Louisa Revealed (20 page)

“You missed six problems, Lucille.
 
I believe two strokes for each mistake
should remind you to focus your attention better.”
 
Hearing that she was to receive a dozen
strokes of the paddle made her heart beat faster, but still, it was less than
half the number she had taken from the birch.
 
Lucy braced herself, but the paddle
didn’t descend to begin its attack on her already extremely bruised
bottom.
 
“I’m waiting Lucille,”
Edward said softly, and she flushed anew as she remembered she was required to
ask for correction.
 
Lucy gritted
her teeth, and briefly wondered what would happen if she simply remained
silent.
 
After all, if she
specifically asked for a spanking then she was essentially confessing her crime
and submitting herself to discipline.
 
“Would three strokes per problem help you concentrate on what is
expected of you, young lady?” Edward asked, and she knew she’d discovered the
answer.
 

If she remained quiet then her punishment simply
increased.
 
Swallowing hard, she
shook her head even as she choked, “I’m so… sorry Edward… oh, I mean, Sir.
 
Ummm, I’m sorry I failed my quiz.
 
May I please have a spanking?”
 

Edward shook his head and tapped her bottom
briefly.
 
“This isn’t my hand,
Lucille.
 
You aren’t going to be
spanked; you are about to be paddled.
 
Please correct your request and remember, it is ‘your’ paddling, not ‘a’
paddling.”
 
Her face burned with the
injustice of it all, but she simply desired it to be over.
 
Practically spitting out the words, she
tried again.

“I’m sorry I failed my quiz, Sir.
 
Please, may I have MY paddling
now?”
 

Edward grinned.
 
She was taking a very dangerous tone of
voice with him, but he had to give her a nod of respect.
 
She, like her sister, wasn’t mere putty in
his hands.
 
They both contained
spirit and fire, and he found he enjoyed that characteristic.
 
It made it all the more rewarding when
one of the two sisters had to subject
herself
to his
rules and discipline.
 
He stepped
back a bit and said, “Yes, my girl.
 
You may have your paddling.”
 

With that, Lucy forgot her determination to
remain stubborn or defiant.
 
The
sound of the wood slapping into her bottom was sharp and clear in the
room.
 
The paddle bounced off her
bottom after each crack and she raised her head and cried out with every stroke.
 
Perhaps if her bottom had not already
been so tender, so painful and bruised, she might have managed to remain quiet
and take the punishment with dignity.
 
As it was, she felt the paddle reignite the pain from her birching as it
slapped against the wheals that covered her from the top of her bottom to the
juncture of her thighs.
 
  
“Ohhh, please,” she cried after the
first six had been given.
 
“I’m
sorry!
 
Please… oh please, Sir!” she
wailed as he changed sides and began the second half of her count.
 
These swats were just as heavy and hard
as the first, and her wails were carried out into the garden.
 
If Lucille had been aware that her
reaction to her chastisement had been clearly audible outside this room, she
would have felt even more shame.
 

As it was, Edward had finished her paddling and
simply pulled her bloomers back into place, pulled her to stand and adjusted
her skirts.
 
She was a sobbing mess,
but had obediently sobbed out her thanks for his discipline.
 
Edward had placed the paddle back into
the cabinet, turned to inform her that she would be strapped this evening if
she failed the quiz again, and not even giving her time to compose herself, led
her from the study and back to the dining room.
 
Now she was sitting on her throbbing
bottom and was mortified yet again, and trying to fight the desire to simply
bury her face in her hands and sob.
 
She saw a fresh sheet of paper slide in front of her and picked up her pencil.
 
She lifted her eyes to the page expecting
yet another column of numbers for her to process.
 
Instead, she saw two words printed
across the top of the page.
 
I’m sorry
she read, and
understood that her teacher felt it was his fault that she had failed the
quiz.
 
She felt fresh tears fill her
eyes as she raised her eyes to his.
 
He smiled down at her and then sat and covered the page with the quiz
she had just taken.
 
She had
answered most of the questions correctly, and frankly, he didn’t believe she
had deserved the punishment she had obviously been given.
 

“You did well, Miss Furniss,” he began, as he
removed his handkerchief from his coat pocket and handed it to her.
 
She blushed, remembering the
handkerchief pressed into her mouth the day before to keep her silent.
 
She knew he was only offering what
comfort he could, so she accepted it and used it to wipe her eyes.
 
She attempted to return it but he
lowered his voice, “Please, keep it.
 
Perhaps you will consider it a token of my remorse, in that I feel
partially responsible for the… for your…. ”
 

She looked at him in disbelief.
 
“Paddling?” she offered.
 
She was shocked to see
his own
face flush, and his discomfort.
 
She should have remained silent, for she
had truly embarrassed the man who was trying to help her.
 

Charles cleared his throat and said, “I was
going to say failure, but, Miss Furniss,
I
don’t
consider it a failure.
 
You only
missed
a half
dozen problems out of fifty.
 
If this had been the final exam, you do
realize you would have passed?”
 
The
words seemed to hang in the air.
 
Passed?
 
She had just gotten a hard paddling for
a score that meant she would have passed!
 

Lucille found herself smiling despite the
irony.
 
