Chapter 22
TABITHA
The candy store is everything a Little girl could possibly dream of. Bright and colorful and, of course, filled to the brim with every kind of candy imaginable.
Way more exciting than the bookstore, that’s for sure.
I’m standing in front of a wall of approximately a thousand different flavors of jellybeans when an unfamiliar voice startles me out of my candy fog. “What do we have here? A Thorne bride, all on her own?”
Turning, I come face to face with a stunning woman with the brightest, greenest eyes I think I’ve ever seen. Jet-black hair is pulled back from a face that looks to be carved from marble with high cheekbones and a strong, firm jaw.
I’m so struck by her that it takes me a moment to process what she actually said.
A Thorne bride. The same thing Poppy said when she saw me with Josie.
At the time, I assumed it was because I was with my family, but here I am, completely alone, and this woman I’ve never met has somehow come to the same conclusion.
“What makes you think I’m with the Thornes?”
The woman smiles, smug and satisfied as she gestures to my dress. “You’re wearing the uniform.”
It isn’t until this very moment that I realize how much I stand out.
Nearly everyone around me is dressed in jeans and a casual shirt of some kind.
Several people are dressed like my uncles in flannel shirts.
Not a single other person is wearing anything nearly as frilly and fancy as the dresses my cousins and I wore into town.
Feeling self-conscious now, I tug at the hem of my dress, wishing it was longer. If anyone catches even a glimpse of the diaper I’m wearing beneath all this tulle and silk, I might actually die.
The woman smiles at me, and my anxiety levels immediately dip. “It’s all right, sweetie, nobody’s paying any attention to you. They’re all far too busy trying to decide what kind of candy to buy.”
“That’s what I was trying to figure out! There’s so many to choose from!”
“I know, right?” Shaking her head, she turns her attention to the jellybean wall. “My friend Persephone loves jellybeans, but I’m more of a chocolate girl, myself. Do you have a favorite flavor?”
“Anything but coconut. Yuck.”
My new friend’s laughter rings out. “Agreed. I’m Reese, by the way.”
“Tabitha Grace!”
Whipping around at the sound of my name, I instinctively shove my hands behind me as a furious Auntie Gray storms into the store, Lanie hurrying along behind her.
Before I can even process what’s happening, Auntie Gray steps between me and Reese, as if she’s protecting me from the pretty woman with the emerald eyes. “Why are you interrogating my sister-in-law?”
If Reese is at all put out by Auntie Gray’s aggression, she doesn’t show it. Arms folded across her chest, she slowly raises a dark brow. “We were just having a conversation.”
“About?”
“Candy.” Reese waves her hand. “We are in a candy store, after all.”
“I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, Reese, but leave my family out of it. Come on, girls.”
Grabbing my hand, Auntie Gray pulls me along behind her toward the front door of the store.
“Bye, Tabitha! It was nice to meet you!” Reese calls out as we exit the store.
My tummy churns with fear as my furious Auntie leads me back to the bookstore. Turning to Lanie, she jabs a finger at a plush armchair in the corner. “Sit your butt right there, Melanie Brynne, and don’t you dare move a muscle.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Lanie squeaks out before hurrying over to the chair and plopping herself down into it.
Without saying another word, Auntie Gray turns and pulls me along behind her toward the back of the store, where there is a single bathroom. Stepping inside, with me right behind her, she locks us inside before finally releasing her hold on my arm.
“I’m going to need a minute, because I do not trust myself to spank you right now.
” Fury reverberates through every syllable, and I wish desperately for the ground to open up and swallow me whole so I don’t have to face her terrifying anger.
“What were you thinking, little girl, disappearing on me like that? What the hell got into you?”
Before I can answer, she bulldozes forward. “And then I find you just chatting away with Sheriff Donnelly, like you’re old pals. Seriously, Tabitha Grace, do you not have any sense of self-preservation?”
Oh, crap. I’m in so much trouble. “I–I didn’t know that was the sheriff. I’m sorry, Auntie.”
Glaring at me, she jabs a finger in my direction. “It’s a little late for apologies, little girl. What did I tell you would happen if you left this store without me?”
Uh-oh. I forgot about that particular threat. “Um… I don’t remember.”
Auntie Gray’s brows rise. “You don’t remember?”
