Wild Roses

Chapter One One August As the night wind blew, the three lithe young female forms tripped along the grassy meadow behind the ancient house. In a sudden panic, thinking they’d seen lights go on inside, they darted behind a shed some fifty feet away, collapsing in a heap on the fragrant earth, laughing, exhausted and relieved that they could no longer be seen from the windows by Graham Reynolds. He’d been known to shoot trespassers, or anything else that moved in the dark. And though these three wild ones had been warned, the hint of danger only aroused their youthful sense of adventure. A dare was why they’d taken the chance against Graham’s rifle this night. Alex Lonnigan had sworn the three didn’t have the guts to pick a handful of blush roses from beside the back porch, where, as the gentle caretaker of his garden, Graham tended the prize winning bushes with meticulous attention. Hallie McCarty was not about to let such a dare go untried, especially from the arch enemy of her youth, Alex Lonnigan. The two had been tormenting each other ever since Alex first tied Hallie’s pigtails into knots while she was sleeping in kindergarten. As the years went by, it had become more of a contest between the two seeing who could out manipulate, out deceive or out-smart the other in sometimes very nasty practical jokes. At first, it had been very personal, like the time Alex stole Hallie’s underclothes from her gym class and had them strung up on the flag pole, or when Hallie meanly massacred Alex’s stilted prose while she was grading papers as her English teacher’s assistant. Toward the end of their public school days however, the pranks became less personal, more of a testament to the power the two had persuading their friends to perpetrate daring acts of mildly malicious vandalism. Three weeks before Hallie found herself trespassing on Graham Reynolds’s property, Alex and Jed Pease had swiped Darrel Jone’s old VW bug, painted it orange and pushed it into the town square at midnight–that prank the best one that Finnegan Acres had seen in ten years, certainly topping anything Hallie had contrived. (She wished she’d thought of it herself.) Picking Graham Reynolds’s roses didn’t seem like an equal challenge, but it was one that would earn the respect of everyone sixteen to twenty-one for miles around, considering the sometimes violent nature of the victim. This challenge match between Alex and Hallie should have proved childish by the time the two were sixteen, but in an out-of-the-way town like Finnegan Acres, tucked in an out-of-the-way part of a lazy Midwestern state, there was too little to keep the youth busy on hot and lonesome summer nights. “You got that cigarette you promised?” Sara Braithwaite asked Hallie. “Yeah, somewhere,” she answered, fishing through the pockets of her jean shorts. Pulling out a pack of Virginia Slims–they were much more womanly than the Marlboros they’d smoked the week before–she handed Sara the pack and her lighter. “You know we don’t have time for this,” Deanna Cameron exclaimed. “We’ve got to get those roses and get out of here. That old guy’s probably looking out the window right now. What if he sees the smoke?” “He can’t see the smoke in the dark, dummy,” Hallie told the nervous fourteen year old. “Just relax.” Lighting her own cigarette, the more mature looking Hallie leaned back against the rickety boards of the shed, closed her eyes and took a long drag. “You know, we’ve got to find some way out of this berg,” she mused. “Sometimes there’s so little going on here I could scream, or at the very least run naked through the town square.” “Hallie,” Deanna droned as she blushed embarrassed to hear her friend talk that way. “Grow up, Deanna, or we won’t invite you again,” Hallie sassed. “At least you get to graduate the end of the year,” Sara said. “Yeah, but it’s gonna be one loooong year,” Hallie returned, sounding bored. Hallie’s mop of straw colored curls framed a pretty face. The McCarty’s always grew beautiful women, and Hallie was no exception with her well-carved features. Though she had a prominent nose, it was not too large, and of course her eyes with their dark brows and soft brown glow were the kind that half the high school boys dreamed about in bed at night–that and her swaying breasts and well-rounded butt. Sara, much less pretty than Hallie, was more exotic with her darker complexion and simple face, though that didn’t take away from the fact that in her plainness there was a causal beauty. Her smooth dark tresses, even in the dim starlight, gleamed. Deanna, on the other hand, was all blonde–her hair not from a bottle, like Hallie’s. She’d be spectacular when she dropped the awkward little girl look and wore contacts instead of her coke bottle glasses. Though the trio had little physical resemblance, all three were lithe and stunning females. And most importantly, all three could be hell-on-wheels when they were in the right frame of mind. It was a sultry night and their parents didn’t have a clue where they were. And challenged by their equally as bored and frustrated male counter parts, it would promise to be a night to remember. Inexperienced with smoking, Deanna struggled to light her cigarette, fiddling with the lighter that didn’t seem to work, especially when she faced into the wind. Her thumb trying to work the device kept pressing on the