Just before midnight, Kerri left Jade's redbrick house and wandered back to her cell, enjoying the cool evening air and the scents from the moonlit gardens. Everyone in Alpineglow seemed to have retired for the night. She reached her building and found a note pinned to her door. 'Please make your way to the woodshed tomorrow at 8am.' There was a map printed on the note that showed where the woodshed was.
Setting her alarm for seven, Kerri fell into bed still wearing Jade's green safari dress. The day of grape picking and the evening spent chatting had quite tired her out and the talk of a harsher zone had been disconcerting. Watching Jade being anally tormented and Celia being ridden hadn't helped...
She must have swatted her alarm clock quiet because when she awoke it was ten to eight. Cursing, Kerri drank some coffee and gobbled down a pastry from the hostess trolley then ran all the way to the shed.
Five men in their late twenties were already there looking very Stepford Husbandish. Kerri belatedly finger-combed her hair and smoothed down her dress.
'Ah, Kerri, you only just made it,' said the overseer. 'We've so many implements in this workshop that it isn't a good idea to be late.'
'Sorry, sir,' Kerri muttered and managed a half curtsey. The watching youths grinned.
'We're making birches today,' the man explained. 'Just watch the others until you get the hang of it. You'll find the stiffened twigs and leather straps for binding them together on the table in the corner. You can create a proper handle for the longer-lasting birches, those that are to be used in the market square.'
Blushing at the memory of her own public punishments, Kerri sat at the huge work station and watched the youths silently binding the slender rods together. After ten minutes she crossed the room and selected everything she needed to make a long whippy birch.
The overseer walked back into the room and smiled at her approvingly.
'Are we allowed to talk?' Kerri asked.
'Of course.' The man looked surprised.
Kerri grinned at the assembled youths. 'Only this lot seem to have taken a vow of silence.'
'Oh, they were all at the Dancing Bar till the early hours so they're hungover and tired,' the man explained.
She felt equally tired. Kerri forced back a yawn.
'It's really warm now. Would you all like to make your implements outside?' the overseer asked.
Everyone said yes and headed for the door. Kerri followed them out to an area with picnic tables and benches. Soon she was seated at one with a youth sitting opposite her. He was around five foot three but so muscular that he seemed almost square-shaped. His face was slightly simian so she privately named him Ape Man.
'Want to share the joke?' the youth asked looking at her suspiciously.
Kerri realised that she'd been smiling to herself. 'It's nothing,' she said quickly. He presumably knew that his monkey-like features made women grin. 'Have you been making these for a while?' she continued, indicating his birch.
The youth nodded. 'For three days. My efforts on days one and two apparently weren't good enough so I'm back here again.'
'Yeah? I've been allowed to try something different every day since I came here,' Kerri said, cheering up.
'So you're in teacher's good books?' A note of sarcasm entered his voice.
Kerri shrugged. 'I haven't met any teachers yet but Jeff invited me to lunch yesterday.'
'So? He invites everyone who acts reasonably,' the boy said, looking like he really resented her.
'But he really likes me,' Kerri added, determined to make this unimpressed youth realise that she was special and different to the rest.
'Not in the way you mean, he doesn't. After all, he's...' the boy bit back his words.
'He's what?' Kerri asked, wildly curious.
'Forget it. I've already said more than enough,' the boy replied.
Kerri tried to draw him out on other subjects but he remained non-committal. 'Look, if we talk we'll make mistakes with these.' He indicated the birch before him. 'And have to put in extra hours.'
'And you've better things to do?' Kerri asked, determined to have the last word.
'Well, I'd rather have a good night at the Dancing Bar than spend it here making implements.'
'Where else have you worked? Oh, and do you know Roberta?' Kerri asked. 'Or Jade?'
The youth glared at her. 'I told you before that if I chatter to you I'll make mistakes. Will you please shut up?'
Kerri sang a song for the next five minutes just to irritate him then turned her attention to the other youths, watching their body language and trying to guess what they'd originally done to anger Jeff.
An hour later the overseer appeared. 'I've an appointment off-site but hand your latest implement to the Squire for inspection. If he okays it, have a break. If he's unhappy with your workmanship then I've given him permission to chasten you.'
