Clifton County Fireworks (2 page)

“When I get my hands on you, little
girl, you are going to wish you’d stayed home today!”
 
Johnny dared to threaten her.

“
Ohhhh
! 
You are the most infuriating person I’ve ever met in my entire life!”
 
Jennie Rose stopped throwing things long
enough to declare, and in that instant, he had her.  “Let me go! 
Help!  Help!  Help!”
 
She
screamed, but no one stepped forward to interfere.  In fact, people seemed
curious as to what Johnny was going to do next.  “You let me go!”

“Not on your life, brat!”
 
Johnny answered her.  He took a seat
on the short bench people used to try on new shoes and boots, and hauled her
struggling body down over his lap.  “I’m going to enjoy this, Jennie Rose
Clifton!”  He tossed up her shirts to reveal her lace-trimmed drawers, and
started spanking her rounded bottom with a lot of enthusiasm.  “Maybe this
will teach you some manners, little girl!”
 
He scolded, spanking her soundly.

“Stop it, you fool!  Let me
go!  Oh, I hate you, Johnny Tanner!  I really hate you!”

“You don’t douse a man with lemonade
because he tells you that you can’t cook worth a damn!”

“Oh!  How dare you!”

“Maybe because I paid ten dollars for
the privilege, you spoiled little brat!  You need to seriously grow
up!”  He continued to spank her backside, and showed no signs of stopping.

“
Owwwww
! 
You’re hurting me!”
 
Jennie Rose
finally started crying.  “Let me go!”

It was about then that the Sheriff came
striding into the store and stayed Johnny’s hand.  “Let Jennie Rose up,
son.  Folks are getting an eyeful.”

Blessedly, Johnny stopped spanking and
dumped Jennie Rose on the floor.  She quickly scrambled to her feet and
smoothed down her skirts, her face completely scarlet.

“I expect you two have the funds to pay
for the mess you made of Mr. McCauley’s Mercantile?”
 
The Sheriff looked at the two of them
sternly.

Her first time home in two year’s time,
and of course Johnny Tanner would have to be home to spoil it.  The thing
was, not a day had gone by during those two years that she hadn’t thought of
him and wondered what he was doing, and if he ever spared her a thought.

********************

Johnny decided to bed down outside of
town.  His Ma and little brother would be sound asleep by now, and he
didn’t want to wake them, or startle his Ma by coming in the door so late at
night.  Besides, he needed the time to gather his courage to face the
people in Clifton.  He let his temper goad him into behaving like an ass
two years ago, and he never wanted to put his Ma through something that
embarrassing again. 

He’d left town before the fireworks
that night, and hadn’t been home since.  According to his Ma, Jennie Rose
Clifton left town the next morning on the stage, headed east, and hadn’t been
home since.  That saddened him.  He hadn’t meant for one little
spanking to have lasting repercussions for both of them.  He should have
kept his mouth shut about the food, even though it was awful.  

He made a pot of coffee and heated up
some beans for his supper.  He’d eaten more beans in the last two years
than he could recall, and home cooked meals were few and far in between. 
Mostly he ate at restaurants or in saloons that served food, when he wasn’t on
the trail.  That meant beans and jerky, if he was lucky.  Jennie Rose
would love knowing that, he was sure…if she ever thought of him.

********************

Jennie Rose was up early, having
promised herself the simple joy of wearing pants and going for a ride. 
Her father had plenty of horses in his barn, and it didn’t take her long to put
a blanket and saddle on a stallion, mount up, and be on her way.  Her father
wouldn’t be down for breakfast for at least another two hours, and she fully
intended to enjoy this time alone.  Sooner or later she was going to have
to put in an appearance and say hello to old friends and neighbors, but she
needed this time alone first.  Hopefully, no one would dare to bring up
what happened two years ago!

Jennie Rose couldn’t imagine coming
face to face with Johnny.  She’d told her Aunt Caroline all about the
humiliating incident, and Aunt Caroline’s answer was to teach her how to
cook.  It still made her blush to realize that everything Johnny had said
about her cooking was true. 

