The Widow Wagon: Second Chances Read online

  “I don’t think she’s in that much pain. I think she’s doing it so Angus will feel bad. A couple of days is nothing. I think she’s trying to get it so she doesn’t have to walk for a whole week!”

  That was the moment that the catfight started.

  “You think I’m faking?” Daisy screeched. “Is that what I heard you say?”

  “You know... yeah, I do.” Minnie picked up the dishrag she’d been using and threw it at Daisy. “You’re faking to get out of work, so you can sit in the wagon like a lazy jackass.”

  “Jackass? You’re calling me a jackass? You whore!” Daisy lunged at Minnie, knocking over the dishpan of water, mugs and plates crashing to the ground with a deafening clatter. The struggling women toppled to the soaked ground, pulling hair and clawing at each other as they screamed and yelled.

  The little girls started crying, hiding behind Clara. Margie dove into the fray, trying to split them up just about the time that Angus and Sam came running over.

  “I just left,” Angus said through gritted teeth. “How’d you girls get into trouble already? I already whipped one of you today, and looks like I’ll be tannin’ someone else’s hide tonight too.” He shoved Minnie over to Sam, then took hold of Daisy by the back of the neck. “Now, tell me what this ruckus is about? Talk, Daisy!”

  “I-I didn’t do anything!” Daisy grit her teeth pointing at Minnie. “It’s her! Minnie said that I was faking my p-pain today ‘cause I wanted to get out of work and walking. Then she said I’m a lazy j-jackass!” Daisy tried lunging at Minnie again, but Angus stepped in front of Daisy, swatting her bottom. Even though he’d spanked her over her clothing, Daisy screamed, holding her bottom through her dress.

  “Are you gonna calm down, or do I need to put you over my knee and spank your bottom again today like you’re a damn five year old?” He gave her a little shake.

  “N-no, Sir. I’ll stop. I’ll stop!” She swiped at the tears streaming down her face, taking in a deep breath to calm herself.

  “You better, ‘cause much as I don’t want to, I’ll do it if you ask for it.” He stared at her until she nodded. Then Angus turned, shifting his attention to Minnie. “So, Minnie, you think she’s faking? You think that whippin’ she had today was nothin’?”

  Minnie wrung her hands, looking frightened. “Well... I’m not sayin’ it was nothing exactly. I saw her backside and it was really red. I know that it must have hurt. But I think she might be milkin’ it to get out of walking — and doing her chores.”

  Daisy stiffened and Angus gripped her neck tighter. His firm grip was the only warning she required.

  Angus let go of Daisy’s neck and took a step closer to Minnie. “So, if I were to give you a lickin’ with my buggy whip, you’d be doing chores and walking like nothing had happened. Is that what you’re sayin’, Minnie?’”

  “I-I don’t want that. Please, no!”

  Angus looked at Daisy. “Wow, Minnie has changed her mind. You think she’s rethinking fighting you?”

  Daisy nodded with a hint of a smile.

  Angus smiled back. “I think she might be changing her mind too. And let me point out that Daisy did do chores tonight, right?”

  Visibly crying and shaking now, Minnie responded. “Yes, Sir.”

  He turned his darkened gaze on Daisy. “The thing with you Daisy… you need to remember just because trouble comes visiting doesn’t mean you need to give it a seat! You could have walked away, or found me, or Sam — and we would have takin’ care of her. Just like I’m gonna do now. You sit down over there darlin’, your backside is safe this time.” He pointed to the logs around the campfire. The smell of burning wood pleasing. He watched her sit down on the log.

  With his hands on his hips he turned toward Minnie, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “It’s Miss Minnie that’s in a might of trouble. Come here, girl.” He pointed to the ground in front of him.

  Minnie shook her head, her eyes welling with tears. “I think she’s working you and you don’t know it. I mean she’s spoiled and a brat and maybe if she was put to work, she’d stop being a pain and—”

  “You know what, girl? If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. Now, come over here.”

  She took her time, but to her credit she walked over to him. “I want you to untie your drawers and hold your skirts up.”

  Minnie wrung her hands, pleading with him. “I can’t! I can’t do that!”

