Cowboy Caveat (15 page)

Lucy ran around the bed in a panic, what had
she done! Ed took off his waistcoat and hung it on the now upright
chair. He then locked the bedroom door and pocketed the key. He
began rolling up his shirt sleeves as he sat down in the larger of
the two bedroom chairs, intending to quell his wife’s tantrum
immediately. He patted his knee and said, “Come here, Lucy.”

Lucy shook her head and stayed put. “I’m
very sorry that I hit you, Ed, but I am very tired and I need to
sleep.”

Ed’s tightly held jaw and disapproving
narrowed eyes did nothing to reassure Lucy. “Too late for that,
Luce. I’ve been cutting you slack all day, but no more....you’re
getting a spanking and that’s that. Remove your drawers and come
here to me right...now!”

Lucy whimpered and her stomach gave an
anxious lurch; she knew that the expression on Ed’s face boded very
ill for her. Ed continued to stare at his wife intensely, willing
her to do as she was told.

After an uncomfortable moment of silence and
with Lucy’s heart beating rapidly, she undid the lace of her
pantalets, allowing them to fall around her feet, while Ed stared
at her with that thoroughly implacable look in his eye. He was
furious with his wife but also thoroughly aroused by the tempting
picture she presented, standing there with her blonde hair falling
tangled around her naked shoulders. Her breasts peeked out from her
frill edged corset and her thatch of golden hair was fully visible
between her shapely legs. Lucy gave a shuddering sigh and began to
move around the bed toward her husband. He watched her grimly and
patted his lap once again. Lucy slowed and with faltering steps
inched her way to Ed.

He was vexed with her prevarication and
reached out a long arm, yanking her forward and across his knees.
Lucy, falling, put out her hands to steady herself and recoiled as
they landed in the patch of wet carpet, but there was no help for
it -- they had to remain there in order for her to stay in place.
Then she thought, ‘Why am I trying to stay in place?’ and she tried
to tip off the front of Ed’s knees. He felt her lean and quickly
wrapped his arm around her waist. He lifted a leg and secured her
to him.

“
Why am I spanking you,
Lucy?” he asked rubbing an appreciative hand over her peachy
bottom. Lucy hated this part but she obediently whispered, “Because
I slapped you.”

“
Sure’nuff,
and?”

“
I was bad-tempered with
you.”

“
You were downright
foul,
Lucy. I was
overlooking that until you slapped me! I won’t tolerate that; it
was completely undeserved. This
spanking,
however, is
much
deserved, Lucinda
May Campbell!”

Lucy squirmed at the use of her full name;
she simply hated ‘Lucinda.’

As his wife wriggled over his lap, Ed felt
his arousal surge against her hip. He silently groaned but quickly
decided that he was having his delectable little wife as soon as he
had punished her. He raised his hand and brought it down on her
rump with a resounding smack! Her flesh quivered delightfully and
Ed began to enjoy spanking his wife. She squirmed as the first few
hand-falls peppered her bottom and she moaned as she adjusted to
the sting. After a number of spanks Lucy’s hand flew back to
protect her burning bottom but Ed quickly intercepted it and held
it tight at her waist. She kicked her legs and Ed slapped her
thighs hard. “Stop that now!” he ordered her. Lucy moaned, bucking
as much as she was able, held as she was in such a tight
position.

“
I don’t know what was
spinning inside your pretty little head, darlin’, but it has to
stop, you hear me, Lucinda?” Ed upped the ante and rained slaps all
over his wife’s luscious, bouncing mounds. She cried out in protest
at the severity of the spanking but Ed was not going to let up yet.
“Lucy, answer me!” he demanded.

“
I’m sorry, Ed. I really
do not know what came over me.....pleeese, enough already!” she
pleaded.

“
I don’t think so,
darlin’... you earned this one and you’re gonna take it...at least
until I think you’re truly remorseful for your peevish behavior!”
Ed swatted Lucy rapidly, igniting her already heated
behind.

“
I am! I am! Please, Ed...
No more, please...I am sorry...Oww!”

Unbeknownst to Lucy, her husband couldn’t
take much more either. He was so erect, it hurt; the sight of her
reddened bottom quivering over his knee was exciting him to fever
pitch. After a volley of well-placed spanks, he stopped, his hand
resting on Lucy’s extremely warm bottom. Ed sat and waited for Lucy
to speak. Lucy sobbed out her pretty apology in the desperate hope
that her spanking was actually over.

