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It was a long time ago that I discovered the availability of CP pictures on the internet. More recently I have sought to write stories that might account for those pictures. I am fully aware that many of them come from a completely different background. Indeed in some cases I was already aware of that setting so please don't complain if you feel I've taken liberties. I intended to.
If the reader would like a copy of the picture for any stories in my "Inspired By Pictures" series, please drop me an email with a request and statement of which picture you need and I will try to send it. Many came from the now defunct site which was run for a long time by Johnny in Holland. These are in bitmap form and so are of fair size. I have tried changing them but always succeed in losing some quality and so I will send them as they are.
Picture Name: whipping_tree
Tony Smith's most serious mistake had been to fool around with Terry Hardaker's sister. Tony had never considered the consequences of his actions. His father worked in a bank and was comfortably off. Terry's family was known to be rough and popular report had it that the females of the brood were easy pickings. Fooling around had been dangerous enough but when he left her with a bun in the oven, even Terry's limited intelligence should have worked out that he had gone too far. This was a situation where even his father would have been unable to bail him out. A more intelligent or a less foolhardy character would either have immediately approached her father with a view to making more formal the arrangement that had developed between them or have got well away from the district and from the entire Hardaker family.
Not Tony. He simply shrugged his shoulders when Emily had told him and said that it had been her choice to bed down with him and she could accept the result. Emily had not seen it in this light. Two of her sisters had acquired husbands by the same technique of allowing them to taste the goods, produce some fruit and then realise that they had committed themselves.
For Emily, this was a complete disaster for we are looking at events in the nineteen thirties when a single mother was almost unheard of and would have been seen as a disgrace to the family. That some tasted the joys of wedlock early was acceptable. No doubt some puritans in the village had clicked their tongues in disapproval when Jenny and Maud had produced their offspring within three months of the weddings ceremony, but at least the children had been born within wedlock.
Tony had not allowed for the fact that Emily's family was a close one and that her brothers were characters who no-one took on without careful thought, even singly. The outcome was that, one sunny, summer day, Tony was crossing a field as a shortcut to his latest girlfriend when he found himself facing three strapping youths, Sam, Pete and Terry Hardaker.
Sam said, "We want a word with you."
"What about?"
"You bloody well know what about. You've put Emily in the club and now you' re refusing to make an honest woman of her. We want some justice for her and our family."
"I'm not marrying her, and that's flat."
Terry replied, "You're bloody not marrying her after you've shown what a scumbag you are. But she needs money and your family can provide it. That's being fixed between our Dad and yours. All that's left now is that you get your deserts."
Tony was beginning to become really concerned.
"What do you mean?"
Sam said, "I don't know about that stuck up grammar school where you went, but at our place the masters and the headmaster had a very short way with boys who misbehaved."
"What do you mean?"
"A good caning or belting and it was across the arse for serious things. It' s what your dad should have given you a lot more of and it's what you're going to get now."
"I'm bloody not."
Terry, who had remained silent until now simply asked, "Who's going to stop us?"
He stepped forward, grabbed Tony's left arm and twisted it high up the centre of his back, forcing him to fall flat on his face. Quickly, the other two removed his shoes and then Terry said, "Your clothes are all coming off, and quickly. If we take them off, there'll just be a knife opening their seams. If you want to save them, you agree to get them off - but you make it fast."
Tony saw Sam take out a sharp knife.
"Alright. I'll do it."
They released him and Tony got to his feet.
Sam said, "Sixty seconds is all you've got. Once they've gone the rest gets cut off."
The three bothers started a remorseless count. "Sixty, fifty nine, fifty eight ...."
Tony ripped his jacket off and removed the pullover his mother still made him wear, even though it was high summer. His braces were slipped from his shoulders and he unbuttoned his flies. He pushed his trousers down and stepped out of them, removing his socks at the same time. His tie, shirt and collar came off, as did his vest. As the trio reached five he stood there in his underpants.
Sam approached with the knife and asked, "You want them cut off?"
Hurriedly, Tony stepped out of them.
Terry pushed him against a nearby tree and said, "Get your arms round here."
He took his hands and held them while Pete took a piece of cloth he had in his pocket and fastened it tightly round Tony's wrists.
Tony said, "That's bloody tight. It's hurting."
Terry replied, "Stop whining. We nearly brought some cord. That would have cut as well as hurting."
He moved behind the frightened Tony and started removing his own belt. It was a broad, thick and heavy leather strap. He folded it in two and said, "This is what your dad should have been giving you for year. Stand by!"
He took the strap right back and smashed it as hard as he could across the waiting buttocks. Tony felt his body being driven into the tree by the force of the blow and already his rump was feeling as though it was on fire.
Terry struck a second time. Tony almost screamed.
Terry said, "You can cut that noise out or you'll get more. You were man enough to give our sister a kid. You can be man enough to take the result as well."
Two more heavy strokes followed.
He said, "That's my share. There are three of us. Twelve will be a nice warm up for what's going to be the main course."
Tony whimpered, "I can't take twelve like that."
Terry laughed, "You've got no choice mate. You're fastened there and you take what we give you."
Sam said, "Perhaps it might be better if he asks us to give him what he's due for. Then he can't complain about it."
Terry said, "That's an idea. You heard, you little rat. Ask us nicely to give you what you deserve. That's unless you want to risk us persuading Emily that you raped her and we take her along to the police. She's a good girl and would never have agreed to you having her."
