by Bree Cariad
“I love you,” was the last thing she managed to say before his lips met hers again and she forgot about everything else except him for a very long time.
The End
Courted by a Knight
In Hyacinth, Book Six
Bree Cariad
©2015 by Blushing Books® and Bree Cariad
All rights reserved.
No part of the book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Blushing Books®,
a subsidiary of
ABCD Graphics and Design
977 Seminole Trail #233
Charlottesville, VA 22901
The trademark Blushing Books®
is registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Bree Cariad
Courted by a Knight
EBook ISBN: 978-1-62750-8100
Cover Art by ABCD Graphics & Design
This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults. Nothing in this book should be interpreted as Blushing Books' or the author's advocating any non-consensual spanking activity or the spanking of minors.
Chapter 1
Deeka Williams lounged in the tree, her eyes partially closed. Today was what her father called “An important day” which was why she was hiding in the woods. At eighteen, she had lived in Hins Creek for six years. That didn’t mean she agreed with the way they did things in the area. Technically, as a Hins Creek girl rather than a Hyacinth girl, she should be free to do what she wanted: go to college, get a job, backpack across Europe…whatever struck her in that moment. Unfortunately, her father was born in Hyacinth and believed strongly in their rules.
She couldn’t blame him for being who he was. He fell in love with her mother in college, got married, and Deeka was born before he realized that Pénélope Leyland had no intention of being tied down for long. Deeka supposed it was a surprise she lasted as long as she had. Her mother was always meant to fly. When she left them the day after Deeka turned twelve, her father quit his job near Washington, D.C. and moved the two of them to Hins Creek.
Barrett Williams was a good man. Deeka would be willing to hold him up to the best man in Hyacinth as the most wonderful father ever. They just happened to differ on one concept. Marriage. Well, and that wasn’t even exactly true. They both agreed that marriage was good and a marriage based on traditional values was the ideal. The problem was that Deeka was now officially part of the Hyacinth Courting Pool and so far, she hadn’t been impressed with the male contingent.
Sure, when Alexander Covington, Jr. was still available, she had daydreamed about him waiting until she was of age, courting her, and getting married. The whole thing had been a year-long dream. Until he courted Kathy Bretherton. Most of the seventeen and eighteen-year-old girls in the region were crushed. Many secretly—and some not so secretly—had hoped it wouldn’t work out. But it did. One year later Kathy became Mrs. Alexander Covington, Jr.
Deeka was thirteen at the time and while part of her pouted, she was mostly excited by the whole romantic aspect of it. It was a prince and princess moment. And until lately, that was what courting seemed like to her, a girl finding her prince. Until the dinner requests began. While it didn’t happen often, in the latter part of a girl’s seventeenth year, the men who were looking to court could start asking for unofficial courting-dinner invitations so as to check the girl out. Thankfully, that also worked in reverse.
And having checked out seven of the eligible men in town, Deeka was of the opinion that after men like Alexander Covington, the mold had been shattered. All seven were the most boring, most annoying, or most dull men a girl could even imagine as a possible suitor. Today was her eighteenth birthday and unfortunately, that meant she was open season for all courting males.
While she knew her father loved her, some horrible nightmares lately had made a part of her worry that he would hook her up with the first horrible man that asked for her hand and as that could be as early as today, she had made herself scarce. After all, if she wasn’t there to be courted, he—whomever he may be—couldn’t court her.
It was a flimsy idea, but she was sticking with it.
The sound of crunching leaves caught her attention and she opened her eyes, looking down through the branches. A couple stumbled into view and her eyes widened as the man pointed to the tree next to hers. “Three branches, Camille.”
While she didn’t know him well, she knew the man was Jerod Kinsley, a relative newcomer to town, who had won the hand of Camille Covington, Alexander’s younger sister.
“Jerod, please,” Camille begged.
“Now, Camille.”
Three branches were chosen and broken off and she handed each of them to her husband who used a knife to rip off twigs and clean the branch of bark. When all three were done, he pulled the tie that held his ponytail back loose and wrapped it around the end of the three branches. Leaning down, Deeka tried to figure out what they would be used for. Until Jerod sat on a nearby fallen tree and patted his lap. “Pants down.”
Her eyes widened as Deeka realized she was about to see something personal, something private that was between them. She had no place watching it. Actually, she shouldn’t even be here since this was private land. “Wait!” she squeaked as Camille unbuttoned the top of her jeans. Both of them looked up quickly as she made her way down the tree and took off running.
“Stop!” Jerod yelled, but she ran as fast as she could, too embarrassed to face them.
Intent on getting away from the discipline she had unmistakably been about to witness, Deeka headed straight for home. She had been spanked before, paddled even, but it was always above her clothing. To even imagine someone spanking her on her bare behind was horrifying, let alone with a tree branch. Poor Camille.
Running into the house on her way to her bedroom, she was pulled up short by the fact there were seven men in her living room of which only one of them did she know.
