The Governess- 22
The warders escorted the boy along the wide corridor. His hands had been clipped
together behind him and as he walked shakily towards the heavy blue door at the
end of the corridor he felt near to fainting. They stopped in front of the door
while one of the warders knocked. As the door swung open the warders took a firm
grip on his arms. Before he had time to protest they had quickly moved him to
the centre of the room. Two more female warders held him as they expertly
clipped the cuffs around his wrists to narrow chains hanging from the beam above
his head. Pulling the chains, the warders quickly had his arms hoisted into the
air. They clipped the chains together and fastened the ankle cuffs to rings set
in the floor. In a matter of seconds, John had found his body stretched tight.
His legs were astride and his arms pulled outwards and upwards. He could not
move.
As he looked around the room he was aware that there were several other people
stand ing to the side of the room. To his left was a steel table holding
stainless steel dishes. There was also a variety of medical instruments as well
as bottles and gauze’s. To the side of this, there was an oxygen cylinder, its
rubber hose was attached to a face mask which rested on the table. He looked at
the assembled people without recognising the governor, or the magistrate who had
sentenced him. The young blonde warder moved to the window, which was directly
in front him. He watched as she took off her tunic jacket. Her firm breasts
pushed against the white cotton of her shirt as she moved toward an oak barrel
in the corner of the room. She pulled out a long bundle of birch twigs, which
had been soaking in brine. The twigs, which were forty inches in length, had
been expertly bound at one end to make a comfortable handle. She moved directly
in front of him, holding the birch down to let the brine drip from the twigs.
John could not believe that this pretty young girl was to be the one to beat
him. The young warder looked at him before moving behind him. She stood to one
side and shook the last drops of brine from the birch. There was complete
silence in the room. Sarah, who had entered quietly as they were fastening the
young man to the beam, was also surprised to the see the young blonde warder
taking the birch from the barrel. Sarah caught the eye of Lady Rawlings and gave
her a quick smile of greeting before moving to the side of the room. They both
looked at the prison governor.