Hilda Campbell arrived at the top of her
stairs, and as she made her way to her bedroom, she paused and
cocked her head to one side, pursing her lips and listening. She
knew her hearing wasn’t what it once was but surely she’d
heard...yes, there it was again. She moved quietly to stand outside
the yellow bedrooms door. There she could clearly hear the rhythmic
smacks that denoted someone was getting a spanking, but Ed spanking
Lucy?... No! Ed was far too besotted with his sweet little wife to
spank her; she must surely be mistaken.

Hilda carried on to her own room,
reminiscing happily about her own marriage and in particular the
early days when Mark had taken her in hand quite frequently and
then made sweet passionate love to her afterward. She sighed. Oh,
how she missed her now deceased husband. Old age was so cruel!

Ed awoke at five thirty
that afternoon, looked down at his cute wife and grinned to
himself. Their lovemaking had been fierce, and he had never seen
Lucy so wanton and aroused before. Lucy stirred and opened her
lovely blue eyes, heat suffusing her face when she saw her husband
grinning sinfully at her. She wondered what on earth had come over
her behaving like she had towards Ed today. Then the thought popped
into her head: Had she actually been trying to
provoke
a spanking? There was no
doubt in Lucy’s mind that there was something not quite right with
her....she kept thinking she really shouldn’t have been so aroused
after Ed had spanked her.

Lucy had discovered that she quite enjoyed
the process of being naughty, then Ed coming over all firm and
implacable. It excited her when he was so dominant and stern with
her. She wasn’t keen on the actual spanking itself, oh no,
especially when Ed was really disciplining her, but the effect on
her libido was astonishing! She was obviously a very sick
woman!

As soon as Ed realized that Lucy was awake,
he winked; she blushed and closed her eyes tight. Ed had realised
that Lucy was embarrassed by the state of her arousal after she had
been spanked and he decided to share something with her that the
doctor had shared with him a week back.

Ed had gone to see him to find out what his
medical view was on spanking women, wanting to make sure he
couldn’t harm Lucy if he punished her that way when he felt she
needed it.

The good doctor had been keen to inform Ed
that a spanking drew the blood down to a woman’s loins and
therefore improved their enjoyment of conjugal activities. He
assured Ed that she would come to no harm from a good hand spanking
and had even gone so far as to expound his theory that a woman had
been designed with such a padded bottom for the sole purpose of
such punishment!

Ed drew his wife into the crook of his arm
and began to fill her in on the doctor’s point of view. Lucy became
very still as she listened, her eyes growing rounder and rounder,
and a slow, shy smile lighting up her pretty face.

* * * * *

Dinner was at seven sharp. Ed and Lucy were
the first downstairs, or so they thought until Hilda Campbell
appeared from her small parlor, formally dressed in a deep blue
silk dress sporting a large bustle on the back. She was accompanied
by a prominent-looking man with longish white hair. He was dressed
in a maroon velvet jacket, a snowy white shirt with a black ribbon
tied at his neck, and black trousers with a black velvet stripe up
the side of each leg. Ed felt rather underdressed beside this
dapper old gentleman.

“
May I introduce my
grandson Edward and his wife, Lucinda? Edward, Lucinda, this is my
friend Judge James Richardson. I have explained the whole story to
the judge and he thinks that despite Amy’s stupidity in all of
this, he may be able to help us,” Hilda told them as she led them
all through into the dining room.

* * * * *

Rick Cook was concerned about the three
bodies stored in the barn. He and Elmer had sewn them into
individual shrouds made from some tough canvass that Elmer kept out
back for roof repairs. The heat was accelerating the decomposing
process and the flies weren’t helping too much either. Elmer had a
rough wooden cart that would hold the bodies and he could use the
stage coach horses to pull it. There was only room for two on the
wooden seat and Rick knew that Ethan Walker would object mightily
to him taking his wife into custody. But after everything they had
told him, it was something that he had no choice over; he was a
lawman.

