The First Book of the Merciful Nun

"I-I d-don't k-know," the girl stammered.

"Perhaps someone will be kind enough to take you home with him, and to feed and clothe you while you spend your days praying," came the rejoinder, no trace of sarcasm in the tone of voice, "Of course, he will expect some little things of you in return. Can you guess what they might be?"

THWACK!

The cane fell again, and this time the body on the bed half rose in the air as the backs of her thighs took the blow.

"Down. Stay down," snapped the torturess unfeelingly through the girl's piteous cries for mercy.

When relative quiet was restored, the kindness came back into the voice, "Do you know what your benefactor would want you to do?"

"N-no, Reverend Mother," she replied.

"He will want you to warm his bed for him, and to lie on your back while he impales you between your legs and gives you a baby every year for as long as you can conceive," the Reverend Mother's tone made it sound like washing-up, then she continued equally sweetly, "Or he may prefer to enter your mouth with his thing, or maybe he will go into your bottom."

Taking up the knout again, she reached forwards and spread the twin cheeks of the nun's bottom with one hand, pushing its handle into the young nun's dark puckered entrance, "In here!"

Another scream came from the young throat as two inches of the handle went into the dark entrance. It was removed quickly and the Mother Superior rose. Grasping the hair of her victim, she twisted the child's head sideways and pushed the brown stained wood into her mouth.

"Go on, lick it clean. The stains on it came from within your own body, so they are yours," ordered the older woman.

After she had licked the handle clean, Sister Elizabeth collapsed on the bed, sobbing, and the Reverend Mother watched her for some minutes. When calm was again restored, Sister Elizabeth was a little surprised to see that the Mother Superior was also naked.

Lying on the bed, Reverend Mother Lucia said, "Come and show me how good you are at pleasuring a woman, and I may be able to think of another possibility for you. A different way for you to survive."

Sister Elizabeth moved slowly over to the bed and surveyed the naked body of her superior. She was now being asked to perform sexually with someone to whom she did not feel any emotional tie. This was difficult for her, as her experiences previously had all arisen naturally from a close friendship which had ripened slowly into sexual activities. Now she was asked to lick and suck the intimate parts of a woman's body which she had never seen or touched before; a woman with whom she had never had a real conversation. She took a deep breath and knelt beside the bed. Leaning forward, she put out her tongue and tentatively touched the older woman's slit with the tip of it.

Afterwards the two women lay there for some time, one on the bed and the other on the floor, recovering from the extremes of passionate excitement. Eventually, the Mother Superior rose and donned her habit. Sister Elizabeth followed suit, donning the shift she was offered, and when they were both dressed the Reverend Mother sat behind her desk.

"Now let us consider your future," she said, "First you must accept that there is nobody who will want to pay you in the outside world to do anything you do in here. Children do the menial tasks in the household, and nobody pays anyone else to pray. All you can expect is to be some man's plaything if you are lucky, and a street harlot otherwise."

Sister Elizabeth sat and stared at her, knowing that what she said was probably true.

Then the Mother Superior continued, "There are times when the Church has a use for sinners. For those priests who cannot, or will not observe the rule of celibacy, the Church in its wisdom prefers to provide female company of its choosing."

Sister Elizabeth drew in her breath as she realised just what this meant.

'Can that possibly be true?' she wondered, 'The church providing harlots for sinning priests. Surely not?'

"I see you doubt me," the older nun said, "There is no need to do so. I can assure you that the Church does this. I was one such for almost two years. During most of the time I lived as a solitary nun in my cell in the College of Correction and Redemption, but from time to time I was in a different room as the consort ... sexual partner ... of Church approved visitors."

There was a pause as Reverend Mother Lucia let this sink in.

"If you are amenable, you can go there yourself for a while. It is, I assure you, preferable to being turned out into the cold and darkness wearing only a shift and a pair of sandals. Will you go there?"

Sister Elizabeth was no fool, and had been brought up in a fairly worldly household, and a wealthy one. She knew she had no skills which might allow her to make a living, and that she might well starve to death before finding a husband, so harlotry seemed the only choice. The Mother Superior made this College of Correction and Redemption sound positively enticing as an alternative.

Sister Elizabeth was then aware that her private parts had become heated and moist at the thought of giving herself to a man, or a succession of men. She decided to try this College, and to throw herself on her family's mercy if it proved too sordid. She did not even begin to guess how sordid and painful it might be; nor how much she might enjoy being used by a succession of men. She nodded her agreement.

"The things I learned at the College of Correction and Redemption helped me tremendously as the years went by," said the Mother Superior, "It was a true purgatory on earth, but I came out of it much stronger. Go to your cell now, and you will be fetched."

