Chapter Ten
Rey moaned as she slipped her fingers over the hot slightly thickened skin on her bottom. The bumpy edges of the swollen belt welts stung and were raw to the touch. She climbed into bed on her stomach electing not to pull on clean panties under her nightgown.
“Alan kissed me back,” she crooned with contented pleasure closing her eyes and squashing her face into her pillow. “He kissed me back!”
The weightier events of the day were effectively lifted by the sound spanking Rey received, and even though she had a lot of things to think about, she couldn’t fight sleep. It took her quickly into dreams. ~ooo00ooo~ “Banana pancakes! My favorite,” Rey hugged Mrs. Beatty from behind when she came into the kitchen just before dawn the next morning.
“Get the good syrup and some juice. You’re just on time for the first batch,” the old woman chuckled.
“Super!” Rey bubbled. She was nervous for some reason. The day had an odd feel to it. It was either going to be really good, or really bad, or very strange.
“Sleep well?”
“Mmmmm.” Rey nodded in the affirmative, and then stepped up on the stool and lifted down a large gallon size crockery jug of fresh island maple syrup. “Very well Bea. So sound I hardly moved a muscle.”
“Good girl. Off to a fresh start now then,” Mrs. Beatty acknowledged as she poured another circle of batter into her hot skillet. While that began its tasty transformation, she lifted two cakes from the stack she was making onto a plate for Rey. “Eat your breakfast and then get busy pouring syrup into boats for the guest tables.”
Alan joined them just as Rey was forking her first fluffy chunk of cake through the pond of syrup she’d poured on her plate.
“Another day underway,” his remark was off hand. His mind was really on the coffee pot. “Morning.”
“Morning yourself,” Mrs. Beatty responded. “Sit your sorry hide down and I’ll feed it for you.”
“Now that sounds like an order I’d be a fool to ignore,” Alan grumbled with good nature. It took half his first cup of coffee to rinse the fog off his brain enough so he was fully part of the day.
Rey enjoyed her pancakes in silence, watching Alan drink his coffee and wake up all the way. Mrs. Beatty shuffled over to the table and sat down with two more plates, one each for her self and Alan.
“I’m going to be taking some of the guests out to Long Island for some berry picking today Bea. Think you can do anything with what we bring back?” Alan announced around a sly grin into his coffee mug.
Rey’s eyes opened and her jaw dropped. “Hey! That was what I wanted to do.”
“Yes but you were only going to take a pair of brats out there so you could show off,” Alan cocked his eyebrow into a stern glance her way. “I’m offering it as recreation for all of the guests. It was a good idea. I’ll give you that.”
“Then I should get to go too,” Rey frowned. She knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“You’re restricted to the house for the time being unless Bea wants errands in town. Maybe by blueberry season you’ll be allowed to range beyond the yard again.” Alan added the last bit deliberately to tease.
“That’s not fair,” Rey grumbled.
“Don’t care,” Alan shrugged. “Set the tables and start getting the buffet table ready in the dining room. Some of the guests are already moving around up there.”
“It was my idea,” Rey pouted, pushing her chair back so she could get up and get to work.
“Yes it was,” Alan chuckled. “Maybe next time you’ll get to enjoy one of your ideas without getting your backside blistered first.”
“Shut up,” Rey growled, unable to hide her annoyance with Alan’s reference to her punishment. She was disappointed, and it was waking up the beginnings of a bad mood in her. She guessed her day was going to hell after all.
“Bring me back enough berries for some pies, and we’ll have them for supper,” Mrs. Beatty intruded into the exchange.
“Will do Bea,” Alan stood and delivered his dishes to the sink.
“You, get busy and stay out of trouble,” he turned his attention to Rey. “You’ll have help with the rooms this morning, and I expect you both to stay on task.”
“What?” Rey stopped in the doorway, her arms full of plates and napkins.
“Carolyn,” Alan explained. “She’s grounded too, and I expect her to do the work I told her to do. If she doesn’t you’ll both answer for it.”
“No way Alan!” Rey’s jaw dropped again.
“You heard me,” Alan’s answer was a firm warning.
“She won’t listen to me! That’s not fair!” Rey’s appeal was genuine.
“You’ll have to exercise your considerable powers of persuasion then won’t you Rey?” Alan was not going to back down. “Seems to me you’d do well seeing if it’s possible they could be used for something other than getting yourself into trouble.”
Rey’s frown was dark. A number of retorts ran through her mind, but all were vetoed by her sense of self preservation. It was one thing to be grounded, quite another to be sentenced to spend that time with someone else. Especially someone as spoiled and sloppy as Carolyn was likely to be.
