A New Mam for the Girls (3 page)

“No!” Sally denied.  “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have helped you!”

“I think it will be worth a spanking if Papa is happy with Miss O’Grady.  Isn’t she pretty?” she asked.

Sally nodded.  “Her eyes are beautiful.  I wonder if she can bake cakes and pies?”

“I hope so.  It would be nice to have something besides the cookies you make for us.”

“Don’t you like them?” Sally asked, pouting.

“They’re great, but I would like something else once in a while, too.  If we even knew one more recipe, it would be worth a spanking!”

“I don’t want a spanking!” Sally insisted.

“But, you want a new Mama, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Sometimes you just have to do something drastic to get what you want, sister.  I think that Miss O’Grady will be worth a hot bottom.”  Susie jumped off the wooden stump that their Papa used to chop kindling for the stove… and where he sat to dole out a sound spanking!  “I hear something,” she announced, and she scampered up the woodpile to look out the window to see what was happening.  “Preacher and Mrs. Trimbull are getting into their buggy, and the Sheriff is helping Papa carry in a trunk.  Do you think Miss O’Grady is staying?” Susie whispered.  “Oh, yes, she is staying!  The Sheriff is on his horse, and he’s following Preacher.  Miss O’Grady is talking to Papa, but I think they are arguing!  That is not good!”

*****

“We’ve only been married for three minutes and you are telling me what I can and cannot do?”  Seth was not happy, and his red face warned Bridget she was fast crossing a line.

“This concerns me, too!” she said, turning up her chin.  “I do no’ want the girls to hate me!”

“What they did was wrong, Bridget.  They earned a spanking.”

“I will no’ let you do it!”  She ran to block the door when he headed toward it.

“Bridget, I am beginning to think the girls aren’t the only one who need a lesson.”  Seth rarely ever had to raise a hand to Catherine, and he couldn’t picture her behaving in this manner!  She might not like it when he felt a spanking was in order for one or both of the girls, but she would never stand in front of the door with her arms open wide, doing her best to keep him from going outside!

“’Twould be better me than the poor wee dears!” she snapped at him.  Her brave words made him shake his head, and then he reached out and easily lifted her from the doorway and put her down behind him.  He headed outside and walked toward the woodshed, cautioning himself to calm down and remember to ask the girls to explain themselves.  He knew he needed to be patient with them, and not frighten them.  It was one thing to spank when it was warranted, but making them fear him was not something he would ever do.

Bridget was desperate to protect her new stepdaughters from their father’s wrath.  Yes, what they did was wrong, but she did not feel it was right to spank them and make them resent her before she had a chance to talk with them!  “You will listen to me, Seth Masterson!”  She ran to stand in front of him once more.  “I do no’ want them to hate me!”  He stopped his walk to look down at her once more.  “They will blame me if you whip them, and I may never get to be friends with the both of them!  I deserve a fair chance, at the very least!”

“Bridget, the girls won’t hate you.  They know that they did wrong, and frankly, you aren’t helping matters any by behaving like an undisciplined child yourself.  Now, settle down.”  He heard her stomach rumble again.  “Go and eat something before you faint,” he said, his voice firm.

“I’ll no’ stand aside and let you whip them, Seth!”  Bridget stomped her foot angrily.

Seth was out of patience.  He picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder, and marched to the woodshed in long strides.  He carried her inside, still squawking, and set her on her feet.  Seth took a seat on the stump and then looked at his girls.  Bridget was trying her best to hide them behind her, and if he wasn’t so aggravated, Seth probably would have found it funny.  “Talk to me Sally and Susie.  How did you get this idea?”

“It was all my idea, Papa, so you should excuse Sally,” Susie said, doing her very best to keep her promise to her older sister.

Seth knew that Susie was trying to protect Sally, but he wasn’t about to let her do it.  He was well aware that his older daughter had a very low pain tolerance.  She hated to be spanked, but unfortunately, she’d crossed a line.  “Did you know about this from the beginning, Sally?” he asked, his tone of voice gentle.

“Yes, Papa!” she admitted.

“It’s good that you told me the truth, honey.  I know how hard that was to do.”  He listened as the girls explained everything, including their reasons for advertising for a wife for him.  They wanted a mother.  “I wish you would have come to me and discussed everything before you mailed that advertisement to the paper.”

“You would have said ‘no’, Papa.”  Susie knew him well.  “Besides, isn’t Miss O’Grady pretty?”

