by Kay, Joannie
* * * * *
“Oh, Darshana!” Eleanor exclaimed in horror as she finished reading the editorial in the weekly edition of the Cactus Hill Advocate. “What is the meaning of this?” She offered the paper to her granddaughter.
Darcy took the paper and read the editorial in disbelief. Nothing that Waldo wrote was accurate. He didn’t say one word about Will cheating on her. And, all he focused on was the mortifying experience she hoped to forget! Now everyone in town would know that Will spanked her like she was some naughty little girl. It was humiliating.
“Waldo was here when Will Davies came by and assaulted me!” Darcy whispered angrily. “I asked Waldo not to tell what Will did, but he just couldn’t resist! I’m going to give him a piece of my mind, too! And Will? He needs to be horsewhipped!”
“Darshana, I am not amused by this unladylike display. This whole election thing is just not acceptable behavior, and I must insist you withdraw at once.” Eleanor was using her firm voice.
“Gram, I love you with all my heart, but now I have no choice but to follow through and run against Will Davies. Someone has to teach him a lesson, and that someone is going to be me.”
“You are going to be the one learning a lesson, and a hard lesson at that!” Eleanor predicted. She reached for her bell and daintily rang it to call for Greta.
“Yes, Miss Eleanor?” Greta came into the dining room to inquire as to what the elderly lady needed.
“I am going to write a note that I wish to have delivered to Waldo Phares at the newspaper office. Would you mind dropping it off when you are running errands today?” she asked politely as she always did.
Eleanor was not a snob. She might be exceedingly wealthy, but that wasn’t always the case. As a child, she remembered working a garden and praying the vegetables it produced would last through the long winter so they wouldn’t all starve to death. As it was, there was seldom enough to eat on the table. She was just plain Ellie back then, and it was her dear husband who took her from poverty to work beside him and build a fortune that Darshana would inherit soon. Eleanor never forgot where she came from, and she treated everyone with respect, even if they didn’t really deserve that respect. Waldo Phares had no right to tell something so personal about Darshana and Will, and she was going to insist he print an apology!
“Gram, please, let me fight my own battles. I’m a grown woman now.” Darcy was dismayed that her precious Gram was so upset. Her target was Will Davies, not Gram! “Please, Gram. I will handle Waldo. I am a grown woman,” she repeated.
“A grown woman who aggravated the man who loves her so much that he resorted to spanking her in front of another man? That doesn’t sound grown up to me, child. It sounds as though the two of you are behaving like children in need of discipline. You are to take your name off that ballot, Darshana Elizabeth Hamilton. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Gram.” She felt tears stinging her eyes and she tried hard not to cry.
“Fine. Do it at once!” It was unlike Eleanor to send anyone away from her table, but she was upset with Darcy.
“Yes, Gram.” Darcy got to her feet and left the dining room in tears. Will might have spanked her bottom until she was stinging and in pain, but it was Gram who brought her to tears just by sending her from the breakfast table.
* * * * *
Waldo looked up from his desk when the bell on the door tinkled, alerting him, that someone came in. Hoping it was someone wanting to place an advertisement, he got to his feet. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised to see Will Davies standing there, an angry expression on his face. “That spanking was private between Darcy and me, Phares! You had no right to put it in your damn paper. I am sure Darcy is mortified and embarrassed, and it will be hard for her to show her face in town after what you wrote.” He didn’t like the way he was portrayed, either. He didn’t spank Darcy because of his desire to win the election, but because he didn’t want criminals coming to Cactus Hill thinking there was a female Sheriff they could bully and abuse and get away with it. Their bank would be a prime target for outlaws, too! Will genuinely cared about the people in town, and protecting them was his job.
“You are wrong, Davies,” Waldo insisted. “You and Miss Darcy are news. When she added her name to the ballot, Miss Darcy gave up the right to keep her personal life private. People are interested in this election, and they want to know the entire story behind the feud between you two.”
