Birching His Bride (Domestic Discipline 1) (3 page)

All in
all, other than the dance with Lord Hyde, Eleanor's come-out was deemed a
success by both her and her parents (although of course both of her parents
counted that dance as part of her success).  Her mother was happy because
everything had gone smoothly, her father was happy because Eleanor had behaved
- her mother neglected to inform him of his daughter's rude words to Lord Hyde
and the walk on the terrace she'd taken with the Earl of Cawdor, and Eleanor
was happy because she'd begun her campaign on two eligible young gentleman who
seemed suitably malleable and easily infatuated.  She was quite sure that
removing herself from her parent’s house and into a pampered marriage, where
she could return to the lifestyle she'd formerly led before her father took
such an interest in her upbringing, would commence by the end of the
Season. 

Putting on her most flirtatious smile, she turned her efforts
for the night into finding her a malleable husband as soon as possible.

*******

At ten o'clock sharp, Edwin presented himself at Lord
Harrington's house. Most of the household was still abed, including Hugh, but
Lord Harrington was already up and working in his study, which is where he
received Edwin. Ten o'clock was rather early for Edwin when he was in town, but
he hadn't wanted to deny Lord Harrington's request. His friend's father had
seem rather serious when he'd made it and Edwin wanted to put his best foot
forward, since he'd decided last night that Eleanor was eminently suitable to
be his wife. 

Indeed, he'd gone to bed with visions of her red, dancing
bottom in his head. While she put on a remarkable show of being a meek,
presentable miss, it was obvious that she still had most of her rough edges and
spoiled manners; catching her in those moments would be a delight.  The
idea of rousing her passions had made him as desirous of her as his craving to
have her over his knee. The flare of attraction between them had been
impossible to ignore and he’d seen the way she’d responded, despite the
sharpness of her tongue.

Yet he’d also
been relieved to see evidence that she was the same sweet girl he’d once
known.  Because he’d kept a close watch on her the entire ball he hadn’t failed
to miss when she’d gone amongst the wallflowers, taking her trailing train of
gentlemen with her and skillfully setting them to dance with the other young
ladies. Some of whom hadn’t danced all evening prior to Eleanor’s efforts.  And
she’d done it in such a way that the young ladies blossomed under Eleanor’s
smiling gaze, drawing them into conversations with the young men. Although he’d
also noticed that there had been two or three gentlemen that she hadn’t
relinquished from her side, and he’d taken careful note of them, especially the
overeager Kilcairn whom she seemed to save her most engaging smiles for. Young
puppy.

"Thank
you for coming so early, Lord Hyde," Lord Harrington said as he set his
work aside.  Edwin sat at attention. He'd always respected Lord Harrington
and looked to him as a model for behavior, even before he'd known about his
methods of discipline. Now he studied the man opposite him, a fine looking gentleman
with silvering blonde hair, laugh lines about his mouth and at the corners of
his light blue eyes. However, his hair was so light colored already that you could
barely tell he was going silver, so he ended up looking much younger than his
years.  "I know that town hours usually dictate a later start in the
day for most young men of your age and I appreciate your promptness."

"Of
course my Lord," Edwin said. 

"Edwin,”
Lord Harrington dropped the formality now that they were past their greetings,
“it come to my attention that you are a fine, upstanding young gentleman, and
you seem to have moved past the wild ways of many young men rather early in
life. I commend you for your maturity, and it is that maturity that has led me
to consider putting a proposal forward to you."

Curious now,
Edwin leaned forward a little.  Lord Harrington seemed almost nervous, his
forearms folded in front of him on the desk, a rather anxious expression on my
face. "I'm flattered that you hold me in such high esteem, my Lord, as I
have always held you. I am happy to hear any proposal that you have for me,
please continue."