“Deeka,” her father said, looking up as she entered. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “I lost track of time.” Her eyes darted around the room. The other men looked far too old for a courting. She hoped. And wished.
“Why don’t you go change? We’ll go out to dinner as soon as my meeting is over.”
“Okay.” Turning, Deeka dashed down the hallway and into her bedroom, glad to get out of the room of powerful men. She wasn’t sure what went into the water out here, but all the men were strong and dominant. Sometimes it was vastly overwhelming.
Grabbing her caddy of personal items, she headed into the bathroom. Their tiny two-bedroom cabin wasn’t much, but it worked for them. They shared the one bathroom and it was so small there was no room to keep anything, so she carried her needs with her. Looking into the mirror, she took stock of what she saw. Shoulder-length black hair, hazel eyes, cheekbones that were a bit too high, a miniscule scar that ran from her nose to her left ear, and a bony chin. The scar was a forever memory from her childhood when she’d stood up for a friend who was being bullied and got pushed down into some jagged concrete. Shrugging at a visual she was used to, she pulled her clothes off and jumped into the shower.
Since their hot water never lasted long, she had perfected the three-minute shower and was in and out before it went ice cold. After pulling on a pair of jeans and a lace blouse, she trotted back into her bedroom, caddy in hand. As she braided her hair, she heard the front door close. Hoping that meant the men were gone, she finished the braid and slipped her feet into a pair of open-toed sandals.
A knock on her open door a couple minutes later made her look up and smile.
“Ready?” her father asked.
“Yep.”
They split the cooking duties mostly
, but on her birthday he always took her out to eat. As the men were gone and there were no contracts lying around, she hoped that meant no courting yet. When his car stopped at Hyacinth Inn, she squealed. While a relatively new place in town, they were reputed to serve the best food.
“So, are you ready for summer?” Barrett asked as they drove home two hours later. She was stuffed and half asleep in the passenger seat.
“Yep.” She yawned. “No more high school. Yay.”
Chuckling, he patted her leg. “My little girl’s growing up. Next thing you know, you’ll be courted and a married woman.”
“I don’t know,” she said quietly. “The guys in town…” She wasn’t sure how to put it.
“I’ll agree with you that so far, the choices have not been impressive,” he admitted. “But this Sunday is the Memorial Day Picnic. At that point we’ll see who’s available.”
Grimacing, she nodded. What she didn’t tell him was as a girl of the community, she knew who was available and the pickings were slim.
When they got into the house, she took their leftovers to the fridge. People had not been wrong about the food at the inn. It was amazing. The phone rang and her father answered it. At first, she didn’t listen as for one thing, it was rude, but also her mind was on other things. But then she caught a couple phrases. “She did what…? When was this…? I see,” he said with distinct sigh. “Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Yes, Jerod. I’ll take care of it.”
Jerod? Deeka’s eyes widened. Oh, no. He must have been calling her father to tell him that she had been caught spying on him and his wife. Only she hadn’t been. Not really. And she left before things happened.
Without thinking about it, she ran into the living room. It was always best with her father to be up front and honest. If she did so, her punishments were not nearly as severe. Hiding something was a major taboo in this house.
“I didn’t mean to,” she began before he could speak, her hands waving in the air to add emphasis to her words. “I was there and they were there and suddenly the branches and her pants came down and I yelled ‘wait!’ and I climbed down and ran.”
He had been staring down at his hands and looked up, his eyes narrowing. “Thank you for the cliffs notes version. Can you please give me the whole thing?”
Taking a deep breath, she explained about being in the tree and how Camille and Jerod came along. By the time she got to the part about scrambling down the tree and running for home, her father was bent over laughing. “It wasn’t funny,” she said primly, finishing.
He held up his hand to forestall anything else as he continued to guffaw. When the laughter slowed down, he stood up, his eyes twinkling. “First off,” he said, still chuckling, “while that was Jerod, he wasn’t calling about you. It was a completely unrelated matter. But,” he said, again having to stop laughing, “thank you for that image.”
“It really wasn’t funny.”
“I’m sure,” he said, finally managing not to laugh. “But you really should have seen your face.” After another pause, he added, “And I’m assuming from that that you figure you should be punished for it?”
“No! I didn’t tell you because it was too embarrassing.”
Coughing, he nodded. “Yes, I’m sure it was for Camille as well. But considering where you were, that means you were on Jerod’s land. What have I told you about that?”
Her heart sunk. Great. Just great. By trying to forestall one punishment, she had garnered herself a worse one. “Not to go on any private land without permission.”
“Exactly. Tomorrow you will go apologize to Mr. Kinsley, do something to repay him and his wife for your blunder, and have him help you choose a birch rod. Then you will bring it back to me for your punishment.”
Her shoulders sunk down and she nodded. Just her luck, she was going to get hit by a bunch of sticks. One of these days, Deeka would learn to keep her mouth shut.
