The Girls of Cropton Hall

by Stanlegh Meresith

  "Er ... what is THAT?" asked Grace, backing away slightly and looking scared. "I didn't..."

  Rachel laughed. "It's all right, Grace. I promise nothing's going to hurt here. Honest! This is supposed to represent a cane. I'm going to knightess each one of you and Susie'll do me." She made the motion of touching the stick on the top of each shoulder, as the new Queen Elizabeth would.

  "Phew!" said Grace. "For a minute I thought..."

  Rachel got up. "First we have to all agree to the rules of SWACK." She pulled a piece of paper from her blazer pocket. "There aren't many and we can discuss them if you're not happy. All right?" Everyone nodded. "First: always help another knightess in any way you can. Second: never sneak on a knightess, or any girl unless they really deserve it, but never on a knightess. Third: report any whackings and canings you hear about to me; I'm going to try and keep a record of all girls who get beaten so we can keep our Roll of Honour - and maybe make a top ten at Christmas; I've got a scoring system too." There were some raised eyebrows and puzzled glances at this, which Rachel noticed. "Well, do your best anyway, please?" Susie grinned at Alice and rolled her eyes. Rachel went on quickly: "Fourth: never talk about SWACK in front of a mistress." She looked up. "And fifth: use Christian names between us though not necessarily everywhere if you don't want to."

  She looked round the group.

  "Do we all agree?"

  They all nodded. Susan was giggling silently. Rachel ignored her.

  "Right, Susie, you're first," said Rachel, swinging the switch in her right hand. Susan eyed it warily. Rachel continued: "The SWACK motto, everyone is: 'Flectata in corpora sed non in spirita' which means 'bent over in body but not in spirit'." She repeated the Latin phrase twice and got them all to do the same. Alice was giggling now too. Rachel ploughed on, unperturbed.

  "Susie - kneel in the middle. Everyone join hands." Susan suppressed her giggles and manoeuvred herself round, keeping her bottom well away from Rachel's right hand, until she was kneeling facing Rachel while the others linked hands round the circle. "Now say the motto."

  "Flectata in corpora sed non in spirita," said Susie with a straight face and head bowed while Rachel touched each of her shoulders with the switch.

  "I hereby pronounce you a knightess of SWACK," said Rachel importantly. Susan looked up and grinned.

  "Thanks, Rache," she said.

  As each of the other girls took their turn in the middle to be made a knightess, a calm and touching solemnity gradually fell upon the room. When it was Rachel's turn to kneel, Susan had quite forgotten her earlier mischievous intention to give her a whack with the switch; instead she played her part very elegantly and seriously.

  Rachel then produced membership cards from her bag. They were rectangular and made of white card swiped from the Art room. SWACK was written in black letters in an arch at the top, the girl's name underneath and the motto in very small letters along the bottom. There were two pictures, approximating a cane and a strap, on either side. Rachel passed them around.

  "This is super, Rachel," said Charlotte, admiring hers. "Thanks!"

  "But be warned, girls," said Rachel. "If this card should fall into the wrong hands ... Don't trust any prefect - except Julia Bennett, she's all right - and whatever you do, don't let a mistress see it."

  "Where should I put it then?" asked Charlotte, a little panicky.

  Rachel placed her hand on her left breast. "Top pocket of your blouse, Knightess Charlotte," she said solemnly, "next to your heart."

  There was a moment's silence then they all burst out laughing. "Just don't forget to take it out before you send it to the laundry!" added Rachel.

  Rachel then pulled out three pots of Ponds cream from the bag. "And now for some practical benefits of SWACK membership," she announced. "Alice, you've already got a pot. Grace, Jenny, Charlotte," she said, handing out pots, "these are for you - helpful after a whacking especially, cools you down. Me and Susie will share."

  "Gosh! Thanks, Rachel," said Charlotte, cradling her pot proudly in both hands.

  "Thanks ... thanks, Rachel," added Grace and Jenny.

  "And finally, girls," said Rachel, reaching into the bag and producing an exercise book and a pencil. "The SWACK Roll of Honour Book!" She waved it in the air. "And I've worked out a scoring system." She opened the book to the first page and was about to go one when Alice spoke up.

