Ruby turned to Ben when he snorted out a “Yeah right.”
“No,” Win said. “I’m sure it’s nothing bad. But whatever it is, it’s something you think you have to lie about. That concerns us.”
“And you want me to be the first to break the code of silence, is that it?”
“It would be nice,” Ben said. “We’d like to know what’s up.”
“Sorry, I don’t know anything.”
“Liar.” There was humor in Win’s voice. “You know everything, you all do. Give it up, Ruby, ease our worry.”
“I’m sorry, guys, but there’s nothing to tell. As far as I know, Vanessa and Harmony went to Denver to shop.”
“Without asking for money,” Win said. “Or telling us. Sorry, but neither of us believe that.”
The horses plodded along, and the three rode in silence. Finally, Ruby said. “I’m sorry you don’t believe us. They really are shopping.”
“For what?” Ben pulled his horse to a stop and the others pulled up and turned back toward him. “Harmony wouldn’t go to town without asking me for money, I know she wouldn’t. She always asks for money when she goes shopping. Sometimes I don’t think the amount I give her matches what she spends, but…”
“Oh my,” Win said. “We never thought of that. If we give them money to shop, and they’re not spending it, they’re saving it. Have you ladies been hoarding money to buy something big? What are they buying?”
“Ladies’ things. That’s what we do on shopping trips.” She edged her horse around Ben and took off at a gallop, ignoring his calls to hold up. She didn’t hear them tearing after her, but she urged Sissy to go faster just the same. They were getting too close to the truth, and she didn’t want to be the one to spoil everything.
When she was back in town, she bypassed the newspaper office and went directly to the stables. Once there, she dismounted and gave her horse’s reins to the stable hand, her nephew Anthony, Dawn and Rob’s son.
“Thanks, little Tony.”
“Aunt Ruby, I hate it when you call me that.”
“I know.” She ruffled his hair and he pushed her hand away.
“Quit.” He looked around to see if his co-workers had noticed, then leaned toward her. “Uncle Corbin’s looking for you.”
Her eyes widened. “He is?”
“Yup. He was here about ten minutes ago, to see if you’d come back. And he asked me the strangest question.”
“What was that?”
“He asked me to notice if you had a book with you when you came back.”
Ruby tried not to look nervous, but she could tell from the look on Tony’s face that she’d failed. “It’s nothing, don’t worry.” She couldn’t ask her nephew to lie and tell his uncle that yes, she had a book with her. It was tempting, but she would never do that.
“So, do you have a book?”
“No. But he won’t put you on the spot, I’ll tell him.”
“Okay.” Tony looked uncertain, then hugged her and led her horse into the stables.
Ruby knew there was nothing for it but to go to the newspaper office and confess to her husband that she’d just gone on a made-up errand in an effort to keep his brothers from finding out the truth about where their wives had gone.
When she got there she found it closed, which puzzled her. It was the middle of the afternoon, and Corbin never closed that early. There was a sign on the door, though and she stepped closer to read it.
“It says I’m across the street, at the general store if someone needs to send a telegram, or conduct any other business.” She jumped at the sound of Corbin’s voice and turned to him.
“Hi.”
He gave her the smile that she loved, the one that made her body shiver with desire. “Hi, baby, no book?”
“No, no book. I lied.”
“I know, and I’m very happy that you decided to tell me the truth. That doesn’t change the fact that you lied, though, and that we’re going inside now so I can spank you.”
She took a step toward him. “Corbin, couldn’t you overlook this transgression, just this once?”
“No.” He pulled her close and gave her a kiss. Even after almost thirteen years of marriage they still loved each other very much, a fact that she adored. But she wasn’t too fond of the spanking aspect of their relationship, not in the discipline sense, that is. She loved it when they were making love, loved the intensity of it. But she didn’t like being spanked because she’d been bad. Even when she knew she deserved it, like she did right now.
He walked around her and unlocked the door, opening it for the both of them and ushering her inside. He locked it behind him, then pointed toward the back.
“You know where to go.”
“Yes.” And she did. Before they were married, Corbin had spanked her quite a bit in the back of the offices, in the rooms where he lived. They kept them now, even though they had a huge house. Sometimes they would use them for privacy, like now. Ruby started back toward them, knowing she wouldn’t enjoy this visit near as much as she’d enjoyed the one they had just last week, where they’d closed up shop and made love, then lay there for an hour, holding each other and talking.
She walked into the back room and stopped, turning toward him. “So, this is going to be hard, isn’t it?”
“No, not since you fessed up. You’re still going to get spanked, just not as hard as I’d planned. You should be glad you told me the truth.”
“Oh, I am. If it’s going to save my behind, you can be sure I’m thrilled I told you the truth. Doubly sure of it.”
“That’s a good thing to hear. Now, you know the position I like you in when I spank you when you’re wearing pants. Get into that position. Then drop those britches. You know I want a bare bottom.”
Ruby walked to the back wall. The area there was bare, except for a small chair in the corner. She stood near the wall and undid her pants, dropping them and her bloomers down to her ankles. Then she put her hands against the wall and walked backwards until she was bent over.
