by Joannie Kay
The redhead gasped in outrage, and in the next instant the palm of her hand cracked across his left cheek. “I am no’ a liar, Seth Masterson!”
Seth’s hand went to his cheek, and for one brief instant he indulged in the fantasy of turning the redhead over his knee, tossing up her skirts, and putting his hand to her cheeks!
“I hope that hurt!” she declared.
“It does,” Seth replied. “A lot. And you can thank your lucky stars that you are a woman and not a man.”
“Exactly what I would expect from the likes o’ ye!”
“Seth, if you didn’t intend to wed this young woman, then why did you ask her here?”
“Preacher, I did not ask this woman to come here!” Seth maintained his innocence.
“I’ve seen the letters you wrote to her, young man. You clearly asked Bridget to marry you. She traveled all the way here from Boston, by herself, just to marry you.”
“Ma’am, I didn’t write any letters.”
“No? And, I suppose you have no’ seen these before?” Bridget drew a packet of letters from her handbag and shoved them at Seth.
He gave her a puzzled look, but took them, and looked at the return address on the top one before opening it to read:
Dear Miss O’Grady,
It was a great pleasure to receive your letter in reply to my inquiry for a wife. You asked me to
Tell you about myself, so I will. I am a widower, thirty years of age. I have two daughters, Sally, age ten,
and Susie, age nine. We live on a small ranch.
Seth opened the next one, and kept right on reading until he reached the letter asking Miss O’Grady, or ‘dearest Bridget’, to marry him. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he looked Heavenward, begging God for patience. Then he opened his mouth and yelled, “Sally, Susie! Come here right this instant, and unless you want me to switch you daily for the next month, do NOT pretend you can’t hear me!”
Bridget was surprised when the two little girls came out of their hiding place behind the huge cupboard in the corner of the parlor area of the house. They walked over to stand in front of their angry parent, their heads bowed. Her heart went out to them, and she vowed that she was not going to permit the big man to take a switch to the little darlings. They were precious with their braided blonde hair and big blue eyes.
“Girls, what do you know of these letters?” Seth’s voice was surprisingly gentle when he spoke to his daughters, much to Bridget’s relief.
“We wrote them, Papa,” Susie admitted, her voice very small.
“Miss O’Grady is the nicest of them all, Papa!” Sally told him.
“Yes, she is. And she is very pretty, too!” Susie added. “She likes little girls, and Sally and I want a new Mama!”
“We loved our Mama, but she’s gone to be with God, and we need another one. Besides, Preacher Trimbull says you aren’t being natural, and that is just terrible, Papa!”
Susie agreed with her sister. “That mean ole Miss Nixon has set her cap for you, and we don’t like her at all! So, we decided to be helpful.”
“Please don’t be mad, Papa. We wanted to tell you, but you wouldn’t go to town today when we asked,” Sally explained.
“Miss O’Grady, we think you’d be a good wife for our Papa. Won’t you please stay and marry him and be our Mama?” Susie pleaded with her, and Bridget’s heart went out to the child.
“Darlin’, it’s no’ for ye to do the askin’,” she said as gently as possible, her Irish lilt all the more pronounced.
“Please stay,” Sally added.
“Girls, that is more than enough. You both are in big trouble, and I want you to go outside to the woodshed and wait for me.”
“Papa! Noooo!” Sally wailed, already crying. Susie just grabbed her hand, whispered in her ear, and then hurried her out the back door.
“Do no’ whip them!” Bridget pleaded with him, her green eyes beseeching him to be merciful.
“They did something wrong, Miss O’Grady, and I have to be their father and punish them. It is my duty.”
“But…”
“That is enough, child,” Preacher Trimbull spoke gently, but firmly. “Seth is quite right to discipline his children when they do wrong, and bringing you across the country on false promises is very wrong.”
“If I am no’ upset with them, then why should he be?” Bridget demanded, her temper flaring once again.
“What do you intend to do about this situation, Seth?” Mrs. Trimbull spoke up.
“Do?”
