Creative Spanko Wench Blog

Connie quickly made things orderly in the barn, and came out to find a man standing beside a buggy looking annoyed. A woman, well wrapped in blankets, sat up on the seat with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Lilia so help me! Don’t test me wife. It’s enough you wheedled your way with this trip. We’re here now. Roy deserves to see you at your best.”

Lilia wasn’t paying her husband any attention.

“Hello?” Lilia’s lilting voice distracted Caleb, and he looked up to follow her gaze to what had distracted her.

Connie stood in the wide open doorway to the barn dumbfounded. “Could this be Mary’s Lilia?” she wondered with her mouth agape.

“Roy never said anything about having company out here did he?” Caleb directed his question to his wife as he moved around the buggy to greet Connie. “Caleb Miller, this is my wife Lilia,” Caleb did nothing to contain his curiosity as he extended his hand to introduce himself to Connie.

Connie accepted his hand and shook it, but said nothing, shifting her attention alternately between the two visitors, and when she realized both were staring at her, she reflexively pulled her tattered jacket around her.

“She’s so small Caleb,” Lilia jumped down from her seat and extended her hand. “I’m Lilia; we’re friends of Roy’s.”

“I know,” Connie whispered.

“You know?” Lilia smiled. “Roy’s told you about us then?”

Connie shrugged realizing she’d made a mistake. Roy hadn’t said anything to her about his friends, but she couldn’t very well say that she knew them through Mary’s journals. Better she say nothing more, and hope the subject would pass.

“Roy left you here alone when he came out to our place the other day?” Caleb shook his head wondering about his friend. “Where is the reprobate?”

“Checking his trap lines,” Connie answered the second question honestly, and ignored the first.

“So he left you alone again?” Lilia sounded concerned.

“No!” Connie tried to correct them. “I’m fine here! The animals, and his work, it’s a help to him for me to … ”

“It’s a help to him to leave a woman alone out here in the middle of nowhere?” Lilia wrapped Connie in a filial embrace.

“I can take care of myself,” Connie objected.

Caleb laughed. “Why don’t you two go in the house and make some coffee, while I see to these horses and put this buggy away. We’ll let Roy’s house guest introduce herself properly inside out of the cold.”

Connie let herself be ushered into the cabin by Lilia whose effervescent presence was a surprise. The Lilia she thought she knew had seemed so shy and reserved in Mary’s writings.

“What’s your name?” Lilia asked when they reached the steps.

“Constance, um it’s Connie really.”

“Connie? That’s a lovely name. Connie who? How did you come to meet Roy?”

Connie pulled away and opened the door, hoping to evade the questions. Only a few minutes ago she’d been looking forward to a long quiet day reading about Mary, Roy and these people, and now in a bewildering flurry, her day and plans had been invaded. For a moment she considered closing the door on the woman behind her and demanding that she and her husband go away until Royal returned. The impulse was strong enough to find words.

“Royal isn’t here. This isn’t my home to receive company in. Maybe you should go and comeback when he returns?”

‘Nonsense!” Lilia laughed. “Roy wouldn’t hear of it. Besides we’ve been on the trail for five hours and Caleb is in a foul mood. If he isn’t fed and distracted it could be disaster for my wellbeing.”

“What brings you here?” It was Connie’s turn to ask a question.

“Me,” Lilia laughed. “Roy seemed so lonesome when he came by Christmas Eve, as soon as the weather cleared, I pestered Caleb until he had to give in and take me out here.”

“That was where he went? You gave him the chickens and sweets then?” Connie nodded her head filling out one set of unanswered questions that until then had really not even needed asking.

“Yes it is!” Lilia smiled, and then her expression changed as she pushed into the warm cabin behind Connie, shrugging her over coat and woolen shawl off her shoulders. “And when I see rotten son of a … well, when I see Roy next he’s going to have some explaining to do. I can’t believe he would come all the way to see us on a holiday and not bring his company along with him!”

Connie grimaced. She didn’t want to open the door to more questions about herself, so she said nothing to correct the older woman’s misunderstanding.

“Would you like to sit down?” Connie tried to be gracious.

