Peppermint Sticks for Susie (18 page)

Alex nodded, ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry, Clyde," he apologized.

"You need to tell that to Miss Jenny, but for now, do her a favor, and take her on home."

Alex nodded. He stood up, making sure Jennifer didn't fall when he put her on her feet. He ignored the people who wanted to talk and was relieved when Clyde ordered folks to go about their business. One woman started telling him that he should lock Alex behind bars and Clyde promptly answered by telling her that she could do with a bit of husbandly discipline. Alex smiled grimly. He'd be lucky if Jenny ever spoke to him again. Still, Jenny was the one who openly defied him by coming back to work while Lefty Bridges was still out there waiting for a chance to come at her.

Jennifer couldn't recall another time when she felt so ashamed and embarrassed as she did right now. Alex only wanted to keep her safe, and she made it that much harder for him to do. Still, he had no right to humiliate her publicly. She didn't deserve that, and how would she ever show her face in town again...? Tears ran down her cheeks and she didn't even try to brush them away. She wanted to simply disappear. The women in this town would never let her forget her humiliation, and the men would grin each time she waited on them in the Mercantile... And, Angus might even fire her for drawing unwanted attention! She closed her eyes and shuddered.

"Jenny, we need to talk."

"No. Not now. I just want to go home and be alone, Alex. I need some time to get over this... if I ever manage to do! You shamed me!"

"I know you are upset, and I know I shouldn't have spanked you in front of the whole damn town. It was wrong of me."

"Yes, it was," she quickly agreed. "Why did you do that?" she asked, her tone of voice reflecting the hurt she felt.

"Your temper sparked my temper," he admitted, telling Jennifer the truth. "You are not taking the threat against your very life seriously enough, Jennifer. How am I to protect you if you won't stay home?" he demanded, still upset over the fact she exposed herself by going to work.

"You won't have to worry about me working anytime soon," she tearfully proclaimed. "I'll be too embarrassed to show my face in public for a very long time!"

"That wasn't why I spanked you, honey," he insisted.

"Well, it got you your way!" she declared. "Now go away and leave me alone!" She opened the front door of the Beckley home and ran inside, slamming it shut in his face.

Alex was tempted to march inside after her, but he was still too angry with Jennifer to have a sensible discussion with her. He felt she needed a good sound spanking for defying him, but now was not the time. He would wait until he was sure he could be patient with the pretty redhead, and until he could be reasonably positive she wouldn't think the spanking in front of the jail was sufficient for her blatant disregard of his wishes. That spanking was for arguing with him and giving him all sorts of sass when he was merely trying to protect her from serious harm. No, he shouldn't have spanked her in front of the whole damn town, but she did deserve every stinging smack she received. Alex decided to wait until the next day to confront Jenny once more and hopefully she would be in a better frame of mind to hear him out. If not, he was going to bare her fanny and give her to understand a few basic facts. Alex was halfway down the walk to the street when he heard gunshots from inside the Beckley house. He turned on his heel and started running, his gun already drawn and in his hand.

* * *

"Hello, Alma!" Nellie Foster said as she walked into her mother's kitchen. "It's so good to see you!" She walked over to give her friend a big hug. "How is Peter?" she asked.

"I was just telling your Mama that my Peter has a new job now and his health is so improved. It is a miracle, to be sure," Alma said with a happy smile.

"It is a miracle," Nellie agreed. "Mama, are you feeling better today?" she asked her elderly parent.

"Yes, daughter," Mrs. Crabtree answered with a pretty smile for her daughter. "Alma brought me a basket full of treats. I feel special."

"You sent Peter and I baskets all the time, Mrs. Crabtree, and I wanted to return some of the kindness you gave us when we needed it most."

"It is what neighbors do for each other, my dear," Alice said, reaching over to pat Alma's hand. "I am so cheered today by your good news about Peter.

"Your houseguest is being talked about again," Nellie stated, shaking her head in disapproval. "That man she has been seeing turned her over his knee right in front of the jail. The Sheriff had to break it up and send them home! People were laughing and making all sorts of comments. I felt so sorry for Jenny. She's been through so much lately."