“Get to work. No argument.” Alan turned and headed toward the back stairs.
“Get to work! No argument!” Rey mouthed soundlessly to his back. Sass and an overwhelming urge to express it oozed from her every pore.
“Rey,” Mrs. Beatty issued a quiet warning as she watched the girl’s animated activity from across the room. “That’ll do.”
“God he can be an ass sometimes,” Rey grumbled, backing down from the temptation to escalate things into a fight.
“You mind your p’s and q’s missy. That man loves you and it’s high time you showed him you’re a grown up who’s worthy of it,” Mrs. Beatty’s pragmatic honesty stopped Rey in her tracks. Her heart lurched with the old woman’s words.
“He doesn’t love me. In his eyes I’m just a kid,” Rey recovered quickly, and responded with an answer she hoped would hide how desperately she wanted what Mrs. Beatty suggested to be true.
“You heard me,” the older woman nodded. The exasperation in her expression seemed to say, ‘don’t tell me you didn’t know it either.’
“You’re touched in the head,” Rey dismissed her, and turned away to her work in the dining room. .~~ooo00ooo~~.For the first hour and a half of the morning, Rey’s mind tripped around over her thoughts and wishes as well as the events of the last two days. They occupied her completely, so that time became a blur. The guests ate and finished their breakfast, and clean up got well underway, before any influence around her was able to intrude enough to fully capture her attention. The intruder was Carolyn.
“I’m supposed to help you,” she grumbled, sidling up next to Rey who was lost in thought and mindlessly swirling the sudsy wash cloth she held over and over a plate.
“Oh,” Rey acknowledged with an absent minded nod. “Here, take the towel and dry.”
Carolyn’s eyes followed Rey’s gesture to the dish towel hanging on the lower cupboard knob next to her left hip. Taking it, she picked up a glass from the rack where it was draining, and looked at it with confusion.
“That’s right. Wipe the water off it and polish it so there’s no spots, and then put it in that cupboard there,” Rey instructed as patiently as she could.
“Haven’t you people heard of dishwashers?” Carolyn complained.
“Shut up and do the dishes,” Rey dismissed the question. She wanted to get back to her thoughts, Mrs. Beatty’s comment and the kiss last night, but her annoyed inner self knew Carolyn’s company would make that impossible.
“How’s your bum?” Carolyn proved Rey’s inner voice right.
“None of your business,” Rey hissed and turned to give Carolyn a withering look. The girl blinked back.
“OK,” Carolyn lifted and crossed her arms into a cross in front of her face in a gesture to mock warding off evil. “Chill. I was just making conversation.”
As much as she would have preferred her solitude that morning, Rey knew she was stuck with Carolyn’s company, and may as well make the best of it.
“Sorry,” she offered after a few minutes. “I didn’t mean to be snappy at you. As for my bum? It’s probably about the same as yours.”
Carolyn laughed. “You could have warned me it would hurt like that,” she bumped Rey with her hip accepting Rey’s apology with uncharacteristic good nature.
“Yeah right, like you had no idea a spanking would hurt?” Rey’s exasperated answer was filtered through a laugh that said “You idiot!”
“Seriously!” Carolyn insisted. “That spanking was majorly painful!”
“You’re an absolute nut!” Rey laughed. “You can’t really expect me to believe you didn’t know it would be can you?”
“Well? Yeah, I kind of do?” Carolyn admitted. “I know you’ll think I’m sick or something, but no, I didn’t expect it to hurt. Not that much anyway. You know? I kind of thought it would be different.”
Rey turned to look more carefully at Carolyn. She saw immediately that the girl was blushing and uncomfortable. Rey knew exactly what the girl was feeling, and it intrigued her to realize that there in front of her was another person who found the idea of spanking exciting. It also scared the living daylights out of her. It was too close to home. Rey was also bugged by something else too, and it was colored by a flash of jealousy. Alan was her spanker!
“What did you expect?” Rey fought what she knew amounted to a fear that her own secrets would be discovered.
“Not what I got,” Carolyn shrugged. “I promise you. Not that.”
“What then?” Rey pressed. She watched Carolyn struggle with the answer. The girl’s face and neck were suffused with deep red color and it took her a little too long to answer. Rey was too afraid of her own feelings to prod the girl before she visibly balked and stepped away from the subject.
“I don’t know,” Carolyn finally answered with an air of finality. “It just hurt more than I thought it would.”
“Well, you wondered what a spanking would be like. Now you know,” Rey decided to make light of it, and let it drop gently in a way that protected both of their secrets. “Bet it’ll be a long time before you go after getting one on purpose.”
