by Susan Thomas
"Ya know what's gonna happen when the cops catch up with him don't you? I know him. He's bad, bad news. Not right in the head that one. As soon as he's surrounded he'll kill them and then himself."
"I'm praying it doesn't go like that Jake."
"I kinda know where he's gone but I don't want to tell the cops because they'd want to know how I know. You could go get her yourself. He's nuts but dumb. You're strong and one to one he's weaker. You could get her back on your own. Be the hero."
"Why are you telling me this Jake? What's in it for you?"
"Carl likes ya Alice. She's kind to him. Not many are."
Mark looked at Carl in a different way and reflected that he was far too quick to judge some of the kids. Alice was much better than he was at that. She seemed to see good in them all.
"If you tell me I might tell the police but if I do I'll say it was an anonymous tip. Whatever I'll keep you out of it."
Jake was given the location of a small cabin not far out of town. He was a bit sceptical that that's where they would be. He felt sure they would be over the state line by now. However, he pleaded for some time away from camp, picked up some cable ties, rope and a baseball bat and drove in that direction. Watching from a distance he saw movement within the cabin, which wasn’t surprising as it was summer, but what was surprising was that no one stepped outside. No coffee on the deck. No going off hiking. No windows open. No car parked in sight. Weird. Mark took the baseball bat from his car, stuffed the cable ties in his pockets and wound the rope around his middle. He decided to circle around the back of the cabin keeping well out of sight. Perhaps he could see more from the rear or even find a way to get close and see in.
It took him some hard, hot work in the summer sun to circle the cabin while keeping it just within view but remaining out of sight. Finally he came up behind it and began slipping from tree to tree to see how close he could get. There was an open space around the cabin but he now had a clear view. He turned slightly and drew in breath sharply. Someone was leaning out of a window and watching him. He drew in another sharp breath when he realized it was Alice.
Alice suddenly disappeared and his heart lurched with anxiety. Was she being hurt? Then she reappeared and beckoned him to come close. Mark checked around before sprinting towards the window. He arrived and ducked down low under it.
"Are you OK Alice? Has he... hurt you?"
"He hasn't raped me if that's what you mean. He did hit me when he took us but not since. He's mad. Thinks we're all going off to live in the wilderness."
"Is he alone still?"
"Yes he's sitting in a chair drinking with his gun on a table beside him. He's very relaxed. Thinks I won't run off because of Liam. He's a short distance from the bathroom door."
"If I come in can you distract him?"
"No problem. He's always hungry. I'll offer to fix him something to eat."
Mark effortlessly slipped in the window and went softly to stand behind the bathroom door. Alice flushed the toilet and washed her hands before walking back into the main room. It was clear he suspected nothing.
"Shall I fix some food?"
"Yeah great. Burgers for me."
"OK. Liam come and help me."
Liam trotted obediently to her and once behind the counter she motioned with one hand that he should get down on the ground. She could see understanding and hope in his eyes and he slid quietly down to the floor. Alice kept chattering on asking about what he'd like with his burger just like any regular housewife. She avoided looking at all in the direction of the bathroom but suddenly there was a blur of motion and Mark was moving fast across the room. His quarry spotted him and began reaching for the gun with a shouted obscenity, but already Mark's baseball bat was swinging and with an appalling sound it caught her captor on the side of his face and knocked him back into the chair.
Mark slid the gun toward the kitchen, seized his victim and in one movement threw him onto the floor. It took little time to bind him securely. Liam pulled free of Alice to go around and see his father tied up. There was an expression on his face that was chillingly adult; it was a combination of contempt and hatred that Mark hoped he would never see in the face of someone looking at him. Liam's father was still alive but Alice guessed that he had far more than just a badly broken jaw bone and would be in for a rough time when he came round.
The police were swiftly on the scene once Mark rang them. They brought Liam's mother with them and it was hard for her to stop thanking Alice for protecting her son. Liam wanted his mom but didn't want Alice to go but eventually he was whisked away. Mark got two different types of reaction from the police; senior officers told him bluntly he was irresponsible and should have called them right away; rank and file officers congratulated him and said it could well have ended badly if there had been a siege.
A donor gave sufficient money so that Liam and his mother could be taken somewhere nice and Liam given intensive counseling. Alice had to promise she would come and visit him. She herself was questioned at length by police as they had to establish a case against her captor. Then the church told her she had to take a week off at least and that they had arranged counseling for her.
Alice was angry at this. She didn't understand the need. Other than a bruise on her cheek bone where he had hit her she had come to no physical harm. She felt that the pioneers who had opened up this country had endured privations and Indian attacks to carve their farms and lives from the wilderness. They had faced death, injury and sickness and done so without any counseling, anti-depressants or other medication. She had endured having to be a very young carer for a chronically ill mother and then have her mother die young leaving her without any family. No one had offered her counseling and she just got on with life. She didn't need it now and didn't want it and told Mark so. He gave her a stern telling off and told her she would go and he would ensure she did. That made her angry all over again. Who did he think he was telling her what she was to do?
