Cowboy Caveat (10 page)

“
What? No! I live in
pants...you know I do, Ethan!” she said heatedly.

Ethan gave her a measured look before saying
quietly, “Well, hon, my wife won’t wear pants, except when she’s
working with horses! And that is the only concession I’ll make, so
leave it right there!”

Amy huffed and seemed about to argue the
point when a gentleman of the cloth stepped up into the carriage,
nodding politely to them all. He settled himself into the far
corner and introduced himself as the Reverend John Miller,
explaining that he was returning to his flock after visiting his
sister and her family. Millie and Luca quietened down after his
arrival, brown and red heads pressed close together as they
whispered to each other, occasionally giggling behind their
hands.

The driver stowed the traveller’s bags atop
the stage and then they were off. Ethan reached out and placed his
hand over Amy’s. Smiling down at her, he winked and Amy, knowing he
was remembering last night, blushed from head to foot. She could
feel him shake with internal merriment and his hazel eyes twinkled
amusement as he gazed at her wriggling in discomfort.

* * * * *

Back at the ranch, Lucy had been watching
out for Ed and the posse’s return. Eventually, Ed surprised her
while she was upstairs bathing the boys. They spotted their father
before Lucy saw him.

“
Papa! Did you find Amy?”
Ben asked Ed, who looked at Lucy ruefully. He hated deceiving the
boys, but he didn’t want them blurting anything into the wrong
ears.

“
No, son, ‘fraid not, but
I’m sure your Auntie Amy is jus’ fine. She’s real good at takin’
care of herself, that’s for sure! Now, have you been good boys for
your mama?”

“
Yes, Pa!” they
chorused.

“
I saw a snake in the
woodshed, Pa!” Nat told Ed excitedly,

“
I saw it first!” Ben
added.

“
Did not!” shrieked
Nat.

“
Yer a great big liar!”
shouted Ben

Over the heads of the squabbling boys, Ed
kissed his wife and said, “Ya’ll okay, darlin’?”

“
Fine,” Lucy said and
smiled. “I’ll just get these two into bed and go get us some
supper.”

“
You go on. I’ll see to
the boys; I’ve missed ‘em, the scoundrels!” Ed said, tickling his
sons.

Lucy went downstairs,
smiling at the children’s shrieks and loving the soft rumble of
Ed’s voice as he talked gently to his sons
. God she’d missed him
. Lucy hated
to be parted from her husband, especially all night. The two nights
had seemed an eternity, but at least she had decided to talk to Ed
about the spanking issue.

After supper as Ed and Lucy sat on the porch
and drank their coffee, Ed told Lucy that Grant and his men were
going to wire Amy’s details to other towns and they would check the
trains and stages out of Wichita Falls. Soon they would have a lead
on where Amy was.

“
I’ll go into town
tomorrow and suggest to Sheriff Grant that Amy could have gone to
her grandma’s. They should be with her by now, so I’ll wire her and
ask if Amy and Millie arrived safely.”

“
Oh, Ed, be careful how
you word the wire. You mustn’t look as though you know she’s
there.” Lucy looked anxiously up at her husband.

“
I know, now don’t you
fret none, darlin’. I know jus’ what I’m doing. You just have to
learn to trust me, honey.” Ed kissed the tip of Lucy’s
nose.

“
Talking of trust......
little lady, have you been thinkin’ much while I’ve been gone,
hmm?” Ed asked her, one eyebrow quirked. Lucy flushed and folded
her hands in her lap. She coughed before she spoke, and Ed knew
that she was nervous.

“
I have. I have thought an
awful lot, Ed. I know that I am an incredibly lucky woman to be
married to such a kind and gentle man, when a lot of women are
beaten and such regularly, an’ sometimes only because a man is
feeling downright mean. I have been so lucky with you, Ed, and
after thinkin’ on this for a while, well I know that you would only
ever spank me if’n you thought I needed it.”

Lucy took a deep breath
and Ed started to speak, but she held up her hand to silence him.
“Darlin’, I did wrong not telling you about Amy shooting Henderson
and so I’m asking you to well....um,
spank
me
.” Lucy hung her head, embarrassed, but
there! She’d said it!