The following morning, he hid outside and
waited until Ethan came out to use the privy. Then Rick ran over
silently and nimbly and locked the man inside, using the drop bar
on the outside. To say Ethan was furious would be an
understatement. Rick left the hollering Mr. Walker kicking the
solid wooden door and went inside to Ethan’s and Amy’s bedroom,
where he slipped his handcuffs onto a sleepy and dishevelled Amy
whilst pulling her upright.

Millie, woken upon hearing the banging and
hollering from the privy outside, got out of her bed, and saw Rick
Cook clip handcuffs on Amy. She screamed in outrage, which bought
Luca running in, followed by Elmer and Carmella. Each scooped up a
child before taking them back into their bedroom, where there they
sat down on the bed, holding Millie and Luca in tight hugs to stop
them from interfering with the Ranger. Rick Cook grabbed hold of a
dress and boots for Amy from the chair beside the bed before
dragging her, resisting and spitting with fury, out to the packed
and prepared cart. He clicked his tongue at the horses and they
were off.

It took Ethan a full ten
minutes to kick down the privy door, and when he did, he ran after
them, chasing the cart, which was just about out of sight. After a
while, he realized the futility of running farther and gave up the
chase. He snatched off his hat and flung it to the ground, swore
colorfully under his breath and ran a hand distractedly through his
hair. “God-damnit!”
What the hell was he
supposed to do now
?

Amy was incandescent with rage. She tried
unsuccessfully to launch herself sideways and off the cart, but
Rick Cook simply grabbed her arm and held on, warning her that she
could break her arm or a leg if she succeeded in falling off the
cart. After an hour or so of listening to Amy’s abuse and foul
mouth, he stopped the cart and tied her handcuffs with a rope
around the middle of them and then tied the other end to the bench.
He then took a clean kerchief and stuffed it into her mouth. “When
you’re ready to have a civil tongue in your head, lady, I’ll take
the gag out. You don’t need to be afeared, Mrs. Walker, I have a
very powerful friend in Dallas who can help with your predicament,
but I’m a Ranger, ma’am, and I gotta bring you in. I’m honor-bound
to, y’see?”

Amy did not see and mumbled, “Bastard!”
furiously through the cloth in her mouth. She was also now trying
to shriek and it was coming out muffled and wrong. Rick grinned; he
had a pretty good idea of what she was saying. He planned to stop
as soon as Amy had calmed down so that she could relieve herself,
take a drink of water and get herself dressed. He decided to pause
the journey briefly at Mountain Creek for fresh water and to rest
the horses before they continued onto Dallas, which, hopefully,
they would reach by nightfall.

* * * * *

Millie was distraught and it took an hour
for Ethan to quiet her down. He felt sorry for the kid; she was so
distressed. Finally, she calmed down, and Ethan left her to
Carmella’s kindly ministrations whilst he and Elmer took a walk out
back. Elmer explained what Rick Cook had told him about his plan to
help Amy by taking her to a friend, some hot shot lawyer type
living in Dallas. He would also wire the stage company about the
overturned stage. He had promised Elmer to either return himself to
collect Ethan and the children or he would send someone else to
fetch them. There was nothing to be done about it so Ethan simply
had to sit tight and make the best of things. The only other beasts
at the staging post were a mule and a couple of goats, Elmer’s dog
and a pig.

The dog turned out to be a bitch and an
absolute godsend when it decided to whelp half a dozen pups in the
middle of Millie’s bed during lunch time. Millie was so enraptured
by the event it distracted her from what had happened to her
sister. She and Luca stayed with the pups until nightfall, totally
absorbed with these sweet new lives.

* * * * *

Halfway through dinner, Rose appeared and
announced that there was a man come to see the judge most urgently
and could he spare him ten minutes of his time? The judge grumbled
and made his apologies to Hilda Campbell, wiped his mouth and
followed Rose out into the hall. Ed and Lucy stopped eating,
unashamedly eavesdropping but hearing nothing but the murmur of
male voices.

After a few minutes, the front door slammed
and reopened a moment or two later, followed by the sounds of an
altercation in the hallway, punctuated by a shrill female voice.
Then the dining room door was slammed back against the wall and a
dishevelled Amy burst inside, followed by a strange man none of
them knew. Ed jumped up and went towards Amy as she hurled herself
across the room and into her brother’s arms, where she promptly
burst into tears.