At four when Grace showed, Carter hooked up the buggy. They kissed Paddy goodbye and took off for town. When they arrived at the restaurant, Carter held Anna’s hand to help her down, then positioned it so it was in the crook of his arm to escort her inside. It was just as if they were courting and he was taking her out to supper. Anna didn’t object and even moved her hand around his arm to latch on better.
People looked up when they walked in. Most were familiar faces. A couple of Carter’s ranch hands sat at a table on the other side of the restaurant drinking beer and whiskey. One yelled, “Hey, boss. Out to kick up a row tonight?”
Carter took off his hat. He placed it on the hat rack next to the door and walked to their table with Anna on his arm. “Joe, Sam—meet Anna. She’s been minding my son and keeping house for me for some time now.”
“Howdy,” they both said.
“Hello,” Anna responded in a shy voice, her hand still in the crook of his elbow. “It’s nice to meet some other employees of Carter’s.”
Joe laughed rudely and slapped his palm on the table. He was drunk already. “You call yourself an employee? That’s too dear, shickster.”
Carter’s temper flared, and he scowled. “Can’t see as I get your meaning, Joe. That’s what she is. Darn fine one too, which is more than I can say for half of you no-account saddle tramps.”
“Whoa whoa, hey,” Joe said, raising his hands in surrender. “Just never thought of women’s work that way is all. Didn’t mean no offense.”
“It’s all right. I’m not offended,” Anna piped up.
It rankled Carter that Anna smoothed over the disrespect and quickly absolved the rowdy cowhand. She’d do well to clip his horns and make him mind his manners. His thoughts suddenly flashed to Nalin. She’d give the scamp a tongue-lashing that would spin his head. Carter’s only role would be to admire the results of his spitfire wife’s ire. Anna was different, more vulnerable, less fierce.
Carter wanted to move on to a better part of the evening, so he took their leave. “It’s Anna’s birthday and we’re here to celebrate, so we’ll be getting to it. Have a good night.”
“See you tomorrow, boss. Nice to meet you, miss,” Sam said. Joe said nothing and downed a shot of whiskey.
Carter and Anna sat at a table with a red checkered tablecloth. The waitress, who had been a friend to his wife, brought them a menu that listed two meals: fried chicken and turkey. A variety of dishes were available for the sides.
“How-do, Carter. Not seen you for a spell. How you holding up?”
Carter hated those kinds of well-intentioned and unavoidable questions. “Doing fine enough, thank you, Sarah. Are you still attending those suffrage meetings?”
“Spotty, but yes. They’ve not had the same energy without Nalin. She was on the shoot every time. Smart as a whip and sharp as a bull’s horn.”
“Yes, that would be Nalin,” Carter said.
Seeming to notice Anna for the first time, Sarah asked, “Who’s the little girl you have here?”
“Sorry! Excuse my shoddy manners. This is Anna, and she’s not a little girl. In fact, she’s eighteen today. She’s between hay and grass, I’d say.” Carter winked at her.
Anna and Sarah shook hands, and Sarah studied Anna. “Well, don’t that beat all? Sorry, honey, I only saw the braids and not your pretty, grown-up face. And criminy! You’re as tall as most men, so you’re certainly not a nipper.”
Anna smiled. “Nah, not been a nipper for a few moons now. It’s really nice to meet you.”
“Same. Well, enough of my yammering. You can see there are two meals for the choosing tonight. Drink choices are the same as always, and we have raspberry cobbler and apple pie for dessert.”
She left them alone to decide. They studied the menu for a minute. “What do you want to eat?” Carter asked. Anna had stopped looking at the choices and was absentmindedly twirling a braid in between her fingers and staring into the distance.
She focused her attention. “I’ll have lemonade, turkey, green beans, red potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, and apple pie.”
Carter coughed to muffle a laugh. “Is that all?”
She nodded seriously, not catching his amusement. He repeated her order to Sarah and ordered the other meal for himself, with not so many sides.
