by Piper Stone
“But this is Little Barty we’re talking about! Are we really going to let him ruin our vacation and Christmas?”
“Last time I looked, the guy who makes security decisions around here is the same guy that says who gets spanked and when. Am I wrong? Am I going to have to fight you and Barty too?”
“No, you’re not wrong. I’m sorry. I won’t make things harder for you.” Jenny turned to cuddle into his side. “We could still have fun. A little simple celebration wouldn’t hurt, would it? I could cook and make ornaments and cobble together some kind of holiday, couldn’t I? That wouldn’t be risky.”
“I don’t see why not. A few Christmas cookies wouldn’t go amiss.”
Jenny sounded as if she were getting into the spirit of the thing. “The pioneers did just fine without internet access. I’ll get Juan to run me over to Dallas to a craft store.”
“The pioneers had to do without craft stores too. You’re not to leave this ranch, remember?”
“Not even with Juan? And a chase car, if we must.”
“Not even with anything. It’s not worth the risk.”
“I guess it wouldn’t be fair to Juan.”
“Or to your backside. If you set one foot outside this house, so help me…”
“All right, all right. Old West rules it is. It won’t be easy, but I can take it.”
“In a two million dollar ranch with umpteen bedrooms and a gourmet kitchen? I’m sure you’ll find a way to tough it out.”
Jenny laughed. “When you put it that way… Okay, I guess this could be a lot more fun than I first thought, but you have to admit, pioneer days had their drawbacks.”
“This will be more like an early John Wayne movie. Not the gritty nineteen seventies dramas, but the ones he made in the early fifties.”
“Where all the clothes were clean and bright, and everybody looked happy, healthy and comfortable all the time?” Jenny asked.
Jeep drew Jenny more tightly to him. “Except for during the barroom brawls where nobody seemed to get hurt. Yeah, those are the ones.”
“I do love those old movies, but I could do without the bad guy in the black hat. That’s where you come in. You can ride into town, round up a posse and save the day. You will, won’t you?”
“It’ll be my pleasure, partner.” Jeep’s John Wayne imitation was horrible, but Jenny laughed anyway. “The Duke really knew how to clean up the town and take wayward girls in hand. I could demonstrate…”
“I’ve already seen your audition for that role, thanks.” Jenny rubbed her bottom.
Jeep had just turned his more pleasurable attentions to the area in question, when a slight tapping on the door was interrupted by a loud banging. Several voices spoke at once.
“Sir, I’m so sorry, but there seems to be…” That was Juan, sounding confused and concerned.
A female voice came next. “Jenny, guess what! Mr. Tobin sent us here on his private plane.” That was Lacey, Jenny’s best friend from college. As long as she hadn’t brought her husband, Frenchy, there might still be some possible way to salvage this situation.
“Lacey, my darling, come away from that door! They might be indisposed.” Oh, well. There went the neighborhood. That was Frenchy, all right. At least he was trying to help.
Jeep knew it was a lost cause when he heard the next speaker. “If they’re indisposed, maybe they need a nurse.”
“Tay?” Jenny wiggled free and jumped up. “Is that you?”
“With ice packs at the ready! That’s enough Jeep. I’m sure she’s paid for whatever crimes you imagine she’s committed.” Tay’s giggle was contagious.
Jenny laughingly threw on her robe and opened the door.
Tay waltzed in as if she had been invited. “We couldn’t let you spend Christmas alone.”
“What about your kids?” Jenny demanded. “They’re not here, are they?”
Tay shook her head. “Are you kidding? We couldn’t drag them away from their cousins even if I wanted to. They’ll hardly notice we’re gone and my sister is glad to have them for a while.”
Jenny hugged Tay, excitement pouring out of her in surging waves.
Jeep could practically hear the gears of her mind spinning with plans and plots.
“Wonderful! Go get settled in while I get dressed. We’ve got so much to do.”
“Just make sure you explain the rules to her and remember them yourself!” Jeep warned them both.