“She is very pretty,” Seth agreed, then said quietly, “Miss O’Grady is now my wife.  We had no choice but to marry.  Girls, you put both of us in a serious predicament.  I couldn’t afford to rent a room for Bridget to live in, and I couldn’t afford to pay her way back to Boston.  She wouldn’t be able to find a decent job here, and she had no money to get home on.  We married each other out of convenience.  Do either of you think that was fair to Bridget… or to me…?” he asked.

Bridget felt bad for the girls, but had to admit that Seth was not behaving in the way she expected he would.  He was doing his very best to help the girls realize that what they did was wrong, and more importantly, why it was wrong.  They were both feeling contrite, and the apologies they offered were sincere.

Chapter Three

“You are a good Da,” Bridget said, doing her best to blink away the tears filling her eyes as the girls were sent to the house and upstairs to the loft to nap until it was time for supper.

“I’m glad I have your approval,” Seth replied, his dark eyes making her very uneasy.  “Now we’ll see if you feel the same way once I’ve dealt with your behavior.”

“
My
behavior?” Bridget repeated.  “I do no’ know what you mean?” she said as innocently as she could.

“That was a mistake, Bridget.  That was the proper place to say ‘sorry’ if you wanted to avoid a hot bottom.”  Seth enjoyed the look of dismay on her face.

“Okay.  Ye are right.  I was in the wrong to try and stop you from taking the wee girls to task.  ‘Tis just that I know me own Da well… Ye were gentle and ye listened to them and ye hugged them.  Himself was harsh,” she admitted.

“So, you feared I would hurt the girls?” Seth asked, comprehending what she was telling him.  “Did your father beat you?”

“No’ me so much as me older sisters and me Mam,” she admitted.  “It always frightened me so.”

“I’ve another question for you, Bridget.  Why is it that you couldn’t tell that children wrote those letters to you?”  Seth had been asking himself that since he saw the letters.

“Ye think me a fool, do no’ deny it,” she whispered, blushing again.

“No, not a fool.  But you certainly accepted the girls’ invitation to come out here rather quickly.”

“’Tis no’ what ye think.” 

Her face was really red right now, and Seth decided to drop the subject.  It was time to deal her a lesson.  “Why are you going over my knee, Bridget?” he asked.

She gasped, her green eyes wide with dismay!  “I did no’ do anythin’ to earn a spankin’!”

“You overstepped your bounds, Bridget.  Trying to tell me what I could and couldn’t do within the first few minutes of becoming my wife.  You gave me your temper, and you tried to physically stop me from being a father to my daughters.  I won’t have that, Bridget, and since I warned you to stop and you didn’t… well, you earned yourself a spanking.”

“We do no’ know each other well enough for that, Seth!”  Bridget was well and truly shocked at the very idea of submitting to a spanking.  “Please, I am sorry.  I will try to do better.” 

She appeared frightened of him, and Seth didn’t want that.  He made a decision he hoped he wouldn’t regret.  “This one time I will let you off, but if I see that temper of yours aimed at me again anytime soon, you’ll get a spanking to remember… and I am a man of my word, Bridget.”

Bridget nodded, feeling as though she narrowly dodged a bullet.  Seth stood up and offered her his hand.  “I’ll show you around, Bridget.  The sooner you settle in, the better for us all.  I know that we’ll need some time to get used to each other’s ways, and I expect you to come to me and discuss anything that upsets you.  Notice, I said discuss, not argue.  Also, if you have any issues with my girls, I want to know about it right away.  Is that clear?”

“It is,” Bridget answered.  He was making her feel like an employee rather than a wife.  They reached the house, and the first thing she heard was crying coming from the loft.

“Papa, may we please come down?” Susie called.  “It’s really hot up here, and Sally is miserable.  She needs another hug.”

“Come on down,” Seth answered.  Susie came first, and she ran to him for a hug.  Sally did the same, and Seth wiped the tears from her cheeks.  “I hate to punish you girls; you know that, don’t you?” he asked of them, and they both nodded emphatically, their arms still around his middle to accept his comfort.

“We’re sorry for some of it, Papa, but can’t we be a little glad that we have a new Mama?” Susie asked tentatively.

Seth nodded, too choked up to speak.

“What are we supposed to call Bridget?” Susie asked.

“That is up to Bridget.”  His chest was tight.  It was going to tear him apart to hear his daughters call another woman ‘Mama’.

 “When I was younger than your age I called my mother ‘Mammy’, when I got older I called her ‘Mam’.  Since you called your real mother Mama, I would like to be called ‘Mam’.  Okay?” she asked of them.

