The Portrait of a Strict Disciplinarian

New readers should start reading this novel at Chapter 1.  The chapters do not stand alone, but are sequential components of an erotic novel in which there are 36 chapters in all, which are intended to be read in numerical order. 

It was in January, at the beginning of Brad’s third year at Moulton Midmarsh, when received an invitation to dine one evening with the Headmaster. As such invitations were rare, Brad asked himself what the occasion was and why he had been invited. Dinner as excellent as ever, was cooked and served by that that man of many parts, the Headmaster’s general factotum, Jonathan. After dinner, relaxing in front of an old-style, open log fire in his sitting room, the Headmaster began: “Brad, you are probably asking yourself why I have invited you to dine alone with me this evening. Well, a number of changes here at Moulton Midmarsh are afoot, which may affect your position as Chief Disciplinarian, which I might add, you have fulfilled to perfection since your arrival here two years ago.  But first, let me ask you if you have ever thought that one day you might become a headmaster of one of our employer’s, PCS’s (Public Custodial Services PLC), other establishments, of which there are many located across the country.”

“Well, sir, like everyone else, I hope eventually to better my position, but, as I have only been two years in my present post, to be honest I have not given any immediate thought about furthering my career. What is sure is that I would like to continue in a post in an approved school such as Moulton Midmarsh as I thoroughly enjoy the type of work I am doing here; as a disciplinarian, I feel I have found my true metier.”

“Well, Brad, I suggest you start thinking about it now; and here’s why.  I recently had a meeting with the senior personnel officer of PCS in London, who is a long-standing personal friend. He asked me if I could recommend someone to head up one of PCS’s northern Junior Correction Facilities, a place called Highgate Mill, not far from Manchester. Apparently, the School finds itself in the same parlous state of indiscipline as Moulton Midmarsh did when I recruited you two years ago. The present Headmaster, whom I do not know and who has the title of Warden, is on the verge of retirement and has, unfortunately, for such a penal institution, allowed discipline to slip over the past few years; and PCS is now looking for a firm new hand to sweep away the old order and inject some rigour back into the place. Now Brad, no hand I know of is firmer than yours – too firm, some of our inmates, who have felt your largess across their buttocks, would doubtless say – and so, I mentioned your name to the personnel officer, who would like to meet you.”

“Headmaster, it is really very good of you to propose me as the future Warden of an approved school for dangerous young criminals, but I am only 25 years old myself and have only a few years’ teaching experience. So, sir, I hardly think that I am ready to take on such a serious responsibility.”

“My dear young man, it is not your teaching ability but your willingness to impose discipline for which you would be recruited. You would have a complement of teaching staff under you, all of whom have apparently shown themselves incapable of keeping order, due to the lax leadership of the present Warden. You have shown yourself a first-class disciplinarian in your two years with us and I can think of no one better than you to bring some order to the place. And as far as your age is concerned, William Pitt, the younger, became Prime Minister of Great Britain and ran the country at the ripe old age of 24. So, with your capabilities, doing a job I know you like, as I have myself watched you put your back into it, you should have no difficulty in sorting out and running Highgate School. I urge you to go to London and talk to my friend about the job. I think with my recommendation, which you will of course have, you are sure to be offered the post. And remember as Warden you will be the lord of all you survey. I can but urge you, as the modern saying has it, to go for it.”

“Now, another piece of news which may influence your thoughts on a move; I myself shall be 60 in June and have decided to take early retirement. I understand my successor has already been chosen by our employer; otherwise, I would have had no hesitation in recommending you as my replacement here at Moulton Midmarsh. But that die is already cast, and I can do nothing to change it. Brad, if you decide to stay here, you will have to contend with a new Headmaster, who may have different ideas to mine as to how the place should be run.  So I would again urge you to explore the possibilities of a move to the north, where you would be your own man. And you would be within easy distance of a large city, with all the cultural opportunities that it has to offer a man with your talents.” And with that slightly cryptic remark the Headmaster brought the evening to a close. As Brad was leaving, the Headmaster suddenly added, as if as an afterthought: “By the way, next Friday at 11 in the morning would be a good time to see my friend in the personnel department at PCS’s Head Office at Canary Wharf in London. Be a good chap and give him a ring if you want to cancel the appointment.”