“Very good. Should I use my belt, or my hand?”
“Hand.” She inhaled sharply.
“I think belt.”
“No.” She stood and turned toward him. “You said you’d go easy, since I told you the truth when I came back. Please, Corbin.”
“Yes, I did. But ten swats with the belt will leave an impression on you not to lie to me anymore.”
“This is not fair. Ten?”
“Would you like to go for fifteen?”
“No!” She lowered her gaze to where he was unbuckling his belt. “Corbin, please.”
“Fifteen. Stop arguing with me and turn back around.”
She thought about arguing, and then decided it would do nothing but get her more swats. So she turned around and got into the same position, holding her breath while she waited for the first strike. Maybe he would be nice and make it quick. She hoped so. There was nothing she hated more than a drawn out spanking.
Sometimes he did that, though, to reinforce his point about her misbehavior. When the first strike didn’t come immediately, she knew that’s exactly what was happening.
“Corbin, please, can we just get it over with?”
“No. Just hush and wait.”
Ruby hated this almost as much as she hated standing in the corner after a spanking. The waiting was horrible. If he would just spank her now she could handle it. But waiting was awful.
After a few minutes she stomped her foot. “Corbin!”
“If you’re not careful, I’ll take it up to twenty. Do you want that?”
“No.”
“Then you be quiet and wait. You know the rule.”
Oh, yes, she did. Spankings were on Corbin’s terms. They’d agreed upon it when they married, and she’d never said anything about them since then, although doing so now seemed like a good time.
She opened her mouth, and then shut it again. Best not to bring this up while he had the belt in his hand. Plus,
she knew this part of their relationship was not negotiable.
When he touched the leather to her behind it was just a tap, and she knew that one wouldn’t count. Another soft tap landed, and then another. And then there was a harsh slap, the sound of the leather hitting her behind echoing in the mostly empty room.
“Ouch.” She inhaled sharply when a second slap landed.
“You lied to me.” A third and fourth came one on top of the other.
“Corbin, I’m sorry. Ow!” Five, six and seven were hard, and she’d barely recovered her breath when eight and nine came. Then, he gently rubbed the leather against her burning bottom.
“You know, if you’d been a good girl, this would be the last one, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes, Corbin.” He continued to rub her, and then suddenly he struck again, the strike harder than all the others.
She inhaled sharply as he rubbed the leather against her bottom again. The hard part about having her hands against the wall was not being able to grab anything, to try and take the edge off the spanking. Sometimes grabbing something took her mind off her bottom.
“Five more.” His voice was deep.
“Yes.”
“Will you lie to me again?”
“No.”
“Will you tell me why the ladies are in Denver?”
“No.” She sucked in her breath as the leather moved away from her behind, and then came back, in an almost gentle caress.
“Fine, I guess I can respect that. Are you ready for five more?”
“No.”
“Fine, we’ll make it ten.”
And he started to spank her again, the leather coming down hard on her tender flesh. He passed five, went to six and she bit her lip. There was no sense arguing with him. He was going to do what he wanted, what he felt needed to be done to punish her for lying to him.
She knew it’d been wrong, but she felt like it had to be done. When he reached ten, he caressed her bottom again.
“Corner.” She obeyed the command instantly, knowing if she didn’t the belt would meet her behind again, and who knew when the spanking would stop.
When she stood in the corner, her pants still around her ankles, he came up and caressed her hip. “You stay here until I get back. Then we’ll discuss your lying to me, and I might add to the spanking. Understand?”
“Yes.” He walked out and she knew better than to disobey him. She would wait as long as he said. And hopefully the spanking was over.
Chapter 3
Win sat behind his desk and stared at the papers in front of him. Ben stood behind him, looking over his shoulder.
“Okay,” Ben said, crossing to the other side and sitting down. “Let’s run it through one more time. Vanessa took four hundred dollars from her savings account yesterday. Sarah, who gets paid for her store work and puts it in a savings account, took out four hundred dollars two days ago. Ruby, who has money from when her father passed away, did the same, but it was last week. Dawn, who has money from when she sold her land, did the same thing. And Harmony, who doesn’t have money from anyone, has obviously been taking the money I give her to shop with and keeping it in a savings account, which she closed out yesterday. The amount, a little more than four hundred dollars.”
“Put it all together and you’ve got two grand,” Win said. “What are they doing with that much money?”
“Buying out every clothing store in Denver,” Ben said.
“Opening their own clothing store, here?” Win sat forward. “Do you think?”
“No, they wouldn’t do that. Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know, maybe they’re bored with being housewives.”
“Two of them have jobs outside the house anyway,” Ben replied. “You remember, Sarah works for the store, and Ruby works for the newspaper. Then, Dawn has all those kids to take care of, as does your wife. Plus, being wife to the town banker keeps her busy going to parties and such. And Harmony is happy taking care of our son. At least I hope she is.”
