4.
~ Her husband had chosen a newly built brownstone house for him and his bride. It's neighborhood was populated by doctors and lawyers. The newly minted middle class people that annoyed the wealthy.
The new rich suddenly had money for luxuries they never had before, and looking around her husband's bedroom, she saw that Arthur had his own vices for luxury.
Ariadne wasn't used to being in her husband's bedroom. She was a well brought up lady who didn't feel the same urges in the night that men did. Thusly, it wouldn't have been seemly to come to his bedroom at all.
His was the largest bedroom in the home. Complete with a marble fireplace and and private bathroom. She didn't care for the heavy, oak furnishings. The colors were too dark in the rugs and bedding for her taste, but is seemed to suit her husband's moody nature very well.
She was surprised to see that Mrs. Marsh had lit a fire in the hearth for him. The room was so large that drafts from the front facing windows made this bedroom far colder.
She shivered a little and wrapped her arms around her body.
Ariadne was never in here. When Arthur wanted to take his privileges with her, he would knock in her bedroom door late at night. If she felt generous, which wasn't often, she would let him in. It was more her duty than anything else.
What would follow was always frightening for her. Her husband's large hands pulling on her clothing. Wanting her naked when all her life she had been trained too keep those delicate parts concealed.
She didn't dislike the things they did, but always felt like a bad person. As though people who saw her now would know that she had relations with a man. God forbid she should become in a family way. Then, people would know for sure and she would die of embarrassment.
"Cold?" she heard a voice ask behind her.
She turned to see her husband shutting the bedroom door and locking it.
"Arthur, I'm very tired tonight." she said hastily.
She wasn't in the mood for his attempts to woo her into his bed. To try and trick her into enjoying what all men needed.
Their wedding night had been shocking and she was ready to call the law for his lustful behavior. Like a proper lady, she had been raised with no knowledge of these things, and her mother had been too well bread to tell her what to expect.
When he had climbed into bed with her, started to remove his clothing, she almost screamed in horror.
But over the past few months, she had grown more accustomed to his male needs. It didn't make things easier. Good girls were not supposed to like submission to a husband. It was just something that had to be done.
"We can go to bed soon." he said and unfastened his cufflinks and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.
He unbuttoned his vest as he walked to his wardrobe. The fine oak furniture that housed his suits and coats.
"I think we can talk about this in the morning." Ariadne said worriedly. She didn't want to lay in the same bed as her husband tonight. Didn't want to submit to his hands on her body again.
"We're done talking." Arthur said quickly as she saw him pull out a leather belt from the wardrobe?
"Mr. Brandon?" she questioned worriedly.
Arthur had slowly turned to her. His face looked disappointed and angry.
"Take your robe off, Mrs. Brandon." he ordered.
Her hands clutched the collar of her robe. Grateful for the protection of thick fabric and layers.
"What are you going to do?" she asked and took a step away from him as he approached her.
"Take your robe off." he said again as his eyes raked over her body.
"Arthur, this is lud-"
She was cut off by his hands in her hair. Pulling free the easy up-do that Mrs. Marsh had put her long, dark hair in just an hour before.
"Stop it!" she cried feebly as her hair cascaded down past her shoulders.
"Take your robe off." he demanded.
"If you think I'm going to stand here and let you whip me-"
"That's exactly what your going to do." He said harshly. "You have embarrassed not only yourself, but me today. It's not something I can just forgive and forget, Mrs. Brandon."
She pulled away from him again as his fingers combed through her long, curling locks.
He didn't seem to see the look of hatred in her eyes.
"You brought this on yourself. You couldn't have expected me to just let this go." he said said soothingly.
She looked down at the leather strap that was in his hand. A piece of raw leather used for sharpening his strait razors and made a handy, and stinging, instrument for abuse.
"Today, I stood up for women asking not to be abused by their own husbands. The same men who vow to love and protect them. But I see now that I'm wedded to a brute." she said defiantly.
Arthur stepped close to her. Like a jungle cat pouncing in it's prey. His nose was in her hair, his lips on her ear as he held her face perfectly still next to his.
"It's because I love you, because I hold you to such esteem, I must correct you." he whispered.
She looked slowly up at him. His voice seeming so sincere.
'Don't believe him.' she told herself.
"I didn't flinch away, or cry when those men threw rotten tomatoes and apples at me. I was protesting against an injustice, so, I won't cry now. What I did was right." she said and pulled away from his gentle hands.
Her fingers went to the braided belt that secured her dressing robe and she started to pull it off.
Her robe fell off her body, exposing her thin, cotton night dress to the cool air of Arthur's bedroom. A room that was too drafty for her taste. She moved closer to the fire and stood as strait as a post. Bracing herself for the brutal and caveman like punishment she was about to receive.
Her eyes were strait ahead as she tried to ignore Arthur's moving around her. Her hands finally worriedly clasped in front as she felt him stand close behind her.
"As you wish." he whispered in her ear.
She flinched as he pulled her night dress up and rolled it neatly to expose her bare bottom. She hadn't bothered with panties when she wasn't on her cycle. There was already so much underthings to put on, she didn't bother with the cumbersome extra layer.
Now, however, she was hotly embarrassed to have her round flesh, not seen by anyone since she was a babe in arms lewdly facing her husband.
She started to step away. Her hands itching to pull down her night dress, give Arthur a slap in the face and go back to her rooms. She would, but she sensed that would give him some satisfaction. The satisfaction that she didn't have the courage to stand up for her convictions.
'Let him punish me. Let him embarrass me.' she thought. The voice in her head sounding a lot like Mary's just now as her cheeks burned hot with humiliation.
She almost stopped breathing when she felt Arthur's hand, gentle and firm on her bottom. The fire warming her flesh from the chill as his large hand caressed her flesh in a way she hated to admit she liked.
It was during one such coupling, after they were married, he would graze his hands over her skin and she wanted to die from pleasure.
She shivered slightly as his hand steadily moved over her bottom. Her mind wondering if he was ever going to strike her when she felt a sharp, punishing blow to one of her cheeks. He had spanked her with such a direct force, she was on tiptoe.
However, he didn't hit her with the leather strap, he had spanked her with his bare hand. A hand that was now smoothing over the area he had just wounded with gentle circular movements.
She had to remember to breath as his hand rubbed away the flames that pricked her skin from the slap.
"Are you alright?" he asked in a husky voice she wasn't used to hearing from him.
She swallowed hard and nodded.
"Good, because we're just getting started." he said.