The training of Jayne Hardinge began just three days
after her eighteenth birthday. She could not have asked for a better tutor. Her
aunt, Lady Jessica Fitzroy Hardinge, knew all there was to know, had the
financial resources, the skill and the property. Lady J., as she was known to
her inner circle of friends, had decided to undertake most of the young lady's
training herself, and later to introduce her niece to those same friends.
Lady J. had herself had been trained in the same manner -
albeit in an earlier and stricter era - and had never had a moment's cause to
regret the way of life to which such training had brought her.
The small Hampshire property in which Lady J. lived and
in which the training of her niece was to be undertaken had been Jayne's only
home for the past four years, since Jayne had become an orphan with the loss of
her parents in an accident.
The bond of affection between niece and aunt was deep,
real and utterly reciprocated the one by the other. Such rigours as the young
lady's training were to introduce her to were certainly not born of any form of
indifference, much less dislike. In this regard, at least, she was different
from so many other heroines, if so one may describe them, of so many Victorian
tales of domestic regimen: the Jayne Eyres and Helen Burns of this world, whose
strict upbringing was usually the result of being orphaned into a world no less
cruel, in some respects, than that which the young Jayne Hardinge entered -
albeit a little older than those Victorian ladies - but certainly a good deal
less loving. And so to our tale.
Jayne Hardinge had, of course, been introduced to the
concept of discipline, both self-imposed and borne of outside authority, well
before she came of age. Her parents had not been indulgent, far from it, and
given what has already been said of her aunt it may rightly be supposed that
the growing child ran anything but wild in the rambling house, with its stables
and stable-block, its walled garden and walled perimeter beyond the lawns, the
small copsed woodland and the gravel drive which comprised the modest estate.
School - boarding school, of course - was likewise no
free-range institution of the modern, liberal persuasion, but a small, private
and traditional establishment which concentrated on the three Rs, taught its
young ladies to play lacrosse and the piano, to scrub behind their ears and to
be in bed by lights-out. Young men had played, to date, little part in the
young woman's upbringing, and it was indeed her aunt's intention that such a
state of affairs should remain, until Jayne was judged by that same aunt to be
ready in all respects to make her debut in the world of heterosexual affairs. That
is not to say Jayne, though innocent, was ignorant. Like any teenage girl in
the 'Eighties of the twentieth century, there was little about the birds and
the bees, and even less of the mechanics of human reproductive techniques, she
did not know by the time she was fourteen. Her knowledge was, however, more or
less entirely theoretical, a fact that pleased her aunt and entirely fitted in
with her plans for the niece.
Sexuality nonetheless was an inevitable part of the
growing young woman's make up. Her aunt had carefully nurtured, carefully
guided such nascent development as there had been in such a way that, like a
summer bonfire smouldering under heaped dry grass, it would need but a raising
of one corner of the pile, but a cleverly directed draught of air, for the
smouldering fire to alight, to spring into flame and to burn with vigour.
From boarding school Jayne had spent a year at a Swiss
Finishing School. Carefully chosen by Lady J. this establishment was neither
the licentious institute of corporal discipline beloved of erotic fiction nor
yet the free-wheeling bohemian college written of occasionally in the tabloid
and indeed even in the broadsheet press. It was run by an old friend of Lady J.
and was if anything on the prim side, so that its young charges learned the
decorous arts of needlepoint and elegant entertaining. Jayne was herself a cook
of practically Cordon Bleu standard when she came home. but remained carefully
chaperoned throughout their social occasions. No one lost their virginity while
a pupil of Madame Monet.
From her finishing school Jayne returned to Hardinge
Hall, and with her aunt contemplated her future.
And so it was that, just these few days after the party
in the big old house to celebrate the young lady's return from Switzerland,
Jayne found herself sipping perfectly chilled champagne in the sun-dappled
library, settled deep into a chintz-covered sofa, her eyes sparkling with
excitement, and perhaps also with the effect of the champagne, while her aunt
laid before her an invitation Jayne already knew she could not afford to let herself
refuse.
'So there you have it' Lady J. was concluding. 'I
appreciate most of your friends will be going to live in London, find jobs as
nannies or whatever. And of course if you wish to do that I shall not raise any
objection. But if you take up my offer, put yourself entirely in my hands, I
will undertake to teach you all I have learned of life, which is no small
amount.' The elegant woman, in fact in her mid-fifties but in appearance
virtually unassessable in the matter of age, smiled warmly at the young woman,
and continued, kindly but firmly, lest there be any misunderstanding.