Surely she'd be approved? Kerri glanced at her birch and was horrified to see that she'd wound the leather squint, making for a very bumpy handle. She tried to unpick the leather but it was stuck fast to the twigs. A combination of the sun in her eyes, her tiredness and lack of interest in her work had led to this. She trembled, remembering how hard she'd watched the Squire horsewhip Diana at the beach.
'Good time to have a drink,' ape boy murmured, bending down under the table to reach for his hip flask. Quickly Kerri swapped her birch with his.
The Squire appeared at the gate and clapped his hands. 'Inspection time!' Everyone queued before him in a throat-clearing, shuffling line. 'Beauty before youth so it's the girl first,' he quipped.
Resenting the suggestion that she was older, Kerri stepped to the front of the line. She held out her birch - well, Ape Man's birch - and the Squire inspected it for long, nerve-wracking seconds then declared it fine.
Kerri sat down at the nearest picnic table and watched the second youth hold out his birch. It, too, was deemed to be acceptable. Only when Ape Man held out his offering did the Square shake his head.
'Alan, isn't this your third day here?'
'Yes, sir. And I'm learning fast now, sir.'
The equestrian centre owner held out the birch. 'You call this learning, boy?'
For the first time since bringing over the birch, Alan fully inspected it. 'But sir, I don't understand.'
'Don't understand how to fashion a willow birch for a disobedient backside?'
'No, sir. I mean, I fashioned it well. I chose the strongest twigs and trimmed them all so that they were the exact same length. Then I lined them up and bound the leather carefully in place.'
The Squire shook his head. 'This implement won't last five minutes.' He looked at the assembled watchers. 'Kerri, come and try this out.'
Unsure of exactly what he meant, Kerri approached with caution then adopted her most guileless expression. 'How can I help you, sir?' she enquired.
'By birching Alan's bum till the implement breaks,' the Squire said.
Alan took a step back. 'Sir, I swear someone must have sabotaged my implement.'
The Squire ignored him and handed the punisher to Kerri then he turned to the youth. 'Boy, take down your trousers and your underpants.' Hanging his head low, Alan did so. 'And grasp your ankles,' the man said.
Swallowing hard, the boy obeyed. Kerri stared down at his head and felt a momentary pity.
'Don't spare him. He's been slacking at work for three days now,' the equestrian centre owner said.
Slowly Kerri walked around till she was facing Alan's small white arse. She laid the twigs experimentally across his divide and he flinched and quivered. Wondering how he'd react when the twigs hit home, Kerri pulled back the birch and brought it down.
Immediately the birch made contact, Alan squealed and shook his haunches from side to side but kept hold of his ankles.
'And again,' the Squire instructed. Kerri obediently pulled back the punisher, looking at the numerous tiny red marks on the youth's cheeks and wondering how many the second application would add. Seconds later she knew the answer - lots. Part of her psyche felt incredibly guilty that he was enduring this birching. The other more primitive part of her wanted to see his backside being soundly marked. After all, he'd virtually ignored her all morning. Back in London she was never ignored...
'If you could use the birch higher up,' Alan whispered plaintively, 'keep it away from my balls.'
'But not too far up,' the Squire interjected. 'After all, you mustn't hit his spine.'
Trying to absorb all of this new information, Kerri livened Alan with the birch a third time, then a fourth. The fifth stroke must have hit some particularly sensitive area, as he let go of his ankles and jumped up with a loud cry, rubbing at his nates.
'Shall I bind his wrists to his legs?' the Squire asked.
Kerri hesitated, knowing that she shouldn't keep birching the youth.
'I really don't think that's my birch,' Alan said.
Suddenly desperate to shut him up, Kerri thought up a plan and whispered it in the Squire's unfeasibly large right ear.
'Excellent idea,' he said, smiling. 'God knows, we need something to wake this young man up.' He looked at the other boys. 'Take Alan over to the whipping post and strip him completely. Then bind him upright so that he's facing us.'
A few minutes later the deed was done and the naked youth was tied by his chest and feet to the large wooden post. One of the men then bound his hands to his sides.
