by Jocelyn Cross
Holding the young woman so she faced him, the cowboy gripped her arms with both hands. Although the day was sunny and bright, his face was clouded and menacing. "You and I are going to manage this wagon on our own," he growled at her. "You aren't going to work your magic or charm or whatever it is that you do to get others to do your work for you. If you even think about doing so, this is what you can expect!" Leaning against the broad trunk of a tree, the cowboy put his left leg out to form a platform across which he bent the young woman.
He forced her down across his left thigh and held her in place with his strong left hand. His right hand rose and then began to spank the young woman with heavy swats. His spanking hand was hard and leathered, but the sound of the spanking was lost in the thicket of trees and the swats were muted by the dress the lovely young woman wore. His efforts were not rewarded with either the sharp retort of his spanks or her squealing in pain. This of course, only angered him more.
The young woman found her voice though when the cowboy raised up her skirts to reveal the simple cotton drawers she wore beneath. Now the spanks rang out more sharply and the young lady cried out from the sharp stinging swats. She kicked and squirmed and although it made her bottom a moving target, her efforts only inflamed his desire ... not only to spank the young woman, but to have and hold her.
It was a quick but effective spanking that got the point across. His hand rose and fell with exacting intent, causing her saucy bottom cheeks to wriggle and writhe beneath his stinging palm. The young dark-haired woman yelped in distress.
The cowboy pulled the woman to her feet and as she sniffled and shed a few tears that ran down her cheek, she pulled her skirt back in place. "If I ever have to do that again," the angry man warned the sniffling woman, "it'll be on your bare backside."
The young woman's eyes widened in fear of that promise ever happening, but she had those wonderfully sparkling dark eyes that worked a magic all their own. She looked both pitiable and beautifully desirable at the same time, and the cowboy was suddenly deeply attracted to her. Without conscious thought, he took her into his arms, embraced her and kissed her hotly and full on her lips. She melted into his arms.
But the cowboy suddenly pulled back as if instantly aware that he may have crossed a line. Damn! She's a good looking woman! he thought, though to her he scolded, "Now you know how it'll be. If you still plan to come, I'll see you at the wagon." Then he stalked off and disappeared through the thicket of trees.
This wasn't what the young woman had envisioned when she responded to an offer of marriage through the mail, but it was now her circumstance. Rubbing her freshly spanked bottom and licking the taste of the cowboy's lips from her own, she reflected on just how she got into this situation.
Annie Applegate was a sweet young lady of limited skills and dubious talents. The twenty-year-old had survived the ravages of the Civil War in Charleston, South Carolina, the rampaging Union Army and the privations of the war (especially in the South) through a trio of talents: a determined survival instinct, her undeniable beauty, and an ability to teasingly flirt with men while retaining her virtue.
Her long dark tresses bounced sinfully on her shoulders; sometimes decorated with a colorful ribbon, sometimes not. Men were drawn to her unusual brown eyes that seemed to sparkle as no other eyes of that color ever managed. The eyes drew attention and her bountiful breasts kept that attention; they were always prominently displayed as was the custom of the day. She had an otherwise lean, athletic body and she moved sensuously like a predatory cat.
She had survived the war and the early years after the South's capitulation, through her good looks and playful, flirty behavior. She had no money, and her circle of friends was shrinking slowly but surely. Annie knew a change was in order and gratefully accepted the suggestion of an acquaintance to write to one of his male friends who lived 'out west'.
"I think you two would hit it off immediately," her friend said. "He's looking for a bride and maybe you'd like the adventure of living out west."
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, thought Annie, so she penned a letter to James Underwood that would accompany the letter of introduction her local friend had written for her. Annie and James corresponded for almost a year when impulsively James suggested marriage and offered to pay her way out to Independence, Missouri, where he would meet her. They would then travel to his ranch by riding with a wagon train on the Santa Fe Trail until they turned north towards Cheyenne in the Wyoming Territory.
Annie just as impulsively accepted his offer and she was soon on a railroad to New Orleans, where she took a series of river boats up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to Independence. In truth, neither Annie nor James acted all that impulsively; only their friends thought so. Over the course of months and through their detailed, and sometimes lurid, correspondence, they had grown quite fond of each other. They had shared photographs and each was equally impressed with the good looks of the other.
So it was with great excitement that Annie Applegate made her way to the 'closest hotel to the town square' in Independence to finally meet James in person. Neither of them knowing anything at all about Independence, Missouri, it was the most logical description. If that proved difficult to find, they agreed to post a notice for each other at the Post Office in town.