Tay was already tripping down the hallway towards a waiting Juan. “I had a plane load of thugs all drilling the rules into my head all the way down here. Lacey and I can recite them by heart backwards with a mouth full of marbles.”
Lacey leaned out of her doorway across the hall. “She’s right, you know, Jeep. It’s not that hard. Why would we even—”
Before Jenny could elaborate further, Pepper pelted down the hallway, on his feet for once, more or less like a normal person.
Jeep hardly had time to wonder what was wrong as Pepper scooped up Tay with a whoosh and spun her in the air so that she landed over his shoulder, still facing the same direction he was. “Pardon us, please.”
“Hello to you too,” Tay said, bracing herself against his chest.
“You notice she doesn’t even bother to ask him to put her down,” Jeep noted to Jenny. “She knows it won’t do any good.”
The pair disappeared into a room down the hall.
Calling everyone’s attention back to himself, Frenchy put a hand out, palm up. “Cell phone, please.”
“It’s on airplane mode. No internet or calls,” Lacey objected from her position just inside her door.
Frenchy scowled down at her. “Now, my dear. I’ll keep all the cell phones for you and the other ladies, just to reduce the temptation.” Lacey dropped her phone into his waiting hand. He followed Tay down the hall and waited outside her door. “Your turn, my dear. Your phone if you please?” There were sounds of a scuffle, then Pepper’s arm shot out of the door and deposited a slim pink phone into Frenchy’s hand.
From behind the closing door, Pepper could be heard to say, “I haven’t seen my wife in two weeks. You’ll understand if we need some time alone.”
Jeep chuckled as he closed the door behind himself so Jenny could get dressed. “I don’t see why he should get out of the human traffic jam that is also known as Tob’s house.”
Frenchy clapped Jeep on the shoulder as high as his lithe frame would allow him to reach. He wasn’t by any means diminutive, but compared to Jeep, most people were short. “Let’s go lock these up in Tob’s safe.”
The post-modern extravagance of Tobin’s décor had been turned into a hodge-podge of homemade Christmas themed kitsch that would have made his interior designer faint on the spot. Every recessed shelf, statue nook, and marble mantel displayed red this, green that, or gold the other.
“I like tinsel,” Jenny had declared early on in the proceedings. The first day of the Invasion of the Elves, as Jeep called it, they had shared in the preparation and enjoyment of a hearty breakfast followed by a day of planning. The three ladies had closeted themselves away, assuming that the men could keep themselves occupied with whatever threat they imagined was happening. Jenny applied herself to her self-appointed task of transforming the house into a Polar wonderland.
They had cut strips of tin foil to make icicles to hang from all the horizontal surfaces, colored paper with pens found in the various studies and libraries around the house, and glued together tongue depressors from the first aid kits to make manger scenes.
Lupita had jumped right in as well, making salt dough for the ladies to roll, shape and bake, and cleaning up the kitchen non-stop to ease their baking marathon. In four days, they had laughed their way through every room in the house, making it as festive as possible.
It was during the cleanup phase that Jenny brought up a sore subject once more. “It’s time we got serious, girls. Who’s with me?”
Tay spoke first. “Not this again. Jenny, there is no way
…”
Lacey put down the paper chain she was gluing together. “Of course, Jenny’s right. We have to have presents.”
“Homemade ones are the best,” Tay reminded them. She loved Jenny dearly, but there were times when she wondered why.
“We don’t have time to make gifts,” Jenny said. “We’ve spent all day every day since you got here on the decorations and the food. What could it hurt if we go with my plan?”
“For one thing, I haven’t ridden a horse in years,” Tay pointed out. She knew Jenny hadn’t either, and Jenny was some years her senior. Lacey had to be at least Jenny’s age. What were they thinking?
“What could be so hard?” Jenny asked. “You climb up there and sit. It’s the horse that does all the work.”
Lacey nodded. “And it will be perfectly safe. If we get caught, the men will have to agree that we took every precaution. We’ll be heading away from the big town. The roads might not be safe, but nobody will be looking for us out in the wilderness.”