'It will not be easy. I shall be a firm, even harsh,
Mistress to you. I shall surprise you, even shock you. You will often wonder,
as I set you some small task, put you to some not-so-small trial or subject you
to what you will initially at least think an unnecessarily unconventional,
perhaps even bizarre, discipline, what it is I might be trying to teach you, to
have you become. You will have to trust me. In the end, you will know so much
of yourself, and of the way of the world, that nothing will surprise or shock
you. Merely intrigue, and excite.
'Through first mine and then very quickly your own
self-discipline you will learn self-fulfilment, self-control. And it is not
until we control ourselves that we can begin to exercise control over others.'
Jayne listened with growing interest and excitement to
her aunt, her mind trying hard, not helped by the champagne, to grasp exactly
what her aunt was trying to say. Not merely her mind but her emotions tumbled. She
was sure there was something hidden, something mysterious even or forbidden, in
at least some of her aunt's oblique references, and her youthful instincts
stirred. Although the young woman was barely out of adolescence and did not
have the experience to recognise her own reactions, she realised her aunt had
touched a taper to that smouldering inner fire.
A familiar but not yet truthfully recognised warmth, like
an incipient itch, stirred literally between the young woman's thighs while a
lightness, a fluttering, a feeling too exquisite to describe, like the tingle
of fear, anticipation, apprehension, stirred within her, somewhere below her
navel and between the points of her hips. She knew this feeling well. It came
upon her at the oddest times, or in the oddest circumstance, but always when
she came across something, usually while reading, but occasionally in a movie
or a tale, strangely new, yet familiar, a theme which at once excited and
intrigued, but also repelled her, filled her with apprehension. She called the
feeling her "tummy flies". She had them now. She felt herself forced
to shift in her seat.
'I'm not sure I understand completely what you mean - but
yes, I want to do it. I want so much to be like you - so elegant, so in control
of everything, so clever, so admired. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do.'
'First' replied her aunt 'and as I say, you must put
yourself in my hands completely. We must make you, as it were, a blank sheet -
only then can we begin to write. We shall be concentrating as much upon your
physical education as upon anything else. Are you prepared for that? All young
ladies - you are no exception - have their modesties, their inhibitions. These
we shall have to address, indeed to remove. The type of woman I shall teach you
to be may be a type of woman you had no idea existed.'
Lady J. stopped, and watched her niece. The reference to
modesty had clearly baffled the young woman who, smiling quizzically, had first
looked at her aunt with puckered brow then, in girlish confusion, blushed
deeply and looked fixedly at her knees, her eyes downcast.
'I shall let you think it over.' Lady J. said, with
finality. 'Give me your answer tomorrow, at breakfast.'
'No, please' rushed the young woman. 'Please. I don't
need to wait until tomorrow. I'm absolutely certain now. I want to do it,
whatever it entails.'
Her aunt was thoughtful for a moment. She wanted to land
the catch, but, quite seriously, did not want to lose not just the catch but
her niece. Was the young woman really ready?
'Very well,' replied Lady J. after a moment's more
thought. 'Here's what we shall do. I shall set you a small test of a - shall we
say - physical nature: you shall see if you can do it and more importantly, if
you enjoy it. I shall assess your reaction.
'After you have completed what I have in mind, you shall
withdraw to your room for the evening, and contemplate. Tomorrow, at breakfast,
you will let me know what you want to do: London, or me. Stand up!'
Jayne rose, just a tiny bit unsteady on her feet, and
stood before her aunt, head bowed, feet demurely together, hands clasped before
her thighs, pushing slightly into the lap of the floral print dress. It was,
she thought, like taking a dare, but she had a feeling this might be a dare
with a difference.
'Do you see' said her aunt 'the ice bucket, and the
champagne?'
Jayne nodded.
'I want you to take the ice bucket, what remains of the
champagne, and your glass to your room. There you are to finish the champagne,
there's about another glass, maybe a glass and a half. While doing so, you are
to undress completely, then go and have a shower. Dry yourself, put on a pair
of stockings, your most grown-up stockings, not those dreadful black ones they
made you wear at Harton Grange, a suspender belt and bra, and a pair of
appropriate high-heel shoes, the higher the better.
'Thus attired, precisely thus attired, stand before the
mirror, and brush your hair' the older woman paused, looked her niece full in
the eye.