"As Hugh
may have told you, preparing Eleanor for presentation to Society has not
been... the easiest task.  I noticed your interest in my daughter last
night and I also know from Hugh that you run a disciplined household, and that
you know and approve of my methods for curbing the worst of Eleanor’s excesses.
She needs a firm hand and traditional methods.  Despite the progress that
I have made with her in the past few years I am convinced that she means to
marry some wilting dandy who will let her have her head and she will end up
shaming us all.  That’s if she doesn’t ruin herself first, which seems all
too likely base on her behavior last night.”  Lord Harrington winced as if
remembering something particularly bad and Edwin wondered what on earth Eleanor
had done last night.  He had left by the time Eleanor had taken her walk
on the terrace with Lord Cawdor, a walk that she hadn't hidden as well from her
father as she'd thought.  “If you are amenable, I would like you to
consider taking Eleanor as your wife."

Edwin's heart
pounded in his chest with excitement. How strange and unusual that Lord
Harrington should offer him the very thing he'd been hoping to one day present
to the Lord! Still, perhaps it wouldn't do to seem over eager.  This was
very sudden after all, were there circumstances he was unaware of?

"My Lord,
I am honored that you thought of me, but this is very sudden is it not? Is
Eleanor ah..." he paused, unsure of how to delicately phrase the question.
Not that he truly cared if she was ruined, as long as there were no
consequences that would have repercussions for his family, but he would like to
know what he was getting into.  

"She's
not ruined," Lord Harrington said bluntly, and Edwin coughed. 
"No, I'm not angry, I can understand your concern.  The problem is
that I'm worried she'll attract some young buck who won't be able to handle her
and convince him to elope to Gretna Green with her.  I'd like to get her
married off to a
suitable
man before that happens. Despite her progress
in manners, none of the young men she surrounded herself with last night are
what I would consider suitable and if I don’t intervene now she’ll either
convince one of them to marry her or someone 
will
 ruin her. I
don't want her to be unhappy. You're a young and attractive man, you’ve known
her and the family since you were a boy and I know I can trust you to take care
of her. The only other men who might be able to handle her are much older and I
think she would object to that. There seemed to be something between the two of
you last night when you spoke and then danced. I think once she realizes that
she has a husband who won’t take any of her nonsense that she’ll prove herself
to be an asset as your lady wife and you two will be as happy as your parents
or my wife and I."

Now leaning
forward, Lord Harrington’s body language communicated his earnestness clearly. 
He truly was concerned about his daughter, as well as his family’s name, and he
wanted to be able to trust Edwin to take care of her.  But he also needed Edwin
to keep her from disgracing herself, if they were to marry.

"I would
certainly like to make her happy," said Edwin truthfully, although his
ideas on how to do so were much more closely aligned with her father's than
with the lady's own. "However, I'm not quite sure you've made as much
progress as you think." And he described Eleanor's rude behavior from the
night before as Lord Harrington's face darkened, ending with a request that she
not be punished as he'd rather not have her feeling any more antagonistic
towards him than necessary at this juncture.

"Thank
you for telling me," Lord Harrington said. "I will allow you to
handle it as you see fit.  Please rest assured that her mother will be
suitably chastened for not informing me of our daughter's antics." 
Edwin shot him a look of surprise and Lord Harrington smiled. "Ah, you
thought the Lady is exempt from the discipline of the house? Absolutely
not.  In fact, I rather believe that she's come to enjoy it. You will find
that disciplining a wife is altogether a different thing from disciplining a
daughter."

"I see,
my Lord," said Edwin feeling rather stunned.  The idea of the demure
and graceful Lady Harrington bent over the arm chair - which happened to be the
one he was sitting in - to receive a spanking from her husband was both shocking
and rather arousing itself as he realized how many delightful years he would
have ahead of him with Eleanor.  "Well, I should be very happy to marry
Eleanor. Last night I actually had the thought that she would make an ideal
wife for me, although I had planned on courting her properly."

Lord
Harrington waved his hand dismissively. "No time for that, she'd just use
to get into more trouble. The sooner I shackle you two together, the happier
I'll be."

They hammered
out the marriage agreement rather quickly after the solicitors were called to
join them, with Lord Harrington looking extremely relieved now that he knew his
daughter would be in good hands, assured that she would have no chance to
dishonor or shame their family with a stalwart and responsible husband like
Lord Hyde. Promising to return that afternoon to propose, Edwin left to secure
a special license so that he and Eleanor could marry on the morrow.

