Thieves and Aristocrats (for Cleverfox)

[Renton]

Grace Michaelson was bored out of her mind. There were two hours until supper and she still had to finish these French studies. The 12-year old instinctinvely tugged a curl of her bright, curly starberry blonde hair. She wanted so much more out of life than this! What good would French do for her, anyway? She was English, after all, and if she wanted to visit France she would do so with a translator. Certainly her family could afford one.

She glanced up at the old grandfather clock in her study room. Her governess would expect her to be done soon. But she had no desire to appease the woman. Grace was feeling on the rebellious side today. She had just turned 12 and felt that she was too old for the spankings she would get from her governess. Surely the woman wouldn't defy her employer's daughter if she put her foot down, right?

So she leaned forward against the table and began to draw on her parchment with the quill, illustrating a scene of Joan of Arc dueling with Genghis Khan. It was quite exciting, and Grace was getting quite involved as she imagined the two clashing swords rather than do her schoolwork.

[CleverFox]

Cassandra Merit didn't exactly think that being a governess was a glamorous profession however it was all a part of her guise as an upstanding citizen and so she kept to that act and played her part well. The woman had learned to be a fantastic actress after all, it was sort of necessary in her true chosen profession. A profession that she kept a well guarded secret seeing as it would serve no purpose save to earn her a spot in prison and most likely a date with the gallows, which of course she wanted to avoid.

Straightening her skirts and once again pulling back her chestnut colored curls, which were upswept but with a few strands left to frame her delicate features and take away some of the severity of that hairstyle Cassandra decided that she should check on her charge. She had a rather lofty goal in mind for her next heist but for the moment the planning for that was going to have to wait.

Currently she had a young charge to deal with, Cassandra making her way to the room where she had left Grace, knocking once on the door out of courtesy before she made her way into the room. "How are your studies progressing?" she questioned in her usual brisk and no nonsense manner. Walking across the room she happened to catch sight of what her charge was doing, the young woman arching a brow as she snatched the parchment from the girl and held it up.

"What's all this then?" she questioned, her tone going from brisk to stern in that instant.

[Renton]

Grace was so lost in her drawings that she hadn't even heard Cassandra's footsteps. She glanced at her paper which was now hopelessly covered in her illustrations.

"Oh, hello Miss Cassandra!" she said, trying to hide the paper under her books, before Cassandra snatched them up.

"I just... I thought you might appreciate some artwork?" she said in a voice that was not remotely genuine. She wasn't going to let her governess boss her around if she didn't feel like it anymore.

"It's French, so I drew Joan of Arc," she said with a little smirk on her face. "I think that's better than the assignment you gave me," she added, feeling very much in the spirit of rebellion right now.

[CleverFox]

Cassandra wasn't the least bit happy to find that her charge had decided that it would be a good idea to draw on her parchment rather than attending to her studies as she had been told to do and she frowned at Grace as the girl informed her that she had thought she would appreciate some art work. "You thought wrong young lady," she told the girl in a stern voice, looking unimpressed with the girl's attempts to get out of trouble.

And even more so when Grace went on to say that she thought her drawing was better than the assignment that she had given to her.

Placing her hands on her hips Cassandra gave her charge a 'look' and asked, "Did you think that your pictures were better than being able to sit down young lady?" While she didn't come right out and say that she was going to spank the girl Cassandra knew that Grace would figure out where this was going since it wasn't the first time and the hint that she had just given wasn't exactly subtle by any stretch of the imagination.

"It seems that you are in need of a reminder of what happens when you disobey," she added in the same stern tone of voice.

[Renton]

Grace recoiled a bit when Cassandra visibly displayed her displeasure. Cassandra was an imposing woman, after all. Then the woman suggested that Grace was going to receive a spanking for her little display.

Grace decided now was her time to make a stand.

"No, Miss Cassandra!" she said, standing up. "It was my birthday last week, and... I think I'm too old to be spanked! I'm a lady now, and if you want to spank me, I'll complain to my father!" She nodded self-righteously, thinking she'd done quite a good job at standing up to her governess. It wasn't that Grace disliked Cassandra; quite the opposite, she viewed her like family; but she didn't care for her schooling assignments and she really didn't care for the spankings.

