The Sheriff Wears Pants (18 page)

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.  “It’s just that I feel so guilty.  Poor little Darcy was all alone because I wasn’t there to look after her, and that man tried to hurt her.  She wants you to come home right away.  I’m all right now, and I’ll be along.  You go fast.  She shouldn’t be all alone!”

Will’s heart was in his throat as he ran as fast as he could run for home.  What had happened to his sweet little wife?  If someone hurt her, he would kill them!  He was scared as he neared the house, and he simply jumped the fence and bounded up the steps to the porch.  He ran
inside and yelled, “Darcy!  Darcy!  Where are you?”  He was almost up the staircase, running to their bedroom when she called to him from below.

“I’m down here, darling.  Calm down!”  She looked at him in shock.  “What is wrong?”

“Calm down?  What’s wrong?  What’s happened to you?” he demanded, looking her over, head to toe.  “Greta said a man tried to hurt you?  Who was it?  By God, I’ll kill him with my bare hands!”

“Darling, sh!  Calm down now.”  She wrapped her arms around him and held his shaking body close to hers.  “You can see I am just fine.  I don’t know what Greta said to upset you so much, but I’m
not
hurt.  I handled the situation myself, but I didn’t want to leave my cookies to bring you a prisoner.”

“What?”  Nothing she said was making sense.  But, he gave thanks, she seemed to be alright.

“I was baking you some molasses cookies, and Rusty Campbell came to the front door to take me captive so he could force you to release his brother.  I refused to go with him, of course.  I told him I wasn’t about to let this house burn down because he was selfish.  He didn’t like that too well, and he tried to grab me.  I kicked him where it hurts most, and then gave him a chop on the back of his neck.  While he was unconscious, I tied his hands and feet, and then put another tray of cookies in the oven.  When Greta got home, I asked her to please go and ask you to come home so you could take Rusty to jail.  I won’t be threatened like that, and I think having him stand trial for attempted kidnapping is a good idea.  It might discourage anyone else who thinks to have their way in that manner.”  She paused and looked at him.  “Are you alright, darling?”

“I was so damned scared!” he whispered emotionally.  “Greta was bawling, and said she wasn’t here to protect you, and this man tried to hurt you….  I thought you’d been beaten or raped, sweetheart, and I was planning to kill the bastard with my bare hands.  Please, just let me hold you until I can breathe normally.”

He needed to hold her in his arms and reassure himself that his precious wife was safe.  He’d died a thousand times at least, assuming the very worst, and now that she was in his arms, and unhurt, he was having trouble calming down.  Oh, thank God, Darcy was safe!

“Oh, poor you!  I was never in real danger, Will.  You know that I can take care of myself.  You were so right about Rusty, he is all bluster.  He and his brother could do with some serious discipline.  Gram would have straightened them out in a big hurry, I can tell you that.”  Her hands rubbed his back comfortingly, and she kissed him tenderly.  “You are feeling the same panic I felt when Waldo told me you were going to be in a gunfight!”

“Love is wonderful, but it can also hurt like nothing else.  I’d rather anything happened to me than to you,” he whispered, trying to be manly and not cry.

“And I would rather it happened to me than to you, my darling.”

“Wait until we have children.  We’ll both be crazy if they get hurt in any way.”  He was trying to be humorous, but it was the darn truth, and he knew it!

“That is so true.  I remember how protective Gram was of me all the time.”  She squirmed in his arms, “Will, I need to check on my cookies.  Please remember that Rusty is suffering from aching private parts and a splitting headache.  He is also tied and can’t protect himself.”

“I’ll try,” Will said, doing his best to remember that he was wearing a badge and it wouldn’t do for him to pound on a mouthy kid just because that kid threatened his Darcy.

Rusty was awake when they walked into the kitchen.  He’d somehow managed to scoot next to the wall and was propped up.  He looked at Will in obvious fear for one second, and then
put on his blustery attitude.  “She kicked me when all I did was try to get her to come to the jail with me to talk you into releasing Buster!”

