Free The Farmer's Reluctant Bride by Dina Chapel

walloping her until she
couldn’t sit for a week.
    He ran back into the barn to saddle
his horse again, thinking at the same time what the best course of action would
be. It was dark and wet—he’d be unable to track her. He had no idea which
direction she headed (or was taken). He walked his confused horse out through
the barn doors.
    Then he heard it. The distinct
sound of a horse trotting through the sodden earth toward the barn. Hank stood
just outside the barn doors waiting until he could make out the form of a horse
and rider. It was Mandy.
    Relief coursed through Hank
instantly, followed by anger. He released his horse back into the barn and
moved forward to meet Mandy’s. She smiled at him when they made eye contact,
but then the smile quickly left her face. Hank knew it was because his
expression probably resembled that of a thundercloud. He grabbed the horses
reins from her hands as soon as he was able and walked the horse and rider into
the barn.
    “Hank—” Mandy started, but stopped
as soon as Hank held up his hand as a signal for her to be silent.
    Once inside the barn, Hank pulled
her down from her perch in the saddle and immediately hugged her tight, for
longer than just a moment. He hadn’t realized until he caught sight of her just
how worried her absence had made him. He was more than glad that she had
returned to him safely.
    He finally let her go only to grab
her upper arm and pull her over to a corner of the barn where some hay bales
were stacked. Hank wasted no time. He bent her over a high stack of bales,
lifting her so that her legs dangled with her feet unable to touch the ground.
    Hank pulled up her wet dress and
petticoats and pulled down her pantaloons.
    “Hank, please let me explain.” One
hard smack to her bare backside and Mandy cried out.
     Hank pulled his belt from his pant
loops and folded it in half. He saw Mandy turn her head to the side and see the
belt and start to struggle. Hank subdued her with one strong hand on her lower
back.
    Hank brought that strap of leather
down hard on Mandy’s bare skin, laying a straight pink stripe across the middle
of her rounded bottom.
    Mandy cried out loud and kicked her
legs. She threw her hands back but Hank deftly caught them and pinned them
against her back. She continued to kick and squirm while Hank continued to
strap her bare behind with his belt, over and over, until the kicking stopped,
and then the squirming too.
    Hank heard her crying and knew it
was probably enough for now, but he still gave her a few more to drive the
lesson home. Each lick brought renewed sobbing, but Hank was undeterred. She
would never do something like this again.
    He stopped and Mandy lay limp and
sobbing on the haystack. Hank replaced his belt and then lifted her onto her
feet. Holding her by her upper arms, with her tears streaming down her face, he
shook her.
    “Get yourself into the cabin and
straight into bed,” Hank commanded. “If you’re not in bed when I come in, I’ll
take my belt to your backside again.” With those words Hank turned Mandy to
face the barn doors and gave her one very hard swat on her punished behind. She
fled, crying, out of the barn.
    *  
*   *
    When Hank entered the cabin after
finishing the evening chores, Mandy was in bed and sound asleep. She had a soft
snore, that Hank had grown fond of, and so he always knew when she was
sleeping, as opposed to when she was just pretending to sleep and thought she
had tricked him into thinking so.
    He walked over to her side of the
bed and stared down at her. She had changed into her nightgown (Hank wasn’t
sure if she would do that), and he could see the tears that had dried on her
cheeks. She must have fallen asleep crying. She hiccoughed and whimpered a
little in her sleep and Hank winced.
    He had punished her harshly, more
harshly than he ever had before, and he knew why. He had done so in anger. It
was the first time. He was feeling a bit unsettled about that. In fact,