later, of a nattily dressed man holding a wicked looking leather strap in his hand as the poor, chastised woman had no recourse but to follow after him, sobbing just from the small amount she'd been given. Everyone in the store knew what she was going to be getting a much bigger dose of when she got home.
Joseph didn't pay any attention at all to the plight of the poor wench, as if he hadn't heard a thing, even though there was no missing the plaintive cries of distress. Prima, on the other hand, was beginning to realize from the events of the day just how much she had to be grateful for.
Their last stop was her greatest fear. It was an implements store, Wench World, and Prima's legs shook as she walked in. In the huge room that was the size of a small banquet facility, there already were several women getting their bottoms warmed in plain sight as their owners 'test drove' tools that might take up residence in the arsenal that kept their women in line. If a man didn't have his woman with him – which was rare, but it happened – the owner of the store would gladly call his own wench to bend over for however long was necessary to convince the prospective customer that whatever implement he'd selected was sure to work wonders on his wayward girl.
There was an aisle dedicated just to wood, paddles and hairbrushes and bath brushes of every size and shape. Joseph didn't need any of those things, he could produce whatever he needed in his own workshop at home. Another aisle existed for canes and two full aisles for leather. Furniture took up the back wall. There was even a section where one could buy horrible shapeless cheap cotton shifts, one size fits all, in relentlessly depressing, dull shades of blue and brown. Joseph looked over everything, but nothing apparently caught his eye until he stopped in front of a section labeled, horrifically enough, Enema Equipment.
Prima wanted to look anywhere but there, but then she also didn't want to look at the other women who were being bent over their owner's knees getting a hard licking in public in broad daylight, either, so she ended up staring at the floor. She couldn't get away from the sounds of the other women's distress, and indeed, got so caught up in it that she began to flinch whenever the crack of implement against flesh was heard through the store.
Katherine was so engrossed in her empathetic feelings for the poor women being punished that Joseph had already gotten what he wanted and moved up the aisle, turning to say sharply, "Prima!"
Mortified at having made him need to correct her – even just verbally – in public, she scurried to catch up to him, apologizing softly when she was close enough, "I'm sorry, Sir."
He did not acknowledge her at all, simply paid for whatever it was he wanted and left, leading them past the unhappy tableaus of several sobbing, welted bottoms. When they were back in the truck, Prima latched her safety belt and said again, quietly, "I am sorry, Sir. I should have been paying more attention to you. I…"
Putting the truck in gear, Joseph interrupted her with, "You've never been in a place like that before, have you, girl?"
Katherine stared at the hands in her lap. "No, Sir."
"Well, you'll get used to it. It seems you're doin' a lot of firsts with me." To her immense relief, he did not seem to be angry at her breach of protocol. They drove through the center of town, past the Shrill Stocks in the Square. Any man who decided that his woman needed a lesson, or that her attitude was not befitting a woman in the new society, could take her to the Square and lock her into the public stocks for as long as a week. Of course, he was responsible for her feeding and watering, as always. None of the unfortunate females wore any clothing, and in the center of the circle that the seven stocks created was a container of implements that any man or boy could use at any time on any woman. Not to mention the fact that the Square was full of big hickory trees that provided an abundance of switches to anyone who might bother to cut one.
Four 'older' women – probably around Prima's age or a little
older – suffered there now, each of them getting a thrashing by a different man with a different implement on what looked like already well tended to flesh. Prima squirmed in sympathy. The stocks went around the woman's neck and wrists at once, then a set also captured her ankles, and there was one at her waist, rendering her bent and immobile, but plenty vulnerable.
"You don't like seeing them like that, do you, Prima?" Joseph asked as he drove out of town.
She shuddered, but delayed her response, trying to decide what he might want to hear.
As if he'd read her mind, Joseph warned in a deep, throaty tone, "Tell me the truth."
"No, Sir, I don't."
"Frankly, I don't much, either." His confession surprised her, but then he seemed to delight in saying things that would shock her. "To me, discipline is private, almost always."