There Brad had it; the Headmaster had already arranged a firm appointment for him to visit PCS to talk turkey. He returned to his apartment, thoughts buzzing around in his head, to apprise DD of what had happened. It was already late when Brad returned to find a naked DD waiting impatiently for him in his bed: Brad stripped off naked and joined DD in bed; but to his partner’s disappointment did not immediately slake his obvious sexual thirst either by shafting him or allowing himself be shafted.  “DD, try to calm your insatiable cock for once, if you can and just listen to this.”  Brad then recounted to his partner what had transpired at the Headmaster’s dinner.

“So, you see, DD, I think that the old boy already sees it as a fait accompli and I am more or less certain to get the post of Warden if I apply for it; or should I say when I apply for it. To cap it all, intent as he clearly is to push me into a shot-gun marriage, he has already arranged an interview for me on Friday in London with the powers that be at PCS. What do you think I should do?  The old boy is retiring in June and things here are sure to change when the new Headmaster takes over. It’ll be case of a new broom sweeping clean; it always is. I can see our lives not being the same whatever I do. If I get the job up in the north, it will knock our present life together for a six; and what about Jonathan? What is he supposed to do now that his lord and master is retiring? Will the old boy take Jonathan with him as a live-in house-boy to wherever he is going?”

DD listened to this exposition which, as well might be imagined was given by Brad rather breathlessly and with a sense of impending doom in his voice. He said: “Calm down, Brad. Let’s just have the gay-young man’s alterative to the proverbial cup of tea, and have a quick fuck after which we can consider more calmly your next step.” Then without waiting for Brad’s reaction and with no preparation, he shafted Brad and gave him a really rough fuck, after which, having satisfied his own needs, with the two of them now lying side by side in bed, he calmly said: “Look Brad, forewarned is forearmed; so let’s try to think rationally of the best thing for you to do.”

“Here, for what it’s worth, is what I think. First, disregarding the fact that whatever decision you make, there are to be inevitable changes here at this School. The Headmaster obviously sees you as a potential headmaster somewhere in the PCS empire and has done his very best to find you a position. If you were to get the post of Warden at a school in the north, you would be in charge of your own destiny, in as much as any of us are as employees of a large publicly owned company; but you surely see, what I mean: you could run things the way you wanted them, without having a superior breathing down your neck. Now I know that our present Headmaster has given you more or less free rein to handle the disciplinary side of the School as you wish; But a new Headmaster, whoever he is, might not be the same and will surely want things doing his way; but that is something you will not know until he arrives, if we are still here when that event takes place. Note, my friend, that I said if we are still here, because, come what may, whatever you decide to do you are not getting rid of me. We are are not husband and wife, but equal partners in what has become a rock-solid relationship. I doubt that either of us could envisage life without the other, and I would follow you to the end of the earth if necessary, as suspect you would also do for me. Whatever you decide to do you will find me tagging along beside you.”

“However, more concretely, I think you should go for the job as it would be an enormous step up in your career if you were to move, after only two years in your first job and become Warden of  school such as this. And as far as the north is concerned, I doubt anywhere could be a worse than Moulton Midmarsh, which, let’s face it, is the absolute pits of a place to live. It’s only you and the proximity to Cambridge and our social life there that keep me sane. My view is that you should at least go for the first interview in London and see what happens; nothing ventured, nothing gained, as the saying goes. And if you get the job, you can rest assured that I will come with you, as I have no intention allowing you to fend for yourself alone in the wilds of the frozen north. But that’s enough talk for now as I need some action; so, if you think you are still capable of raising the flag, why don’t you do so and show me that you are still the greatest thing since sliced bread when it comes to sex.”

“DD, why don’t you just fuck off this once,” said Brad laughingly, as he shafted his partner and prepared to give him absolute hell.