wheel. Two, three, a half dozen times, she was annoyed enough to clamp down too hard on the lighter, and suddenly the flame leapt high in front of her eyes. “Oh, my god!” she gasped, as she jumped to her feet. The lighter dropped to the brittle grass at her feet. Flames jumped higher as the fire caught the breeze and the dry grasses ignited in seconds. The two girls on the ground hopped up, first to get away from the fire, and then to try stamping out the conflagration. But the fire was dancing on the brisk wind with flames shooting every which way, shingles on the rickety shed quickly catching fire. Seeing the blaze igniting all around them, rising high into the night air, they shrieked, all three racing toward the woods. Into the night, the sound of a rifle shot exploded through the sound of the wind. The trio raced faster still, as behind them the old shed crackled and sizzled, flames leaping upon flames. There was nothing that could save the ramshackle building, and within five minutes Graham Reynolds shed was burnt to the ground. When Deanna and Sara reached the property fence, they leapt over it in seconds and turned around looking for Hallie, expecting to find her at their heels. She was not in sight. “Good god, where is she?” Sara wondered. They could see nothing of what was happening in the fire-illuminated dark near the house. At least two-hundred feet away, their vision was blocked by smoke and fear. All they could remember was the sound of the rifle shot. Had she been hit? Looking at each other with blank faces, they were in tears. “Wait! Look!” Sara said, pointing back to the house. As the smoke lifted for a moment, they thought they could see the form of their friend, mounting the back stairs of the house, on the arm of Graham Reynolds. She’d been caught. *** “Get your hands off me!” Hallie roared. But Graham Reynolds grip was fixed. As Hallie struggled to get away, he and the young brat looked at the burning shed, Graham knowing there was no way he’d save the soon to be worthless pile of cinders. His groundskeeper, having been awakened by the commotion and the smell of smoke, came running with a hose in hand and contained the fire so that it wouldn’t threaten the house. But obviously he wasn’t in time to save the shed. “You’ve got it handled,” Graham said to Darrel Spring. “I’ll handle this one myself,” he added, referring to Hallie and the riled man hauled the struggling young woman inside his house. “Get your hands off of me,” Hallie roared again as Graham Reynolds led her to his sitting room. “Only if you settle down,” Graham roared back. Hallie was hardly inspired. She had no intention of letting this brute take charge of her, but then what could she do? Graham was much larger and stronger than her five foot two inch body. “Listen, I’ll stop. Just let go,” she exclaimed, trying again to shake him away. By then, they were in Graham’s parlor, the door was closed and escape was unlikely with Graham standing between Hallie and the exit. Letting go of the young woman, he pushed her toward a chair. “Sit down!” Hallie complied though she didn’t like the feel of it. Inside, the room was so stifling it was difficult to breathe. “Don’t you ever open the windows?” she inquired. Graham Reynolds ignored her comment. Going about his business, he opened the gun cabinet, replaced the rifle and then locked the door, pocketing the key. Turning about, his glaring eyes pinned her in place. He might have been a handsome man, except for the scowl on his lips and the narrowed looked of his strangely pale eyes–the color of grass Hallie thought, though it was difficult to tell in the dim light. His cinnamon brown hair was longish, cut in a stylish way. Seeing him up close, he might actually be much younger than she expected. The dour surroundings of his home made him initially look ancient. The parlor could not have changed in fifty years, the look of it so old, Hallie thought she’d stepped into her grandmother’s house in Grand Forks. Furniture, paintings, carpet and drapes all had a mellow, squalid look to them with frayed edges, worn places and a yellowed glow. It was kind of appealing, if it hadn’t been so damned hot and dreary–and she hadn’t had the man of the house about to climb right down her throat. “You burned my shed, Miss,” Graham said. “Sorry about that,” Hallie conceded. “You don’t sound sorry.” “Well, I am,” she sassed. “Even so, sorry does not make amends. What is your name?” “Hallie McCarty.” “McCarty? John McCarty’s daughter?” “Yes, sir.” He nodded. “You’re going to call him?” she asked. “No, I’m not going to call him. I’d rather handle this myself.” That was a relief, Hallie thought to herself. The last thing she needed was her father getting all worked up. She didn’t even want to think about how angry he’d be. “Stand up,” Graham ordered, as he sat down. Gingerly complying, Hallie wasn’t sure that Graham Reynolds was going to be any easier than her father. Inspecting her so closely she wanted to shrivel up in a little ball. His scrutiny was so fierce, she thought she’d might just melt away into the carpet like Dorothy’s witch–-either that or find herself flattened against the far wall, there to stay until someone peeled her off. “You don’t get caught much, do you?” Graham observed. “I don’t usually burn sheds,” she admitted. “No, I’m sure since there aren’t many to set fire to around here. So, what