“There is no feud.” Will never once considered the way Darcy ended their engagement as a feud. She was acting like a spoiled brat, and a hot-tempered redhead who refused to listen to reason, and he wasn’t about to try to explain himself to her when she was acting so snippy with him. He should have hauled her over his knee for throwing his mother’s ring at him like that! It took him over an hour of searching to find it, too.
“Miss Darcy sure isn’t happy with you for kissing Priscilla Clemons.”
“I didn’t kiss her,” Will said through clenched teeth.
“May I quote you?” Waldo asked with a smile.
Chapter Two
“The ballots are already printed, Miss Darcy,” the Mayor stated apologetically as he looked up at the pretty young woman. “It’s too late to remove your name now. There are quite a few people expressing their support of you. Besides, I think it a damn… excuse me, Miss Darcy… I think it is a darn shame that Sheriff Davies thinks he can use force to keep you from running for Sheriff. I don’t care if you are a woman, you have as much right to run for Sheriff as he does, and if you win the election, I will be glad to deal with you instead of that hardheaded bully. I am sure that a lot of the wives in town are going to ask their husbands to vote for you, too.” Mayor James Mason was trying to make his daughter’s friend feel better, but he could tell he was failing miserably. He privately thought that Sheriff Will Davies was the best man for the job, but he couldn’t very well say that out loud, not if he wanted to get re-elected next year when his term was up.
“But….”
“Now, don’t you worry! I’ll have a word with Davies and tell him I’ll take a horsewhip to him myself if he raises a hand to you again.” If he thought that would reassure Darcy, he was wrong. The Mayor had about twenty years on Will, and he was several inches shorter and greatly overweight. The only way he could possibly take a horsewhip to Will, would be if Will permitted him to do so. That wasn’t likely to happen!
“Is there any way possible you could have the ballots reprinted? I will pay the expenses,” she offered.
“I’m sorry, Miss Darcy. These are official documents, and I cannot take them out of the town’s safe before the election. The date for applying for office or removing a name from the ballot has passed. In fact, you barely made the deadline to get your name added,” he explained. “Now don’t you worry! Folks are likely to think badly of Will for spanking you and that should add to your vote. Men don’t like to see women mistreated, especially a little thing like you!”
Darcy couldn’t have been more embarrassed as she left the Mayor’s office. When she’d decided to run for Sheriff it was to get Will’s goat, but it seemed as though she was getting the worst end of things. How many people saw that editorial of Waldo’s? Darcy was as angry as she was embarrassed, and she headed for the newspaper office, only to bounce off Will as he wrenched the door open from the inside and barreled outside.
Will automatically reached out to steady her, preventing her from falling. “I apologize for nearly knocking you down… Darcy!” he exclaimed, surprised to see her standing there. “I didn’t realize you were out here. I didn’t mean to run into you.”
“You should apologize for the abominable way you treated me yesterday!” she immediately retorted.
“You deserved that spanking, and the only thing I am sorry for is not giving into temptation and spanking you the very first time I considered taking you over my knee!” he informed her.
Will was completely unaware that Darcy found him handsome, even when she was furious with him. He
had dark brown eyes framed with dark eyelashes. His hair was always too long, and it was dark and wavy. He made her insides melt without doing a thing. She couldn’t deny her attraction to him, although she wanted to smack him for insisting that she deserved that spanking when she very clearly did not! Darcy was prepared to tell him what she thought of him when they were interrupted.
“Hey, Sheriff! Come quick! Hugo Baryon is in town and causing a ruckus in the General Store!”
Will took off running without giving Darcy so much as a word of departure. That truly didn’t bother her because he’d done it before, explaining that those few moments could mean the death or injury of someone, or the destruction of property. Darcy would just have to tell him what she thought of him for spanking her when the chance again presented itself! Right now, however, she had another man she wanted to deal with! Darcy squared her slender shoulders and walked into the newspaper office.
“Oh great!” Darcy heard Waldo murmur. “Miss Darcy, I suppose you are upset with me for printing the truth?”