The morning was beautiful, and Jennie
Rose was enjoying the first real freedom she’d experienced in two whole
years.  All of a sudden, three men came out of nowhere and surrounded
her.  “Hold on there, honey.  What’s your hurry?”
 
One of them asked with a smile that
showed his rotting, ugly teeth.

“Get away from me!”
 
Jennie Rose ordered sharply, wishing
she’d remembered to pick up a gun before leaving the house.

“I don’t think so, Miss.  Your
Daddy has something we want, and we aim to keep you with us until he forks over
some money.”

“You’re kidnapping me?”
 
Jennie Rose demanded furiously.

“I see you
understand, but we aim to treat you real good.”

Chapter Two

 
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
 
Jennie Rose said firmly.

“You don’t have a choice, girl.”
 
One of the men pulled a gun and pointed
it at her, his evil smile telling her she couldn’t do one thing to stop
them. 

Jennie Rose didn’t stop to think, but
gave her quick temper free rein; she sliced her riding crop down hard on the
man’s hand.  The man cried out in pain as his gun was sent flying through
the air.  It landed against a rock and discharged, spooking one of the
horses.  She tried to turn her stallion and head back to town and safety,
but one of the kidnappers grabbed her around the waist before she could get
very far, lifting her clear of her saddle.  Her mount headed back to town
without her, and Jennie Rose struggled to free herself. 

“Stop fighting me, girl, or I’m going
to get rough with you!”
 
The irate
man growled, and Jennie Rose promptly used her riding whip to jab him as hard as
she could.  “I warned you!”
 
He
growled furiously, and then threw her to the ground, causing her to drop her
only method of defense, her riding crop.  She tried to rise, but the jolt
knocked the air out of her lungs, and it was a struggle to get her breath.

In the meantime, the evil man jumped
off his horse and threw himself on top of her, in spite of her attempts to
avoid it.  “I always wanted to know what it felt like to have me a girl
who wore men’s britches.  I’m going to find out right now.  You’ll
regret using that crop on me, bitch!”
 
He promised, doing his best to control her wildly struggling body, and
the fingernails she scraped across his face.  He slapped her then, and
yelled at the other two.  “Hold her arms down, damn it!  She’s going
to learn the lesson of her life!”

“No!”
 
Jennie Rose fought, but the man was too
determined to have his way, and the other two grabbed her arms and held them so
she couldn’t do anything to defend herself.  He ripped off her shirtwaist
and camisole, and she tried to bite him when he started fondling her breasts.

“Girl, you just don’t know when to
quit.  I think you need a good
whippin
’ to teach
you your place!”  His hands went to his belt, and he drew it through the
loops and then doubled it in one hand.  “Either you promise to be real
nice to me, or I’m going to take the skin from your back and from those
titties
of yours that you’re too proud to let me touch!”

“Never!  I’d rather die first!”
 
Jennie Rose spat at him, hatred flaring
from her blue eyes.
 
He raised his
fist to punch her, but the blow never landed.  There was a shot and the
vicious man fell on top of her, dead.  The other two released her arms and
went for their guns; they didn’t clear their holsters before dying.

Jennie Rose looked at the man with the
smoking gun still in his hand and burst into tears.  “Get him off of me,
please!”
 
She begged.  The
rising sun was in her eyes and she couldn’t see who had come to her rescue.

“Hold on, honey.”
 
He pushed the body off of her slight
form.  “You’re all right now.  He can’t hurt you.”
 
He said, lifting her into his arms and
holding her close.

“Johnny?”
 
Jennie Rose whispered in shock,
recognizing his voice.  She’d never imagined her first meeting with him in
two years would be like this! 
How humiliating!

“You’re safe now, Jennie Rose.”
 
Johnny spoke in soothing tones. 
“You’ve had a bad scare, but you aren’t hurt.”  He found a spot to sit
down under a tree and simply held her and let her cry, rocking her back and
forth and whispering to her that she was just fine, and promising that he’d
never let anyone hurt her.  He shuddered to think what would have happened
if he’d been a few seconds later.  Mace Adams was cold blooded and
vicious, and he would have whipped her raw before forcing himself on her. 
Johnny gave thanks that he was in time to prevent that.

“Thank you for saving me.”
 