“You might hope they do come looking,” Tay objected. “What if you get lost? Then the thugs will have to come rescue you.”
“How hard can it be?” Jenny repeated. “We’ll just turn on my phone every once in a while to make sure we’re on course.”
“You’re still intent on stealing your phone out of the safe?” Tay demanded.
“It’s not stealing. It’s my phone.” Jenny pushed away from the table. “I know you’re not coming with us, but you’re not going to turn us in, are you, Tay?”
“Of course not. I would never!” Tay shook her head at them. “I just wish you’d reconsider.”
Lacey joined Jenny at the door. “Oh, quit fretting! We’ll be back before you know it.”
“I just hope you’re back before the guys know it.” Tay found it hard to concentrate after her friends had made their exit. She wished she could have convinced them not to go. It was foolish and dangerous. On the one hand, they might get spotted by a drone. The guys had boosted the electronic perimeter so that it was tight enough to knock anything out of the sky that might try to fly over, but if their husbands caught them, they might prefer to take their chances with Little Barty. If only they would get back, she mused.
And suddenly, there they were, but not just them. Jenny and Lacey were being frog-marched into the house by two stoic thugs. Tay ran out into the hallway, trailing her paper chain. “Wait! What happened?”
“We caught them on the way to the stable, ma’am,” answered one of the guards. Releasing his hold on Jenny’s arm, he gave her a stern look. “Best not try anything like that again. I’ll get demoted and my squad will have to run laps for a month if I let you get by me a second time.”
“But I didn’t get by you,” Jenny answered sourly. “That’s why I’m here. If you could just look the other way for a few minutes, no one would ever have to know. I believe our husbands are all over on the ridge, inspecting the new perimeter.”
“Yes, ma’am, I figured that’s why you chose this moment to make your attempt.” The guard turned to Lacey. “Yours isn’t, though. He says for me to escort you to your room.”
“He says? He already knows?” Lacey squeaked.
“We radioed in as soon as we saw you two leave the house. Jeep and Pepper should be here shortly.”
“I don’t believe this,” Jenny moaned.
“Maybe they’ll cut you some slack. It is Christmas Eve after all,” Tay said.
“If you could come with me please, Mrs. Le Beau?” The guard indicated the hallway that lead from the main living area where they had been working to the bedroom wing.
The second guard released Jenny and silently exited the house. Tay watched him take up a position right outside the door. “Pepper told me they weren’t setting guards right at the door so we wouldn’t feel so trapped. I guess that’s over with now.”
Jenny went back into the living room and dropped into a chair. “Surely this will be over soon. It’s all just been a big over reaction.”
“Mr. Tobin wouldn’t keep you here for no reason,” Tay argued. “You need to take it more seriously.”
“I imagine that once my husband gets hold of me, I’ll have good reason to obey the rules from now on.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay? I feel bad, skating off into the sunset while you’re trapped here,” Tay said.
“You need to get back to your kids for the big day,” Jenny told her friend. “Even teenagers need mom and dad at Christmas. And you want to see their faces when they open up those gifts.”
“It is fun,” Tay agreed. “Even when it’s just gift cards mostly. We always exchange plenty of funny gifts too.”
“Good thing I already sent our kids their presents,” Jenny sighed. “I thought we were going to be able to see them through the computer on Christmas day, but I guess not. You have to go home and have a great time for me, okay?”
Tay gave Jenny a chagrined smile. “I surely will.”
Guy Le Beau looked down at his beautiful wife as she lay face down over his lap. Lacey had been the joy of his existence since the day she had agreed to be his. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t also the most stubborn exasperating creature to ever create a spreadsheet or critique a budget. “How could you? You know what’s going on here! You know the rules!”
