The Sheriff Wears Pants (3 page)

“Hey, Sheriff!  Come quick!  Hugo Baryon is in town and causing a ruckus in the General Store!”

Will took off running without giving Darcy so much as a word of departure.  That truly didn’t bother her because he’d done it before, explaining that those few moments could mean the death or injury of someone, or the destruction of property. Darcy would just have to tell him what she thought of him for spanking her when the chance again presented itself!  Right now, however, she had another man she wanted to deal with!  Darcy squared her slender shoulders and walked into the newspaper office.

“Oh great!”  Darcy heard Waldo murmur.  “Miss Darcy, I suppose you are upset with me for printing the truth?” 

“Of course I am upset, Waldo!” To her surprise, his lip was bleeding and he had a bruise growing on his chin and cheek! She ignored that and continued in an accusing tone of voice, “You know that awful spanking was very personal, Waldo!  I told you that a spanking was very private and it wasn’t meant for your newspaper.  I gave you a perfectly good interview, and you didn’t use
any
of that, just the embarrassing and totally personal happenings that were not meant for public knowledge!”

“I only reported what happened, Miss Darcy, and it was the simple truth.  The personal story behind the election is what my readers want to know about.”  He pushed his glasses up on his nose.

“It is
none
of their business!” Darcy angrily declared, bringing her hand down on the desk that separated them.

“Oh, but it is,” he retorted.  “My editorial is my own personal opinion of things as I see them. I can write anything I wish.”

She looked at him and said, “My personal opinion of you is what I would worry about if I were you, Waldo!  Not only will I stop buying your pitiful paper, I’ll campaign to get everyone else in town to stop buying and advertising, also!”

“May I quote you on that?” he asked, giving her a smile that set off her prickly temper!

* * * * *

Editorial April 14, 1871

The campaign for the office of Sheriff is humorous as well as dangerous!  My bruises are starting to fade and my broken nose and split lip are healing.  It would seem that neither Sheriff Davies nor Miss Hamilton appreciates my editorials about their campaign, but I am determined to reveal the real story behind the election.  Perhaps those of you who think a woman not capable of using force if necessary should see Miss Hamilton throw a punch.  It was she who broke my nose!  The reality is that she is tougher than Sheriff Davies.  He only split my lip.  Miss Hamilton admitted that she decided to run for Sheriff because Will Davies is not the man he pretends to be.  She, and a good many others in town, witnessed Davies kissing Miss Priscilla Clemons.  Sheriff Davies answer to this: “I didn’t kiss her!”  Who is telling the truth?

* * * * *

“I didn’t believe Mr. Phares when he told me you’d struck him, Darshana,” Eleanor said, looking over the newspaper at her granddaughter.  “You must apologize to the man!”

“No, Gram.  I won’t do it. I’m
not
sorry for breaking his nose, and I am considering doing it again!”

“Darshana!”

“I know, Gram.  You didn’t raise me to go around hitting people, but Waldo deserved it, and after this editorial, he deserves it again!”

“I did speak to the Mayor, and while your name is on the ballot, we can inform people that you no longer wish to run for office.  We can take out a large ad in Mr. Phares’ newspaper and hope that everyone sees it,” Eleanor suggested firmly, choosing not to address her granddaughter’s threat to Waldo Phares. If she hadn’t been pretty much confined to her wheelchair, Eleanor was apt to stomp on the weasel herself!  While she didn’t condone her granddaughter breaking Waldo’s nose, she couldn’t say he didn’t deserve it.  It was awful of him to tell the entire town that Will spanked Darshana
or
that she broke his nose! 

“Gram, I will post a notice on the bulletin boards around town, and I will make an announcement at the dance this Friday, and at services Sunday morning, provided Reverend Whittaker permits me to do so, but I will not pay that pompous Waldo one cent to publish an ad in his despicable paper.  In fact, I intend to run the man out of town!” Darcy was positive the town would be better off without the odious man stirring up trouble all the time.  He’d caused Mr. Plummer and Mr. Gates to argue and break off a friendship that had lasted nearly fifty years before Waldo came to town.  And, this time he’d made the mistake of humiliating the wrong girl! 
She was going to nail his hide to the barn door!
She thought to herself, using an old expression of her Gram’s.

