by Wayne Gray
Happy that she had scored a window seat in the crowded airliner, Bonnie Ballard enjoyed the view. As always, she was amazed at the immensity of Texas. No stranger to Texas, she was even familiar with her specific destination. She would be visiting the Grant ranch, owned by Joseph Grant. Joseph was a close friend of her family and had been a figure in Bonnie's life since she was a baby. But this trip would be different from her previous stays at the ranch, which essentially had been family vacations - different in a very life-changing way. The fact that this was the first time she had ever traveled alone would have been sufficient to make this trip an adventure she would remember for the rest of her life. But merely traveling alone was a small thing compared to what was about to happen to her.
Over the next two weeks, Bonnie would be visiting the Grant ranch as a prospective wife for Joseph Grant himself, a man old enough to be her father! She had been told that she must get to know Joseph's two present wives, learn to love them and to not be jealous of them. Should she marry Joseph, they would become her 'sister wives'. Also this would be her chance to get to know Joseph in a very different way than she had ever known any man before. It would be a sort of courtship, a way to determine if she and Joseph were meant for each other.
Inexperienced in matters of courtship and sexuality, Bonnie was aware that she had much to learn, and she correctly suspected that Joseph was just the man to teach her. For the last few weeks she had fantasized a lot about this trip and about Joseph. What would it be like? She had been told that she would spend much time alone with Joseph. While together, they would be doing... what? The very thought put butterflies in her stomach. And, oh yes ... before leaving she had been told one other small detail: during those two weeks she would be spanked - spanked at least twice! At that thought, Bonnie surreptitiously scrunched her young bottom in her airline seat.
To her slight discomfort, a youngish man occupied the seat next to her and wasn't quite hiding his interest. He saw a shapely young woman with long straight golden hair whom he correctly guessed to be about eighteen years old. Her face was still so fresh with youth that he didn't even notice her lack of makeup. However her modest long dress, of a traditional design, made her stand out from the crowd.
Finally he could contain himself no longer. "Um, Miss? Do you mind if I ask? Do you happen to be a Quaker?"
"No, not a Quaker. I'm from a conservative branch of the Mormon faith." She had answered politely, but slightly distantly, not encouraging further conversation. Bonnie wasn't on the market for new male companionship. She only had thoughts for Joseph Grant.
Thankfully, the man took the hint. He said only, "How interesting," before pretending new interest in his thoroughly thumbed magazine.
Bonnie returned her attention to the view out her window. Shortly later she noticed with relief and anticipation that the airliner was finally starting to descend for landing.
Even if she hadn't known Joseph all of her life, she would have had no problem picking him out from the airport crowd. He was a big man who sported a large black beard and somehow looked perfectly normal wearing his traditional dark clothing, even in Texas! Outwardly his beard and his bulk combined to make him look fierce, but his intelligent eyes and his grin softened that impression. Still, Bonnie knew well that Joseph was the master of his household, a household that Bonnie hoped to join.
Standing beside Joseph was Linda, the senior of Joseph's two wives. Linda was about the same age as her husband, in her early 40's. Like Bonnie, Linda wore a long dress of a slightly old fashioned cut and no makeup. The dress couldn't hide the fact that Linda was still a beautiful woman. The healthy flush of her makeup-free face seemed to argue that ranch life agreed with her. Her smile beamed out at Bonnie, instantly telegraphing to her that she was truly welcome.
Catching sight of Bonnie as she exited the security gate, Joseph and Linda waved. Happy and relieved to see them, Bonnie ran to them and was immediately enveloped in a three-way hug. Her face buried to hide her joyful tears, Bonnie noticed that Linda smelled of lavender, while Joseph's jacket carried the earthy, manly scent of Texas.
It had been nearly a year since Joseph had last seen Bonnie, and he liked what he saw. Blonde, eighteen and slightly over five feet tall, Bonnie was still compact, firm and svelte. Her modest dress somehow telegraphed the fact that her body had filled out in all of the correct places. His heart raced at the prospect of getting to know her much better.
Joseph Grant and Tom Ballard, Bonnie's father, had been college classmates. After college, they had remained close friends, even though Joseph eventually left his native Utah to inherit his uncle's ranch in Texas. One reason why Joseph and Tom had remained so close over the years was because they were both raised in the same fundamentalist Mormon sect, a sect that encouraged plural marriage.
Having been raised in a household with two mothers, the idea of plural marriage seemed perfectly normal to young Bonnie. Assuming the right family and the right man, a strong and decisive man, the security of plural marriage was the future that Bonnie wanted for herself. For a variety of reasons, the young lady strongly believed that Joseph Grant was the right man for her.