She finally pulled herself together
enough to speak.  “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come
along when you did.”  She was very lucky and she knew it.  “They were
kidnapping me, hoping to get money from my Father.”
 
She explained.

“Yeah, Mace Adams and his two brothers. 
They’re wanted for robbery, kidnapping, and murder in about five states. 
They probably heard you were coming home and figured your Father was wealthy
enough to pay a ransom to get you back.”  He didn’t tell her that they
always raped and killed their victims.  She was already upset enough and
he didn’t want to distress her even more.

“They didn’t intend to release me,
Johnny.  They didn’t try to hide their faces.  They were going to
rape me, and then kill me.”
 
She
said matter-of-factly, facing the truth.  “If you hadn’t come along when
you did…”
 
She shuddered and started
crying again.  “I’m so sorry to be so emotional.  I’m not usually
like this!”
 
She explained,
embarrassed to have him see her like this.  Why, she hadn’t carried on
this much when he spanked her in front of the entire town!

“No need to be sorry, Jennie
Rose.  You had a really bad scare, but you’re safe, honey.  I promise
I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
 
He
kissed her on the cheek before he could tell himself that it might not be appreciated
by the feisty young lady.  He simply wanted to comfort her.  “We’ll
get you back to town, and to your Father.  This will all be a bad dream in
a few days.”

“Oh, no!”
 
Jennie Rose suddenly realized that her
clothing was ripped and lying in shreds on the ground by that awful man’s body,
and her breasts were exposed!  She crossed her arms over herself and
started crying again, wishing the earth would open up and swallow her!  What
ever would she do now?  She couldn’t, and simply wouldn’t, ride into town
like this!

Johnny quickly interpreted the source
of her distress and said calmly and softly, “I have a clean shirt in my saddle
bags, Jennie Rose, and I’ll fetch it for you.  Don’t be embarrassed.”

“That man
touched
me!”
 
She wailed before she could help
herself.  She felt like such a big baby, but in spite of what people might
think of her, she was completely inexperienced with men.  Johnny was the
only one who’d dared to kiss her, and that was over two years ago!  This
whole situation was simply more than she could bear!

“Now you listen here, Jennie Rose.”
 
Johnny scolded.  “None of this is
your fault.  You didn’t ask for this to happen.  You hold your head
high, and remind yourself that it took three of them to hold you down. 
You didn’t do anything wrong.”  He put her on her feet, facing away from
him, and then he stood up.  “You come along with me to my camp.  I
promise to keep my eyes off your body and I’ll get that shirt for you, and
finish shaving my face before we head into town.  Ma hates whiskers.”
 
He grinned at the pretty little redhead,
not once permitting his eyes to look lower.  He offered her his hand,
wondering if she would take it, and she did, without hesitation.  It told
him how frightened she still was.  “You’ll be fine, Jennie Rose. 
Those three worked alone, and didn’t trust anyone else.”

“How can you be so sure, Johnny?”
 
She demanded.

“It’s my job to know.”
 
He answered shortly, and led her into a
small clearing.  “This is where I camped last night.  It was too late
to ride into Clifton, and I didn’t want to frighten Ma, or wake her and
Jeremy.”

Jennie Rose watched as he went directly
to his saddle bags and took out a clean shirt.  She accepted it from him
with a nod of thanks, and then turned away from him to put it on over her bruised
breasts.  Her skin was delicate and already showing signs of bruising, and
her face ached where Mace slapped her.  The red flannel shirt was huge on
her, of course, but she buttoned it up and rolled the sleeves up to her
wrists.  She immediately felt less vulnerable, and she was thankful that
Johnny treated her so respectfully.

Johnny quickly finished shaving, and
ran a comb through his red hair.  He cleaned up his camp, and then saddled
his stallion.  “Let’s go and I’ll tie those three to their mounts, and
take their bodies back to town.”

“What if the Sheriff accuses you of
killing them?”
 
Jennie Rose
worried. 

“He won’t, Jennie Rose.  He’ll be
happy to see they won’t be terrorizing helpless females.”

