That paragon of imprudence was more than happy to help them say their vows. He had been the same parson who had spoken to Texanna’s father about her improper behavior. That good man didn’t know the reason for the quick wedding, and Colton was not going to enlighten him. They would worship somewhere else. The town had several churches now it had grown.
When he had spoken to him yesterday, the cleric had said, “Well, how I see it is this. If a U.S. Marshal wants to marry a girl, then he should. He should even be able to marry one that seems to cause more trouble than she should if her father is to be believed. I don’t mind saying I agree with him. She’ll do better married.”
Colton knew it had never crossed the parson’s mind to wonder if they were suited for one another. Her oppressive parent came skidding in halfway through the words and that was more than Colton McFadden wanted, but, at least, she would be able to look back and say her father was there if it ever mattered. It actually would work in their favor for no man could say it was not all in proper order and uncontested. Colt had to go find an errant husband once who had taken a wife under suspicious circumstances. Of course, once it was done, it was done.
Colt’s heritage being what it was might make it come under question, but now his new father-in-law could sign the certificate as well as a witness. The ceremony was quickly accomplished and Texanna visibly relaxed. Colton smiled. He paid the reverend the amount he had heard was the expected gratuity, shook both of those men’s hands, signed the paperwork and allowed her father to give a peck on the reluctant cheek of his daughter. After the awkward goodbye, Colt led his new wife off to her new life.
***
Texanna looked over at her husband in the wagon and wondered how far he lived from town. He had said it wasn’t too far but it was further than she had ever lived. She had always lived in the same little house near the creek. When she thought of the creek, she felt sadness for her loss. No longer would she have the solace of the running water to calm her fears, and concerns. She would not have the swift moving stream to carry, symbolically, her burdens to the furthest reaches of the mother river of the Trinity.
She released a soulful sigh and almost immediately felt Colton’s firm, warm hand slide around her waist. He pulled her over to sit closer to him. It gave her a security she hadn’t had in recent years. She leaned into him and shyly looked up at her husband. She watched him look down at her with a gentle smile, then lean down to kiss the top of her head, squeezing her to his side. She would be all right.
“Anna, honey, wake up. Sweetheart, I’m sorry to wake you but we are almost to the house and I need to talk to you.”
She could see that they had pulled to the side into some shade and Colton had tied off the reins. After a few moments, Colt started talking. “I know it has been an emotional couple of days but I believe we need to start our marriage off the way we want it to be and for me, that means certain things. It means that we discuss the things that we want to happen and the things that should not happen again.”
Texanna did not like the way this was going. She knew he said she was getting a spanking but she had hoped he would let it all go and start fresh.
“I know things haven’t been as they should have been.” She looked up at Colton and saw him raise his eyebrows but didn’t respond in any other way. “And I know I should have made some better choices.” Again, she paused and again he said nothing. She sighed and ran her hands down her dress skirt as though she were pressing wrinkles out of it. “And I know you expect better from me. And…” her voice died off.
“And you know you’re getting a spanking.”
“What? No. I mean, I know you said that yesterday and I know I didn’t listen very well, but there were circumstances that made that happen. It wasn’t as though I wanted to disobey you.”
“You just took an oath to love, honor and obey me and I made one to love, honor and protect. You aren’t meeting your obligation if you don’t do as I say when it is so I can keep my vows.” Colton reached under the bench seat and pulled out the small bundle of switches that he had cleaned the evening before. He had trimmed them and tied them together.
“Um, you aren’t going to use those, are you? I mean are you?” her eyes widened in anxious worry.
“Well, let’s go over the problems at hand. You had an awful out of control mouth in my office yesterday. For a woman, my woman, that is just not agreeable. That right?” Colt handled the bunch of reedy limbs carefully.
“I guess you could say that,” she admitted slowly.
“Yep and I’d say that you knew I wanted you to stay at your pa’s house until I was able to talk to you yesterday afternoon. Sound true?” he cocked his head sideways to look at her.
“Sounds true, but I couldn’t help myself. I needed a place to be so I could think.”
“Well, and then when I told you to spend the night at Mandy’s you didn’t do that. You ended up going home, having a row and spending the night outside. Alone. Where no one knew where you were, with no blankets, no fire, nothing to keep you safe.” Colton was warming up to his subject.
“I had a fire. I always carry something to start a fire.” Too late, she saw that response had been ill-advised for he raised his eyebrows ominously.
“Finally, this morning, when I took you back to Mandy’s and told you, ordered you to stay there until I came to get you, you took right off again.” Colton had worked up some irritation and his voice told the story of it.
Texanna knew she had done too many things to get out of her thrashing so she hung her head and said in a voice barely above a whisper, “Yes, sir.”
Colt’s tone lost its hard edge but there was a firm regret when he next spoke. “Well, I don’t expect to have to deal with this again. Untie your drawers unless you don’t have any on now?” he asked.
“Yes, sir, I have them on. But, Colton, what if someone comes along while you’re, um...”
