Mail Order Madness (17 page)

He backed up once more until he felt his horse against his back.  “I can’t back up
anymore, Susan.”

“I’ve never wanted to hit anyone in my life as much as I want to hit you right now.” 
She mentally counted to ten and opened her eyes.  “Your boys need a switch taken to
them for lying and for going into town without permission.  I’m not even going to
start on The Acre.”

He shook his head.  “I just can’t agree with beating them.  There’s got to be another
solution.”

“Your mother never beat you and look what happened!”  She shook her head.  “I’m getting
off track here.  We need to concentrate on the boys.  If I can’t spank them, you have
to stand aside and let me do whatever I want to punish them without hitting.”  She
glared up at him leaving him in no doubt of how angry she still was.  “Agreed?”

He nodded.  At that point he would have agreed to anything as long as she turned her
anger away from him.  “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we delay starting the tree house for a day, they get no dessert tonight,
and they spend tomorrow cleaning out the stalls.”

“No dessert?  Make sure Sadie fixes something they don’t like.”

Her eyes widened.  “You’re kidding me right?  I’m going to go tell Sadie to fix all
of their favorite desserts in one night!  They will not feel like this punishment
is easy!”
  How could his automatic thought be for making the punishment easier?  What was wrong
with him?

He nodded, afraid to do anything else at that moment.  “Are you sure they should muck
out the stalls?  That’s what the ranch hands are for….”

It was all she could do not to kick the man.  What was he thinking?  The boys needed
a real punishment to keep them from doing the same thing again next week!  She took
a deep breath and folded her arms across her chest, just then realizing he was cowering
against the horse. 
Good!  He needs to realize I’m angry and I mean business!

“I will punish them how I see fit, or I will switch them.  Take your pick.”
  She knew her voice sounded gravelly and harsh, but at that moment she didn’t care. 
It was all she could do to speak to him without resorting to violence.

“Do what you want as long as you don’t spank them.”

“Fine.  I will.”

She marched off toward the house and went straight to the kitchen, feeling his presence
behind her but refusing to acknowledge him.

“Sadie, what are the older boys’ favorite desserts?”
  Her eyes were flashing fire as she asked the housekeeper the question.

Sadie turned with a gleam in her eye knowing very well where this was going after
the uproar when the boys disappeared earlier that day.  “Albert likes chocolate cake
and Lewis prefers blueberry pie.”

“Do you have the ingredients to make both for dinner tonight?”
  The more they loved the dessert the worse the punishment would feel. 

Sadie nodded.  “I do.”

“Please make them.”

Sadie grinned.  “Are the boys going to bed with no dessert?”

“They are.  Among other punishments.”

Sadie’s eyes met David’s over Susan’s shoulder.  “Not going to argue with her?”
  The laughter in Sadie’s eyes was tangible.

Susan turned and glared at him.

He shook his head quickly. 
“No, ma’am.  I’ve got more sense than that.”

Sadie chuckled.  “Looks like you and your boys have met your match, David.”  She turned
back to the stove where she was fixing a thick stew for dinner.  “Do either of you
need something to eat?  You missed lunch…”

David shook his head.  “No, the boys and I stopped at a restaurant on our way back
from town.”

Susan turned and stared at him.  “You
what?
”

He shrugged, realizing he’d said the wrong thing.  “Well, we were all hungry, and
we
missed
lunch and all….”

Susan couldn’t help herself.  At that point she pulled her leg back and kicked him
in the shin as hard as she possibly could.  She could not take another second of his
ridiculous parenting methods.  “They wander around Hell’s Half Acre and you reward
them by taking them to a restaurant?  What on Earth is
wrong
with you?”  She made a shooing motion with her hand.  “Get out.  Go and play with
the horses or do whatever nonsense you do all day.  I don’t need you here mollycoddling
the boys while I’m punishing them.  You make me crazy!”  She lifted her foot to kick
him again as he turned and limped out of the kitchen as fast as he could.

She turned to Sadie.  “You’ve known him his whole life.  Was he always
this
stupid?”
  She wanted to scream.  She wanted to take a portrait of the man and hang it on a
tree so she could throw axes at it.  He should be the one she punished, not the boys!

Sadie was laughing so hard she couldn’t respond.  She fixed a ham sandwich with leftovers
from lunch for Susan and handed it to her. 

Susan sat down at the table in the kitchen and ate the sandwich, grumbling under her
breath the whole time.  “I married a crazy man.  He belongs in an asylum.  He should
not be free to roam around the world.”

Sadie watched her while she took out the ingredients she needed to make the desserts
the boys wouldn’t be allowed to eat. 

Finally, Susan finished eating and put her plate in the sink.  “Now I have to go deal
with his demented offspring.  I never thought I’d say this, but I want to go back
to Massachusetts and deal with ‘the demon horde’.  At least there I was allowed to
get the switch when the situation warranted it.”  She grumbled all the way out of
the kitchen and up the stairs.

She opened the door to the boys’ bedroom and found them facing in opposite directions
and not speaking just as she’d told them. 
Good.  Maybe they learned something from this situation even if their idiot father
didn’t.

“First off, I want you to know that you had me frightened half to death this morning. 
You have been my sons for less than a week, and I thought I’d lost you forever.  What
on Earth were you thinking going off on your own into Fort Worth that way?  You could
have been shot or killed!”

Both boys hung their heads.  “I’m sorry, Ma,” Lewis whispered, obviously contrite.

