Winter Wonders, Chapter 4

by patty, copyright 2003, updated 2007 

missed earlier chapters?  This link will take you to Chapter 3 and a link there will take you to Chapter 2, where a link will take you to Chapter 1.  Each will open in their own window so you can read and close in order without having to navigat backward.  Hope you’re liking it….

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“Finished?” Royal raised his right eyebrow, when Connie’s plate went untouched for several minutes after he finished his meal.

Connie shrugged. “Can I eat it after you do that?” she nodded to the brush that rested on the table.

“What’s that? Nervous stomach?” Royals’ smile was wry. “See what your foul mouth and sour disposition get you? Can’t even enjoy your Christmas dinner because you’ve got a walloping coming after it.”

“I told you I was sorry,” Connie cringed when she heard the childish whine in her own voice.

“Well, you won’t be playing on my sympathies with that poor little girl play acting. Nor with the all ‘worked-up-with-guilt-and-fear-nervous-stomach’ routine either. I’ll make no mistake with leniency when it comes to the few standards I keep in this house,”

Royal softened enough to concede that the threat of a paddling might put a damper on anyone’s appetite even if the food was good. “Put your plate on the peel in the warmer and get the rest of these dishes cleaned up and put away. When you’re finished with that go up and put on the nightshirt I gave you and bring your sorry backside back here to me. I’ll make short work of a sharp lesson and that’ll be an end of the unpleasantness for the rest of evening.”

Connie swallowed against the urge to argue with the man. ‘For once in your life will you just try and not make things worse for yourself,’ her mind growled at the base instincts within her that threatened to fight. With her lips pressed white into a thin determined line, Connie got up from the table and carried the dishes to the deep pan by the pump.

“Make sure and put the bones and solid scraps in the tin to take to the outhouse,” Royal instructed as he watched her move around in his kitchen.

Connie only nodded, keeping her back to him. ‘What do you think? That I’m a complete idiot and can’t even do dishes?’ her mind silently retorted. That she almost spoke the words raised goose flesh on her backside and sent a twinge of unpleasant prickling into her groin.

“Use the hot water from the kettle with some soap. Then refill the kettle and put it back on the stove,” Royal added when Connie raised the handle on the pump to put water in the pan.

“I know how to do this!” Connie answered, her words seething through clenched teeth.

“Not if you’re using the ice cold water from the pump you don’t,” Royals’ answer was a clipped warning.

“The water in the kettle is scalding. It needs some cold in it before I can put my hands in it. Even though you’d happily skin me alive, I was not planning to do it myself in a pan of scalding dish water!” Connie stamped her foot, and wheeled around to face the man who seemed to be deliberately aggravating her.

“You watch that tone of voice with me girl,” Royal warned. “You are in enough trouble as it is.”

“Then you let me do these dishes in peace,” Connie snapped and turned back to the work. She was conscious of his glare on her back, and mindful of the stomach churning encounter that was still to come between them. The skin on her bottom tingled. This was going to be the first day in her life that she’d ever been spanked twice. The first one had already been mighty serious. ‘How can I be so reckless?’ Connie wondered, shaking her head.

‘Best not dwell in the confusion of how come and what ifs,’ she sighed and reasoned silently. ‘Much better to stick with what’s happening now.’

Every move she made caused the loose bloomers to caress the vulnerable flesh of her bottom, keeping her mind focused on it, and keeping her aware of the hairbrush on the table.

“This is crazy!” she spoke silently to herself. “How did I ever end up here in the middle of no where like this?” Nervousness made her loose the battle to keep her mind on ‘the now.’

She grimaced, steeled her heart, closed her eyes, and reluctantly let her mind again wander back over the events of the past year. Strangely enough, for the first time, the exercise didn’t tie her in knots. Instead, she found herself feeling safe and comfortable. For the first time in a very long time Connie realized that she really did feel safe. Even standing there with her hands immersed in warm water knowing her backside was about to find its self in hotter water.