"What?!"
Eleanor asked her father, staring at him completely aghast.  Her hands
clenched in the skirt of her father-approved modest beige morning gown, she
felt faint for the first time in her life. This could not be happening.

"You will marry
Lord Hyde tomorrow," her father said calmly, before continuing to new
information as if he hadn't just announced the most awful fate imaginable.
"It's quite a good match, I believe." He was smiling, so obviously
proud of himself for arranging her marriage that she wanted to scream.  

"But it's too
soon! I just came out yesterday!" she protested, her mind racing. 
The fact that he had made her insides quiver last night didn't make a basis for
a good marriage, and Lord Hyde's strong personality certainly didn't make for
the kind of marriage Eleanor wanted.  Somehow she instinctively knew that
he wouldn't be at all malleable or inclined to give her whatever she wanted.
After all, heated glances and seductive words or not, he'd known her for too
long, had heard her waspish tongue.  There would be no honeying her way
with sweet words and promises when it came to him. After all her hard work
attracting an acceptable court of suitors and her father was going to cut her
off from them before she could even attempt to bring one up to snuff!

"You're lucky I
let you come out at all with the way you ended up behaving," her father
said sternly, his smile fading a little. "I certainly hope you aren't
arguing with me Eleanor. This is a good match. He's young, wealthy, and eager
to wed you. You could do much worse."

She could also do
much better.  Eleanor shook her head, furious, unable to verbalize her
thoughts, and her father's smile faded further, his face darkening. 

"Eleanor, you
will marry him. Tomorrow. He will be here to propose this afternoon and you
will accept him."

"Please Papa,
don't make me do this," she begged, reduced to it by her panic. "I
don't want to marry him."

The look on his face
darkened even more and solidified. "You want to marry one of those idiots
that you can push around, is that it? Lord Cawdor or Count Bryant? Yes, I saw
you leading them around last night. They're not worthy of a woman like you, and
the fact that you would even consider lowering yourself to marrying one of
those buffoons only highlights the need for someone wiser to make such
important decisions for you.  Count Bryant is heavily in debt thanks to
his gaming habits and Lord Cawdor doesn't have the wit or the will to keep you
in line, you’d ruin both his good name and ours within a month."

That was exactly why
she was interested in Cawdor! Bryant hadn't been one of the men that she
favored, but Cawdor would have done perfectly.  Although of course she wouldn’t
have ruined him, but she would have had all the beautiful dresses she wanted,
and dripping jewels, a husband who would adore her and… everything!  She shook
her head again, wanting so badly to stamp her foot and scream and throw the
kind of tantrum that she used to indulge in up to a few years ago. 
"I won't!"

Lord Harrington
sighed, somehow instinctively knowing it would come to this.  His wife had
indulged their daughter far too long and he hadn't been paying proper attention
or he would have put a stop to it much sooner. Now it was too late and he could
only be thankful that Edwin, who was already wise to some of Eleanor's tricks
and wouldn't allow her to run wild, had been so interested in her.  As
much as he would have liked to give Eleanor a proper debut, she'd already shown
last night that she couldn't be trusted to be a proper lady. 

"You will. 
Last night you came within a hairsbreadth of shaming the family. Do you know
how many matrons saw you leave for a walk about the terrace with Lord Cawdor?
And come in looking flushed, like you’d just been kissed?”  Eleanor winced,
because of course the truth was that she
had
just enjoyed her first
kiss. “You were almost ruined at your 
come-out
 ball Eleanor. I
will not give you the opportunity to actually do so. If you continue to argue I
will spank you."

"But Papa,
surely you can't -"

Her father stood,
patience wrung out that she was still trying to fight with him. "Over the
chair Eleanor."

"No, Papa,
please!"

"You're trying
my patience Eleanor. You are my daughter and your duty is to obey. I have
indulged this conversation long enough. Position yourself over the chair."