“We were just trying to help everything get started faster.  I’m sorry.”  Albert looked
up at her as he said the last words.  “What’s our punishment?”

She looked between the two of them utterly fed up with the entire situation.  “I wanted
to go pick a switch and beat you both with it.” 
She needed them to know that her first inclination was to spank them. 

Albert’s eyes grew wide.  “Teacher does that at school sometimes.”

“Good for Teacher!” Susan said emphatically.  “Your father doesn’t want you spanked,
though. 
I have no idea why, because I can’t think of two boys in this world who deserve a
spanking more than the two of you do right now.”  She walked over to look out the
window glaring down at David who was back to working with the horses.  “You’re going
to go to bed with no desserts tonight.”

Albert let out a huge sigh of relief.  He’d obviously expected more.

“
And
you’ll spend the rest of the day today, and all day tomorrow cleaning the stable.” 
She turned back to the boys so she could watch their reaction to her pronouncement.

“But that’s what the ranch hands do,” Albert said reasonably.

“Yes, it is, and that’s too bad.  I’d have told them to stop their work for a week
if I’d known I’d have to use it as a punishment for you.”
  She thought the boys needed to have real chores anyway.  How would they ever learn
to be responsible if they were able to play all the time and never work?

Lewis looked up at her, his bottom lip quivering.  “Does that mean we don’t get to
start building the tree house tomorrow?”

“It absolutely means no tree house tomorrow.  We’ll start Thursday if I get a report
that you work hard today
and
tomorrow.” 

Lewis wiped away a tear that was coursing down his cheek at the idea of putting the
tree house off for an extra day.  “Yes, Ma.”

Albert stood up and grabbed his brother by the arm.  “Come on.  We need to take our
punishments like men.”  He pulled his brother along behind him.

Susan followed them both down the stairs and out the front door.  Instead of going
straight to the stable, they first went to their father and said something to him,
and then went to the stable.  She was certain they’d gone to complain over their punishment,
but she was happy to see David backed her up.  She had no idea what she was going
to do with David. 
Is he too old to take a switch to?

*****

David stood staring at the boys after they left him to go clean out the stalls.  When
they’d come toward him, he was sure they were coming to complain about their punishment,
and he was going to find a way to sneak around Susan and go easier on them.  Instead,
their purpose in coming to see him was apologizing for causing him worry.  He couldn’t
believe it.  Why hadn’t they asked him to not have to muck out the stalls?

When he went into the house for dinner, he found Susan in the formal parlor finishing
up some sewing for the twins.  “Those look nice,” he commented.

She grunted but didn’t say anything, so he assumed she was still angry with him for
several different
reasons
.  He sighed and went upstairs to change for dinner.  He didn’t want to stay in a
room with a wife who was obviously furious with him, for good reason, he had to admit. 
He’d really messed things up, and wondered what he’d have to do to get her to forgive
him.

When he went down the stairs after changing, he saw Albert and Lewis with Susan. 
She’d finished her sewing and had laid it aside, and the boys were apologizing to
her.  He couldn’t believe his ears.  Had she told them they had to apologize?

Susan hugged both boys to her.  “Thank you for
saying you’re sorry
to me.  I want you to know that I understand you just want to have fun.  I want you
to have fun.  But you have to do it in a way that’s safe for you and for other people. 
Running around town without anyone knowing where you are is not safe.  Anything could
have happened to you.”

Albert pulled away.  “We know you’re just trying to keep us safe, Ma.  Thanks for
caring about us.”

David was shocked.  Surely now she’d tell the boys they could have their desserts
back and they didn’t have to spend the next day mucking the stalls.  He waited for
a minute for her to say so, but she didn’t.

He stepped into the parlor.  “You boys have obviously learned your lesson.  I think
you can have your desserts tonight, and you don’t have to finish up the horse stalls
tomorrow.”

Albert looked surprised and turned to Susan.  “Is that true, Ma?”

Susan shook her head.  “I can tell you’ve learned your lesson, but you need to understand
there are consequences for everything you do.  You’ll finish up your punishment, and
then everything will be back to normal again.”  She ruffled both boys’ hair.  “Go
wash up and change your clothes for dinner.”

As soon as they boys were out of the room, she stood up glaring at David. 

“They’ve learned their lesson.  Why can’t you just end the punishment now?”
  David was surprised she was clinging to a punishment for a lesson they’d obviously
already learned.

“Because if I stop their punishment every time they come to me and apologize and hug
me, they’ll do that as soon as they’ve done something wrong and realize they can get
away with anything.  They need structure in their lives and cutting off their punishment
is
not
structure.”  She took a deep breath, obviously searching for self-control.  “I would
appreciate it if you would consult me before rescinding any punishment I give in the
future.  They need to see us as unified when it comes to discipline.  If I decide
to stay here, I need you to back me up every step of the way.”

His eyes widened in shock.  “What do you mean if you decide to stay?”
  She wasn’t seriously thinking about leaving him was she?  They hadn’t even been
married for a week!

“Just that.  I found out today my husband deliberately deceived me and it’s obvious
he’s trying to undermine me with our boys.  I won’t stay in a marriage where that
continues.”  She walked past him into the
dining room where Sadie was serving the stew
she’d made with some homemade biscuits
.  She took her seat at the foot of the table while Mrs. Hackenshleimer brought the
twins to their
high chairs
.

“Thanks for all your help today, Mrs. Hackenshleimer.”

The nanny nodded, and started toward the kitchen.  “Is t
h
at all for the night?”

“Yes, I’ll put them to bed after dinner.”