were you doing on my property?” “Just passing through.” The austere man “humphed.” “I’m not so old that I’ll believe that,” he said. “Out with it, I want the truth.” “It was a dare, Mr. Reynolds. You’re known as a rather nasty man,” she started to explain, “just crossing your property is considered dangerous around here.” He didn’t believe her and she knew it, but he was going to let the reasons drop. He had more important considerations. “Well, young lady, if that’s all you have to say for yourself, we might as well get on with it.” “Get on with what?” she asked. “I’d like the names of your friends,” Graham said, ignoring Hallie’s question. “Friends?” “The two scared rabbits that were with you?” “I can’t tell you that,” she replied. “I want their names,” he said more adamantly. She shook her head, stubbornly refusing to tattle on her friends. “Miss McCarty,” he practically bellowed. “I can’t tell you,” she stood her ground. “You can’t or you won’t?” “I won’t,” she practically barked. “My, you are a wild one.” For a moment, he seemed to calm, at least the flash in his pale eyes dimmed. “Well, if you’re so sure you can’t tell me, it’ll just make things worse for you, but suit yourself.” “What do you mean ‘worse’?” “If your friends don’t pay for the crime, you’ll pay for them,” he replied. “Pay, pay how? If you want me to pay for the shed, I’ll see if I can come up with the money. It might take a few weeks, but I’ll do it.” “I don’t want your money, your ass will do.” “My what!” she exclaimed. “I’m going to blister your bare behind, Miss McCarty.” “You will not!” Hallie roared, and she started toward the door. “Oh, but I will,” Graham said. Quick to his feet, he captured her arm again. “And I’ll do it twice more, once for each of your cowardly friends.” “Like hell you will!” Hallie shrieked. Unfortunately Graham’s grip was like iron, his resolve as firm. Though he would have liked to have reasoned the situation with the young brat, it was obvious that he had to act swiftly. Dragging the kicking blonde-haired girl to the closest chair, he sat down. With Hallie going over his lap, his hand started smacking her wiggling behind. “Ouch, goddammit stop!” she screamed. “Oh, you’d better buck up, miss,” the man barked, “because I’ve only begun!” Seeing that she was not easily subdued, the masterful disciplinarian paused the spanking just long enough for him to pin her flailing arms at the small of her back, and draw his right leg over her kicking legs to keep her from thrusting off his lap. Then with a inspired fervor, he began again, spanking the sassy brat’s behind with fast, harsh strokes. “You fuckin’ ass!” she roared. The sentiment only make Graham angrier. Striking her even harder, he wanted to make certain that she’d feel the effect through her thin shorts. “You can’t do this!” she wailed. “Oh, but I am, Miss McCarty.” Graham’s broad palm came down on Hallie’s wiggling derriere with one sharp smack after another. “Ouch, goddamit!” He struck again and the blow stung like the fire that had flamed that night. “And you better mind your tongue, young lady, or I’ll never stop!” he warned. Hallie was hardly subdued by the caution. Graham Reynolds’s remark just made her more determined to wriggle her way off his solid thighs. As his hand repeatedly landed, she tried with all her might to buck away. “Perhaps I should do this on your bare behind, Miss McCarty!” Graham suggested seeing if that would halt her struggle. “Oh, no you won’t!” she cried. “Oh, but I will!” he returned. Having had enough of the brat’s contentious behavior, Graham paused just long enough to tug at the waist band of her shorts and have them over her hips. Hallie’s thin yellow panties followed shortly thereafter, so that the young woman’s youthful behind, sporting a visible pink blush, was clearly available. “You bastard! Let me go!” she yelled. Further infuriated by her foul mouth, Graham resumed the spanking, letting loose with a rash of frenetic strikes, taking the pink blush to a flaming red in seconds. “Ow, ouch, stop!” He pelted her more. “No, no no no stop, please stop!” she wailed. But Graham continued the spanking with same passionate vigor. The nasty fire on Hallie’s bottom was so hot she could think of nothing but making the man end it, and still he went on. “Please, please. I can’t stand it anymore,” she pleaded. She was beginning to sound more contrite, but even as she seemed to relinquish a little of her fight, the strikes went on. Getting to the point that she couldn’t stand the pain, Hallie’s protests became more sincere and less spiteful, replete with the agony that her miserable predicament had brought her. “I’m sorry, I am. Just please stop!” she cried. Still ignoring her anguish, another several smacks landed on her flaming bottom. “Please, pleeeeesee!” Tears were streaming down her cheeks and the woeful cry of the remorseful Hallie finally began to have an effect on Graham. “You understand me, Miss McCarty. I’m not playing games with you!” he barked as he landed another smack. “Yes, yes I do.” “You’re getting exactly what you deserve.” He smacked her twice hard. “Yes, I am,” she agreed. Another few at an easier pace. “Are you going to listen to what I have to say?” he asked. “Yes, sir, I will,” she vowed. Just a final three cracks against her hot rear cheeks and he stopped. Realizing that the spanking was over, Hallie breathed