“Now I know,” Carolyn nodded. “And no, I won’t. Not on purpose anyway.”
“Let me see it,” Rey grinned tugging on the back pocket of Carolyn’s jeans, and seizing the opportunity to turn the tables on her friend.
“Why should I?” Carolyn cocked her chin defiantly. “You wouldn’t let me see yours last night.”
“You did so see mine! You saw me get it too!” Rey bristled in mock anger. “If anything, you owe me a look at yours.”
Both girls looked intently at each other, and then broke down into uncontrollable giggles.. ~ooo00ooo~. Carolyn wasn’t the slacker Rey expected her to be. In fact she turned out to be a good worker and good company. They finished dusting and making up all the rooms and the laundry just before eleven. Mrs. Beatty had lunch well under control.
“Maybe the day wasn’t going to be so bad after all,” Rey let herself relax.
Only four guests remained at the house, so they enjoyed a simple sit down meal of soup and sandwiches. After that was cleaned up, the girls helped Mrs. Beatty lay out a small buffet of crackers, cheese and cold meats intended to tide the berry picking guests over until supper. Their timing was perfect. Not even half an hour later, Ellen came bouncing into the kitchen arm in arm with Alan, a basket full of ripe blackberries in hand.
“We got tons of them!” she exclaimed. “Raspberries too.”
“Figures,” Rey grumbled. The day that had finally seemed to have gotten back on a track that was almost pleasant shifted gears on her again. Seeing Ellen happy and exuberant after spending the morning with Alan, carrying berries it had been her idea to pick, feeling his amiable arm around her shoulders, reached in and yanked on something inside Rey. What ever it was ached, and began seething.
“What’s your problem,” Alan mussed Rey’s hair after depositing his three baskets on the table in front of her. With that, the quiet kitchen descended into a chaotic cacophony of chatter and noise as the rest of the happy guests came in, each carrying more baskets of berries. Some made several trips.
By the time things quieted down again there were four five gallon drums on the floor by the sink, each filled with fresh wild berries, and Mrs. Beatty was wondering what she was going to do with all of them.
“Did you leave any for the birds?” the old woman scolded Alan.
Alan laughed and reassured her that there was a thousand fold more berries left than were taken, although a few of the guests probably ate more than double what they brought back.
“Did these two give you any trouble?” Alan turned his attention to Rey who was sitting at the table with a long face, looking like she’d missed out on a major event, and then Carolyn who was up pouring the contents of a basket onto the pile in one of the drums.
“Good as gold,” the old woman assured.
“Excellent,” Alan accepted. “Since they didn’t do any of the work picking all these, maybe you can put them to work cleaning them up for you.”
“Just what I was thinking,” Mrs. Beatty chuckled seeing Rey’s face wrinkle with the affront. “Come on Rey. Hop to it and rinse these jewels. I’ll show you how to make pie.”
“I already know how to make pie,” Rey grumbled.
“Well I don’t,” Carolyn smiled.
“Can I help?” Ellen chimed in.
“Of course you can,” Mrs. Beatty smiled. “Rey, you get out the two gallon sauce pan and help these two get started.”
“I’d rather not, if that’s OK?” Rey sighed. An aggravation she couldn’t understand had set in as soon as she’d seen Ellen arm in arm with Alan.
“You’ll do as Bea asks or you’ll answer to me,” Alan’s warning dropped silence on the room.
Rey clenched her teeth against the temper that had seethed up out of nowhere. “Fine!” she hissed. “I’ll help make pies.”
“Away with you both!” Mrs. Beatty stepped in. “These two girls and I will take all the glory for making this fine harvest into a feast.”
Alan considered Rey’s defiance, and almost vetoed Mrs. Beatty’s directive. But changed his mind when he looked at the woman and realized it would serve no purpose. He backed down.
“I’m going for a walk on the beach,” Rey growled and got up to go to the door.
“Have you got all your work done?” Alan countered, reminding her she was on restriction.
“Yes I do!” Rey’s retort was sharper than she meant it to be. It surprised her.
Alan noticed it, but let it go with just a warning crook of his eyebrow. “Alright then, don’t be late getting back.”
Rey was out the door as fast as her legs would carry her. Tears that took her completely by surprise welled up.
“What the hell is wrong with me!” she kicked at the dirt when she reached the bottom of the driveway. The tears escaped, and streamed down her cheeks. She didn’t try to fight them or even wipe them away as she crossed the road and made her way down the trail to the rocky beach.
She recognized her feelings, but she couldn’t understand them. Rey was jealous; jealous of Carolyn, and jealous of Ellen. Each had taken a coveted piece of Alan, and even though she knew they would be gone in just a few days, Rey was angry and hurt.