Ed’s mouth twitched as he heard Lucy out --
God she was so sweet, he could eat her. He would too, later, he
thought wickedly. But what he actually said to her was, “I’m glad
that you see it that way, Lucy darlin’. I hated walloping you with
that butter pat the other night but I had no choice. Tonight,
you’ll only be spanked with my hand, but if you need a lesson in
future you’ll get one. I hope I never have cause again to use
anything other than my hand.”

“
Oh goodness so do I!”
burst out Lucy with heartfelt agreement, then she
stilled.......tonight? Ed had said that he was going to spank her
tonight? She turned to her husband with a winsome smile on her
pretty face. “Well, you must be plum tuckered out, darlin’, so
we’ll sleep on it tonight and decide tomorrow
when......”

Ed shook his head, his brown eyes twinkling
as he interrupted her, “Uh-uh, tonight Lucy, get it over an’ done
with, start afresh tomorrow. You go on up and wait for me, and I’ll
be up shortly.”

Ed pulled Lucy to him and
kissed his wife’s forehead. Lucy huffed, but realized there was no
way out of this situation; after all, she had just
asked
the man to spank
her!

* * * * *

Tyler was often forgotten by his family and
spent a lot of time doing just as he wished. Max, the foreman, had
noticed this and encouraged Tyler to learn as much as he could
about the ranch and the cattle, but Tyler, like his sister Amy,
loved the horses and spent as much time as he could with them.
Since Amy had vanished, Tyler was working with her five white
horses, schooling them and exercising them. He loved the new foal
and lay petting the small creature until it was dusk before making
his way home. Tyler knew that he’d missed supper but went to the
kitchen to raid the pantry. He found some pie and sat down at the
kitchen table to eat it with a glass of milk. He jumped when Ed
strolled in and grinned at his small brother.

“
Missed supper again,
then?”

“
You’re back! Did you find
Amy?” Tyler asked. Ed shook his head and changed the subject. He
didn’t feel right, hiding this from his brother. But it was
necessary.

“
Tyler, I want you in to
eat supper with us and the boys in future, OK?” Ed told
him.

He hated laying down the law with his
siblings. They were not his children but they were young and
occasionally he knew that he had to intervene and guide them. Ed
wondered if he should have kept a tighter rein on Amy. Perhaps she
wouldn’t have grown up to be as wild as she was. Still, he could
relax about his oldest sister now since she was Ethan’s
responsibility from now onwards.

“
Sure thing.” Tyler
shrugged, not really intending to change his ways but agreeing with
Ed always got him off his back. He knew Ed occasionally had moments
of guilty, sibling duty but they never lasted long.

Satisfied, Ed ruffled the boy’s hair and
sent him up to bed. He then closed the house up for the night,
giving Tyler time to get into bed and nod off before he went up to
punish Lucy. Although the boys’ rooms were on the opposite side of
the house from theirs, Ed did not want to take the risk of Tyler
hearing Lucy’s cries.

Lucy had put on her nightgown after brushing
her hair and washing. She snuggled into bed, turned on her side
away from the door and closed her eyes tightly. If only she could
be asleep when Ed came in, he might let her off tonight.

When Ed came into the bedroom, he was amused
to see Lucy pretending to be asleep, her eyes screwed tightly shut.
But the tense way she lay gave her away.

“
You don’t fool me none,
Lucy darlin’. I know you’re awake. Now get up before you earn
another spanking for tomorrow night.” With a flourish, Ed pulled
back the sheet covering his wife, and Lucy mewled and stretched as
if she was just waking up. The act lasted until Ed swatted her hard
on her backside, shouting, “Up now!”

Lucy shot out of bed and glared at Ed, but
he simply grinned back and crooked a finger at her. “Come here,
Mrs. Campbell.” Ed sat down on the edge of the bed and patted his
knee.

Lucy stepped back rather than forward and
chewed her bottom lip. It really was all very well discussing a
spanking but it was quite another to be faced with it. Ed sighed;
he had hoped that Lucy would just come and drape herself over his
knee obediently, in which case he would have given her a few light
smacks and then made love to her as he was desperate to do. Lucy
just had to resist him, however, which only made it necessary to
teach her a proper lesson. He sighed again -- women!

Reaching out, he grasped Lucy by the arm and
pulled her to stand between his knees, holding each of her hands in
his own. She wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Lucy look at me,” he
commanded.