“Seth, this young woman traveled a long way to marry you, and she has no way to support herself. I know you personally didn’t write those letters, but you are the girls’ father, and responsibility falls on your shoulders. I’m positive that Judge Murray would see it this way, too.” The Sheriff looked grim.
“’Tis no’ his fault, Sheriff!” Bridget spoke up. Her cheeks were tinged with embarrassment, but it was because she was absolutely broke and she had no way of paying her fare to get back home. As it was, she’d skimped on meals to make the trip. She didn’t want to be beholden to the man, however.
“Zebulon, I insist you must do something. Seth has no wife, and dear Bridget has traveled this far in good faith. I think there should be a wedding right here and now.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Mrs. Trimbull. I can’t marry this woman!”
“Why not?” the Preacher demanded. “It is not natural for a man to be alone. Your Catherine left us over three years ago, young man. It is time to put grieving aside and marry again. If not for yourself, for those little girls of yours who are growing up motherless! They need a woman’s gentle care and nurturing. Catherine would expect you to provide this for them,” he argued.
“I will no’ have the mon shamed into marryin’ me!” Bridget argued.
“You are tired, Miss O’Grady, and not thinking clearly. If your own Pa were here, he would insist you marry this man, and you know it. It doesn’t matter who wrote the letters; if God didn’t have this in His Divine Plan, then you wouldn’t have made the trip. He saw you safely here, and if Seth is the man I think him to be, he will do the honorable thing and offer you a home here with him and his daughters.”
“I can see this has caught you unawares, Seth, but the law will agree with the Preacher. Miss O’Grady is entitled to your name, or enough money to support her here, or enough money to pay her passage home.”
Seth felt trapped. He couldn’t afford to pay for one night’s lodging at the hotel, much less the redhead’s tickets home to Boston! He knew that Mrs. Trimbull was right when she said there was no honorable employment for a woman in town… and it was his responsibility to pay for his daughters’ wrongdoing. Bridget O’Grady was the innocent victim in all of this, and at least she wasn’t wailing and shredding a handkerchief in her hands and bemoaning the situation. But, there was his Catherine; his precious wife. The woman he still loved. Would she understand? What would she expect him to do? What would he want to happen if it was one of his girls standing here with no money at all, the innocent party to mischief…? “I cannot afford your passage home, Miss. I can’t put you up at the hotel, either. The only thing left to do is offer you my name.”
“Oh, I knew that you would be sensible, Seth!” Mrs. Trimbull clapped her hands happily.
“I’ll no’ marry you, Mr. Masterson!” Bridget’s pride insisted it be heard. Of course, it was at that moment that her stomach growled hungrily, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten a bite since yesterday morning.
“Of course you’ll marry Seth, my dear child. He is a good man, and Sally and Susie are wonderful little girls.” She still didn’t look convinced and the Preacher looked to Seth for help in convincing her.
“I don’t know what all my girls wrote to you, Miss, but I am a hard-working man. I try to do right by others. I go to church on Sundays. I pay my bills, and I try to be decent in my speech and appearance. I’m not a drinking man, and I never gamble. What I would expect
from you is that you be a good mother to my girls… teaching them to cook and sew, and how to conduct themselves as ladies should. We work a garden in order to eat, and I can’t abide a messy house. I won’t beat you with my fists, but I’ll flip you over my knee if I deem it necessary. I don’t have money to throw away on unnecessary things, but I will try to provide for needs and a few wants if I can. The choice is yours, Miss O’Grady. If you leave now, I’ll not make the offer again.”
Bridget could feel all their eyes upon her, and it didn’t sit well with her to know she had no real choice in the matter. She had no money, no job, and if Mrs. Trimbull was to be believed, a respectable woman couldn’t find a job anywhere in Lake Valley. Bridget could sew, but not fast enough to make a living at it, and she absolutely, positively refused to take in wash. “I’ll no’ be cussed at!” she warned.
“I don’t do that,” he reassured her, a sinking feeling in his stomach that he was about to be wed.
*****
“I really wish you would stop sniffling, Sally,” Susie begged of her. “I will tell Papa it was all my idea, and I’ll take the spanking.”