Letting out a small
sob, Eleanor indulged in stamping her feet as she got into position.  It
did very little to vent her emotions; she should have left when he told her to
and now she bitterly regretted not doing so.  By now she'd learned that
her father didn't bluff.  Lifting up her skirts was the worst part, baring
her bottom and vulnerable places for punishment. None of her other friends ever
mentioned having to do anything remotely like this, not since they were small
children, only her father was so old fashioned and stodgy. They got to wear
prettier dresses than her too, with lower necklines, in better fabrics, and go
shopping whenever they wanted. They didn't get lectures about proper behavior
or immodest gowns. It didn't occur to Eleanor that most of those that were
currently unmarried didn't actually need those lectures and that most of her
friends were more firmly under the control of their mothers’, whom were all
much stricter than her own. 

She could hear him
opening the cupboard and she winced.  
Please not the birch
,
she thought. Unfortunately she was not much heartened to hear the familiar slap
of the leather tawse against her father's open palm.  

"Ten strokes and
I hope this is the last time I will have to punish you," he said.
"After all, you marry tomorrow and then you are his responsibility."

The last time?
Suddenly Eleanor didn't feel quite so bad. Surely things would be different in
Lord Hyde's house. And perhaps she could contrive some manner to escape; if she
put off the bedding for long enough then she could run away and have the
marriage annulled later. 

Leather whistled
through the air and landed with a crack across the round globes of her bottom.

"One."

Gritting her teeth,
Eleanor dug her hands into the leather cushion on the seat of the chair. 
The last time. She could get through this.  Another stroke landed, just
below the first, and air hissed out between her teeth.  

"Three,"
she heard her father say as pain flared through her thighs. 

Burying her head in
the chair, she let herself cry her way through her last punishment, her heated
buttocks twitching as the strap fell on it again and again.  She would
find a way out of this; she might not be able to avoid marrying Edwin, but once
out of her father's household she would find a way to have the marriage
annulled and then she could have the life that she wanted, the life she had
planned for.  She would be loved and adored, not dictated to and disciplined or
sent away to Brighton to languish.

“Ten.”

The last stroke fell
and Eleanor let out a long sigh of relief. Although her buttocks felt fiery and
sore, they didn’t hurt nearly as bad as some of the punishments she’d received
in the past. And this was her last one.

“Now what do you say
Eleanor?”

“I’m sorry Father,
for disobeying and arguing with you.  I know you only want what is best
for me.” The truth of those words suddenly struck her.  Although she might
hate her father’s methods, she didn’t doubt his love or that he wanted her to
have a secure and happy life, they just disagreed on what would make that life
for her. 

Something of her
thoughts must have shown in her face because her father smiled at her, perhaps
hearing the ring of sincerity in her voice.

“I do Eleanor, I
really do.” And to her surprise, he embraced her gently and didn’t tell her to
stand in the corner before giving her permission to leave the room. “Oh, and
Eleanor? Could you tell your mother I’d like to see her in here?”

******

When Edwin was shown
into the salon that afternoon Eleanor and her mother were both sitting on the
sofa looking rather uncomfortable. The redness around both of their eyes
indicated that tears had been shed sometime in the past few hours and they were
shifting uncomfortably, as if their bottoms hurt.  Had Lord Harrington
already administered a punishment to his wife? And had he gone back on his word
about disciplining Eleanor or had she earned a red bottom for something else?

Wondering if his
future wife had been soundly spanked this afternoon made Edwin’s breeches feel
rather tight, but he tried to push such enticing thoughts out of his head for a
more appropriate time.  After exchanging the usual courtesies and a few
comments about the weather, Lady Harrington excused herself, claiming a need to
find her maid, ostensibly to give Edwin and Eleanor a few minutes alone so that
he might propose.

For herself, Eleanor
was so wrapped up in herself that she hadn’t even noticed her mother’s
discomfort or red eyes, even when she and her mother had been having a
discussion about Lord Hyde’s attributes and her mother’s joy over her
daughter’s ‘happy match.’  It was all enough to make Eleanor want to slap
Lord Hyde across his smug, handsome face. Yet nothing stopped the tremor that
went through her body as he moved to seat himself next to her on the couch, far
too close to her for comfort.