Mark was pleased with himself. He had been a real man and rescued Alice and Liam and now he was making sure his girl was being looked after properly. That was what a good husband should do and Mark wanted to be a good husband. Alice was clearly very uptight and unsurprisingly so. She had done well handling the situation but she was just a young girl and it was his duty to see she came to no psychological harm as a consequence.
Chapter 20
The good Christian husband should not shirk from disciplining his wife when it becomes necessary but any discipline must be done in love and only after seeking the lord in prayer. Charnock Amos Jones, Letter to a Young Friend 1949.
Mark was mad... very mad indeed. He had two phone calls in as many minutes. The first was from the therapist saying that Alice had not kept her appointment and hadn't rescheduled either. Then he got a call from someone else at camp saying Alice was there and asking if she was supposed to be. Mark slammed an angry hand down on his desk. What was the matter with her? Why was she being so stubborn? She was leaving him with no choice, he would have to punish her. She was disobeying him and acting irresponsibly not to mention being ungrateful for the church's provision. This was going to have to be a good dose of the belt. He didn't like the idea at all but it was his duty, he could see that. Why was she pushing his buttons in this way?
He left his office and stalked across the camp site noting how wonderfully everything was going. Although there was heightened security the kids were having a great time and everything was working perfectly. Alice had not been assigned for anything this week so where would she be? Then he spotted her; she was with a large group of kids and was assisting them in a team challenge. He stopped for a moment; she looked so pretty and so happy... perhaps she was right that she didn't need therapy. He shook his head to clear it. This was just the same as being supervisor in the house. He had to be firm. She had disobeyed him and the church, this was no time for him to be weak.
He had a quick word with the person in charge of the activity and then p
olitely called Alice, "Alice I'd like to have a word with you please." She didn't look at all pleased but excused herself and left the group to come to him. "I'd like to see you in my office right now." Alice sighed and looked as if she was going to say no to him. That made him even madder. "Alice, I am not asking, I'm telling you. I need to see you right away."
She sighed heavily and walked away towards his office with a clearly disgruntled attitude. Mark felt really angry. How dare she treat him like this? He definitely wasn't going to go easy on her.
In his little office Alice stood looking rebellious. "I'm not going to the therapy, Mark. I don't need or want it."
"I've already explained to you why it is important and how not to go is ungrateful. I also told you that you had to go, so you have been disobedient. I am very sorry Alice but I must now punish you. Bare yourself. Get your shorts and panties down and bend over the desk."
To accompany these words Mark began to remove his belt, the very one he had used during the last year at college. In his mind Mark had decided to give Alice twenty with the belt unless she acted up in which case he'd give her extras. Alice watched the belt slide out of the loops on his pants. She was stunned. She had never expected this and was thrown by what was happening. A year of corporal correction and obedience to Mark had her turn to face the desk and begin to undo her shorts and pull them down. She let them slide down to her ankles and then sighing tugged her panties down and let them fall to join the shorts. She bent over the desk... a new position for her... and instinctively gripped the other side. In the house the girls all reckoned Mark a demon with the belt. Even in this obedient submission Alice was feeling resentful. Why was she obeying him? Did the church have the right to impose corporal correction on her? Did Mark have the right? He wasn't her husband or fiancé and even if he was, did that give him the authority to do this? She wasn't going to cry or show any weakness. She was going to take this beating without a sound.
Mark's belt hit the center of her bottom with a crack that reverberated around the room. The initial blow was powerful and the burning pain of the leather on her skin hit her. Alice poured the pain into her face, making harsh grimaces and screwing her eyes up. She made no sound. The burning throb left behind on the tender skin of her bottom was its usual nasty self but then the next blow came. Alice poured every drop of pain into her face and not a sound escaped her. She wouldn't cry out and she wouldn't cry. The belt cracked across her bottom again, the burning line nearly made her cry out but she managed to hold on but her face contorted with the effort. Alice could feel he was really giving it to her hard. She was sure this was a fiercer belt whipping than he had ever given at college. The lashes began to mount... four, five, six, seven, eight, but her resolve not to cry out did not waver. Suddenly it came to her with crystal clarity that she did not have to take this.
She was an adult citizen of the United Kingdom and the sponsor church had no authority over her. Mark had no authority. Yes she was a student at a college that used corporal correction but she had agreed to that and Mark no longer worked there. The tenth lash cracked down hard and Alice immediately stood up and began carefully pulling her panties up over her throbbing hot bottom.
"Get back over that desk, we're not done yet."
Alice pulled her shorts up trying hard not to wince as the tight shorts encased the heat of her bottom.
"Yes we are done. Completely and utterly done. Finished. I'll take the rest of the week off as the church requires."
With that remark she stalked out, found the bus stop and went to the house that Erin and Josh were doing up. She knew that was where Carol and Erin would be and she might as well make herself useful helping them. They weren't surprised to see her, guessing that Mark would send her packing, but of course having no idea he had been giving her the belt when she just walked out. She said very little to them but worked hard helping with the preparing and painting work and really giving it her best. Carol and Erin gave each other little glances behind her back but Alice gave absolutely nothing away.
