on those last three, did you, Wedell?”
“No, Frau Direktrice.”
“I didn't think you would be so silly as to.”
“It… it was perhaps that… she squirmed so, and I hit too high, at the end.”
“She did wriggle, didn't she?” The Headmistress adjusted her monocle. “Tell me, when did I last order you a flogging, Wedell?”
The undermistress spoke to the wall in front- “Two years ago, Frau Direktrice. Twenty strokes with the switch. It was across the buttocks, thank you.”
“Hm. Well, you seem to have profited from the experience, not to have come back since then.”
“Yes, I have tried to obey orders implicitly, Head.”
“Good. However, I don't like my mistresses to go too long without a reminder of what they themselves are inflicting, so I serve notice on you that I shall be watching you closely this term, Wedell.”
“Yes, Frau Direktrice.”
“Is the Duty Book completed and signed?”
“On your desk, Head.”
“How many did you have at Duty tonight?”
“Five. Kraus, Nagel, von Hoffmansthal, the little Elrich, and Uhlein.”
“Get any of them to 'repeat?' ” Here the Directress was referring to the custom whereby, when a girl did not “take” her Duty cuts in complete stoicism, she received them again afterwards, added to those she had been unable to manage the first visit.
“Uhlein,” said Fraulein Wedell a little more brightly now that the conversation had taken a securer tack. “I very nearly got Nagel to get up, too, but she just held on. However, I think I really hurt Uhlein, the second time. She could barely find her knickers again afterwards, and went out of the door twisting like a belly dancer. I passed her dorm just now, Head, and she was still in floods of tears.”
The Directress thought. Finally she said, “Stand here and wait until I dismiss you.” She turned on her heel and left the room on the opposite side from that taken by the punished junior mistress. This connected with her salon where a tall, big-boned, red-faced officer in a perruque and off-duty clothes reclined with a glass of fortified wine. His tight pale-blue trousers and flounced shirt suggested an immense muscularity of body beneath.
“Dire execution over?” he murmured as the Frau Direktrice entered and closed the joining door behind her. “It sounded salutory, and I am sure was.”
“Yes, I flogged a Prefect and a young mistress. A new one.”
His brow raised over the glass. “Really? Do I know her?”
She shook her head with a laugh. “Nor will you, until at least next term, Karl. I'm not sending Maria Daunitz to you ruffians at the barracks until she's trained.”
“Not even for a flogging, Beth? I've one Corporal who is accuracy itself. And 'tis so entertaining for the young officers, y'know.”
“Did you see that Ritter girl get it, by the by?” asked the now insouciant Directress, serving herself to wine.
“Alas, no such luck. Had to take my squadron out on training at the time. But Leopold-you know him-saw the last part and says the skin was fairly taken off her back by the end. Unfortunately she kept on fainting, despite all the brandy they gave her. No,” he ended on a sigh, “I rather fear she won't throw eyes at our young Prince Fritz again in a hurry.”
“Wedell's outside. If you're interested.”
“I'm always interested,” said Colonel Karl von Schmettau, standing up with a laugh and grabbing hold of Elizabetha Grunkow's stocky bottoms in both hands and lifting her bodily off the floor for his kiss. “And particularly in this!”
She hung glued to his lips for a long moment, feeling the mast of his manhood along one thigh. He put her down and laughed.
“And always ready whenever I see this marvelous randy little rump of yours, Beth. Which is We-dell? I forget. Can't I cane her first?”
“No.”
The Frau Direktrice was thoughtfully peeling down her skintight britches, and the cambric knickers beneath. The man's prick kicked like a mule at the sight of