  “If you don’t, I will. Drop your drawers, girl. I won’t say it again!”

  Something in his voice must have made her think twice about defying his order. She slowly pulled her skirts up, showing her pink pantaloons. She untied the ribbon in front and let them fall, dropping her skirts to hide her bottom and privates.

  Angus pulled her to his side, bending her over and bracing her body with his left thigh tucked against her hip. He gathered up the many layers of fabric over her back, pinning them under his arm, and proceeded to spank her bottom. His hand came down with a flurry of swats, all over her bottom, never striking the same spot twice. He swatted each cheek several times, marching the blows from the crest of her bottom down to mid-thigh. She danced up on her toes, screeching and yelping, her hands reaching back in a desperate bid to protect her bottom. When he focused all his swats on her thighs, she hissed. The harsh spanking seemed to wear down the woman’s resolve, Minnie’s cries dissolving into gulping, watery sobs.

  At that point, Angus stopped spanking her, dropping her skirts and pulling her to her feet once more. He cupped her chin in his big hand. “Now, girl, that was just my hand. Imagine if that had been a buggy whip instead? I’m a thinking that someone here needs an apology. Can you think who I’m talking about?”

  “Yes, Sir. Daisy?” She looked pitiful, swiping at her tears and rubbing her bottom.

  “Yes... Daisy. Go apologize.” He pointed to Daisy, sitting on the log, her big eyes brimming with tears.

  Minnie shuffled over, hobbled by the drawers still bunched at her ankles. “I’m sorry, Daisy. It wasn’t fair what I said. You must be hurting, ‘cause my bottom is hurting bad and I didn’t have a whippin’ like you did. Friends?”

  Daisy stood up, grabbing Minnie, the two women hugging and crying together.

  Angus and Sam turned to each other, shaking their heads and mumbling, “Women.”

  Angus shouted, looking at each woman individually. “You’ll finish these chores by the time Sam and I come back, or y’all are getting a bedtime spanking! Is that clear?”

  “Yes, Sir,” the women replied softly as they rushed back their chores.

  Both men went back to cutting wood for the fire and tending the horses.

  When the men returned, the woman had cleaned up the dishes, and put them away. The food was stored, bedrolls were out and ready for slumber, and the kindling had been piled by the fire ready for use. Angus and Sam exchanged looks and Sophie figured they were crediting Angus’ spankings to the calm obedience tonight. It rankled her that he thought this, but she had to admit that the whippings today were a definite incentive.

  “All right, girls. Time for bed. Everyone in your bedrolls, morning will be here soon and chores will be waiting. Daisy, sweetie, c’mere. I need you lying over this log over here so I can put more ointment on your backside.”

  Daisy cupped her bottom through her dress and backed up a step shaking her head ‘no’.

  “Don’t tell me what you’re gonna do and not gonna do, you hear? Now, get your tail over here because I’m pretty sure you don’t want a hiding again. Am I right?”

  “No, I don’t want another spanking, Sir. But I can put it on myself, please.” She reached out to take the ointment.

  “No. You won’t be able to see like I can. Now get over here! I need to make sure it’s healing right.” He paused giving her time to comply but when she hesitated too long he raised his voice and pointed to the space on the log next to him. “Now, girl!”

  “Ooooo!” Daisy cried in defeat as she
walked over to the log. She dropped to her knees and gently put her hips onto the cold hard wood, lifting her skirts.

  Angus took the lid off the liniment speaking to the other women first. “I want you women to keep your eyes closed and go to sleep. This isn’t any of your business.”

  He then motioned Sam to stand blocking the view of Daisy’s stripped bottom. Sophie didn’t want to be caught so she threw her blanket up over her head and peeked out from the side of the blanket to watch. The angry red stripes and welts had to be throbbing. Angus rubbed the offended areas with his pinkie finger, rubbing the ointment into her skin with slow, feather circles, Daisy hissing through her teeth, clenching and unclenching her bottom.

  “You poor little thing. I think you’ll mind rules from now on won’t you, girl?”

  “Yes, Sir. It hurts so much.” Daisy drummed her toes in the dirt as he worked on her.