“Spanking your naughty bottom? Well, they aren’t likely to if you hurry but if they do, all they will see is a disobedient young woman getting her sassy bottom spanked. Believe me, there’s nothing unusual about that. Now get on with it.”
She hiked up her skirts so she could untie her bloomers, letting them fall. Colton helped her over his long legs and he settled her in comfortably.
“Now I don’t do much talking during a whipping. You know what this is for and I don’t think we need to hash it out while I am tapping out an understanding on your rebellious bottom.”
He hiked her skirts up and she could feel the slight breeze touch her unexposed skin and knew that soon she would be grateful for the coolness. Colton ran his large warm hands over her plump, rounded bottom and she felt the warmth tingle in her woman’s place. She knew it had to do with men and women; she just wasn’t sure exactly what. Oh! A heavy hand, her husband’s heavy hand, landed solidly on her nates and she screeched.
“Settle down, you have a long way to go, darlin’. Now these are for your sassy tongue.”
Colton set up a consistent rhythm quickly and landed swat after swat on her upturned, pale fanny. She wailed halfheartedly. Colton told her before, the first time he spanked her, that he paid close attention when he spanked. She hoped that he wouldn’t know it was just lip service trying to stop the onslaught to her rear end. She figured he knew she was not at her limit because he just kept swiping her bottom.
“I don’t want to hear some whine that is not truth. You are already in plenty of trouble as it is.”
He continued to spank her ever-reddening fanny. One, two, three in the same spot then move the other cheek and repeat the count only to finish in the middle covering both, now glowing globes, one, two, and three.
“This is for running off when I told you to wait for me. I am not happy about that.”
Her thighs felt the first of Colton’s many smacks. He painted her thighs with an even coat of slaps for a few, stinging moments.
“Be still while I look at you. I want to make sure I do a thoroug
h job but not too harsh. I promise to always abide by my word and I told you I would never cause you hurt and that includes bruising if I can help it.” He rubbed her rear as he spoke and Texanna almost lifted her bottom for him to meet his hand to get more massaging but just as she had relaxed enough to do that, Colton changed it up again. He tilted further so her bottom was more prominent and her hands were all the way to the buckboard floor. Then the slaps to her tender area, at the crease below her bottom and she thought she had never felt anything so sensitive. Begging was in process before he stopped, not having spent as much time on that area.
“For this morning, after I already had told you to expect a spanking, to do as you were told and to not leave Mandy’s house, you did. I will not put up with that young lady.”
She felt him move a little to the side and saw out of the corner of her eye that he had picked up the bundle of switches and said as he repositioned once again how very much he hoped she remembered this whipping.
“These are going to sting but I intend to make my point.”
Swish, slap, wait, sting. “Oh, oh, please, I can’t take this. It is too much.”
Swish, slap, wait, sting. The tears began to fall in earnest and finally her legs began to flail. Again, the precise cycle of his swats did their task as Texanna began to sob. Third round elicited one more burst of tears and finally, a fourth that concluded his lesson on her tail. She knew he had finished because she felt his hand tracing lines on her bottom and she thought it must be the lines left by those evil switches. She would forever do what she could to avoid a birching again. Her pa had used leather always. She had only ever experienced one other and she never wanted one repeated on her seat. She felt as though angry hornets resided on her lower half.
Colton lifted his bride up off his lap and pulled down her skirt. He helped pull up her drawers. Texanna hiss and sucked air through her teeth as the previously soft material slid over her well-punished bottom. “Now, you understand why I did this just before we reached the house. You won’t have to sit but a few minutes. I imagine you won’t want to sit for longer than that. But, Texanna, I am going to keep this little bundle of correction in case you feel the need to disobey me again.”
She swiped at her tears and tried to calm her breathing as she said, “Yes, sir,” and she hiccupped.
Colton reached over and kissed her salty lips deeply. Then drew her in close, giving her the part she had never had, the love and forgiveness after the punishment. She might be able to handle him after all.
***
He was going to take off for the rest of the day so he could show her around the place, but she shooed him off, encouraged by suddenly chatty female relatives. Satisfied she was comfortable enough to stay, he reluctantly left her to be coddled and instructed by the women. He figured if she were able to get comfortable with his women folk, then she would be more comfortable with him.
He sat in the office until he couldn’t stand it any longer and walked over to the cattle yards to see what was going on there. He had gotten a wire just the other day stating some men were coming into the area and that they brought with them plenty of trouble of the thieving kind. He didn’t think he was wasting energy by just looking around. The judge was due to return home any day and Colt’s life would get back to normal. Well, at work anyway.
One stampede narrowly avoided and two fights later, Colt was on his way home feeling as though the only accomplishment for the day was done in the morning. The rest of the day was blown away with the dust. He should have listened to his instincts and stayed home to show Texanna around, settle her, and her things.