During the meal, Anna remained quiet unless Carter asked her a question. He realized this was the way it had been for months, and he understood why. Throughout her time under his employ, whenever she spoke without being spoken to, there was a good chance he would respond impatiently. He knew that she was a quiet person by nature, but he felt bad about the other reason and wanted to set her mind at ease.
“Anna, I want you to feel like you can talk to me. I promise from now on I won’t ignore you or behave impatiently like I have in the past. You’ve been a saint to put up with me.”
“Thank you, Carter,” she said, giving him the sweetest smile before returning her focus to the food on her plate.
He laughed, and she looked up at him with surprise. “What’s so funny?”
“You, honey. I just told you to feel free to talk to me, and the first thing you did was get straight back to eating.”
“I don’t have anything to say.”
“Fair enough.”
She looked worried that she might have offended him. “I’m real tickled to be here, Carter. Thank you for taking me out for my birthday.”
Carter smiled. “It’s my pleasure, believe me.”
Soon he noticed that all the food on her dinner plate and dessert plate was gone. “You want me to order something else for you?” Carter asked, a smile playing on his lips.
“No, I’m full. Thanks.”
She didn’t understand that he was teasing her, so he pressed it further. “I’m thinking twice about giving you eating privileges at my house. Or maybe I should deduct a quarter from your daily pay now that I know how much you can eat.”
Anna blushed but responded to his tease with a retort he didn’t expect. “That’s fine. Pretend you gave me a quarter raise and deduct that.”
Carter laughed, very pleased with her response. He paid the bill and they walked to the buggy. On the way to Anna’s house, Carter talked about the hot weather, his renewed plan for building a chicken coop, and the fact that the restaurant’s vegetables had been overcooked. He said he liked the way she cooked vegetables better, then he asked her what type of chickens he should buy for his coop. He talked to her more in one evening than he had in all the six months she’d worked for him. Anna listened mostly, still only speaking when he asked her a question.
It was dusk, and the path to her family’s farm was empty. Carter pulled the horse to a halt halfway there and lifted the brake. Anna eyed him quizzically, and he answered her wordless question right away.
“All right, young lady, you’re going to turn yourself over my lap. You’ve had a spanking coming for some time, and I intend to give it to you right now, right smart.”
Anna gave him the wide-eyed expression he had anticipated.
“Lickety-split, or it’ll be worse for you.” Taking her arm, he guided the surprised yet compliant girl over his legs. The curve of her shapely bottom upturned on his lap was such a pretty sight that he waited no longer than a second before he gave it a solid spank.
Anna gasped. “Carter, I don’t understand.”
Spank. “What don’t you understand, darlin’?”
“I don’t understand why you’re spanking me!”
“Oh, that.” He grinned and spanked her some more, the swats no harder than firm pats over her dress and petticoat. “Did you really think I’d let you get away with smashing that glass?”
She was speechless for a moment, and he filled the silence with spanking.
“Hmm?” he prodded.
“I didn’t do that on purpose,” she said finally.
He stopped and gave her his full report, “Balderdash and poppycock!” before continuing the spanking.
Much t
o his pleasure, Anna giggled. He planted a couple more mild swats. He didn’t want to leave a sting. He only wanted her to know that he noticed her and would be giving her the attention she craved from now on.
“And another thing, I’m not pleased that you insisted on working today. It’s your birthday, and I wanted you to go have fun.”
“I did have fun, Carter. With you.”
“Is that so? Are you having fun with me now?” He paused to hear her answer.
She only giggled her response.
He laughed and continued the smacks. “Lands sakes! You like being over my lap for a licking, don’t you?”
“I most certainly do not!”
“You most certainly do. And that’s twice now you’ve told a fib. Not the best idea while in this position.” Spank. “But this is a nice spanking and you’re allowed.” Spank. “You’d be wise to avoid earning yourself a punishment licking. I’m not so agreeable during those.”
Anna wriggled adorably in his lap. “You would punish me in this manner? Is that a bluff, or do you mean it for real?”