“Yes, thank you. In a minute,” Lilia turned her attention to the cozy cabins’ interior. “It’s been years since I’ve been here. Roy hasn’t moved a thing! How is it you haven’t given it your touch yet Connie?”

“I beg your pardon ma’am?” Connie was taken by surprise.

“Well, I would have thought a new woman of the house might want to …?” Lilia stopped when she saw the expression on Connie’s face. “Oh, I’m sorry, I just thought …” At that moment as she saw how uncomfortable her presumption made the young woman Lilia recognized the ill fitting hastily altered dress she wore.

“How is it you came here then child?” Lilia pulled a chair away from the table and sat down intent on the answer to her questions now.

“I just … he …” Connie felt trapped. “There’s nothing wrong here. Roy says I’m allowed to stay the winter. I’m working for my keep now, and he’s allowed me a bed there.” Connie pointed to the loft and tried to say enough to satisfy without raising more questions. She didn’t want to be interrogated, and she didn’t feel comfortable sharing her story with anyone else.

Lilia sensed Connie’s discomfort, and immediately softened her approach. “Oh sweetheart, relax. I’m sorry. It’s not at all like me to bully like that. Of course there’s nothing wrong here! We know Roy and he’s moral to a fault even if his manners have lapsed over the years without Mary.”

Connie relaxed visibly, and Lilia smiled with the way she nodded.

“So, he’s told you about Mary?”

“I’ve seen the graves. He visits every day. Doesn’t say much, but I figure he’ll tell me what he wants me to know, so it’s OK with me if he keeps to himself.” Connie blushed hot with the guilty secret she harbored. Never in her life had she ever told such a lie. Not only was she not satisfied to let Royal inform her about his past, she was busy secretly prying into its most intimate corners after he’d told her to stay out.

“If he won’t you just ask me. I’ll fill you in.”

“You’ll fill her in about what?” Caleb picked that moment to traipse into the house pushing a waft of cold air in ahead of himself making the space suddenly seem very small. He hefted a large leather satchel in with him and dropped it near the table.

“Close the door against the cold Mr. Miller.” Lilia scolded her husband.

Caleb shot his wife a cool warning look that Connie couldn’t help notice. She remembered his posture and expression when she first laid eyes on him. The couple had been bickering when they arrived, and Connie sensed the subject of the squabble was not something that would settle away on its own.

Even though she knew from Mary’s diaries that Caleb and Roy were the same age, Connie couldn’t help noticing how much younger Lilia’s larger darkly handsome husband seemed than her reluctant host did. She guessed it must be the scruffy beard Royal let grow on his face.

Connie made herself busy starting a new pot of coffee while Caleb went about the business of getting out of his coat and boots and coming in. She wondered if the couple would stay for just a meal, or for the night. Not knowing what was customary; she didn’t quite know what to offer by way of hospitality.

“When did Roy set out?” Caleb asked.

“Yesterday early,” Connie didn’t look up from the coffee tin.

“Did he say how long he’d be?”

“Four days maybe five,” Connie nodded. Would they stay until he returned? Connie suddenly felt worried. Her plans! She might never have another chance to read the rest of the journals. Caleb noticed Connie’s demeanor change subtly.

“Well we missed him Lilia,” he addressed his wife. “We’ll stay the night if that’s not too much trouble miss, then trust you to tell Roy we dropped by.”

Connie nodded, feeling very much relieved.

“Damn Caleb!” Lilia slapped the table. “We’re in no hurry, and Connie’s here alone. Roy wouldn’t mind one bit if we stayed to see him.”

“Lily!” Caleb’s response made Connie startle. “I warned you about cursing already today. Don’t make me warn you again. Polite company does not drop in unannounced and impose. We planned to check in and get back, and we’ll keep to those plans. We have work to get back to.”

“Plans. You and your infernal plans,” Lilia grumbled into the fists she was wringing on the smooth wood surface of the table.

Caleb reached down and took his wife’s chin in his right hand. No words were spoken, but Lilia’s attitude immediately softened. Connie shot a few nervous glances their way.

“Connie is it?” Caleb turned his attention away from his subdued wife.

Connie looked up smiled nervously and nodded.