“Of course I am upset, Waldo!” To her surprise, his lip was bleeding and he had a bruise growing on his chin and cheek! She ignored that and continued in an accusing tone of voice, “You know that awful spanking was very personal, Waldo! I told you that a spanking was very private and it wasn’t meant for your newspaper. I gave you a perfectly good interview, and you didn’t use any of that, just the embarrassing and totally personal happenings that were not meant for public knowledge!”
“I only reported what happened, Miss Darcy, and it was the simple truth. The personal story behind the election is what my readers want to know about.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose.
“It is none of their business!” Darcy angrily declared, bringing her hand down on the desk that separated them.
“Oh, but it is,” he retorted. “My editorial is my own personal opinion of things as I see them. I can write anything I wish.”
She looked at him and said, “My personal opinion of you is what I would worry about if I were you, Waldo! Not only will I stop buying your pitiful paper, I’ll campaign to get everyone else in town to stop buying and advertising, also!”
“May I quote you on that?” he asked, giving her a smile that set off her prickly temper!
* * * * *
Editorial April 14, 1871
The campaign for the office of Sheriff is humorous as well as dangerous! My bruises are starting to fade and my broken nose and split lip are healing. It would seem that neither Sheriff Davies nor Miss Hamilton appreciates my editorials about their campaign, but I am determined to reveal the real story behind the election. Perhaps those of you who think a woman not capable of using force if necessary should see Miss Hamilton throw a punch. It was she who broke my nose! The reality is that she is tougher than Sheriff Davies. He only split my lip. Miss Hamilton admitted that she decided to run for Sheriff because Will Davies is not the man he pretends to be. She, and a good many others in town, witnessed Davies kissing Miss Priscilla Clemons. Sheriff Davies answer to this: “I didn’t kiss her!” Who is telling the truth?
* * * * *
“I didn’t believe Mr. Phares when he told me you’d struck him, Darshana,” Eleanor said, looking over the newspaper at her granddaughter. “You must apologize to the man!”
“No, Gram. I won’t do it. I’m not sorry for breaking his nose, and I am considering doing it again!”
“Darshana!”
“I know, Gram. You didn’t raise me to go around hitting people, but Waldo deserved it, and after this editorial, he deserves it again!”
“I did speak to the Mayor, and while your name is on the ballot, we can inform people that you no longer wish to run for office. We can take out a large ad in Mr. Phares’ newspaper and hope that everyone sees it,” Eleanor suggested firmly, choosing not to address her granddaughter’s threat to Waldo Phares. If she hadn’t been pretty much confined to her wheelchair, Eleanor was apt to stomp on the weasel herself! While she didn’t condone her granddaughter breaking Waldo’s nose, she couldn’t say he didn’t deserve it. It was awful of him to tell the entire town that Will spanked Darshana or that she broke his nose!
“Gram, I will post a notice on the bulletin boards around town, and I will make an announcement at the dance this Friday, and at services Sunday morning, provided Reverend Whittaker permits me to do so, but I will not pay that pompous Waldo one cent to publish an ad in his despicable paper. In fact, I intend to run the man out of town!” Darcy was positive the town would be better off without the odious man stirring up trouble all the time. He’d caused Mr. Plummer and Mr. Gates to argue and break off a friendship that had lasted nearly fifty years before Waldo came to town. And, this time he’d made the mistake of humiliating the wrong girl! She was going to nail his hide to the barn door! She thought to herself, using an old expression of her Gram’s.
“How do you propose to do that, child?” Eleanor was shocked enough to ask. Her granddaughter constantly surprised her with her ‘get-even’ schemes.
“I’m not sure yet, Gram, but it infuriates me that he is putting my private life out there for the entire town to judge. That nasty Priscilla smirked at me at church last Sunday and said that she was sure I would be sitting on a pillow to listen to the sermon that day! She is such a witch!”
“I am sure the editorial in this edition is going to make her the butt of some of the nasty matrons in this town, and her father will be incensed to have her name in that editorial. You shouldn’t have said that to Mr. Phares, my dear.” Eleanor was perfectly serious. She’d known Geoffrey Clemons since he was a young man, and he did not tolerate ridicule, and his daughter would pay for Waldo’s comment.