“How do you propose to do that, child?” Eleanor was shocked enough to ask. Her granddaughter constantly surprised her with her ‘get-even’ schemes.

“I’m not sure yet, Gram, but it infuriates me that he is putting my private life out there for the entire town to judge.  That nasty Priscilla smirked at me at church last Sunday and said that she was sure I would be sitting on a pillow to listen to the sermon that day!  She is such a witch!”

“I am sure the editorial in this edition is going to make her the butt of some of the nasty matrons in this town, and her father will be incensed to have her name in that editorial. You shouldn’t have said that to Mr. Phares, my dear.” Eleanor was perfectly serious.  She’d known Geoffrey Clemons since he was a young man, and he did not tolerate ridicule, and his daughter would pay for Waldo’s comment.

“I didn’t think Waldo would print that in his paper, Gram.  But, what really angers me is Will’s denial!  I
saw
him kissing Priscilla!”  The memory of that moment was enough to bring tears to her eyes yet again!  It was devastating in the moment, and she was still hurt by Will’s betrayal.

“Did you now?” Eleanor asked in a soft voice.  “I remember when I was first married, I thought I saw your grandfather holding another woman’s hand and flirting with her.  I was furious, and when he came home that night, we had cross words.  It turns out that
she
was the one who grabbed his hand, and what I thought was flirting, was him telling her that he was married and not one bit interested in her.  He told her to leave him alone, and if I’d stayed to watch, I would have seen her flounce off in a snit.”  What Eleanor didn’t share with her feisty granddaughter was how her husband flipped her over his knee and gave her a sound thrashing with his riding crop!  It was a painful punishment, but she certainly learned a valuable lesson.  Perhaps Darshana had earned that spanking Will gave her?

“Are you saying that Will might have been innocent, Gram?” she asked hopefully.

“I think you should have asked him what happened.”

Darcy didn’t answer.  Instead, she said, “Do you need anything while I am out, Gram?  I’m going to post my withdrawal all over town, and talk to people.”

“I just want you to stay away from that treacherous Mr. Phares.  You needn’t give him anything else to print.”

“I agree with you, Gram.”  She got to her feet, and then walked to her grandmother and leaned down to kiss her soft cheek.  “I know I don’t say it often enough, but I love you so much, Gram.  I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and I don’t know what I would have done without you in my life.  You are everything to me.”

“You are everything to me, too, my dear girl.  I love you with all my heart.”  Eleanor did love this girl, and she’d willed herself to live so that she could raise her.  Now all she wanted before she went to her Heavenly Home was to see Darshana married to a man who would love and cherish her.  Eleanor believed Will was
that
man.  Hopefully, her granddaughter would talk to him and find out what really happened between him and that contentious Priscilla.  But, knowing how stubborn her granddaughter was, she might wait too long and Eleanor wouldn’t be around to see Darshana walk down the aisle, which would break both their hearts.

Darcy dressed carefully, trying to look like the lady her Gram raised her to be.  She went first to the General Store, and when she walked in all conversation stopped as the other shoppers and Barney Goode turned to stare at her.  “Hello, Miss Darcy.  I’m pretty busy today, but I’ll be with you as soon as I can.  Feel free to browse.  I got in some new yard goods you might take a liking to.”

“Thank you, Mr. Goode.  I’ll have a look while I’m waiting.”  She waited a few seconds and then said, “I was hoping you would allow me to post a notice on your community board?  The Mayor says it is too late to remove my name from the ballot, so I am trying to let everyone know not to vote for me.”

“Well, sure, you can post it, but folks won’t like it none,” he predicted.

“Why is that?” she asked of him, confused by his reaction.

“Because it is high time a woman had some say in this town!  I’ve made my Ernie promise to vote for you,” Shelly Long said in her shrill voice.

