"Now, young lady, do you promise me you will stay inside this house until you are told otherwise?" Rob asked, positive that Amanda would agree and tearfully apologize for her stubbornness.
"I am a grown woman and I will make my own decisions regarding my safety. I won't have you or my father making my decisions!" was the sassy answer coming from her mouth.
"I can see we are a long ways from the answer I want and expect to hear," Rob announced, exasperated with her for being such a brat. He started spanking with the thin wooden spatula again.
Amanda cried out in dismay. The punishment hurt like the very devil, and Rob was spanking even harder! She knew she simply could not tolerate the punishing blows and she finally begged him to stop. Rob ignored her and continued spanking her behind as if it was his mission in life to see to it that she was totally miserable. The wooden spatula was stinging and leaving welts all over her backside, even though she was wearing her drawers. "Please, Rob, no more! You win! I will stay inside; I promise!" He continued to welt her bottom. "Rob? Did you hear me? I said I will stay inside! I promised!"
"How do I know I can trust you?" he demanded, pausing to hear her answer.
"Because I am going to be too sore to sit a saddle for days!" she replied, crying so hard he had trouble understanding her.
"I am going to make you a promise, Amanda Chambers. If I need to spank you daily to keep you permanently too sore to sit down, I will do so without one qualm of regret."
"I will not break my promise," she immediately answered... anything to stop the horrible spanking. "Please, I have had more than enough. I am in serious pain."
"It is not up to you to decide when you have had enough. I still owe you a serious spanking for running away from me instead of coming to me and talking. How am I to keep you safe if you do not trust me to do what is best for you?"
"I do trust you! It is you who do not trust me!" She argued with him, earning herself another volley of sharp cracks on her sit spots. "Stop! Please! I do trust you, Rob!" she screamed.
He ceased spanking her and waited until she stopped crying once again. "I have yet to hear an apology from you for arguing with me, and for riding off the way you did."
"I apologize," Amanda whispered, giving in. She was so sore now that moving was painful.
"Good, now we will deal with the fact you ran away instead of speaking to me and telling me of your fears. It pains me to know that you do not trust me, Mandy."
"Rob, I do trust you!" she insisted. "I really do! It took me a while to realize why I was so frightened. My instincts told me to run and so I did!"
"You are going to get a spanking, Mandy. The next time you will tell me what you are feeling and why you are so frightened. Is that clear?"
"Yes! I do not need another spanking, Rob. Please listen to me. I am so sore right now that I could not sit down if I had to. I will tell you of my feelings in the future, I promise. Please do not spank me again! I could not bear it if you did!"
Rob was not about to listen to Amanda. "This is for running from me... and right after I warned you about riding around with Sir Gregory Flockton looking for the right opportunity to capture and harm you!" This time he used his hand. He wanted, no he needed, to feel the heat under his hand and know that he was responsible for correcting the woman he loved.
Amanda was bawling, but she was too worn out to struggle. All she could do was lie there and accept the spanking. She knew that Rob was very upset with her and it made her cry even harder. "I am sorry, Rob. I am so sorry I frightened you! Do you not understand that I love you? You should have told me why you were staying away from me. You did not trust me to handle that knowledge. I feel this trust issue goes both ways!" To her surprise, the spanking stopped abruptly and Rob lifted her to her feet.
"Yes, my dear, you are quite correct."
"Do I get to spank you to make my point?" she asked petulantly. Her bottom was throbbing so much that she knew she would never be able to sit down or sleep if she was to go to her room and lie down!
"No, you most certainly do not!" he replied. "I will find another way to show you how sorry I am that I failed you."
"I would rather give you a throbbing bottom to match mine!" she insisted, sniffling and trying not to cry.
"You are welcome to try, but I guarantee that you are the one who would end up over my knee again," he told her, giving her a look of warning that she promptly decided to heed. "I think you should go upstairs and put on something pretty and feminine, Mandy. Your father is liable to give you another tanning when he comes home and learns you disobeyed him, and you need several layers of petticoats to give you some padding."
"Nothing would help!" she pouted, and then turned away and ran to the back stairwell and left him sitting in the kitchen all alone.
It was only a few minutes later that Matthew Chambers entered the house by way of the kitchen. It took mere seconds for Rob to realize that the older man was furious. "Where is she?" he demanded, his green eyes, so like Amanda's, were blazing and Rob realized that he was going to have to do some serious talking or Amanda was truly going to get another blistering.
"Mandy is upstairs pouting because I welted her backside for her." He told the absolute truth.
"Listen, boy... It's one thing for you to correct the girl if you intend to marry her, but it's not going to happen if you don't want her in your life. She might have earned a hiding, but it ain't your place to give it to her." Matt was furious.
"I do want to marry her, Matt. I told you that; it is just that I fear for her safety, especially now that I know who is trying to kill me. His name is Sir Gregory Flockton." Rob told the entire story while Matt listened patiently. He did not leave out anything, telling the older man a lot more than he shared with Amanda.
"He sounds like a sick bastard," Matt commented, his green eyes filled with horror.
"He is." Rob nodded in confirmation. "I reacted out of fear for Mandy, but I guarantee she will not wish to sit upon anything but a cushion for some time. While she is recovering I intend to hunt Flockton down and see that he is dealt with as he deserves. All the rumors of his death will then be true and all women can sigh in relief."
"Do you really think he would try riding right up here to the house to take Mandy?" Matt asked. "There are always hands around."
"He would kill anyone who got in his way, Matt. And, if you send Mandy away to stay with a friend, he would go after her. He has made her his target and he will not stop until he has her in his clutches."
"Damn. I'll kill the bastard with my bare hands if he comes around here!"
"Not if I find him first. I am going hunting, and all I want from you, Matt, is your promise to keep Mandy safe for me. If you have to spank her every day to keep her off Glimmer, then do it, please." With that he took his leave, anxious to find one Sir Gregory Flockton.
Sir Gregory Flockton was no fool. It was time for him to lay low and allow Robert Thorne to search and search without finding him anywhere. Flockton knew the value of patience and he used the virtue to his advantage. He would wait until they were all sure that he was gone from the area and relaxed their guard, and then he would strike quickly.
Helene was disappointed as telegram after telegram reported that they had no knowledge of anyone matching Whitey's description. No one was reported missing, and no one looking like him was wanted by the law. She'd given up hope after nearly two weeks, and was doing her best to stay occupied, tearfully rolling out pie dough, but this time for cherry pies. Somehow she was going to make a trip out to the Circle C to see Whitey and take him one of the pies, in spite of her Uncle's orders to do no such thing. Helene loved Whitey and nothing on earth was going to stop that. She'd just placed the pies in the oven when she heard her Uncle calling for her. She prayed she would be back upstairs in time to salvage her pies. Uncle Peter rarely asked her to watch the shop because she knew so little about guns, but when he did, he expected her to do as she was asked.
"Yes, Uncle Peter...?" she said, looking at him as she saw the two men standing in front of the counter, studying her carefully.
"These two men are here to discuss Whitey with you. You tell them the truth and no hiding facts. Hear me?" Peter knew he needed to be firm. If the young man was wanted by the law, and it was clear as could be to him that they were the law, then he wouldn't let his niece try to hide him.