Having prolonged the moment of anticipation for as long as he could, Nikolai finally drew back his arm and brought the tawse down hard onto the soft curves of Natalia's perfect bottom. Its loud whistle signaled its approach, and the girl tensed. The loud crack as it struck her bare flesh could be heard in every room of the inn, as could her agonized shriek a moment later. She jerked against her restraints, her head coming up as she cried out. A bright pink swath formed across both her cheeks, sharply defined against the pale flesh.

The Countess exhaled audibly in appreciation, and the men exchanged grins. Natalia, of course, was aware of none of this. In her extremity of pain, her eyes were tightly shut, her teeth clenched, her every muscle taut. For her there was no joy, only pain and fear of more of the same. This, of course, was the source of the others' joy...

Again the strap came down on Natalia's bottom. Her cry of pain was shorter, for she bit it off, then whined through her nose as the agony ran its course through her body. The third blow brought a ragged wail from her that ended in a sob, and she wriggled her bottom delightfully in an unconscious attempt to ease the sting. The fourth blow landed lower than the others, close to the faint line that separated buttock from thigh. This was a particularly sensitive area, and the scream that resulted was most rewarding, as were the delicious gyrations of Natalia's agonized bottom. The fifth, sixth and seventh blows came twenty seconds apart, and each brought choked cries of desperate pain from the helpless girl. Nikolai was swinging with his whole arm and striking hard, sparing the girl nothing. On the eighth blow Natalia screamed and burst into tears, the sobs coming hard and impossible to control. The ninth and tenth blows drove her even farther beyond constraint, her screams becoming primal, animal-like bleats of unmitigated agony, and her bottom shimmied and shook wildly.

Now Nikolai paused to choose a new implement, while Natalia sobbed, her head down, her face hidden behind a thick fall of hair. This time he chose a thin switch of whalebone, about two feet long. The others nodded their approval of the vicious instrument, and Yuri scooted his chair a little farther behind the girl, to improve his view.

The switch slashed into Natalia's soft flesh with a delicate thwipping sound, but the reaction it got from Natalia was anything but delicate! She howled at the top of her lungs, and bucked so violently that the chair bounced around and threatened to tip over. The Countess clapped her hands in delight at the display.

Nikolai waited until the sobbing girl had settled down, then he struck again with the whalebone switch. Again Natalia wailed in pain, the chair shifting several inches from her uncontrollable jerking and bucking. He struck her eight more times with the awful switch, each time waiting until the pain from the last blow had run its course. Several times her chair had to be returned to its original position, and by the tenth blow she was hysterical, barely able to catch her breath in between shrieks and sobs.

He let her rest for a few minutes before resuming the punishment with the next implement. This time it was a wooden paddle, heavy and wide. The first blow was solid and very loud, delivered to the centers of her bottom-cheeks. Natalia shrieked wildly immediately, and her little battered bottom writhed and clenched delightfully. He continued with the second and third strokes, allowing no more than a few seconds in between. Natalia screamed and sobbed, dancing in place and gyrating her bottom with wild desperation.

Again and again the heavy paddle cracked against the poor girl's defenseless backside, each time sending her into fits of hysterical screeching and violent spasms. She jerked and bounced so much beneath the blows that the chair once again moved about the floor. The paddling went on and on, blow following blow in quick succession. When he reached ten blows he didn't stop as he had with the other implements, he continued on. At twenty blows Natalia was completely hysterical, screaming and bucking uncontrollably, far beyond conscious thought or any rational concerns. Yuri had to hold the chair in place, or her violent convulsions would have tipped it over. Nikolai was entranced. His fascination with her complete loss of control drove him to continue on and on, the blows coming harder than ever. Soon she was no longer able to catch her breath between shrieks, and sometimes all that escaped her lungs were gasps or little wheezings. Her bouncing globes had passed beyond redness, and had begun to turn a dark mottled carmine, bordering here and there on purple. Natalia had to gasp desperately for air as terrible sobs wracked her midsection. Still the heavy paddle continued to rise and fall, its report echoing off the walls of the common room.

At last Nikolai tired of the paddle, and let her rest for a mere minute while he selected a thick leather strap. He was very worked up now, and eager to continue the punishment. He took up his position, but the Countess stopped him with a touch.

"I'm afraid she's simply not used to this sort of treatment," she said, indicating Natalia's beet-red backside. "Just look at her poor bottom! I'm afraid it's in such frightful condition that I fear you might do serious damage to it if you continue."

"I suppose you're right," said Nikolai, obviously disappointed.

Natalia, sobbing brokenly in her suffering, heard this and dared hope that her terrible punishment was finally over.

"I think," the Countess went on, "that instead you should shift your aim lower, to the backs of her thighs."