Here is the final chapter. I have especially enjoyed the writing of King Diocletian over the years, but have to thank Mark Sessnatz for inspiring me to “put pen to paper” with his recent story, Nice Young Christian Girls. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read or react!
8
Six months later: Thomas Prison
It had taken five months for Cecilia to be well enough for transport to prison. She had barely survived her flogging and the subsequent fevers and infections. The lingering physical effects of that day on the whipping post made it nearly impossible for Cecilia to keep up with the prison workload assigned to her. The guards issued demerits for failing to complete her duties, which earned her extra cane strokes.
Cecilia cried herself to sleep every night. She had horrific dreams of the the cat ‘o nine tails slashing Mary Ellen’s back and ripping the flesh from her own.
Prisoners sentenced to regular punishments did not typically know the day or hour when they would occur. Cecilia was already dreading her first caning and knew that she would be receiving additional blows. That afternoon, guards had seized her arms and began marching her to the punishment wing. She had seen this before, and girls often started crying, screaming, and trying to resist as they were taken. Cecilia whimpered when she realized what was happening. During the long walk, she started hyperventilating with fear and often stumbled between the guards.
Standing before the caning horse, Cecilia’s prison gown was roughly pulled over her head, revealing her severely scarred back and her luscious breasts that also bore marks from the cat. She was pushed over the apparatus, and her wrists were tied to the sides. Her legs were pulled wide apart and secured with straps. Cecilia heard a cheer as her panties were ripped down. Her bent position lewdly displayed her privates to the dozen or more men gathered in the room.
A guard announced the number of cane strokes, twenty of six hundred, plus ten for earned demerits. Cecilia, her body shaking, could not contain her hopeless sobs. The vicious blows began, and each stroke left a fiery weal across her ivory bottom. After twenty lines, the sound of the beating changed as the cane started splitting the skin of her buttocks. Cecilia tried to catch her breath and called out, “No! Stop please!”, as the pain overwhelmed her.
The guard seemed to increase the intensity of his swing at the sight of the first droplets of blood. Cecilia screamed loudly in pain and frustration. Sweat poured from her face and body, dampening the wood of the horse. Finally the beating stopped, and Cecilia felt warm rivulets of blood traveling from her bottom down the backs of her thighs.
Now writhing in pain in the infirmary, Cecilia realized for the first time that she would never leave Thomas Prison alive. Demerits would continue to compound to the the point where she would be caned every week. Soon, punishments would progress to bare back floggings with the fearsome prison single tail. She had heard horror stories of prisoners who had died after less than twenty strokes of this whip. Cecilia began to tremble violently at the thought of having her back lashed again. She swallowed and felt the familiar burning in her vocal cords from screaming herself hoarse.
Cecilia wished that she could see her sister one more time. Mary Ellen had been handed over into servitude with the Wainwrights a month and a half after her own paddling and whipping. The only word Cecilia had received occurred just before her transport to prison. During a final visit from Shane, Cecilia asked if the Wainwrights had allowed Mary Ellen to see any family on her nineteenth birthday a few days before.
Shane hung his head and divulged that Mr. Wainwright used Mary Ellen’s request for a visit as a pretext for a court sanctioned punishment. An indentured servant could be beaten with a strap at the whim of their master. More severe punishments required the blessing of the court.
Mary Ellen’s request supposedly indicated that she was not sufficiently remorseful for her role in Maggie Wainwright’s injury.
On Mary Ellen’s birthday, for which she was always so excited every year, their little sister was stripped naked in front of the Wainwright family and their entire staff. She was bound with ropes to a large tree trunk and then birched from the tops of her shoulders to the bottom of her calves. The Wainwrights left Mary Ellen squirming on the tree for hours, the soft front of her body pressed tightly against the rough bark. They came outside several times to taunt her, delightfully inspecting her damaged flesh. Maggie cruelly drug her fingernails down the girl’s raw back and bottom cheeks, causing a pitiful cry from Mary Ellen.
Shane said that their father finally broke down in tears when he heard, and was trying to mortgage the farm to buy Mary Ellen out of indenture. Even then, the Wainwrights were unlikely to agree to release her.
Cecilia cried bitterly remembering this conversation. The thoughts of the hell she had created for sweet Mary Ellen were worse than the pain of her own caned flesh. Waves of guilt consumed her. Cecilia knew that her sister was a modest girl, and beyond the physical pain that Mary Ellen had endured, having her nakedness exposed must have caused her such anguish.
Cecilia grabbed her hair with both hands and twisted it violently, desperately trying to wring the sound of her sister’s voice in the punishment room from her head. Mary Ellen’s cries upon seeing Caleb there to witness her suffering and her pleas not to be whipped were never far from Cecilia’s thoughts.
Between sobs, Cecilia prayed that her sister would be delivered from this nightmare. She prayed for Abel’s safe return and that he might some day find happiness. As she concluded, a nurse approached with the excruciating brine and ointment treatment for her buttocks. Cecilia drew in a deep breath, grasped the edge of the cot tightly, and buried her face in the pillow.
THE END