Afraid that they might actually do what they threatened, Tony said, "Alright. Give me what you want."
Sam drove the strap across the waiting rump. "It'll be a pleasure."
As the blows fell, Tony was writhing but there was no escape from the powerful blows.
As Sam completed his four, Tony thought that there was an escape for he saw Mr Wright approaching. Mr Wright was now retired but he had been the Hardaker boys' headmaster. He went out of his way to come to the quartet.
"What's going on here?"
Terry said, "Well, Tony. Do you want him to know why we're doing this?"
Tony had no hesitation. "Just because I gave your sister a bun in the oven. Why shouldn't I want him to know?"
Terry replied using the ideas more recently developed. "It's how you did it that matters to us. It was rape and we prefer to give you a good thrashing rather than Emily have to tell the police and then the court. You prefer it as well don't you? You asked us to do it instead of going to the police."
Mr Wright said, "Fair enough. If his father had used the belt a bit more when he was younger, you probably wouldn't be needing to do it now. If he complains later I can be a witness that he asked you to do it. By the way, lads, I congratulate you."
Terry asked, "What for, sir?"
"I seem to remember telling you that, until the end of the nineteenth century, the villagers would dish out any thrashings they felt were right at this tree, just as you are now. It's been called the whipping tree for as long as I can remember and a great deal longer. You'll probably remember that they chose a tree well out of the village so that the women and children wouldn't see it because they had the offender naked, just as you are doing. It's good to see old traditions maintained. Are you just going to give him a belting?"
"No, sir. That's to warm him up. We've got a birch rod to do the main work."
"That's what the old villagers often used, when they didn't use a riding crop or even a horse whip. I mustn't detain you. Keep up the good work."
Mr Wright went on his way.
Peter took his turn and another four heavy blows from the strap fell. As Peter was left handed, his work helped to balanced the reddening.
As he finished, Terry said, "Now for the birch, or as close as we could get to a birch."
From the base of a nearby hedge he produced several weapons. Each was about three foot six inches long and each consisted of three or four straight willow switches, tied together at the thick end, with string wrapped around, holding them firmly and providing the grip for a handle. He placed the spares on the ground and took one into the line of Tony's vision.
"We've got these right, I know. We've got an uncle who knew somebody who was birched in the Isle of Man and he says this is like what they use there."
He moved it through the air experimentally and Tony flinched.
"You aren't going to use that, are you?"
"We are. If they can use it on fourteen years old lads, or even younger, we can use it on you. There's nothing you can do about it. We'll start with two each, give you a rest and then some more."
Terry handed the birch road to Peter. "You were last with the strap. You can have first go now."
Peter approached the frightened Tony, took careful aim and the took the switches back. He reached as far back as he could, twisting his body like a powerful clockwork spring. Then he allowed it all to spring into powerful life as the weapon sped through the air, crashing into Tony's already reddened buttocks and raising rich weals.
"Arrggh!"
Tony's scream ripped through the air.
Terry said, "Just cut out the noise unless you want to attract an audience."
"It's not your arse that's being ripped open."
Meanwhile, Peter had been preparing for the next stroke and, before Tony had calmed down after the previous stroke, he hit again.
He was followed by Sam and Terry.
Tony leaned against the tree, his backside feeling as though it was on fire and unable even to give it a comforting massage.
Terry took out a packet of cigarettes.
"We'll have a smoke while he gets ready for the next session."
Tony asked, "Can I have one, please?"
Terry replied, "Of course you bloody can't. Your hands are tied. You couldn' t hold it and we aren't holding one to your mouth."
All Tony could do was stand at the tree, his wrists getting more and more sore and his backside feeling that it was on fire. He was dreading the next session but knew it would happen and wished it would arrive. Eventually the brothers were ready.
Terry took up the first implement and examined it carefully saying, "This one hasn't started to break up yet. You did a good job choosing these switches, Sam."
He returned to the waiting Tony. Soon the birch rod was being taken back again and then it crashed across the waiting seat. The pain seemed to take over his entire body.
"Arrggh!"
Tony's agony was well expressed. Terry said, "Stop that row or it'll be even more. I've told you once already."
He gave him time to savour that blow before aiming for his second. This time Tony struggled to avoid screaming.
Terry handed the rod to Sam who said, "I need another now. You snapped some bits off it that time. I saw them fly away."
He collected a new rod and addressed his task. By now, Tony's rump, already red from the belting, was also displaying a fine collection of raised weals.
Sam proceeded to add to them and his brother completed the set.
Terry said, "Another break now."
Tony said, "No more, please, for pity's sake."
Terry replied, "Look, you're due for at least another two dozen with the birch but we want to be fair. Besides, you're so low that it's unpleasant having to be near you. We'll strike a bargain with you. There's no reason why Emily should keep meeting the reptile who treated her so badly. You get out of the village and stay out of it. We'll give you a week and if we catch you after that, we start this all again as though you'd had none. There'll be the belting to warm you up and at least three dozen with the birch. There 'll be no stopping early next time, and it'll happen even if you're freezing in three feet of snow. Do you accept that?"
Tony replied, "I've got no choice."
Terry untied his wrists. Tony slipped onto the ground, face down and held his rump with both hands.
The three brothers left him to get dressed.