Read Online The Reformer by Breanna Hayse - Free Book Online Page A

due to her bruises. It has been over ten days, sir.”
    “Yes, Your Lordship,” a man stood up and said, “she cut another girl from the stables with a whip because she was afraid of the horses. That one ran away and is probably selling her body to survive.”
    The floodgate opened as the staff, no longer afraid, shared the abuse and terror of the woman’s reign. Eliza reddened and started screaming at them to be silent, calling them ignorant peasants and stupid fools. The headmaster stood back, both shocked that the staff dared speak out and repulsed by the woman’s lack of etiquette and failure to remain dignified and silent in the face of her accusers. Henry glanced over at Gerard, noting that the large man had crossed his arms and stared at the woman as she revealed her wretched temper.
    The earl pointed to a straight backed chair. “Headmaster, bring that to me, please. This temper tantrum is no longer acceptable,” Gerard ordered. Henry complied, his hands shaking with excitement as he witnessed Eliza being grabbed by the earlobe and forcefully pushed across Lord Remington’s solid thighs. She screamed profanities as Gerard positioned himself so that Eliza’s backside was facing the platform and then bared her bottom before the hushed audience.
    He lifted his powerful arm high over his head and WHACK! The sound of his palm against naked flesh echoed through the rafters. Eliza screamed a profanity and a second WHACK was heard. The room grew tense as the earl generously unloaded his full attention to the correction of the unruly woman. She kicked, screamed, twisted, and struggled to escape his punishing blows, all decorum gone as her pale bottom quickly colored to the same red shade as that upon her face. Smack after heavy smack echoed through the rafters, the sound only disturbed by the woman’s angry tears.
    “A young lady,” SMACK! “is always to present herself,” SMACK! SMACK! “with grace and proper decorum,” he lectured, addressing the stunned students. “She is never,” SMACK! “to lift her voice in anger,” SMACK! SMACK! “or utter profanities.” SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
    Gerard easily repositioned the chair so that Eliza faced the now silent crowd, her mortification increasing as she looked upon the gloating stares of so many people she had hurt. Gerard paused for a moment to let her humiliation sink in before snapping his fingers toward Brigit. She quickly handed him a nursery cane, made specifically to sting the recipient as they were held over a lap. “This,” Gerard said, striking the crown of Eliza’s buttock with the cane and hearing her scream in pain, “is the only type of cane,” SWISH! “that should ever be used,” SWISH! SWISH! “on a girl’s tender bottom!” SWISH, SWISH, SWISH!!!
    Every swipe was met with a high-pitched squeal, followed by pleas to cease. One by one, he grimly and precisely striped her with ten more severe lashes, seeing the purple bruises form well beneath the surface of her alabaster skin. Her tender creases upon which she sat no longer held so much as a glimpse of white, sporting a heated and angry crimson that promised her some difficulty in sitting properly for the next day or two. Eliza now sobbed uncontrollably, limply hanging over his lap and lacking the ability to budge from her spot. Her disgrace, pain, and loss of power sent her spiraling into a pit of self-loathing and hatred. Gerard held his hand upon her bare bottom as he addressed the hushed room. Her skin was hot to the touch, and he was able to feel raised welts upon it.
    “The reformers are here to teach and to guide. To help you change what you are not strong enough to change on your own. We teach discipline, but we also teach forgiveness,” he said, pulling the weeping woman to sit upon his lap as he wrapped his large, strong arms around her shoulders. Eliza slumped against him, crying loudly into his collar as he gently stroked her back and rocked her slowly.
    Eliza was confused.