  His other hand stroked her hip as continued to rub the ointment lightly across the reddened skin. “This’ll keep your behind from getting inflamed. It’ll feel better in a couple of days. Now, you stay that way for a bit. I’ll be right back, don’t you move, you hear?”

  “Yes, Sir.” Daisy started to cry, the humiliation of it all too hard to keep inside any longer.

  Chapter Three

  The rest of the week had gone by without further scuffles. Daisy, as Angus had predicted, stayed in the wagon for the next two days, recuperating. By day three of their excursion, Daisy was at least up and walking, though she did so rather gingerly. Angus cheerfully informed her that she'd walk with the rest of the crew from then on. While Daisy hadn't seemed overly pleased by his proclamation, she hadn't seemed sad about it either. Perhaps it had been a lonely ride in the back of that dark, bouncing wagon?

  Today, they would be entering Topeka, Kansas. They'd traveled seventy miles and finally she'd be meeting Daniel Weston. Sophie and Daniel had corresponded for months before her departure on the Widow Wagon and through the letters she'd gleaned some personal information from him. Daniel said he had lost his wife to influenza last year around the same time that she’d lost Clive. Daniel and his wife had never had children, so she didn't have to worry about that. He said that they'd been residents of Kansas their whole lives and that his wife had come down with the deadly disease while traveling to Topeka for supplies.

  Sophie remembered her shock at learning that Daniel, at twenty-four, hadn’t yet had children. But then again, she'd just turned twenty-two, and had no children of her own either. She hoped they got along. It would be so hard to start over again after gathering her nerve to make a new life in Topeka with the still mostly unknown Daniel.

  She didn't even want to think about how or where she'd go if this didn't work. It just had to work. It had to. She wondered if he'd only be looking for sex, or if he’d want something more — perhaps even fall in love again. His ad for a mail order bride said he hoped to find: "a companion to love, marry, and have children with." That one line has been the reason why she'd answered him, for those were what she hoped for too.

  As they came over a hill, the town of Topeka came into view. The bustle of people, horses, wagons, and oxen amidst shouts and whistles that could be heard in the distance. Angus told them to climb into the wagon so he wouldn‘t lose them — and so they wouldn’t risk being run over in Topeka‘s busy streets. As a stop on the Oregon Trail, Topeka constantly teemed with wagons, horses, oxen, mules, and people. She wished she had a mirror to make sure she looked more acceptable to Daniel before meeting him. She ran a brush through her hair, while the other women stared at her, some looking on enviously, wishing they were in her shoes as they looked around the busy town. Others scowled at her, no doubt angry that Sophie would be getting off so early rather than endure thousands more miles bouncing along the muddy, rutted trail.

  * * *

  Daniel looked around the house, knowing he’d never get it to the liking of a woman. If life had taught him anything, it was that women liked to leave their mark on things as much as men did. Sophie would want to come into the house and add her personal touches, even if it was only something as simple as moving a table to the other side of the room. It would be her touch on the room and furniture. He had cleaned and scrubbed the floors, filled the cupboards, and even finished the laundry.

  He’d been so lonely since Mary had died, so much so that sleep had largely become a distant memory. He needed to sleep, needed it almost as much as a warm, soft woman tucked into his side as he slipped under the covers.He needed rest though, and he hoped having a woman in the house again would at least help him fill that void again, even if it was only enough to let him sleep again. Some men wanted a woman to help with the fields and farming, but he wanted a woman to love and laugh with. But there was more to it than that — he wanted children too. He hoped he’d made the right decision. It was important to him to be happy, and he knew he never would be without a loving wife and children.

  Daniel stepped off his porch into the light rain, hoping the rotten weather wasn’t a bad omen. His Ma had always said that rain was good luck though. He’d hold on to that thought. Looking out toward his fields, he felt hopeful for the first time in a long time. He’d love to till the land alongside some strong, sturdy sons. He needed to move along or he’d be late picking up Sophie.

  On the way out the door, he had peeked in the little mirror he’d gotten Mary before her death. He’d taken a lukewarm bath in the kitchen, taking the edge off the frigid morning water by adding a pail of hot water he’d heated on the stove. He put on the clean clothes he’d washed and pressed. It would never do to present himself as slovenly the first time his future wife set eyes upon him. Satisfied his turnout was sufficiently dapper, he dashed outside, hitching up his horses to the buggy.

