OK, OK, I should be working. That, after all, is why I’m awake at this time on a Sunday morning – with a huge pile of business emails to work through after a silly-busy week. Yet I couldn’t not share my waking thought, formed in those final few minutes of sleep and still fresh in my mind as I awoke.
A grand room. A maid, stark naked, terrified and tearful. The lord and lady of the house. The butler, holding a manx-style birch. The local constable.
A fur coat had been found for sale in the local market that morning. It had been recognised as being one of her ladyship’s finest. Enquiries had shown that it had most certainly not been given away.
The terrified stallholder (“possession of stolen goods” being such a serious matter) had quickly offered full cooperation. From his description, it hadn’t been hard to work out which of the household staff had been responsible. The girl in question had been brought before the group. She’d protested her innocence, then quickly confessed once the threat of the magistrate and the Bridewell had been set out. So much quicker and easier to deal with these matters in house, after all, even if they would spare her no mercy…
—
As so often, the dream faded before the actual punishment. I shall leave that to your imaginations, dear readers, as I head back to my work feeling virtuous and diligent. How many strokes do you think she would have been given? And who do you think would have rolled up their sleeves to flog her? The constable, the butler, his lordship – or even her ladyship herself?
I think the master of the house would have flogged her first. A certain number of strokes, the girl not told in advance, but the number abided to by his lordship.
Then her ladyship would have taken up the rod. And beaten the girl until her screams fell silent, and her ladyship was sure she was utterly broken…
ALL the talk about the birch! O_O
I’d go with constable. Ring of fire I’ve heard of and am curious to try. So, constable and ring of fire.