'Alan, you failed to meet basic working practices and then failed to keep holding your ankles when you were birched - so Kerri's going to teach you the meaning of self-discipline,' the man said.
Alan glared at Kerri. 'Fuck you.'
'Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?' Kerri said. In truth, the boy had shown no sexual interest in her and she was equally disinterested in him.
But she badly wanted to demean him. 'Does this thing work?' she murmured, taking his limp cock in hand. Immediately she felt it thicken and lengthen. The rest of the boy's body also stiffened and he regarded her watchfully. 'Does he like me?' Kerri continued with false sweetness. 'Does he want to get big and hard?'
As if following her instructions, the youth's phallus increased in size until it filled her curled palm and protruded from the end. Its smooth head began to glisten. Kerri began to gently stimulate the straining shaft. She pulled up and down, up and down in a firm rhythm, watching the boy's face crease with rapture, knowing he was nearing the edge.
When he was a moment away from coming she stopped and stepped backwards.
'Now, boy, we mustn't get too excited.'
'Please, let me come,' Alan said raggedly.
'But you're here to be punished,' she reminded him, revelling in her brand new power.
'I've been birched. I've been tied here naked. For God's sake have pity,' the boy begged.
'Maybe I will.' Kerri waited until he was no longer near his sexual peak then she played with him further. But she stopped, smiling maliciously, when his orgasm was due.
After twenty minutes of stopping and starting, the boy was used to her charms and she was finding it harder to bring him close to a climax. She had another word with the Squire who agreed with her plan and sent another youth to find Jade. Ten minutes later she joined them, her green eyes especially vivid at the thought of this wicked game.
A smiling Jade worked the boy's cock whilst Kerri played with his balls. Alan was in torment. He tried to buck upwards to increase the pressure on his phallus but the ropes held him fast. Then he tried to push down so that Kerri would cup his testes more firmly but again the bindings held him unmercifully in place.
'If you can slip a hand behind him you can play with his crack,' Kerri said to Jade. The girl went into her green handbag and found a pair of green latex gloves. She pulled them on slowly, staring at Alan all the time, and was soon cruelly toying with his hirsute divide.
By the time the overseer returned, the youth was almost weeping with frustration. The man waved to everyone then disappeared into the building. Ten minutes later he was back.
'Kerri, bring Alan to fruition now.'
'But sir, he's being punished so he's not allowed to come,' Kerri objected.
'Bring him to orgasm this instant - and I suggest you make it a good one,' the overseer replied.
Shrugging, Kerri turned to Alan and resumed her erotic play. This time she rubbed rhythmically at his hardness until he climaxed, his pleasure shooting into the air as he loudly cried out.
'Untie him,' the overseer said.
Reluctantly Kerri did so. 'You're such a bitch,' Alan whispered. 'I've never met such a vicious little cow.'
'Oh and you're charm incarnate, are you?' Kerri shot back. 'Disrespecting me all morning and refusing to tell me about this place.'
'Silence,' the overseer said. 'There's been a serious breach of the rules here this morning. Will everyone please return to the building immediately.'
Everyone glanced at everyone else. Beginning to feel distinctly uneasy, Kerri walked towards the open doors.
'Take your seats,' the overseer continued. 'Though some of you won't be sitting down for very long.'
Seconds later he switched on a black rectangular machine and a large screen flickered into life.
'As some of you already know to your cost, we monitor certain workplaces,' he said matter of factly. 'Kerri, I suspect you didn't know this or you wouldn't have done what you did.'
Kerri knew what was coming, but her eyes were still riveted to the screen. She watched herself trying to goad Alan to talk to her and saw herself singing to anger him further. The overseer then fast-forwarded to the segment where she swapped the implements.
'If you'd just made a poor birch on day one you'd have been asked to return on day two for further practice,' the man said sadly. 'Instead, you cheated the system and ensured Alan received a humiliating punishment.'
'I was scared,' Kerri mumbled, aware that many disapproving eyes were upon her.
'And for the first time today you've genuine reason to be scared,' the overseer said. He turned to the boy. 'Alan - you'll be compensated by having tomorrow off. And it's your turn to try out the birch on Kerri if you like.'