“It won’t make a difference, Susie,” Sally predicted. “Papa is so angry, and we are both going to be sleeping on our tummies tonight.”
“You sleep on your tummy every night!” Susie reminded her, then grinned, and finally laughed when Sally glared at her in disgust.
“I can’t believe you’re laughing, Susie Masterson. We’re going to get a spanking! Don’t you care?”
“I knew it would mean a spanking when we posted that advertisement in the paper, didn’t you?” She couldn’t believe that her sister was so naïve. She simply had to know that their Papa would punish them for what he would call a form of lying.
“No!” Sally denied. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have helped you!”
“I think it will be worth a spanking if Papa is happy with Miss O’Grady. Isn’t she pretty?” she asked.
Sally nodded. “Her eyes are beautiful. I wonder if she can bake cakes and pies?”
“I hope so. It would be nice to have something besides the cookies you make for us.”
“Don’t you like them?” Sally asked, pouting.
“They’re great, but I would like something else once in a while, too. If we even knew one more recipe, it would be worth a spanking!”
“I don’t want a spanking!” Sally insisted.
“But, you want a new Mama, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Sometimes you just have to do something drastic to get what you want, sister. I think that Miss O’Grady will be worth a hot bottom.” Susie jumped off the wooden stump that their Papa used to chop kindling for the stove… and where he sat to dole out a sound spanking! “I hear something,” she announced, and she scampered up the woodpile to look out the window to see what was happening. “Preacher and Mrs. Trimbull are getting into their buggy, and the Sheriff is helping Papa carry in a trunk. Do you think Miss O’Grady is staying?” Susie whispered. “Oh, yes, she is staying! The Sheriff is on his horse, and he’s following Preacher. Miss O’Grady is talking to Papa, but I think they are arguing! That is not good!”
*****
“We’ve only been married for three minutes and you are telling me what I can and cannot do?” Seth was not happy, and his red face warned Bridget she was fast crossing a line.
“This concerns me, too!” she said, turning up her chin. “I do no’ want the girls to hate me!”
“What they did was wrong, Bridget. They earned a spanking.”
“I will no’ let you do it!” She ran to block the door when he headed toward it.
“Bridget, I am beginning to think the girls aren’t the only one who need a lesson.” Seth rarely ever had to raise a hand to Catherine, and he couldn’t picture her behaving in this manner! She might not like it when he felt a spanking was in order for one or both of the girls, but she would never stand in front of the door with her arms open wide, doing her best to keep him from going outside!
“’Twould be better me than the poor wee dears!” she snapped at him. Her brave words made him shake his head, and then he reached out and easily lifted her from the doorway and put her down behind him. He headed outside and walked toward the woodshed, cautioning himself to calm down and remember to ask the girls to explain themselves. He knew he needed to be patient with them, and not frighten them. It was one thing to spank when it was warranted, but making them fear him was not something he would ever do.
Bridget was desperate to protect her new stepdaughters from their father’s wrath. Yes, what they did was wrong, but she did not feel it was right to spank them and make them resent her before she had a chance to talk with them! “You will listen to me, Seth Masterson!” She ran to stand in front of him once more. “I do no’ want them to hate me!” He stopped his walk to look down at her once more. “They will blame me if you whip them, and I may never get to be friends with the both of them! I deserve a fair chance, at the very least!”
“Bridget, the girls won’t hate you. They know that they did wrong, and frankly, you aren’t helping matters any by behaving like an undisciplined child yourself. Now, settle down.” He heard her stomach rumble again. “Go and eat something before you faint,” he said, his voice firm.
“I’ll no’ stand aside and let you whip them, Seth!” Bridget stomped her foot angrily.
Seth was out of patience. He picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder, and marched to the woodshed in long strides. He carried her inside, still squawking, and set her on her feet. Seth took a seat on the stump and then looked at his girls. Bridget was trying her best to hide them behind her, and if he wasn’t so aggravated, Seth probably would have found it funny. “Talk to me Sally and Susie. How did you get this idea?”
“It was all my idea, Papa, so you should excuse Sally,” Susie said, doing her very best to keep her promise to her older sister.