Oh, what was her
father thinking?! The hastiness of this match would cause more gossip than
anything Eleanor had done.  Although since she and Edwin had known each
other for so long, perhaps the gossip wouldn’t be quite as bad, it wasn’t as if
they were strangers after all.  He was one of her brother’s closest
friends. Looking into his dark, brooding eyes, she couldn’t stop the flush that
came to her cheeks. Unconsciously she shifted away from him, wincing as the
weight on her sore bottom changed. Unfortunately the cushions on the sofa
weren’t soft enough to comfort a thoroughly chastised bottom like hers.

“Lady Eleanor,” Edwin
murmured, bringing her gaze back up to meet his.  Her crystal blue eyes
were filled with anxiety and excitement, the little catch in her breath as he
leaned closer to her telling him that she was not unaffected by his presence.

“Lord Hyde,” she
said, her voice formal, stilted. Yet the look she was giving him was that of an
innocent, awaiting a stolen kiss, with her head and lips tilted just so.  It
was an instinctive response and not one that she would have made knowingly.

Sliding down onto one
knee in front of her, Edwin impertinently put his hand on her thigh. Eleanor
drew in her breath quickly as his hand seemed to sear her skin through the
fabric of her gown. No man had ever touched her in such an inappropriate spot
before!  If only he wasn’t so handsome, so big, so exciting… her reaction
to his touch was more than a little disturbing to her.

“Eleanor,” he said,
his voice becoming more warmly intimate as he used her Christian name. Her
cheeks flushed becomingly.  “We’ve known each other for years now and last
night at your ball I realized I’d never seen another woman I wanted to make my wife,
not until I really looked at you and saw the young woman you’ve become and not
the little girl I’d known all my life.” His hand reached up and brushed her
cheek, Eleanor jerked back.  The touch of skin on skin was too fiery to be
born, although it didn’t help when his hand settled back onto her thigh. 
The ring of truth in his voice disconcerted her, he actually sounded as if he
was saying nothing but the honest truth! Was it possible he truly had a
hidden 
tendre
 for her?  That he truly wanted to marry her
for something other than her father’s money or request? The idea appealed more
than she wanted to admit. “I know this is quite sudden, but I want you to
understand that this is what I truly want. Please, do me the honor of becoming
my wife.”

There was no mention
of love or adoration in his little speech, but she didn’t doubt his
words.  Edwin had never been a liar and there was sincerity in everything
he said, although she couldn’t account for why he was sudden speaking of these
feelings now.  Perhaps he would be easier to influence than she thought.
Surprisingly flustered, Eleanor cleared her throat to try and find her voice, it
came out in a husky whisper.

“I had no idea…” she
cleared her throat again. While she still wasn’t sure that marriage to Lord
Hyde was what she wanted, at the very least it would get her out of her
father’s house. And then she could find a way to annul the marriage and flee to
her mother in Brighton, surely one of her swains would be willing to meet her
there and elope to Gretna Green.  Kilcairn or Cawdor would probably consider it
the height of heroic romance.  That was probably for the best, her strange
attraction to Edwin was dangerous and not to be indulged.  But for now she must
play the part that she had been assigned. “I accept.”

He gave her a wry
grin, as if acknowledging her rather lackluster response. Then, to her shock,
he stood, pulling her to her feet and into his arms in one swift movement.

“What are you-?” she
started to say before he cut her off.

“Let us seal it with
a kiss.”

And then his lips
were on hers. They were soft, warm, and insistent.  Eleanor shuddered at
the sensation of his strong arms wrapped around her, easily holding her against
him.  The muscles of his broad chest flexed under her hands as she pushed
at him. Then one of his hands slid down her back and squeezed her bottom,
eliciting a small gasp of pain as his fingers dug into her abused rear. 
Edwin took advantage of her open lips to slide his tongue into her mouth. He
tasted of spice and mint, his tongue both shocking and exciting her, as did
this entire encounter. Somehow the heat in her bottom seemed to change under
Edwin’s hand, from merely painful to rather arousing.  Making a small
mewling noise Eleanor squirmed against him, although she was no longer entirely
sure that she wanted him to let her go. Something new and fantastic had flared
to life inside of her, making her sore bottom feel almost good as his hand
squeezed it, and she could feel herself yearning for… something…