Rachel was blubbering, half senseless and Anne was weeping at the terrible scoring she'd caused. Yet one more strike remained, and it had to be as fie...rce and unforgiving as the others. She swung blindly through her tears and felt the shock of it landing, then Rachel's terrible shriek as the pain engulfed her for yet a sixth time."Yes that should do nicely," Emma murmured, her eyes fully on the little bottom in front of her, little pert cheeks reddened by a hard spanking, then scored by the firm. It was close enough that I could feel its heat fading.It was this intentional miss, the smell of burning wood, the proximity to danger, that fueled the realization that if I did want the easy way out, I had to submit, to obey, after all.I didn’t want to be hurt, and so I begged, appealing to our familial bond.“Please, daddy, don’t hurt me, I’ll be good, I’ll be good, really!”“Oh, I know you will, darlin’,” he said, flicking the dead cigarette away onto the floor. “Try causing mischief when. Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears While we all supp sorrow with the poor There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears Oh hard times, come again no more It’s the song, the sigh of the weary Hard times, hard times come again no more Many days you have lingered around my cabin door Oh hard times, come again no more When she stepped out of the treeline I thought maybe God had found my daddy after all, and sent an angel to carry him home. But she was too short to be an. "Thad stirred slowly, assessing the extent of his injuries while they studied him intently. As he convinced himself that his battered assets were intact his eyes focused on the first creature from where he lay. Clothed in tattered animal skin remnants that barely covered the exposed weathered skin, he looked into the face of one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He started to rise as his eyes focused on a second with similar physical characteristics and identical eyes - deep brown.