The next morning she borrowed Carol's car and went to the therapy session. He was a middle-aged man and clearly very intense. He asked her what happened and in a matter of fact way she outlined everything from start to finish. He then sat there looking at her with an interested expression. Alice didn't know what she was expected to do now so she just sat and looked at him back. When the session was over Alice wondered just what had been achieved. The next morning he asked her again what happened so after a pause she told him all over again.
This time he asked a question. "How do you feel about what happened?"
"I worry about Liam and you should too. He could well retreat into himself with everything that has happened to him, unable to function as an adult and become dependent on drugs or he could turn into a replica of his father."
"Liam's needs are being taken care of, it is you I want to know about. How do you feel?"
"It happened. It was scary at the time but it ended OK except for all the broken bones in his face, but I can't get too upset over that. It'll be something to tell my children when they are old enough not to have nightmares. That's it."
"That's not how you feel, Alice."
"You know I am sick of this. I am a volunteer worker in a summer camp who gets my keep and a few dollars in pocket money. I enjoy it... it’s great work but I am not beholden to the church or Mark Accourt or you. I am an adult student at a college, a citizen of another country and this is just a temporary situation. I don't want to do this. I'm fine. I'm not having nightmares, wetting the bed, taking drugs or drink. I don't feel guilty, worried, depressed or distressed. Now to use your American expression - we're done here."
"You are beholden to Mark, he is your fiancé."
"No he isn't. We've gone out a few times but not anymore. I finished with him yesterday. He has never proposed and wouldn't be accepted if he did. I have no ring... look. You can tell the church people I'll take the rest of the week off but I'll be back next week unless they sack me. I will not be coming to see you."
She left feeling better for having asserted herself. As she drove away she felt what she said was true. The whole abduction episode was not bothering her. It had indeed been scary but nothing actually happened to her or Liam. She was far more bothered by Mark's sudden authoritarian attitude to her and her missing period. Now that really was a worry.
Chapter 21
It is the duty of every Christian man to have the care of widows and orphans close to his heart. Rev Bill Jones, 2010.
Mark stood watching Alice leave, feeling utterly lost. He simply didn't know what to do. What did this mean? She had defied his authority and walked out without another word. He reviewed what he had done. It was right. By making love they had in effect become biblically one flesh and therefore married. Alice had wanted to make love, he hadn't imposed it on her. She must therefore have accepted the shift in their relationship. He went to chase after her but somebody asked him something and by the time he was free she was gone. He sent her a text but she didn't reply. He tried phoning but she simply killed the call. When he called around to see her she wasn't in and when he called again, she refused to see him. Carol tried to talk to her on his behalf but although Alice was very polite with her hostess she gave nothing away just that she didn't wish to see Mark.
His Uncle Jack also tried to talk to Alice but she just said she had finished with Mark and was going back to work when the week's leave was up and that was the end of it. Erin refused to try speaking to her. "Let them sort it out," she said.
Alice in the meanwhile was genuinely not worried by the abduction episode (except how Liam would cope) but she was very worried about her period which was coming up for two weeks late. She had been so foolish letting Mark come inside her without any protection. She had loved what they did but didn't want a baby. That sounded so terrible when there were so many desperate childless women but she couldn't help herself. Children one day but not now. Tomorrow was Friday... two wee
ks exactly from when her period was due. OK it had to come tomorrow and if it didn't she had to decide what to do. Friday came but no period and Alice went to Erin and asked if she might borrow her truck. She said she needed to be on her own somewhere to think about things. Erin agreed.
Alice drove to the fishing lake and sat at a picnic bench. Erin's truck was close by. Although it was summer the whole lake area was so large and the hour early enough that there was no one else to be seen. Alice was in a huge lake herself but hers was a lake of misery. With her period still not come and now two weeks late she must be pregnant. She had gone in circles about what to do and her options were really not great. She was pretty sure Mark would marry her but she wasn't going to do that. No way was she going to be a door mat of a wife spanked when Mark decided she was out of order. That was not happening. Equally she was not having an abortion. She wasn't going to condemn those that do but she simply couldn't do it. That only left one choice, have the baby.
To have the baby was the end of her plans for further education. She'd have to quit college and go home to England and do exactly what her mother had done, claw a living for herself and her child. Tears of self-pity leaked out of her eyes until she took herself in hand and decided if that was the way it had to be then then was the way it would be. She'd face it with whatever courage she could muster. At that point she noticed a truck driving slowly along until apparently the driver saw her and then it turned in her direction.
Alice felt herself go very alert. She got the keys to the truck ready in her hand and slid off the seat of the bench ready to run to Erin's truck. The approaching truck looked like a workhorse with mud splashed around all over. Alice watched alertly. The truck stopped and a man started to get out. Alice breathed a sigh of relief although she was surprised. It was Mr. Whittle, Erin's father in law. What on earth was he doing here?