“We brought these preserves, goods and such for Roy. Lilia figured he’d be lacking a woman’s touch all winter and got it in her head to stock him up with some more jams and preserves. Think you can find a place for it?”

Connie nodded. “Yessir. I can, and thank you both.” She moved over and took the satchel from the large man. “Peaches! Is that oranges too?”

Lilia laughed. “Yes, there’s blackberry and strawberry too. Roy’s sweet tooth is as bad as Caleb’s.”

“We made cheese the other day, will you take some back with you when you go? There’s more eggs than we’ll ever eat too could you use those?” Connie felt the need to offer something back.

“Too many eggs? What in tar nation was Royal doing out to our place after laying hens in a snow storm if he’s got eggs a plenty?” Caleb scratched his head.

“Oh!” Connie looked stricken. She realized she’d said too much. ‘What could it hurt to tell them more,’ she shrugged to herself and then added, “I guess that was my fault.”

“Your fault?” her guests asked in one voice.

“Well, yeah,” Connie shrugged. “You see Roy didn’t have any eggs for a while because I was sort of taking them. I guess he figured his hens quit laying or something because the other day he just disappeared and then came back with new birds.”

“What were you taking them for?” Caleb’s brow wrinkled.

“I needed them.” Connie wavered wondering if opening up was a mistake.

“What does a woman need eggs for that she wouldn’t tell her man about, especially if he took it in his head to go out in a storm to remedy the problem?” Caleb’s confusion came across in a manner that raised Connie’s ire. It was like he thought her some ninny who’d put a man out for some frilly notion, or Roy some fool who’d just go off on a fools errand.

“I’ll have you know this Mr. … Miller is it? He’s not my man, he didn’t know I was taking the eggs, and I wasn’t in a position to tell him either, seeing as he didn’t know I was here until he got back. If he’d told me where he went that day I might have owned up, but we weren’t on speaking terms at the time either, so he couldn’t.”

Caleb faced the little woman whom he’d just managed to rile with his clumsy manners. For a second he marveled at just how much like Mary she seemed for a moment; smaller, with short light hair, but just as fiery. “Say again young’un? You lost me some where in the middle.”

Connie cocked her chin and squared off refusing to say more.

“Speak up girl,” Caleb warned. “Or I might have to assume you’re squatting here taking advantage of a good man’s belongings maybe even guilty of doing him an injury.”

“No!” Connie’s eyes opened wide. “I told you Roy’s seeing to his trap lines, and he’s told me I can stay until the snow clears. Maybe it wasn’t what he had planned, when he first caught me, but we worked it out and I’m working for my keep.”

“Caught you?” Caleb was still confused about the girl’s story.

“Are you thick or something Mr. Miller?” Connie stomped her foot. She saw but ignored the flash of annoyed surprise cross the large man’s expression. “I told you I was hiding here out of sight a while, stealing eggs and food. Roy didn’t know until after he came back from getting new hens from you. The weather changed on me, and I had no horse. I was going to make a loan of his to get to Denver, but that was the day he went off to your place. When he got back he found me sleeping in his bed.”

Lilia burst out laughing watching her stern husband take in Connie’s response. No one least of all a barely of age child ever got away with speaking to him like that.

“Did you talk to Roy like that?” Caleb squared off with the little spitfire, matching her hands on hips stance with all of its strength of purpose.

“That’s not your affair now is it?” Connie’s eyes flashed as hot as her cheeks did. Silence and tension hung in the air until Connie’s right hand left her hip and eased back nervously down over her backside.

With that small involuntary break, Caleb softened a little and smiled. “I’d say you did. Might be I’ll have to have a talk with Roy about how much of an impression he made on your manners,” he let the subject go. “Alright Miss Goldilocks, I guess we’ll believe your story for the moment.”

“We? Caleb Miller you leave this poor girl alone. I believe her and have seen no reason to question her at all.” Lilia chided the man who’d finally settled down in a chair at the table. “I must say my curiosity is peaked wondering what brought you all the way out here on your own, Connie, but unlike my husband I’ll respect your privacy and not try and bully it out of you.”

