Léa Dupond

The pretty young lectrice is one of the few women you know who hasn't changed physically as a result of your experiments with the Rulebook. She was fit and shapely before and she still is now. In fact, she used to be the only woman on the college staff that you would have described as truly attractive and she even formed the basis for a few of your fantasies, although you've always been careful to make sure nobody suspects that you have inappropriate desires towards an indirect subordinate.

You walk up to the counter, covertly admiring her slim backside sheathed in a blue-grey tulip dress.

"Mlle. Dupond," you say in greeting, making her jump.

"Oh, it is you, Jaques," she replies, turning towards you. "Am I in trouble for something?"

"Just because I'm talking to you doesn't mean you've done anything wrong, I hope!"

"No, no, I meant because you called me Mlle. Dupond instead of Léa. That normally means somebody is unhappy with me."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. I was just wondering how you're getting on. You've been here nearly a year, is that right? It must be very different from your experiences back home." You select a meal from the canteen counter and put it on a tray to take to a table.

"Mm, very much so." Taking a salad for herself, she looks down at your plate and asks, "You are not eating at home, Jaques? I thought all your graduates had been trained to be excellent cooks by now."

You're not sure what she means about graduates, but tell her that you thought you might eat together to continue your chat, unless she has other plans. She seems genuinely pleased that you're taking an interest in her and suggests you get the drinks whilst she procures the cutlery and condiments. When you met at college functions in the past, she always seemed happy to move on after exchanging a few pleasantries, so maybe the Rulebook has wrought some changes after all.

A few moments later, you're both sitting at a table for two and Léa is relating how she came to take the job of lectrice.

"I have not told you this before, have I, Jaques? When I received an invitation to interview for the position, I was very unsure. I thought the spanking rules here were obscene, chauvinistic, even misogynistic and I wanted nothing to do with them, except perhaps to campaign against them! But the Senior Dean called me personally and said he could arrange a temporary exemption for me so that I could come and see and make my decision then."

"Really, he could do that?"

"No, of course not, he was lying, but I did not know that until I arrived at the airport here and, as a first time visitor of spankable age, was taken off for my assessment to determine what implement I would have to carry during my stay."

"That must have been a shock!"

"Yes, but it was funny, when it happened I didn't really mind. If you had asked me a day earlier how I would react, I would have said kicking and screaming, but when I arrived, everybody else was going along with it, so it just seemed natural. And the staff at the airport were so good. I do not know where they had got their information, but they knew about all sorts of things that I had felt guilty over for years, some even since I was an infant. And when they spanked me for them until I was screaming in agony and I thought I must be going to die, because surely nobody could endure such pain and survive, the guilt lifted off me and for the first time I could remember, I did not have any negative feelings about myself." She sighs with contentment. "I could have saved myself a lot of therapy if I had known how good a spanking could be."

You shouldn't be surprised by the power of the Rulebook any more, but hearing how Léa's attitude to spanking changed the moment she set foot in the country makes you marvel almost as much as the fact that she found the harrowing first experience of corporal punishment rewarding and fulfilling.

Léa puts her heavy bullwhip on the table to show you. "It is a terrifying implement," she continues, "but that is what makes it so effective. I am much better behaved now than when I arrived and I have not visited home since, not even for Noel, because I could not bear to be away from discipline."

Her use of a word for Christmas more common in France makes you notice another change. In the past, Léa quite often lapsed into French in the middle of a sentence, regardless of the language skills of others present, but you don't think she's said a single French word so far that's not used in English, too. Maybe somebody took offence to not being able to understand her and punished her for it, although her accent is still as strong as ever. To cover the sudden gap in the conversation, you ask another question.

"Have you had any visitors from home come to you?"

"My sister and most of my friends are of spankable age and I can not persuade them to come, although I am certain they would gain from it if they did. After I took the job, my parents and my bloke came over to try to talk me out of it. They did not think I could really be happy being punished for my mistakes, but when they got here, they saw at once how beneficial it was. Unfortunately, when they got home, they started to worry about me again and try to get me to return. I think it is the attitudes there that make it difficult to support spanking, even when they have seen the effects first hand."

Actually, it's because you only made the spanking rules apply to your own country, but you can't very well tell Léa that.

"So you haven't had any problems settling in? Apart from the usual teething troubles with any new job, I mean."

You can tell at once that there is something, but the blonde Frenchwoman seems hesitant to mention it, so you give her a few words of encouragement and eventually she capitulates.

"It is only, as a lectrice, sometimes I have to give a spanking to the students in my classes and having only come to this country nine months ago, I have so little experience that I feel like a fool. My teaching assistants are really helpful and polite, but it is embarrassing knowing that they could probably spank better than me."

She seems so down that even your reassurance that she will get better with practice does little to lighten her mood. Part of the problem is that as a woman, she's only entitled to spank in specific circumstances as part of her job, so she doesn't get much practice in the first place. After you finish the meal, which is wholesome and filling, but not exactly thrilling to the taste buds, Léa offers to clear the table and then excuses herself to powder her nose, giving you a chance to think of a solution to her problem.

Your first idea is to use the Rulebook, and you do eventually do so, but not for what you initially planned. Instead, you turn to the page for your college and start writing.

Old Rule: The President and governing body welcome suggestions for improvements to the organization and running of the college from fellows. Fellows are given wide latitude in arranging pilot programmes to investigate the potential impact of suggested changes.

You then dash off an email to the President's office saying that newer members of staff, particularly women and younger men, might benefit from practical training in giving an effective spanking and you'd like to start a preliminary study to test whether graduate teaching assistants might provide this service for extra credit. Then, remembering what Léa said about your grad students learning to cook, you look up their computerized records. As expected, they're all bright, sexy young ladies, but less expected is the fact that apparently they've organized a rota for housekeeping duties to look after you. Tonight is a ravishing beauty called Imogen and if her photograph even comes close to doing her justice then she's one of the most exquisite women you've ever met. You email her as well, to tell her you won't require dinner tonight and just as you hit Send, a reply arrives with unusual promptness from the President, giving her blessing to your project.

Léa returns from the ladies and thanks you for listening, apologizing for burdening you with her inadequacies. She seems much happier now, but you still tell her about your bright idea and ask her to select one of her teaching assistants and meet you for lunch here tomorrow to set things in motion. She's positively euphoric at the news and for a moment you think she might be going to kiss you, then she controls herself.