Lorraine and Alan Robertson's marriage had become very rocky and Lorraine had originally booked a few days in a country cottage in the hope that the marriage could be revived. By the time of the holiday, the marriage had declined further and the holiday looked like being a waste of time and money.
They had been arguing on the journey to the cottage and were hardly speaking when they arrived, but the owner of the cottage, Miss Beryl Lancer, quickly assessed the situation and prescribed a remedy. The remedy consisted of the application of a cane to the bare backsides of the couple who were both aged in their late fifties.
Later that evening, the feelings from the cane marks on their arses were getting transmitted to their sexual regions and their mutual arousal led to great sex which continued throughout their holiday and beyond. Miss Lancer, who was aged sixty-five, even gave them a cane to take home with them and in the weeks following their holiday, one or other of them or sometimes both often had cane marks on their buttocks prior to a sex session.
Lorraine got to wondering how frequently Beryl Lancer treated guests in such a way and she had quite a lengthy and friendly telephone conversation with the older woman. During the chat, she discovered that from time to time Beryl detected tensions in the relationship between couples on their arrival, not difficult in the Robertsons' case, and sometimes decided that a caning might help. Although she stressed that it did not always work as well as it had with Lorraine and Alan. She went on to say that sometimes couples that she had caned made a return visit and Lorraine said that she might well be seeing them again.
A couple of days after her conversation with Beryl Lancer, Lorraine was in town and met Ruth Irvine who was an acquaintance rather than a close friend. They had not seen each other since before Lorraine and Alan's holiday.
They went for a coffee and Ruth said, "You look glowing Lorraine, have you got a new lover?"
"Ha, well sort of... it is Alan," replied Lorraine.
"Your Alan? The last time I saw you, you were not getting on very well so what changed?" Asked her friend.
"Well, we rented a country cottage for a few days," said Lorraine.
"And that was all it took?" asked Ruth.
"Not exactly, the woman that owned the cottage um... made a suggestion."
"Go on," prompted Ruth.
"Well not a suggestion as such, she caned us both," Lorraine rather blurted out.
"Caned you, like on your bums?" asked Ruth, almost incredulously.
"Yes, and it fucking hurt but a bit later we both started to feel randy and basically we have been fucking ever since."
"God, maybe John and I should see this woman," Ruth said half laughingly.
"Isn't your sex life good then?"
"Non-existent more like," replied the fifty-eight-year-old Ruth.
"Maybe you should then, although Miss Lancer said that it does not work for everyone," said Lorraine.
"Miss Lancer sounds like a fucking headmistress," laughed Ruth.
"Actually she was dressed as a headmistress when she caned us," confided Lorraine.
The conversation eventually turned to other things but Ruth left with Beryl Lancer's phone number and phoned her when she got home.
"Hello, Beryl Lancer," a strong-voiced female answered the phone.
"Oh, hello Miss Lancer, my name is Ruth Irvine and I have just been talking to Lorraine Robertson about um... your cottage."
"Ah yes, Mrs Roberston. She is well I trust? I did have a conversation with her earlier this week."
"Yes, she is fine. I am interested in booking your cottage for my husband and myself and Lorraine said that you, um, assisted them with a problem," said Ruth.
"I did indeed but the assistance that I gave her and her husband does not work for everyone," advised Beryl.
"No, she did tell me that you explained that but my husband and I um don't... you know... and I thought it might help."
"It might help. What does your husband say about it?" asked Beryl.
"Oh, I haven't mentioned it to him yet."
"I suggest you talk to your husband and get back to me. Of course, you could have some time at the cottage anyway if he does not want to go ahead with the assistance, as you call it," said Beryl Lancer.
That evening Ruth, after a couple of false starts, spoke to her husband John. "I saw Lorraine Robertson today, her and Alan are all lovey-dovey again."
"Are they? I thought you said last time you saw her that their marriage was on the rocks," said John.
"It was but they went away to a country cottage for a few days and now they can't get enough of each other."
"That's a bit of a turnaround. Just because they went away to a cottage, it changed their marriage?" asked her husband.
"Well, it was apparently more what happened when they got there, the woman that owned the cottage caned them both," said Ruth.
"She did what?" asked John.
"She caned them and it turned them on so much that they have been fucking like rabbits ever since."
"Good for them then," said a slightly disinterested John.
"Yes, I phoned the woman up this afternoon about us going there for a few days..."
"You did what?" asked an amazed John.
"We don't have to have the caning unless you want to but it might work for us like it did for Lorraine and Alan if we did."
"But our marriage is not as bad as theirs was is it?"
"Not generally but when did we last have sex?" asked Ruth.
"There is more to a marriage than sex though, isn't there?" replied John.
"Yes but I miss it, don't you?"
"A bit but I am not that bothered," replied John although perhaps he was.
"But if we let that woman cane us then we might get our sex life back. Can I book a few days at the cottage?"
Eventually, John agreed, although he was still very doubtful about the caning aspect, and Ruth phoned Miss Lancer and booked three days at the cottage having explained John's reluctance.
Beryl Lancer met the Irvines on their arrival and could see at once that they seemed much closer than the Robertsons had when they arrived.
After showing them around the cottage she said, "Are you both sure that you want to go ahead with the caning because it might not do for you what it did for the Robertsons and all you might get out of it are very sore bottoms?"