Chapter Eight
She showed me the tawse, holding it in front of my face for me to admire and kiss as she explained that it was designed for punishing errant schoolboys. Two long strips of heavy leather were attached to a wooden handle. It looked brutal.
When she told me that my beating was half over, she was speaking of duration, not intensity. She introduced me that day to the first of my new acquaintances in the category of bondage equipment as I was bent over and locked into a pillory at wrists and neck. My ankles were also secured wide apart in a set of stocks. A narrow plank supported my chest and belly, to ease the strain on my spine. I accepted that small mercy, though this advantage was considerably diluted by the leather strap that had been tightly buckled across my back and cinch
