Chapter Fourteen

"Ms Huskins told me to come--" a girl's voice began, but was swiftly cut off.

"I know why you're here," said Anderson. "And so do you."

"Please, sir, I said I was sorry. I was only talking."

"Enough." The girl fell silent, and Anderson's chair scraped back. I heard his footsteps as he moved around to the other side of the desk. "You'll take ten strokes as your punishment. Each word you speak from now on will mean an extra two. You understand."

I didn't hear anything in response. The girl must have nodded her understanding instead.

"Over the bench," said Anderson curtly.

A few moments later there was a soft touch on the back of my shoulder. I risked a glance up to see Anderson standing above me. He gestured for me to rise, and as if on strings I floated up to my feet. He leaned close, and whispered in my ear. The closeness of him made my knees weak.

"Tie her down," he breathed into my ear.

So this was what he meant when he asked for my assistance, I realised. And this was how he planned on testing me. I was to be his assistant. Well, if that was the case, then I was determined to do a good job of it, to please him as much as I possibly could.

I turned and went to the girl on the bench. She lay over it, fully-clothed in her uniform, her legs sheathed in dark tights. She was skinny, her face hidden beneath a mop of mousy hair. I recognised her in a kind of vague way; St Martinas was a small enough school that I knew most students there to look at. I kept my eyes down, and knelt beside her leg. My hands felt big and clumsy as I reached for the straps, threaded the leather through the buckle and pulled it tight. I felt a frisson of excitement, and tingles spread through my own leg, as though I was the one being secured in place.

As I moved to her other leg, I was reminded once again of the strength of the leather restraints, their mercilessness. The way they tightened against her flesh was beautiful and darkly exciting. I moved up to her arms. At this end of the bench I was close to her head, and I could hear her shuddery breathing, could see that she was chewing nervously on her lip. I thought of those moments that had preceded my whipping. They had seemed the longest of my life...

The final strap went all the way over her back. I secured it tightly, the black leather creasing into the smooth white of her uniform. When it was in place I stepped back and returned to my corner, where I stood with hands by my side, ready to do as I was told by Anderson. He didn't look at me, but instead rose from the edge of his desk where he had been perched and strode across the room to pick a cane from the rack by the door.

The last time I had watched a punishment be carried out, it had been at a distance, in a hall full of fellow students. Now, here in his office, there was only the three of us, and I was so close to the girl being punished that I could have taken one step forward and touched her. I watched, heart in my mouth, as Anderson lifted up the tail of her school skirt and draped it over her back, exposing her backside. I could make out the shape of her panties beneath the dark material of her tights. I hear a soft whimper - of dread or fear perhaps - escape her lips.