“Why should I care that Carolyn got spanked. I’m the one he kissed!” she argued with her self. “I’m the one Mrs. Beatty says he loves.”
“Yeah well, Mrs. Beatty’s full of shit, that’s what. You and I both know she’s nuts on that count. Alan thinks I’m a kid.”
“Yeah but that wasn’t any kids kiss last night!”
“Oh shut up! Quit getting your hopes up over nothing. You were crying and he’d spanked the hell out of you. He hugged you to make you feel better and kissed you because you kissed him. It was nothing!”
Rey meandered along the beach arguing with her self, stopping now and then to select and throw the odd skipping stone. Tears and confusion dogged her the whole way.
“Quit it!” she demanded after a while. “Quit your damned blubbering. So what if Alan spent a fun morning laughing and having fun with a goody two shoes wench. So what if played patty cakes with a brat who was hot to trot to get his hands on her ass?”
“God you’re awful!” she giggled nervously surprised by the thoughts her mind conjured. “It’s not like that and you know it. Those two are nothing to him.”
“So what! I want to be mad so let me be mad!”
“You want to be mad? How about nuts? Try that on for size. Nuts, nuts, nuts.”
Rey kept up a running chatter with her self for the next half hour until she made her way to the pier at the foot of her Uncle George’s place. The familiar wood surface drew her out onto it, and gave her a place to settle down and stop for a while. .~ooo00ooo~.Alan watched Rey stomp her way down to the beach. There was something about her pace and posture that told him she was more upset than she had any reason to be. She’d been testy earlier that morning, and again just now in the kitchen, but nothing had happened that should have put the kind of stomp she had on her feet. At least not that he knew of.
It wasn’t like her to hold a grudge after being punished either. In fact usually her mood lifted and her whole attitude lightened for weeks after she was punished.
“So what’s up with you little girl?” he asked her back as her trek took her down out of sight below the bluff.
Alan decided to find out.
Giving Rey enough of a head start to get some distance between them, he followed. The wind carried snippets of her voice back to him, enough so he knew she was having a heated discussion with the air. It made him smile to watch her animated march across the stones. No question about it, something had put a bee in her bonnet.
She seemed to calm down when she got out on the dock. Alan let her rest there for close to twenty minutes before he walked out to join her.
“Déjà vu,” he announced his presence as gently as possible.
“Holy Christ!” Rey startled, almost falling backward off the dock.
Alan had to laugh.
“You scared me half out of my skin!” Rey’s complaint was a high pitched whimper.
Alan couldn’t stop laughing. In fact he was almost doubled over with it. It really was déjà vu.
“It’s not funny!” Rey snapped.
“Sure it is,” Alan managed to recover. “Remember the day last fall when you came out on this dock and did the same thing to me?”
“So?” Rey did remember. Alan’s good natured laugh was contagious. She couldn’t help the embarrassed giggle that escaped with an involuntary smile. “It’s still not funny.”
Alan nodded still chuckling, “OK, it’s not funny.” He stepped over to the post Rey was leaned against, the same one he leaned against all those months ago, and settled down beside her on the other side of it.
“What’s on your mind Rey?” he cut to the chase.
“Nothing,” Rey regarded him suspiciously.
“Come on kiddo,” he coaxed. “I saw you arguing with the world about something all the way down here. What is it?”
“Can’t I have my own thoughts?” Rey stiffened and turned her gaze down toward the water.
“Sure you can. I’m just concerned about you. That’s all,” Alan offered.
“It’s nothing. I told you, nothing!”
“Sounds like something to me,” Alan smiled.
“Leave me alone OK,” Rey shook her head against the temptation to open up.
“Are you still brooding about being spanked last night?” Alan offered an opening.
“No!” Rey exclaimed. “It’s not that!”
“Ah,” Alan smiled when he saw her eyes roll with the knowledge she’d said more than she wanted to. “So it is something then?”
Suddenly shy, and unable to find camouflage for what she was feeling, Rey didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know Alan. I… I’m just mixed up.”
“Mixed up about what kiddo?” Alan’s voice softened.
“I’m not a kiddo,” Rey shook her head arguing with, and reacting to, the ghost of meaning in the word. “I’m not.”
“Is that it? Alan wondered.
“No that’s not it!” Rey grimaced and kicked her heels back against the pressure treated lumber underneath her.
“It’s just an expression Rey, nothing more,” Alan’s amused chuckle was sincere even though now he was sure he’d hit a nerve.
“But you think it though don’t you?” Rey snapped, hurt feelings bubbled up to the surface and over flowed.
“Think what Rey?” Alan was genuinely lost.