Royal was a descent man, even if he was on the stern and gruff side. This place was the safest place she’d been in since before her mother married the monster who’d driven her out into the desperate life she’d been living. Connie let herself smile. She had a warm bed and a roof over her head for at least the next two or three months. “The only thing I have to fear right now is my own bad temper,” her smile turned wry with that truth. Her temper was no small obstacle.

“That’s enough dawdling! We don’t have all night for you to waste playing in dishwater,” Royal intruded on the reverie that was helping Connie find some measure of calm. Connie bit her tongue to hold back the saucy answer that involuntarily surged up into her throat and threatened to come out.

“I’m finished,” she grumbled moving to the coat pegs to reach for her coat. “I’ll take the water out and be right back.”

“Leave it! You still have your own plate to rinse after I get through with your backside,” Royal snapped. “Get up there and get into your nightshirt. We’ll not put this off any longer. Make sure you take those drawers off while you’re about it. We’ll do this right.”

Mild panic shot through her body when Connie obediently climbed the ladder to the loft. “I can’t believe I’m just doing what he says and making myself ready for him to spank and put to bed like a child!”

Her fingers trembled on the buttons and ties that held up the clothes she’d been given. Clumsy though her hands were, Connie shortly found herself stripped down to her thin cotton shift and the folded over bloomers. The warmth from the fire on the hearth and the one in the stove was trapped up in the loft and around her under the rafters. Even so, the exposure sent a brief chill through her.

“Get the lead out up there now!” Royals’ voice boomed renewing the nervous energy that had Connie almost trembling.

“I’m looking for the nightshirt. Just give me a minute will you!” Connie stifled the petulant urge to stamp her foot. ‘Jesus man! It’s not like I can run away from you or anything!’ she resorted to muttering, while turning over the pillow, and then the comforter looking for the nightgown she’d tucked away when she made the bed.

“If you’re not down here by the time I count twenty, you’ll find out what happens in this house to women who defy with passive gestures like stalling.”

“Just a minute please!” Connie’s mouth went dry with the reality that the man was itching to spank the living daylights out of her, and the knowledge that he was getting irritated about it in the bargain.

‘It’s just a spanking!’ Connie reminded herself while she tried to restore the calm she’d managed to find doing the dishes. “Yeah but remember what his hand felt like?” she cringed and whispered into the night gown that she was unfolding and puffing up over her head. She had no time to appreciate the simple beauty of the delicate, crisp, white poplin garment with its eyelet lace trim.

“Can I keep my socks on?” she called down nervously slipping her bloomers off as the gown shimmied down her torso.

“Twenty-five!” Royals’ voice boomed back up. “Keep your socks and get down here now!”

A wave of gooseflesh prickled across her bare backside when Connie turned to step around and back down the ladder. The long gown covered her completely, but the fabric was light and did not feel like much protection. “I can’t believe I’m going to willingly let him do this!” she complained to the wooden ladder. She hadn’t intended that Royal hear her, but he immediately let her know he had.

“You’ll ‘let’ him do what he sees fit when you behave like a hellion in his home!”

“Well, I don’t even know you yet,” Connie shot an answer back before she could stop her mouth. “The least you could do is give me a chance to do that. A girl should at least have a chance to settle in and learn the rules before she’s beaten to a pulp over breaking them.”

“How’s that?” Royal couldn’t help but laugh. The little strawberry blond was as bold and fiery as his Mary was.

“You heard me!” Connie set her chin in a defiant pose. “Some people give other people time to get to know them before they start making rules.”

“Well most people don’t steal a man’s food for weeks, invade his house while he’s away, plan to steal his horse and then when he’s been kind enough to give them a home for the winter, most folks won’t then turn around and curse the man and otherwise carry on like a street urchin as the way they show their thanks.”

Connie closed her eyes when she heard the bald facts listed so plainly. She certainly had managed to make an unusual impression, and the man had definitely been amazingly generous to her.

“I had my reasons,” was all she could think to say.

“Reasons you’d best tidy up and put away unless you’re planning on spending some time across my lap every evening while you’re living under this roof,” Royal stiffened and moved over to sit down on one of the rough hewn armless chairs near the table. “Go over there and bring me that hairbrush and then you park yourself right here,” he pointed to the floor by his right foot.

