by Starla Kaye
When she looked back, she found Jennie studying her with a frown. Faith knew that Jennie remained annoyed that her husband had dared to send off for a bride for Caleb. “Why have you been thinking about it?”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about sending off for a mail–order groom.”
Jennie’s eyes widened. “What?”
Faith jutted out her chin. “You heard me. I’ve decided that maybe the idea of sending off for a mail–order bride for Caleb isn’t so bad. And maybe sending off for a mail–order groom wouldn’t be bad either.”
Angelica walked in as she finished her comment. She grinned in delight. “Yes, yes, yes! You’ll let me help you with the letter, right?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Jennie said, shaking her head. “Besides, Adam won’t like it.”
Since he was the biggest problem in her life and Faith needed to get beyond it, she thrust her chin even higher. “His opinion doesn’t matter at all.” Then she went to find some paper in the back room.
* * *
Adam stood as casually as he could outside his shop. It had been a hell of a long day. He’d purposely kept his distance from Faith, not having gone into the mercantile even once. But now that Daniel had come to take Jennie home and Angelica had gone to work in her saloon, he would go check on Faith. Even though he hadn’t been in the store, he knew she had stayed there all day. So much for promising her friends to only be down there for the morning.
He strolled into the store and found Faith standing behind the main case, studying a ledger. She looked pale, tired. “You should be up in bed, resting,” he said worriedly.
She jerked her head up and he noticed the white lines of pain bracketing her mouth. “Do you need help getting up the stairs?”
“I certainly do not.” She slammed the ledger closed and a piece of paper that had been lying beside it fluttered to the floor in front of the merchandise case. She frowned down at it and started to hurry around the case.
Adam strode over and picked up the paper just as she stopped a few feet away. He hadn’t meant to look at it, but his gaze noted the boldly written words “Wanted: Mail–order Groom.” Every muscle in his body tightened. Every nerve twisted. What the hell?
He gripped the paper tightly and held it up. “What is this?” he bellowed.
Her face turned pink and her eyes flashed indignantly at him. “It has nothing to do with you.” She reached out a hand. “Now, give it to me.”
He moved the paper out of her reach. “No! Tell me you weren’t seriously thinking about sending this off.” He wanted to shake her for such a crazy idea.
“I’m posting it with the next stage headed east.” She stepped in front of him and pressed, “Give. It. To. Me.”
Instead, he lowered his hand and before she could grab hold of the paper, he tore it into pieces. They fell at his feet. “That is the nuttiest idea you’ve had yet. If your father heard about it…”
A mulish look settled over her face. “He wouldn’t like it, I know. But since I no longer live under his roof, I can do whatever I please.”
He’d had it with her today. First, she’d gone against Doc’s advice to come down and work in the store today. Second, she’d caused him an endless amount of frustration all day as he’d thought about her standing so close to him that morning in only her nightgown and a quilt. If he’d been less than the gentleman he was, he would have ripped them both away and she’d have been naked and vulnerable in front of him. Third, she’d tested his patience by remaining in her store all day. And now she’d planned to do something so incredibly foolish.
He fumed, swore under his breath, and stormed over to close and lock the front door.
“What are you doing?” she asked warily.
He faced her, the woman he didn’t want…but wanted. The woman was too stubborn for her own good, for his either. What he needed to do was pull her into his embrace and kiss the devil out of her. What he would do, though, was something he’d wanted to do for over a week. Actually, for months.
“I’m going to burn your butt.” He walked in her direction as her eyes widened and she inched back around the case again.
“You can’t spank me,” she sputtered and hurried away faster. “You have no right.”
“Maybe not, but I’m going to do it anyway.” He inhaled the scent of her, watched her nostrils flare and knew she was as sexually aware of him as he was of her. His erection swelled, but he ignored it.
She stood her ground now, eyes flashing defiance. “If you touch me, I swear I’ll have Daniel arrest you for…for indecency.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Daniel agrees with me, that you shouldn’t be living here alone. That you’re behaving improperly and should move back home until you get married.”
She had the nerve to nod at the bits of paper on the floor. “That was to help me get married.”
“That was going to invite all kinds of men here, probably more unsavory ones than good men. That was a foolish idea, a dangerous one.” He moved within an arm’s reach of her. “I’ve wanted to tan your backside for a good long while.”
He watched her swallow hard, saw her face heat. “It isn’t proper, Adam Braddock. You aren’t my husband. You aren’t anything to me besides a bother.”
“Face the shelves, Faith. Hold onto one of them.” He glanced around and picked up a lady’s brush from a small display of brushes and combs on the end of the case. “This’ll do, because you’re right, it wouldn’t be proper for me to lay my hand on your bottom.”
She stiffened, staring uneasily at the hard wooden brush. “When my father finds out what you did…”
His gaze locked with hers. “You’d tell him that I blistered your butt? Really?”
Her cheeks flamed and she shook her head. “Well, no,” she said meekly. “You don’t need to do this, Adam.”
“Yes, I do.”
Looking desperate, she put a hand around her ribs. “But I’m hurt.”
