Peppermint Sticks for Susie
by Joannie Kay
Miss Jenny is dismayed when her boss threatens to take a tawse to her because she gave a few peppermint sticks to sweet little Susie Beckley, though she knows she shouldn't be giving away her employer's merchandise.Then, a new man in Pine Falls by the name of Alex Martin takes her side and tells the Scotsman that he told Susie to help herself and he pays for the candy, trying to spare pretty Miss Jenny a hiding. She is about the prettiest girl he's seen in a long time, and he'd traveled a lot with his job. Alex is a U. S. Marshal, working undercover to find the band of rustlers who are targeting the ranchers around Pine Falls. Jenny is hopeful of getting to know the handsome stranger a bit better, but her first , good, impression of him is altered when he rescues her from two men who are accosting her. Alex promptly threatens her with a spanking, and when she gets sassy with him and tells him that if the law isn't going to take care of Lefty, she will do it herself, Alex proves to her that he believes in spanking grown women! The rustling seems to be centered around the haunted O'Malley Ranch, and while Alex does not believe in ghosts, he finds himself changing his mind when he takes sweet Jenny with him when he rides out there to explore. Jenny finds herself aggravated with the ghost when he practically insists that Alex take her over his knee!"Peppermint Sticks for Susie" is a classic romantic Western with a sweet paranormal twist and lots of old-fashioned spanking discipline in a romantic historical setting.