"Yes, Sir." The vehemence of her answer let him know that she was in complete agreement.
"Now, take this morning when you failed in your duty to remain five paces behind me. When we're out and about, that shows respect for your leader, for your owner, not crowding him with your presence but keeping yourself available to him." He sounded very much like the man who had taught her re-education classes. "But getting too far behind not only leaves your owner in a lurch if he needs you, but it puts you at risk of being snatched out from under him by someone whose eye you catch who might not have a woman of his own."
She hadn't thought of that, and no Cultural Revolution class was going to mention anything to a woman about her having any sort of worth at all, beyond that of a baby factory.
He continued, "I could have put you in the stocks for a while this afternoon to teach you a lesson, but what lesson would you really be learning? To fear other men wielding painful corporal punishment instruments? To say nothing of the fact that I would never want my property on public display like that, anyway." Joseph saw her shiver and turned up the heat in the cab. "I wouldn't put you in the stocks, but I might have dealt with it in the store, as discreetly as possible, and roasted your bottom for you with whatever implement was handy at the time."
Prima opened her mouth to thank him for not doing that, but he silenced her with a look.
"I don't wear a walkabout like most men do, Prima, because I never expect you to misbehave in public. If you should again, you will not only get a very sound punishment wherever we may happen to be, but you will also get another, longer and harder one when we get home." Joseph caught her eye. "Don't make me regret not wearing a reminder to you on my belt. I will if I have to. You should know better than to misbehave in public. If you do, it's as much my failure in training you as it is yours in the act itself. Are we quite clear on the subject?"
She swallowed hard, tears filling her eyes unbidden. "Y-Yes, Sir, I'm sorry, Sir. It won't happen again."
"I know it won't, Katherine. It was the newness of the situation and the distracting sounds of others getting their due as their owners judged necessary. Just remember that you must always look to me to lead you and guide you; you must always concentrate on me, and try to anticipate, as much as possible, my needs." Joseph was thinking to himself that, in private, she already did that very well. His coffee cup was rarely even half-empty, she baked and cooked only to please him. She was careful to ask his permission for almost everything, and she obeyed him and adhered to his rules very well, especially when one took into consideration how freely she had lived, even since the Cultural Revolution. Prima had not been at all used to being as controlled as she was as his woman, but she seemed to take to it rather well.
All in all, he was extremely satisfied with his purchase. Her error today was understandable, and he was willing to be generous and forgiving about it, especially in lieu of how hard she had been trying the past few weeks and how happy he was with her overall.
When they arrived home, she helped him unload the truck, although he did not allow her to carry anything heavy. She brought things into the kitchen and put them away then finished cleaning up from breakfast, putting on a fresh pot of coffee for him and fixing sandwiches for lunch. Prima went to ask him when he might like lunch and saw him unloading all of the things he had bought for her garden, putting them safely away until the spring planting season.
It made her feel guilty that he had bought her all those things, and she had let him down. So instead of her question about lunch, she asked in a tiny voice, "Sir? I don't deserve those nice things you bought me for the garden," leading towards the idea that he would probably want to take that stuff back.
Joseph finished putting away all of the gardening tools before he faced her. "Would it make you feel better if I punished you, honey?" He knew that Prima was well on her way to becoming a true submissive, one that craved punishments from her master for wrongdoing as much as pleasure from his hands.
He watched her bite her lower lip and start to say something, but she just couldn't seem to get it out. Instead, she looked up at him with tears in her eyes in a silent plea for help. He kissed her gently on the forehead, then turned her around and patted her bottom, saying, "Go stand in the corner of the bedroom."
"Yes, Sir," she acknowledge tearfully, practically running to do his bidding.
Shaking his head, Joseph finished unloading the truck with a satisfied smile on his face, then made his way to their room, noting as he passed through the kitchen that lunch was pretty much ready. Katherine stood in the corner, hands on her head and her bottom well exposed. He could hear that she was already snuffling. Joseph crossed to her side of the room and called her gruffly out of the corner to stand before him. "You essentially asked for this punishment. I wasn't going to do it."