Connie’s eyes followed his hand gestures. Again she had to fight the urge to argue. Nervous energy was making her bladder rebel. The imminent prospect of being spanked made her stomach tumble and her groin clench involuntarily.

There was little she could do except comply with his instructions. If she fought him he might use force, and if she made things too difficult, she might find herself out in the snow. Modesty and embarrassment made her blush and wrap her arms across her chest and torso.

“Do as I say girl!” Royals’ patience was beyond tested. He could hardly believe how completely upside down his quiet life had been turned in only a matter of days. After years living alone and mostly content with it, here he was loosing his temper with a slip of a woman and fixing to blister her backside for sass and defiance.

“OK! I’m doing it!” Connie couldn’t help the whine that found its way onto her voice.

The brush was heavy with a four inch oval back, and five inch long handle. No doubt it would make an effective a paddle. Connie had a friend once who described being spanked with a hairbrush as the most horrible punishment possible. At the time Connie only half believed the story. Now she was about to find out first hand.

“Please Mr. Lee,” Connie pleaded nervously when she handed Royal the brush. “I promise I’ll try to be more respectful in the future. I just lost my temper. I’ve been struggling and fending for myself under difficult circumstances for so long I forgot how to be civilized.”

“I’m sure you will,” Royal nodded and took the brush. “This’ll give you some incentive to remember that promise and keep it. Put yourself down here now.”

Her heart pounded out of control when Connie eyed the man’s lap where he’d just patted the flat of the brush on his leg. What she felt in the moment before she submitted and laid herself down across it was more than just fear of a painful encounter with a hairbrush. She dreaded the pain, but more than that she realized that she dreaded the possibility that she might cry.

Fear had been piling up within her for so long and now she finally felt some measure of safety; but here, like this, facing a naughty girl’s punishment at the hands of the man whose decency made her feel safe, Connie felt the wall of emotions she’d kept well under control threaten to break through her well constructed dam.

“You ready?” Royal laid the flat of the brush across the fleshy part of Connie’s right thigh.

Connie bit her lip to hold back the sob that threatened. Her response was to grip the legs of the chair he sat on, and nod her head in the affirmative.

“Alright then.” Royal tugged the fabric of the nightgown up.

“Oh!” Connie objected and tried to push back up off his lap. “No! Please!”

“When you earn a paddling in this house young lady you get it proper. All spanking gets delivered where it’ll do the most good the fastest; on the bare backside! Maybe you’ll think about the effect having your backside bare has on your pride next time you let your pride lead you around by your nose.”

Royal wasted no more time on formalities, and Connie had no more time to worry about her bottom being exposed. She was also instantly galvanized to fight. All of the attention that was focused on the fear that she might cry was stolen for the moment, by intense burning pain.

“OW! EIY!” Connie’s body stiffened with the scalding first impact of the brush. “OW! Oh please! Ow! Oh God! Ow!” she bucked desperately with the next several spanks. Royals’ hand had been bad, but this was like nothing she’d experienced before.

Royal easily held her in place, and kept dutifully to the task he’d set for himself. He would have a properly contrite little lady on his hands by the time he was through with this exercise, even if it wore him out to do it.

“Ow! Oh God! Ow! Please!” Connie’s cries were muffled and half strangled by the efforts of her struggles to get away from the pain. Royal held her firm, and ignored her pleas.

Connie could not believe how much the brush hurt. Nothing she did was successful to get away from it. She tried kicking, twisting, and bucking to get away, flailing her arms and folding up her legs up to protect herself, but Royal had an immediate and effective counter measure for each move she made. In short order, not only was her voice growing hoarse from all the roaring and hollering she was doing, but her legs were pinned between his, her arms were trapped against the small of her back, and her bottom was propped up at an even better angle so that Royal could spank her even harder and faster.

For a few minutes, all Connie could do was howl and struggle uselessly to the unrelenting cadence of the merciless spanking. The only thought on her mind, escape, was equally useless.

“OOOOWWWW!” Reaching her breaking point, in desperation, she tried to effect what she hoped he would hear as a ‘final’ defeated scream.

