Free The Firecracker Gets Her Man by Joannie Kay

love with a man and married to his kid brother. Beth, you know very well that Jack is still a kid!” With that she entered the office again and quietly shut the double doors.
    Beth suddenly burst into tears and Bill took her by the arm and led her into the parlor saying, “Excuse us, Lance. We need some time alone.” He shut those doors and Lance smiled to himself. If he were a betting man, Miss Beth was going to have a very sore backside in a few minutes.
    He went back to the kitchen, finished the dishes, and wiped down the table. Trying to stay busy, he swept the floor. When he was finished with that, Lance decided to see if the ingredients for vegetable soup were handy. He could fix a pot of that and help Rachel. He didn’t find everything, so he put on his hat and headed for the front door. He would look around for Jared Cane and then he would meet the stage again to see if Misty Feathers was arriving earlier than Rachel thought she would. He could hear raised voices coming from the parlor as he walked past, but decided to keep his nose out of the situation.
    * * *
    “Stop crying and talk to me, missy!” Bill said sternly once he seated her on the sofa. “Is Miss Rachel right? Are you really in love with me and just pretending to be in love with Jack?”
    When she just sniffled and dabbed at her leaking eyes with her pretty embroidered handkerchief, he raised his voice. “Answer me right now, and tell me the truth for once!”
    “Rachel is right, Bill. I love you, and I always have!”
    “Then why would you pretend to love Jack?” he asked, truly baffled and angry all at once.
    “Because all you ever did was scold me, Bill. You treated me like a bratty kid sister instead of a grown woman! I hoped you would be jealous and stand up and claim me for your own! You never did, and I gave up! I want to marry and have children. I’m tired of living with Mike and Amy. I want my own home!”
    “I treated you like a bratty kid sister because I was waiting for you to grow up, Beth! I fell in love with you when you first pinned up your hair and started wearing long skirts. You didn’t seem to know how to be an adult, however. All your damn stunts – I felt more like spanking you than kissing you. Then you turned to Jack, and I wasn’t about to fight my brother over a woman who seemed fickle.”
    “I’m not fickle! You were mean to me all the time!”
    “I wanted you to grow up.”
    “I am grown. I am!”
    “A grown woman doesn’t lead on one brother while in love with the other brother. That is just plain ridiculous, and it is dangerous. How do you think Jack is going to feel when you tell him the truth, and you are going to tell him the truth, Elizabeth.”
    “Please don’t call me that. He did, and I can’t bear it, Bill,” she whispered.
    “I’m sorry. I know he was cruel, but did he force you, honey?” he asked in genuine concern. Her stepfather was a real bastard, and there wasn’t one person around Rusty Bucket who liked the man.
    “No. He was going to one night after Mama died, but I screamed, and Mikey came running with the shotgun and told him if he ever touched me again, he would kill him. He left the next day. Mama had fixed it so he didn’t inherit anything she and Papa worked for. It went to Mike like they planned, and I have a good size dowry that Mikey will give me when I marry. I just don’t like to be chastised by my given name; it brings back bad memories. He didn’t beat me, but I spent hours doing chores and wasn’t allowed to have any fun. Mama told him he was too hard on me, but he claimed I was spoiled rotten.”
    “You aren’t spoiled. You work hard; I’ve seen that.”
    “Thank you,” she said with a pleased smile.
    “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I am not upset as can be with you, because I am. You need a good spanking.”
    “You can’t spank me! I’ve told you I am not a child!”
    “You behaved like a child. You just don’t lead a man on the way you have