  "Er ... Rachel?" She looked around nervously. "I hope you don't mind me asking, and it may be just me, but ... do we HAVE to try and win this ... this getting beaten the most times contest? I mean ... although I'm not as scared as I used to be about getting it, I'm not sure..."

  "No! Of course not, Alice," said Rachel. "I mean I suppose there might be some girls who might ... not mind getting whacked so much and who might ... even, maybe, sometimes, deliberately go out of their way to ... but that would be pretty stupid, wouldn't it?"

  There was a vigorous nodding of heads at this, and sounds of strong agreement all round. Susan looked down with a knowing smile and said nothing.

  "No," continued Rachel, warming to her theme. "We are fighting against the UNJUST whacking of girls. Girls under the cane arise, is what we say! But when we do get whacked, we should honour that and respect that girl's ... bravery, you know, and ... record it. The mistresses do, so why shouldn't we?"

  "Do they?" asked Alice.

  "Yes," said Rachel. "Marky had a book and there was a page with all my punishments written in a list."

  "Gosh!" muttered Alice and Jenny.

  "Anyway," said Grace, angrily. "I think it's completely unfair how we get half the whackings we do." She sounded very aggrieved and shifted on her pillow. "Specially that caning on Friday - it was bloody agony. I can't sit down properly and all for what? 'Cause certain mistresses don't like the look on your face!"

  There were more murmurs of agreement. Charlotte put her arm round Grace's shoulder and gave her a squeeze.

  "So," said Rachel, reaching once more into her bag. "I have paper and pencils here so we can work out our scores so far." She passed round sheets and pencils. Jenny got up and went over to the bookcase where she selected a few thin volumes.

  "Here," she said, passing them round.

  "Thanks, Jenny," said Rachel. "All right, so first here's how it works - but again, if anyone disagrees, do say so and we can discuss it. Unlike the school, we are a democratic organisation. Ready?" She paused. "For each whack with a plimsoll or slipper, two points." The others jotted this down on their sheets. "For the hairbrush, three points; the strap four points..."

  "I think the hairbrush is worse than the strap," said Charlotte, remembering her first whacking from Miss Bainbridge in the changing-room.

  "Have you ever had the strap?" asked Susan.

  "Yes, from Mrs Palmer, but it wasn't as bad as getting the hairbrush from Miss Bainbridge."

  "But that was your first whacking, wasn't it, Charlotte," said Grace. "When we first met? So it might have just felt like it was worse?"

  "Yes," acknowledged Charlotte, uncertainly. "I suppose..."

  "I've had both," said Susan, "and it is hard to say really. I got eight with the strap from Mrs Palmer and it was really bad, worse than those five we got from Miss Dawson with the butter-pat, wasn't it Rache?"

  "I wouldn't know - I haven't had the strap yet," said Rachel. "But of course eight is always going to be worse than five, isn't it?" She looked around. "Hands up those who want to change the way I did it?"

  No hands went up.

  "All right, so it stays as three for the hairbrush and four for the strap. Moving on..." She consulted her list. "Six points for the junior cane; eight points for the senior cane and finally, ten points for Molly."

  Grace shivered. They'd all heard about Molly from Rachel herself, the first girl to get it.

  They finished recording the list of points. Rachel went on...

  "So, add up your whackings and your points, everyone. Oh, and by the way, if it was on your knickers - or gym shorts l
ike what happened to me - then deduct one point."

  "Phew! It's quite complicated, isn't it?" said Alice, chewing on the end of her pencil.

  "If you need any help..." said Rachel, who'd already done the arithmetic of her own punishments. The girls pored over their sheets, muttering numbers. Alice suddenly exclaimed,

  "Gosh! I'd forgotten that one," and jotted more figures on her sheet.

  Eventually they began to look up, finished, and Rachel took down their scores. She herself led the way with 168 points; Susan was next with 139, then Alice with 99 ("Just one to go to a hundred!" said Rachel excitedly. Alice looked less than enthusiastic. "Thanks, Rache," she said sarcastically). Jenny was next with 78 points, then Grace and Charlotte with 44 each. "And I happen to know," said Rachel, "that our new Head Girl is herself on 84 points!"