"Alex wants her to stay home where she will be safe from that horrible Lefty Bridges, but Jenny is tired of staying home. She went back to work at the Mercantile this morning, and Alex was not happy when he found out. I didn't think he would spank her in public, though." Her eyes filled with tears. "I would be devastated if Peter did something like that to me!" she admitted.

"Peter would never do something like that to you, Alma, because you are the sweetest wife in the world," Nellie said firmly. "Mama, aren't you upset for Jenny? I told Sheriff Clyde he should arrest Alex Martin and he made one of his crude remarks to me!"

"What did he say?" Alma asked, surprised at the man.

"He told me I could do with some husbandly discipline!" she admitted, her cheeks flushed a bright red. "Mama, I am hoping that Steve will go and see the Sheriff and tell him his remark was uncalled for!"

"Daughter," Alice said softly, reaching out to take Nellie's hand in hers, "A spanking is a far cry from beating a woman in violence. A spanking can be a firm expression of love."

"And I suppose you permitted Papa to spank you...?" Nellie retorted, irritated that her own mother wouldn't take her side.

"At the time I don't recall as how he asked my permission," Alice said with a giggle.

"Mama! Are you saying that Papa spanked you?" Nellie was shocked, and Alma was, too.

"He did that, daughter. Quite a few times during the first years of our marriage." She went on to share the memory:

"Alice Parsons, you just wait up right now."

Alice looked over her shoulder and saw that Jimmy Crabtree was closing the distance between them; she walked as fast as she could, anxious to escape the man who scouted for the wagon train that she and her parents and two younger brothers were traveling with. Jimmy Crabtree might be handsome as could be, but he was too bossy, and not a bit fun.

"Miss Parsons, stop!"

Alice heard him break into a run, and she picked up her skirts and ran as fast as she could. She was aware that he was behind her, and when an arm reached out to wrap around her from behind, she started kicking and fighting, but not too hard. She didn't want to actually hurt the scout. Instead of earning her release, the arm tightened so much that she couldn't breathe. It was then that she noticed the arm was completely bare! She was being taken captive by Indians! Alice started struggling in earnest now, wondering where Jimmy was, and hoping he hadn't been killed due to her foolishness. She used her elbow to jab the Indian as hard as she could and he grunted in pain, and then dropped her on the ground. His face was a mask of agony as he fell to the ground. Alice wasted no time standing there looking at him as he retched blood; she ran back the way she'd come, trying to prepare herself to find Jimmy's body. She was also terrified she would come across more Indians, but her safety lie in getting back to the wagon train.

She was grabbed a second time, and this time she put her all into struggling to get free. "Settle down, Alice," Jimmy whispered in her ear, and she immediately went limp, thankful he was safe. "I think it was just the two of them, but we're going to be very careful not to make any noise. Do you understand?" His voice was the merest of whispers, and Alice nodded her head. She would obey him to the letter this time. Just as Jimmy predicted, they didn't come across any more Indians and soon were in sight of the circled wagons. "Didn't you hear me call to you to stop, Miss Parsons?"

"You sounded like you were going to scold me... again! You aren't that much older than me, Jimmy Crabtree, and I don't like your bossy attitude!"

"I guess that means you did hear me and ignored me...?" Jimmy stated the obvious. "And, I guess that means you were acting like a bratty child... again! You aren't that much younger than me, Alice Parsons, and I don't like your willful, thoughtless ways!"

"Oh, how dare you mock me?" she demanded, putting her hands on her hips to glare at him.

"Maybe because you are behaving badly and I am trying to get you to grow up."

"I am all grown up!" Alice stated, and when he just stared at her with that disapproving look in his eyes, she lost her temper and kicked his shin. "You are just hateful, Jimmy Crabtree!" She realized too late that she should have been running away from the man!

Jimmy grabbed her arm, bent on one knee, and in the next instant she was lying face down over that same bent knee. "I've never met a girl who needed a spanking more than you do, Alice Parsons," he told her mere seconds before he tossed up her dress and petticoat to reveal her ruffled pantaloons. "This is going to make me very happy," he announced just before she felt a stinging spank on her right cheek!

"Noooo!" she wailed. "Noooooo! I'm too old for a spanking!" she insisted, but by the time she said those words he'd spanked her several more times and her bottom was stinging furiously. "Owwwwww!"