Connie’s smile was weak as she tried to relax. As much as it was a novelty to have faces and voices for two of the people Mary cared so much about, the timing of their actual meeting was less than ideal. She was going to loose a whole day with the journals, and have to spend it with people she had a thousand questions for, none of which were safe to ask. The feeling that she was going to betray herself saying more than she should was unsettling. She’d already said more than she wanted to and tripped too close to things she had no legitimate reason to know.

The small kitchen became uncomfortably quiet while the coffee brewed and Connie fidgeted with cups waiting for it.

“Caleb, where did you put the side of beef?” Lilia tried to wrangle the tension.

“I strung it up with the venison Roy has up in the barn loft.”

“Go cut some for us will you? I’ll show Connie how to do Roy’s favorite gravy and make our visit worth more to her than the intrusion of strangers.”

Connie was too quick to answer Lilia’s sweet gesture. “Oh that’s OK you don’t have to do that. You’re not strangers at all!” Her heart immediately flipped in her throat. She’d done it again! “I, I, I, mean … well you’re strangers to me, I guess, but you’re welcome in Roy’s house. He knows you, so … well … I mean you’re not strangers here.”

Lilia gave Connie a curious look. The girl was more than just shy, she was skittish. In fact in Lilia’s mind Connie was behaving just like she did when she was afraid Caleb was going to find out she was up to something she wasn’t supposed to be up to. Roy had left her here alone after all. No doubt the house was full of things a girl could snoop into and feel guilty about. Maybe even something Roy specifically told her to stay out of.

Connie felt the need for some air, and moved to slip her coat on. “I have to use the outhouse. Please excuse me.”

Her guests were gracious and excused her. Once the girl was out of the house, Lilia let her mind ponder why the young woman seemed so nervous. She believed the girl was here with Roy’s knowledge, and had no questions at all that her account of getting here and being allowed to stay were truthful. Still, there was something. Maybe it was Mary’s clothes? Maybe that was it? She’d gotten into a trunk of clothes and they’d caught her wearing them, and now she was afraid they’d tell Roy how his guest invaded Mary’s memory. The possibility made Lilia’s heart melt. She knew Roy wouldn’t care a whit about the clothes, and was suddenly incensed imagining that that might be behind the girl’s discomfort. Of course she’d set Connie’s mind at ease immediately, “and I’ll give that Royal Lee a good piece of my mind too.”

When Connie got to the outhouse and closed the door behind herself, she let out the breath she was holding and sat down hard on the edge of the solid wood bench. “Can’t you just shut your mouth you idiot?” Connie scolded herself. “The damned guilties are going to ruin you.”

She mulled over the predicament she was in. She knew things about Lilia and Caleb’s past and relationships with both Mary and Roy that she had no business knowing unless Roy’d told her, and he hadn’t, Mary had through her journals. They knew she’d only been there a couple of days, and Roy was just not the kind of man who would talk to strangers about his past never mind his friends. The familiarity she felt with these people after spending so many secret hours with them through Mary’s words, was going to be a problem if there was too much conversation. She didn’t want to raise their suspicions and make them ask her questions she couldn’t answer except with the truth and she was sure she was going to say something to give herself away and force questions.

“If only I’d never found the damned books!” she sighed.

Not one to waste energy, Connie stood, lifted her skirts and made use of the facilities before gathering her wits and returning to the cabin.

The unmistakable sounds of heated discussion came from inside as she mounted the steps. Connie stopped and listened to the couple inside, remembering Lilia’s posture and his stern expression when she first laid eyes on them.

“Don’t you look at me like that Lilia Alicia. You are sorely testing my patience and you know you will not like the outcome.”

“Caleb, so help me if you ruin this visit and shame me in front of Roy’s sweet new friend, I’ll never speak to you again.”

“Whether or not I shame you is completely up to you young lady. If you don’t want to have your backside bared and blistered where Roy’s young friend will hear it then you’d best tidy up your saucy attitude.”

“What saucy attitude? Scolding you for bullying that little girl? Caleb Miller you had no call to cross examine her like she was some criminal being judged.”

