Lucy stays to help Edmund spank Clarissa

"Yes, indeed, you must be corrected," Edmund told Clarissa. He held her from behind in the little airship cabin facing Lucy.

Clarissa bowed her head. "Forgive me," she said. Her tense posture eased.

Lucy's mouth tightened.

"Lucy, I would have you stay," Edmund said, nodding to her hand on the cabin door's handle. "Clarissa must be spanked."

Lucy paused. The airship engines droned in the distance.

"Would you not wake the neighbors?" Lucy asked.

"She must be spanked," Edmund repeated. "Will you assist me?" he asked.

Clarissa whimpered. Her hips twitched from side to side. Anticipation? Lucy wondered.

"Please stay, please stay," Clarissa said.

Lucy's cheeks bloomed with heat. Holding her voice steady against an angry quaver, she said, "Very well, Edmund."

Lucy let her hands fall. Her coat fell open, exposing the nightshirt Clarissa had torn. A smear of blood on Lucy's bared breast marked the trail of Clarissa's fingernail.

Clarissa had woken Lucy in her cabin to confront Lucy over her continued sexual connexion with her husband now that Lucy was no longer a servant. But the overwrought Clarissa had broken down into tears, accepted Lucy's comforting embrace, and cried herself to sleep. After Lucy drifted off, Clarissa's vigorous self-pleasuring had wakened her once more, and Clarissa's careless words -- calling Lucy a bastard wench -- had angered Lucy. Clarissa's impulsive leap into Lucy's arms outside Edmund's cabin door, mistaking Lucy's anger for Sapphic desire, had kindled Lucy's irritation into anger. And Lucy's reply to Clarissa's plea for a kiss -- a fierce, angry kiss -- had given Clarissa license to clutch her hands upon Lucy's bosom, ripping her nightshirt when Lucy thrust her into Edmund's arms.

Edmund sat back upon the folding bed. "Over my lap," he told Clarissa.

Clarissa whimpered and complied. The petite redheaded woman folded her body over her husband's thighs, presenting her bum.

"You shall be spanked for your intemperance tonight," Edmund said. He raised his wife's skirts. His nostrils flared as Clarissa's creamy-pale, soft buttocks were exposed. Edmund's breath hissed in. "You smell on heat, woman. Have I not covered you enough?" He shook his head. "No matter." He cleared his throat. "Lucy, Lady Downs," he addressed his lover, his half-sister. "The first blow is yours."

Clarissa whimpered.

Lucy felt dizzy. She stepped forward, regarding the bared buttocks of the woman who had lorded it over her and her daughter since Edmund's marriage to her. Her hand seemed to move of itself, striking forward like the head of a snake and slapping Clarissa square in the midst of her naked bum. Clarissa squeaked.

The pink outline of Lucy's hand showed clearly on Clarissa's pale buttocks. Lucy pulled both hands back, holding them to her mouth, aghast at herself. Clarissa's scent filled her nose and her heart beat fast.

Edmund said. "Thank you, Lady Downs. Clarissa?"

"Th-thank you, Lady Downs," Clarissa whimpered. She canted her bum upward.