'Then take the hair brush and use it in between your legs
and across your lower belly, from the junction of your thighs upwards, so that
it fluffs and bushes your pubic hair, and reveals the folds of your sex.'
Lady J saw Jayne flush pink at the suggestion, keeping
her eyes lowered. For her part, the young woman found the frankness of her
aunt's language as surprising as the nature of the instruction itself, and was
more than a little taken aback, but she remained attentive. She even nodded her
head. She heard her aunt continue.
'Then come back down here, attired exactly as I
describe.' Lady J paused again, then addressed a final question to her niece 'Are you shocked?'
Jayne's eyebrows slowly returned from under her hairline,
whence they had risen as her aunt had been speaking. 'Well - no. Not shocked. Surprised
a little, perhaps, that's all. But if that's the sort of occasional test you
have in mind, I don't think I'll object to your regime at all. It sounds rather
fun.'
'Indeed' replied the aunt, her own eyebrows arching.
'We'll see.' She paused, then continued: 'What I have just described, my dear, are
merely preparations. The test awaits you when you come back here.' She paused,
letting the firmness of her words sink home. 'Shall we say fifteen minutes? Yes.
Be here at precisely' Lady J glanced swiftly, sternly, at an ormolu carriage
clock on a small mahogany table 'precisely at two-twenty-five.' And rising,
swept swiftly from the room.
At precisely 2.25pm, Jayne entered her aunt's drawing
room. Lady J, meanwhile, had been swiftly busy. A sofa had been moved to one
side and in its place stood two short pillars of the sort one sees in museums,
or art galleries, used to rope-off special exhibits or areas of no entry. They
stood on sturdy metal base plates, the plates exaggeratedly wide to prevent the
pillars being toppled, about six feet apart with slung between them, instead of
the usual thick blue rope, a line of coarse-woven and rough-haired sisal cord,
thicker than binder twine but thinner than anything that might be called a
rope. The line was not taut, but rather draped in a curve between the two
pillars.
Jayne was dressed exactly as her aunt had specified. She
blushed, charmingly, as she entered: since puberty she had enjoyed the privacy
which developing womanly modesty had bade her seek, and although while at
school, in dormitory or showers, she was often naked or partly dressed in
company with her peers to appear semi-nude in front of her guardian, in the
drawing room. Suppose someone, Mrs Pelham the housekeeper, for instance, were
to come in? was beyond the bounds of both propriety and imagination.
Lady J. concealed her pleasure at both her niece's
appearance and her compliant obedience to the detail of the strange
instructions given to her. Jayne's shoulder length bright red hair fell free
and heavy about her bare neck, brushed to a flame-golden shine. Her skin,
strikingly white, had the pale translucence which often goes with red hair and
green eyes. Here and there, where it was stretched over a bone or a tautly
rounded shoulder, it took on the quality of polished marble. Her breasts,
already well developed and obviously firm, swelled palely white above the black
lace bra, a faint blue vein tracing a delicate line across the rounded globe of
one swelling mound. (How many of those bras did she have, her aunt wondered,
and why? It hardly seemed regulation wear for a small but select girls'
boarding school, or Madame Monet's celebratedly austere academy.) The bra
itself was of that design which has straps well to either side, leaving the
décolletage free of visual obstruction. Its three-quarter cups held Jayne's
breasts high and together, just covering the nipples but leaving the rounded
upper slopes of the full bosom bare, invitingly womanly, the cleavage deep.
The trim waist was emphasised by the matching black
suspender belt, the long legs emphasised both by the specified high heel shoes
and the black stockings. As instructed, Jayne wore no other clothes and stood,
head up and hands by her sides, awaiting her aunt's next move.
Lady J. was surprised at how much pubic hair her niece
possessed, framed as it was by the taut straps of the suspender belt. Many
redheads, she knew, had sparse, almost wispy pubic fleece - but Jayne was
positively hirsute, her luxuriant pubic thatch a wide, tumbling mat of thick
carrot-red hair, surprisingly long and straight as well as being unusually
profuse, its vivid colour an eye-drawing contrast to the whiteness of the
girl's bare body. Far from being sparse Jayne's pubic growth was unusually
heavy, her mat spreading prolifically in a broad but perfect inverted triangle
at the base of the white belly, its down-pointing apex between the
close-pressed thighs, its base a solid horizontal bar across the top of the
young woman's pubic mound almost from hip to hip, leaving the pale flat tummy
itself quite bare but thickly covering the swelling hump of the prominent mons
veneris, its length and density obscuring completely the lips and division of
the sex despite the fact that, to judge both by its appearance and by a slight
pinkness to the underlying skin where it could be seen, Jayne had clearly and
even enthusiastically obeyed her aunt's instructions regarding brushing.
