Susan was busy the entire next day, Saturday, so Basil had to wait another anxious day awaiting the promised punishment. His concentration during Saturday's lessons left something to be desired and had to be replenished occasionally with a few applications of leather across bare skin.
Sunday morning they all went to church, both children dressed in their best clothes. Susan in a frilly white dress, a bow in her hair and dress shoes. Basil in his blue jacket, very brief shorts, and white ankle socks. The boy squirmed on the hard pew through the lengthy sermon, but wasn't anxious to return home.
However, services were at last over and they returned home.
"Basil, change your clothes, but you needn't put on pants or shorts. Just put on your sports shirt and wait for me in your room," Maureen Walker instructed the boy after they had arrived.
Basil looked sulky but obeyed. Susan went to her room and replaced her fancy dress with jeans and T-shirt. Then she joined Miss Walker in Basil's room where the boy stood bare from the waist down.
"It's not fair!" he said angrily when Maureen Walker and Susan entered. "I didn't do anything! Susan is lying!"
"Basil, accusing your sister is only going to make it worse for you," Maureen Walker snapped. "Calling her a liar is rude and I think you know what happens when you are rude to your sister."
"But -"
"Silence! Not another word out of you, do you hear? Now go downstairs and bring me the cane. I am going to teach you to kick your sister and then lying about it!"
"You believe me, don't you, Miss Walker?" Susan said when the boy a stormed out of the room.
"As a matter of fact, I believe you because I saw him do it. Basil thinks the tablecloth hid his and your legs, but I could see very well in the reflection in the glass-covered picture across the room. Don't think I intend to punish a child if I think there is any doubt about his guilt."
"Oh, thank you, Ma'am. That makes me feel much better."
Basil returned with the cane and Susan laughed when she saw the small boy, naked from the waist down, extending the cane to the tall governess.
"Now you are going to get what you deserve, you little brat," she said to her brother.
"Take out the chair and bend over the back," Maureen Walker instructed the boy, his face now pale and his lips trembling. "Susan will not only watch your punishment, she will also be the judge as to how long it should last. I will apply the cane as hard as I can until she tells me to stop. Is that understood, boy?"
"Y-yes, ma'am." The boy's voice quivered.
"And that's going to take a long, long time," Susan said with a little giggle. As Maureen Walker watched the boy humbly bending over the chair back, extending his bare bottom as an invitation to be punished, she felt that sense of power, which she had discovered not so long ago, increase. She was alone now, without the parents' supervision, and she could do with this boy whatever she wanted, within reason, and no one would complain. Mary, the maid, didn't care. She had seen the boy being beaten by his father or mother innumerable times over the years, and Susan was obviously gloating at the prospect of exerting her own powers over her young brother.
"Very well," Maureen Walker said at last after a long, pregnant silence, "I think we shall begin."
With that the cane was raised and slashed sharply across the protruding little bottom. And the cane rose and fell, rose and fell, rose and fell.
It was almost five minutes later when Maureen Walker put down the cane.
"Stay in position, boy," she said. "Susan, please come with me downstairs."
They left the boy alone, whimpering with pain, clinging to the chair legs with cramped fingers.
Maureen Walker took Susan to the kitchen. Mary was busy chopping vegetables.
"Susan, don't you think Basil has had enough? His backside is turning black and blue with weals and bruises."
"But you said I would say when he had enough," Susan sounded hurt. "I don't think he has had enough. I think you should go on. I don't care if his bottom is turning black and blue. My shin is also bruised."
"Well, let's have a bit of orange juice and rest for a moment. It will give Basil a chance to recover."
"But I don't want him to recover!" Susan was pouting again.
"You know, Susan, that if you hit the flesh long enough, the nerves slowly grow numb and they can't feel the impact after a while. If we let Basil recover, he will feel each next stroke all the more. Don't you want that?"
"It will hurt him more?"
"Yes, Susan, I'm sure it will."
"All right, then, let's make him wait an hour."
"No, Susan," Maureen Walker chuckled, "that's too long. Let's make it fifteen minutes and then we will resume."
Fifteen minutes later, Maureen Walker resumed the caning , Basil resumed his screeching and Susan resumed her watchful observation of the cane's effect on the boy's bare buttocks. Maureen Walker saw the boy's legs begin to tremble violently.
"Susan, I think this is all Basil can take," Maureen Walker whispered to her. "Let's finish this now."
"Just six more, please!" Susan begged.
"Oh, very well. But after six, you will announce in a loud voice that Basil has been punished enough."
Maureen Walker swung the cane with extra force six more times as Basil, now hoarse from screaming, mewed like a strangled kitten.
