Chapter Twelve
Amanda gave Rob one last pleading look, hoping that he would change his mind about spanking her, but the look in his dark eyes gave her to know that he was totally serious and about to run out of patience.
Her backside was already too sore from the previous spankings he'd given her to risk making him angry and increasing the punishment he had planned.
Bravely, she stepped forward, stopping just out of his reach as he sat on the kitchen chair.
"Rob, I am truly sore and I really do not wish another spanking. Could you please forgive me?"
she asked, her green eyes full of pleading.
A sheen of tears filled Amanda's lovely green eyes and Rob found himself wanting to simply open his arms and offer forgiveness.
But then his mind flashed a picture of Jill's battered and bruised body, and he recalled her cries of pain, and he knew he simply could not risk having Amanda disobey him in this matter.
A good punishment could very well keep her from losing her life in the worst manner possible.
Sir Gregory Flockton was evil and he would hurt little Mandy for the sheer joy of making him suffer.
"You are forgiven, Amanda, but you will also accept the punishment you have earned. I am not going to permit you to behave as you have without giving you a good lesson. Now, lie over my knee so we can get this paddling started. I do not wish to use my belt and cause you emotional distress,
but if I need to teach you to obey me during a punishment, I will do whatever it takes. Do you understand me, young lady?"
Amanda nodded, feeling very small. At least she picked something rather flimsy from the drawer where Goldie kept her cooking utensils.
She used the very thin wooden spatula to spread frosting over the delicious cakes she baked.
It was the thinnest item in the drawer, and compared to the heavy wooden spoons with the large bowls, the spatula would not hurt nearly as much!
Rob felt like he had won a long, hard battle of wills when the little redhead finally complied with his wishes and crawled over his lap.
Her body felt warm and her rounded bottom was quite pretty under the thin cotton fabric.
The drawers weren't a bit fancy, but they suited Amanda, and Rob's imagination could picture what was underneath the simple fabric.
Once she stopped squirming and was settled, he wrapped his left arm around her waist, raised the spatula, and gave her the first stinging swat across her right cheek.
Amanda screamed in pain and did her best to throw herself off Rob's lap. He simply tightened his hold and she could not move. A second line of fire crossed her left cheek and she yelped again! "Owwwww! It hurts too much! Let me pick something else!"
"You picked this, Amanda, telling me it was the thinnest item in the drawer and that it could not hurt much, and even when I asked if you were sure, you insisted you were. Now you will accept what you have chosen."
He gave her another hard smack on her sit spots and Amanda bucked and then burst into tears.
He was a bit shocked at the strength of her reaction, but she had earned a punishment and she was going to have a punishment to remember the next time she was tempted to leave the house without permission.
If Sir Gregory Flockton were to capture her, this little spanking would seem like love taps in comparison.
He spanked again and again while Amanda cried out, begging him to stop.
"Stop! Please, Rob! It hurts too much and I cannot stand it!"
"Good. Perhaps you will think the next time you are tempted to defy your father and me." Rob ignored her cries of pain and set fire to her rounded cheeks and her upper thighs and the tender area in between.
Amanda was sobbing and begging for mercy a long while before Rob thought her sufficiently punished.
He continued to spank her over and over, leaving welts on top of welts.
Amanda was positive she would never sit down again, and she prayed for her father to come home and catch Robert Thorne spanking her!
She was sure her Papa would give Rob a piece of his mind and make him apologize to her!
Not that she was ever going to forgive Rob for spanking her after she begged him to stop! He was being cruel!
"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.