“I didn’t cross examine her. I just wanted to know why Roy would come for laying hens when he had perfectly good ones. How was I supposed to know the child was stealing from him and he didn’t know it?”

“You don’t need to know Caleb. There are things you could just take on faith even if for the moment you don’t quite understand them. But not you! Damn you! You have to be jumping to the assumption that either your best friend’s a fool or his guest is up to something, and all along there’s a perfectly ordinary reason for things.”

“Lilia!”

Even Connie startled with the sharp stern warning.

“I’m sorry Caleb I didn’t mean to curse, but sometimes you just make me so mad.”

“You watch your self missy or you will find yourself over my knee. As for perfectly ordinary, You tell me what’s ordinary about a girl barely weaned from her mama’s teats skulking around a grown man’s cabin way out here hundreds of miles from anywhere civilized Lilia Miller?”

“Maybe it’s not ordinary Caleb, but it surely doesn’t have to be sinister does it? Did you get a good look at her? She’s full grown but hasn’t an ounce of flesh on her bones. No matter why she’s here, I’m happy she’s here and safe.”

“She’d best not take advantage while she’s here.”

“I think it’ll do Roy good to have company for a few months, and you just never know maybe he’ll become fond of her and let her stay on. It’s almost ten years since Mary passed, and high time he got on with it and found a new wife.”

“Lilia!” Caleb’s voice dropped to a growl. Connie sensed that this was a topic Lilia brought up a few too many times in the past. “Don’t you go applying your match making wiles on that poor girl or on Roy. Roy’s got a right to do his grieving in his own good time.”

“Ten years Caleb! Out here alone all that time with just graves and memories? …. That’s … not … normal or healthy …. you know it too!” Lilia seemed to be moving around the room as she spoke, and some of what she said became muffled. Connie strained to hear, though afraid to move too close to the door in case they heard her.

“Like you said wife, he’s got company now, and you just stay out of their business.”

“Sometimes you are such a stick in the mud you know that Caleb?”

“And sometimes you press your luck with sass and make me pull up and let loose that stick on your bare backside. Don’t say you weren’t warned. Keep that sass up and you will ask for it.”

There was silence inside the cabin.

“Don’t you give me that look!”

“What look? This look?”

Connie felt the floor boards shudder under her feet. Caleb was moving inside the cabin.

“Get in here!” There was stumbling and a few whimpered objections.

Connie barely heard Caleb’s growled command over the sounds of shuffling feet.”

“Don’t you dare Caleb Miller!” Lilia’s command was cut off by the sound of a door slamming.

Shocked and concerned, Connie moved closer to the door, and pushed it open. The couple were not in the main cabin, though Connie could hear them behind the closed door to Roy’s bedroom.

“Caleb please! I won’t do it again,” Lilia’s objections were strained. Connie guessed that she must be struggling against her husband’s hold on her.

“You’ve been testing my patience through the whole of this trip and now you will have exactly what you have been asking for since you woke up today.”

“No honey please. I’ll stop testing you. I will!”

“Yes you will, because you will have what you have been after and there will be no more need, now come here!”

“Please Caleb, please. Connie will be back any second now. Please.”

“You should have thought of that before you made that shrew’s face at me and issued that whispered curse.”

“Ow, ow, oh! No Caleb please don’t spank me here. Please! If you have any love for me at all you will wait and do this at home.”

“My dear Lil, it is my love for you which compels me to act now.”

Connie could hear the chuckle in the man’s voice. She heard more scuffling and then the unmistakable crisp sound of bare skin being smacked again and again, quickly accompanied by the distressed sounds of Lilia struggling and whimpering.

“Oh my goodness!” Connie stopped just outside the bedroom door. “He’s spanking her!”

Connie stood there transfixed. Not sure if she should go back out and find work to do in the barn, or barge into the room and try to stop what was happening.

Inside the room, Lilia struggled to get away from her determined husband. She couldn’t really argue with his contention that she’d been testing his patience. He’d started the day out in such a grim mood it was a simple thing irritate him. All she wanted was a nice outing and a chance to visit Roy. It seemed like such an imposition even to get a smile out of Caleb once he grudgingly agreed to the trip and after trying for twenty miles, by the time they arrived his sullen mood had overtaken Lilia.