[CleverFox]

It was all that Cassandra could do to keep from laughing at the girl when Grace stood up and told her that it was her birthday last week and that she was too old to be spanked. And as though that weren't bad enough the girl went on to say that if she went through with it and spanked her then she would complain to her father. That one was just priceless since the girl's father had made it clear that he approved of her discipline techniques so Cassandra wasn't worried about the child actually going to him to complain.

Of course the girl didn't like being spanked but it wasn't something that she was supposed to like or else it wouldn't have been an effective punishment.

"Well young lady if that's the case then I expect that you and your father will have a great deal to talk about at the evening meal," Cassandra told her in a brisk and no nonsense manner, reaching out deftly and snatching the girl by the ear. "Come with me," she said sternly, fully expecting that the girl would follow even if she didn't want to if only because Cassandra currently had hold of her ear, which she knew from experience was painful and that the one whose ear was being held would have to go where their ear was being tugged.

Without waiting for the child to put up a fuss about it Cassandra lead her out of the study room and back to her suite of rooms, closing the door behind herself and then leading Cassandra over to the sofa that was situated in the girl's sitting room.

[Renton]

Grace was so busy being pleased with herself that she was caught off guard completely when Cassandra took her by the ear. "Ouch!" she gasped, "this isn't fair, Miss Cassandra!" she pouted, following her governess because she had a very firm grip on her ear. She thought that perhaps she was being led to her parents, but to her dismay, Cassandra led her to the sitting room and shut the door, before leading her to the sofa. Her little stand hadn't had the desired effect.

"You don't have authority over me!" she said as she tried for a moment to pull back, but Cassandra's grip on her ear was tight and all it did was have a spring effect as she found herself being pulled along even faster. "You can't do this anymore, I'm too old!" she said once they reached the couch. Cassandra knew at this point that running would be useless; she'd inevitably get caught and earn a harsher punishment. But she was not going to stop pleading her case as she crossed her arms and frowned as soon as Cassandra let her ear go.

[CleverFox]

Completely ignoring the cries and protests that her young and headstrong charge was offering up Cassandra didn't stop tugging her along by the ear until the two of them were in the sitting room and she herself was seated on the sofa with Grace in front of her. At that point the girl decided to declare that she didn't have authority over her and that she was too old to be spanked. Both of those declarations earned a scoff from Cassandra as she gave the girl a very pointed look.

"And do you think your father would agree with you on that if we were to go and interrupt his work to ask him just how much authority I have over you young lady?" Cassandra asked, watching as the girl crossed her arms over her chest with a frown on her face that was just not becoming to a young lady. Not that Cassandra really cared about that much but at the same time she was in charge of Grace and wasn't going to tolerate open defiance of any kind for any reason.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you're a far cry from too old," Cassandra told her before taking hold of the girl's wrist to guide Grace over her lap for the spanking that she had more than earned for herself.

[Renton]

Grace was just in a defiant mood right now and really didn't have much of an argument against anything Cassandra was telling her. She knew her father would side with the governess in this case; he almost always did. In a clearer state of mind she might recognize how her behavior was doing her argument that she was too old to be spanked no favors, as was the ease with which Cassandra pulled the girl, her strawberry blonde curls bouncing askew, across her lap. The girl turned her head and looked pleadingly up at her governess, her bright hazel eyes meeting the older woman's. "Please, Miss, I'm sorry! I... I'll go back and do my schoolwork right away, I promise! I'll even do twice the work!"

Grace knew she was in too deep, and every work only sealed her fate even more, but still, plead she did. Once a spanking once inevitable, she tended to change course from defiant to apologetic very quickly.

[CleverFox]

Cassandra was well aware of just how much authority she had with Grace considering that she and her employer had spoken at length about that before she had taken this job. So even the girl's threats to go to her father did nothing to change her mind and soon enough she not only had the girl back to her room but over her knee as well. It was at this point that Grace seemed to deem it necessary to change her tune completely which Cassandra might have found amusing were it not for the fact that she was a little annoyed.

Not that she would ever take that out on the child but still she couldn't find any amusement in the situation.

"You were given more than one opportunity to do the work and now my girl you are going to be doing it with a sore bottom," Cassandra told her firmly, making it clear that not only was the girl going to do her schoolwork but now she was going to be doing it with a sore bottom.

Having said that Cassandra heaved the girl's skirts up over her back before tugging her undergarments down to her knees, Cassandra restraining the girl with a hand to her back and then she raised her hand and delivered a firm smack to the right side of the girl's bottom, followed immediately by a smack to the left.