The Petworthy Finishing School Ch. 02

Chapter Two

Where Mitten Becomes Oriented to her New Life at Petworthy Finishing School

Because Mitten had a long time to consider her plight, she began to try to discern what was expected from her; by Daddy and by the Headmistress. The first problem was that she wasn't supposed to consider it a plight. It was appropriate for Mitten to feel like she was a girl of extreme privilege and that attending and graduating from Petworthy was a gift from God Himself.

Now three months removed from the Headmistress' demonstration on her bottom, Mitten wondered what two years of what seemed to her to be punishment without reason would wear on her spirit. She recalled how she felt in the immediate aftermath of Miss Cashmere's discipline lesson. Her buttocks burned for hours and the soreness lingered beyond that deep in the fibers of her butt's muscles, light bruising on her skin the marked reminder of the small paddle's work.

There was also, in recollection, a heightened sense of awareness that she could only attribute to the admonition given to her fanny. She was keenly sensitive to Daddy's needs. She was uncommonly well-prepared for each day. There was no one person telling her how to react. It seemed to spring naturally out of her adjusted behavior. She recalled all the spankings and switchings she had received as a child growing up. Then, too, her behavior seemed to be altered in an almost involuntary manner. As a child, she never took the time to consider that the painful punishments were causing a lingering legacy of obedience in her spirit.

There were so many strange things to think of. She was going to be groomed as a submissive wife, something every good church was supposed to do. Mitten had heard the stories though. Approaching 1920, women were becoming more and more insolent and petulant, demanding things outside of their roles as wives and mothers yet it seemed that Miss Cashmere was one who opposed suffrage and women's rights.

At the same time, however, it was also clear that she was a powerful woman in her own right. It also seemed that while she groomed girls for submission, the Headmistress also saw the girls being married into the families of the elite as a strategic and highly unsubmissive, well-considered plan. Mitten didn't necessarily think this plan to be nefarious in any way other than it probably was more clandestine than men would probably wish. The rumors of such women like President Wilson's wife actually leading the country during the President's illness during the latter part of the war swirled especially during the suffrage campaigns. Was Mrs. Wilson one of Petworthy's graduates, culled and conditioned from the elite, to take her place as the silent leader of the free world? It was hard to imagine the First Lady of the United States being spanked.

Then there was the issue of being told who to marry. She didn't know why but the idea of Mitten having her marriage prearranged rankled in her spirit with surprising ferocity. Indeed, the Bible was replete with arranged marriages. Christ's earthly parents were an arranged marriage. Political alliances had been forged by marriages.

When Mitten was married, was her husband going to be spanking her as her adult demonstration of submission? Was she to be his unspoken bond slave or the underlying backbone and power of the marriage? Even these surreal contemplations didn't cause Mitten to be dissuaded from the duty she was to carry out for Daddy and for Petworthy.

What did give her pause was how that was going to transpire. Mitten was a fastidious person who liked having everything laid out before her. That way she was as well-prepared and compliant as possible. This was how she was so successful in school before. Now, she was completely in the dark as to what was expected of her. That is, she knew the destination but she didn't know the route to get there. How could she avoid punishments if she didn't know what was necessary to obey?

All of these things went unanswered for Mitten as she rode the train east. Before this she had only come as far east as St. Louis, so this long journey was epic in stature in comparison. As she was carried farther from Omaha, the terrain became constipated more and more with towns and large tracts of woods, so alien from the open fields and prairie of her home. The train began to wind instead of forge down straight tracks. Each stop eastward, there were more and more people. Mitten was truly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people she saw awaiting the train. By the time she reached Pittsburgh, with its smoking stacks belching into the sky, she began to truly pine for the ranch life she was abandoning. Finally, on the fourth day they reached Albany, where she presumed the school was.