"All right, Miss Walker," Susan announced in a dramatic voice, "Basil has learned his lesson, I think. Basil has been punished enough!"
"All right, Susan, if that is your judgment." Maureen Walker put down the cane.
They stood for a while looking down at the simpering boy across the chair. His bottom had swelled up and thick welts covered the lower portions of both buttocks and the upper thighs. It was a well-whipped boy who was finally allowed to rise.
"Put your hands on your head," Maureen Walker ordered the boy, "and apologise to your sister first for having kicked her, then for having lied about it and finally for insulting her by calling her a liar. I want a separate apology for each offense."
Basil started to cry again, this time from shame. But he had no choice. With his flaming, throbbing bottom he could not risk angering his governess any more. With his hands on his head, he dejectedly apologised three times, then again three times when Maureen Walker wasn't satisfied with the first try.
When Susan had also declared herself satisfied, Basil was sent to the corner, hands still on his head, to think about his crimes while Susan and Maureen Walker went about their business. Sundays were no lessons except homework and two hours later Basil found himself back in his tight shorts, sitting at his desk, sweating over the many tasks Maureen Walker had set him.
In the days that followed, Maureen Walker found reasons to punish the boy almost daily and more and more frequently she had to ask Mary to hold the boy in position because he was getting rebellious, struggling and kicking, pretending his backside was too sore for another thrashing. Eventually, however, even this stubborn boy was finally persuaded to take his medicine with proper comportment, thus saving himself from further beatings.
Susan found it even more interesting when her little brother had to be subdued my the maid. She knew how mortified the boy was under such circumstances and she gloated over it.
It was a Saturday evening. Maureen Walker, Susan and Basil were playing a board game when the door bell rang. Susan jumped up to answer.
"Oh, Miss Walker," she called after having two visitors into the house.
"It's Helen and Joanie are here. Can they come in?"
"Of course, Susan. Pleas come in, all of you, and close the door. There's a draught."
"Basil, take the girls' coats and hang them up, will you?" Maureen Walker instructed the boy and Basil quickly obeyed. Over the last few weeks he had become a much more docile and obedient little boy.
The girls were invited to join the game and they all started up again. The little figures were moved about, money and real estate changed hands again and again until most of the money was with the two guests who laughed in delight. Basil had more properties but when he landed on a space that required him to pay more money than he owned, he tried to sell his properties. Regardless of the game's rules, the girls declined to sell him any. Basil had lost the game, they said, and he was out. In his anger, Basil slapped at the board and sent the houses, hotels and little figurines flying all over the room.
"Basil!" Maureen Walker's voice was sharp and aghast. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the startled boy quickly cried. "I didn't do it on purpose!"
"Yes, you did! We all saw it!" Susan exclaimed indignantly. "Miss Walker, you saw it, didn't you?"
"Yes, indeed I saw a very naughty boy behaving like a spoilt child who doesn't want to lose. I think I will deal with this right away. Basil, go to your room and prepare yourself."
Basil, crying softly, scrambled to his feet, pulled at the seat of his tight-fitting shorts and stumbled out of the room.
"What's going to happen?" Helen asked Susan.
"He's going to get a whipping," Susan informed her friends. "And well deserved, too."
"A whipping? You mean with a whip?" Joanie wanted to know.
"You don't have a brother," Susan nodded. "That's why you don't know. No, it's not a whip. Usually it's a cane or a tawse."
"Tawse?" Joanie asked.
"Yes, that's what a leather strap is called, when it's specially made to whip little boys," Susan explained, proudly exhibiting her superior knowledge in such matters. "They are made of thick leather with two or three tails."
"Goodness," Joanie said amazed, "sounds like it would hurt terribly."
"I don't know," Susan giggled. "You'd have to ask Basil."
"I've never seen a boy being whipped before," Helen, who had no brothers either, said.
"Would you like to see?" Susan asked with a wicked little smile.
"Oh, yes! I'm very curious to see how that is done," Helen said and Joanie agreed.
"Miss Walker," Susan now turned to the governess, "would you mind if we all came to watch? After all, he spoiled all our games."
"Yes, a little humiliation might also do Basil some good. Come along but stand where you won't be in the way."
They all went upstairs, Maureen Walker in the lead, but once on the floor, the girls rushed ahead and Susan led them in Basil's room.
The two guests stood and gaped as they saw young Basil obediently bent over the back of the chair, bare bottom in the air.
"Oh," Helen said.
"Wow," Joanie agreed.
"Yes," Susan said, "that's how he has to bend for his whippings."
"With his shorts and pants down?" Joanie said, impressed. She was staring at the thick welts across the boy's buttocks that fading but still quite visible.
"Yes, he always gets it on the bare," Susan explained.