Chapter Five #2
"Sir?" She curtseyed as she had been taught to do, thinking the English custom was a little silly, but she needed the job if her Pa was to have the medicine he needed to control his pain.
"Did you dust in here today, Martha?" the tall man demanded, disapproval in his voice.
"Why, yes, sir, I did!" She'd dusted every little bit of wood and made the room as tidy as could be.
"You moved my personal papers?" he asked, his dark eyes raking over her, enjoying the fear that leaped into her blue eyes when she realized she was in disfavor.
"I picked them up to dust and put them back exactly as they were. I didn't read them, sir!" she added the last, her stomach muscles clenched in fear.
"How do I know that?"
"I wouldn't lie, sir. My Pa and Ma taught me better."
"Did they also teach you it was acceptable to snoop through personal correspondence?"
"No, sir! But, I didn't!"
"You are dismissed. And I will withhold your earnings for the past week as compensation for your snooping."
"But, sir, I did not snoop, and I need my wages and my job! Please, sir. My Pa is ill, and he needs medicine."
The man stood and looked down his nose at her, smiling coldly when he saw the fear in her eyes.
He kept her in suspense, letting her dwell on the enormity of losing her position.
Finally, when a tear leaked from one eye and ran down her cheek, he said, "Very well. I will permit you to keep your position, provided you will accept another punishment."
"I need my job, sir."
"Then you will pull up your skirts, and bare yourself, and lie across my desk for a taste of cane."
"Cane...?" she repeated.
"A cane is used to administer an unforgettable punishment, young lady. I expect you to obey me immediately or leave my house."
Martha was shocked, but she moved to do as he said.
She needed the job too badly to protest.
And, if wasn't as though she hadn't been whipped before.
Her Ma used a switch or her hairbrush, and her Pa used a wooden ruler.
She was grown now, and she could handle a tanning.
It was baring her bottom that gave her the most embarrassment.
She hadn't been spanked in over three years now, and she was aware that her employer was not related to her in any way.
Still, her Pa's pain was terrible and she couldn't bear to see him suffer.
She could take a little whipping if it would spare her Pa.
The man took a cane from the cupboard, walked up behind Martha and swished the cane through the air.
It whistled, and he knew it would hurt like the very devil when he brought it down on her very pretty bottom with a vicious swing.
The girl screamed at the unexpected severity of the stroke and she tried to rise.
He put his hand on her back and asked, "Would you rather lose your position in this house?" he asked pointedly.
"No, sir, but you are hurting me!" The line across her buttocks was burning furiously and the thought of another stroke make her knees week.
"That is the entire purpose of the exercise," the man replied and gave her a second welt below the first. Again, Martha screamed, and then she started sobbing from the intense pain.
Martha was sure she would die from the caning as the third stroke landed in the crease below her bottom cheeks.
Nothing in her life had ever given her so much pain!
"Please, sir, no more. I beg of you. I did not read your papers!"
He ignored her pleas for mercy, and gave her two more cuts in a row, one on her left thigh and one on her right.
Martha hurt too much to scream. She was going to die!
The man gave his hapless victim two more across her plump cheeks, and then he said, "This will be the last, and in accordance with custom, the harshest cut of all. When I am finished, you will rise and thank me for punishing you, Martha,
and then you will fix your clothing and go back to your duties. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir!" she was barely able to choke out the reply.
He kept her waiting for well over a minute, and then he raised the cane high and gave her the last cut over the one he'd given her before on the tender crease just below her bottom cheeks.
Martha gasped and he saw her collapse on the desk.
It took her quite a while to compose herself enough to stand, but she did, and whispered the words, "Thank you for punishing me, sir, and permitting me to keep my job."
She was embarrassed to reach down to the floor to pull her drawers up over her aching backside.
She could barely walk, the pain was so intense, but she needed her job.
"I hope you have learned a valuable lesson this day, Martha. Should I have need to address you in this manner again, you will receive double what you had today."
She bowed her head and said, "Yes, sir."
As he watched her leave the study the man decided that the maid would need to be disciplined again in a few days.
It was amazing how much better it made him feel.
He turned his attention back to the bastard he meant to destroy. It was time to hire a shootist, a hired gun, and pay him to make Robert Thorne suffer as he had suffered. He wanted Robert Thorne to beg to die.
* * *
It was a week before Rob decided to go and see Amanda, and he was wary of the reception he would get.
Matt said she was finally sitting again a couple of days ago, but he did not have a clue as to whether she was plotting Rob's demise or not.
Rob was optimistic that the rustling was over, and he hoped that whoever hired them had had enough revenge.
As far as Rob knew he didn't have any enemies, and certainly none in this country.
He pulled his buggy up in front of the house and took a deep breath.
With the feisty Amanda a man had no clue what to expect from her.
She could be so sweet one moment, and ready to slice someone to ribbons in the very next second.
He could only hope she was not furious with him for the spankings he had given her.
Amanda heard the knock on the door and called out to Goldie that she would get it.
She smiled when she saw Robert Thorne standing there, his hat in his hand.
"Hi, Rob. Come in." She led him into the parlor and invited him to sit down before saying, "If you're here to see Papa, he is out on the north range."