“You’d better believe I mean it. I would tan your hide right proper if you did something to deserve it. So far as I can tell, though, you’re practically an angel from heaven.”
He spanked her mildly a few times, then said, “Five more good ones, and after I’ll take you and your pretty prat home. Are you ready?”
Anna squirmed again in his lap. “What if I say no?”
Carter grinned. “The same thing, but harder smacks.”
To demonstrate, he gave her five quick, sharp swats that resembled those of a serious spanking, and she squealed and kicked up a foot. He lifted her to her spot next to him and released the brake. She turned her head away from him, embarrassed, but not before he caught the smile on her face.
He chuckled and said, “Giddy up.” He slapped the reins on the horse and took the brand spankin’ new woman the rest of the way home.
Chapter 6 - Dangerous Stallion
Carter built the chicken coop near the barn. He worked on it between herding cows, fixing fences, and training his two new colts, so it took him a few weeks to complete. Whenever he worked on it, Anna and Paddy visited him. Anna gave advice on the best way to structure the coop. She recommended using pine wood for the nests and motioned with her hands to suggest the size he should make them. Carter took every word of her advice.
It was on a hot day in September, while he sawed the wood for the nests that he realized he was no longer in the stupor that had plagued him for so long. Though he still felt pangs of sadness at the loss of his wife, the pangs didn’t last all day and all night like they had before. He felt other emotions besides pain and anger. He was able to laugh. Food tasted good to him again. He noticed that his son had grown and was getting smarter by the day. And of course, he noticed Anna.
He knew that Anna’s presence had helped him navigate through the devastating loss. It wasn’t that Anna replaced Nalin. She was practically her opposite, both in appearance and personality. Nalin had been dark skinned; Anna was fair. Nalin had barely reached his chest in height; Anna was only a few inches shorter than he was.
As for personality, Nalin had been quick-witted and sarcastic. She was caring in her own way, but her tough exterior and sharp tongue veiled her concern for others. As tough as she was, she was also giddy and full of laughter—brighter and happier than anyone Carter had met, right up until her very last days. Fevered, weak, and minutes from death, she laughed when Carter sat next to her on the bed, held her hand, and told her Paddy had climbed from the floor, to a chair, to the counter and reached the highest shelf in the cabinet to retrieve the sweets she’d hidden. Her laughs were genuine but quickly turned into hacking coughs before she collapsed into sleep, never to wake again.
Anna, on the other hand, was on the whole quiet and serious. She was as demure as Nalin was combative. She didn’t laugh often and wouldn’t think to laugh at someone’s expense, except perhaps her own. Her concern for others wasn’t hidden in any way. It was right on the surface, exposed and available to every living creature. She didn’t speak much. Carter appreciated her quiet presence during the sad months following his wife’s death. He had not felt like talking or listening, and without Anna realizing it, she’d given him the space he needed to move past the worst of his grief.
As much as he felt comforted by having Anna there at his house, he also felt uneasy. She was young and pretty, and she didn’t seem to know that, by devoting all her waking hours to him and his son, she was missing out on the more pleasurable parts of life. Carter tried to ignore the discomfort he felt when he thought about her being courted by a man who surely wouldn’t be worthy—that is, if she ever left his place long enough to find herself a suitor. He smiled to himself, remembering how much food she ordered on her birthday and the way the color rose to her cheeks when he teased her about it. Her giggles over his lap had charmed him, and he found himself thinking about her the better part of his days.
Anna interrupted his thoughts. “Would you like a drink?” she asked, holding out a glass of cold lemonade.
Paddy stood next to her, pointedly not holding her hand. He was four years old now and had announced that he was too big to hold anyone’s hand, although he still made his way to their laps often enough.
“Thanks,” Carter said. He put the saw down and held the glass in his gloved hand. He finished all of the lemonade in three gulps. “That was delicious.” Anna reached over and took the empty glass from him.