Smiling shyly, her eyes downcast, Jayne continued to
stand before her aunt, her arms at her sides, awaiting instruction.
'Excellent, my dear. You have dressed exactly as
required. If you decide to enter my little regime, you will quickly grow used
to being undressed, partly or completely, for many if not most of your
exercises.
'The programme I shall devise for you will consist partly
of exercises, and partly of tests: some exercises of course will in themselves
be tests - but we need not rush ahead of ourselves. We have yet to gauge your
aptitude for what I propose. So this is to be a small test: not demanding,
physically. A little uncomfortable, perhaps - but its primary purpose is
psychological. It requires a demonstration of your complete acquiescence to -
well, let's just say to a rather unusual form of discipline. You will find it,
I have no doubt, acutely embarrassing, even a little shaming. It is intended to
be.
'Will you bear this little humiliation for me, to
demonstrate your trust?'
Jayne could not, dare not speak. Appearing thus in front
of her aunt was already embarrassing enough - what could add to such
embarrassment as she already felt? She had no idea what her aunt intended to
require her to do (her mind had raced over many possibilities, most of them
still as unthinkable as they were imaginable). She nodded her head, dumbly, her
mouth dry. The problem was, she was already acutely aware, she was not exactly
dry elsewhere. The anticipation of what was to come, the frisson of
apprehension and daring which had filled her as she had made ready, as she had
walked semi-naked from her bedroom along the landing, down the wide staircase,
across the empty hall and into the drawing room, had left her with a very
specific tingle "down below" which she already knew well meant that
her knickers, had she been wearing any, would be more than a little damp. Although
inexperienced in the practical sense, Jayne was fully briefed in sexual theory
and knew precisely why and whence came the silvery dew that gathered, tingling,
in the folds of her vulva, matting the hair between her legs until sometimes it
was as stiff as wire wool. It was precisely why she was keeping her legs tight
closed as she stood before her aunt.
'Good. In that case, I want you to stand between the two
brass-topped pillars, your feet either side the cord.'
Jayne moved to obey, blushing again as she gave her aunt
a sudden view between her thighs as she swung her foot up in front of her to
straddle the cord. Positioned by her aunt half way between the pillars, at the
cord's lowest point, the cord itself was at knee height.
'Now my dear - put your feet fairly wide apart.'
Jayne obeyed, still wondering what this 'test' would
finally entail. She was wide-legged now, the horizontal cord between her knees.
It was, true enough, a rather embarrassing, unladylike pose - quite
out-of-keeping with her image of her aunt. Jayne held her wide-stepped stance,
her legs beginning already to tire (perhaps this would be the test - seeing how
long she could stand thus before having to ease her somewhat strained position)
while Lady J. made a small adjustment, moving one of the pillars, the one in
front of Jayne, back a little, causing the sisal cord to lift slightly, though
not bring it quite bar taut.
Placing a chair beside the pillar she had just moved,
Lady J. seated herself so that her eye-level was precisely at the centre of
Jayne's opened thighs, her gaze falling naturally between the parted alabaster
pillars. Even opened thus, Jayne's sex was still partly obscured by the thick
growth of bright red hair which spread even to the inside of the pale thighs
themselves, as well as sprouting heavily along each full sex-lip. Nonetheless,
Lady J. saw enough to know that her niece was already fully developed, the
cunt-lips thick and pinkly shadowed, the sex itself heavy-set and deeply cleft.
Between the thickly swelling outer labia peeped the succulent petal edges of
the folded inner lips, soft and slightly wrinkled but obviously thickly
fleshed. And there was something else. Unspeaking, Lady J. was pleased to see
tiny drops of silvery dew beading the already moist-darkened hairs deep within
the parted thighs. A thin tendril of silver, string-like and itself no thicker
than a hair, stretched from the skin of one inner thigh, about an inch below
the crease between thigh and torso, across to the centre of the mass of thick
hair. So she had judged her niece with accuracy. Good.
'Now my dear. I want you, from this position, to kneel
down, putting yourself lengthways along the cord. But here is the little
shaming thing I spoke of. As you lower yourself, I want you to take your hands
and part yourself underneath - your hair, then the lips of your opening, I mean
- so that the cord fits in between. Will you do this? You can still decline,
you know - and no more will be said.'