"Where is your horse?" I asked, trying to keep her off kilter, even though I knew the answer. We'd come across her horse before we found her.
"Um...it's that way, most likely eating grass." She pointed downstream.
Garrett headed in that direction.
I reached down and picked up her dress, still sodden and dripping. "Come on. We will return to the house."
"I need...I need to get my boots and stockings," she said, walking to the side of the creek to claim her things, her gait stiff, her steps gingerly. The corner of my mouth ticked up, amused. A sore bottom was a consequence long remembered.
Garrett came back, leading a horse by the reins. We looked at each other, but no words were necessary. He nodded and I returned the same gesture. She wasn't getting away. I met her halfway back, picked her up by the waist and sat her down upon the saddle.
"Oh!" She winced and squirmed.
"It is our job to protect you, Sarah. You may not walk here without shoes. There are unseen dangers you could step on and get hurt. Rattlesnakes even."
Shifting, she looked down at the ground as if a snake or two had slithered out of the brush, then added, "But my--"
"Your spanked ass?" Garrett finished for her. Probably not the words she would have chosen. "I can carry you instead."
He tossed the reins to me and made ready to help her down.
"No," she replied very insistently, sitting up ramrod straight as if she had a plug in her ass. Ah, a plug. I couldn't wait to see Sarah with her first plug. "Thank you, but I will be fine upon the horse."
I led the animal toward the house and smiled, although she couldn't see being behind me as she was. Having Sarah submit wasn't going to be easy, but it sure was going to be fun. We'd left at dawn to observe the beaver dam being built upstream and came home with a woman.
CHAPTER THREE
SARAH
Everything was going wrong! This was not how I imagined my escape to be. I was to make it as far as the next town by horse, take the stage east to the first town with a railroad, then continue all the way to a real, big city. There, I could be one of so many, discover everything I'd only read about in books. The money I'd collected, little by little over the years, had been tucked neatly and safely into a hidden pocket on the inside of my dress. Before Doctor Graham, the sheriff and Mr. Bridger had taken Devney and I from the ranch yesterday morning, I'd quickly hidden my money upon my person. Everything had been planned meticulously over the years. Except the harness.
The stupid, ridiculous, confining, humiliating harness! I'd never even imagined such a contraption existed, let alone the reason for donning it. Lifting my skirts for Doctor Graham to take it on and off had been embarrassing. Absolutely mortifying. But he was a doctor. I had no real idea of what occurred between a man and a woman, but even I knew Garrett and Tagg Ericksson had anything but clinical thoughts about me. Unfortunately, they'd caught me in the most inappropriate of positions, which then turned downright indecent when I'd fallen into the water.
After spanking me and receiving the answers they wanted, they were nothing but polite. True gentlemen. I was shown to a lovely bedroom to rest while they tended to their chores. The walls were painted white, with equally crisp and bright curtains in the window that overlooked the vast stable and the prairie beyond. A brass bed took up most of the space and a small table with pitcher and bowl upon it sat beneath a mirror. Although I hadn't slept all night and the bed looked quite inviting, I couldn't rest. My mind and body were too restless.
What was I to do? I paced the small space, frustrated and irritated, hands clenched in tight fists. I needed the harness off of my person in order to escape. I couldn't continue on with it upon me. Before that, I needed it off of me as soon as possible as my most basic needs were very, very pressing. I squirmed at the discomfort in my belly. I couldn't wait the several hours for Doctor Graham to be fetched. I couldn't wait another hour.
Tears filled my vision and the dress blurred. I had no choice. I began to cry in frustration, my desperation too great to consider the depths of the consequences. I glanced at the damp dress that was draped over the rails at the foot of the bed. I could put it on, but it would be a soggy, miserable experience and another inconvenience to wait upon. Opening the door, I ran down the narrow staircase, out the front door
and into the stable.
"All right," I shouted, when I found Tagg brushing down a horse. The air inside was cool, the scent of animal and cut hay fresh in the air. His hat was off and his hair was a dark blond, like the sand on the banks of the river. He glanced up at me in surprise, his eyes the color of the sky.
He stood at my sudden appearance, a curry brush in his right hand. "All right?" he repeated, confused. He looked me over from head to toe. I was still in my shift and barefoot, breathing hard from my exertion and fidgeting from my body's imminent needs.
"Please," I begged. "Take off the harness."
Understanding flickered across his face. He put the brush up on the half wall of the horse's pen and turned to me. "Let me wash my hands."
He went outside and I followed him into the bright sunlight. Working the pump, water came pouring out. Using a bar of soap he pulled from a small tin hooked onto the curve of the pipe, he scrubbed his hands clean. Shaking off the excess water, he turned to me. "Turn around and lift your shift."
I backed up a step. "Here?" He wanted to remove it out in the open?
"No one else is about but Garrett. Here will do. Turn around, Sarah."
His voice went deeper and was more commanding, his shoulders back and he appeared even taller and more imposing.
Slowly, I turned to face away from him so I looked at the front of the stable, and lifted the hem of my shift. It only covered me to mid thigh, which was indecent enough, but I lifted it up so that the back of the harness where the small lock was situated was uncovered. This meant that my bottom was on complete display as well.