"Yes, Sir."
Regardless of that fact, he wasn't going to go easy on her, or it wouldn't mean anything to her. "Go get your hairbrush, little girl."
Oh, that awful thing! Katherine hated to be hairbrushed, but she wasn't going to disobey him again.
He took the brush from her and put it down next to his leg. "The way you acted was like a child, self-absorbed. You're not a child, you're a woman, and your sole purpose in this life is to see to me, to my pleasure, to my health, and to obey me in all things. How you behave or don't behave – especially in public – reflects on me, good or bad."
Just his words were making her bawl, without his having to touch her.
Joseph noticed this, marveling at the depth of her emotional response to him. "Katherine, I am extremely impressed that you asked for this punishment. Having said that, since your behavior was childish, you're going to be punished, like a child." He took her over his lap, rucking her dress well up her back and spanking her bottom with his hand. Its leathery palm was well suited to the purpose. Punishing feminine rounded cheeks up close and personal was incredibly appealing to him; it was something he did very well. It wasn't usual for him to scold, but this time he did, with the sole purpose of making the woman over his lap feel like a naughty little girl.
"How dare you embarrass me in public like that, making me have to call after you so that everyone in the store could hear how disobedient you were being? Rules are made for a reason, young lady, and I expect you to follow them, or you're going to get your bratty little bottom roasted in the store and at home! I don't ever want to have to repeat this conversation. Am I making myself perfectly clear?"
He reduced her to a blubbering-six-year-old just by the force of his hand and his lecture, but, as always, neither her crying nor her pleas had any effect on her punishment.
Joseph picked up the hairbrush. "I'm going to give you one hundred with your hairbrush, in hopes that it'll make an impression on you. Then I'm going to put you to bed for the afternoon with no lunch."
The hairbrushing commenced immediately, the large head imprinting itself on her upturned cheeks and helplessly trapped legs. Prima pulled at the hold he had on her wrists, but she was held fast, being well and truly punished like the naughty little girl he was portraying her as.
One hundred strokes with that evil instrument
in his strong hand had her literally howling very early on, but it did not deter Joseph in the least. When he finally tucked her under the covers, she surprised him by throwing her arms around his neck and whispering a choppy thank you, despite how her poor bottom throbbed.
Parts of his hardened heart melted in that moment. Instead of just turning on the monitor and going out to have some lunch as he'd planned, Joseph stretched out on the side of the bed next to her, his big hand rubbing the small of her back. He pressed her pacifier into her mouth once her breathing returned to normal, loving the way she looked with it in her mouth and how she always suckled on it even though she professed not to like it. Prima snuggled close to him, on her tummy, even though he was the source of her discomfort. Joseph threaded his fingers through her hair absently, combing it away from her face.
She still seemed a little restless, and Joseph was considering giving her a couple of suppositories that would help her sleep, but then he decided just to remain with her for a while. "I want you to relax and go to sleep now, Katherine. You've had a good whippin' and your bottom is going to be hot and hurtful for a while. Despite this one incident, which I know you will never repeat, I was very proud of you today when we went into town. Your behavior overall was exemplary, and I was very proud that I was your owner." Her breathing was becoming steadier in response to his comforting tone and words. "I know that seeing the other women being punished by their owners was upsetting to you, but you will see that again, and you need to find a way to not let it bother you. Keep your attention on me, and everything will be fine." His lips touched her forehead in a gentle kiss. "Sleep, little one, I'll wake you in a few hours."
He did settle two big suppositories deep into her bottom, rousing her to fuss at each uncomfortable, embarrassing invasion until he soothed her back to sleep, saying, "Just a little medication to help you sleep through the afternoon, Prima. That's a good girl. I'm going to put it deep into your bottom so you can't push it out." And he did, then plugged her well with a good sized butt plug. Joseph took a few minutes to enjoy the sight of those two sore red cheeks with the flange of the plug sticking out from between them.
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