After putting his horse away, it was painfully apparent that the place was silent. That was typical but today he had expected quite a different welcome for it was anything but an ordinary day. He had anticipated movement and more life with his little bride there. She was not to be seen when he walked in. He had a bad feeling. In fact, the things he had unloaded that morning still sat on the floor of the bedroom and there was not one woman to be seen. He took a walk through the rooms and found his Kaku in her room weaving and his mother there as well, beading shoes.
When he didn’t find Anna with them, he asked, “Where have you hidden my bride?”
His pia said, without looking up, “You’re early.”
“Yes, and where is Texanna?”
His mother continued her train of thought as though he didn’t speak at all. “We should cook for you now.”
Pia and Kaku got up to move to the kitchen.
Standing in the doorway with his hands on his hips Colton stood to his full height and bellowed, “Where is Texanna and if you answer anything but my question, I’ll not be pleased. I warn you I’m not patient when it comes to her well-being. Now where is she?”
There was a feeling in the pit of his stomach that caused him alarm for her safety, and it caused his voice to change from molten to forged steel.
“She’s walking,” Kaku said as she moved toward the other room again only to not be allowed that exodus. Colton didn’t budge.
“Where is she walking?”
His mother answered this time. “The land. She needed to find a place for her spirit. A calming place. She knows what she needs and she will find it. It will help her settle.”
“A wood sprite,” he mumbled. “How long has she been gone?” he asked Pia.
The women shrugged in unison. Pia answered. “How long have you been gone?”
“What? She has been gone that long? What were you thinking? Did you not consider advising her or looking for her? Why do I have two older, supposedly wiser women in my house if they won’t teach the younger one and watch out for her?”
“Women need to search things out and find the feel of their land. She’s your wife now, and while she’s young, she’s not without great understanding. But she trusts the untrustworthy.”
“What do you mean, she trusts the untrustworthy?”
Pia shrugged. “I don’t know but it is a truth.”
“Pia, I agree she needs her space, but she has not been here before, and she lived in town, not out here. She doesn’t remember her mother. Her father is too bitter to have been a loving instructor, as she grew older. What if she’s lost, or hurt, or…”
“Or she wants to be alone. She needs to find the place her spirit talks to her.” Pia shook her head indicating her son was missing the point. “Yes, that wouldn’t be good for your wife to spend time trying to figure out her life now without two older women in her steps all day.” She made the hand signals of one palm slapping and sliding over the other palm to indicate dogging her steps.
“Sarcasm, Pia? I expected it from Kaku but not you. You don’t understand. I can’t stay here and wait to see if she comes back unharmed. She might not be safe. Something is not right.”
“Yes,” his grandmother said, “She’s too young to take care of herself.”
“Kaku, it’s not like that, but I’m not going to explain anymore. She can care for herself but I’m just worried. I know her like you know me.”
“Go find her, Tua, but do not be angry with her. She’s doing as she should.”
Colton opened his mouth to respond but closed it hard, clenching his jaw. They didn’t understand. They had lived their whole lives in nature. They had a way to do things that had been carried down through the centuries, but Texanna didn’t know of those ways. She was young and inexperienced so to allow her to go wherever she desired without escort was irresponsible of the women. He didn’t even know if she could shoot a gun.
He looked at his mother and Kaku in consternation. How did he respectfully tell women of fifty-five years and seventy-two years that they didn’t understand the ways of this new woman he had brought into their midst? He never considered asking them to teach her and take care of her because he thought they would do it naturally. Not for the first time did he question his thinking on adding another woman to his home.
After several more exasperating moments, he threw his hand
s up and stormed out of the house grabbing his rifle and slicker on his way. Looking for signs, he muttered to himself, “They were unconcerned. Unconcerned! We are going to have a heart to heart when I find her. Whatever they think they need, they are going to get it and more. There is not going to be strife in my house.”
He kicked himself for letting the women in his life take it over. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. He needed to set the standard and expect things to follow his way. He was through allowing the women to rule his roost. Texanna didn’t even know what her spirit was.
***
Texanna had decided to go for a walk because coming from a house with no women to one with now two other women was overwhelming, to say the least. Colton’s mother and grandmother were nice enough, but they didn’t talk much. Well, at first anyway. They had encouraged her to go and walk around. The women said that she would feel more comfortable if she knew the land and brushed off her worry that she had not put her things away.
Colton’s grandmother, Kaku, was interpreted intermittently by his mother, Pia.
Kaku nodded sagely and encouraged her new granddaughter. “You are not ready to put things away. You need to find where your spirit rejuvenates. Go and find that place on this land. It is a wise woman who takes ownership of what is hers. The strength that comes from that ownership is great.”
Pia had a thoughtful look on her face when she picked up the explanation. “Your place as my son’s bride is only part of who you are. A woman has strong medicine if she learns how to balance her life. You are young, but it is never too early for a woman to learn how to do that. I know you enjoy the land. Go to it and let it give you peace. There is a place of the four winds…”
Taming Texanna Page 9