Reluctantly, Lucy lifted her gaze to her
husband and Ed was unnerved by the sharp defiance in her blue eyes.
She was actually glaring at him! Ed gave Lucy’s hands a small
shake. “Tell me why I‘m going to spank you, Lucy.”

Lucy shuffled her feet about, but when she
opened her mouth, no sound came out. Ed frowned. “OK . . . then
I’ll tell you why. You were deceitful. You hid the fact that Amy
had shot Henderson from me and you didn’t trust me. I am your
husband and I deserve your trust don’t I..... Lucy?” Still Lucy was
silent. “Don’t I deserve your trust then, darlin’?” Ed asked her
softly.

Lucy muttered, “Uh huh.”

Ed frowned as he looked her over. It was
beginning to dawn on him that his pretty little wife was a bit too
wilful even for his taste. He had no doubts that he alone was
responsible for her attitude. Lucy had not been taught to respect
him as a wife should. Oh, Ed knew that Lucy loved him all right,
but it was obvious to him that she balked at obeying him. Well, he
intended to change that, starting tonight.

Without any further conversation, Ed yanked
Lucy over his knee, quickly clamping his other leg over both of
hers. He pulled up the nightgown she had covered herself from neck
to toe with and brought his hand down with a resounding slap onto
her buttock. Lucy’s head reared up and she squealed. Ed continued
raining swats all over Lucy’s bottom while Lucy struggled
helplessly beneath his arm, which held her anchored securely to his
side.

Ed was surprised by how much he was enjoying
spanking his dear little wife. Her bottom quivered delightfully
with every smack and was already turning a rosy pink, probably due
to the harsh paddling she had received from him only a couple of
days before.

Lucy was livid with her
own stubbornness as much as she was with Ed for spanking her. She
knew that he would have gone easy on her if she had just acquiesced
in the first place and gone willingly across his knee but no, she
had her
damned
pride.

What was really confusing her was how she
was feeling tipped across her husband’s knee, helpless to avoid the
spanking he was raining down on her poor bottom. She hated pain,
but for some reason being chastised by Ed was causing a sensation
that was curling hotly down through her loins. She was strangely
thrilled by his domination, his strength and his control over the
situation. Ed could really hurt her if he wanted to, but he
obviously loved her enough to lecture her and spank her for her bad
behavior, in a controlled way that Lucy found both endearing and
exciting. As she wriggled around on Ed’s lap, Lucy could feel his
erection pressing against her hip, and she deliberately wriggled
against it some more.

Ed was highly aroused by his wife’s writhing
body and at the sight of her glowing bottom. He started to lower
his slaps to the tender tops of Lucy’s legs, so that she shrieked
in earnest and tried to kick her trapped legs in vain.

Ed continued to spank every inch of her
backside, enjoying the sight and sound of each sizzling swat. Lucy
yelped and began to weep softly; she’d had enough now, it wasn’t
feeling sexy any more, and she wanted an end to this. She couldn’t
help but spit an expletive at her husband. After all, the spanking
hurt! Unfortunately, this only earned her another volley of
blazingly painful spanks. Lucy flung her hand back to cover her
bottom but Ed swiftly gripped it and held it against the small of
her back.

“
I don’t like you
swearing, Mrs. Campbell and you seem to be doing it a lot lately.
This has to stop
! Are
y
ou hearing me,
Lucy
?!” His jaw clenched and he put real
force behind the final spanking, turning Lucy’s bottom a deep hot
red.

“
Yes…I mean no...I mean I
won’t, Ed! Please, no more
..........please
......” Lucy’s voice
faded as Ed delivered a volley of final swats to the tops of Lucy’s
legs.

Ed stopped and rested his hand across Lucy’s
thigh; her flesh was blazing hot. He let his fingers trail down,
dipping into his wife’s soft folds, and to his astonishment, he
discovered that Lucy was very aroused. Ed glanced around at Lucy’s
face -- she was snuffling and crying into the bedding but gave no
sign that she knew she was aroused. Ed explored her sex more deeply
and Lucy became very still and quiet. Ed moved his finger in and
out eliciting a moist sucking sound, and Lucy mewed and moaned
softly.