My eyes lock with Pa’s. “Please,” I beg. “Please.”
“I’ve been lenient with you, Karen. Too lenient. Your brother, because he’s a man, has taken more punishments than you. I’ve allowed it. But if you’re so eager to become a wife, then you must learn to behave. You’re no longer a child. Gossiping and lying is childish behavior.” He nods at the bed beside Linda. “Bend over. You have ten coming your way.”
Ten?
Ten lashes?
Hot tears stream down my cheeks as I gape at him. “C-Can I go to the white room instead?”
“Bend over, child. You’re making this worse on yourself.”
I shakily step toward the bed. “I’m scared.”
“As you should be. Bend over.”
A sob escapes me as I reluctantly bend over onto the bed, resting on my elbows with my bottom pushed out. Pa is gentle as he lifts the dress up my thighs. The fabric tickles my skin. It would almost feel good, except I know pain is headed my way. He pushes the dress up my back. Everything feels too exposed. When his fingers hook into my underwear, I tense up.
“You’re going to feel every lash as you were meant to. No barrier. Linda earned the barrier as she tried to protect you. Very motherly for a woman who is not your mother. You, child, have been wicked.”
I whimper as my underwear falls to the floor at my ankles. I’m terrified that he can see every part of me exposed. Parts only my husband is supposed to see.
“I know you’re curious about becoming a wife,” Pa says, “and I know you’re in here asking questions. If you’re ready for those lessons, then so be it, but I’m the one to give them, not Linda. I’m your father and it’s my place.”
Linda cries harder, which makes my fear escalate. What sort of lessons? He wouldn’t perform a husbandly duty, would he?
“I’m not going to take your virginity,” he growls. “I’m going to teach you, though.” He palms my bottom. “A man shouldn’t take his wife in her anus, but sometimes it’s necessary for her to please him, even if it hurts. Some men require more pleasure than others. Isn’t that right, Linda?” His thumb brushes over my puckered hole between my cheeks. “That is your anus.”
My skin burns hot, but I don’t have words to respond with.
“A husband will regularly take his wife in her vagina. God has given you a piece of flesh just inside that her father may check to make sure she’s still a virgin.” He presses his finger into my body, making me cry out from the burn. “Ahh, there it is. Good girl. Still pure.” Thankfully, he removes his finger. I’ve barely recovered from the unwanted intrusion when fire licks across my bottom. I howl in pain.
I can’t take this.
Not nine more.
Another lash hits me, and then I’m on the move. I get tangled up in my hair as I try to escape. He easily drags me to the edge to whip me again. His elbow pins me painfully in the spine as he hits me again. And again and again.
I black out.
Too much.
When I come to, it’s in my father’s arms. He’s rocking me and singing me a hymn I recognize. My bottom is on fire and my underwear is missing.
“Did you learn your lesson, child?” he asks, his breath hot on the top of my head.
“Yes, sir,” I croak out.
“A husband isn’t unlike a father. After he punishes, he must always comfort his wife. Just as I’m comforting you.”
I wonder if he comforted Linda too.
“I’m sorry that I haven’t taught you what you need to learn yet,” he says with a shame-filled sigh. “But I will. You’ve proven you’re ready. After your bath tonight, come upstairs.”
I stiffen in his arms. “Upstairs?”
“I’ll make love to Linda and you can see how it’s done. You’ll watch the lesson until I relieve you to go.”
“I will see you naked, though.”
“The lesson can’t be taught fully clothed, child. Just as your lesson earlier needed to be taught without your underwear.”
I nod because I want to learn. “Yes, sir.”
He kisses the top of my head. “Good girl.” He tickles my side much like when I was little and a giggle escapes me. “Who knows, sweetheart. Maybe you’ll turn out to be such a good wife I’ll want to keep you for myself.”
I frown. “What about Linda?”
“She’s not always a good wife. And she can’t give me more beautiful children like you.”
“You think I will be able to have babies one day?”
“Of course, angel. I do. It’s hard for a father to let go of his only daughter. Sometimes I don’t think that I ever will.”
All my dreams have been of marrying a man from our church. But then I’d have to move in with him. Away from my family. If I were Pa’s wife, I could see Kristopher every day.
“I’m looking forward to tonight’s lesson, Pa.”
He gently pats my sore bottom. “Me too, Karen.”
* * *
Luke
Kristopher finally stopped crying. I’ve never seen someone so broken and sad, which is saying a lot because my mother had plenty to cry about. He flinched each time the belt slapped her skin. We could hear it all the way in the living room. It was as though he felt each whipping.
For me, it was different.
I felt them all.
In my dick.
It’s how I know I’ll be a better husband than Kristopher to my wife one day. Uncle Charles’s lessons are enlightening. The power we have over our family and their well-being is both overwhelming and exciting. I crave to become a provider and protector. Uncle Charles is so strong and intelligent. Where I soak in his words, Kristopher seems to recoil from them.
His wife will be so disappointed.
The lashes have long stopped, as has the crying. Linda flew through here a bit ago, her cheeks stained with tears. Her heels clomped up the stairs and then it was quiet again. I’m curious to see what Uncle Charles is doing now. I refuse to get off the couch, though. He looked us both in the eye and told us not to move.
The floorboards creak as he comes back. Seconds later, he appears in the doorway to the living room. His light brown hair is disheveled, and his hazel eyes are alight with something close to madness. I note that he’s hard in his slacks. Just like me. Uncle Charles finger combs his hair back and sits down in a chair. He picks up the Bible as though nothing interrupted us. But, rather than hopping back to the lesson about providing a bounty of food for your family, he stops and sighs.
“A wife must be punished. They’re…” he trails off. “They’re unruly by nature. It’s because of the damn serpent.”
“Serpent?”
“You know the story, boy. The serpent spoke evil to the woman and she disobeyed her husband. Ruined our ability to trust them forevermore. It’s why it’s crucial for us to watch for their nonverbal cues. Study their patterns. Learn their lies. They always lie, boys.” He sighs heavily. “You need to be able to know your wife better than she knows herself. So you can act in her best interest.”
“How can you tell?” I ask, transfixed by his words.