Come the following Friday, Brad did  go up to London for his first interview; and as the Headmaster had divined – or already knew – the upshot was that Brad was put on a short-list (of one?) candidates and was provided with a first-class travel warrant to visit Highgate Mill School. What he saw when he got there was a brick, Victorian mill building, which had been successfully converted into an approved school for 250 inmates. He was shown around by the retiring Warden and met several members of what appeared to be a generally washed out and apathetic teaching staff, all of whom looked as if they should be put out to grass at the earliest opportunity, if not sooner. The Warden managed tactfully to avoid saying that the young man they were meeting was a potential replacement for himself, to avoid giving the impression that when retired a new broom would sweep out the old, which is exactly what Brad saw was necessary.  The lack of leadership of the present Warden had spread like a sleeping sickness across the teaching staff, who, to a man, gave the impression of a completely worn-out facility which needed totally rejuvenating.

A second interview with PCS followed a week later, when the head of personnel told Brad that all other candidates had withdrawn from the  race after having seen the decayed state of moral they would be taking on  to bring Highgate Mill School up to scratch. “So Mr. Caine, in spite of your youth, as you come with first class recommendations from your present Headmaster, whom I know personally and whose judgement I trust, if you want the job, it’s yours.” And that is how Bradley Caine, aged only 25, was appointed Warden of Highgate Mill Approved School.

The present Warden of Highgate was to retire at Easter, so Brad and DD had ample time to make their final plans before the move and take steps to preserve their joint future together.  Brad had obtained a staffing list and copies of the present incumbents’ CVs. When he learned, to his surprise and it has to be said, delight, that the previous PE teacher had resigned and left the school at the end of the year, leaving the place with no professional PE master in charge, he had no hesitation in offering DD the post, thereby killing two birds with one stone.  Nepotism? Probably; but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, especially when the guy to whom you are offering the post is competent and also your lover. Brad saw that he would have his work cut out if he was to bring the rickety organisation that he had agreed to head, up to snuff. So, he had no compunction about giving DD the job as he was a known quantity; and if in so doing it solved their personal dilemma, which it most certainly did, well, as there was no skin off anyone’s nose, so much the better.

With their main personal problem solved, Brad, worry wart that he was, brought up the subject of Jonathan. While the two of them had no obligations to the young man, as they had taken him under their wing and groomed him in the finer points of gay sex, thereby liberating him from the stifling boredom of the extraordinary, narrow, totally one-sided relationship, which he enjoyed with the Headmaster, a man just old enough to be his grandfather, they both felt a certain responsibility for his well-being. They also felt considerable regret that they would be forced to give up the regular, three-man sessions they had with Jonathan, who, under their tutelage, had blossomed and become brilliant sex partner, second to none. So, on the next occasion that Jonathan arrived for their twice weekly, three-man sex session, they decided that he should be told their intentions.

However, when Jonathan arrived the following evening, as was his custom, this time before the three of them got down to business with each other, he suddenly said: “Guys, listen up as there is something I need to tell you before we get down to being physical with each other. You see, the thing is, at Easter, I shall be leaving Moulton Midmarsh. It’s not that I have been keeping the news from you, but I wanted to be certain before I told you. You must both remember Clive – Clive Parsons – whom I met at the TCC meeting in Cambridge; well, since then, we have been seeing more and more of each other. At the time we first met, Clive was in the middle of his teacher training course, which he has since completed and is now a history teacher at a school in Cambridge.”

“Well to cut a long story short, he and I have become an item, much like you two guys, and we are going to live together in his flat, which is in the centre of Cambridge. When I told the Headmaster this, entire he asked me what I was going to do for a living when I moved. So, I told him that I would easily find a job in one of the colleges as a gyp, (a college servant). He was horrified that I was leaving him without a firm job to go to. Well the upshot is that he has pulled a few strings and landed me a post similar to the one I presently occupy, as cook and butler to the Master of his old college, St. Swithens, Sir John and Lady Squires, with whom he is, apparently, very friendly. Anyway, the whole thing was settled in writing only today after I had had my second interview with Sir John.  So I shall be more or less general factotum at the Master’s Lodge of St. Swithen’s College, doing basically what I do at present for the Headmaster here in Moulton Midmarsh; without the sex, of course.”

