Purity Ch. 07

'Look at me, Alice. Only at me.'

The girl turned her big, fearful eyes to his. Already, they were brimming with tears at the thought of what was to come.

'Know that Blackstone is an extension of my hand. The justice he metes out is my will, and by extension, God's divine will. Through your trials of torment, you will earn forgiveness.' Her trembling nod was the sign that she was ready to accept what she was due.

'Begin'.

---

Seth Blackstone had never expected to find himself in this position. He'd had his fair share of experience with the girls of the village. More than his fair share, truth be told, and a few of the saucier baggages did seem to respond well to a playful spanking when he chose to turn them over his knee. This, however, was a whole different scale, and with Alice Brewer, no less.

Alice was a good girl. He'd never seen her with a beau, and since she'd come to live with Father Hardwick, he barely saw her outside of church. When she'd come to him with the gift of a pie that turned into so much more, he couldn't believe his luck. He would swear she was an untouched maid, and yet, she'd swallowed his cock like a bawdy tavern wench!

And now, instead of being dragged off to marry the chit, he was going to have to give her a whipping of a lifetime. But if the priest said it was God's will, then who was he to question it?

Alice's pleasingly-rounded rump made a generous target, and his first stripe caught her at the under crease where arse met thigh. The girl threw her head back as her scream rent the air. Looking to Father Hardwick, he received a nod, and he quickly laid down his second stroke.

The girl's anguished sobs were quite pitiful, and the two purpling lines did indeed look very tender. He was going to give her five stripes when Hardwick had said it was up to him. Feeling guilty, he wondered if perhaps two was enough.

And then, just when he would have put down the whip, the trembling girl lifted up on her toes and raised her buttocks to him in offering, even going so far as to shuffle her thighs apart to afford him a look at her pretty little quim. Spying the copious cream that had gathered in her flushed folds, cream that he knew he had licked away before they were interrupted, he realised that the trollop did not entirely hate every moment of this. In fact, maybe she was protesting too much and needed quite a stern lesson in crying wolf.

Long minutes later, twenty-four crisp lines crisscrossed Alice's shuddering buttocks, and she had collapsed over the anvil sobbing as though her heart would break.

'That will do, Blackstone,' Father Hardwick admonished him as Seth paused for breath, 'I think that Alice has learned her lesson.'

Releasing her hands, Hardwick smoothed back the sweat-soaked hair that plastered the girl's face, then lifted her chin to meet his gaze.

'Have you, Alice? Have you learned a memorable lesson today, or does Blackstone need to continue?' his voice was soft, but there was steel in his tone, and the girl should have no doubt that he would follow through on the threat.

'I have, Father,' she whispered through shuddering breaths. 'I am sorry for... letting you down... Thank you for... teaching me... to be better. May I... make my penance?'

'Later, girl. It is time to go home now.'

Seth looked at them in confusion. Hadn't she just made her penance? And was she always this amenable after a thrashing? But there was no time for answers as Hardwick was bundling her up in her clothes and wrapping his cloak around her before carrying her, bridal style, out of the smithy to his waiting horse.

---

When Edmund put the exhausted girl to bed that night after allowing her to make her penance, he thought long and hard about what he had interrupted and how close she had been to being ruined.

And he realised, there was nothing else for it.

For the good of her immortal soul, he was going to have to forgo his self-imposed vow of chastity and take her to wife.