a matter of fact, I was.”
“I’m fine,” she replied defiantly.
“Yes, I can see that now.” Lightning flashed but they barely noticed.
“A lot you care!” A loud clap of thunder startled them both.
“Of course I care.”
“Really? It’s hard to tell when you get ignored for a week!” Lupe folded her arms.
They debarked at the cafe and went inside. The place was cavernous and weird, filled with taxidermy and awkward antiques. Everywhere one looked there was something to read, examine and recoil at. Clarence bought them hot mulled ciders, which they sipped as they paced the hall.
“Has it been a week?” he asked her casually. This question brought tears to her eyes.
“Yes!” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “And I’m fed up. You don’t like me anymore? Fine. I can find another boyfriend.”
“I’m sure you can!” he hotly replied.
“There’s a mixer at West Point next weekend. For upperclassmen only. They’re all but officers, you know.”
Clarence put their mugs down on the counter and led her outside. “That’s enough about West Point cadets. Get in the car.”
“Or I could go with Diana to Yale this weekend. They’re a dance there too. You’ve never seen me on a dance floor.”
“Shut up.”
“Are we going back?”
“No.”
“Where are we going?”
“An inn I discovered in Rhinebeck with cabins in the woods.”
“Go to an inn? With me? Now? For what purpose, pray?”
Clarence only gave her a look.
The cabin smelled of cinnamon and apples, the rustic hearth was loaded with firewood and the antique maple bed was swathed in down.
“If you don’t forgive me then what are we doing here?” she asked as he locked the door and sealed the windows against the beating rain.
“I do forgive you. But you’ve been wickedly abandoned.” He took her by the hand and made her sit next to him on the bed. Lupe felt embarrassed and couldn’t meet his eyes. The next thing she knew she was being pulled across his lap and spanked.
“I should have done this the second you got back from New York,” he stated, slapping her bottom hard and repeatedly through the tweed knickers. “Ungrateful girl!” Smack! Smack! “Lift up,” he ordered, reaching under her to unbutton her wool knickers and yank them down to mid-thigh. “I bestow my heart on you and this is how you behave!” Clarence squeezed her perfect oval cheeks, snugly wrapped in French cut, white cotton briefs. More stern smacks descended on her pert seat.
“At worst, I was impulsive,” she protested, though not seriously trying to resist.
“Really!” Now he swatted her harder.
“Ow! You disagree?” Lupe put one hand back to shield her bottom but he caught her by the wrist and slapped it. “Ow!” She nursed her hand to her face.
“Impulsive nothing. You knew that I would expect fidelity from you, yet you deliberately pursued an affair with another man, not ten days after you started dating me!” Now he pulled her panties down to bare her reddened bottom. “Did you think that you wouldn’t get a spanking for that?”
“Are you calling me a slut?” she cried, squirming to avoid his hand, which had begun to descend on her unprotected bottom vehemently.
“No,” Clarence replied, staying his punishing hand to examine Lupe’s fair skin, now stained dusky rose. “But neither are you a proper young lady!” He kissed each punished cheek just once before setting her on her feet.
“I’m going to the Inn to get us something warm to drink. Get undressed and get in bed,” he ordered, leaving her alone.
Lupe went to the window and watched him walk into the woods, her heart aglow at being once more the focus of Clarence’s attention.
High tea was being served at the Inn and he was able to return with a basket of sandwiches and tarts. Lupe had not stirred from the window.
“You don’t listen very well, do you?” he sighed, drawing a pot of hot chocolate from the basket and filling two mugs.
“It’s too early to get in bed,” she observed, unwrapping a small sandwich.
“Oh, you think so?”
“Is my punishment over?”
“Don’t you wish!”
“I really don’t.”
“Oh, you admit you’ve behaved reprehensibly?”
“No.”
“Why did you do it, Lupe? I thought you were so happy, so satisfied with our chemistry.”
“I just wanted an extra adventure. I was curious. That’s all. I began to regret it the second I got there. Although it turned out all right. But nothing like it is with you, Clarence. He wanted to be my master. You only want to be my god. There’s a difference.”
“Don’t be impertinent,” Clarence snapped, but the next moment took the sandwich out of her hand and kissed her hard. “There!” he said, letting her go. “That’s how I feel about you.” Then he set about starting a fire in the hearth.
“Yes, you said you loved me several weeks ago but you haven’t gotten around to proving it yet. Just the opposite.”
“Haven’t you ever heard of tough love?”
“I have something else I need to tell you.”
“Oh god, what now?”
“Not that I want to tell you, but inevitably you’ll find out and I couldn’t stand another week like you just put me through.”
“Well?”
“Well, after you abandoned me, another boy quickly moved in.”
“What other boy?”
“Remember, I was desolate and therefore detached. It’s not as though I was anything but completely indifferent to his overtures. But as day after neglectful day passed, the young man began to realize that he might successfully press his advantage, proximity being nine tenths of possession.”
“Lupe, are you saying you let Hector Green have you?” All 6’2” of Clarence bristled as he took her by the slim shoulders and gave her an admonitory shake.
“It’s your fault,” she pouted up at him.
“My