Brad and DD listened in amazed relief, as Jonathan told them of his good fortune. It relieved them of the mental stress of thinking about the young man’s future, for which they both felt, even though they were not responsible for him, they bore a certain moral obligation, in view of their intimate friendship with him. They saw that their Headmaster had done his best to ensure that both Brad and Jonathan would emerge all right from the inevitable and imminent changes which were afoot. DD had characterised the Headmaster at the time of his arrival at Moulton Midmarsh as being basically a good guy, which had been born out in his actions towards all three of them. He had given Brad rooms adjacent to those of DD, once he had learned that Brad was gay, in the hope of encouraging an intimate friendship to develop between them. He had sent Jonathan to Brad, ostensibly to help him get settled. But he also realised that his own sexual relationship with his young factotum was untenable long term. The young man, needed to spread his sexual wings among men of his own age, beyond the confines of the staid, one-sided relationship he enjoyed with a man old enough to be his father, even though he had fished him out of a juvenile prison.

And out of that initiative had grown the close relationship, which Brad, DD and Jonathan now enjoyed together. And as one thing leads to another, Jonathan had found Clive, the love of his life, at a TCC gathering in Cambridge.  The Headmaster, anticipating the coming changes at Moulton Midmarsh, had pushed Brad into accepting a very senior position, equivalent to his own, as Warden of an approved school in the north, in the full knowledge that wherever Brad went DD would follow. And then he had managed to place Jonathan in an enviable new job. When it came to looking out of the interests of his nearest and dearest colleagues, to give the trio a name, the Headmaster was certainly a good guy.

But Jonathan had not yet finished: “So guys, it was only once my own immediate future was signed, sealed and delivered, that the Headmaster told me that he would be retiring in summer and that he had been just about to tell me that my days at Moulton Midmarsh were numbered and that I should start thinking about looking for a new job for myself. Anyway, I seem to have come out of the whole thing OK; beyond my wildest dreams, in fact. I had seen myself becoming a college servant, which I suppose is what I am going to be; but now at a very high level, for which I have to thank the Headmaster. But he also told me, just today, that his replacement as Headmaster had already been chosen and that, after his departure, there would inevitably be changes as the new man would inevitably seek to impose his own ideas on the existing order. But as I guess you two guys knew all this already, I wondered what you thought about the coming changes and how they might affect the two of you.”

Brad began: “Well, Jonathan, you have just pipped us at the post in announcing your departure, because DD and I had intended to tell you our news tonight before we got down to our usual business.  But first let me tell you that we are both delighted to hear that you and Clive have hitched up together and are going to live together in Cambridge. Your decision to leave Moulton Midmarsh had nothing to do with the Headmaster’s retirement, but he has done you proud in helping you to obtain a plum job at the Master’s Lodge of his old college.  You have done well to get yourself settled before the Headmaster actually leaves this summer, when, in all probability, your job, as you now know it, will disappeared.” 

“Well, DD and I already knew a few weeks ago that the Headmaster was retiring and that his replacement had already been chosen. So urged on by him, who I am sure pulled a few strings for me, as he did for you, I have landed a job as Head of an approved school near Manchester similar to Moulton Midmarsh, where I will have the title of Warden. DD will be coming with me as PE Instructor for my new school, where very conveniently the old head of PE had resigned at the end of last year. So I think we can say that all three of us have been blessed by chance to be able to leave this place before the roof falls in, which may well happen when the new Headmaster arrives. The saddest thing about this whole affair is that our little evening get-togethers for three-way sex will come to an end, in the way all good things eventually seem to do. But there is little point in crying over what used to be, as I am sure we shall all find new friends in our new posts.   But I think we three should make hay together as the sun shines on us in this place for the next few weeks; and I think that right now would be an excellent moment to start harvesting.”

Continued in Chapter 28