a sigh of relief, hoping as she continued to lie subdued over the man’s strong thighs that he’d let her go. She was not that lucky, however. Determined to make his point while he had her attention, he began to lecture. “Miss McCarty, you were ill-advised to trespass on my property. You are foolish to lie to me, foolish to cover for your friends. But that being the case, if you’re not going to give up their names to me, you will pay their fair share. I’ll be seeing you twice more to repeat this treatment.” “What makes you think I’ll ever come back?” she asked, with enough sass in her voice, that Graham might have started spanking her again; but it was a fair question that required his honest answer. “You’ll come back, I’m sure of it. I know your name, I know your father and I know where you live. If you don’t return, I’ll call the police, inform them that that you have trespassed on my property, burned my possessions, and that I intend to prosecute. Then, if I’m in a good mood, I might even call your father. But regardless, I will make sure that you’re hauled off to jail.” With each stern word he spoke Hallie’s will to fight disappeared. It didn’t matter that she was captured, over his lap and vulnerable to his immediate whims, he seemed to have a firm grip on the rest of her life as well. There was just no arguing with a man when she was in such a defenseless position. Sensing that the young woman finally understood his message, Graham slowly disentangled himself from her youthful body. Once again on her feet, she stared down at him, her eyes swollen, her face red. She bent down to retrieve her shorts tangled at her feet. “Leave them there, and go stand in the corner,” Graham ordered her. “What!” Her temper was about to flare again. “In the corner, Miss McCarty, you heard me,” he repeated. With the foray ended and the room having grown quiet, the vivacious blonde mulled her predicament having both surrender and retaliation in her mind. She kept quiet however, and moved compliantly toward the corner, giving Graham Reynolds no more fuel for spankings or a lecture. For a time, because there was little else to do while she endured the embarrassment, she was aware of the remarkable warmth in her punished behind. She hated Graham. Hated him with all her soul. Hated the way he’d subdued her and hated him most because she found the experience one of the most remarkably electrifying things that had ever happened to her. Such a mix of emotions, she wanted to cry. But not the kind of woman that’s easily given to tears, she contained the desire and tried putting the horror out of her mind. After a good ten minutes, Graham finally handed her her shorts and panties. “You can put these on,” he said, and he turned away. “Can I go now?” she asked, once she was dressed. Graham was sitting at his desk going through some papers. He looked up, appraising her once again. “You are a wild one,” he repeated an earlier pronouncement. “Sir?” “What I call a wild rose, one that has a sweet fragrance and a simple flower, but one with many thorns that needs to be pruned.” She understood what he was getting at. But why the evaluation? “Yes, I think that will be all,” he continued. “I assume that you’re not planning to change your mind about your friends?” “There were no friends with me,” Hallie said, maintaining her position. Hearing her steadfast answer he simply replied, “As you wish. I’ll see you next Friday afternoon. Three o’clock sharp. And don’t be late. I will call the authorities if you’re as much as five minute tardy.” “Yes, sir,” she said almost politely. Anxious to leave, Hallie escaped the house without another word; and with one quick pause to complete her night’s business, she fled through the field. “What happened?” Sara asked anxiously when Hallie finally climbed the fence and was back in safe territory. It had been over an hour since they’d seen Hallie disappear with Graham Reynolds and they were scared that she’d never come out. “He caught me, what do you think?” Hallie replied. “Graham Reynolds caught you?” Deanna asked, looking pale and drawn as if she’d been the one that had been caught. “Yes, couldn’t you see?” “Well, yeah but . . .” Her eye were wide like saucers. “So what did he do?” “Let’s just say, it was a very long lecture,” Hallie replied. “That’s all?” Sara asked. “That’s all?” Hallie answered. “Really?” Sara didn’t believe her. “That’s what I said, isn’t it?” “Is he going to make you pay for the shed?” she probed further. “I offered, but he said no. Said it was old and had to be torn down anyway.” “Wow. So he wasn’t all that mad?” “I wouldn’t say that, but it’s over.” She was curt replying, only too aware of the lies she was telling and the sting that still remained on her punished behind. “Let’s go home.” “Just one thing,” Sara said. “What made you go back when the fire started?” Hallie looked at her friends, a little more haughty than even she was noted for, and from behind her back she pulled out what she’d been holding in her hand. “I went for the roses,” she said, showing the two girls a handful of blush roses, their perfume spraying the air with its sweet, subtle aroma. “You set fire to his shed and still took the roses!” Deanna exclaimed. “I don’t give up on a challenge, ever,” she said with a smile, and she started toward the thick of the woods. Just the other side was her neighborhood and home.