  "Yes, we were there when she got caned," said Jenny. "It sounded pretty fierce. Marky left the door partly open."

  "Well, she is the Head Girl," said Alice. "You'd expect her to get it harder."

  "I heard she got six with the hairbrush in the classroom from Gibbo so hard that it nearly broke the hairbrush!" said Grace.

  "I don't know about that," said Rachel, "but Julia told me that it was really scary. The Upper Sixth girls could hardly believe it. But she was incredibly brave apparently. And then, when everyone'd left at the end of the lesson, Gibbo gave her another six with the strap on the bare. Julia said Gabrielle's bum was just a mass of purple bruises after that little lot."

  "What'd she done?" asked Charlotte, wide-eyed.

  "She'd let Julia use her notes in a History test," said Rachel.

  "Is that all?" said Grace. "You see what I mean? I'd have refused to be Head Girl if that'd happened to me."

  "Yes but it's strange," said Susan, "'cause since then I've heard two or three girls saying that Gibbo didn't whack them particularly hard - they were totally terrified, but when it came to it, it wasn't too bad."

  "Yes, I heard that too," said Rachel. "Maybe Gabrielle complained or something."

  "Huh! As if they'd listen," said Grace.

  "Well, you never know," said Rachel, getting a little tired of Grace's grumpiness. She reckoned Grace hadn't really met Miss Markham properly yet - being caned in a line wasn't quite the same. But she didn't say anything more.

  "I'd like to say," Susan suddenly announced, "a big thank you to our organiser, the girl who thought of SWACK in the first place ... Rachel Thomas, everyone!" Her voice rose at the end and they all picked up the cue and clapped and repeated Rachel's name. Rachel blushed and made a little bow. But then she looked worried and put her index finger to her lips.

  "Thanks everyone," she said quietly, "but we mustn't be too noisy. We don't want to get caught in here in our very first meeting."

  They all hushed, and Susan muttered, 'Sorry'.

  "We'll meet again in two weeks," said Rachel, "same time, same place. And before we go, let's join hands and say the motto together, shall we?"

  They reached for their neighbour's hands around the circle and, following Rachel's cue, they all intoned,

  "Flectata in corpora sed non in spirita."

  25. Is This Love?

  Since her redemptive and considerably fierce caning in Miss Markham's study the previous Sunday, Emily Stokes had taken to her work with renewed enthusiasm: she was up to date with all her marking, her record of work was not only complete but also highly detailed and reflective, and she was ahead of schedule in planning her lessons well into the second half of the term. One task would be the teaching of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' to 5B. However, it was not a play she knew well, having read it for the first time during the summer holidays, and so, late that Monday afternoon in the staffroom, she'd sought the advice of Margaret Dawson. It was well past six and they had the place to themselves.

  Settled comfortably into adjoining armchairs under the window, cups of tea perched beside them, Margaret had been explaining what a wonderful play it was to teach, especially to girls.

  "But surely, Margaret," protested Emily, "isn't it rather insulting to us women? I mean, Katherina is treated appallingly by Petruchio and the audience are simply invited to laugh at her and rejoice in her subjugation."

  "Indeed," replied Margaret with a smile, "but it's the debates it engenders in the classroom that are so enlightening, my dear. It really gets the girls going and makes them question their own thoughts and attitudes - their values even, or those they've acquired from their parents anyway. Who would you rather be: the fiery Kate or the insipid if pretty Bianca? And, in the end, who gets by far the more interesting man?"

  "I see what you mean," said Emily thoughtfully. "I must say though, when I was reading it this summer, in Act Four I was expecting Petruchio at any moment just to grab her and ... and..."

  "Give her a good spanking?" finished Margaret, noticing the younger woman blushing slightly.

  "Yes!" said Emily gratefully. "Exactly!"

  "He does almost everything except that, doesn't he?"

  "Yes," agreed Emily, quietly now, looking wistfully across the room at the far window. There was a silence before she said, tentatively: "Margaret ..."

  "Yes?"

  Emily placed her hands in her lap and stared at them for a moment.

  "Erm ... gosh, this is very forward of me ... nosy even ... but ... oh dear, no, sorry, forget it..."

  Margaret turned to face her colleague full on.