“Rusty, don’t lie to me.  I know my wife very well, and if you’d asked her nicely to help you, she probably would have come up with a solution that was fair.”  Will could see that Rusty didn’t believe him, but at this point, he didn’t care.  He was furious with the kid for daring to threaten Darcy.

“I
do
have a solution,” Darcy said with a smile, much to Will’s dismay.  “I am sure Mrs. Forrester would approve, too.  Buster needs a good thrashing, and he needs to work at an honest job, and see just how difficult it is to earn money the right way.  I think you need the same thing, Rusty.”

“I ain’t got to listen to you, lady!”

“No, you don’t have to listen to me.  You can serve time in prison instead for attempted kidnapping, and for threatening to rape me!” she told bluntly told him, then wished she hadn’t when Will’s temper exploded.

“He what?”  Will roared, closing the distance between himself and Rusty in two strides.  He picked him up off the floor by his shirt and pulled back his fist to slug him when Darcy put her hand on his fist to stop him.

“No, Will.  Can’t you see?  That is all this boy has known.  My guess is that his parents died young and he and his brother were given to an Uncle to raise.  They were made to work, and not given a word of praise and no money, either.  They don’t know what it’s like to earn money instead of a fist.”

“Did my brother tell you all of that?”  Rusty asked, tears in his blue eyes.

“No, I haven’t talked to him at all.  Am I right?”

He nodded.  “As soon as I could, I got us away from Uncle Frank.  We didn’t get no schoolin’, either.  I don’t want Buster to go to prison.”

“I don’t want you to go to prison, either, but with that attitude of yours, that is where you are headed.”  Darcy felt it was time to be honest with him.

He bowed his head.  “I’m sorry.  You’re a nice lady, Mrs. Davies.  I really feel awful for being mean to you.”

“Mrs. Forrester is a nice lady, too, and Rusty, she and her husband raised ten kids and she earned money by taking in laundry and ironing.  Her husband shoed horses.  They worked so hard, and did without anything to make sure their kids were fed.  She doesn’t want Buster to go to prison, she wants him to learn better.”

“Can you make that happen?” he asked hopefully.  “It might be too late for me, but Buster is only thirteen, and he deserves a chance.”

* * * * *

“We need to have a talk, and by that I mean a talk with your butt bare and over my knee, young lady,” Will said firmly once he was home for the night.  His deputy was at the jail, and he was seasoned enough by now that Will felt safe leaving him alone.  He’d found his wife upstairs in their bedroom, already wearing a pretty nightdress and brushing out her long red hair while she waited for him to come home.

“What did I do wrong?”  Darcy asked, her green eyes wide and full of confusion.  She’d been home most of the day, and had even baked molasses cookies for her husband!

“You cannot make promises like you made today to a prisoner.”  Will was very upset with her for doing so, and he intended to make that quite clear on her backside so that she never even considered doing something so foolish again!

“Oh,
that
!” she said, nodding her head as she realized what he was complaining about.  “I feel strongly that both of those boys need a guiding hand instead of prison.”

“I feel
you
need a guiding hand,” Will said, and just that quick, he pulled her over his lap on the bed and started spanking her!

“Don’t, Will!” she complained, trying to scoot free.  She wanted to make love, not nurse a sore bottom!  “This is
not
what I planned for tonight!  I wanted to comfort you!” she told him, trying again to get free of him, but he simply dragged her back and wrapped his left arm around her waist to hold her where he wanted her.

“You can do that, too, but
after
I give you a good spanking.”  He pushed up her pretty, lace-trimmed nightdress to bare her equally pretty rounded bottom.  He gave her a firm spank and then another, causing Darcy to squeal in outrage and wounded dignity.

“Will, don’t do this!  This was a special case and I don’t intend to do something of this sort often.”  He continued to spank her, his hand stinging and hard on her bared cheeks.  “Ow!  This isn’t fair!  You let me go”

“What isn’t fair is promising Rusty something the Judge won’t approve of!  And, who is going to take those two boys in and give them a chance?”  He continued to redden her cheeks and then he spanked her sit spots while she kicked and doubled her efforts to get away from him.  “Am I making my point?” he demanded.