“Really?”  Darcy was completely surprised… and shocked!  She didn’t actually think she would get any votes.  Didn’t Will say that ‘only a fool’ would vote for her?

“Yes.  I don’t like that the Sheriff felt he could paddle you and make you withdraw.  Don’t you
dare
give him the satisfaction!  That is so
wrong
of him!”

“But, Gram really thinks this has gone too far.  It is distressing her.” Darcy thought it wise to explain why she wanted to withdraw.  Everyone knew her Gram, and they would understand how imperative it was that Darcy withdraw her name due to Eleanor’s health issues.

“Eleanor loves you, we all know that, but you need to run.”  Shelly was adamant that Darcy run for office.

To Darcy’s surprise, the other woman agreed with Shelly.  “I’ll follow you around town and take down any notices you post,” Vivian St. Claire told her.  “We women need this election to teach the men like Will Davies a good lesson.  I can’t believe he dared to tan you because you decided to run against him!”

“But, Waldo’s editorials are upsetting Gram, and I am afraid she’ll have another heart attack.  You all know that she is elderly and weak, I don’t want to lose her!”

“We’ll go and speak to Eleanor,” Vivian said, looking to the other woman for support.  “We’ll let her know how proud we are that you are running for Sheriff.”

“Mr. Goode, what do
you
have to say about all of this?”  Darcy was sure he would side with Will. In fact, she was shocked to realize that she had counted on all of the men in Cactus Hill to side with Will and vote for him!  Now that she was hearing she actually had some support, Darcy found she didn’t want to be elected.  This whole election was backfiring in her face!  The only one who was supposed to be upset was Will.

Barney Goode was no fool.  He’d worked hard to make a success of his store, and he wasn’t going to lose customers because he took sides in an election.  “Miss Darcy, I like you a lot, and I like Sheriff Will a lot.  I’d be hard pressed to choose between the two of you.  I will pray that the best candidate wins, and I’ll support whoever that is.  Now, Miss Shelly, do you need anything else today?  Does Ernie need any of that pipe tobacco he likes so well?”

“Oh, Barney, thank you!  Ernie told me before I left not to forget his tobacco!  He threatened to use my hairbrush on my bottom if I forgot again and he had to make an extra trip to town to get it himself.  Not that he meant it, of course.”  Shelly blushed, realizing what she’d let slip.  It was embarrassing to have Barney, Darcy, and Vivian know that her husband resorted to spanking when she forgot things, which was too often for comfort!

No one was fooled for an instant.  Ernie Long loved his wife and tried to please her in all things, but once he put his foot down, Shelly needed to pay attention.  Darcy recalled one time that Shelly sat next to her at church, and squirmed constantly, even though Ernie kept giving her stern looks. 

After services were over, and she and Gram were home and eating the wonderful meal Greta prepared for them, she asked Gram if Shelly fell.  Gram made her explain why she thought that, and then she frowned, and as gently as possible Eleanor explained some wives were soundly spanked when they failed to please their husbands.  She also added that most men gave the spanking with lots of love, just as a parent would punish a child.

Darcy nodded, and at twelve years of age, she made up her mind that no man was ever going to spank her.  Will didn’t ask how she felt about it, however.  He just turned her over his knee and started whacking away.  She wasn’t too sore the next day, like Shelly was, and she had all of her petticoats to thank for that.  It hurt while it was happening and right after, but within a short time, it was as though it never happened.

While she was reminiscing, two men entered the store.  Darcy didn’t like their looks, and she could tell that Mr. Goode wasn’t pleased, either.  “What can I get for you two?” he asked, his voice sharp.

“We didn’t come in here to buy anything, old man.  We want money, and we want it fast, or we’ll take a couple of these females with us.”

“You leave those women alone.  They aren’t your type.” Barney wasn’t about to let them take any of the females with them, at least not without a good fight.

“Now, how do
you
know what our type is?” one of the men asked sarcastically.  “I’m sure that little redhead would like some company tonight, ain’t that right, honey?”  He was addressing Darcy.