***

Chapter 30 Sister Immaculata

After the young nun left, Reverend Mother Lucia fell into a reverie as she remembered her time in the College of Correction and Redemption, her subsequent recovery in the Convent, and above all recalling how useful it had been when the old Mother Superior died four years earlier to be able to persuade His Eminence, the Archbishop, her 'Papa' when he had visited her at the College of Correction and Redemption, that she was the best person to take over, young though she was for that office. Perhaps Sister Elizabeth would follow the same route, perhaps not. Certainly the erring priests who would have the opportunity to meet her at the College of Correction and Redemption would not be disappointed in her looks and figure.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Sister Immaculata scratching at the door for admittance.

The Sister stood before her Mother Superior with her head bowed in shame so far that her Swiss wimple threatened to fall off. The Reverend Mother thought she was the very picture of abject disgrace. A memory of the naked body of the Sister before her floated in her mind. It had only been a brief glimpse before the two miscreants reacted to her presence, but it presented a picture of plump breasts, sparse hair on her belly which was glistening with the outpourings of her shuddering, rosy skin on her thighs, and a look of ecstasy on her face.

She started with a terrible threat, saying, "Sister Elizabeth will be gone from this House tomorrow, and I am trying to decide whether you should also leave us. What could you, thirty-five years old and a nun for this last number of years, do to earn your keep in the outside world?"

"I don't know, Reverend Mother," Sister Immaculata sobbed.

"Since the Free State was formed last year," Reverend Mother Lucia continued, "work is hard to find for the men, let alone a woman whose main duty for the last fifteen years has been praying. Would you sell yourself on the streets? Who would want an old woman when young girls are available for a few pennies or a crust of bread in these wicked times?"

Sister Immaculata just cried pitifully, horribly afraid that death from starvation would soon be her lot. Having shown the Sister the metaphorical stick, Reverend Mother now offered the carrot.

"Well, I will tell you what you will do," the she said firmly, "You could be permitted to stay here provided you remain a perfect nun to all the other Sisters. You will not touch another Sister, not even so much as to allow your hand to touch hers as you pass her bread in the refectory. When I call, you will come here to my cell and do whatever I wish, understand? Whatever I order, you will obey me. If you do not obey, or if you fail to be the perfect nun in everyday life, I will expel you. This is your only chance."

"Thank you, Reverend Mother, thank you. I will be good, and I will obey, I promise you."

"Good. You can start by taking off all your clothes. I intend to punish you with the knout on your naked body."

The guilty nun stared at her superior for a moment, blushed, and then slowly took off her habit. When she was naked, Sister Immaculata was surprised to be given a blouse to put on which seemed very thin and smooth; then she recognised it as the finest black silk. Standing before the Mother Superior wearing only this sheer garment, naked from the waist down, Sister Immaculata found that showing her private parts and the wispy growth of hair she had on them was nothing compared to the embarrassment of having her bare breasts covered by this shockingly indecent garment. It was much worse than being naked.

"You like having your breasts stroked, from what I hear," said the Reverend Mother, "well, I shall stroke them for you. Hands down at your sides."

Trembling with a mixture of fear and anticipation, Sister Immaculata obeyed and stood stock still as the older woman's hands smoothed the material over the plump breasts whose nipples were by now rock hard. The contrast of her Mother Superior still being fully dressed beside her also added to the Sister's chagrin. Her blushed extended over her entire skin by now.

"Silk makes the sensation much more delightful than bare skin contact, don't you think?" asked the Reverend Mother as she cupped, stroked and teased the younger woman's breasts.

"Y-yes, Reverend Mother, it does."

Although that was the truth, at that moment she would have agreed with anything the older woman said.

"Tell me, did you lick little Sister Elizabeth's private parts?" asked her inquisitor.

Sister Immaculata could not answer aloud; she just nodded.

"Answer me!" snapped the Reverend Mother.

"Y-yes, sometimes, Reverend Mother," stammered the nun.

Pulling the blouse over the astonished Sister's head, Mother Superior remarked, "You may be allowed to wear this again, another day. Now tell me what you two did, in detail."

"We stroked each other's bodies ... breasts, and kissed. Sometimes we turned round and kissed each other's ... parts."

"Good, then you will know how to please me. Kneel and show me how skilled you are."

Lifting her skirts and opening her legs, the Reverend Mother revealed to Sister Immaculata for the first time that she was naked beneath her habit, no slip, no drawers, no stockings, nothing.

As Immaculata's tongue found Molly's pleasure bud, the older woman sighed, and then brought the knout down on the kneeling woman's bottom. That was just the start of Sister Immaculata's long night ...