Knocking on the Kinsleys’ door was awful, but somehow she managed it. A few minutes later, Jerod opened the door. “Yes?”
Grimacing, Deeka rushed through with her apology. “I’m sorry I was on your land yesterday and that I saw you about to discipline your wife. Dad wants me to bring back a birch rod and said that I should ask you how to make one. He also told me I needed to make it up to you.” She wanted to close her eyes so she didn’t have to see his face when she told him, but somehow kept them open. To her relief, he didn’t laugh or look at her as though she was crazy. Instead, he just nodded.
“Wait there.”
He joined her a few minutes later and gestured for her to follow him. They walked down a well-travelled part of the brush to where the trees started. “You want to look for branches that are not too flimsy or too hard. Also, never take a group of branches from the same tree.” There was way too much information about what to look for, but she listened as he explained, had her touch and handle several of the tree limbs, and finally showed her how to cut them off. “After you have removed the branches, you need to remove any extraneous items like twigs, bumps, or bark.” Pulling a knife from his pocket, he showed her how and then had her work on two of the branches. “Once they’re smooth, you bind them on one end. They make a very nice deterrent.”
Snorting, she nodded. She could well believe it. “Yeah.”
He smiled kindly. “Do you have time tomorrow to come help clear some brush?”
“Sure.”
“Perfect, that will pay your debt. By the way, what’s your name?”
“Oh. Deeka. Deeka Williams.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Deeka. Come by at eight so we can get that done.”
“All right. Thanks, Mr. Kinsley.” Taking the three branches, she turned and made her way home, thinking she now retained far too much information on how to make a birch rod, something she would really prefer not to know. Strangely enough, she also felt a little jealous of Camille Kinsley as it looked like she had found herself a really good guy, birch rods aside.
She could hear the timber in her father’s low voice as she came close to the house. “Well, I think that would work,” he said. “Yes. Tonight would be fine…We look forward to having you over…Yes. Thanks, Curt.”
Opening the screen door, she walked into the house as he put the receiver down on the phone. As he looked up, she waved the branches at him. “Mr. Kinsley showed me how to do it,” she said, trying to put on a brave face.
“Good, come with me.” She expected him to take her to the corner, a small area he had sectioned off in their living room where she usually got spanked. Instead, he walked down the hall and into her bedroom. Confused, she followed him. He stood in the middle of her room looking around as she entered and then pointed to above her dresser, directly opposite her bed.
“There.”
“What?” she asked, looking and trying to figure out where he was going with this.
“I’ll go get the hammer. We’ll put that on the wall right where you can see it every day. Maybe that will remind you not to go where you shouldn’t be.”
Blushing a little, she nodded as he left the room. Overall, she was relieved. She hadn’t been looking forward to being birched. While she would never admit it to anyone else, she had taken a moment while walking home to slam one of the branches against her own rear end just to see what it felt like. Deeka wouldn’t be doing that ever again. Her buttocks still throbbed lightly from that. And she didn’t even have a heavy swing.
Once her father had them nailed up, she realized why he chose that particular section of the wall. When she was lying in her bed, it was in her direct vision. There was no way not to see it. It was devilishly clever of him and she shook her head. It wasn’t exactly something she wanted to see on a daily basis.
“Are you ready for the picnic tomorrow?” he asked after he’d finished.
“Sorta. I have to be at the Kinsleys’ at eight tomorrow, though.”
“Why?”
“I promised I’d help him clear brush to
make up for my, uh, mistake.”
“All right. Be home and ready by noon.”
“Okay. Hey, should I set up volunteering at The Center like I did last year?” For the last three summers, Deeka had volunteered at the retirement home just outside of town. While it was hard sometimes, she had found a passion for helping and by doing so had found a strength she didn’t even know she had. She went to go collapse on her bed when her father cleared his throat and she looked at him standing in the door.
“I’m not sure. From what I can tell, courting will take a large amount of your time, Deek. I would suggest taking on one of the activities they have every summer. They’re usually of short duration and this way you don’t guarantee your time and then find out you don’t have it to give.”
That made sense. Nodding, she flumped on top of her blanket.
“A friend of mine is in town for a couple days. He’s coming to dinner tonight.”
“Okay. Should I make anything special?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at him
“Don’t worry about it. I’m gonna barbeque. Though if you wanted to make dessert, I wouldn’t complain.” He winked at her making her giggle.
Once he left the room, she turned over onto her back trying not to look at the branches above her dresser, but it was nigh impossible not to. As annoying as it was to have them up there, the one good thing they reminded her of was the fact that she hadn’t been spanked. Well, at least by anyone other than herself. “I’m probably the only girl alive who’s ever done that,” she said, shaking her head.
Hopping off the bed, she went into the kitchen to see what they had that would make a great dessert. Desserts were her specialty. While she was passable at making spaghetti or lasagna, it was in the pastries that she had her gift.