“You think I’m just a kid. You don’t even know that I…..” Rey stopped short, shocked by what almost escaped her mouth.
“What Rey? What is it I don’t know?” Concern and confusion took over the amused tone that had been in his voice.
“You think I’m just a kid!” Tears escaped now, Rey couldn’t hold them back even if she could control what she said.
“I think you’re a beautiful young lady who’s grown up a whole lot in just a few months, that’s what I think,” Alan countered, still confused, but beginning to catch on.
“Yeah right!” Rey sputtered, turning her face away so he couldn’t see her tears.
“”Right!” Alan reached around and caught her chin. “I wouldn’t lie to you.” Rey fought his hand as it tried to bring her face around to look at him. “Look at me Rey,” Alan stopped pulling, but kept his hand firmly under her chin.
“No!” Rey’s answer was a pout. “I don’t want to look at you.”
“For someone who doesn’t want to be thought of as a kid you’re sure acting like one?” Amusement returned to Alan’s demeanor.
“See! I told you!” Rey sobbed and lost control of everything she held in. Raw feelings boiled over, brought there by his tease. “You don’t even care that I love you! Mrs. Beatty said you love me too but I know that’s a lie! I know you think I’m nothing but a kid. A kid you can spank anytime you get it in your head! I’m not a kid! I’m not!”
Before Alan had a chance to take in what she’d blurted out, Rey was on her feet and running full tilt away from him back up the beach. Alan was able to catch her when she slipped and stumbled on the wet stones under her feet. When he did catch up to her, Rey was crumpled into a sobbing ball. Both of her knees were cut opened and skinned by the rocks and her fall.
“Leave me alone!” she wailed, when Alan reached down to try and help her up.
“Its OK Audrey girl,” Alan soothed. “It’ll be all right.”
“I said stop it and leave me alone,” Rey whirled on him. “Leave me alone!”
“That’s enough Rey!” Alan countered.
“Why? You don’t care about me!” she shook her shoulders trying to make him let go of her.
“That’s enough!” Alan moved around and crouched where she couldn’t help but look at him. “Mrs. Beatty wasn’t lying Rey.”
Rey blinked and studied his eyes. The words he spoke struck her dumb. Alan only nodded when her eyes asked him if he was serious. Feeling shy again, Rey turned her face away and looked down at the rocks.
“Do you mean it?” she whispered.
“I mean it,” Alan affirmed taking her chin in his hand again. This time Rey didn’t resist. She saw the truth in his eyes, and it let out a whole new flood of tears. It was true! The thing she wished for so hard was true.
“Come on little one,” Alan chuckled and shifted to help her to her feet. “Get on up here now. Let’s get you home and cleaned up.
Rey complied and let her self be helped. They walked back toward The Spray. Rey limped a little, and Alan let her use him for a crutch. The feel of his hands around her was different now and Rey was not sure she could trust what she was feeling.
Excitement and uncertainty bubbled up the same way the jealousy had earlier. It made her stop in mid stride.
“Do you?” she asked.
“Do I what?” Alan stopped with her, taken by surprise again.
“Love me for real?” Rey asked.
Alan had to laugh. The expression on Rey’s face was priceless.
“It’s not funny!” she complained, wanting to kick the man in front of her.
“Yes Rey,” Alan smiled. “I love you.”
“For real,” she prodded. Not the kind parents have for kids, but the real kind. Like a man has for his wife.”
“The real kind,” Alan agreed. He was awe struck. She was amazing in all her innocence and honesty.
Her eyes lit up, and Alan had to laugh. This time Rey laughed with him.
“For real?” she repeated. This time she was just repeating it, more to firm it up in her mind than to make him admit it again. “Honest to goodness?”
“Honest to goodness,” Alan confirmed again.
Rey smiled. It was true. Her hearts desire had come true. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it, but keeping it close to her heart was good enough for the moment.. ~ooo00ooo~. “It’s true Bea!” Rey whispered to Mrs. Beatty after they’d cleared up from the late evening snacks and sat down alone over cocoa in the kitchen.
“What’s true?” the older woman asked.
“Alan loves me,” Rey smiled. “The real kind. Man and wife. He told me!”
“Yes, that he does,” Mrs. Beatty nodded. “He’ll have to do right by you soon too, or folks will be talking filth about you both.”
Rey hadn’t thought that far yet. But now, faced with it in Bea’s words and the steam lifting off her cup, she had to. Doing right by her in the language of the island folk meant marriage, there was no getting around that. Alan was going to marry her. He’d all but said so.
“Holy shit!” Rey whispered. It had been the strangest and most amazing day of her life. |