Seth knew that Susie was trying to protect Sally, but he wasn’t about to let her do it. He was well aware that his older daughter had a very low pain tolerance. She hated to be spanked, but unfortunately, she’d crossed a line. “Did you know about this from the beginning, Sally?” he asked, his tone of voice gentle.
“Yes, Papa!” she admitted.
“It’s good that you told me the truth, honey. I know how hard that was to do.” He listened as the girls explained everything, including their reasons for advertising for a wife for him. They wanted a mother. “I wish you would have come to me and discussed everything before you mailed that advertisement to the paper.”
“You would have said ‘no’, Papa.” Susie knew him well. “Besides, isn’t Miss O’Grady pretty?”
“She is very pretty,” Seth agreed, then said quietly, “Miss O’Grady is now my wife. We had no choice but to marry. Girls, you put both of us in a serious predicament. I couldn’t afford to rent a room for Bridget to live in, and I couldn’t afford to pay her way back to Boston. She wouldn’t be able to find a decent job here, and she had no money to get home on. We married each other out of convenience. Do either of you think that was fair to Bridget… or to me…?” he asked.
Bridget felt bad for the girls, but had to admit that Seth was not behaving in the way she expected he would. He was doing his very best to help the girls realize that what they did was wrong, and more importantly, why it was wrong. They were both feeling contrite, and the apologies they offered were sincere.
Chapter Three
“You are a good Da,” Bridget said, doing her best to blink away the tears filling her eyes as the girls were sent to the house and upstairs to the loft to nap until it was time for supper.
“I’m glad I have your approval,” Seth replied, his dark eyes making her very uneasy. “Now we’ll see if you feel the same way once I’ve dealt with your behavior.”
“My behavior?” Bridget repeated. “I do no’ know what you mean?” she said as innocently as she could.
“That was a mistake, Bridget. Th
at was the proper place to say ‘sorry’ if you wanted to avoid a hot bottom.” Seth enjoyed the look of dismay on her face.
“Okay. Ye are right. I was in the wrong to try and stop you from taking the wee girls to task. ‘Tis just that I know me own Da well… Ye were gentle and ye listened to them and ye hugged them. Himself was harsh,” she admitted.
“So, you feared I would hurt the girls?” Seth asked, comprehending what she was telling him. “Did your father beat you?”
“No’ me so much as me older sisters and me Mam,” she admitted. “It always frightened me so.”
“I’ve another question for you, Bridget. Why is it that you couldn’t tell that children wrote those letters to you?” Seth had been asking himself that since he saw the letters.
“Ye think me a fool, do no’ deny it,” she whispered, blushing again.
“No, not a fool. But you certainly accepted the girls’ invitation to come out here rather quickly.”
“’Tis no’ what ye think.”
Her face was really red right now, and Seth decided to drop the subject. It was time to deal her a lesson. “Why are you going over my knee, Bridget?” he asked.
She gasped, her green eyes wide with dismay! “I did no’ do anythin’ to earn a spankin’!”
“You overstepped your bounds, Bridget. Trying to tell me what I could and couldn’t do within the first few minutes of becoming my wife. You gave me your temper, and you tried to physically stop me from being a father to my daughters. I won’t have that, Bridget, and since I warned you to stop and you didn’t… well, you earned yourself a spanking.”
“We do no’ know each other well enough for that, Seth!” Bridget was well and truly shocked at the very idea of submitting to a spanking. “Please, I am sorry. I will try to do better.”
She appeared frightened of him, and Seth didn’t want that. He made a decision he hoped he wouldn’t regret. “This one time I will let you off, but if I see that temper of yours aimed at me again anytime soon, you’ll get a spanking to remember… and I am a man of my word, Bridget.”
Bridget nodded, feeling as though she narrowly dodged a bullet. Seth stood up and offered her his hand. “I’ll show you around, Bridget. The sooner you settle in, the better for us all. I know that we’ll need some time to get used to each other’s ways, and I expect you to come to me and discuss anything that upsets you. Notice, I said discuss, not argue. Also, if you have any issues with my girls, I want to know about it right away. Is that clear?”