“I’m sure she is. Don’t get paranoid. I just thought it might be a down payment on something like that, and they went to someone in Denver to get the rest of the money. Although, if they did I would be angry. I would hope my own wife would come to me with an idea about opening a new business.”
“Something’s up. Something big.”
“Yeah, I agree. I have to admit that when you came in here today I thought you were just being paranoid. I guess I should learn to trust your instincts, little brother.”
“Yes, you should. It’s why I’m the sheriff, and have been for quite some time now.”
“Do you think they’ll lie?”
“Absolutely.” Ben put his feet on the desk. “The question is, do we push it, or do we let it slide and see what unfolds?”
Win stared at the paperwork on his desk. “We’re going to have to spank them today. No doubt about it. But I say we don’t mention the money. We’ll let them stew for a while, trying to figure out what we know, and don’t know. Then, later this week, we have a dinner at my house, and confront them with it.”
“I agree. You can’t keep things like this from one partner. Harmony knows everything about our finances, and about our marriage. For her to leave me out of whatever’s going on really bothers me.”
“You know what bothers me,” Win said, looking out the window. “I have to wonder how many times Vanessa has gone off without telling me. I’m here at the bank, thinking she’s at home, or at a tea party or some such thing. What if she’s been in Denver?”
“I don’t think so,” Ben replied. “I think this is a one shot thing that deals with the money, and we’re just lucky we found out. We weren’t meant to know.”
“You’re right about that. Look at the way the other ladies have been scrambling around, wondering how to cover for them and still keep secret whatever it is they’re keeping secret.
“You mean doing a damn good job of keeping secret,” Ben said with a laugh.
A tap at the door drew both their attentions. “Your nephew is here with your carriage.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Hughes. I won’t be back the rest of the day.”
“Yes, sir.” The older woman left and Win cleared his desk, then locked his office after they’d walked out.
Once in the carriage they set off down the road to Denver. After ten miles outside of town the found a nice shady spot near a large copse of trees and pulled up under it. Ben unhitched the horses and let them graze nearby. The two of them went into the trees to make preparations for their wives’ arrival, and then sat back in the carriage and waited.
“Picking them up out here will catch them off guard,” Ben said. “Maybe they’ll spill the beans.
“Let’s hope so. But, I kinda doubt it.”
* * *
“We should have bought something,” Harmony said with a laugh. “That way we could at least come back with packages.”
“Nonsense,” Vanessa replied. “They don’t even know we’re going. Everything’s going according to plan. By this time Friday the big surprise will arrive, and the men will be ecstatic.”
“We’ll probably get spanked for doing it, though.” Harmony whispered in her ear.
“It will be the good kind,” Vanessa replied. “They’re going to be thrilled, trust me.”
“I know they will be. I’m just worried about keeping the secret. I’m so excited.”
“Me too,” Vanessa said with a laugh. “It’s almost like Christmas in April.”
She sat back and looked out the window, a huge smile on her face. “When we go back on Friday, we’ll buy all those wonderful accessories I saw in the shop. I didn’t want to write a bank draft for them and have the chance of Win seeing it. I want this to be a total surprise.”
Their laughter filled the stage, and when the vehicle started to slow down, both of them grew tense.
“Bandits?” Harmony clutched her sister-in-law’s hand.
“I don’t think so,” Vanessa
said, looking out. “Has Ben said anything to you about bandits in the area?”
“No, nothing.”
The stage came to a complete stop and they grasped each other’s hands. The couple sitting across from them seemed nervous, although the man not as much. He had his hand on the butt of his gun.
“Don’t worry ladies, I’ll protect you.”
When the driver yelled out a happy greeting, everyone relaxed. “You having problems today, sheriff?”
Harmony’s shoulders stiffened, then she turned a horrified glance on Vanessa, who returned it.
“Ben.”
“Who?” The man looked at her in confusion.
“It’s my husband, the sheriff.”
“Well, then everything’s all right,” the woman said happily. “Nothing could be wrong if the sheriff’s here.”
The door to the stage open and Ben stuck his head inside. “How y’all doing today? Don’t mean to startle you. My brother and I are just here to collect our wives, take them on a little late afternoon picnic.”
He stuck out his hand. “Hello, darling. I hope you had a nice trip.”
“Hello, Ben. Yes, we did.” Harmony took his hand and he helped her down. Seconds later Win replaced him in the doorway, holding his hand out for Vanessa. He winked at her and she laughed, and then took his hand without saying anything.
They stood outside the stage, the ladies straightening out their skirts, the men talking with the driver. Vanessa and Harmony exchanged glances, but before they could say anything, Ben turned to them.
“No packages? You went to Denver and didn’t buy anything?”
“No,” Vanessa said, stepping forward. “We just window shopped.”
“Since when have you ever just window shopped?” Win laughed as he handed the driver some bills. The man pocketed the money and climbed back up on his perch. Seconds later the stage started to roll again and Win turned to his wife. “You’ve never in all our married life turned down an opportunity to buy something new. Never.”
“How did you know we were gone?” Vanessa crossed her arms over her chest.
Heart and Home: The MacAllister Brothers Page 38