“I didn’t think Waldo would print that in his paper, Gram. But, what really angers me is Will’s denial! I saw him kissing Priscilla!” The memory of that moment was enough to bring tears to her eyes yet again! It was devastating in the moment, and she was still hurt by Will’s betrayal.
“Did you now?” Eleanor asked in a soft voice. “I remember when I was first married, I thought I saw your grandfather holding another woman’s hand and flirting with her. I was furious, and when he came home that night, we had cross words. It turns out that she was the one who grabbed his hand, and what I thought was flirting, was him telling her that he was married and not one bit interested in her. He told her to leave him alone, and if I’d stayed to watch, I would have seen her flounce off in a snit.” What Eleanor didn’t share with her feisty granddaughter was how her husband flipped her over his knee and gave her a sound thrashing with his riding crop! It was a painful punishment, but she certainly learned a valuable lesson. Perhaps Darshana had earned that spanking Will gave her?
“Are you saying that Will might have been innocent, Gram?” she asked hopefully.
“I think you should have asked him what happened.”
Darcy didn’t answer. Instead, she said, “Do you need anything while I am out, Gram? I’m going to post my withdrawal all over town, and talk to people.”
“I just want you to stay away from that treacherous Mr. Phares. You needn’t give him anything else to print.”
“I agree with you, Gram.” She got to her feet, and then walked to her grandmother and leaned down to kiss her soft cheek. “I know I don’t say it often enough, but I love you so much, Gram. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and I don’t know what I would have done without you in my life. You are everything to me.”
“You are everything to me, too, my dear girl. I love you with all my heart.” Eleanor did love this girl, and she’d willed herself to live so that she could raise her. Now all she wanted before she went to her Heavenly Home was to see Darshana married to a man who would love and cherish her. Eleanor believed Will was that man. Hopefully, her granddaughter would talk to him and find out what really happened between him and that contentious Priscilla. But, knowing how stubborn her granddaughter was, she might wait too long and Eleanor wouldn’t be around to see Darshana walk d
own the aisle, which would break both their hearts.
Darcy dressed carefully, trying to look like the lady her Gram raised her to be. She went first to the General Store, and when she walked in all conversation stopped as the other shoppers and Barney Goode turned to stare at her. “Hello, Miss Darcy. I’m pretty busy today, but I’ll be with you as soon as I can. Feel free to browse. I got in some new yard goods you might take a liking to.”
“Thank you, Mr. Goode. I’ll have a look while I’m waiting.” She waited a few seconds and then said, “I was hoping you would allow me to post a notice on your community board? The Mayor says it is too late to remove my name from the ballot, so I am trying to let everyone know not to vote for me.”
“Well, sure, you can post it, but folks won’t like it none,” he predicted.
“Why is that?” she asked of him, confused by his reaction.
“Because it is high time a woman had some say in this town! I’ve made my Ernie promise to vote for you,” Shelly Long said in her shrill voice.
“Really?” Darcy was completely surprised… and shocked! She didn’t actually think she would get any votes. Didn’t Will say that ‘only a fool’ would vote for her?
“Yes. I don’t like that the Sheriff felt he could paddle you and make you withdraw. Don’t you dare give him the satisfaction! That is so wrong of him!”
“But, Gram really thinks this has gone too far. It is distressing her.” Darcy thought it wise to explain why she wanted to withdraw. Everyone knew her Gram, and they would understand how imperative it was that Darcy withdraw her name due to Eleanor’s health issues.
“Eleanor loves you, we all know that, but you need to run.” Shelly was adamant that Darcy run for office.
To Darcy’s surprise, the other woman agreed with Shelly. “I’ll follow you around town and take down any notices you post,” Vivian St. Claire told her. “We women need this election to teach the men like Will Davies a good lesson. I can’t believe he dared to tan you because you decided to run against him!”
