Free Rebellious Bride by Lizbeth Dusseau Page B

on
the settee, as Aaron stood over them with a fixed stare that would pen- etrate an iron vault.
    ‘Now, my fair
brats, tell me why you’re both reeking like a mountain still,’
    “What do
you mean reeking like a mountain still?” Darcy jumped in, almost defying
Aaron to be annoyed by the fact. “You think I don’t know the smell of
mountain spirits?” he said. “Where’ve you been?”
    “It was
just a little, Aaron,” Darcy droned.
    “Abigail,
you want to tell me the truth?” he asked turning to his wife.
    Abigail looked
at Darcy, who looked at Abigail. The redhead was pretty flippant, and Abigail
would be too, except that she wasn’t thinking very clearly and she was too
tired to make up a story that Aaron would believe.
    “Oh, good
lord, Aaron. It’s nothing. I took her to Old Hannah’s,” Darcy suddenly
jumped in with the truth herself.
    “You
what!” Aaron snapped.
    “It was
all very harmless. There’s nothing wrong with spirits. There’re kind of
soothing to the soul, I think.”
    “No
wonder you got lost coming home,” Aaron said. “That old woman should
know better.”
    “She was
very hospitable,” Darcy informed him.
    “I’m sure
she was, but that hardly excuses your lack of self-control. Either one of you.
Not to mention that you practically spit in my face to take that trail after
all the warnings I gave you.’
    “You
never forbid me to go down the gorge,” Abigail reminded him indignantly.
“That doesn’t mean it’s any safer than the ridge, and you should have
enough sense to know it,” Aaron barked at her.
    “I think
you’re making mountains of molehills,” Darcy announced.
    “And I
think otherwise. You two set off on this wild hike just to spite me, you drank
like a couple of rowdies, got yourself lost. You’re in a heap of trouble.”
    “You have
no place to lecture me, Aaron Barrowl ” Darcy
blurted out trying to rise from her seat.
    ‘Sit
down!” Aaron blared. “I’ve as much right to lecture you as I did
before. Any woman or man that leads my wife into a near disaster like this
deserves exactly what she gets.”
    “Aaron .
. . ” Abigail tried interrupt, until Aaron turned his angry eye on her.
    “And you!
You were getting back at me for reining in your fancy ideas this morn- ing . I know you well enough to have that one figured.”
Aaron’s fury seemed to grow by leaps and bounds with his thoughts focusing on
his wife. “The only way I know to settle this is in the shed, ladies. I
suspect you’d better go there now before I get any angrier.”
    ‘Aaron,
no,” Abigail pleaded.
    “Don’t
even try it, Abby. Go to the shed and wait for me. And if it’s a long wait, all
the better. Maybe it will scare you as much as you two brats scared me
tonight.”
    Aaron turned
on his heel and left the room.
    “Good,
God, what have we done?” Abigail said, despondently. The thought of
getting spanked that night was not appeal- ing .
    “Having
fun,” Darcy whispered to her, not at all chagrined by the consequences.
“So, if we get our asses whupped , well then, let
it be as good as the brew we had today.” She was practically smiling,
hardly quaking in her boots the way Abigail was. Such nerve Darcy had, Abigail
thought, as her dearest friend in all the world led her by to the shed behind
the house.
    Aaron had
never punished Abigail in this shed. He’d threatened a couple of times, but
she’d managed to avert that hap pening . In recent
weeks, behaving herself so well, she was beginning to think that she’d never
have to face another chastise- ment . Strange how
things can change so fast. Not so strange that it took a visit from Darcy
Greenwood to make that change.
    The two women
waited at least fif -teen minutes before Aaron arrived
at the shed. Those minutes were interminable, each woman recalling the times
before that Aaron had bared and bruised their bottoms.
    At least when
Aaron finally showed his face in the doorway, he was not as angry as he’d