As they walked together from the terminal into the Texas heat, Bonnie chaffed in the full-coverage Mormon underwear that she wore under her long dress. Properly called a 'temple garment', (but irreverently called 'magic underwear' or 'passion killers') Bonnie had been formally presented with a set at her confirmation ceremony only a few weeks ago. As part of the ceremony, Bonnie had promised to wear her temple garment night and day for the rest of her life. It was more than just an adjustment, it was something of a sacrifice that all Mormons, male and female, were expected to make. In truth, Bonnie still found her Mormon undergarment to be uncomfortable. Still, she knew that Joseph and Linda would be wearing their own temple garments, and would expect the same of her. It would be a small price to pay to become part of the Grant family.
The three trooped out into the massive parking lot, and finally found Joseph's van. Bonnie had expected a pickup truck, but then she remembered Joseph's three children and the fact that he wanted more. Yes, the van made sense. It was nearly 200 miles to the ranch, so they had plenty of time to talk, and there was plenty to talk about.
First, Joseph reiterated the basic structure of his family and his plan for it. "When Linda and I married twenty years ago, we agreed that I would eventually marry two more wives at vaguely ten-year intervals. So ten years ago I married Rosemary. She has been a true blessing for me and the rest of the Grant family, but unfortunately she hasn't yet conceived, although we remain hopeful. As for you Bonnie, we hope and pray that you will be my third and final wife. The children that you bear, God willing, will carry the Grant ranch into the next generation. Technically you will always be the junior wife, but decades from now you will also be the youngest and most robust of all us parents. So, in your own way, you might be the most important and vital wife of all. Do you understand so far? Any questions?"
Yes, Bonnie was full of questions. "As the junior wife, who would be in charge of me?" she asked.
"Good question!" Joseph enthused. "That leads into the next subject for discussion. As the junior wife, you will naturally obey your husband first, but also you will be under both Linda and Rosemary. If you find yourself confused about what to do in any situation, then ask me or Linda. This brings us to what happens if you displease us. Of course, you will learn more about this later, but we have a very fair demerit system that has always worked well for us. Should you displease Linda or Rosemary, they can award you demerits which we deal with on 'Chair Night' at the end of every month. If you displease me, I can also award you demerits. However, for more serious issues you can expect me to send you to the barn tack room, where I will punish you. We call that a 'tack room' punishment. Is that clear so far?"
Spanking had been part of Bonnie's life since childhood, so she soberly nodded and agreed. "Yes sir."
Joseph continued, "And that brings us to something I know you were warned about. You will be spanked, once in that tack room, and once more on Chair Night. I imagine it will be hard for you to submit to punishments when you have done nothing wrong to earn them, but we need to ensure that you know exactly what you are getting into, and that you have no issues with submission. We are all imperfect humans, so we all make errors. Therefore punishments really happen in our family. Even Linda still receives demerits and visits the tack room occasionally."
Bonnie found herself looking open-mouthed at Linda, who blushed and smiled.
Fortunately, Joseph was almost done with this grim subject. "Also, think of those two spankings as a test of your ability and willingness to submit yourself to authority. Do you understand, Bonnie?"
Bonnie answered in a sober voice, "Yes sir, may I ask when they will happen?"
"They won't happen today. Your tack room punishment will likely occur sometime in your first week. Fortunately, since you are leaving at the end of the month, Chair Night comes at a convenient time, on the last evening you are here... so you may squirm a bit on your plane ride home. Neither punishment will be more than you can stand. They will be real spankings, but nothing worse than you received growing up." Joseph really didn't want to dwell on this, so he added, "I think that's more than enough talk about punishments for now. Don't you?"
Bonnie was also happy to change the subject. "Yes sir."
As they drove, Bonnie thought back to her other trips to the Grant ranch. Joseph Grant had been part of Bonnie's earliest childhood recollections. At first, little Bonnie had called him Uncle Joseph, but a few years ago her father inexplicably had directed her to call him Mr. Grant. Looking back, she realized that was when her father and Joseph must have first discussed the possibility of her eventual marriage to Joseph.
Such an early discussion of marriage is an indication of the great bonds that existed between the Grants and Bonnie's family. At least annually, the Grants visited her Utah home, and several times her family had vacationed at the Grant ranch. Those trips were among her most cherished childhood memories. Always Joseph (Mr. Grant to Bonnie) seemed a bit more interested in Bonnie than in her two older brothers. He would spend time talking to her or giving her riding lessons. Naturally, he was always a perfect gentleman, hiding his real interest in Bonnie until after her graduation from high school.
Bonnie was quite aware of allegations that members of her family's fundamentalist Mormon sect married off very young girls, and did so against their will. True or not, Bonnie knew that Joseph and her parents were very much against those practices.
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