However, when she arrived and went inside the huge station, there was a man in a suit with a younger woman who held a sign that said Petworthy Academy on it. As she walked towards them, she noticed that there were several other girls around her age gathering around them. She found that the train was a transition point in the journey. After about a quarter hour, the girls were herded into covered carriages that had the windows deliberately covered. All of the girls were instructed to go the lavatory because there would be only one stop on their carriage ride to Petworthy.

The Petworthy Finishing School and Academy of Submissive Studies was nestled somewhere near the middle part of the Hudson Valley. A sprawling complex of austere buildings, the school was the home for nearly 300 girls, ranging in age from 18 to 20. The charter and mission of the school was to prepare girls for their role as desirable brides in higher society at the beginning of the twentieth century. Those men who take them on would be of the finest breeding and status in the world. Still, the methods and purposes of the school had always been the stuff of urban legend and society mythology. Secreted away from the general flow of life, in the foothills of the Taconic and Berkshire Mountains, most people didn't even know where the campus was. Students who were accepted to Petworthy were picked up by covered and sealed carriages in Albany and then shuttled the final two hours to the campus. No one knew much about the faculty or the campus.

Still, anyone who was of means in the Northeast knew of Petworthy, its purpose and its methods.

While it is only spoken in whispers, Petworthy alumni peppered the landscape of society...not just locally. It was commonly known but went unspoken that Petworthy graduates were the wives of numerous Senators and Congressmen. At least three Vice Presidential wives had attended Petworthy. Alums were strategically married to CEOs of the largest companies in New York, the country and, in many cases, the world. Additionally, there were many girls that went on, mostly internationally, as successful. The world was not yet modern and women needed to be of the most impeccable character, as well as be trained in the womanly art of submission. In a world where they weren't allowed to vote, a girl could improve her lot in life for herself as a woman and for her family by marrying well. Graduation from Petworthy was way to assure that security in a world where the haves and the have-nots had such a drastic disparity in status.

The intrigue of its graduates being so prevalent among the wives of the highest society was overshadowed by its notorious methodology of achieving its means.

Petworthy staff, teachers, and administration were not only allowed but expected and encouraged to maintain discipline, reinforce good behavior and manage the student body by use of a variety of corporal disciplines. Now, corporal discipline was not an unheard of thing at the advent of the modern 1920s, even in school. However, Petworthy's aims were far more than to correct bad behavior. So completely pervasive was corporal discipline, sometimes random, that a student could consider it a good day if she only received a single spanking in a day. This was the fearsome mystique that pervades the legend of Petworthy Finishing School for Girls; that the good mannerisms, sexual prowess and submissive natures produced in its students was built on a relentless foundation of painful spankings and punishments, both public and private.

Hearing these testimonials and speculations from the other new girls on the seemingly endless covered carriage ride from Albany, only girded up what Mitten had spent time trying to surmise herself during the three day journey to the campus. She didn't feel out of place on the train ride to Albany. However, when she met the carriage at the Albany train station, she did note that the dress of the students there were more than subtly different than hers. Their dresses were more slender and European styled. Many of the girls were already wearing makeup. All of them had only the most basic bag of essentials. In the instructions that Mitten received she was told only to bring what she would need in transit. Her clothing for her time would be provided by the school, right down to her bloomers,...which, of course, would not be called that.

Mitten had difficulty trying to continue to know where they were going. She could tell that they were moving south/southeast for the most part by the position of the sun through the cracks in the covered carriage. However, there were several turns and stops and soon as the late afternoon sun was behind a high tree bank, she was unable to get her bearings.

During the journey from Albany, there was little conversation in Mitten's carriage, which suited her fine. However, she did make small talk with a seemingly younger girl, who, literally just turned 18 two days before,named Millicent. She was a comparative pixie in contrast to Mitten. She was very short for her age, but she was beginning to develop a womanly body, especially in her bosom. Her complexion was as creamy as Mitten's, but Millicent's persona was most manifest by her carrot orange hair. Millicent also had almost incongruously large blue eyes that one could easily get swept up if she were to try to impress something on someone, as if her gaze would somehow compel their compliance. During their journey, Mitten told Millicent that her name was Lavinia but she preferred to be called Livvy. Millicent liked saying her whole name, however, and was talkative enough for both of them. There were other girls but they were either too proud to talk with them or too shy.

