Saving Grace Read online

  "Alright then, I suppose it is your choice what you wear to your own wedding," he mumbled, still chuckling. Cole emerged with their two horses all saddled up and ready to go. I took a deep breath and let out a huff. I was going to teach these two a thing or two about what it was like to marry a Colorado cowgirl.

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  Chapter 7: Shotgun wedding

  "You've done what?!?" Doc gasped as I stood over his bed looking down at him. He'd taken a turn for the worse even since I'd seen him the day before and even though it was still midday, he was lying in bed looking a might feverish.

  "I've been married," I said, nodding my head in emphasis at the last word.

  "Married...but to who?!?" he spluttered, erupting into a fit of cough into the kerchief he was holding. I waited for the coughing to subside then held my head high with pride.

  "Austin Owens. A gentleman who's been courting me by post for some time now."

  Austin, Cole and I had spoken about the peculiar Ironwood tradition on the ride to town and decided it might not be understood here in Dalton. In fact, I didn't quite understand it myself and found it somewhat unnatural but each time I considered it, there awoke in me an arousal that trumped any sense of modesty I may have had.

  "My dear Grace, who is this man and why haven't you told me a single thing about him?" The Doc's tone had changed from shock to a certain sadness at having not been told about any of this. I certainly didn't want to let him know that I had just met my new husband, or husbands, as they were shooting at the sheriff on the road out of town last night. Now that I thought of it that way, the whole thing did seem quite outrageous and I wondered if I had made a mistake.

  "Well," I began, but quickly started searching the ceiling for answers to the Doc's question as I realized that I myself didn't know a single thing about either of the cowboys. "Well, he's right outside," I said cheerfully, would you like to meet him?"

  "Well, alright then. Go ahead and bring him in."

  My heart began to thunder nervously again at the thought that the Doc, the man who'd known me all my life, heck, the man who'd brought me into this crazy world, was about to meet my new husband. I opened the front door to see Austin standing, leaning on the porch railing.

  "Doc wants to see you now," I said to him quietly, blushing at the thought that I was now his wife. I felt a blush of wetness between my legs as my mind was pulled past the moment and towards the evening and all its possibilities. "Where's Cole?" I whispered as Austin brushed past me.

  "Gone home to straighten things up. We'll meet him back there."

  Home. My home. Our home now. I swung the door shut and listened for the familiar click of Doc's latch. It had always been a comforting sound.

  "Doc, this is Austin."

  "Pleasure to meet you."

  "Pleasure to meet you too, I'm sure." The Doc replied, eyeing Austin up and down. "Congratulations are in order," the Doc said, not seeming too genuine.

  "Why thank-you, good sir," Austin answered with a smile. "Grace has told how sudden this news has come to you and I appreciate it must be quite a shock but I assure you, I love this woman and I will take good and special care of her until the day that I die."

  I must say that my heart did swell at the mention of the word love. I'd heard about it, read about it in some book or other that Rebecca had managed to procure, but didn't really believe in it myself, or know quite what it was supposed to mean. But my body seemed to. As soon as the word left Austin's lips I felt a tenderness, a warmth, a closeness like I wanted to hug him right then and there.

  Doc's eyes softened immediately at Austin's eloquence and easy manner. He fancied himself a man of letters, the Doc did, even in this old wild west and always appreciated a man who could express himself as well as he could work with his hands.

  "Well that all sounds fine, Mr. Owens,"

  "Please, call me Austin."

  The Doc couldn't help but crack a smile.

  "Alright then, Austin. That all does sound fine. May I ask what brought you to these parts? Gold?"

  "No sir. We received quite a large sum, by way of an inheritance and decided that we should try to find our fortune's in this world."

  "We?" the Doc asked.

  "Uh, that's right. Cole, a friend of mine. We rode to Dalton together."

  "I see," the Doc said, looking like things weren't adding up. "Will your friend be staying in Dalton as well?"

  "Well I suppose we haven't thought that far ahead. I myself was eager to get here as fast as I could after learning of my good fortune, so that Grace and I could finally be together."

  That seemed to satisfy the Doc as he began nodding his head in approval. His brow furrowed slightly and he glanced at me before turning back to Austin.

  "I'm sure you don't know this yet, but you've got quite a woman on your hands here. She can be quite a handful."

  My mouth dropped open in shock at the Doc's honesty.

  "Doc!" I gasped, barely able to believe I'd heard what he'd just said.

  "Now Gracey," Doc went on, "a man oughtta know what he's getting into. I thought I'd give Austin a fair assessment so he knew he had a woman with some fire in her on his hands."

  While it may have been true that I wasn't always agreeable, I wouldn't have gone so far as to call myself a handful. The nerve! Doc didn't seem to mind my outrage, however and just kept on talking. "You see Austin, and believe me I had many conversations with her father about this when he was still alive. He just never had the heart to discipline her the way he should have. Her mother passed early on an well, for her pappy Grace was just the apple of his eye. Couldn't say a bad thing about her or raise a hand to put her in her place, may his soul rest in peace."