“Ow Caleb you’re hurting me please let me up. I’m sorry, please!” Lilia tried without success to get her hand up between her bottom and his hand. Her skirts made it difficult, and then when she managed to navigate it out from under them, Caleb trapped it before any reprieve from spanking could be garnered. “Please!”

“You will get what you deserve.”

Lilia’s misery was absolute. Her backside burned with each successive smack and the hopelessness of convincing Caleb to stop before he was inclined to was clear to her. By now Connie was most certainly finished with what needs she’d left to attend to, and there would be no pretending this had not happened. Though she was angry, Lilia could not help the tears of contrition and regret that spilled from her eyes. Caleb’s skill with this abominable activity was well honed. His hand was hard and too well seasoned by hard work and much more practice at spanking than Lilia would want others to know. He kept a steady scalding cadence peppering her tender flesh, paying too much attention to the most sensitive areas, making sure to leave the area she would have to sit on swollen and painful. It was too much to bear with grit.

Connie cringed imagining what Lilia was feeling at that moment. Her own recent experiences in the same predicament were far too recent for her to have any doubts the woman must be nearly desperate for her husband to stop by that point. She looked around for something she could do to occupy herself until the spanking stopped. Nervous energy crippled her mind though. At least now there was another reason for her to act and seem ill at ease. Maybe she would make it through the evening and morning to come without being the focus of too much attention and scrutiny.

Lilia’s sobs were inconsolable and her ragged breathing further fractured by hiccups and cries. “Please Caleb. Please.”

Both she and Connie were certain the spanking would go on forever when Caleb finally stopped and placed his hand firmly on his wife’s bottom. He held her in position over his lap until she was sufficiently recovered to talk.

Connie felt her heart lurch into her throat when silence replaced the sounds of spanking. “What do I do?” she panicked, mindful that she’d been and unwilling, unwitting witness to something that should have been private between man and wife. Obeying her instincts, she grabbed her coat again, and ran out of the house toward the barn.

Caleb heard the door close and foot falls off the porch. He made no move to stop what he was doing. There was little to be done. Certainly the young woman understood what she’d heard, and even if she didn’t, in his mind, there was no need for explanations.

“Are you ready to speak to me with respect again Lilia?”

“Yes Caleb I promise.”

“And you’ll apologize for your haughty airs and saucy mouth?”

“I will! I am sorry.”

“Good, now you’ll get up and go out and see to the supper you promised. I’m sure Connie will help you.”

Lilia climbed off her husband’s lap and allowed him to kiss her and draw her close. The mention of Connie had her distracted from the customary quiet cuddle that most often followed a spanking. “I am humiliated Caleb.”

“No, you are a wife who has had a spanking she deserved and you have nothing to feel ashamed about.”

“I am a grown woman though Caleb.”

“As you said yourself, so is Connie, and I will wager she is no stranger to the experience judging by her own sharp tongue. You know Roy just as I do, and it would not surprise me at all to find she already knows that side of him. I’d be more surprised if she doesn’t. Now get up, wash the tears away and start fresh as the sweet wife I know so well.”

Lilia winced closing her eyes against both the shameful prospect of facing company after being spanked and the scalding burn the spanking left behind. She stood and moved self consciously to the door, pulling a deep sturdy breath before opening it and entering the main room.

It was empty. Lilia turned back to Caleb who was still sitting on the bed.

“Where do you suppose she is? She only went out to use the privy.”

“I suspect we scared her away to the barn or parts further. You see to supper and I will go out to see what she’s about.”

Lilia blushed and obediently bustled around Roy’s small kitchen looking for what she would need. Caleb pulled his coat and boots on and stepped out into the crisp afternoon air. He smiled. The day was bright, cold but not miserably so.

‘Too bad we didn’t come a day sooner,’ he thought to himself. He might have left Lilia with Connie and set out after Roy. It would be quite something to be out on the trail again with his old friend. “Another time,” he spoke to the distant ridge, and then stepped down off the porch and started for the barn to retrieve the meat his wife requested and find out a little more about his gamin little hostess.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2007 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Spanking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.