BEXHILL SCHOOL

Jane, who been preparing to go out for the evening, barged into her younger sister's room without knocking. She wore a furious expression.

"Catharine, you've been at my cosmetics drawer again, haven't you?" She kept her hands behind her back, hiding the object she held.. 

She had spanked her sister once before, wielding a bath-brush mercilessly when she had discovered that Catharine had raided her make-up despite a clear and specific injunction not to.

Now, although she had kindly relented and allowed Catharine to borrow certain, specific, designated lipsticks,eye-liners, and powders - at least until her sibling could afford to buy some for herself - someone  had been at her most precious bottle of scent. She could tell, because the top had been left off.

"Well, haven't you?"

Catharine, half dressed as she prepared for an evening with her boyfriend, blushed.

"Look, I'm sorry," she stammered. "Mum and Dad are out tonight and I've invited James round. I took a tiny, tiny bit of Diorissimo because I want to smell good for him."

"'Smell good'? My God, you've saturated yourself in the stuff! How dare you!  I told you to keep out of my things: I was kind enought to let you use a few bits and pieces which I left on top of my dressing table for you. But oh no! that wasn't good enough. In your little thieving fingers had to go. I thought you'd learned your lesson last time, but obviously not."

"But Jane, you didn't leave me any scent."

"So buy your own. It's expensive stuff. How much did you take anyway?"

"You know I can't afford buy any. Please don't be so angry. Honestly, it was just a dab."

"A 'dab'? I don't think so. You smell like a perfumery shop."

"Only a little spoonful. I took it away in a dish."

"A spoonful? How big a spoon?"

"Maybe a soup spoon."

"My God! I'm really going to thrash you this time. Not with the bath-brush, I'm going to use something far more effective. Go on, lie on your bed, face downwards."

"No Jane, please!"

"Do you want me to deal with this, or tell mum and dad?"

"No, not that. Please don't tell them."

"Then get on your tummy and pull those knickers down."

Catharine, realising that she had little choice, began to comply. Biting her lower lip, she glanced up at her elder sister, wondering what Jane was going to use.

Her heart almost stopped. Jane was holding a cane.

"Do you remember that I told you I'd found an old cane from dad's schooldays hidden away in the attic? Well, here it is! This is probably the first time it's been used in the last twenty-five years, but now it's going to make up for lost time!"