Carter noticed Anna studying him. He had rolled up his sleeves, so his arms were bare from the elbow down and slick with sweat produced by exertion and the relentless Texas heat. He wondered what she thought when she looked at him. He hoped it was favorable.
Turning to Paddy, Carter asked, “Will you help me with some of this work, little man?”
Paddy nodded his head and grinned. He never turned down an opportunity to help his pa.
“Take these scraps of wood and set them by the firewood in the shed,” he said.
The chore would have taken Carter one trip but would require a good twenty minutes for Paddy to complete. Carter knew this, of course, but he also knew it was important for his son to feel useful and keep busy. He caught Anna smiling at him knowingly, and he smiled back. She looked sunburned and happy, and she wore a new dress. It was a woman’s dress, calico and lace, and it was green, matching her eyes. It made her look five years older.
“I like your new duds,” Carter said.
“Thank you. I sewed this dress at home on Sundays.”
“Is there anything you can’t do?”
Anna blushed. Carter found her more exquisite with every passing day.
#
Since Carter never told Anna what she could or couldn’t do, and because she was less fearful of him after witnessing him slowly returning to his former self, she began to take some liberties at his ranch. One such liberty was visiting the three-year-old grey stallion named Tuck that Carter kept in the first stall of the barn. Whenever Paddy took a nap, she wandered out to feed the horses carrots or sugar cubes. She loved Bella, the docile mare that had been around since she was a child, but Tuck excited her. Carter hadn’t trained the stallion to be ridden. Instead, the horse’s primary purpose was as a stud to his broodmares.
Other than learning from Carter how to behave properly on the lead, Tuck was as wild as they came. Anna liked that he was full of vibrancy and personality. Tuck quickly learned that when Anna showed up, he would get treats, so he nickered every time he saw her. He would continue to make noises at her until she gave him her full attention, stamping his front foot impatiently. After a week of visiting him, she felt bold enough to enter Tuck’s stall instead of feeding him from the outside. She stepped in and stroked his neck and back. When he responded by nuzzling her, she continued the habit of entering his stall every day.
Anna remembered spending time in the same barn as a child. When she stayed with Nalin and Carter, she loved to
visit their horses. Tuck wasn’t around back then, of course, but Carter had several mares that she liked to pet, including Bella. She remembered one day he pulled her down from Bella’s back and told her not to wander off again without telling anyone. When Anna entered the cabin holding Carter’s hand, Nalin looked up. Relief flooded her face upon seeing Anna but was quickly replaced with annoyance. She put her hands on her hips.
“Where were you? I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
“I was out in the barn with Bella. I’m sorry, Mrs. Barnes. I didn’t mean to be unfindable. I was just saying howdy to the horses.”
Nalin turned her frown to Carter. “I hope you explained that she’s to tell one of us next time she goes off somewhere.”
“I do believe I did, didn’t I, Anna?”
Anna nodded. “Yes.”
Carter released her hand and strode to his armchair, where he sat down and picked up his newspaper.
Nalin looked at Anna. Her annoyance had mostly subsided. “How do you feel about helping me bake some bread?”
“I’d like that,” Anna said.
“Good. It should keep you out of trouble for the rest of today at least. I’m trying a new recipe. It’s honey bread. We can learn how to make it together, and you can give me some tips if you think of any.”
Anna and Nalin worked on mixing the ingredients and kneading the bread. Anna’s only advice was to add more honey. Nalin talked to her about the latest dime novel she’d purchased. She said she liked to read about other people’s adventures. “I don’t much care for getting into dangerous scrapes myself, but I like reading about them.”
Anna pushed her floured hands into the dough. “I like danger and adventure, but I hate reading.”
Nalin laughed. “I don’t know too many people who like danger. Make sure you don’t do anything silly. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“I’ll be careful, Mrs. Barnes.”
The honey bread turned out to be delicious, and Carter complimented them. “If you two made bread like that every day, I’d never leave the cabin.”
The Unbraiding of Anna Brown (Lone Star Love Book 2) Page 4