It didn’t seem to sink in. Royal just kept spanking.

“Please! You’re killing me!” Connie changed her tune to a pitiful whimper. She was desperate, but still able to think and try another approach.

“Getting through am I?” Royal sounded reassured and pleased.

“Yes!” Connie wailed. “Please! It hurts!”

“I am sure it does.” Instead of easing up, Royal increased his tempo. “A proper spanking is supposed to hurt.”

“Ow! Please!” Connie was loosing some of her starch and as that happened the urge to cry began to well back up to the surface.

“Stop fighting me,” Royal spoke those words at just the right moment. The dam broke, and Connie began to cry. In only a few moments, her body heaved with inconsolable wrenching sobs.

Royal recognized the satisfactory change in muscle tone and slowed the pace of the spanking some. “Are you going to curb your temper and keep a civil tongue?” he asked delivering a hand full of sharp smacks with the question.

“Yes, I promise,” Connie choked out an answer.

“Because if you sass and cuss at me again like you did in the barn tonight, this is what you will get. Do you understand me?” Royal was firm, though the tone of his voice had softened,

“Yes!” Connie sobbed. “Please stop! Please!”

“Not quite yet,” Royal started a short but serious new spanking. “This is what you get when you dawdle and delay a consequence.”

He made a very effective point with about thirty more solid, sharp licks.

“Please!” Connie cried. “Please no more! No more…”

“You didn’t like that one bit do you?” Royal stopped spanking and held her still.

Connie answered with wrenching sobs and a shake of her head “no!”

“You’d do well to keep this in mind for next time then,” Royal pointed out. “If you earn a lickin,’ you take it when it’s due, otherwise you’ll end up getting more right when you’re past the point of being able to take any more. Got that clear in your mind now?”

Connie nodded her head because that was all she could manage.

“That’s much better now.” Royal lifted and tugged her up and around, and guided her over to the rocker to sit with him curled up in his lap.

Connie resisted his efforts to pull her to him, but almost all of her fight was gone. When his arms wrapped around her torso and he leaned back in the chair to rock with her, all of Connie’s reserve fell away. She melted against him and dissolved into the flood of tears she could no longer hold back.

Royal was expecting Connie to cry. Mary always cried long and hard after he administered what she’d earned when she worked herself up to where she needed a sound spanking and accounting. So he wasn’t surprised by how soft and rubbery Connie became when he settled her against his chest and began to rock with her. It became clear to him in a little while though, when her sobs only intensified as he attempted to console and reassure her that Connie was not just crying over hurt feelings and properly released pent up stress.

”What is it little one?” Royal coaxed when Connie’s sobs showed no signs of abating after almost twenty minutes. “You’ve had a spanking and the world is all right again. No need for all this sorrow now. It’s all over and put away.”

Royals’ gentle words and the reassuring squeeze of his arms around her only served to renew Connie’s wrenching sobs. In the life he led with Mary, the catharsis of a spanking had always been exactly what was necessary to clean up and put away the worst of her moods. He’d always been there and known what ever was behind them. This time, with this girl he was not at all prepared for what was about to come out.

When Connie started to answer, she couldn’t stop.

“I’m not a bad person, please believe me!” the words heaved out with hiccups and barely caught breath.

“I know you’re not. There’s no worry there. You’re a good kid who’s had a run of bad luck and just needed a little reminder to be civil,” Royal tried to sooth. His gentle handling relaxed and dismissed all of Connie’s guardian inhibitions.

“She died with the baby, and he told me I had to go to his bed or leave his house, I had to get away or he would have hurt me, and then I couldn’t get a job, no one wanted me except the saloon man, when he gave me a job I wouldn’t go with the men, so he beat me, but I wouldn’t because I never had been with one, but the other one beat me and made me, so I when I could walk again I took money and I ran, I got lost and my horse died, so when I found your food I stole it because I was hungry and desperate, I wasn’t going to keep your horse, and you know how to hunt so it made sense at the time, I never meant to! I never meant to!”