“Wow!  Our first Irish word!” Susie said happily.

“Now we can tell that Melissa that
we
have a
Mam
.” Sally was thrilled. 

Bridget’s tummy growled again, and the girls went into action so quickly that Seth’s head whirled as he tried to figure out what they were up to.

“Sit down, Mam, and we’ll fix you something to eat!”

Seth was proud of his girls as they did their best to welcome Bridget into their home… and into their lives.  He closed his eyes and prayed that Catherine would be happy with his decision to take another woman to wife.  The day was finely done.  Bridget fixed them a wonderful supper that included cake for dessert, and his daughters were right there, watching, and asking her a million questions.  Bridget was patient with them, and Seth enjoyed listening to their laughter as they worked together.  Bridget praised them for their willingness to clean up afterwards, and she told them stories about Ireland before it was time to send the girls up to bed.  Tomorrow, he would have to trust that the girls would be fine with their new Mam as he finished the corral.  Seth couldn’t afford to take days off very often, but he didn’t feel like he could leave the girls with a stranger, and he didn’t feel it would be good of him to leave Bridget on her own her first day here.  “Girls, it is time to say goodnight.  It’s getting late.”

“Do we have to go to bed now, Papa?  I want to hear more about Ireland and Mr. Feeney.”  Sally was enthralled with Bridget’s stories of the people she knew.

“Tomorrow is another day, Sally,” Seth told her, and then gave her a smacking kiss on her cheek.  “You go on now.  You, too, Susie.”

“Goodnight, Papa!” Susie kissed him.  And then she said, “Goodnight, Mam!” She kissed Bridget, too.  Sally did the same, and then they hurried up the ladder to the loft.

Bridget was suddenly very afraid.  The very thing that she’d avoided thinking about since she first answered the letter she thought was from Seth was in her face and could no longer be denied.  Seth was a man, and he would expect her to share the large bed in the corner of the room.  She had no idea what to expect, and she was so afraid she would disappoint him to the point he would tell her to leave.  She was afraid.

Seth could feel the tension between them, and if he’d wondered at her innocence, he no longer did.  Only a virgin would be so terrified… or a woman who had been shamefully abused.  He had wanted to give the girls plenty of time to get to sleep before discussing their sleeping arrangements with her, but Bridget was too scared for the talk to wait.  He went to where she was sitting and then whispered, “There is no need to be afraid, Bridget.  We are too new to each other.  Trust me, we’ll know when the time is right.”

Bridget’s relief was palpable, and even though they shared the same sleeping space, Seth was true to his word.  Their routine over the next few weeks was the same.  They fell into bed at night, and her husband was asleep within a couple of minutes of his head meeting his pillow, which suited her just fine for the time being.

*****

All in all, Seth felt that Bridget was a good addition to the Masterson family.  Bridget was polite to his neighbors when they came calling to meet her.  She conducted herself above reproach when they went into town to shop for the supplies they needed, and she was friendly at church.  People accepted her, and more than one person congratulated Seth and told him they thought it was about time he moved on with his life and married again.  Seth hadn’t realized how much his girls needed a mother to look up to, but his girls were constantly at Bridget’s side.  He also felt she was growing more comfortable around him, and in spite of his determination not to love her and allow Bridget to take Catherine’s place in his heart, he found himself watching her, smiling at her, making excuses to come back to the house for coffee, or to get something he ‘forgot’ just to spend time with the lovely redhead.  Seth was also growing more and more aware of her at night when they shared a bed.  His body was crying out in need of release, and lately, turning to her and making her his wife in every way was getting harder and harder to resist.

Bridget wasn’t perfect, however, and she had a temper that she found difficult to control at times.  Seth had cleared his throat once when he heard her swear, and another time he said her name in warning for the same thing.  She’d apologized both times, so he’d let her off the hook, but he was sure the day was coming that he was going to need to take her over his knee for a good spanking for using bad language.  He didn’t want Bridget’s temper rubbing off on the girls, and he definitely didn’t want them to start swearing.  Catherine would have a fit at that!  No, he wanted to raise ladies, and Bridget seemed to be on the same page with him.  Of course, there were times she did not agree with him, but she’d been careful to keep her disagreements private and not involve the girls.  Bridget was one to demand explanations when she thought he was being arbitrary, and Seth was not used to explaining himself.  His daughters took his word as law, but he could hardly expect a wife to do so, especially one as stubborn as Bridget.