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“Oh, do you? I think I’m the one owed the apology.”
“I apologize? Never!”
“No?”
“I have not wronged you, and you practically pushed me into the mud and then insulted me.”
“Miss Noble, you are a sorry—” he began angrily. Unable to complete the remark the way he would have liked, he turned on his heel to leave, which put Hannah in a panic.
“Aren’t you going to pick up those books?” she squealed indignantly.
He turned back. “No,” he said evenly, and he resumed his retreat. “As you yourself said, I have already helped you enough.”
“You miserable man!” She charged after him with an anger she’d never expressed before. Beating him on the back with her fists, she got his attention again. But it was not exactly the attention she was after—not that she knew then what it was she wanted from Daniel Crowe. What she got was upended over the man’s knee as he raised his foot on a step for support and held her body firmly against his. His hand came down against her bottom, spanking her overtop her coat and skirt. Despite the padding, after a number of hard whacks she could feel the sting right through her clothes. Worse yet was the humiliation from the small crowd that gathered to watch. It wasn’t a brief incident either. He spanked her like he would a naughty child until Hannah felt the sting turning her tender bottom hot.
“Stop it!” she yelled more than once. All to no avail, at least until Daniel paused long enough to say:
“I’ll stop when you’re ready to apologize.”
“I will NOT apologize!”
He kept on while she struggled. Hannah had the idea that eventually he’d give up and let her go. Perhaps he’d tire and she could wrest from his grasp. If she’d known Daniel a little better, she would have known that neither occurrence was likely. Finally, because she became so painfully aware of those laughing at her expense, she shrieked, “I’m sorry. I apologize! Put me down!”
Daniel immediately stopped the determined swats and let her up.
Fuming still, Hannah looked the man in the eye and sputtered, “You say those are your books?” She pointed to the ones with mud clinging
to their spines.
“I believe they are,” he said.
“Well then, you can pick them up.”
She turned and managed to retrieve her purse from the soggy ground then took off briskly for home.
Daniel was so stunned by the woman’s effrontery that he calmly did as she ordered, and picked up books, at the same time filing the facts about Hannah Noble away in his mind. She might have been a comely woman, but she was a bit of a bitch. Certainly not the woman he wanted in his bed.
That evening at dinner, the family was settling in at the table as their mother was bringing a plate of meat in from the kitchen. The seventeen-year-old Beau whispered to his younger sister Jolie, who was sitting beside him, “You should have seen Hannah today.”
Before the girl could answer, his mother spoke. “And what should we have seen?”
Beau looked at Sarah Noble not knowing what to say. He stared speechless for several interminable seconds, while Sarah stood waiting for the answer.
“Nothing, really,” he finally said.
But that wasn’t enough for the woman. “But I want to know,” she said tersely. “As Hannah’s mother, I have a right to know what happened in town.”
“B-but—” he started and stopped.
“Sarah dear, it seems that your daughter got spanked in town today, right out in the open,” Andrew Noble answered on behalf of his son. Beau and Jolie giggled to themselves as the meaning of the comment sunk in.
Sarah’s sharp eyes stung Hannah hard, then returned to her husband. “Who spanked her?”
“Mr. Daniel Crowe. It was said that Hannah and he had a scuffle over some books. A misunderstanding, really. But quite a sight from what I hear.”
“And they all laughed?” The woman was mortified.
Hannah was embarrassed. “It’s over and done, mother.”