“You were well enough to work here all day. So you’re well enough to take a licking you’ve needed for months.” He wasn’t going to back down now. She’d pestered him for too long and now she’d pushed him to edge of his patience. “Turn around, Miss Paddington.”
For a second, she didn’t move. She stood there scowling at him. But finally she faced the shelves laden with canned goods and bolts of fabric and put her small hands on the edge of one. “If anyone comes by and sees…”
“Everyone in town knows the store is always closed by this time of day.” He hesitated for a moment, debating whether to whack her bottom over the layers of skirt, petticoat, and drawers. Then he put the brush down on the case and moved to lift her skirt and petticoat.
“What are you doing?” she gasped and craned her head around to look at him.
He noted that she hadn’t jerked away, hadn’t attempted to shove his hands away. She might not like being punished, but she was well used to submission. Her reaction pleased him. Her husband would be a lucky man, a notion that gave him a second of irritation. He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of another man baring her bottom for discipline…or baring her for anything else.
Frustrated with his thought, he went right on lifting her skirt and petticoat up onto her back, where he held them out of the way with one arm. He reached for the brush again. “I’m not going to completely bare your butt, but I want you to feel this licking.”
Those green eyes of hers glared at him, even as her cheeks were red with embarrassment. “I’ll never forgive you for this.”
“Turn your head away and stand still.” His erection had grown even harder and he was having a difficult time ignoring his desire. But he was determined to see this through. It had been a good long time since he’d spanked his wife or any other woman. “I mean for you to remember this.”
Faith blew out a huff of annoyance and then did as he’d requested. She couldn’t believe what was about to happen: that Adam Braddock was about to give her a thrashing. Right here in
her store. With one of the brushes she sold in here. The awful, awful man. So why was she letting him do it?
The idea that she was allowing this shocked her. She forgot about him standing behind her for an instant, trying to come to terms with her decision.
Whack! He sailed the brush down briskly against her drawer–covered bottom. The sound echoed around the store. The horrible sting had her lifting up on her toes, yelping.
She dropped her hands and tried to turn around, but he held her in place.
He looked at her in challenge. “Get back into position,” he said sternly, quietly.
“What if I don’t?”
“Get back into position.”
They stared at each other for a couple of seconds. Adam Braddock was such a complicated man, an emotionally wounded man. She shouldn’t care about him anymore after how he’d treated her these last months, after he’d rejected her over and over. And she should hate him for wanting to discipline her like this. She reminded herself that she had decided to forget the feelings she’d had for him for so long. Yet something had changed between them, somehow. She didn’t understand what it was or why it had happened, but there was something in his eyes as he looked at her. If there was even the tiniest amount of hope that they might have a future together…
She gripped the shelf in front of her again and braced herself. Whatever softening he felt for her now, she knew he meant to make her pay for pursuing him when he hadn’t wanted it, for forcing him to lower the walls he’d built around himself. She decided the fleeting pain would be worth the small amount of progress she’d made with him.
He held her in place with one arm and sent the brush down hard once more. “Your father is right. You need a man strong enough to handle your stubbornness, your willfulness.”
She sucked in a shuddery breath as he sent six more stinging swats down. They were horrible and she hissed with each one. Still she managed to protest, “I need a man strong enough to love me, and let me love him.”
“A man who loves you will also need great patience.” He swatted her again. “He will keep a paddle and be ready to apply it firmly from time to time.”
She gasped and shuddered at the next swat. When she caught her breath, she said with determination, “He may discipline me as he feels needed, but I will love him nonetheless. He will own my heart…and I will own his.”
She felt him hold the brush against her burning bottom, but she bravely added, “Adam, I love you.”
To her surprise and regret, he stepped away, let her clothing fall back into place. He set the brush on the counter and said wearily, “But I cannot love you back.”
Chapter Five
Dry Fork was being over–run with women arriving on one stage after another for the last two weeks. Angelica and Faith watched from the mercantile’s window as another three women left the stage depot and headed for the Dry Creek Hotel. As far as Faith knew, the hotel was full up.
She turned to Angelica. “It looks like you’ll have more guests.”
Angelica sighed and shook her head in amusement. “Strangest situation ever, having the rooms above the saloon taken over by a bunch of single women. And not the kind who sometimes make use of those rooms.” She winked at Faith. “Not that I have any idea what those ladies do upstairs.”
Faith was well aware of what happened in the privacy of those rooms, but she didn’t care. She knew the four “ladies” involved and liked them. They’d all had hard lives before finding their way to Dry Fork and the Tumbleweed Saloon. She also knew Angelica hadn’t had an easy life either, although her friend had never actually talked about her life before she came here. Which was fine with her. But she did find all of what was happening with the arrival of these numerous mail–order brides amusing. Jennie did not. She was currently furious with all of the Braddock brothers, which amused Angelica and Faith even more.
“How are your regulars taking this change?” Faith turned from looking out at the street with its heavier than usual traffic of wagons and riders, cowboys who came into town more and more to ogle the new women.