Funds being limited, Annie took her bags in hand and walked to the center of town. She was chagrined to discover there were numerous hotels and boarding houses near the town square, but she pressed on. Working around the square, she visited each property and asked if Mr. James Underwood had booked a room. It took Annie a couple of hours to visit all the hotels and she could not find James.
Not to be discouraged, she made her way to the Post Office but found no message from James. Succumbing to her charm, the Postmaster allowed her to leave a note for James stating that she would be back every day at noon at the Post Office.
But what to do now? Annie barely had enough money to eat, and spending it on a hotel room was out of the question. Therefore, Annie did what Annie did best: she flirted with a hotel clerk and convinced him to let her have a room with the promise that her fiancé would pay for it as soon as he showed up.
Further saving her limited funds, Annie soon enjoyed the company of a young man who invited her to dinner. What was a hungry young lady to do but accept such an invitation? The young man was a little disappointed that dinner yielded only a pleasant walk around the town square, but he remained hopeful.
The next day Annie decided to recheck all the hotels and boarding houses around the town square, as well as the next circle of streets, but she was still unable to find anyone who knew about James Underwood. Late in the afternoon, however, a hotel clerk came rushing up to Annie and in his excitement, her heart began beating rapidly with expectations of good news.
It was good news of a sort. "I think I know the gentleman you are trying to find," the clerk said breathlessly. "I'm not sure it is the Mr. Underwood you are looking for, but we had a guest waiting for his fiancée to show up in town. He was also making arrangements to join a wagon train that is organizing outside of town. I believe the Wagon Master is Bull Flanagan. Ask around and you'll find him."
The clerk was rewarded with a dazzling smile, a kiss on the cheek, a squeeze on his arm and a glimpse down the front of Annie's dress. He left happy as Annie excitedly headed in the direction of the forming wagon train. She was confident this was her James: the aspects of the clerk's story fit perfectly!
Bull Flanagan was a man true to his name: a massive man with an enormous chest and bulging biceps ... and not someone to trifle with. But with Annie, Mr. Flanagan was rather nervous as he escorted the young lady down the long row of wagons that would soon be leaving Independence to travel several months on the Santa Fe Trail. With a nod towards the last of the wagons, Bull Flanagan said, "That's him over there."
But when Annie turned to thank him, Bull was already charging back up the line of wagons, his back firmly turned on young Miss Annie. His intent was obviously not to turn back in any event.
Turning back towards the man Bull had pointed out, she saw that he was bent over and working on something. As she approached she called out to him, "Mr. Underwood?"
The man stood up and turned, replying with a simple, "Yes?"
Annie stopped, frozen in her tracks. "You're not James Underwood!" she exclaimed.
"No, I am not," replied the young man, though he did resemble James. "I'm John, his younger brother." Then John's hands fell to his sides, his face turned pale and in a quiet voice he said, "You must be Annie."
She smiled that enticingly brilliant smile of hers and replied, "Why, yes I am! Is James nearby?"
"Oh, dear," mumbled John as he stepped closer to Annie. Finally close enough to hold her arms in his hands he said quietly, "I'm afraid that James has died."
As the shocking news settled into Annie's mind, John carefully guided the young woman to a downed tree trunk in the shade of a stand of oak trees. John meticulously explained to Annie how his brother had jumped in to lend a strong shoulder to keep a top heavy wagon from tipping over on a nearby slope. The unbalanced wagon was too much and the other men had managed to leap out of the way, but James had been crushed when the wagon fell over. John carefully and gently relayed the story to her.
But Annie wasn't paying that much attention to the details. Her mind was reeling from the sad news; the reality of her situation; and, the raw, basic facts: she was penniless, far from any place she might call home, without any friends, and her fiancé was dead. She was alone and without prospects! She burst into tears.
John, of course, felt horrible for the young lady. He too was grief struck by the sudden and very recent loss of his brother and completely understood how Annie would be emotionally distraught by the loss of her fiancé. Though she only knew his brother through correspondence, John could imagine the depths of Annie's emotional investment ... and the toll this news must be taking on her.
John put a tentative, but comforting, arm around his ... just what the hell was Annie anyway? His former sister-in-law-to-be? There was some connection there, for sure, but John had argued bitterly with his brother about James' plan to marry a woman sight unseen. John's prediction for disaster had come true, just not in any way he could have imagined.
Finally, Annie was all cried out and she asked the inevitable question, "What is to become of me?"
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