“N-no, Auntie,” I lie.
“Hmm. Then I suppose I’ll have to be very sure to make this a lesson you don’t forget.”
My stomach twists as she reaches into her bag and pulls out the heavy wooden hairbrush I remember from my wedding day. I can’t help but whimper at the memory of it connecting with my bare bottom.
“Please don’t spank me, Auntie! I won’t ever wander off again, I promise!”
“Trust me, little girl, by the time I’m done, you won’t ever even think of pulling anything like this again. Come here, Tabitha Grace.”
I don’t want a spanking. I definitely don’t want a spanking from that horrible hairbrush, in a public bathroom.
But I also don’t want to make things worse on myself. Because not only will Auntie Gray spank me extra hard, I don’t even want to know what Daddy will do when I get home if she has to tell him I acted like a total brat during a spanking.
So even though it’s the last thing I want, I drag myself forward to stand in front of Auntie Gray. She makes quick work of my diaper, the whole time lecturing me about how Little girls can’t just go off by themselves in public places.
By the time she bends me over under her arm, my skirts flipped up to expose my bare bottom, silent tears are already slipping down my nose.
The first swat rings out like a gunshot in the small room, and the thought that someone might hear us is the only thing that keeps me from crying out as she lights my butt on fire.
With rapid-fire precision, she spanks me over and over, until I can’t help but wiggle against her hold in a desperate attempt to escape.
And when she targets that sensitive spot at the tops of my thighs, the pain overrides my worry that we might be overheard. “Owie, owie, I’m sorry, Auntie! I’m sorry!”
“You certainly will be by the time we’re done here. You were very, very naughty today, Tabitha Grace. We talked about the rules before we even stepped foot in this store and you still decided those rules didn’t apply to you. I’m very disappointed in your behavior today, little girl.”
Her words sting even more than her hand connecting with my bottom. “I’m sorry! Please, Auntie, I’m sorry!”
Finally, the spanking ends, and Auntie Gray sighs as she rubs her hand over my aching flesh.
“You’re a good girl, Tabby. But you made some very naughty decisions today.
So you’re getting ten with Auntie’s brush and when we get home, you’re going to go straight to your Daddy’s office and tell him what you did. Are we understood?”
“Y-yes, Ma’am.”
“Good girl. I want you to count these out loud and think about how very sad we all would have been if anything had happened to you today.”
That first crack of the brush against my already sore skin knocks the breath from my lungs and I have to breathe through my nose a couple times before I can get the first count out.
“One.”
Another swat, another hundred bees stinging my skin where the heavy wood landed. “Two!”
Three, four, five. By six I’m sobbing so loudly I can barely manage the count. Seven and eight are both delivered to my sit-spots and I just know that the ride home is going to be miserable.
“Last two, sweet girl, and these are going to be extra hard to help you remember Auntie’s rules when she gives them to you. Are you ready, honey?”
“Y-y-yes, Auntie,” I somehow manage to choke out even though I am not at all ready.
As promised, nine and ten are the hardest yet, and I’m certain I’ll never sit comfortably again by the time Auntie Gray gathers me in her arms, gently rocking me from side to side as I soak her shirt with my tears.
“Shhh, little one. It’s okay. You’re forgiven and all your naughties have been spanked away.”
Her words gradually ease the ache in my chest, though the ache in my bottom throbs with every heartbeat. After what feels like forever, my sobs quiet to hiccupping little sniffles and Auntie Gray gently nudges me away.
“Let’s get you cleaned up and into a fresh diaper, and then we can go finish our errands.”
“O-okay, Auntie.”
She wets a paper towel to wash the tears from my face before wrapping me up in a clean diaper.
The cotton, which normally feels soft and fluffy against my bottom, now itches like crazy with every movement.
But my heart feels light and happy, especially when Auntie Gray takes my hand again, giving it a reassuring squeeze as she smiles indulgently at me.
When we step out of the bathroom, Lanie is waiting exactly where we left her, but she’s been joined by Josie and Poppy, the latter of whom watches us approach with wide eyes.
She looks from me to Auntie Gray, and when she does, a deep-red blush floods her cheeks and she immediately looks down at the book in her lap. Seemingly unperturbed, Auntie Gray ignores her entirely as we approach the group.