“Slow down there,” Royal squeezed Connie’s shoulders. His hand moved up to stroke her hair. “Start from the beginning and tell me the whole thing so I can follow it all the way.”

Connie couldn’t speak for a few minutes. She was lost in the wrenching sorrow that had been lifted to the surface by the flood of emotions she’d just lost control of. Royal just rocked with her, and let her find her own time.

Time stood still when Connie finally found her voice. Royal listened and comforted her as she shared everything about her life over the past year and a half. It was all he could do to control the anger he felt toward the stepfather who’d betrayed her and the man who’d abused and taken her virtue. No wonder she was so quick and easy to anger. Unsettling though they were, many things about her appearance and the things she’d done made sense to him now. It would be easier to understand where her rage came from now, Royal reasoned as Connie hiccupped and sobbed into a light exhausted slumber in his arms. He rocked with her for a good long while.

Eventually the reality that it had been a very long day and Royal had had almost no sleep in over forty eight hours settled in. Even though he might have wished for a quieter Christmas, he found comfort in the idea that his home and his firm hand might well be a blessing for the young lady who now dozed fitfully in his arms.

He had no choice but to disturb her.

“Time for bed now Connie,” he squeezed and gently nudged her sides. “We both have a whole lot of work to do tomorrow.”

Connie stirred. Her breath hitched with the lingering hiccups of sobs slowly spending the last pennies of sorrow.

“Will you be alright up there by yourself?” Royal tipped her chin up so he could see her eyes.

Connie smiled weakly and nodded.

“Good,” Royal smiled. “I need my bed tonight.” He lifted her to her feet, and guided her to the foot of the ladder.

“Call me if you need anything. I’ll hear you alright?” he patted her bottom and gave her a push up the rungs.

Both of them slipped under their covers and fell into deep restful sleep.

Mary came to both of them in dreams.

8 Responses to “Winter Wonders, Chapter 4”

  1. George Says:

    Wee Hoo!! That was a rouser, and well worth waiting for, especially because we didn’t have to wait until Friday. This is really developing well, Patty. Congratulations! And thank you!!

    George

  2. pattydraws Says:

    Hiya George you get to be # 1 answering this post. You’re very welcome. I’ll do my best to stay on schedule, thought right now I’m having trouble getting Chapter 6 restored & returned to me. You will get Chapter 5 next week & 7 is done. 8, 9 & 10 are beyond well underway. I’m missing 6 due to computer crashes & can’t get a response from Bethany about returning chapter 6 to me.

  3. Paul Says:

    Patty, chapter four is even better. :)
    Poor Connie gets her butt well heated, but Roy does it with heart, and Connie needed the release. :)
    She will still get spanked but her heart will be lighter. :)
    I don’t understand the problem with Bethany, but then human stupidity has always puzzled me. :(
    Have a great weekend and try not to be too good, maybe your vanilla friend may have a swat or two in him. :)
    Love and warm hugs,
    :) :) :)
    Paul.

  4. jeff Says:

    Wow…Frickin wow.I wouldnt want to return it either if I was running a pay per site with stories that would have to compete with this one.This is some good stuff.Hoping Royal catches up with some criminal pieces of trash in this story.I love revenge….lol..Great story..Thanks Patty

  5. Maggie Says:

    OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! I started with the first chapter, and I couldn’t stop reading until I finished this one. Patty, seriously, this story is amazing!!! Thanks for sharing! I can’t wait for the next installment!!!!!!! ;)

  6. Mthc Says:

    yep..pretty damn good..bethany never responds to my emails either…

  7. Mickey Says:

    Patty,
    This story is progressing very well. I’m sitting up here in Minnesota with the cold and snow so this story seems very real to me.I can almost hear the wind whistling and swirling outside and the wood stove in the corner warming the cabin almost as well as Royal warms Connie’s bottom. Great Story!!! Here I have Vince Flynn’s new bestseller and I’m putting off reading it to read your heartwarming err bun warming tale. I guess I have my priorities straight! Can’t wait to read the next few chapters. Thanks Patty

  8. pattydraws Says:

    Be prepared ok… there are frank comments from me below…

    Hey Paul. Yes Connie needed release & she got it. I did finally get Chapter 6 back, that’s all I wanted … ;) a friend mailed it to me just after I paid for a 1 month non rebilling access fee. I’ll use the rest of the month to catch up on other writers’ works. Can you believe that the writer who despises me most has stolen my real 1st name and is using it as a pseudonym???? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! That just made me laugh. Talk about passive aggressive and mean. Ick.