“I will find someone willing to do that!” she promised, hoping he would stop soon.

“Do you think that will be easy?”  Will thought she was being very naïve.

“Yes, I’m sure it will be.  The ranchers and farmers around here are always looking for hired help!  They may be at different homes, but wouldn’t that be better than going to prison and sharing a cell there?” she asked, crying out as the spanking increased in intensity.

Will spanked even harder.  “You are
not
listening to me, are you?”

“Yes, I am, but are you listening to me?  You are right, I need to find someone willing to foster them and since it was my idea, I am the one who needs to find a place for each of them, and when the Judge arrives, I need to speak with him in private to see if he will permit probation of sorts.  Ow!  You are spanking so hard, Will!  I’m not going to be able to sit down tomorrow, and I will need to ride out into the country to find work for them!  Please stop!”

“It will serve you right to spend your entire day looking for someone to take them in, Darcy Elizabeth Davies.  And, if you fail, or if the Judge refuses to entertain your meddling, then
you
will be the one to tell those boys you failed them.  Then, we are going to revisit this spanking with the paddle to ensure you
never
make a promise of this sort again.” 

He dumped Darcy on her side of the bed, and she scooted as far away from him as she could.  Her romantic feelings of earlier were replaced with murderous thoughts she didn’t feel like exploring too closely. 

She was determined to find someone to take in the boys, someone with strong moral character who could help the boys grow up without beating them every time they turned around!  How on earth she would sit her saddle in the morning was a mystery, thanks to her hardheaded husband, but she would do it, and she would find the Campbell brothers a good home with lots of hard work they were paid for doing.  Once she accomplished that, Darcy would talk to the Judge and see if she could convince him to give the boys a second chance.  Maybe she would even see if Mrs. Forrester would go to the Judge, too.  As a mother of ten children, seven of whom were boys, she would put in a word for the brothers.  It was worth asking.  Darcy wanted to prove her doubting husband wrong!

Darcy waited until Will was gone for the day before she came downstairs.  Her poor backside was very tender and she didn’t know how on earth she was going to sit her saddle, but she had just a few days before the Judge was due to arrive in Cactus Hill to determine Rusty’s and Buster’s fates, and she wanted to make the most of her time.

“It’s not like you to let the Sheriff go off to work without tellin’ him good bye, Missy,” Greta said.  “Are you feeling alright?” she asked.

“I’m fine, Greta.  I just couldn’t get to sleep last night, and I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning.  I’m going out for a ride and I might not be home for lunch.  I
will
be home in time to cook dinner, however.  I know you have your Bible study group tonight.”

“I’m thinkin’ you might want to talk with Louisa, Missy.  She’s torn apart right now.”

“Did she say why?”

“No, and it ain’t my way to ask.”

“I’ll speak to Louisa, Greta,” she promised.  She ate a piece of toast, standing up, and drank some coffee, also while standing up, and then she went to knock on Louisa’s bedroom door.  John had moved to Doctor Grayson’s right after Eleanor passed, and Louisa confided in her that Doc was trying to get John to stay in Cactus Hill, but John was torn.

Louisa opened her door and smiled, but Darcy could see she’d been crying.  There was an open trunk on the floor and a valise on the bed, and Darcy could see Louisa was packing.  “You and John have made a decision, then?” she asked with a sad smile.

“We have, and it hurts so much!”  Louisa burst into tears.  “You are like a sister to me, Darcy, and leaving here is so difficult!”

“I’m going to miss you something awful!”  Darcy tearfully admitted.

“John said the guilt is tearing him up inside.  His Father’s patients need him to come home.  They are without medical care there, and Doctor Grayson will be able to practice medicine for many years yet.  So, John and I are going home.  You and Will better come for our wedding, Darcy!”  Louisa said firmly.