"Do you realize what that Indian intended to do to you?" he demanded, continuing the painful chastisement.

"I got away!" She kicked her legs up and down and started crying. "Why are you being so mean to me, Jimmy?"

"Mean? I was trying to stop you from being taken captive. You were the one who started running away from me, and when that man grabbed you I was powerless to help you because a second one jumped me."

"I was afraid he killed you," she admitted, bawling. "It would have been all my fault!"

Jimmy stilled his hand. "Would you have cared?" he asked quietly.

"Yes!" she insisted, sobbing. "I like you, Jimmy... a lot," she shocked him by telling the truth.

"Then why did you run from me?"

"I don't know...! I was being a brat, and I'm so sorry."

"Will you be my girl, Alice?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

"Yes! Oh yes!" she answered.

"Good. Now that you're my girl, you're going to get a tanning to remember. You mind me the next time, hear?"

"Yes, Jimmy," she obediently promised.

"That spanking was over pretty quickly, but it set the tone for our courtship and the first years of our marriage. You know that you didn't come along until I was old enough to be a grandmother; by then I'd settled down quite a bit, and I pretty much learned to control my temper, too. But, I was a feisty young girl, full of sass. Your Papa didn't put up with much of that, but he was never mean to me, daughter. And," she whispered, "the making up wasn't bad, either!" She giggled at the shocked look on Nellie's face.

"Oh, Mama! Times were different then! Alma, you wouldn't allow Peter to treat you that way, would you?" Nellie asked, her question more of a statement that she wanted corroborated to prove to her mother that she was wrong about spanking being acceptable.

Alma blushed, and then lowered her eyes. "Nellie, I think you are wrong. A spanking can be given with love. It settles an argument before it becomes a major issue in the marriage. It also erases guilty feelings and restores peace. When Peter has had to punish me, he always makes sure to let me know how much he loves me. It hasn't happened very often in our marriage, but each time I felt as though he cared about me. I was loved and cherished. I also know that Alex loves Jenny very much. They both have tempers, however, unlike Peter and I. I think they are well-suited to each other."

Nellie looked at her Mama and then at Alma, and she suddenly wondered if her own husband really loved her, or if he allowed her to have her way all the time just to silence her. Tears filled her eyes and she quickly blinked them away. Her Mama reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze, offering silent comfort.

* * *

It wasn't long before the gossip reached Steve Foster's ears, and he knew that Nellie would insist he speak to the Sheriff about the comment he made to her. The truth was that Steve knew the Sheriff was right, but given Nellie's stiff attitude, if he tried giving her the spanking she needed so badly, she would want him arrested... if she didn't shoot him first! Still, he knew better than to go home before speaking to Clyde. Nellie would simply nag at him until he left the house and had words with the older man. He closed his office early, sending the young man who worked for him home early, too. Andy was grateful, and took off running, anxious to see his new bride. Steve remembered when he felt that same way about Nellie...

"I've been expecting you, Steve," Clyde said, sighing. "Come on in and take a seat. I just made a fresh pot of coffee, and I'll pour us each a cup and we can hash over things."

Steve took one of the chairs in front of Clyde's desk, and accepted the cup of coffee when offered. "Thanks, Clyde. I sure can use this."

"Haven't had lunch yet?" Clyde asked sympathetically.

"No, not yet. I know that Nellie is spending some time with her mother, and I told her I would eat downtown today so she wouldn't have to bother with fixing something for me. But, I was busy all morning and just now closed the office and sent Andy home so he could have some time with his new bride."

"He sure loves that little gal," Clyde replied, then took a sip of coffee before he spoke again. "I was out of line when I made that remark to Nellie this morning," he admitted. "I spoke without thinking, and I'm sure she isn't none too happy with me. Please tell her I'll apologize when I see her again."

"I haven't talked to her yet, Clyde," Steve admitted. "The thing is, you were right and I know it, but how do I try and make Nellie understand that just because a man takes his wife in hand it doesn't mean that he doesn't respect her or love her? Nellie was raised by parents who were at the age to be her grandparents, and they spoiled her rotten. She acts like she is the center of attention all the time, and no one else's opinion matters. I'd love to discipline her, but how do I convince her...?" he asked directly.