She saw him answer the smile
and she lowered her gaze.
 
“Obviously I did not do well enough to pass Lord Wintercrest’s
expectations though, did I?”

“I suppose not, but Miss Furniss, you’ve come
quite far in the few hours we’ve had.
 
Your only difficulties were in working with negative numbers.”
 
Lucy sighed, her pencil tapping at the
sheet of paper.

“I’ll never be able to do this, Sir.
 
I simply don’t understand how negatives
can become positive.
 
How can you
have negative anything?
 
I mean
,
if you don’t have something to begin with, then I don’t
understand how you can suddenly have something.”
 

Charles thought about her words and
chuckled.
 
She looked at him in
surprise and saw his grin.
 
“Miss
Furniss, you don’t have to understand to do well.”
 
He saw her confusion and leaned
closer.
 
“I confess that sometimes
mathematics doesn’t tend to make sense.
 
What you need to do Miss Furniss is to simply stop thinking.”

“Stop thinking?” she asked her confusion growing
and wondered if she had heard him incorrectly.
 
He grinned and nodded,

“Yes, don’t think about why.
 
Simply memorize the equations and the
rules.
 
Unless you are planning to
become a mathematics professor or an engineer, or even working in banking, I
see no need for you to understand math.
 
If you goal is simply to pass the exam on Monday, then just stop
thinking and memorize.
 
Can you do
that?”
 
She found herself nodding,
even as she glanced over her should back towards Edward’s study.

“Do you think I can memorize enough to pass the
next exam?
 
I mean, make no mistakes
at all?”
 

Charles saw her concern and said, “When are you
being given another chance?”

“Be… before dinner.
 
Please, do you promise I can do
this?”
 

Charles wanted nothing more than to make her
that promise but knew he couldn’t.
 
“I have faith in you Miss Furniss, but you must also have faith in
yourself.
 
I can only promise that
I’ll do my very best.”
 

She smiled and looked down at the paper.
 
“Then I can do nothing less.
 
Shall we begin?”
 
The two studied, but this time he concentrated
on drilling only the formulas and rules into her mind.
 
By the time Edward returned to the room,
they both had more confidence. Louisa was nowhere to be seen, and Lucy wished
she could be there to show her support.
 

Edward saw her look behind him and he
smiled.
 
“Louisa hasn’t been
awakened from her nap, Lucille.
 
Are
you prepared for your exam?”
 
Lucy
was confused at his choice of words about her sister’s nap but was more
concerned about her own bottom at this juncture.
 
She didn’t see that the tutor had lifted
his eyes to gaze at Edward with a surprised, but not shocked, look on his
face.
 
“Lucille, I believe I asked
you a question?”
 

Lucy flushed at having been chastised yet again,
nodded and said, “Yes Sir, I’m… I’m ready.”
 

He nodded and held out his hand.
 
“Shall we attend to your exam in the
study, little one?”
 
Lucy flushed
hotly at the endearment but found
herself
standing and
putting her hand in Edward’s.
 
She
couldn’t bring herself to lift her eyes, but instead concentrated on repeating
the formulas in her head as he led her to the study.
 
She was trembling as he opened the door
and led her inside.
 
He didn’t
release her until they reached his desk.
 

“You may sit in my chair Lucille while you take
your exam.
 
I believe you will find
the soft leather a comfort on what I am sure is still a somewhat aching little
bottom.
 
I only hope your answers
are good enough to keep the strap behind closed doors.”
 
Lucy didn’t hear the small gasp that
escaped from Charles as he listened to the instructions.
 
She simply sank down on the chair,
praying she’d remember her lessons and that she wouldn’t soon be finding herself
bent across this huge expanse of wood, her skirts raised and her bloomers down,
her bare bottom lifted as she was forced to ask for additional punishment.
 

Edward had spoken softly but knew his words were
reaching his ward.
 
She was being
very obedient, and though she was trembling a bit, he was very proud of
her.
 
His eyes and ears missed
nothing, and he was well aware of the impact his conversation was having on
Professor Lloyds.
 
Edward kept his
mouth firm though he truly wanted to smile.
 
The man was obviously trying hard not to
react to what was being discussed but he wasn’t able to hide either the flush
that rose on his cheeks or the bulge that was even now rising within his
pants.
 
Edward turned to him and
asked if he had prepared a new exam.
 
Charles assured him that he had, and handed it to him.
 
Edward slid the paper in front of
Lucille.

“I truly hope to see marked improvement,
Lucille.”
 
She bravely nodded and at
his nod, she began to work through the problems one at a time.
 
She forced herself to go slowly and work
through the easy ones first.
 
Once
those were complete, she returned to work on the ones that had given her
pause.
 
Remembering her tutor’s words,
she took a deep breath and ran the equations and formulas through her
head.
 
She finished the last problem
only seconds before Edward called time.
 
She laid down her pencil and passed her quiz to her Professor.
 
They both watched as he ran his pencil
down the page ticking off each answer.
 
He was smiling widely as he looked up and passed the exam to Edward.

“Excellent job Miss Furniss.
 
You’ve completed each problem
correctly.
 
I’m very proud of
you.”
 
Lucy beamed at him, even as she
sank back in her chair.