  The ride from Grantville to Topeka was usually about a half hour, and he breathed in the fresh smell of the dew covered prairie grass as his buggy followed the winding dirt track that descended the hill into town. He loved his little town and looked forward to having a wife — and hopefully a family someday — living there.

  Daniel stood in front of the station waiting for the Widow Wagon, trying to settle his nerves. He distracted himself by observing the goings on of downtown Topeka. He watched the owner of the mercantile shoo a young man from his store; apparently, he had stolen an apple. Women walked by in gossiping groups whispering and giggling, men spitting chewing tobacco onto the street, watching the women. A knot of grizzled old men had already gathered in front of the station, blue pipe smoke wisping above them, their raspy murmurs clear in the crisp morning air.

  The Widow Wagon pulled up with a large, tattered green flag, mounted atop a pole on the driver’s bench, whipping in the wind. The horse’s hooves thumped the ground at the abrupt halt of the wagon. The driver, an older gentleman with gray hair at the temples and tired eyes, jumped down and tied up the horses while the younger man assisting him pulled a large trunk down from the back of the wagon.

  Horses secured, the older man walked to the back of the wagon. “Sophie, c’mon, girl. Time for you to leave. Your man is standing here lookin’ like he’s swallowed his tongue.”

  Daniel strode toward his wife-to-be, glaring at the surly old man when he stood in his way. “You keep runnin’ that mouth like that and I’ll show you what swallowing your tongue really means. Stand aside. I’ll be helping Sophie down.”

  He pushed the old geezer out of the way and put his hand up… for the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

  She had a natural loveliness, peaches and cream complexion, piercing blue eyes, and stunning sable hair. The woman was blessed with pretty hands, the fingers long and delicate, but as she took his hand, he could feel the roughness of her skin, evoking an ethic of hard work. This was a woman that had her hands in water, washing and scrubbing. Though it pleased him that her dry, rough skin meant she was no stranger to labor, he’d make sure she had lotions and oils to prevent chafing.

  She’d be working with her hands plenty in his
household.

  He helped her down. “I’ll get your trunk, Sophie. Once it’s in the buggy we’ll make our way home. How does that sound?”

  She smiled at him, and he noticed that she had a dimple at the corner of her mouth. “It sounds glorious after a week of walking.”

  She followed him to where Sam had set down her trunk, but before he could pick it up, the other women in the wagon clambered out, saying their goodbye’s to Sophie. Listening to the chatter of the women as he walked away, he marveled at how women could form such bonds in merely a week of travel; men could hardly let their guard down in a week.

  “All right, you women,” Angus barked. “Back into the wagon. We’ve gotta get a move on today. No time for foolishness.”

  “Angus, we just want to say good bye!” Clara waved her hand and gave him a playful smile, but Angus turned and gave her a glare that made her swallow.

  They all quickly kissed Sophie goodbye and ran to get back into the wagon. Left alone with Angus, Daniel extended his hand. “Thank you, Angus, for bringing Sophie here unharmed. I appreciate it.”

  “Oh, no. Wait a minute here. Your woman here owes me ten dollars.” Angus turned looking over at Sophie.

  “Ten dollars?” Sophie said. “You thief! I will not pay you ten dollars. You can go to hell!”

  She would have turned and walked away, but Daniel caught her by the elbow. “Nope. You’re staying here, young lady!”

  * * *

  Sophie couldn’t believe her ears. Daniel’s words sounded a little too much like a rebuke to her. How could Daniel say such a thing? It made no sense. She’d paid Angus the ticket fare and didn’t owe him a penny more. Surely Daniel didn’t expect her to stand by quietly. All she knew was that Angus had tried to steal money from her.

  “You aren’t getting a penny from me!” she said, enraged. “I already—”

  “Good, because I’m not asking for a penny, woman. I’m asking for my ten dollars.” He fished into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, handing it to Daniel. “It states right there—” he pointed at the sentence on the paper “— that at the end of the travel a ten dollar fee is expected.”