"Lavinia," Millicent said, cocking her head slightly and saying Mitten's name with dramatic slowness, "do you think we are going to be spanked today?" This caused the other girls to look up with their eyes alert. There was a thread of mischief in Millicent's eyes and Mitten caught it immediately. She was weighing the merits of cooperating with Millicent's play when the younger girl continued.

"I was told...well...I was shown that spankings would happen all the time."

Millicent had a small smile but then Mitten realized that the question while serving to prank the other girls had an underlying serious query to it.

"I can't say that I know if we will be spanked today," Millicent answered carefully. "I do know that you are quite right in saying that spanking would be a part of our daily life. I was also given that demonstration." Then she turned to the other two girls in the carriage.

"Were you spanked by someone from the school?" The girls curiously shook their heads in the negative. This unexpected response caused Mitten and Millicent to look at each other in disconcert, before Millicent's face lightened with a small smile.

"Well, Lavinia, I guess you and I are special."

From that point, Millicent was suddenly Mitten's new best friend and Mitten welcomed that fact. However, Mitten felt like there would have to be a certain caution in knowing Millicent as her huge blue eyes belied an underlying streak of rebelliousness.

It was still light out when they arrived. As they got to the campus, they could hear the voices of singing...beautiful, trained female voices singing an unfamiliar song which Mitten couldn't make out the words to. Yet the melodious tones were inviting and hopeful, stark contrast from the darker feelings that she was working so hard to suppress about the life-change she was experiencing. Finally, as the carriages slowed, the words of the song...more like a hymn...became more distinguishable.

Our hearts are led by Grace,

We give our will to those who lead us

And bring brightness to our face.

Obedience is our calling

We give our flesh to feel the rod

And keep our spirits from falling.

Discipline is our tool,

To bring us to full fruition,

A girl no longer the fool.

Now as we walk in order down these hallowed halls

As we dress to woo the men to whom we're called

Let us bear the burden of submission in our heart

Our grateful bottoms receiving its mark

Proverbial women we shall be

Surrendered to our Husbands and Masters

Knowing the curse of being free

Good Girls we shall be

Good Girls for all to see

A Good Girl I am in need

For a Husband or Master to lead

There was a refrain of soft humming and the hymn began again. When the carriage finally came to stop, much to all of its passenger's relief (Mitten deeply needed to use the lavatory again), they heard the door latch freed and the exit swing open. Though it was late in the day, the ruddy light of dusk still filtered through the late summer foliage of trees. As they emerged tenuously from the carriage, they found themselves in a brick circle in front of a formidable building. Across the upper façade, in old English text, read: Petworthy Finishing School for Girls and Academy of Submissive Studies. Mitten stepped down with her simple bag and relatively simple clothes, while many of the other girls came out with finer garb, obviously bought near their East Coast homes. Around the circle and along the stairwell up into the building were upperclass students, dressed in their uniforms, standing at attention, hands folded behind them singing to them as they arrived. She also saw that her transport was a part of a caravan of such carriages bringing new students to the campus. All of them unpiled girls of various types, all looking as Mitten imagined herself; nervous, unsure, and fearful. Mitten still had the memory of the Headmistress' admonition on her bottom some months before. She was trying to not to hyperventilate.

When they emerged from the carriage, Millicent was nestled at Mitten's side, pensively taking in the display of the reception they were receiving. While they stood at attention and had their eyes relatively forward, Mitten could feel their instant scrutiny. Were they sizing them up? There were several administrative staff there as well, giving directions to the girls as they came off the carriages. As they moved towards the main building, she estimated that there were some 150 new students that had arrived. Millicent seemed fascinated by the uniforms which were so radically modern and different from other school uniforms.