“You said you had given Mr. Tobin the information he needed. Why else did you send that laptop to Hathville will all those downloaded files cross-referenced and annotated? I thought you had figured everything out. If you’d just let me look at things…”
“I don’t want you any more involved in this than you have to be,” Guy replied. “I did get several leads on the underlying problem, but that doesn’t mean that we are any closer to a solution for Jeep and Jenny. They are in real trouble, and here you are leading Jenny into danger! I won’t have it.” With that, he began to spank her hard, working up speed and adding strength to his swats. He didn’t have to discipline his wife often, but this time he felt it was necessary to get her attention. As an accountant, his hands weren’t tough like those of the guards and operatives he served, however. He would need a new plan or his hand would soon be too sore to deliver the sort of lesson he knew she needed.
His eye roamed around the room and caught sight of a modern sculpture made of flat sections of polished wood. Really? Was it possible? He took one off the top and proved his guess correct. The statue did come apart easily and the pieces were perfectly suited. Had Tobin bought it with this purpose in mind? Or perhaps designed it himself? The wood felt comfortable in Guy’s hand. “I’m going to give you ten swats with this… thing here. With every swat, you need to repeat, ‘I will obey the rules for my safety.’ Do you understand?”
“I do. I will. I will obey the rules.” He could tell by the way she jumped to agree with him that his warm-up had indeed served its purpose. Having a sore bottom tended to make her more apt to see reason.
“For your safety.”
“For my safety, yes.”
“Again.” Ten times the improvised paddle fell and ten times she repeated the lines he hoped she would remember. As soon as he was done, he helped her stand then clamped his arms around her. She stood a little stiffly in his embrace, but he knew she was always a bit embarrassed after a spanking. “It’s all right now, my dear.” He turned away to reconstruct the sculpture, giving her time to collect herself.
In a moment she was ready to talk. “I am sorry, you know. I wouldn’t have done it if I had known it was really dangerous for Jenny.”
“Really?”
“Well, maybe I would. I just feel so sorry for her and after all these years, it’s kind of a habit to follow her lead. I make the wisecracks and she follows through with pranks. It was all kind of like a dare, you know.” She was seeking compassion from him, needing his reassurance. She hadn’t done it out of spite or to prove a point.
“This is no game,” Guy told his wife as gently as he could. “I’m afraid their lives are going to have
to change. If my calculations are correct—”
“And they usually are,” Lacey interjected.
“We won’t get to spend another Christmas with Jeep and Jenny.” Seeing the stricken look on his wife’s face, he relented. “Everything will work out. Tobin will make sure it does. I’ve got a plan.”
Jenny looked at Tay helplessly. “This whole thing was such a mess. What has happened to my grand Christmas vacation getaway?” There were cushioned benches lining one wall near the back door where guests could take off their boots. Jenny sank onto one of them and sighed.
“That’s life, I guess.” Tay joined her on the bench and reached out a comforting hand.
“Why did it all go wrong? Why do we always get interrupted just when we’re having fun and building memories?”
“That’s the nature of their work, I guess. It’s the same for Pepper and me. Of course, he’s so crazy any way, it’s hard to take anything seriously. For you, it’s different. He’s got so much responsibility. When Pepper’s off, he’s pretty much free to do what he wants. Jeep on the other hand… well, he’s never really off, is he?”
“That’s it exactly. Is it selfish for me to resent Jeep’s work? Mr. Tobin has provided for our financial security all these years. He’s given Jeep so much: promotions, training, leadership opportunities. I should be grateful but…”
“There’s more to life than work. Jeep knows that. And he loves you.”
“Then why doesn’t he want to spend more time with me? Can’t he see that he’s getting too old to run around the world blowing things up? Can’t he see I need him? Doesn’t he need me too? At least a little bit?”
“Not just a little,” Jeep corrected her as he opened the back door.
Jenny looked up at him, feeling more sheepish than she had felt in a very long time. “I’m sorry, Jeep. I won’t do it again. I promise. You can go back out to the perimeter.”
“No need. We’re done. We’re safe. At least for the moment.”
Jeep looked down at her, but she couldn’t read his expression. She had expected disappointment or even anger. What she saw there was a sadness way out of proportion to his words.