“At first there was a lot of grumbling about their being ‘inconvenienced.’” Angelica grinned. “Now, though, I think most of them are kind of enjoying having so many ladies around. A couple of them have even been trying to do some courting.”
They heard footsteps on the boardwalk and irritated women’s voices. Faith didn’t have to look to know it was the newest three women headed for the Tumbleweed. The proper ladies didn’t like being turned away from the hotel and told the only rooms available in town were in the saloon, and those were fast filling up.
“It looks like you’d better go take care of your new boarders,” she said. The other good thing about having all these women in town was that her mercantile’s business had picked up considerably.
Angelica nodded and stepped toward the doorway at the same time Jennie came storming inside. She stopped, raised a dark eyebrow, and asked, “What’s got you so fired up now?”
Jennie’s chest puffed out and she snapped, “All of those women! Daniel! Adam! Ben! Caleb!”
Faith watched Angelica’s lips twitch as she struggled to keep from outright laughing. She really enjoyed seeing the Braddock brothers in trouble.
“What have they done now?” she questioned and took a second glance outside. She stiffened at the sight of a stunning redhead stepping onto the boardwalk. The woman in her early twenties had to have spent days travelling by stage and yet she looked fresh as a daisy, not a hair out of place from the chignon she wore. Faith’s own red hair never looked so neat. No matter how hard she tried, a strand here or there managed to slip free of being pinned back or staying in a braid. She fought to keep from reaching up to check her hair.
Evidently Angelica noted her discomfort. “You’re every bit as pretty as that woman.” When Faith glanced at her, she added, “Adam only has eyes for you anyway.”
“No, he doesn’t.” Faith drew in a frustrated breath. Still, she felt her face heat. “I’ve barely seen him these last couple of weeks. He’s stopped popping in to check on me…not that I care.” Liar. She’d been angry with him for denying that he could ever love her, but she’d still looked for him to come pester her like he’d done after she’d gotten hurt.
Jennie marched across the store, her long skirt swishing around her ankles. She planted herself behind the main showcase, obviously prepared to help out today even though Faith hadn’t asked her to do so. Her pretty face pinched in irritation. “I’d say Adam is the stupidest of the Braddock brothers, but he isn’t. They’re equally foolish.”
“Again I ask, what have they done now?” Faith studied her friend. Yet a part of her didn’t want to know.
“Where do I start?” Jennie settled onto the stool behind the case, her back rigidly straight. She blew out a breath in an attempt to calm down, but it wasn’t working.
“Surely it isn’t that bad.” Faith’s stomach was knotting in anticipation. Whatever it was that had Jennie upset, Faith sensed she wouldn’t like it either. Maybe that’s why Jennie seemed to be having trouble actually spitting it out.
“Come on, Jennie, tell us,” Angelica prodded. “I’m dying to know, but I’ve got to go check in my newest boarders.”
Jennie tipped up her chin and blurted out, “They’ve decided to send off notices about needing potential husbands for all of these women. As if we don’t have enough chaos here now!”
She shook her head and went on in barely controlled fury. “I told Daniel that he and Adam have caused enough problems. This whole thing needs to be stopped.” She heaved a sigh. “But I don’t suppose there’s a way to stop this flood of women coming.”
Angelica looked cautiously at Faith. “Do you know who exactly came up with that idea?”
Now Jennie glanced uneasily at Faith. “Adam,” she admitted quietly.
Faith bristled. “Oh really!” She’d told her friends that she and Adam had argued about her wanting to send a notice off about her lo
oking for a mail–order groom. How he’d torn up her letter. She hadn’t told either of them about how he’d spanked her about such foolishness…well, and other things, he’d said. How dare he! How double–dang dare he!
She stomped into the back room and came out with a piece of vellum, a pen, and a bottle of ink. “I should have done this before now. Right after he tore up my first letter.” She set everything down on the closest glass case so hard she was lucky the inkbottle didn’t break.
Angelica walked over and put a hand to stop Faith from opening the inkbottle. “Why bother? If they have already sent out word about needing mail–order grooms, your problem is solved.” She looked at Jennie. “Have they?”
Jennie huffed. “I don’t know. Daniel just told me about their plan last night. But I suppose one of them could have given a letter or two to the stage driver, who’ll be leaving Dry Fork before long.”
Faith glanced down at the paper. Maybe the men had handled her problem, without meaning to. But if a notice hadn’t been sent, then she would pen one herself. First, though, she wanted to confront them…Adam specifically.
Determined now, she moved from around the case to the open door. “I’ll just go and find out.” Then before either of them could stop her, she hurried next door to the barbershop.
* * *
Adam sat in the barber chair furthest from the window, watching Daniel and Caleb. His brothers had ducked in here just as the stage had pulled into town. As if they were in hiding. In truth, he figured both of them were, but for different reasons. Daniel had grumbled upon walking in that Jennie was still barely speaking to him about this whole mess he’d caused. Caleb was trying desperately not to be spotted by the near two dozen single women who had already shown up in answer to the ads for mail–order brides.
“I still don’t understand your problem,” he said curiously to Caleb. “You’ve got your pick of ladies now. There’s more arriving every day. Surely you can––”