  "Emily?" she said, bemused. "What is it? Come on, spit it out - you've got me intrigued now."

  "All right, but before I ask you ... what I was going to ask you ..." Despite her obvious embarrassment, Emily's eyes were shining with an excitement, for life itself it seemed, that Margaret found both attractive and endearing. She wished, though not now in a painful way, that she had had that light in her eyes when she were, what, twenty-four like Emily?... instead of that dullness born of fear and suppressed desire she'd lived with for so long before Verily had shown her the way - the way to Monica's door, Monica's heart.

  "Yes?" prompted Margaret. Emily was bright red now.

  "I think I should tell you something. I ... Miss Markham ... erm ... last Sunday I went to see the Head because ... I hadn't done my marking and I was behind with my record of work, and ..." She sighed. "Well, you see, when I was at school I used to get ... the cane ... a lot, and I mean a LOT!" She laughed ruefully. "And this term I found myself ... it was as if I'd reverted to that naughty, lazy schoolgirl I used to be, and I was really getting quite worried - about my work, I mean, I just wasn't doing it, couldn't make myself do it, and, well ... so ... I, er, I asked the Head to ... to..."

  "To cane you." Margaret finished her sentence for her in a calm, declarative tone that made Emily turn to her in surprise.

  "Yes!" she exclaimed. "How did you...?"

  "Well," said Margaret, laughing, "first, my dear, it was pretty obvious from your build-up, and secondly ... and this is a bit naughty of me because I promised not to breathe a word, but ... Monica noticed in assembly last Monday, or was it Tuesday, that you were sitting very ... tentatively, shall we say? And anyway, she was passing the end of the corridor to Verily's study late last Sunday evening and ... sorry, but she was curious! It was much too late for it to be one of the girls, and I don't think Verily would give anyone eighteen strokes, do you?" Margaret gave her colleague a kindly, bemused look.

  That her caning - not to mention her woeful cries - had been overheard by Monica Gibson made Emily blush all the more.

  "Oh!" she said. "Um ... gosh, I do feel embarrassed."

  "Don't be! Monica thinks you're absolutely marvellous!" exclaimed Margaret. "I won't tell you what she said!"

  It was Emily's turn to be intrigued. "Oh, do tell, Margaret, please!"

  Margaret smiled awkwardly for a second. "Oh dear!" she said. "Now I really am going to be in trouble!" She gave Emily a look that suggested she wasn't exaggerating. "Well, first she said you must be the bravest girl in Yorkshire, and then... " she giggled
, "...she said you must have the hide of an ox, but," she added quickly, "a very shapely ox!"

  Emily grinned with pleasure.

  "Now then," said Margaret, "you've managed to wangle that out of me, so let's get back to what you were going to ask, shall we?"

  Emily paused and took a sip of tea to give her time to think of how to phrase this.

  "Well," she began, "Monica wasn't the only one to notice someone sitting, um, uncomfortably?" She gave Margaret a direct, shyly knowing look.

  "Oh dear!" said Margaret. "Go on."

  "Prudence noticed how you were equally ... tentative last Sunday, and also how you and Monica ... seem ... well, very happy together recently?"

  The old Margaret would have died of embarrassment at this point and probably have denied everything. The new one sat up and spoke clearly.

  "Yes, we are, my dear, we are very happy, and yes, like you I suspect...?" She looked at Emily with the same direct, honesty-requiring gaze Emily had turned on her moments before, "... I enjoy being whacked, and Monica - well, I am very lucky to have found someone who is strong enough and ... strange enough ..." She laughed. "...to enjoy whacking me."

  "I ... I'm very glad for you." There was a silence between them as Emily pondered how to go on. "Um ... gosh, this is rather embarrassing, but ... I wonder ... how would you feel if I ... could I possibly, do you think ... well, we actually... you see, Prudence and I, we were talking and..."

  Once again, the older woman came to the rescue. "You'd like to join us? Have a ... a whacking session together?"

  Emily's blush returned sharply. "Yes ... but only ..." she said, suddenly feeling awfully rude and imposing and wishing she hadn't asked.

  "Well, I appreciate your honesty, Emily, about yourself I mean, and it is rather wonderful to discover another ... I don't know what we're called really, do you?"

  They both laughed.