“All done here?”
Josie and Lanie share a look before nodding, both their cheeks tinged with pink. We say our goodbyes to a silent, still-blushing Poppy and head outside to walk down to the post office.
“Auntie Gray, can we wait for you outside? It’s kinda crowded in there,” Lanie asks, all wide-eyed innocence.
Maybe too innocent.
But if Auntie Gray finds it suspicious, she doesn’t say. She only frowns a bit before nodding. “You can wait for me out here if you promise to sit on that bench and not move. I mean it, girls.”
We promise with another chorus of “Yes, Auntie” and hurry over to wait on the metal bench she pointed us to. I can’t help but wince as I settle on the hard seat, despite the cushioning of my diaper.
As soon as we’re seated, my cousins pounce.
“What happened? Are you okay?” Lanie asks, her voice full of concern.
“I’m okay. Just really, really sore.”
“I bet.” Reaching over, Lanie gives my hand a sympathetic pat. “Auntie Gray was really mad.”
“What did you do?” Josie asks, curiosity shining in her eyes. “Lanie couldn’t really tell me anything with Poppy sitting right there. Though I’m not sure it would have mattered since she definitely heard you getting your butt paddled. That brush is really loud.”
“Oh my god,” I groan, dropping my head into my hands. “That’s so embarrassing.”
“You didn’t have to tell her that, Josie,” Lanie hisses quietly.
“Why? It’s the truth! I’d want to know if someone overheard me getting my butt spanked.”
A small hand comes to rest on my back, rubbing in soothing circles. “It’s okay, Tabby. We all get in trouble sometimes.”
“Yeah, but do you get your bare butts paddled in public?”
“Well… no,” Lanie confesses. “I have managed to avoid that particular fate. Although Sheriff Donnelly did see my naked butt once after Uncle Eli spanked me.”
“Really?” Lifting my head, I stare at her in shock. “How did that happen?”
“I was supposed to be asking Daddy for a new diaper when the doorbell rang and I ran to answer it instead and Reese was on the other side of the door.”
“Oh man. Judging by the way Auntie Gray acted when she saw me talking to her in the candy store fully clothed, I can only imagine how that went.”
Josie’s mouth drops open. “You snuck out to the candy store? Ballsy.”
“I guess. I wasn’t really trying to be, um, ballsy, I just didn’t feel like hanging out in the bookstore.”
“Oh I’m sure Auntie Gray loved that explanation,” Josie says dryly.
Fresh waves of humiliation crash over me. “I didn’t really get to tell her why I snuck out. She just sorta lectured me and then she spanked me and… here we are.”
“There’s my good girls.” Auntie Gray’s voice reaches us a moment before she comes to stand in front of us, approval lighting her dark eyes. “Thank you for staying where you were told to. What do you say we head over to the candy store and then do a little shopping before heading home?”
Josie and Lanie jump up from the bench, practically vibrating with excitement and already talking about what kind of candy they’re going to get. I move more slowly, dragging my feet a bit as I follow my family back down the street to the candy store.
Now the colors seem too bright, almost garish as I watch Lanie and Josie hurry excitedly toward their favorite stations. All I can see when I look at the jellybean wall I was so excited about earlier is how angry Auntie Gray was when she came storming in looking for me.
“Tabby? What’s wrong, honey? Don’t you want any candy?”
Auntie Gray’s questioning has my eyes going wide with surprise. “Oh. Um, I kinda figured I wasn’t allowed to have any. ‘Cuz of how naughty I was.”
“I see. And did Auntie Gray say you weren’t allowed to have any candy?”
“Well… no.”
“Mmhmm. So do you really think I’d be so mean as to bring you back here and not let you have any candy?”
“I don’t know.”
Sighing, she loops her arm through mine and tugs me toward the jellybean wall.
“Here.” Pulling a bag from the dispenser on the wall, she hands it to me.
“Fill this up. If there is anything less than a full pound of candy in this bag when we check out, I will take you to the bathroom and paddle your bottom red again before making you fill it up. Am I understood?”
“But… I thought…” Her raised eyebrow cuts me off and I can’t help but smile as I take the bag from her hand. “Yes, Auntie.”
“There’s my good girl. Let’s go get some candy.”