  Still somewhat stunned with disbelief, I listened carefully to Doc's words. It was true that my father hadn't ever disciplined me, but had it really been necessary? I thought that for the most part I had been a very well behaved child!

  "There was the time when she let all the horses out of their stalls without first closing the gate on the corral in front of the barn. Well sure enough, they ended up in all kinds of different places and her father had a heck of a time getting them all back. But instead of a firm spanking for causing mischief he just chalked it up to 'being a kid' and that was that."

  My mind drifted back to that time. I guess that had been something I may have deserved some consequence for but surely that was one occurrence, for the most part, I had been very good!

  "Breaking dishes, playing hookey, even smoking a cigarette with some boys behind the schoolhouse," Doc went on, "not a single spanking from here till sundown. So all I'm saying, Austin, is that you might at some point have to set her straight."

  I guffawed again at Doc's words, rolled my eyes and looked up at Austin who had been listening intently to Doc's reminiscence. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye, then turned back to Doc.

  "Well sir," Austin began, "I do thank-you for your recollections for they certainly help me to form a better picture of the woman who I now call my wife. However, and on this point I would like to be perfectly clear,"

  Finally! I thought. He was going to set Doc straight and tell him that I was my own woman and could do as I pleased.

  "I was raised in the old way where men are men and women are women and sometimes a woman needs to feel the tender discipline of a man's hand to understand she's done wrong and to understand her place."

  I couldn't believe what I was hearing! My husband was saying that he believed in disciplining a woman, spanking her with his hand. He was going to spank me the same way Travis had spanked Rebecca in front of me? Ha! We would see about that! I felt a warm rage begin to settle into my bones at the thought of any man laying a hand on me in that way. At the same time, there was a certain dull ache that came with my indignation. There was a certain tender emptiness in my middle, one that swelled at the thought of Austin laying me over his knee and giving me a firm spanking.

  The clouds of concern had lifted from Doc'
s face and been replaced with the beaming rays of his satisfied smile. Clearly he approved of what Austin had said.

  "Well my good boy, I'm certainly very happy to hear you say so. You look like a good and honest man it's just, you never know anymore how people were raised or what their opinions are. Particularly when they come from away."

  "Indeed, sir," Austin replied, bowing his head slightly. "You can put your fears to bed, I have every intention of making a lady out of Grace."

  I stared at my husband, trying to bore a hole through the side of his head with my outrage, but he didn't even turn and look. Simply kept smiling at Doc until the silence in the room got awkward for us all.

  "Well I'm sure there are many things you two would rather be doing than talking to me, Austin, would you be so kind as to give us a minute?"

  "I would indeed Doc, however there is the small matter of my wife's..." Austin trailed off as he glanced at me, but quickly looked back at Doc to finish what he'd been saying. "That is, sir, her examination."

  A shocked silence descended upon the room. I, for one, couldn't believe what I'd just heard. My mouth dropped open as I stared at Austin, unsure of what exactly he meant by what he'd said. But the bigger shock was to glance at the Doc and see him nodding in agreement!

  "Where is it you are from exactly?" the Doc asked Austin quietly.

  "Ironwood, sir."

  The Doc waited a good few moments before speaking to Austin again. When he did, I again couldn't believe my ears at what I was hearing.

  "Well then you and I shall get along just fine, son, because that's the first thing we do after taking a wife here in Dalton too."

  My head had started to spin. If I was hearing and understanding everyone right, my husband and my father's best friend were talking about giving me some kind of medical examination. When I thought about it, I realized I must have been hearing wrong because there was no way I was going to do anything like that. Besides there was just no need for it!

  "Gracey," the Doc said, levelling his gaze at me. "Why don't you get up on that there table and we'll take a good look at you."

  My head started shaking, almost on its own.

  "I will not!" I shot back, glaring at the Doc then turning my head to do the same to Austin. This was becoming more and more preposterous by the minute! The Doc didn't move. He did turn his head and look at Austin, who looked straight at me.

  "Now Gracey," Austin began. His using my name like that caught me off guard. "I know we agreed to do this to help each other. We both have something the other needs. But I want you to know that I didn't just agree to be your husband so you could keep your land. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on and I intend to keep you as my wife until the day I die."

  His words flooded me with an emotion I'd not experienced before in my life. A warm shiver shook through me at the fact that someone in this world cared enough about me to say something like that. But the warmth quickly turned into a blazing blush of shame at the thought of what the Doc was about to do to me. With my jaw set tight, I crossed my arms and glared at the two men. What were they going to do now? Spank me?

  Austin stepped forward, his expression cool, but with the faint hint of a smile on his lips. He touched a hand to my arm and I felt myself blush again. This man that just yesterday had been a stranger was now my husband. And stranger than that, was the man waiting at my house to be the same thing.