Each returning student was wearing a button down burgundy vest sweater with the school insignia on the left breast. That partially covered a white, long sleeve blouse with profoundly masculine looking collar. Each girl had had a plaid tie of grey with red and black stripes. The uniform skirt was an inch past the knee and the same grey as the tie. Everyone seemed to be wearing white socks that were folded down at the ankle and conservative Mary Jane shoes. Unlike the skirts that Mitten was accustomed to, billowing and wide. The uniform skirts were of a more simple fabric and clung more sleekly to the female form. The uniforms seemed a little incongruous for the smaller girls, and hung plainly on their straighter frames.

As the refrains continued from the seemingly oblivious singers, Mitten and the other girls were led into the great main building which sat dominant in the center of the courtyard in comparison to the lesser buildings which were the classrooms and dormitories. Once inside the tone of the greeting turned markedly more terse. Administrators and teachers stood by sternly, each holding a riding crop, cane or leather strap; some sort implement for spanking the girls should they be resistant to instruction. They were firm but polite the entire time. They had the girls line up, with their heads up and the eyes forward. Millicent fell in front of Mitten. They moved at a slow steady rate down the stairwell to a great hall. The girls were drawn into four lines of about twenty or thirty girls each. They were lined up in front of four corroborative desks with nurses taking down vital information.

Then each girl, after giving their information, were instructed to undress, right there, in front of all the other girls. When a girl was pulled out of one of the lines and bent over a chair for a brisk caning over her quickly stripped bottom Millicent turned to Mitten with a look of fear. Before she could say anything, Millicent was pulled out of line, and then, also, Mitten behind her by a middle-aged woman with dark hair in a severe bun and spectacles. She walked them all the way to the wall, where Mitten noticed other non-cooperatives had been sent. There they were told to face the wall with their hands behind their head. Then the woman returned to the line.

Mitten was shaken to her core. She hadn't really done anything wrong yet, but was guilty by her association with Millicent. Up the way, Mitten saw that the other girls who had been pulled out of line as she had were awaiting a man,who was middle-aged and handsome in a serious, dark way. He was walking up behind each girl, speaking to them in a low, voice, though Mitten couldn't hear what he said to each one. He carried with him a leather strap, nearly a foot in length and two inches wide, with a customized handle. After his verbal exchange with each girl, which seemed to invariably end with the girl reluctantly conceding to whatever point he made, the girl was bent at the waist and her dress was lifted over her back and her bloomers or underwear were tugged down. Then the man leveled ten full armed swats with the strap each one accompanied by that particular girl's take on a screech of pain.

When the man came to Millicent, he spoke in the same dulcet tone.

"Do you know why you were pulled out of line, young lady?" Millicent chose not to turn but was already sniveling.

"Y..yes sir." The man calmly pulled Millicent back from the wall two steps as he continued speaking to her.

"Please elaborate," he intoned as he bent her at the waist.

"I turned in line to talk to the girl behind me." As she said this, her dress was lifted and her undergarments pulled to her ankles.

"Please try to remember this."

Before she could affirm to him that she would, the handsome man brought the strap over Millicent's tiny little butt globes with a loud smack. Millicent cried out her eyes bulging in shock. Again and again, for nine more times, Millicent received her reminder without malice or mercy. She was crying now with heaves and suddenly Mitten was feeling herself tremble. She knew that she was going to be spanked, that she didn't deserve it and that there was nothing she could do or say that would change that for her. The man had Millicent dress and stand at the back of the line, before he turned his attention to Mitten. He bent her at the waist even as he began to speak calmly.

"Do you understand why you're being spanked?"

"With respect, sir, no."

Mitten couldn't believe the brazenness of her own words. She felt a huge indignity and an edge of self-righteousness rise in her. It caused the man to pause from the routine nature of the spankings he was conducting.

"Stand up and face me please." Mitten obeyed but now she was genuinely scared. His expression didn't hint of any more wrongdoing, however, his gaze was now more purposeful.