Anonymous - Maude Cameron And Her Guardian

“ That’ s very good. You see what practice can do? We shall try this for half an hour every day, if the weather continues good. Now, put away the bicycle and go take yourself a bath and then a nap. I have some letters to write and I may go into town again.”

For several weeks, Charles Cameron concentrated on the single project of training his lovely young ward to ride the bicycle without falling off, much to Maude’ s chagrin and embarrassment. In all other things, he treated her with a mellow deference and almost paternal affection, till she began to believe that the nightmarish suggestion he had put to her that very first night in his abode had been merely an impulsive whim, or perhaps a ribald jest to disconcert her.

Yet the afternoon sessions held on that stretch of ground beyond the driveway were the cause of disconcerting and conflicting emotions for the golden haired adolescent. Once she reported out there and he assumed his stance with the thin, flexible and cruelly snappy carriage whip in hand, he took on the aspects of an Egyptian overseer and she that of a slave- and it was precisely this contrast in her otherwise exemplary status as a kind of foster daughter which made her reflect with growing perturbation on the real motive behind such outlandish treatment Undressed to camisole, stays and a single petticoat, conscious of the gross immodesty of such undress, Maude at last learned to ride the boy’ s bicycle without toppling off, at the cost of many a flick and stinging whiplash from the dexterously wielded implement which never once quitted his accurate hand.

To be sure, he was well aware of her confused state in forcing her to undertake this practise, at variance with the rest of the daily regimen which was so easygoing. For Charles Cameron, far from giving up his determination to bring this lovely creature to his bed as a humbled and willing love slave, used exactly this daily “ exercise” to bring him not only nearer to his goal but also to enforce on Maude’ s impressionable young mind the awareness that he was to be henceforth her sole law and guiding spirit.

Imagine, then, her consternation, in hoping that by being adept at bicycling she had at last earned his praise for her obedience and docility, when, just two days before her seventeenth birthday, at the end of a grueling half- hour astride the bicycle, Charles Cameron nonchalantly remarked, “ You see what perseverance to discipline can accomplish, my dear. And I trust that now you are of a better frame of mind to accept my invitation to go to bed with me.”

Maude turned a fiery red from crown to throat, and, turning away, as she held tightly to the handlebars of the bicycle, faintly responded, “ Oh, please, Uncle Charles, everything has been so pleasant being here. Will you not be kind and accept me as I am, without demanding of me what I cannot give?”

“ Will not give, you really mean,” he sharply retorted. “ Come now, my lovely one, you have been here almost a month, and you surely cannot gainsay the courtesy and kindness with which I have treated you. I had begun to hope you had found me sufficiently companionable by now to feel a joyous eagerness at my invitation and confidence enough also to trust me as an initiator of the tender passion in your untutored heart.”

“ But you know very well I could not bring myself to let a man who is not my husband take liberties with me, liberties which are reserved only for man and wife,” she tried to propitiate him with an appealingly soft tone of voice and imploring look out of her tearhumid blue eyes.

He shrugged. “ I see only that you are still a willful, obstinate naughty minx who needs must be chastised rather than coaxed. Very well. I promise you, Maude, that this next Saturday evening, you will repent your stubbornness, for I mean to introduce you to the kisses of the birch, since you will not have my own.”

“ Oh! Sir- what- what are you saying? You are surely not going to be so cruel as to p- punish me simply because I cannot bring myself to commit mortal sin?” Maude tearfully quavered.

Charles Cameron smiled suavely, flicked out the carriage whip along the ground, and Maude gasped as she watched him whisk it up and take off the head of a dandelion with its tapering leather tip. “ I do not consider it as such, my girl, and since you are my legal ward and accountable to me for your behavior, I take a very dim view of your persistence in holding me off with such a sanctimonious excuse. Love, Maude, between the sexes, is a thrilling and wholly satisfying experience, and yet, simply because you have let yourself be influenced by old fashioned notions, you put up barriers in advance before you even know what it is like.”

“ Oh, but- but I do know a little something- only, please, it- it is so embarrassing to mention such things in your presence, Uncle Charles.”

“ Ah ha!” he chuckled sarcastically. “ You are what is known as a wise virgin, then. Possibly I should have guessed as much when you unerringly went to the forbidden bookcase. You are not so innocent as you make out.”

Maude’ s blushes, beautiful to behold against her fair pink satiny skin, were furious by this time. “ Oh, sir,” she wrung her hands despairingly, “ I have only read a very little about what married people do, and one of my girl friends in London told me things which made me blush with shame. That is all I know- except that, as my own father taught me, I must save myself for the man who is going to be my husband.”

“ So be it. Then your bottom will pay instead for your silly prudery, my girl. You are duly warned,” he said and turned away, whip in hand.

“ Oh, Uncle Charles, please, please, you- you can’ t be going to wh- whip me for that?” she wailed. But he took no heed and went back into the house, purposely leaving her in a state of troubled agitation- which he had exactly calculated would befall her when he had determined to deliver his ultimatum. For Charles Cameron meant to enjoy his lovely ward’ s virginal treasures, while at the same time indulging himself in the delicious sport of making her wriggle and twist about and plead for pardon under the swishing of a good birch rod.

‘ The next day, which was Friday, he reminded her of this dire threat- the subject had not at all been mentioned till the afternoon- by saying suddenly, as they were finishing their high tea,” Maude, there is something in the comer of my bedroom, beside my dresser, which I wish you to bring to me at once.”

Wonderingly, she went out, and when she returned, tears were trickling down her cheeks, for she had found a birch rod placed in the corner of his room, made of half a dozen slim switches, still leafy, and with many scratchy twigs, with a white cloth tied round the end to use as a handle. “ Oh, please, please, dear Uncle Charles,” she sobbed, “ surely you aren’ t meaning to wh- whip me with this dreadful clump of switches?”

Eyeing her levelly, he said coldly, “ Since my arguments to your reason have made no dent, I mean to try to appeal more directly to your impertinent backside. Yes, Maude, you shall be birched. You shall be tied up, undressed, and then feel this good rod on the naked flesh of your saucy bottom. And it will be tomorrow night.”

So saying, he took the rod from her nerveless hand, swished it in the air and smilingly commented, “ I think it will sing nicely in the air, don’ t you, my dear?”

At this, Maude Rivers felt her resolve to be the chaste, obedient daughter her father had taught her to be beginning to ebb away, and she uttered a tremulous sob and responded, “ Oh, Uncle Charles, I cannot bear the thought of pain. Surely you are not going to deal with me so cruelly on my very birthday? If- if I agree to do what you wish, will you not let me off. I cannot bear the thought of being punished with that awful rod, Uncle Charles… and so, if I must obey you, I- I will do so if you will spare me.”