    *g* Jeff. In a way I’m sorry for the pioneering pay per sites losing business to blogs with free content, but as long as they pay paultry fees to contributers, keep secret purchase & royalty records, and trap talented people to sign away their ownership in order to be published, this is how it should be. Sure I’d like to make money, but there’s no way ever that I would sign away my rights to my work for a pittance ever again.  I prefer to give it to readers for free than to burnt out webmasters for almost nothing. 

    I’ve been burned already by someone who has not kept up all of his side of the bargain we made. He paid me a very cut rate for my work, I even gave him copyright for the price I normally charge for prints (yes I retained my right to republish on my web sites & in print). Thanks to him I now will NOT ever entrust copyright or my original to anyone  but close friends anymore. (uless they’re willing to pay over 1,000 bucks) He’s been in default for a year now. A year ago the communication should have been - either he keeps his side of the deal and in good faith uses my work as promised or he defaults on his agreement. Well I’m stupid, I gave him until Feb 2008. If he doesn’t comply, use my work and link it back to me to these active sites, he owes me my original work back and forfeits the copyright I stupidly gave him. Actually he’s already forfeited copyright. I will never sell that again for less that $1,000.00. I did what he asked of me, created 6 original drawings. Framing and shipping them was an add on and cost me a huge chunk of what he paid. Thanks to him and his slovonly actions toward his promised plans, no one can afford anything but a print plus shipping and handling of my work. He’s been holding original copies and high resolution png files of my work in a moulding back shelf file since 2005 - after telling me he needed it now and then when it wasn’t used now, he explained that he’d had unexpected things come up and was behind, he then told me 6 months. Well it’s two years and some months out past the six month promise & still there’s no forward movement on his part. Now I’ve pissed him off for daring to remind him. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Yeah right! I’m a bitch. LMAO & give me a break. I may be dirt to some, but a deal is a deal! I’m not the one in default, nor am I a bully threatening other bloggers with delinking if they choose formats & add on’s that aren’t within his regulations….

    Hey Maggie that was a long read! Hope you like the remainder & really glad you like it so far. ;)

    Never mind Bethany’s unresponsiveness. mthc She’s always been lazy when it comes to paying her writers and answering fan mail seems to be completely last on her list. You’re not the 1st to share this. Hang in there OK?

    Even her most prolific and loyal writers have shared their frustrations with me, and I have experienced it 1st hand. She’s great about some things but sucks at what counts. Now the Woodshed exists completely on the backs & work of others. There hasn’t been a single original Bethany story or chapter on the woodshed since just after I first joined in 2001. The site suckles off the works of a hand full of minimally reimbursed indentured writers and Bethany makes all of the real profits.

    Most of her new writers have been required to agree to give up all rights to their own work. There’s a double standard though older writers have kept their old 2 year shared copyright agreement, newer writers must give up their total ownership for 120 bucks per 3 - 4 thousand word chapter.

    Take a look at my chapters not a one is less than 5, many are more than 8 thousand words. I was paid the same 120 dollar fee, actually it was 100 per chapter for my 1st 2 years with her.

    Yes she should return mails from her fans, but I’m told she rarely ever does, and she never ever has properly or consistently forwarded positive feedback from readers to 99% of her writers. I did get get one kudo mail once.

    Sad really, and very unfair to customers….

    Thank you Mickey. I’m down here in deep south TX with a broken air conditioner. Puhleese God, can I have a cold front that keeps me cool before my Christmas credit card charges need to be paid… I think the outdoor thing is dead & the system needs a freon recharge. Not gonna be cheap. argh!

    Thanks ya’ll … I sure did need to beef a bit. ;)

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