Chapter Three #3
Amanda didn't try to argue, and she didn't try to eat anything but some toast and tea.
Her stomach was still a bit queasy, and it was all she could do to fix her father's normal large breakfast, but he didn't deserve to suffer because she did something so stupid.
All too soon, Matt was through eating, and he pushed his dishes aside as he stood up and reached for his belt.
"You can raise your skirts and bend over this table, girl."
It wouldn't do a bit of good to argue, and Amanda knew it.
She'd crossed a line with her proud father, and she'd attempted to treat a guest with utter disregard and disrespect.
She got to her feet and leaned over the table, pulling up her skirts.
It was embarrassing to be so exposed, but hopefully none of the hands would come to the back door and see her getting punished.
Matt didn't keep Amanda waiting. He doubled his belt and then brought it down over her bottom, which was still tender from before.
Amanda cried out in pain, but the second stripe landed right below the first.
"I am embarrassed and ashamed of the way you treated a guest in this home, Amanda Chambers," Matt scolded.
The belt landed a third and fourth time, and Amanda was crying and telling him she was sorry.
Her Papa ignored her, and continued to scold and use his belt to leave welts on her backside.
He was determined to make sure this was one punishment she never forgot, and by the time he put his belt back through the loops on his pants, Amanda was raw, and she felt she would never sit again.
She was crying so hard she couldn't stop, even when she knew it was all over.
"I would tell you to invite Rob for supper again, but I imagine the boy has more sense than come near you, Mandy.
You'd better think to mendin' your ways or you'll grow old and not have anyone who cares about you.
Matt didn't offer comfort like he did the last time he spanked her.
He left her crying and feeling miserable as he went outside to get to work and make sure his hands were doing what they were supposed to be doing.
Amanda felt awful. Her backside was flaming and burned like fire!
She had welts on top of welts, and she wanted nothing more than to go up to her room and undress and apply cold cloths and the salve that Goldie gave her.
Instead, she righted her skirts and did her best to pull herself together and straighten the kitchen before Goldie came home.
It took her the better part of an hour, and only then did she take herself upstairs and take a look at her bare bottom in the mirror.
It looked just as bad as it felt, and the cold cloths were a welcome relief.
Amanda finally applied the salve to her throbbing rear, and then she crawled into bed and cried herself to sleep.
When Matt came in to eat at noon he frowned when he saw that Mandy was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Mandy, Goldie?" he demanded.
"Sleeping. She is ill."
"Did she ask for a tray?" he asked with a frown.
"No. She is ill."
"Is she still throwin' up?" he wanted to know.
"No; she was doing that?" Goldie asked in concern.
Matt relayed the whole story, and concluded with, "I'm sure Mandy don't feel like sittin' here to eat, but don't you be takin' trays to her, either."
"Straps are not for delicate girls, Mr. Chambers," Goldie surprised him by scolding. "She was ill, and you punished her. Shame on you." She slammed his plate on the table and then left the room to go and check on Amanda.
Amanda did not come downstairs until the next day, and she was feeling more like herself then, although her backside was too sore to contemplate sitting, much less riding her mare.
She did make it a point to go and check on Glimmer and care for her, and she thanked Whitey for doing her job the day before.
He told her he didn't mind, and said he was glad she was feeling better.
Amanda did her best to avoid her father, but that only lasted until it was time to eat supper. Matt insisted she join him, and Amanda did her best to deny she was hungry. Of course her stomach picked that moment to growl, and he frowned and told her he didn't appreciate being lied to.
"Okay, Father. The truth is that there isn't an inch of my butt that isn't bruised. I was sore before you took your belt to me, and I am even sorer today than I was yesterday. I do not want to sit at the table to eat. I prefer my own company, thank you very much!"
"You earned that strapping, girl," Matt got to his feet to tell her.
"Yes, I did, but you didn't need to make me feel like nothing afterwards! That was mean. I needed to know that you still loved me, and you walked out of the house and didn't care that I was in so much pain I couldn't move."
"I had to get to work, girl. Hell, if I didn't love you, I wouldn't of tanned you."
"It didn't feel that way!" she said, and promptly burst into tears.
"I'm sorry, honey," Matt said, and then he pulled her close and hugged her close. "Papa loves you; don't cry."
And that is how Rob found them when Gloria let him into the house and told him he could find Matt in the dining room.
"Son, what's wrong?" Matt asked.