The three outlaws’ horses weren’t hard
to catch, and Johnny used blankets to wrap the bodies and then hoisted them
over their saddles.  He was trying to spare the citizens of Clifton a
shock, and he did believe in showing respect for the dead, even if they didn’t
really deserve respect.  It was just the principle of the thing.

“You act like you’ve done this before!”
 
Jennie Rose said accusingly. 

He just looked at her, but didn’t
respond.  Once he was finished, he asked thoughtfully, “Where’s your
horse, Jennie Rose?”

“He headed back to town when Mace Adams
grabbed me.”
 
She said
bitterly.  “He’s new since I was home, but I thought he looked
reliable.  He obviously needs more training.”
 
And she would see to it he got it, she
promised herself.

“No problem.  You can ride with
me.  Come on.”
 
He coaxed, as
he mounted and then held out his hand to help her up.

Jennie Rose had no choice, unless she
wanted to walk all the way back to town, and she didn’t.  Her body was
still shaking.  She permitted Johnny to pull her up in front of him, and
tried very hard not to be conscious of his body so close to hers.  It
didn’t help when he put one arm around her waist to steady her, and she was
shocked to realize she was still very attracted to the man.

“Jennie Rose,” Johnny said softly, “I
owe you an apology, and I’d like to get it over with right now.  I’m sorry
I embarrassed you so badly that you felt you had to leave town for the last two
years.  I lost my darn temper, and while that isn’t a good excuse, I
shouldn’t have turned you over my knee in front of the town the way I did.”

Jennie Rose felt her cheeks turn a
burning red.  “I shouldn’t have dumped the lemonade all over you for
telling me the truth about my cooking.  I lost my temper, too,
Johnny.”
 
She admitted. 
“Neither of us behaved very well, and we made a terrible mess of Mr. McCauley’s
Mercantile.  I’m not looking forward to facing him, either.
 
I doubt he will understand that we have
quick tempers.”

“We’re both redheads.”
 
He grinned, and then asked, “Can we
start over with each other?”

“I’d like that.”
 
She replied, and to her surprise, and
his, she giggled.  “Daddy and your mother won’t believe we have a
truce.  The whole town is expecting more fireworks from us!”

“The only fireworks they’re going to
get is the kind that light up the sky.”
 
Johnny chuckled.  “I suspect we’ve
both learned a bit about controlling our tempers in the last couple of
years.  I grew up a lot once I left home.”
 
He said seriously.

“I did, too.”
 
Jennie Rose said quietly.  “I was
just out of the schoolroom, and you were only twenty.  Two years can make
a huge difference.”

They made small talk the rest of the
way into town, but it didn’t take long to realize the entire town was in an
uproar when they rode in.  Jennie Rose was embarrassed at her disheveled
appearance, and could feel the eyes staring at her as she rode with
Johnny.  Of course people recognized them both, and the fact they were
leading three horses with dead bodies tied across the saddles, gave the
townspeople even more to gossip about.  Johnny took them straight to the
Sheriff’s office, and the door to the jail opened at once as the Sheriff and
Robert Clifton walked outside.

“Jennie Rose!”
 
Robert rushed forward to lift his
daughter down from Johnny’s saddle.  “Oh my God, honey, what has happened
to you?”

“Thankfully nothing, Daddy. 
Johnny Tanner saved me.”
 
She said
with a smile for the tall redhead.  “These three men were trying to kidnap
me for ransom, but they meant to kill me!”

“I got a ransom note already.”
 
Robert admitted.  “I came straight
to the Sheriff, and we were trying to handle this carefully.”  He hugged her
tightly.  “Thank you, Tanner.”
 
He said to Johnny, tears of gratitude in
his eyes as he offered the younger man his hand.

Johnny shook hands.  “No thanks
necessary, Mr. Clifton.  I’m glad I was in the right place at the right
time.  I heard Jennie Rose calling for help, and did what I had to do.”

“She’s a lucky little lady you were
there, Johnny.”
 
The Sheriff said as
he approached them after checking on the dead men’s identities.  “I
recognize those three from the wanted posters on them: Mace, George, and Evan
Adams.  There’s a huge reward for them in several states, all totaled, it
adds up to plenty.  You won’t need to wear a badge anymore if you don’t
want to, son.”