  "Grace," Austin began, his voice soft but firm. "This is what we do when a woman is wed. I'm just happy that you know the Doc so well, so's we don't have to go ridin' all the way to the next town just to find one. Now why don't you strip down to your knickers and he can get on with it."

  My face was burning now, hotter than hell itself.

  "I'm not doing any such thing! I don't care what you think! I'll do as I please!"

  I didn't even realize I was over his knee until I was staring down at the floorboards. It happened so fast I didn't even have time to react. I almost felt the first smack before I felt the warm air of the room on my bottom. The sound of my own yelp brought me back into the room.

  "Ow!" I cried as the shape of Austin's massive palm landed on my round rear again. He'd pulled down my drawers right after he pulled up my skirt and I could feel them dangling now around my ankles. As my mind settled into the realization that I was being spanked in front of the Doc, a fresh swell of shame flooded through my body. Smack after smack landed on my now reddening flesh. With each one I winced and felt the sting of tears biting at my eyes. But I'd be damned if I was going to give anyone the pleasure of watching me cry! I lost count of how many swats I received but after some time they stopped.

  A thick silence hung in the air as I lay over Austin's knee. My breathing was heavy, my pulse was racing. I could feel the Doc's eyes on me, on my exposed bits that no one had ever seen before. Then I felt Austin's hand on my flesh again. But this time it swept slowly up my thigh, his coarse, weathered skin rough on my soft flesh. I trembled and my core tensed, not sure what was going to happen. His hand swam further up my leg, until he as at the place where it turned into my rear. He lingered there, squeezing me a bit with his thumb. I couldn't help the wetness that came in.

  Even though the Doc was watching, I couldn't help hot liquid that I felt start to seep out of me at his touch. I felt my face flush. Even more redness and heat. Not only had I just been spanked, but now Austin was touching me in my most private of places while the Doc watched! His hand moved again. But this time it wasn't further up the curve of my bottom. This time he moved his fingers closer to my center, closer to the soft folds of flesh that even I had barely touched. Closer to the wetness that had started there.

  "My that's beautiful," I heard him whisper. With the tip of his finger, he ran up one side of me and down the other. His skin was just barely grazing mine but it felt unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. My body started reacting of its own accord, I had no say in the matter. If I could have, I would have spread my legs for him, opened myself and begged him to make the ache I'd started feeling go away.

  But he held me firmly over his knee, tightly against his body so I couldn't move at all. The only thing I could do was wait for what he would do next.

  "Are you feeling better?" he asked softly, letting go of me and helping me up. The dress I was wearing fell back down over my bottom as I pushed myself up to standing, but embarrassingly, my drawers were still around my ankles. When I bent down to pick them up, he grabbed me by the arm again. "Now Gracey, we're going to get this done. Are you feeling any better?" he asked, cornering me with his stare.

  Now if any other man had looked that way at me or talked to me like that I would have made sure to tell them what's what and have been on my merry way. But with my bottom still burning from the discipline I'd received, well I reckon I was feeling kind of turned around or something. I just looked down at those floorboards and gave Austin a nod of agreement. When I looked back up, he was smiling again.

  "That wasn't so hard now, was it?" he asked, his voice friendly again. Something about the way he said it, his tone, the fact that he was happy about how I'd reacted made me feel good and bad and uncomfortable and shy all at the same time. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but I always wanted him to talk to me like that. Like he was pleased with me that way. "How'd you like her Doc?" he said, turning to the Doc who'd been standing and watching the whole thing. I glanced at him as well, but now even he looked different to me. With a contented smile he swept a finger over to the examination table that was up by one wall.

  "Get her up there and I'll have a good look at her for you," the Doc said, speaking strictly to Austin. Austin got up and nudged my arm until I started walking towards the table. It hit me again what was about to happen. The Doc was about to give me some kind of examination and right in front of my new husband! The embarrassment made me hesitate, stop walking for a second. But Austin nudged me again and I knew I had no choice. Once I got to the table, he spun me around and looked a
t the Doc.

  "Clothes on, or off?"

  "Best take them all off," the Doc replied, moving to a sink in the corner of the room, taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves. "That way we'll be able to give her whole body a once over."

  I looked up at Austin as he turned back towards me. It felt like it was getting hotter and hotter in that room. It felt like someone didn't open a door or a window I might just faint from the heat. Austin must have noticed how flushed I'd become. He leaned in close.

  "Now don't you worry your pretty little head about any of this. It'll be over before you know it and we'll be on our way home. But for now, I want you to spin around."

  I was speechless. I'd never had a man talk to me like that, ordering me around without telling him where to go. Heck, even my daddy would get an earful if he asked for some favour or other. Why was I suddenly letting Austin boss me around, I had no idea. Maybe out of shock at my own submission, I did what he asked. I turned around and faced the wall.